Responses to The Road Not Taken

When I read the poem, the first thing that came to my mind was what is a yellow wood? This question could not be answered even after I read the entire poem.

The next thing was that the way Robert Frost described him checking the paths was very clear and thus I could even visualize the scene in my head.

And then the poem shocked me because the persona in the poem simply took the route which he thought looked better. I expected a much more in depth choice of the routes because I thought that the entire poem would be on the choice taken or how it was chosen.

Also, I did not understand "Oh, I kept the first for another day!" as I could not figure out what this statement refers to.

Reflections on America's debt

I feel that America is very irresponsible to have accumalated such a huge amount of debt. As one of the main leading leader in the global politics they should have managed their financial issues more efficiently. As a leader, America should have set a good example for other countries to follow. This recent incident have definitely affected America's reputation negatively as countries who once respected and look up to America now sees America as just another country like themselves.
This American debt has caused chaos in the political stock markets, causing investors all over the world to panic, afraid that their stocks would drop further. In response to this issue, Americans claim that the political issues would "self-correct" and people should not panic as everything would go back to normal eventually.

"The problem is not the stock market; the problem is what the stock market is trying to tell you," Bloomberg said on CBS' "The Early Show." "Whether it's telling you the truth, we'll only know in the future, but markets are aspirations and expectations and speculation.

With reference to the paragraph above, I feel that Americans are problably just trying to push the responsibilities to the private corporations for their inability to keep their stock valuable. Americans are now still very confident that the political issues would be solved eventually and thus there is not much to panic about. But I personally feel that the Americans are merely putting up a strong front and they are actually stuggling on the inside. America problably do not want people to panic and therefore is trying to convince everyone that everything is fine. However, the dropping of stocks in the stock market proves that otherwise.

In conclusion, I feel that America should be more honest about what is happening. Especially if the thing was going to happen anyway in the future, it is better for people know about it and maybe be able to start preparing for the worst.

Reflective Letter Writing

Dear Editor of The Straits Times,

In accordance to the recent Japan earthquake and the tsunami, I feel that Japan has done a very good job in response to the earthquake and tsunami. The authorities were acting very fast to rescue the vistims after the situation was calm, the earthquake was gone and the waves have stopped crashing in.

From the fact that Japan was shocked by the happening of the magnitude 9 earthquake, as they never expected it to be as strong as 9 magnitudes. We as Singaporeans can learn that a disaster may strike any time, even if there have never been a natural disaster in Singapore, that does not mean there would not be one happening soon or in the far future.

However hard we deny, we still have no way to cover up the fact that we are a very small country. So if we may encounter the same situation, handling it would not be easy. Firstly, our citizens if struck by a earthquake would have very little or no space to escape it. We are surrounded by water, so if a tsunami strikes, it would be almost impossible to escape.

Singaporeans should never become complacent of the fact that we are protected by the shores our neighbouring countries as anything might happen when we least expected it.

Thank You.

Yours Sincerely,
Yeo Eng Chow

Letter to Japanese Earthquake Survivor with Reflections

Dear Natsu,

I’ve heard from the news of the tragic disaster that has happened in Fukushima Japan and remembered that you were living near that area so I prayed that you were alright. The following day after the earthquake happened I heard again from the news that even your area was affected by the earthquake and many buildings have fallen. I heard from Uncle Senshi that your family is now homeless and is lacking of enough food to go around. I sent some food rations to Uncle Senshi already they should have come along with this letter. I hope that the food would be able to last you another month when things would have simmered down, if not I would continue to send more over. It was glad however to hear that your family was alright and no one was seriously injured. It was a really really trajic moment when I heard of the number of casualties that were present in this Earthquake. Luckily you were not one of them or I would have lost such a good friend as you.

When the time comes when you need my help once again, just drop me a message via Uncle Senshi I would be most willing to help you. I would never have gotten pass through high school without your help in Japanese class and how hospitable your family was to me through my two years stay at Japan. Stay strong Natsu! For you know that there will always be a friend like me by your side willing to help you out. No matter the problem you have to face, it is when you give up that you really lose. Send my regards to your family for me. I look forward to see them soon in their healthy and happy state.

Yours Sincerely,

Your friend,
Yeo Eng Chow

Reflections for the March 11 Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan
When I heard of the Earthquake, I was very shocked to hear that such a disaster had happened to Japan. That night, I just returned home from CCA training at school at about 7 P.M. Also, since that day was the last day at school for Term One, I felt really excited to go home to rest and relax. When I got home, my parents were watching the news and when I saw the news too, i learnt of the Earthquake in Japan. My first reaction was "What?!" I did not expect such a thing to happen. Then when I heard that the casualty count was constantly going up, I felt guilty that I was so happy when this Earthquake was happening. I was so excited to go home and relax while those people at Japan were suffering from the pain of injuries and the pain of losing their loved ones. Also, because at that period of time I was following an Anime Series, and because of the Earthquake, the people over at Japan were not able to show the new episodes on time. At first I was quite upset that the people were not showing the episodes because I thought the people were not in the affected area until they posted that their area have also been affected. But after much reflective thinking, I realised I was wrong to even feel upset as I should have understood their situation and empathised with them instead of blaming them.

NPCC POP Reflections

Recently, for my CCA which is NPCC we had the Passing-Out-Parade. The Passing-Out-Parade is when the Secondary 4 Squad is officially dismissed from the Unit. This means that our Non-commissioned officers also known as NCOs are also leaving our squad.
Our NCOs have been the ones teaching us all the things we have learnt in NPCC. This includes drills; camp-craft skills, survival skills, weapon training and many of these take a long time to be able to master. Therefore, our NCOs have spent a lot of time and effort to teach us those skills. Although we are not masters of it yet, they have built our strong foundation and have prepared us for the final stage of our training in NPCC. We have built a strong bond between the NCOs and our squad and thus leaving them was quite an emotional moment for me. The NCOs have always been there to help me when I had doubts about anything, even when my doubts are things not related to NPCC training. I saw how bonded the Secondary 4 Squad was and they became my inspiration, my goal now is to achieve the same or even a stronger squad spirit in our squad. The handover ceremony, where our NCOs pass the responsibility over to the future Secondary 3 NCOs was very fascinating. I kept thinking throughout the handover ceremony if ever one day I had the chance to become an NCO, what kind of NCO would I become. Which one of my NCOs should I reference myself to, who shall be the one I idolize, and these thoughts were racing through my mind. After the handover ceremony, we had a debrief session with our NCOs (The one who just passed out, 2011 Secondary 4s). The NCOs were disappointed that our squad was not able to meet some of their expectations. For everyone in our squad the NCOs did one push-up as they thought they were at fault not being able to teach us well. I personally feel that it is not the NCOs fault and we should be blamed instead since we failed to learn what they were teaching. After that, we were handed over to our new NCOs. The new NCOs said this “SENIOR -> NOSIER -> NOISE -> ONE -> NO”. We are the most “SENIOR” training squad and in “SENIOR” we can form “NOSIER”, it is not wrong to be nosy if you want to learn more, being inquisitive would help a lot more. Then, from “NOSIER” we can form “NOISE”, we can make noise but there is a limit to this level of noise we make and we should be aware of it. Then, we can form “ONE” we are one squad not 46 individuals, thus we should show more squad spirit. Lastly, we can form “NO” we should learn to say “NO” instead of saying “Yes Sir” just for the purpose of it but we do not mean it. This debrief session has been one of the most meaningful one to me as I learnt many new stuff and realized many mistakes. I hope to not commit the same mistake again and I hope we could improve together as one squad.

Online Lesson 12

Step 2: One thing similar about the three casket scenes were what drove the choosers to choose what they did which is what the choosers expected of themselves.

For the Prince of Morocco, he chose the gold casket because he expected himself to get Portia and since the inscription on the gold casket wrote “He who chooses me will get what many men want” he chose the gold casket as Portia is as much as he wants and he expected himself to be the only one who is going to get Portia.

Then, the Prince of Arragon picked the silver casket. The Prince of Arragon expected that he would not be so lucky as to get “what many men want” and so decided to go with the one nicely put where one gets what he deserves, no more no less, the silver casket.

Lastly, it was Bassanio who chose the lead casket. Bassanio chose the lead casket as he was humble; he did not expect his standards to be of a Prince, just a normal citizen. And like the lead casket, he does not have as much accessories to make himself look royal, the lead casket does not have much decorations.

Step 3: I sat at my desk as still as a hunting tiger, waiting for my test paper to be given to me. As soon as Mrs. Tan placed the test sheet on my desk, I grab it like a tiger prowling on its prey. I flipped it to the front immediately as soon as I got grip of it. My eyes sunk deep into my head, I was so shocked that I could get an A2. However, after I realised that I was only 1 mark away from an A1, I flipped through every pages, scrutinising on every small details, hoping to find that 1 mark, but to no avail. I still had the urge to get that 1 mark, then I spotted a very minor mistake I made, I slapped myself on the forehead, “Why could I have done that mistake?!”

As all my classmate gathered around Mrs. Tan to ask questions, I saw the chance to change my answer. However, when I saw that there were many others who did worse than me, I felt very guilty as even those who did worse did not cheat so why should I. But when I saw the people who got A1 I was very jealous, I wanted to be like them, moreover this A1 grade could pull my grades up. I just could not decide which direction to choose. When Mrs. Tan called for last changes, I wanted to edit the word, but hesitated when I saw Mrs. Tan. Mrs. Tan was a teacher I respected and I would mean going against her teachings to cheat, then would I still be worthy of being her student? I put down my pen and waited for further instructions to return the paper back to Mrs. Tan.

London Riots Reflections

The article I read from the Newsweek magazine is "Why Riot Now?" and here, I am sharing my reflections.
Malaise among Britain's urban poor is nothing new. So why did it finally tip into widespread, terrifying violence?
As the article has said, street struggles are part of our modern history. For example the uprisings in the Arab world, the daily neighbourhood protests in China's major cities, Latin America's piqueteros (A group of people blocking a road or street with the purpose of getting attention over an issue). But why suddenly after so many years of not being heard the poor decided to start rioting?
The rioters in London mostly come from disadvantaged urban areas across Britain. Since their chances of being heard by the government is low, they decided to riotous violence to get attention.
The first reason why the riots started was because the people in London feels that the street is a space for political protests. I feel that this is a wrong way to think as a street is the connection between people all over the city and should not be used for getting attention from the government. By protesting on the streets, it would cause others inconvenience. If this protesters are unhappy about political problems, they should all the more work harder to solve their problems instead of destroying things which would hardly help them at all. After all, the government would not address the problems of every single one of the protesters right? So protesting is just a waste of effort.

The riot was also known to be sparked off by the unwarranted killing of Mark Duggan, a 29 year old man which was a father of four children. However, this reason was a less significant one, instead it is London's economic losses that have hit Britain's poor urban areas. Most of the rioters are youths, and it is explained by the fact that youth unemployment is the United Kingdom is 19% which is still rising sharply in disadvantage areas. I remembered hearing that a youth that took part in the riots confessed that he rioted because of financial problems, therefore looting things from the stores they could break into. I feel that although this protesters may be at their wits ends they should not destroy other people's stores as they may depend on their stores to make a living. By destroying their stores is only introducing more people to poverty and would not do good to anyone in Britain.

The riot was also caused mainly by the social media which have given even disadvantaged youths the power to raise a mob. These youths were able to communicate freely via Twitter to organise and plan their riots, to get more members. I feel that the social media should be more aware of what their users are posting about and should immediately stop them if they see a gathering of a large group of people discussing about rioting. For example, Facebook has a function to report a particular post which allows users to report an entry if they think it is offensive or inappropriate. If social medias were controlled, I believe the rioting would not be as serious as it is now. However this incident may serve as a warning to Britain that addressing these poorer people's problems are as important as addressing the influential people's problems and everyone deserves a chance to voice out their opinions.

Through the London Riots, I have also learnt to appreciate the fact that Singapore does not have such riots and we could walk along the streets without fear that we would encounter a large mob of people demonstrating violence. Also I feel lucky to be in a small country such as Singapore, making it easier for the government to address the problems of every citizen and no citizens would feel left out and want to start a riot. I am also proud of Singapore's citizens and law enforcers. The citizens are co-operative in adhering to the law and the law enforcers are efficient in enforcing law whenever necessary.