Thursday, January 6, 2011 @ 10:38 AM
Celene Dion, Michael Jackson and Madonna are a few legendary names in the music industry. It’s funny how this single industry has the capabilities to influence teenagers all over the globe. Be it good or bad, it has significantly changed the way teenagers think and behave.
However, there are two sides to every coin. In today’s society, the usage of explicit words and coarse language are common in most of the Pop songs. Since Pop music has the ability to influence teenagers, it is inevitable for them to follow suit. Moreover, with the invasion of Illuminati practices, some artistes like Lady Gaga for instance, praise themselves to Satan by adding improper phrases to their songs. Therefore, such things could negatively affect the teenagers’ mindset. Since most Pop singers are Americans, outrageous costumes are mostly used in music videos and live performances.
Thus, teenagers would be inspired to dress alike. However, being a conservative society, it would deem as being disgraceful. Even though there is no definite answer as to whether Pop music is a negative influence to our teenagers, I feel that Pop stars should be more careful in the usage of words and also they message they are conveying.
Let’s take for example Pop music, which is dominating the music industry not only in Asia but all over the world. The thing that lures teenagers to Pop music is the catchy beats of the songs as well as the well-written lyrics which people can relate to. For example, “Just stand up”, which was sang by several famous female artistes like Beyonce and Mariah Carey, was composed to help Cancer patients overcome their sickness. Additionally, Pop music also helps teenagers with musical intelligence who prefer doing work with earphones plug into their ears as they are able to do work faster with catchy beats of the songs.
However, there are two sides to every coin. In today’s society, the usage of explicit words and coarse language are common in most of the Pop songs. Since Pop music has the ability to influence teenagers, it is inevitable for them to follow suit. Moreover, with the invasion of Illuminati practices, some artistes like Lady Gaga for instance, praise themselves to Satan by adding improper phrases to their songs. Therefore, such things could negatively affect the teenagers’ mindset. Since most Pop singers are Americans, outrageous costumes are mostly used in music videos and live performances.
Thus, teenagers would be inspired to dress alike. However, being a conservative society, it would deem as being disgraceful. Even though there is no definite answer as to whether Pop music is a negative influence to our teenagers, I feel that Pop stars should be more careful in the usage of words and also they message they are conveying.
@ 10:37 AM
In today’s society, education plays an important role in ensuring that Singapore has a strong labour force. Since Singapore focuses more on the secondary and tertiary sectors for its economic growth, getting a basic education is crucial. Therefore, it is essential for parents to make sure that their children obtain at least a Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) certificate.
Having good schools with capable leaders and teachers, and facilities that are amongst the best in the world, Singapore is said to have a very strong education system. Therefore, children often set high goals for themselves and often get good results. Singapore is now moving towards a flexible and a more diverse education system which aim to provide students with greater choice to meet their different interests and way of learning things.
An extract taken from Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) website, “We want to nurture young Singaporeans who ask questions and look for answers, and who are willing to think in new ways, solve new problems and create new opportunities for the future. And, equally important, we want to help our young to build up a set of sound values so that they have the strength of character and resilience to deal with life’s inevitable setbacks without being unduly discouraged, and so that they have the willingness to work hard to achieve their dreams.”
On the other hand, students also face problems with their parents and also foreign students. Parents often emphasize on the importance for their children to work hard and get good grades in school. Therefore, they will feel pressurised and hence overwork themselves because they do not want to disappoint their parents. Besides meeting the expectations of their parents, students are also facing problems when it comes to competition from foreign students. Most of the times, these foreign students are smarter and more hard-working as compared to our Singaporean students. This is because the pressure is much greater on them given that they had fork out a lot money for their education in Singapore, which is costly due to the high currency rate.
However, pressure does not necessarily have to be a negative thing. It might also serve as motivations for Singaporean students to work even harder in order to be on par with the foreign students or even be better than them. Singapore is a fast-paced city, therefore it is important for us to constantly upgrade ourselves to achieve greater heights.
Monday, January 3, 2011 @ 7:02 AM
Recently, I stumbled upon pictures of Singapore in the 60s on the internet and I was amazed by the progress Singapore has made thus far. 45 years, that was how long it took for Singapore to turn into a city it is today. As compared to before, Singapore is now a cosmopolitan and a bustling developed city. It also took Singapore 45 years to gradually go through a changing face in the society.
The change in society is probably due to the change in generations from the era of independence until today. The most commonly used terms for these generations are Gen X and Gen Y. People who were born between 1960s and late 1970s fall under the Generation X group while people born between mid 1980s and early 1995 are deemed to be Generation Y, which are people in the current society. These changes include the difference on the way each generations think, how each generations react to things and their perceptions.
People in today’s society are more attention-craving as compared to the previous ones. They crave for attention from their mentors for feedbacks and guidance as they appreciate being kept in the loop and seek frequent praises and reassurances. On the other hand, the society of Generation X is more individualistic. They are independent, resourceful and self sufficient. On top of that, they value freedom and responsibilities.
In addition to that, they are more work-oriented and they work to live rather than live to work. That explains why they appreciate the fun they have in their workplace, even though it wasn't that entertaining, and espouses a work hard-play hard mentality. In contrast to that, the society today is more family centric. They have different vision of workplace expectations as they prioritise family over work. Therefore, they are willing to trade high pay for the sake of spending quality time with their family members. However, this attitude is viewed as narcissistic or lacking of commitment and discipline by the Generation X.
Although the society today and yesterday think differently, it is impossible for Singapore not to go through such changes. Sometimes, these changes are the ones that would lead to the development of the country. With the existence of Generation X and Generation Y, the introduction of Generation Z will soon to follow up. We have seen the differences between these two societies, but what can we expect from generation Z? Well, that is something we will all have to ponder on.
@ 5:05 AM
Bullying or in other words, peer abuse is undoubtedly every children's and parents' fear. It is something inevitable and even if you were to attend one of the prestigious schools in Singapore, it is impossible for you not to witness or even experience it. Bullying includes deliberately pushing someone physically, throwing objects at someone, verbally insulting someone, spreading rumours about someone or even ostracising someone from his social clique. Sometimes I wonder what do people benefit from bullying others? Does it make them feel superior? Do they think by doing such an immoral thing they will gain respect from their inferiors? Honestly, it's not something to be proud of.
I have witnessed for myself how bullying had adversely impacted someone to the extent she never wanted to attend school. She was a girl who enjoyed going to school before the whole incident happened and she was academically a good student and a nominated prefect as well. However, she had lost the motivation to go to school when she was ostracised by her friends. Besides that, her friends often gave her hurtful remarks which had dampened her self-esteem. Due to that, she had not been attending school for close to a week and her studies were also affected significantly. And what's worse? She chose to keep everything to herself and nobody knew the problems she was facing until her form-teacher decided to visit her at home.
Though she was apprehensive to tell us what was going on initially, we managed to console her to open up. Little did we realise, she was having problems with her friends and that she felt left out in school. No one wanted to talk to her, play with her or even sit her during recess time. She felt so lonely that she would prefer staying at home than going to school. But the thing is, this wouldn't have happened if she had reported it to her form teacher or parents.
That is one mistake victims of bullying usually do. They prefer keeping everything to themselves thinking that they are capable enough to handle the matter than reporting it to their teachers or parents. At the same time, I feel that it is not wrong for them to keep quiet about it because there are also a few teachers or parents who see bullying as a trivial matter. And instead of giving the victims solutions to overcome it, they would just tell them to ignore it. I mean, there has to be a reason why they shared it with us. It's because they know they are incapable of taking the matter into their own hands. Nevertheless, even though the adults might think such matters are least of their concerns, victims should always seek help from someone before the matter gets out of hand.
And what amazes me the most is that children as young as 9 years old are capable enough of bullying their schoolmates. When I was 9, hurting someone was the last thing I wanted to do because I believe in the saying "What goes around, comes around". In my opinion, going to school is not only about getting proper education or scoring well in all our subjects, it is also about being nice to everyone and treating everyone as our friends. I cannot deny that I often dread going to school due to morning classes and the amount of work I received but it was never due to my friends. Even if I were to have conflicts with my friends, I would approach my mother for advices. And most of time, she would advise me to straighten things out with them but if things just don't work out, we forgive and forget. I mean, everyone wants to have good and memorable experiences in school, don't they?
I have witnessed for myself how bullying had adversely impacted someone to the extent she never wanted to attend school. She was a girl who enjoyed going to school before the whole incident happened and she was academically a good student and a nominated prefect as well. However, she had lost the motivation to go to school when she was ostracised by her friends. Besides that, her friends often gave her hurtful remarks which had dampened her self-esteem. Due to that, she had not been attending school for close to a week and her studies were also affected significantly. And what's worse? She chose to keep everything to herself and nobody knew the problems she was facing until her form-teacher decided to visit her at home.
Though she was apprehensive to tell us what was going on initially, we managed to console her to open up. Little did we realise, she was having problems with her friends and that she felt left out in school. No one wanted to talk to her, play with her or even sit her during recess time. She felt so lonely that she would prefer staying at home than going to school. But the thing is, this wouldn't have happened if she had reported it to her form teacher or parents.
That is one mistake victims of bullying usually do. They prefer keeping everything to themselves thinking that they are capable enough to handle the matter than reporting it to their teachers or parents. At the same time, I feel that it is not wrong for them to keep quiet about it because there are also a few teachers or parents who see bullying as a trivial matter. And instead of giving the victims solutions to overcome it, they would just tell them to ignore it. I mean, there has to be a reason why they shared it with us. It's because they know they are incapable of taking the matter into their own hands. Nevertheless, even though the adults might think such matters are least of their concerns, victims should always seek help from someone before the matter gets out of hand.
And what amazes me the most is that children as young as 9 years old are capable enough of bullying their schoolmates. When I was 9, hurting someone was the last thing I wanted to do because I believe in the saying "What goes around, comes around". In my opinion, going to school is not only about getting proper education or scoring well in all our subjects, it is also about being nice to everyone and treating everyone as our friends. I cannot deny that I often dread going to school due to morning classes and the amount of work I received but it was never due to my friends. Even if I were to have conflicts with my friends, I would approach my mother for advices. And most of time, she would advise me to straighten things out with them but if things just don't work out, we forgive and forget. I mean, everyone wants to have good and memorable experiences in school, don't they?
Saturday, December 11, 2010 @ 11:02 PM
Looking at the above pictures undoubtedly brightened up my day. I am not a pet-lover personally but seeing all their cute and innocent faces, I smiled from ear to ear. However, having to stumble upon the picture below, all I could feel was rage and fury.
According to Yahoo News, it was stated;
"China Radio International quoted one girl identified as Huang Xiaoxiao as saying she had been paid to appear in several videos. Payment started at 100 yuan (about 15 dollars) for crushing fruit, 200-300 yuan for "other small animals" and up to 400 yuan for rabbits, she was quoted as saying."
Honestly, what are the perks of abusing innocent creatures besides receiving money? Personally, I feel that the lives of such creatures are priceless. Same goes to human beings. We do not kill human beings for money. Aren't animals like human beings too? Animals breathe in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide just like us, we really do not have the rights to deprive them from living. There are cases where pets became an alternative for married couple who do not want children. They are sometimes treated as family too.
I feel it is only fair for the authority to come up with measures to prevent animal abuse. Authority could impose punishments to abusers. It is unfair that abusers are left unpunished when lives of animals were taken away cruelly by humans. I think that everyone has their own part to play in preventing animal abuse.
Thursday, December 2, 2010 @ 4:59 AM
No news means good news. Maybe that would be the phrase everyone will have to bear in mind. At least it's better than knowing family members are dead, because you will choose to believe that there's still a tiny bit of hope that they're still alive.
Besides destroyed homes, infrastructures like roads, railway track and factories were also destroyed. As a result, people will have to slowly and painstakingly rebuild their losses. Not only did the eruption cause destructions to the country's infrastructures but it had also resulted in a huge economic losses. This is due to the deaths of the people in the economic sectors such as tourism, agriculture and plantation. Therefore, Indonesian governments are implementing measures to boost country's economic although it may seem unclear now as to how they should tackle the problem. Nevertheless, our prayers should go to Indonesia for they have suffered a lot.