Home Learning Day 5

THE OPENING OF TWO I.R.s IN SINGAPORE

Everyone should already have known that Singapore is currently building the two Integrated Resorts (I.R.s), Resorts World at Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands Resort & Casino, with the former slated to be open in early 2010.

The opening of these two I.Rs will bring a number of benefits to both Singaporeans and nearby countries alike. There will be a shopping paradise in the Marina Bay Sands Resort, a one hectare Sands SkyPark™, a casino and many more features not seen in Singapore. They have also offered over 1000 jobs for Singaporeans. In the Resorts World at Sentosa, there will be Universal Studios Singapore®, which most probably will attract both Singaporeans and tourists within an 8-hour flight range from Singapore, and of course a casino and hotels.

With so many benefits, why are people against the idea？

Well, with compulsive gambling already a social problem in Singapore, wouldn't the opening of TWO casinos make the situation worse?

Yes, the Government has started to crackdown on illegal moneylenders and have allowed families to prevent their kin from entering the casinos. Counselling centres have been set-up too.

But with all these measures in place, do you think that the problem of compulsive gambling can be curbed? I do not think so.

A psychologist, Paul Good, said that the people 20 years ago gambled to escape from their everyday lives, but now they are simple lured by the action. "A sense of excitement, of being on the edge, and you are literally holding your own fate in your own hands at a poker table."

Three women in treatment for compulsive gambling have also relapsed at least once.

Home Learning Day 2

My Favourite Poet -- James Langston Hughes
Born: 1902,
Died: May 22, 1967

"No great poet has ever been afraid of being himself."

"We younger Negro artists now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren't, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too... If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how and we stand on the top of the mountain, free within ourselves."

This was Hughes reply to his essay, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.

It spoke of Black writers and poets, "who would surrender racial pride in the name of a false integration," where a talented Black writer would prefer to be considered a poet, not a Black poet, which to Hughes meant he subconsciously wanted to write like a white poet.

I admire Hughes for his courage to stick to his rights at the time where racism was strive in America. If nobody stood up for their rights, I would think racism would still be strive in America, and the Blacks would still be ill-treated. If we do not try, how do we know that it will or will not work? Who knows? What we dream for may come true.


Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

This poem shows how much the poet yearns for the Blacks to be treated equally, as can be seen as he repeatedly asks "America to be America again", as America is said to be a free country. He was expressing the feelings of the Blacks in America, yearning to be free of racism.

The Negro Speaks Of Rivers by Langston Hughes

I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

This is another of Hughes "yearning for freedom" poems. The rivers refer to times when the Blacks were treaty unequally. It was also the time when Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, and the Mississippi refers to the slaves. (This is just my view. Please feel free to share better ones)

Life is Fine by Langston Hughes

I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn't,
So I jumped in and sank.

I came up once and hollered!
I came up twice and cried!
If that water hadn't a-been so cold
I might've sunk and died.

But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator
Sixteen floors above the ground.
I thought about my baby
And thought I would jump down.

I stood there and I hollered!
I stood there and I cried!
If it hadn't a-been so high
I might've jumped and died.

But it was High up there! It was high!

So since I'm still here livin',
I guess I will live on.
I could've died for love--
But for livin' I was born

Though you may hear me holler,
And you may see me cry--
I'll be dogged, sweet baby,
If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!

My guess was that Langston Hughes wanted to commit suicide but decided against it. It might also have been that no one came to help him when he was in dire straits.

Bibliography:
Biography - http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/langston_hughes/biography
Let America be America again - http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/langston_hughes/poems/16944
The Negro Speaks Of Rivers - http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/langston_hughes/poems/16953
Life is Fine - http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/langston_hughes/poems/16946

Fast Car

by Tracy Chapman

You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere

Anyplace is better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we'll make something
But me myself I got nothing to prove

You got a fast car
And I got a plan to get us out of here
I been working at the convenience store
Managed to save just a little bit of money
We won't have to drive too far
Just 'cross the border and into the city
You and I can both get jobs
And finally see what it means to be living

You see my old man's got a problem
He live with the bottle that's the way it is
He says his body's too old for working
I say his body's too young to look like his
My mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody's got to take care of him
So I quit school and that's what I did

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so we can fly away
We gotta make a decision
We leave tonight or live and die this way

I remember we were driving driving in your car
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
And I had had a feeling that I belonged
And I had had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
And we go cruising to entertain ourselves
You still ain't got a job
And I work in a market as a checkout girl
I know things will get better
You'll find work and I'll get promoted
We'll move out of the shelter
Buy a big house and live in the suburbs

I remember we were driving driving in your car
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
And I had had a feeling that I belonged
And I had had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
And I got a job that pays all our bills
You stay out drinking late at the bar
See more of your friends than you do of your kids
I'd always hoped for better
Thought maybe together you and me would find it
I got no plans I ain't going nowhere
So take your fast car and keep on driving

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so you can fly away
You gotta make a decision
You leave tonight or live and die this way


Hyperbole:
Her father would not be "too young" as she was already a grown up and her father would already be in his late 50s or 60s. She was just trying to exaggerate that her father looked too old.
A car obviously cannot fly. Tracy Chapman was trying to say if the car could bring them to another place where they would not be poor.
Tracy Chapman was saying that the car was travelling very fast and she might not have travelled that quickly before, making her nauseous.
Personification:
I cannot find any personification in this song.
Metaphor and/or Simile:
A bottle and her father were not related. She was just saying that her father was an alcoholic and spent his time drinking.
Tracy Chapman's husband and her father were similar as they both ended up drinking.
Symbolism:
The car was a tool that was originally meant to bring them to a place where they will lead better lives, but it ended up as a tool for entertainment and for bringing Tracy Chapman's husband away from her.

Is it your duty to give to charity?

By definition, in the United States, charity, or a charitable organisation is an organisation that is organised and operated for purposes that are beneficial to the public interest. And duty the moral commitment that results in action, and it is not a matter of passive feeling or mere recognition. When someone recognises a duty, that person commits himself or herself to the cause involved without considering the self-interested courses of actions that may have been relevant previously. This is not to suggest that living a life of duty precludes one from the best sort of life, but duty does involve some sacrifice of immediate self-interest.

So if it is our duty to give to charity, it means that we recognise that we have to give to whatever organisation because we have made a commitment. But when we give to charity, does it involve some sarifice of self-interest? No, it does not, and surely giving some money for a worthy cause cannot be a sacrifice of self-interest. Therefore, it cannot be our duty to give to charity. Instead, I would say that it is very good that one gives to charity as that money may have helped some child pay his or her medical or school fees, or may have helped an elderly person find his or her next meal. Whatever it is, that money of yours is not wasted.

However, giving to charity is not duty as we give to charity out of our own free will. If someone from an organisation approaches us and askes for a donation, if we choose to donate, that is good, definitely, but if we do not, that does not mean we are bad either. The decision to give is made solely by ourselves. Do not get me wrong, I am not against charity but if it is our duty to give, everytime a person approaches us for a donation, we MUST give, if not, we would be perceived as bad or irresponsible people as we did not do our duty, and that cannot be the case.

What is happiness?

Happiness is a feeling and must be experienced. It can be described as the feeling when one is enjoying oneself.

What really is happiness and how do we experience it? Many people have the misconception that once one have the most material things, one is the happiest, and thus the go about slogging their guts out to obtain whatever items they think that can make them happy. Now let us find out how long this happiness can last them. Perhaps it satisfies them when they buy the item or items, or until it is out of fashion. At most, it can let them be happy until it has lost its use. This is considered as merely short-term happiness and not true happiness.

To me, I experience happiness knowing that I have the company of my family and friends, as I can be sure that in times of need, there is someone who can be my pillar of support, facing every setback that is thrown at me together. Such things cannot be bought or worked for, but can only be gained through years of true sincerity and friendship. If people have all the traits mentioned in this paragraph, they are the happiest and richest people in the world, even if they have very little assets.

If many people think something is true, is it true?

Even if majority of the people think that something is true, it may not be the case.

There may be a few possibilities. For example, people might have been misled by false information, either unintentionally or intentionally, therefore making the conclusion that something is true.

If you could eliminate one emotion from the world, would you? Which one? Why?

HATE is the root of why people in this world are not happy. Due to this emotion, people experience mental torture as it is uncontrollable, which can result in people doing stupid things and regretting their actions later.

People go to war as they have hatred, a form of hate, inside of them. If there was no hate in this world, people would be living in peace and harmony together.

When people are jealous, they are envious and therefore dislike the other party for having a certain material or privilege. Without hate, people would not be jealous.

Hate, when combined with anger, also plays a part in many murder cases, where the murderer has hatred towards the victim or victims due to his or her actions which are deemed wrong by the former.

However, hate can be seen on the positive side. A person may hate that his competitor or opponent is faring better them himself and thus work harder to improve himself, but alas! A competitive environment creates a lot of tension and hate.

By removing hate from the world, the root cause of enmity, unrest, unhappiness, and jealousy is abolished forever.

To conclude, I would remove the one emotion, hate, from the world, as it will also remove other evil emotions from the world together.

Should you criticise people or the opinions they have?

People should not be criticised for their opinions. Everyone has their own views and opinions, even if it is not a good one.

For example, if you were reprimanded by your parents when you failed a project, who said that you did not put in enough effort which resulted in the failure, you may disagree at that point in time, probably because you were upset, but if you were to reflect, your parents might well be right.

1st Semester as a secondary student

It has been almost half a year in secondary school and life has been filled with homework, homework, and more homework, but it is much more fun than in primary school. Besides, we have a big campus to roam about during recess!

We have assembly in the auditorium every Monday, which usually starts with a discussion on various topics, for example the recent conflict between STTA and coach Liu Guodong. Three panelists would be on stage stating their point(s) before the discussion was open to the floor.

We call Monday the "slacking" day because we have only Language Arts, followed by recess, then two periods of assembly and Infocomm Studies each, before ending with RTA(Arts and Acts of Persuasion).

However, Tuesdays are the busiest days. We have all the subjects (except RTA and PE) ! (to be continued)

Animal Farm : Chapter 1

Utopia is a name for an ideal community or society, taken from the title of a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempted to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. "Utopia" is sometimes used pejoratively, in reference to an unrealistic ideal that is impossible to achieve, and has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia.

To me,

Earth Hour

It's 9.06 p.m. now. My family and I are participating in the Earth Hour and we have switched off all the lights. It was so dark! I was showering with only a lit candle in the toilet. Amazingly, the candle lit up practically the whole toilet.



Earth Hour 2009 by WWF - Sign up for Earth Hour!

The Lottery

I READ with great interest on the Straits Times article "Teochew graveyard's buried treasures"(23 Feb).

The items unearthed and documented, with the permission of the families of the deceased, are jade bangles of the Qing Dynasty era, stacks of paper money and remnants of courtly robes. Jade beads with insignias seen on hats like those worn by Qing Dynasty officials were also found, which suggests that many of the dead buried at the graveyard were officials in the Qing Dynasty. Explains Dr Hui Yew-Foong of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, "Many of the Chinese elite here brought their official titles from the Qing government of the day and used these titles on their tombstones. So tombstones bearing such inscriptions were likely to have artefacts buried in the grave.

This finds are largely related to history, as the artefacts can help researchers piece together a social history of the Teochews here. The evidence suggests that the people in early Singapore lived together, and not as spread out like we are now.

Bus Fares decrease

THE Singapore Government recently announced that bus fares would decrease by $0.02 with effect from 1 April. A mere few cents.
When the Government increased bus fares, the fares increased by at least $0.05.
And the reason for the increase in bus fares? Oil prices were soaring high.
And even though oil prices had went down, the Government refused to decrease the bus fares, citing reasons like "oil prices are not linked to the bus fares".
It is only when the global economic crisis came that the Government finally decided to decrease the bus fares...
However, we should look on the 'bright' side. At least our Government decreased the fares. If one takes a bus to and fro 5 times a week, for an entire year, the person can save $10.44. Most of you would be thinking, "$10.44 is no big sum." Well, think again. $10.44 is enough to buy at least 3 meals in a hawker centre or coffee shop. Besides, the global economic crisis would most likely last for about 5 years, and if you save $10.44 for 5 years, the sum amounts to $52.20!

YESTERDAY, 14 Feb, I spent my afternoon doing homework. In the evening, my parents and I went to East Coast Park to cycle. After dinner at Sakae Sushi's Changi Airport branch, we drove to the Padang (We had intended to go to the Marina Barrage but we could not find it, so we went to the Padang instead) . It was already 9+ when we arrived.

Since it was Valentine's Day, there were many couples on the streets. Some even brought ponchos and sat in the open field. We walked around the Padang, admiring and reading on the history of the colonial architectures like the old Courthouse and Supreme Court. At the entrance of the old Courthouse was a group of rowdy teenagers hanging out. As we walked past them, they were blasting out rock music and there was even a whiff of alcohol. There was even broken glass pieces on the floor.

As we walked towards the Lim Bo Seng memorial, two women approached my father and asked if he wanted to buy a rose for my mother. But, my father had already bought a bouquet of flowers for her. At the river side, there were much more couples 'enjoying the scenery' or taking a walk.

It soon neared 10.30 and we walked back to our car. The rowdy group of teenagers at the old Courthouse were also leaving, with their litter strewn all over the floor.

Little Ironies: The Taximan's Story

IN THE first two pages of the story, the taximan keeps on complaining about the misconduct and attitude of the young people who hang out with foreigners at night clubs, especially by giving a personal example of his daughter and thereby making the reader feel his strong dislike for them. However, at the end of the third page and the last page, he showed his liking for them, as he said that the people who refuse to go by the meter and wait for even 10-cents made him mad in comparison to the young people who did not even wait for change and made love in the taxi without knowing that he had drove round and round, wasting their time to earn more money through the meter charge. The irony is the sudden change of his attitude towards the young people from strong dislike through his oral presentation, to a liking for them compared to "thrifty" people.


The main and most important theme in the story is the hypocrisy of human nature, which is clearly reflected from the taximan's attitude. Although he clearly did not like the young people to hang out at clubs, he likes them in a sense that they give him more money than "typical Singaporeans". The second last line of the text states him as saying, "Must go off to Hotel Elroy - there plenty of young people to pick up " shows a hypocrisy of him constantly complaining to his passenger how disgusted he is at how rebellious these people are, but yet he still goes to the places that they frequent to pick them up to earn their money. Such is shown of a hypocrisy of human nature for the greed of money.


I think this story is partially true, because an ordinary person would not easily tap on sensitive topics such as his own private life, like how his father beats him with a cane and how his daughter has been rebellious and lied to him about having coaching in Maths, which may be exaggerated parts to make his opinion of the rebellious young people more sound, to a total stranger. He may also be just trying to make the passenger's journey more interesting by cooking up a make-belief story. However, his story about young people hanging out in clubs and "making love in his taxi" should be true because such things do happen in Singapore.


Apart from his grammatical errors, I think the taximan is a very good speaker, with his ability to engage the "audience" in the conversation. If the story is true, the taximan has my full sympathy because he has encountered cases of rebellious young people lying to parents and clubbing all day daily via his work as a taximan and a father, and I am sure he strongly dislikes such attitudes and behaviours, and certainly does not want his children to behave and act in such inappropriate manners. Unfortunately, his smartest and supposedly most obedient child, whom he has expectations to do him proud as a father, has also lied to him about having coaching in Maths and had gone out hanging around in the streets after school with what he thinks are "bad influences" for her.


I do not really agree with the taximan, apart from his laments about his daughter being rebellious and lying to him. Most of the time, he is lamenting about the growing trend of young people in Singapore being rebellious and going clubbing, which he thinks is an inappropriate behaviour. I think that this trend is just part-and-parcel of growing up, as teens will be curious about how clubbing is like, and even if they are "addicted", it is just really not his business. Instead, he should feel happy that these wasteful people give him extra income and not lament.


I do sympathise with the taximan's daughter. Although she might have been hanging out with her friends and doing some "inappropriate acts", I do not think she deserved the slapping and beating from her father. I think counselling would have been a better solution for her.

CNY Holidays

ON the night before Chinese New Year, my grandmother and my uncles came over to have our "Reunion Dinner".
That night, I stayed up till almost one o' clock. I had planned to stay up later, but my mother insisted that I turn in early as we would have a busy day ahead.
On the first day of Chinese New Year, I went to my maternal grandparents' house, which is in the same block as us, to have breakfast. After breakfast, I went to visit my paternal grandmother, after which we left for the temple. The temple was less crowded that day, probably because we arrived at a later time. When we had finished praying, we left for my maternal grandparents' home for lunch, before heading back home. At night, we (my maternal cousins and I together with our parents) went to my cousin (my maternal second aunt) house to play. Time flies when you are having fun. We were reluctant to leave but we would definitely return some other time again (most of the parties are held at their house) .
The second day of New Year was quite fun. I went to visit one of my relatives who lived in a bungalow (I'm not sure how to address them) . They reared two dogs and named them Jessie and Ripsy. Jessie is a Shepard dog and would "bring Ripsy back" when Ripsy refuses to return from the garden patch after repeated calls by its owners. Unfortunately, Jessie is diagnosed with kidney failure and will not live long.
In the afternoon, I went to Sentosa with my cousins (the same ones as the previous night) to play the Luge and see the Flowers in Bloom. This years flowers were not as beautiful as compared to last year's and we left soon after taking a look at some of of the flower arrangements.

TODAY, we had our 3rd Infocomm Studies lesson.
This time, we learned how to transform a text into a html.
This, in a way, benefited me as I wanted to learn how to edit my previous blog skin's, which was much nicer, html. Unfortunately, I still cannot find a way to get rid of the pictures on the skin, so I will just have to use this skin for the time being.

Secondary 1 Orientation

ON the 29th and 30th of December 2008, I had my secondary 1 orientation, or SOO for short. The activities could have been fun, provided the Buddies could do a better job in engaging the students to participate in them.
The lack of organisation frequently caused me and other students to be "lost" as we could not find our Buddies. We had to ask around before we found them. The Buddies could have stood according to ascending order(or vice versa)when "recalling" us.
Our break time was always cut short because of "bad time management".
Also, the lack of crowd control and/or control over the students allowed mischievous students to push other students, causing the whole group to fall and hurting some students during a cross-group cheer.

Questions

Hi all,

If you have any queries, please feel free to "shout" it out in the ShoutMix Chat. I will reply to you ASAP.