Rupert Murdoch Phone Scandal

Rupert Murdoch Phone Scandal

I agree to a large extent that the news media should be blamed for the unhealthy paparazzi culture and going to the extremes for sensational news. It is known that the news media will go into extremes to hunt for sensational news, so that people will be interested in reading the news. Furthermore, each news media faces competition from other news media as they have to fight for peoples’ readership, in order to earn more money. However, what is the role of the news media? It is to cover the latest news around the world, not the latest tabloid! One does not need the entertainment of tabloids to survive. It is the greediness of news media that developed the unhealthy paparazzi culture so as to achieve higher readership.

Although it is the news media’s problem for the unhealthy paparazzi culture, I believe that the people should also be blamed for the paparazzi culture. As people, by nature, loves to read about tabloids, gossips and stuff, news media uses this point to get more readership. The news media goes to the extremes for sensational news, so as to grab the reader’s attention, so as to earn more money. In other words, the underlying problem is that because of people’s nosiness, it has led the news media to take the opportunity and go to extremes for sensational news, just for the appetite of the readers, and in turn, the news media develops the unhealthy paparazzi culture.

Justice and Mercy

Justice and Mercy

There is justice, but no true justice. In the trial scene in Merchant of Venice, Shylock kept wanting the pound of flesh from Antonio as Antonio failed to comply with the bond and thus, Shylock wanted true justice to be given to him, that he be allowed to cut the pound of flesh from Antonio. I believe that the justice was achieved when Portia allowed Shylock to cut a piece of flesh from Antonio, but true justice was not achieved, mainly because Portia had made use of the bond and law, and restricted Shylock, by abiding to the bond, that Shylock had only requested for a pound of flesh, and not a drop of blood, and according to the Venetian law, any Jew who tries to claim a Christian’s life but was unsuccessful, the Jew would either be killed or had to convert to Christianity. Portia twisted the bond into cutting the flesh without dripping a drop of blood, but we all know that this was impossible, and thus, Shylock was unable to cut Antonio’s flesh. But this was not a fair trial because firstly, the Christians occupied a majority of the court, and secondly, women were not allowed in courts, and Portia had violated this law.

There is no true mercy. Because when Shylock realised that he could not have his pound of flesh from Antonio, he wanted to take the money and let the matter rest. However, Portia rejected his offer and even forced Shylock to give up his fortune and convert to Christianity just to spare his life. But how different is that to death sentence? Moreover, is Antonio and the Christians’ discrimination against Shylock atoned for?

In Merchant of Venice, Portia was able to manipulate the law just because she was the judge, who had the most power in the court. In real life, about the Lockerbie bomber freeing case, the judge too had the power to spare the bomber’s life as the bomber had terminal disease; the bomber was spared so that he could spend the remaining time with his family.

Education in Singapore

Education in Singapore

I agree to a certain extent about the issues that the student has risen. Firstly, I would like to point out that education is not just about memorizing and not being able to ask why. Perhaps it is the difference in environments that differs our opinions in education. In Hwa Chong, we are expected to clarify our doubts with our teachers, so that we will be able to understand the topic better. However, I believe that in other schools, the situation is the same. Without understanding the topic better, how will the students be able to pass their examinations well? Furthermore, I believe that the student has generalized all the subjects into one whole education. Of course, there are some subjects that we are not supposed to ask why, because those subjects are quite “dead” subjects. Some examples are chinese, history and geography. Nevertheless, there is always a need to memorize the facts and formats for answering questions, to pass the examinations. Speaking of examinations, it is just to test if we really understand the topics tested, or that we are really well-versed in the subjects.

I do agree on the student’s point that moral value classes are useless. This reason why I agreed on the point is because in Hwa Chong, the moral values taught are all learned in our daily lives, and also through the mouths of our parents. Furthermore, I believe that a majority of the students do not remember or apply what they have learnt in the PCME classes.

I feel that the student wrote the letter in an appropriate tone. Her words are somewhat polite and there is no evidence of personal attacks on the education minister in the letter. In the first paragraph, the student states that there is no perfect education in the world and she does not imply that the education system in Singapore is very lousy, and she just states that the education system has some key flaws, so that the education minister could look into the matter and better the education system, so that students of the next generation can have a better learning environment and better education.

Personally, if I were to write a letter to the Minister of Education, I would raise the issue of the fact that there are some subjects that do not have any use in our daily lives. One subject for example, is history. History teachers teach us about the history of Singapore and how to answer questions given in a given format. But ask yourself, are you able to even use these subjects in the future. I believe that one of the flaws in the education system in Singapore is that some of the subjects taught would not really be used in our daily lives. Although Singapore wants to build a knowledge based community, but some subjects taught are not the kind of knowledge that we can use.