Singapore Considering Nuclear Energy

SINGAPORE IS considering going into nuclear energy. They will be holding a convention sometime in June to discuss this issue. However, the kind of power plant to be built would most likely not be the huge scale ones you see on TV. It would most probably be a smaller-scale reactor currently in its testing stage in Japan. These kind of reactors are more suited for countries like Singapore, and for operating underground.

This is a start for Singapore, as we are finally looking into nuclear energy. Nuclear energy, like everything else, has, of course, its advantages and disadvantages.

One advantage of having a nuclear power plant here in Singapore is that we can reduce our reliance on other countries for electricity. We would not be affected, or at least too affected, by power outages happening in, for example, Indonesia.

However, with advantages always comes disadvantages. Nuclear waste is not easy to dispose of. The waste have to be stored in large cement containers and buried underground for millions of years as radiation lives for a very long time. This reduces the amount of land available for use.

Another bane of nuclear is that, if not operated carefully, nuclear is potentially fatal. Take for example the case of the Chernobyl disaster in Russia.

Killer Litter

This post was made after one of my cousins was hit by an egg from above. This was definitely on purpose, as my uncle had noticed a broken charcoal had hit the ground near him. Let me give a summary of what happened:

My six cousins and I were playing 'monkey' in a mini amphitheatre near the void deck. My uncle joined us slightly later.

My uncle was sitting down watching us play when he heard something crack near him, and found 4 broken pieces of charcoal. He went around trying to find out who was the culprit, but to no avail. Note that he did not inform us.

Subsequently, an egg landed on one of my cousin's left shoulder, and an egg shell grazed her neck and created a mess on the floor. My uncle immediately went to the nearby (and it was VERY near) police post to report the incident. The officer on duty told him that his colleagues would be coming over shortly. While waiting for the officers to arrive, we started on our own investigations. Our investigations found that the 8 floor corridor was the only floor which had charcoal.

When the officers did arrive, it was around TWENTY MINUTES LATER. By that time my cousin had already gone back up to change into a new set of clothes and returned! The officers merely took down my uncle's and my affected cousin's statements, and left without even making an inspection!

I would like to ask: What are our police doing? How are they going to solve crimes like this, or are they even going to bother solving it at all? The police should at least attempt to find the culprit, and not let these CRIMINALS escape unpunished!

Although I recognise that this would not be easy, but they should at least have put in some effort in trying to solve it, like narrowing down their searches to households which have charcoal and eggs, instead of coming to scene talking on the phone and leaving after taking down statements.

Fortunately what the CRIMINAL (I choose to call him/her that) has thrown was an egg, and not something more solid like a rock. The person might have been irritated by the noise that we were generating, but s/he could have at least told us, instead of throwing things down from high-rise buildings.

After this incident, we were afraid to play in the amphitheatre again, and stuck to playing in the playground. And if we did play in the amphitheatre, we would ensure that the block where the suspected culprit was was videoed (of course the camera was quite hidden).

Mrs Henry Lafayette Dubose's Obituary

Image of old lady obtained from http://www.travisjensensf.com/blogs/posts/Travis-Jensen-Blog*

I know that is not very fantastic photoshopping skills, but well, that is the best I can do.

*No infringement of copyright intended

An Interview on Prejudice & Discrimination

An interview on prejudice and discrimination was conducted with Mr Liaw Jun Xian over Instant Messaging on 2 March. Mr Liaw is a colleague of my mother.

Below is the transcript of the interview.

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Me: Good morning Mr Liaw. Thank you for granting me this interview. May I have your opinion on prejudice and discrimination?

Mr Liaw: Prejudice and discrimination are both very wide topics. Prejudice is a pre-disposition of a person versus a certain topic/subject/person.

Me: Well, how about towards the racism side?

Mr Liaw: Racial prejudice?

Me: Well, yes, since this assignment is based on the themes in To Kill A Mockingbird.

Mr Liaw: I think it is dependent on cultural differences. Like in the book, it is because the Negroes have always been view to be lower class, hence the pre-disposition of society is always prejudiced.

Same as for example in SIngapore, when mothers discipline their kids. They always say, "Wait Mankali come and catch you."

So mainly I feel this kind of prejudice is created by two factors. First, the societal archetype between cultures due to a lack of understanding and also the propagation and reinforcement of such behaviour by parents. Another example (which is very prevalent in your school), because there are only a small number of Malays, people who graduate from your school has the prejudice that Malays are lazy. Don't ask me why though.

Anyway, back to the topic. Discrimination and prejudice have a thin line. What do you think discrimination is?

Me: Yes, I agree that is is very difficult to differentiate between them. In my opinion, I feel that discrimination is like differentiating someone from another by say, their race.

Mr Liaw: Differentiating is a very neutral word. What is the difference between discrimination and identity then? I can say "I am Chinese." Is that discriminatory? It is not.

Me: Oh no. What I meant is like, you would not want to hang out with a person because of his/her ethnic group.

Mr Liaw: Correct. In a way, I think prejudice and discrimination have a cause-and-effect relationship. Because you are prejudiced against someone or something, you discriminate against him/it, so therefore discrimination is the action, like in your example. If you discriminate someone, you would 'criminalise' him.

Me: Yes, in a way.

Mr Liaw: It is the assumption of guilt in getting the facts right, simply because you are prejudiced.

Me: So what do you think can be done to stop them (prejudice and discrimination)?

Mr Liaw: I think the only way to stop them is via an open mind and more understanding.

Me: Yes, I do agree.

Mr Liaw: So these are my thoughts on them. Anything else?

Me: No. Thank you Mr Liaw once again.

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Note: Some parts of this interview have been edited.

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.