National Day Parade

It is 5 days after the National Day Celebration, and I am actually writing this entry while listening to Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong. So far he is just telling us how Singapore maintain its structure, introduces issues faced by students like lack of spaces in Universities is Singapore, warns people that we should do the right thing for Singapore to prosper, and etc. But now, I am here to give my comment. Everywhere we go, we are proud to be Singaporeans, we re proud to be kiasu, a garden city, and having complaining as our favourite past-time.

I can see that the organising committe for this years NDP 2011 have done a great effort in make the celebration a wonderful and unforgettable moment, for not just us, but for also the soon going to leave parliment, S.R. Nathan. We thank President Nathan for his contributions to Singapores achievements. 12 years in parliment is a long time! The fireworks and costumes were awesome, especially the steam buns in the containers. I liked the Uniform groups showing their marching skills and they even showcase some of their newest army technology. Other surprising things like having Gurmit Singh (Actor for Comedy Phua Chu Kang) and En Lai, to dress up as kampong women in the early days. I hope that the Singapore citizens will not lose faith in their own country and hope that next and coming years' NDP would be much better and interesting.

Official Version - Majulah Singapura
Mari kita rakyat Singapura
Sama-sama menuju bahagia
Cita-cita kita yang mulia
Berjaya Singapura
Marilah kita bersatu
Dengan semangat yang baru
Semua kita berseru
Majulah Singapura
Majulah Singapura

English Translation - Onward Singapore
We, the people of Singapore
Together march towards happiness
Our noble aspiration
To make Singapore a success

Let us all unite
In a new spirit
Together we proclaim
Onward Singapore
Onward Singapore

Happy Birthday Singapore!
Cheers,
Ryan Lau :D

Description through objects

Write 200-250 words of descriptive prose, illustrating a character by describing any place inhabited or frequented by that character -- a room, house, garden, office, studio, etc.
The library, a place where most of the information are oblivious to students. Shelves with books nicely arranged in an orderly manner, stood as high as a 3 year old could see. History sections, fiction sections, non-fiction section. The corner of the history section, collected dust, and dusty books and dusty shelves stood there, waiting for a movement in books. During the school period, the library is crowded, and yet noise is kept at its lowest, amazing. Studying, collecting information, making notes, enjoying reading books, is what most people would do. The many sections where unknown to many, books are the real thing, the big thing. Librarians decorate the place with nursery drawings and art to showcase the zones people are in. Streamers and banners indicate the libray's name and at different times of the year's celebrations. Sign boards stick to the walls on the first floor, with notes and schedules of different events that are to be conducted. To suit the readers comfort, a cafeteria is located on the second floor with other entertainment like, providing computers and loaning VCD games. When it is time to close, the lights will be kept dimmer and books and shelves were properly arranged again and carpets were swept and dusted by cleaners. From the outside, it looks quite haunted in the night.

London's Catastrophically Failure

I feel that the police who were involved in the fatal shooting should have themselves expelled from the police force, as if they are under pressure, they might go into rampage and cause chaos. The start of the recent 2011 London riot was caused by a fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man (and father of four), by police. The police claim that they were in imminent danger, even though there is now no evidence that Duggan was armed or presented a threat. The situation was quite unreasonable and killing a black man without any weapons on him is outrages. It was on a Thursday when Mark Dunggan was shot dead at Ferry Lane, Tottenham, and this sparked the riot, causing tremendous chaos and destruction. Futher more, it is less than a year before the inaugrual 2012 London Olympic games, and this is already happening. This would surely strike fear in other countries and not come to the games, worst case scenario, the games would be cancelled. In Britain, there are 58 different police forces, each has its own tradition, uniform, equipment and command structure, and the Metro-politan Police is responsible fore London's security and defence. For example, in every school class we have a class community members to keep the class under control and order, but if they cause an unreasonable action, they would be the ones who are in trouble as the whole class look up to that person. Like the Met's, they are like the managment committee of London. In conclusion, with great power comes with great responsibility.

Poem in this scene (Make it more interesting)

Fire and chaos reign supreme over London

Polices are taking over

As the situation gets more uncontrollable

What caused this

Is the confusion

Of whether the dead man was shot

With him being armed

or not

The Acid Attacker

Ameneh Bahrami, an Iranian woman who was blinded and disfigured when acid was thrown in her face seven years ago, decided to pardon her attacker just before his sentence (court-ordered blinding) was to be carried out.


If I were to be Ameneh Brahrami, I would not show mercy to the acid attacker and have an eye for eye justice for taking away my face. The reason is that the culprit might attack someone else, to spread the word to other countries to tighten punishments.

If I were to be Ameneh Brahrami, I would not show mercy to the acid attacker and have an eye for eye justice for taking away my face. The reason is that the culprit might not learnt from his mistakes, back fire on the forgiveness and attack someone innocent. For example, Singapore's number one terrorist in captive at the detention centre, escaped a few years ago, even after he was given mercy, with the fact that he was never given any charges for any terrorist acts, and without trail went straight to detention. Despite this, he still dared to escape and in the end was recaptured in Skudai, Malaysia. Further more, in primary schools nowadays, students are getting more daring. Even punishments such as caning was introduce to the educational system to keep law and order.

If I were to be Ameneh Brahrami, I would not show mercy to the acid attacker and have an eye for eye justice for taking away my face. The reason is to spread the word to other countries to tighten punishments. Look at Singapre's law, it is very strict, for example, chewing gum is ban in Singapore. However, Singapore relaxed on the ban and those wanting to indulge the decadent habit will have to give their names and produce identification. And gum will continue to be available only at pharmacies. Pharmacists selling to customers without identification could be jailed for up to two years and fined nearly $3,000 US.


In conclusion, if I were to be Ameneh Brahrami, I would not show mercy to the acid attacker and have an eye for eye justice for taking away my face. The reason is that the culprit might attack someone else, to spread the word to other countries to tighten punishments.

Mercy (Reflection)
If we say show mercy, it will sometimes be giving someone a second chance, forgiving someone who went against you and turning over a new leaf. In the Merchant of Venice, Antonio clearly did not show mercy towards Shylock, the Jew. As a Christian himself, he would have practised mercy, but obviously not towards a Jew. I see mercy as being a much tougher element than justice. Being an indirect and reasonable attribute, it is quite rare among Singaporeans as we are kiasu which means, cannot lose. In this case, Ameneh was very kind enough to let the case got, let bygone be bygone. This action touches me as she was once beautiful, and her beauty was taken away from her. Through actions and words we can see if a person is truly forgiven or brought to justice. Nowadays, justice has been implemented in the Singapore Law and Order system, by having strict Laws.

Written By,
Ryan Lau :3

Narrative Dialogue

"........."


"What had happened here A?", B called out


"I'm not quite sure B, all I could remember was that we were chased by killer robots and we ended up in this mini mart"


"It's dark I am afraid, what happen if we do not make it out"


"It is okay son, we will get out, I promise", B said with a shine of hope in his eyes.


"Are you sure?...", A replied with doubts


"I am absolutely sure"


"Holy smokes!"


"Keep quiet, don't blow our hideout...", whispered B.


"That was close"

"My heart nearly came to a halt"


"This planet is not our home anymore A"


"Dad, I heard that there is a safe place over the other side of the world, where people live"


"That is impossible, we saw in the news how destructive the robots were, that killed everyone in their path, no one, absolutely no one could have survived"


"Even though they had survived, the robots would have probably found them and annihilate them with their alien weapons."


"What should we do...?"

"We have to escape form this place no matter what. Our food supplies are depleting and the robots are getting closer!..."

"But where would we go?"

"Anywhere safe"

"But what about the place where it is safe, I thought you promised me?..."

"You have to fact the fact, that no one could have survived an attack like that"

"But....but"

"Enough talk more movement"

"Okay... ..."

"Here we go, the new world, it what we have to find..."

Reflection

I feel that not only using actions, situation and appearances allows us to show the feelings of the certain character. In this story, the dialogues at first have a more steady tone, and as the story or dialogue continues, the tone starts to get sad towards the end. The theme I chose was "The attack of robots, live or survive" which is basically about alien robots attacking Earth and destroyed almost everything in reach, and if you guessed it, the characters are a father and his son. I got this idea from the movie "I am Legend", where by the entire city is zombified and a doctor lives to find a cure. In the end, he finds a cure and there is a place where people are safe. What touches me is that he has served his purpose to find the cure, that is great responsibility and independence to live among the zombies.

Online Lesson (1)

Online Lesson Term 3 (1)
1) Turrets or cannons on the ship for battling
2) The “jackies” are the sailors of the ship. The reason why they were singing “war charities” was because they wanted to boost the sailor’s morale that were on the ship so they will fight with pride and die for the country their fighting for.
3) Both the gun and shovel are made of iron, and in the past during the war, the type of shovel called plowshares would be hammered into the guns, therefore a gun will always be with the shovel and that is why it is called “The shovel is a brother to the gun”

Paragraph B
1) The poem talks about enemy taking over the city and they have the higher order of the so called “court”, whereby all the citizens living in the captured city become slaves of the enemy and of course they would have to obey the enemies or masters’ commands. In shows and non-fiction scenes, the slaves have a tradition for always obeying their masters’ commands and from the enemies point of view, the title “And they obey” clearly illustrates the main story line.
2) This poem is an anti-war poem, thus is shows that in war, the citizens living there in the area have to rebuild the city that they have damaged.
3) It is harder to build it back up again, for example, the recent earthquake and tsunami that have damaged the nuclear reactors in the nuclear plants in Fukushima, the meltdown is still happening since March. Nowadays they are monitoring the movement of the food in and out, worrying that the food would contain radiation that will affect the people’s health. Recently, the meat have been sent in by Fukushima contained low levels of radiation and some even been sent to the countries nearby. In my view, the amount of damaged the nuclear meltdown have caused is much harder to build back than destroy or damage.

Paragraph C
1) The sounds of the future wars represent silent attack vehicle, which is supported by the fact that the poem states "silent wheels" indicating the wheels of vehicles make no sounds, and probably attacks with cannons as said in the poem “whirr of rods not yet dreamed out in the heads of men” which meant that they have not fired.
2) One “king” that has been kicked under the dust is the President of Egypt Mubarak, who was accused and forced to step down as President due to conflicts.

3-min Speech

3-min speech

Should the Singapore government show mercy towards Oliver Fricker?

Good afternoon teacher/Good afternoon teachers and fellow school mates, today I will be talking about the Singapore government should not show mercy towards Oliver Fricker. He cut through the fence of an SMRT Changi train depot with an accomplice and spray painting two metro train carriages with the words "McKoy Banos", a widely documented signature of graffiti artists who have vandalised trains around the world. Some of us might have thought that it was fine art, however to the Singapore government, it was a serious crime. We all know how severe is the punishment for those who vandalise in public and the government shows no mercy when following the rules. Afterall, rules are rules. I feel that vandalism has increased over the years as more and more cases of vandalism appear on the news, for example, Michael Fay who vandalised cars. If I were the government, I will not show mercy as vandalising the SMRT train, humiliates the transport system and the government, and this would be insulting the company. Would be humiliated if someone made fun of you? Surely, it would be yes. In conclusion, right now Singapore have shown mercy to Oliver Fricker by having only 3 strokes of the cane and 5 months in jail, despite the fact that he had committed vandalism before. Thank you.