Own Villanelle : No one would wish a whole life full of strain

No one would wish a whole life full of strain
Eyes ain’t open and darkness comes too close
Why choose a future that flies down the drain

When all light falls, darkness and life constrain
Ears can’t sense trembles and no one compose
No one would wish a whole life full of strain

Light and darkness on both ends, let be rain
One can’t smell and differ hope with his nose
Why choose a future that flies down the drain

On the road and tracks stays a moving train
Can’t taste the food that feeds on, decompose
No one would wish a whole life full of strain

Please stop and end all quarrels, be refrain
Textures smooth or waxy turns overdose
Why choose a future that flies down the drain

Scream out loud cause for when you lose your brain
When you turn into a thorn in a rose
No one would wish a whole life full of strain
Why choose a future that flies down the drain

Flash Flood Incident: Whose fault is it?

There’s been a massive uproar on who is to be blame for the incident which occurred on 16th June. Due to a heavy downfall, it resulted in a flash flood which wreak chaos in Central parts of Singapore including, Bukit Timah Road, Thomson Road and the eventful Orchard Road which was filled with office workers and shoppers. The impact of the flash flood was disastrous: shops all “sunk”, causing a net loss of billions. Many patrons were evacuated away from water rising to waist-height. Many Singaporeans are blaming the Government for not preparing them well and trying to avert the entire flood, so that they would not be at loss. However, the Government is rejecting all ideas that they are to blame and instead claim that it is just the act of Mother Nature and nothing else. Some Singaporeans think that the Government is just using this excuse in order to not pay and ensure no loss for shop owners. There are many fault-accusing and blames on both parties; however who is mainly to be blame?
Firstly, let’s use the case of a shop owner who was affected in Orchard Road, therefore reporting a loss of over thousands of dollars. Your items have been washed away and you are fretting over the loss. How do you pay the rent? How do you ensure that your patrons return back to your store? Let’s think of the answer to all your difficulties: blaming the Government and trying to attain the profit seems the best key. Thus, I sense that many Singaporeans who were affected in the flash flood are either looking to repay their loss or either taking items for granted. Due to the “peaceful” life in Singapore, many Singaporeans were taken aback when they met the flash flood. They felt that it was a total and serious disaster, thus amplifying the degree of seriousness. Singaporeans have shown their own opinion of saying that the Government should construct better and larger canals so that they would be able to avoid all case of flood. However, there was an underlying factor that caused the flood: the waste found in the canals. The canals were supposed to be at its best performance, however the waste found in the canals hindered their potential to drain all the water. Whose fault is it now? The Government? I don’t think so. Those who were not affected and posted the answer of widening the canals are either too free or either trying to attain fame. ( Assumption )
Secondly, imagine you are a Minister in charge of National affairs. The recent rain flood has arisen to complaints of workers and shop owners that net loss was overwhelming. Many have lost of billions and millions and are looking for you for the answer. They wish you are able to neutralize their loss, however, do you wish to waste money on this trivial matter? The Government who are trying to avoid all blames may have an underlying reason: not to waste money to find a balance of satisfaction and unhappiness. This case can be seen as serious and not serious, depending on your own opinion. The Government may have seen this as rather serious, but not serious enough that requires immediate actions. They may have a mindset: If I expend money on widening the canals and the Singaporeans continue to litter, would this money be worthwhile? If I also do so, yet no flood occurs again. Is is worth it? Maybe it’s just a fluke that it happened twice? Thus, the Government may have to consider the cost which is the main priority of many countries and maybe not entirely have to blame.
Personally, I feel that both parties have to be blame for this situation. If the Singaporeans did not litter, would the flash flood happened? If the Government had prepared the Singaporeans from this disaster, would the Singaporeans still be in a dilemma of thinking of an action? However, there may be a third party who maybe included: Mother Nature herself. She obviously plays a part in this flash flood with the heavy downfall. So if the Singaporeans play their part and the Government play safe and educate them how, this flood can be just seen as “Mother Nature’s fault” and the loss can be minimized as possible, causing no uproar and debates.

Task 2

I have chosen the Poem “We Slept with Our Boots On” by Steve Carlson. Firstly, I will elaborate on the 8 points of a poem before I start on the conflict of the poem. One of the 8 Points of a Poem is the Point Of View, which means who is the speaker of the poem? From this poem, I can conclude that the speaker is actually a soldier involved in the war, battling for his country. The evidence is “They unloaded the dead and maimed right before our eyes”. This shows that the speaker saw his enemy unload the casualties from their vehicle and injured them right before the author and his allies’ eyes. The speaker is likely to be a soldier as if the speaker was not in a battlefield fighting; he would not be able to see the images of his enemies injuring his comrades in front of his own eyes. Another evidence is “I kept pulling the trigger and reloading and pulling some more.” This depicts the speaker who is firing his weapon and is reloading the bullets, triggering the bullets in a repeated manner. The speaker is also adds to my conclusion as he would not be able to use a weapon and firing his bullets non-stop if he was not a soldier. The speaker who I can infer is a soldier realised that he can leave the battlefield anytime due to the threats around him and can die anytime. However, the speaker reacts very calmly and does not show any sense of being intimidated. In the poem, he does not show that he is trying to cover the facts but he shows the readers the truth of war with no sense of prejudice at all. He shows that the soldiers are actually fighting for no apparent reason at all and there is no sense of patriotism, emotions in him which is like a zombie fighting with no feelings at all. Secondly, the 2nd Point is situation and settings which means where the location was likely to be in the poem and how it looked like with its features. In this Poem, I can infer that the situation was depicting warfare on a battlefield. The evidence showed is “I run as fast as I could through the lead rain” which showed that the speaker was dashing through a battlefield with bullets falling on the soldiers like rain. It was likely to be on a battlefield as it was covered with bullets falling down like rain whereas in other location it would be unlikely to have a situation like this. The conflicts in the poem consists battles in many aspect. Examples are psychological, emotional and ethnic. The soldiers’ comrades were murdered in front of their own eyes which show that they have to battle their own courage in their hearts which shows the psychological battles in their heart. The emotional conflicts were when the speaker depicts the terror in the battle which shows that the soldiers were afraid of death but still were forced to continue battle for no apparent reason. The ethnic conflict was the fact of war which is inhumane and the soldiers trying to exterminate each other which unethical. Thirdly, is the form and language of the poem and how it is linked with the speaker’s feelings. The form of this poem is in a form where the first line rhymes with the second line, third line is rhyming with the fourth line and further on. This is in a style like monotononous praying in which is like the soldiers are praying for their lives to stay alive with no sense of emotions anymore by the brutality of war. The poem is simple and straight with no sense of covering the facts of war and is truthful. The poet uses imagery words to describe the emotionless killings of soldiers and to depict the scene of the war to give the readers on how the battle scene was like. An example is “washed out the blood” which shows that blood was always flowing out due to the murder of soldiers to give the readers see the brutality of war and the scene of how the battle took place. Personification is also used in the poem. An example is” Bullets are flying” in which it shows that bullets were fired everywhere and were like in a sense, flying. Bullets are not supposed to fly but the poets used it to describe the bullets as in they contained a life, killing many soldiers. Simile is also used in the poem. “I run as fast as I could through the lead rain” showed the simile of the speaker running through the bullets which fell on him and he was running as fast as he could to dodge the bullets. This showed that the speaker was cautious of protecting his own lives and was in a desperate situation to stay safe from the bullets. The language in the poem shows that the speaker is not concealing the truth but in turn, it conveying the message that war is meaningless with no sense of fighting for a reason. Lastly, my personal response is that I can understand the message the author is conveying as he tells us the meaningless battling of soldiers. The emotionless soldiers are fighting and battling without any sense of patriotism which showed that they were not fighting for their country, but instead just fighting for the sake of fighting. The tone in the poem is straightforward which further emphasises that war is just straightforward, is whether you stay alive or you get brutally murdered and injured or even handicapped. The imagery words also showed me the scene of the war and how it looked like, with blood spluttering everywhere and bullets being fired, gave me a sense of how war looked like. Thus, from this poem, I can conclude that war is actually a sense of pride, not a sense of conquering each other .

Singapore IR Casino - Boon or Bane

Singapore IR Casino - Boons or Banes?

Recently, Singapore built a casino in Marina Bay in order for Singapore to earn money to enhance the country and also to provide jobs for those who are unemployed. However, many Singaporeans have raised their opinion on the casino, many think that this will be an advantage to them whereas some of them may think that the casino would be actually be like a "virus" to Singapore.

Now I will start with the advantages to Singapore by building the casino. Who will it be beneficial to? Let's start with the obvious. Gamblers would obviously be elated that a casino is finally in Singapore. They would not have to head to Genting for the casino or Macau where the largest casino is located.Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong stated that the tourism's sales have been dropping tremendously despite the Singapore Flyer and Sentosa. By starting the casino, Singapore tourism industry would be improved and the government would then turn Singapore into a better place. Unemployed people may also have a chance to be able to work in the casino which improves the status of life for the unemployed workers.

Now let's move on to the disavantages to Singapore's casino. Gamblers may be afected and are addicted to the casino. Saying that they lose $1000 per day and they are very desperate to repay the casino. There are only 2 alternatives. One is to borrow from a bank which they may reject the request or not is to look for loan sharks. Loan sharks will obviously lend you the money but you pay a higher price. The interst rate is rocket high and you would find yourself still unable to repay the loan back. Is this good for Singaporeans? Many people will obviously be paying their loans for the rest of their lives and some may even lose their jobs.

Personally, I feel that the casino should not be constructed at all. Looking at the pros and cons, the cons really overpower the pros easily.Despite increasing the tourism industry, it would affect more people and thus, the tourism industry would also fall soon. "Stay away if you don't want to play" is all I can say.

Online Gambling - Boon or Bane?

Online Gambling - Boon or Bane
Online gambling is a very recent add on to the gambling practices known to the world. Despite it may not be as thrilling in the casino, the effect and popularity of the same is quite huge. Now I will discuss the boon or bane factor for the same. Now I will explain what gambling is about.

Gambling is a pleasure activity and like all games have rules so does it. If one forgets the ground rules and gets over involved in looking for pleasure, the game’s reputation should not be at risk. Online gambling then will be at an advantage.

To start,online gambling is very popular nowadays is the convenience factor. The convenience of it being played from anywhere, where one can find an Internet connection attracts lots of people. If you are above the age of 21, is able to connect to the Internet and loves to gamble then online gambling is just a click away. Some online gambling games can also be accessible to everyone at any age and children may chance upon the gambling games.This may cause the children to have a mindset that gambling should be allowed despite the law of having to be above 21 to gamble. Next online gambling has many differnet versions of games available online. One can choose from varieties of poker, roulette, blackjack, slot machines and jackpots available online. In order to keep the gamblers continue playing the game on one site, the online casino owners have to ensure satisfaction in terms of returns. They will bait the gamblers like saying they weill earn rebate for every match they gamble in.

Next online gamblers is the online identity. The casino site owners promises maximum confidential of the personal details which are shared by the gambler. As their online identity is a not revealed. People generally play with fake identities, to the extent of pretending to be opposite sex many times. They can also alter their age so that they are able to gamble despite underage.

Another advantage to online gambling is that it is generally free to register on to these sites, and thus, the gamblers do not need to pay the admission fee,unlike a casino. A gambler can even take trial games to have a feel without actually involving the money, but only virtual ones. This allows him to be able to understand the game and still do not need to risk their own money at all.

The negative aspect of online gambling is mainly the addiction factor. Gamblers are so addicted to the gambling that they fail to be able to contril their gambling desires. Online gambling may cause people to lose money but remember, it is only virtual money. Gamblers are still willing to risk virtual money as they feel that it us worthless. Since it is all in electronic form the money they earn or lose are generally "loseable". In real casinos, you risk your own money and the atmosphere is really intense and the gamblers would leave the casino immediately, if they suffer a loss more.

Another disavantage is that people as mentioned before, people may use fake identity to access the gambling games. This may cause children who access the game to be addicted to be gambling and pick up the habit of gambling at a young age. No doubt that online gambling is heading towards a negative social impact where school going kids are also developing an addiction towards it. Look at the advertisement of a father begging the child to lend him her piggybank. This shows that gambling causes pain not only to the gambler, but the whole family. Since the accessibility is easier so the urge to gamble would developed faster which leads to oweing debts or borrowing from banks to repay the loansharks.

In conclusion, I feel that gamblings have more banes than boons as naturally, gambling is a bad habit and online gambling only attracts more people to pick up this wrong action. Thus, I feel that online gambling is even wores than casinos to a certain aspect. One last warning to all gamblers : Don't Gamble! Think of the Consequences before You place your Bets down!

To Kill A Mockingbird ( Using MI )

Is Maycomb a good place to live in? Is Maycomb corrupted?
[Focus on 2 main themes: Courage and Prejudice]
My 2 highest MI are Naturalists and Interpersonal respectively. I will be researching on the natural habitat of mockingbird. In my research, I will include the kind of flora and fauna you think exist in Maycomb and explain why the mockingbirds live in Maycomb. For Interpersonal, I will conduct an interview with a friend or family member. I will find out from their point of view on prejudice and discrimination. I will write out the interview.
Naturalists - Research

Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the Mimidae family. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians, often loudly and in rapid succession. I think that the mockingbirds live in Maycomb due to the fact that it is a rather desolated and peaceful town. Mockingbirds are also willing to nest near houses which the Maycomb citizens who are peaceful and do not resort to violence straight away, also attracts mockingbirds to come to Maycomb. The people in Maycomb also fond of the Mockingbird’s song, therefore more mockingbirds come to Maycomb. I think that the trees and fauna which grow in Maycomb are the maple trees and oak trees. As the mockingbirds love maple, I think that the Maycomb citizens grow maple trees. I think that they also grow oak trees as there is a forest behind Maycomb. I also think that grow rice plants as Maycomb is rather isolated and there are fertile land which they can grow wheat to harvest crops like the Cunninghams.


Interpersonal - Interview(Interview)
Interviewer: What do you think is prejudice?

Interviewee: I think that prejudice is a a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation and it is synonymous to ''bias'' and ''prepossess''.

Interviewer: Can you tell us some example?


Interviewee: Jane Austen's famous novel ''Pride and Prejudice'' is the best suited example in this respect. When you read the novel, the very first line that would strike you is it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. It is an example of 18th century English middle class prejudice that eventually looked upon women just as an object.

Interviewer: What is discrimination then?
Interviewee: It is the action or behaviour on somebody due to the fact of prejudice.

Interviewer: Can you show us some example?

Interviewee: There was a case in which a company laid off 28 people but only one of them was under the age of 40 years old. The case was then sent to court by the person who was fired under the age of 40 and it was considered age discrimination.
Interviewer: Can you tell me which aspect do you feel is more important?

Interviewee : I feel that it is prejudice as if they is no prejudice, there is no discrimination. The belief of someone then results into the actions of discriminating of that someone.

Multiple Intelligence Test

When I last took the Multiple Intelligence Test, the 2 highest scores of my results were Naturalist and also musical. Lately, I took the Multiple Intelligence Test again and the results were different! My 2 highest score became Naturalist and Interpersonal. I feel that the Multiple Intelligence Test is really accurate. Naturalist means that is the scientific research of animals and plants, using observation rather than experimental ways to study. Personally, I feel that this aspect is really one of my highest intelligence. From young, I have always been interested in animals and I’ve dreamed of becoming a vet one day. For the other aspect, I’m really astounded as I’ve never expected myself to be there. Interpersonal means that you can interact with people easily and have the ability to cooperate well in a group. Personally, I feel that I can interact with people easily but I do not really how to cooperate well in a group as I’m a bit talkative. The Multiple Intelligence Test is really useful as it tells you what jobs and tasks you are able to perform better than others. Like I’m from the Musical type and I took up a kinetic intelligence task, I would not perform well than a person who has that intelligence. Therefore, I feel the Multiple Intelligence Test is useful and beneficial to everyone.