BGR is short for Boy-Girl-Relationship. We at such a young age, should we have BGR? What is its consequences and effects?

BGR at such a young age is quite impractical. This is because we are all schooling and if we are from different schools, it would be hard for us to communicate and meet up and see each other often enough. However, with the improved in technology everyday, it is become more and more convenient to maintain a relationship, even for a long distance one.

We can send text messages to each other to communicate with each other every minute and every second. We can also call each other and can talk on the phone for hours and hours. We can also use the Internet and webcam to chat online which is free with the use of application like Skype and MSN. Thus, we can practically keep and get in touch anywhere and everywhere.

However, what are the effects and consequences in having BGR at such a young age. Firstly, you would spend most of your time communicating or seeing your partner and will most definitely lose your focus on your studies. Your studies will greatly be affected as you can stay up late jus tot chat with your partner and in the end, you will have no energy during lesson time and sleep in class. Moreover, w your time will also be spent on meeting up with the other person and you will not have any time for homework. There are some cases whereby BGR led to some serious business that is too big for a mere 14 years old to handle. It might lead to underage sex and if found out be sent to boy’s and girl’s home. It will lead to underage pregnancy and how are you going to be responsible for the baby when you are still studying and does not have a stable income?

Furthermore, BGR at such a young age are often short and does not last. It could only just be a crush on someone and not necessary be love. Thus, it is not worth spending and investing too much time on BGR. I rather you focus on your studies and when you have a stable income in the future, you can have all the relationship you want.

When you have BGR at such a young age, even if it did manage to last, what happens when you go to the army? You will be spending two years in the army and your girlfriends will not be able to see you daily and will miss you a lot. However, slowly you will see that the above I mentioned are all crap and your girlfriends might be having fun while you are suffering in camp. She might found a new boyfriend that you do not know off and that is how many guys lose their girlfriends when they are in the army.

Thus, I suggest that you wait until you are 20 plus years old and after you have been to the army before you have any real relationship as by then you would have matured enough to know what is right from wrong and you will know which girls is good to you and those that are not and then you make your choice from there. By doing so, it will prevent many instances of unwanted pregnancy because you are so-called “ matured” enough. Keep this in mind : There are tons of girls out there waiting for YOU so no worries.

In my previous post, I have discuss about the judicial system of Singapore and what are its advantages and disadvantages. Now I would like to discuss one particular case that my teacher pointed out when we are discussing the Merchant of Venice.

What if a guy who is mentally retarded rapes your sister? Should the judge be merciful? Or should he be sentenced like any male person? Should the judge be taught how to show mercy? Or should he just stick to the book?

Other men are able to think for themselves. They are mature in enough to have self-control over themselves and thus before they commit the act, they would be able to think deeply enough about the consequences and implications. If they still decided to commit the act, and are about 18 which is the age whereby you are considered “matured” enough to think for yourself, you will most probably face jail sentence and caning but if you are below the age of 18, you will most probably go to boy’s home and receive detention.

I feel that the guy should not be sentence like that same way as any other men. This is because I assume he is not mentally sound to think for himself. He would most probably be unable to exercise self-control and cannot think about the consequences and implication. He might think that it is the right thing to do or did it out of curiosity. It was not totally his fault because he is restricted by his handicap and we should at least empathize and sympathize with him.

However, if he raped my sister, I would have mixed feelings about it. It is neither here nor there. As much as I want to empathise and sympathise with him, I would definitely find myself siding my sister instead. Therefore, I am not in the right position to comment on it. But ultimately I will side my sister for sure.

Even though he is mentally unsound, he does not have the right to go about doing anything he like and anything he wants and when caught, give the excuse that he is mentally unsound and be let off lightly.

Furthermore, a judge is taught about the law but not taught how to show mercy. But even with that said, not all judges are heartless. I am sure that some would try to reach deeply into their heart, which has already tuned cold and hard because of the many experiences that they have gone through while being a judge, and try to empathise and sympathise with the mentally unsound person. Many judge do not usually sentence the person being charged to the maximum sentence but always evoke sympathy and be lenient towards them.

So, I would like to sign off with a few questions. If it is really your sister being raped by a mentally retarded person, what will you do? What will you do if you are the judge? Should we have a law to protect these handicapped people?

Singapore Judicial system is one that is disapproved of by lots of other countries. The main reason is because Singapore has caning and death sentences.

Singapore judicial system operates in the form of deterrence. By having severe punishment and sentences, it deters people from committing crime. This idea is similar to fining the Singapore citizens for littering. If a person wanted to commit theft, rape or even murder, they have to think twice about it and they might consider not to execute the act because of the punishment. If the punishment was just a fine or sentence to jail for a short period of time, the person might not even think twice about it and thus, the crime rates in Singapore will increase significantly as evident from the high crime rate in other countries.

Other countries disapproved of both the caning and death sentence is because they operate in the form of human rights. They feel that by sentencing them to death, it is a violation of human rights. Singapore will thus, appear in a bad light globally as people will see Singapore as a barbarian society.

My teacher told me once that she had gone to Canada once to study or take up a particular coarse whereby the instructor there shouted really loud, “YOU ARE A BARBARIAN BECAUSE YOU COUNTRY HAVE THE DEATH SENTENCE!” This is one of the evidence that shows that other people from other countries have bad impression of Singaporeans.

Furthermore, some other countries have a jury during the trial and the definition of a jury is a group of people who have been chosen to listen to all the facts in a trial in a law court and to decide whether a person is guilty or not guilty, according to the Cambridge Online Dictionary. They will carry out a voting process and majority wins, deciding whether a person is guilty or not depending on the situation. However, Singapore only has a judge who will determine whether the person is guilty or not and also decide on the sentence. Some have argued that the Singapore way of only having a judge might not be fair as it is only based on a person’s point of view. By having a jury, it will be fairer as it will consist of more than one person and will encompass different perspective of each individual in the jury.

I feel that Singapore having a judge to determine the sentence is alright as I am pretty sure the judge would be more knowledgeable in the law and would give a better and fairer sentence. The jury system is not really a bad idea as it takes account of the point of view of normal citizens. However, the citizens might not be qualified or knowledgeable in the field of law and might not give a fair outcome.

Lastly, Singapore’s judicial system is that a person is guilty unless proven not, while the American’s judicial system is that a person is not guilty unless proven to be. These two are very different as the person will forever be under custody in Singapore unless there is substantial evidence to prove that he is not while a person will not be in custody and will only be in custody if they are guilty.

In conclusion, I do not really disapprove or disagree in Singapore’s judicial system but I can only say that there is still room for improvement.

My class is quite a strange class. With all the lacking in class chemistry and the craze in computer games, I’m proud to say that we are still doing quite well in terms of class MSG. However, are results all that important when we are lacking in moral values?

Our class has quite a few theft cases since last year. We thought that after the installation of not one but two cameras in our class, we could stop the thief from going about his activities. We were so wrong.

Theft cases are still going about in the class. From losing pens and pencils to losing wallets. At the moment, no laptops are stolen yet maybe because of it is quite bulky and there isn’t a lot of place to hide it when it is stolen. But I feel that it will happen sooner or later as most of my classmates leave their laptops on the table instead on putting them in their lockers as they find it very troublesome to do so.

Hwa Chong Institution is a very big campus and almost anyone can enter and leave without anyone even noticing. Our classrooms are not very secure even with the doors locked as if the thieves are determined to steal the laptops they can just break the glass windows of the classroom and climb in, sweeping all the laptops at one go. If they managed to do that, they would be rich overnight with thousand of dollars of laptops in their possession. If the thieves come from the general public and they so happens to wear a mask, our cameras will not be able to capture their faces and it would be very hard to track them down.

However, today I will not be talking about thieves from the general public but thieves from our class.

They have to be very stealthy and sneaky to be able to steal anything with so many people around the class, thus a laptop is out of question. However, wallets that are left lying around the classroom are quite easy targets for thieves. In the blink of an eye, it will be gone. Even with the cameras, it would be hard to capture as there might be a case whereby many people are standing up, blocking the view of the cameras.

Why then must they steal?

There are many answers to his question.

Firstly, these thieves find that their parents did not give them enough money for allowance and cannot buy sufficient food to fill their empty stomach after a long day in school. Thus, they have to resort to stealing to get more money to fill their stomach. The solution to this is that they should tell their parents that the allowance that they are given is not enough to fill their stomach. I am very sure that their parents would be understanding and increase their allowance. If their parents simply have not enough money to spare their children, I guess that the student would just have to eat less.

Secondly, these thieves receive enough allowance from their parents to fill their stomach. However, they want more money to buy other stuffs that they want but their parents refused to buy it for them, labeling it as a waste of money. Thus, they resort to stealing to get more money aside form the allowance they get. The stuff that they want to buy includes a new phone, a new electronic device, etc. Their act of stealing just so they could buy the things that they want is a very selfish way of thinking. If you steal wallets from others, those people would not have money to buy food for themselves. They would also be scolded very badly by their parents for losing so much money and they might be grounded or have their allowance reduced. Why must you cause so much trouble for others just for the benefits of yourself?

Thirdly, I feel that these thieves steal from others just so that they can teach the victim a lesson to be more responsible for their own things. They are pissed that the victim is so careless, always misplacing his things and therefore, he steals to teach him a lesson to learn from this incident and not be so careless ever again. Another reason is that these thieves steal to help his friend “safe-keep” so as to prevent other thieves from stealing it. At the end of the day, he will return the stolen item to the victim and advised him not to be so careless in future.

Lastly, I feel that these thieves just steal for the fun of it. They feel that it is very thrilling to steal from others and as the time goes by, they get hooked and addicted to stealing and cannot live without stealing. If these problem is not solve early, most probably when he grows up he will be a “full-time” thief and in the end will be caught by the police and put behind bars, ruining his future, if he has any future to begin with.

I feel that all this theft cases would not have happen if students are more responsible for his items and put them in the lockers so as to prevent them from TEMPTING any thief to steal them. Some students may come from a well-off family and feel that they do not need to be responsible for their items as they can always buy a new one if it ever gets stolen. This is a very selfish way of thinking as their parents worked very hard to earn money not to just let him waste it like that. If he has so much money, he can make it more worthwhile by donating it to charity organization to help the less fortunate.

The less temptation the thieves get, the fewer items to get stolen and the less the name of the class would get affected.

Recently, the secondary four in Hwa Chong institution went to the auditorium to listen to a talk. Our discipline master, Mr Sung went about his usually routine around the school when he found out that the doors of all the secondary four’s classroom were left unlocked. He felt that he should teach them a lesson and went into one of the classroom and sweep everything valuables from the classroom. From laptops to wallets to ipod. For each items he took, the took a picture of it. The students were asked to collect their valuable after school and a message was posted up on SMB to notify them. In the end, a student felt that the teachers violated his privacy and was enraged by this and decided to post it up on STOMP to get the opinions of the general public.

I feel that this student make a mountain out of a molehill. This problem was actually very small and minute and can easily be solved, yet he choose to post it up on STOMP and thus gratifying the matter.

When the students got back from the auditorium and found out that all their valuables were lost, they thought that a real thief actually came into the class and steal all the valuables. They were shocked and heart-broken. Although Mr Sung posted a message on the SMB, those people whose laptops are confiscated would not be able to check the message. Furthermore, they are secondary four students and need to use quite a lot of their laptops during their lessons. If their laptops are being taken away, how will they be able to carry on with their lessons? Moreover, their minds would harbour thoughts of their parents reprimanding them and grounding them, causing them to be unable to concentrate entirely in class. When they finally found out that their laptops are only being confiscated instead of being stolen, they will definitely feel a bit cheated and thus, posted the message out of anger.

I think that the root cause of this incident was the lack of communication between the teachers and students. This is because Mr Sung didn’t inform the student before he confiscate their valuables, causing the students to think that it is really stolen by thieves. If Mr Sunk had written on the whiteboard that he had confiscated their valuables and asked the student to collect it from him after school, the students might not feel angry at all and can only blame themselves for being so careless and accept the punishment.

However, it is not entirely the teacher’s fault as the students also play a part in the blame as well. Had they secured their valuables in the lockers instead of putting them carelessly on top of their tables, this incident might not even happen. Therefore, since it is their fault, they have no reason to go blaming the teachers should they confiscate their things so as to help them “safe-keep” to prevent it from really getting stolen.

The school provides lockers for a reason and thus the students should fully utilize them so as to prevent this incident form happening again.

I strongly disagree with the student for posting the incident up onto STOMP as it not only does not benefit the school but also caused harm. It will cause the general public to think that Hwa Chong’s educational system is flawed as it fails to handle this case effectively and it will affect our school’s image significantly. It also does not go with our school value of “win –win”.

The school should also have a forum whereby students can voice out their comments or opinion about the school instead of voicing them to the general public. In this way, the problems can be solved internally without the general public finding out. The school is more than willing to listen to the students’ opinion as this is evident from the incident whereby the time of the assembly is pushed back 5 minutes because a student voice out his opinion about it as by pushing back by 5minutes, it would prevent students from ever being late for assembly. And if students are still late even though the assembly is pushed back by 5 minutes, then he would have no excuse to defend himself and has to accept the punishment without any complain.

In conclusion, this incident was just a small matter. But it was just blown up due to the post on STOMP, attracting many general public’s attention and comments.

Singapore has one of the leading educational system in Southeast-Asia. It exposes us to two main language, English language and out Mother tongue. It also have Mathematics, Science which consist of Biology, Physics and Chemistry. Integrated Humanities which include History, Geography, Literature and Social studies. Some schools also have computer studies, philosophy, Arts, Music, etc

Learning is easier when you are young, therefore, from young, schools try to provide a wide-range and variety of subjects so as to further increase our knowledge capacity as much as possible. However, is it really necessary to have so much subjects? Must we really crammed our brain with so much information everyday? Why isn’t there any freedom for the student to choose the subjects that they like?

Some say that we must at least know the basic of the subject. What is the use of primary school when during the secondary school, we are still learning the basic?

I feel that the objective and purpose of primary school is to learn the basic of all the subjects. So, when we reached secondary school, we will be able to choose the subjects that suit us and further develop on it, instead of continuing learning subjects that you have practically no interest in. If the student has lost the interest in a particular subject after learning it for six year in primary school, no matter how much you force he, he will still not do well in that subject. If we let him focus on the subjects he like and is interested in, he would be able to handle the subject easily and will be able to learn more things about it.

Firstly, when he has interest in the subject, he would most probably have a strong basic in it and it will be easier for him to compress and store the information that he is learning. Thus, he would not have so much stress on him as he would not be worrying for other subjects that he knows that he is going to fail in and will not be wasting time practicing it again and again but to no avail.

Secondly, if we force a student too much to master the subject that he has no interest in and is weak in, he would reach his limit and reject the subject completely. He would be sleeping during the lesson of the subject and will be completely ignoring it. He would be wasting his precious time on it. He would not hand in his homework since he did not listen in class and he would also fail in him examinations. This becomes a vicious cycle causing him to not be able to accomplish anything in the end because he does not further his knowledge in both the subject he likes and the subject he does not like. If he is able to not take the subject that he has no interest in and focus whole-heartedly in the subject that he is interested in he would then be able to further his knowledge in that field and maybe be a professional in that field when he grows up.

A person is grown to be good in some things and bad in others. In conclusion, I feel that he should go about improving the things he is good at instead of improving the things he is weak in.

As the saying goes, “every cloud has a silver lining”. However, in this case, is the silver lining enough to overshadow the cloud?

I remember that this incident was published on several local newspapers a few years back, grabbing many attention throughout the nation. However, I was too young then to fully comprehend the gist of the issue. Now thinking back, I decided to do a blog post on it.

It was a about a family, a poor family. The parents had no job and there was not enough money to support the entire family. They have several children and they were too much a burden for them to cope. The father went out into the streets to ask for help from people but to no avail. Everybody refuses to help him and thus he has no choice but to go to the extreme. He committed suicide. He jumped down from the Mass Rapid Transit(MRT) platform and the train went over him. This sparked mass media coverage and many people came to know about this tragedy with a tragic story behind it. This evoked sympathy from the general public and many people feel pity for the family and donated money to them. (this is only a rough idea of the incident according to what I can remember and some facts might be inaccurate)

Did the man really have to die so as to gain sympathy from the general public? Could this tragedy be avoided?

Firstly, those people whom the man approached shouldn’t have ignored him and they will definitely feel guilty when they heard of the death of the innocent man. However, I can understand those people since the reality of the world is cruel and no one or few would give money willingly to others just because they ask for it. This is also partly because people lost faith in donating money resulting form the NKF incident.

Secondly, the man should not take his own life as that would not really solve anything. Although it cause quite a number of people to donate money to his family, but donation is only temporary. What happens when all the money run out? Him committing suicide also cause much harm and pain to his family especially his wife. The wife will be overcome with grief and she would bear the burden of supporting the family alone. He should have approached any charity organization to seek help.

The charity organization can try their best to help him. For example, they can help him find a suitable job so as to have a stable income to support his family. With this he could be prevented from committing suicide.

Although I have said earlier that no one or few would be willing to give money to people just because they ask for it, but employers can be more sympathetic about this man’s plight and can employ him, providing him with a stable income. In this way, the employers will not be giving out money but will be giving him money for his contribution to the company instead.

Lastly, if the parents have trouble supporting the family, they should have made some family planning first before they gave birth more kids than they could handle. In this way, there would be less burden for the family and they would be able to cope better.

Now the mother is left to fend for herself and become the sole bread-winner of the family.

Lets just hope that the family is doing well now……

This is a website of the SOS organization which offer helps for those people who are feeling troubled and are planning to commit suicide: http://www.samaritans.org.sg/index1.html