Racial Harmony Day, as the name suggest is a day to promote racial harmony and we should not let our physical differences or difference in religious beliefs make each other enemies. Instead teach us how to respect each other's religious beliefs and make friends.
This particular date 21 July is where Racial Harmony Day falls on, the same date in the year 1964 happened the Race Riots. The Race Riots was a conflict between the Chinese and Malay race. This conflict was sparked off when a police-man approached a group of Malays who were not in the correct procession of Muslim Prophet Muhammad's birthday. The group instead of obeying the orders from the police-man attacked the police-man along with other ethnic Chinese-Malay passers-by and spectators.
The Racial Harmony Days which I have experienced in my primary school which was a Chinese school emphasized the fact that we have to respect the multi-races that we have in Singapore. Being a Chinese school, the school had no Malays or Indians, only Chinese. So, every 21th July the school would invite students of other races from other schools to attend the celebration in my school. The school would also invite stores like an Indian food store into the school to sell us Indian delicacies. Malay food stores to sell us traditional Malay foods. Our recess time would then be doubled so that we have extra time to enjoy the food so as to develop a liking for them and respect the other race better. Also, plays of how different races get along together would be performed during the celebration concert to constantly remind us to get along with our peers of different races well with respect.
Racial Harmony Day is a very important day to Singapore as Singapore is a multi-racial country. For a country of so many different races to unite as one for the country’s growth to happen, respect from one another is one of the basic needs. Racial Harmony Day plays an enormous part in the growth of Singapore as it brings the people united as one, like many chopsticks bundled together, not easy to break although they have their differences.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
In-Class Online Lesson 4
2)The bright white lights shone with immense brightness onto the empty badminton court. The black sky look as if shining as it contrasts with the bright lights. The greens would capture one's sight as it enhanced the surroundings dullness. One could hear the murmurs and feel the grace of the wind which felt incredible.
4)One could hear the murmurs and feel the grace of the wind which raced throughout the area. The bright white lights shone with immense brightness onto the empty badminton court.
6)One could hear the murmurs and feel the grace of the breeze which raced throughout the area, allowing one to relax with a cooling sensation.
7)After a long day of work what would be better than a moment of relaxation. As I ambled through the walkways of my residential area, I kept my eyes half-shut, I relaxed my joints and slowed down my footsteps.
Then this sudden breeze broke the seemed stagnant air, the air split as hit my face, that soft touch felt as if silk. The gathers of my shirt bounced with the breeze, it tickled me slightly.
The relaxation was one of a kind, I gave a yawn rubbed my face then continued my amble back home. The breeze followed me along as if having affection to me. I stretched my arms outwards sideways to enjoy the breeze's embrace.
7a) An instrument that would complement the mood I have created in my paragraphs would be the flute. Here is a link to a song I found that is made by the flute:
Traits Of Scout
After our discussion, we found out that Scout actually is able to tolerate a lot of insults even if under a lot of pressure. This fact can be seen from incidents and evidence that we discussed during the discussion session. She did not resort to violence often, unless a person would have provoked her to her limit, for example when Francis provoked Scout. Scout would normally keep all her troubles she encountered to herself and only share them with her family which she trusts. Scout does not make friends easily; she is not a very sociable person. And she is not the type that would give in very easily; not easily influenced by what others say.
Scout always think of the consequences before even putting actions into place, she is not a very rash person. Scout is a person which does not really bother about another person's personal business, and also does not like it when people poke into her personal life. Scout always keeps her cool even in the most critical situations; Scout is a thinking type of person, not one that would do anything out of sheer hastiness.
The link to our group's google doc is:
Scout always think of the consequences before even putting actions into place, she is not a very rash person. Scout is a person which does not really bother about another person's personal business, and also does not like it when people poke into her personal life. Scout always keeps her cool even in the most critical situations; Scout is a thinking type of person, not one that would do anything out of sheer hastiness.
The link to our group's google doc is:
Reflections on my experience in NPCC
Last year at approximately the start of February I found out that i got into this Co-Curricular Activity called NPCC, which stands for National Police Cadet Corps. At first I was not very interested to join this Co-Curricular Activity. But as time passed I gradually learnt to love the happenings when I am in NPCC.
Let me describe the changes of my attitude towards NPCC. As a cadet I was not a very enthusiastic one. Just an average cadet who somehow passed everything, although I never did so with flying colours. I treated NPCC as an obstacle, a bug that was irritating me, i hated the fact that i was in NPCC. I tried to slack through trainings and not make an effort to improve myself. But ever since the first uniform check, where our officers inspect our uniform, where I was embarrassed by the fact that i had a lot of mistakes, I decided to make myself interested in being in this CCA and start working hard for it. Since I am already in this, why not make the best out of it. This thought changed my attitude towards NPCC. As I move on, I listened carefully to every pointer the officers gave us, and received tips from my friends and remember them. Also due to the fact that I have seen how we as a NPCC squad can bond together to form such a friendship that may last forever, i have seen how much effort our officers have put it to groom us to become like them someday. So i took them as a target for me to work towards, I too wanted to be admired by my juniors in the future. I hope to be an inspiration for my juniors and my peers and to carry on the tradition of NPCC cadets and fulfil the vision "To Mould the Builders of a Safe and Secure Home" by training hard and become better seniors.
Although having the thought to being able to become an inspiring senior, fatigue has also caused to me want to slack through trainings. Standing almost still for almost 3 hours, it is both boring and tiring. Every Friday training always stuck in between going home to enjoy a good rest or going to training to stand like a log. This contradiction gets into your head, not sure if you have made the right choice to come for training or whether you are able to face the consequences if you skipped training. Of course, some trainings are much fun than you could expect it to be, where you can laugh along with the officers and joke around with your squad mates. These much more fun trainings would be during camp-craft trainings where we learn to tie knots, lashings, learn to light a lamp or learn to pitch a tent. These trainings which we do not have to stand still the whole training but doing much more interesting things. For these trainings preparation of the NPCC uniform is not needed, giving the cadets more time to rest after a whole day of school.
The uniform which has many expectations to meet is one of the most time-consuming. The beret has to be seasoned, the crest has to be in the correct position, the collars have to stand, the iron-lines have to be started and ended at specific points. The badges have to be at every specific points and angles to be correct. Nothing should be wrong, unless you have not been putting in enough effort. Some people may ask, “Hey how hard can that be?” I would reply, you would never have imagined.
Interacting with much more interesting things, for example doing drills with the baton or the mock rifle. Where you feel the pressure to do the drills properly as if the baton or rifle is dropped, punishment awaits you. The pressure we have when doing drills is a rather interesting one, because if you do it well you are well rewarded, if not the consequences would not be an easy one too. Rewards, mostly water breaks which may last about 3 to 4 minutes, where 40+ of us have to share a same tap to drink from, and we are so united that everyone would get to drink. We go through tough times together as buddies and go through good times as pals.
Training may be tough but it is always fun. When training is not fun, it is when we did something wrong. As our officers always say to us “You give me standards I give you welfare”. This to me is a very reasonable statement, to work hard for what you may want. To go through the so called “Torture Chamber” as one and leaving it as one. To share as one to give as one. This are the values NPCC has imbued into me, and I am truly grateful to all my seniors for having put in all their efforts to help my squad progress.
Let me describe the changes of my attitude towards NPCC. As a cadet I was not a very enthusiastic one. Just an average cadet who somehow passed everything, although I never did so with flying colours. I treated NPCC as an obstacle, a bug that was irritating me, i hated the fact that i was in NPCC. I tried to slack through trainings and not make an effort to improve myself. But ever since the first uniform check, where our officers inspect our uniform, where I was embarrassed by the fact that i had a lot of mistakes, I decided to make myself interested in being in this CCA and start working hard for it. Since I am already in this, why not make the best out of it. This thought changed my attitude towards NPCC. As I move on, I listened carefully to every pointer the officers gave us, and received tips from my friends and remember them. Also due to the fact that I have seen how we as a NPCC squad can bond together to form such a friendship that may last forever, i have seen how much effort our officers have put it to groom us to become like them someday. So i took them as a target for me to work towards, I too wanted to be admired by my juniors in the future. I hope to be an inspiration for my juniors and my peers and to carry on the tradition of NPCC cadets and fulfil the vision "To Mould the Builders of a Safe and Secure Home" by training hard and become better seniors.
Although having the thought to being able to become an inspiring senior, fatigue has also caused to me want to slack through trainings. Standing almost still for almost 3 hours, it is both boring and tiring. Every Friday training always stuck in between going home to enjoy a good rest or going to training to stand like a log. This contradiction gets into your head, not sure if you have made the right choice to come for training or whether you are able to face the consequences if you skipped training. Of course, some trainings are much fun than you could expect it to be, where you can laugh along with the officers and joke around with your squad mates. These much more fun trainings would be during camp-craft trainings where we learn to tie knots, lashings, learn to light a lamp or learn to pitch a tent. These trainings which we do not have to stand still the whole training but doing much more interesting things. For these trainings preparation of the NPCC uniform is not needed, giving the cadets more time to rest after a whole day of school.
The uniform which has many expectations to meet is one of the most time-consuming. The beret has to be seasoned, the crest has to be in the correct position, the collars have to stand, the iron-lines have to be started and ended at specific points. The badges have to be at every specific points and angles to be correct. Nothing should be wrong, unless you have not been putting in enough effort. Some people may ask, “Hey how hard can that be?” I would reply, you would never have imagined.
Interacting with much more interesting things, for example doing drills with the baton or the mock rifle. Where you feel the pressure to do the drills properly as if the baton or rifle is dropped, punishment awaits you. The pressure we have when doing drills is a rather interesting one, because if you do it well you are well rewarded, if not the consequences would not be an easy one too. Rewards, mostly water breaks which may last about 3 to 4 minutes, where 40+ of us have to share a same tap to drink from, and we are so united that everyone would get to drink. We go through tough times together as buddies and go through good times as pals.
Training may be tough but it is always fun. When training is not fun, it is when we did something wrong. As our officers always say to us “You give me standards I give you welfare”. This to me is a very reasonable statement, to work hard for what you may want. To go through the so called “Torture Chamber” as one and leaving it as one. To share as one to give as one. This are the values NPCC has imbued into me, and I am truly grateful to all my seniors for having put in all their efforts to help my squad progress.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Final Draft
Singapore, one of the world’s wealthiest countries was where I was born in. At first, I thought that money is available to you as long as you are a Singapore citizen. However, I was proved wrong as I slowly matured and experience life in Singapore.
I come from a very troubled family which always had trouble making ends meet. I have a father who is a serious alcoholic and gambler; I would say he is a burden to our family. He sets off early in the day, not to work but to look for friends to borrow him money, although the money would never be returned. And no, he does not spend it on our daily necessities but on bets and if he loses he would cause wreckage in the coffee-shop downstairs. If not, he would generously treat his gambling mates to a drink, but never have he brought money back to support the family.
He makes the house reek of alcohol, smell of tobacco, and his dirty laundry lying around as if someone’s going to clear the house up. My mother always comes home late at night, too worn out to even care about my father’s dirty habits. She works from daylight to midnight, making less than how much my father could spend in an hour. So to ensure that we can survive, my mother scrimped and saved as much as possible.
On weekends I would go to the market with my mother, walking alongside her I carried an excitement of what we were going to eat that night. So we approached the vegetable store, the women at the store seemed nervous to seeing us approaching. I assume that it was because mother would be bargaining the prices a lot until now that the stores do not want to do her business.
“Good morning, what can I ge.. get you today?” the lady at the store mumbled as mother was picking her vegetable according to the prices.
So, the bargaining starts. I stood curiously by the side and observed. Mother kept up and very convincing face while the store keeper looked very embarrassed. I found that very interesting so I tried. As mother was busy I sneaked to the butcher shop. And I exclaimed, “I want 10kilograms of chicken!”
Then the butcher looks around to see who just placed that order. He stretched his neck, and bent his back and he saw me smiling with my hands behind my back. He frowned, and then came my mother with a worried look. As always, we went home without any meat, just vegetables. When we reached the doorsteps we heard the loud noises of things being thrown around. Mother quickly opened the door to find father rummaging through all the drawers to find money. He stared in our direction with a fierce look, as if ready to take our lives. Then, he limped, half drunk, towards us then he slapped mother and demanded money to be given to him.
“You have money to buy food?! You should have money for me too!” he demanded from mother.
I ran out of the house in shock and in fright I squatted at the very corner of the corridor and cried. After what seemed like eternity, the door burst open and father ran out, I never bothered to look at him anymore. Instead, I jolted into the house to see if mother was alright. Her cheeks were swollen with pain and drenched from her tears. This was the life I had been leading ever since I was born.
I never let the fact that I am not wealthy to stop me from getting good results in school. Although my textbooks, my stationeries were second hand materials they were still usable. There was once where my classmates mock me of my stationeries. They called me a “dumpster kid” because all my stuff were not bought.
It started when I accidentally knocked into this “popular” boy who was running around at the corridor. He held a grudge for me throughout the year and gradually started calling me names. So from that day onwards I did not really make any friends in school, I was a lonely boy. But that was a somehow a good start to let me start focusing on studies because no one would ask me to play games with them.
Influenced from my childhood experiences, I would also bargain whenever I go to buy something. Since, I studied hard and achieved good results in school; I managed to get a well paid job which allows me to support both myself and my mother. Although I do not need to struggle to make ends meet, I still try my best to scrimp and save; money that I save monthly would then go to charities. This is one way that I would repay kindness to my mother who was always there for me. Being cautious of money has became part of my identity as money is not very easy to earn in Singapore with all that taxes applied to almost everything.
I come from a very troubled family which always had trouble making ends meet. I have a father who is a serious alcoholic and gambler; I would say he is a burden to our family. He sets off early in the day, not to work but to look for friends to borrow him money, although the money would never be returned. And no, he does not spend it on our daily necessities but on bets and if he loses he would cause wreckage in the coffee-shop downstairs. If not, he would generously treat his gambling mates to a drink, but never have he brought money back to support the family.
He makes the house reek of alcohol, smell of tobacco, and his dirty laundry lying around as if someone’s going to clear the house up. My mother always comes home late at night, too worn out to even care about my father’s dirty habits. She works from daylight to midnight, making less than how much my father could spend in an hour. So to ensure that we can survive, my mother scrimped and saved as much as possible.
On weekends I would go to the market with my mother, walking alongside her I carried an excitement of what we were going to eat that night. So we approached the vegetable store, the women at the store seemed nervous to seeing us approaching. I assume that it was because mother would be bargaining the prices a lot until now that the stores do not want to do her business.
“Good morning, what can I ge.. get you today?” the lady at the store mumbled as mother was picking her vegetable according to the prices.
So, the bargaining starts. I stood curiously by the side and observed. Mother kept up and very convincing face while the store keeper looked very embarrassed. I found that very interesting so I tried. As mother was busy I sneaked to the butcher shop. And I exclaimed, “I want 10kilograms of chicken!”
Then the butcher looks around to see who just placed that order. He stretched his neck, and bent his back and he saw me smiling with my hands behind my back. He frowned, and then came my mother with a worried look. As always, we went home without any meat, just vegetables. When we reached the doorsteps we heard the loud noises of things being thrown around. Mother quickly opened the door to find father rummaging through all the drawers to find money. He stared in our direction with a fierce look, as if ready to take our lives. Then, he limped, half drunk, towards us then he slapped mother and demanded money to be given to him.
“You have money to buy food?! You should have money for me too!” he demanded from mother.
I ran out of the house in shock and in fright I squatted at the very corner of the corridor and cried. After what seemed like eternity, the door burst open and father ran out, I never bothered to look at him anymore. Instead, I jolted into the house to see if mother was alright. Her cheeks were swollen with pain and drenched from her tears. This was the life I had been leading ever since I was born.
I never let the fact that I am not wealthy to stop me from getting good results in school. Although my textbooks, my stationeries were second hand materials they were still usable. There was once where my classmates mock me of my stationeries. They called me a “dumpster kid” because all my stuff were not bought.
It started when I accidentally knocked into this “popular” boy who was running around at the corridor. He held a grudge for me throughout the year and gradually started calling me names. So from that day onwards I did not really make any friends in school, I was a lonely boy. But that was a somehow a good start to let me start focusing on studies because no one would ask me to play games with them.
Influenced from my childhood experiences, I would also bargain whenever I go to buy something. Since, I studied hard and achieved good results in school; I managed to get a well paid job which allows me to support both myself and my mother. Although I do not need to struggle to make ends meet, I still try my best to scrimp and save; money that I save monthly would then go to charities. This is one way that I would repay kindness to my mother who was always there for me. Being cautious of money has became part of my identity as money is not very easy to earn in Singapore with all that taxes applied to almost everything.
Monday, February 21, 2011
I'm Afraid...
I'm afraid I would not do well in my upcoming tests. I'm afraid of hearing "I'm afraid you did not pass your test." There was always this pressure ever since I stepped into schooling life. Always afraid that something may go wrong during the test; afraid you have not studied enough when you actually got all the notes in your head. Always want to have more time to study as you are afraid that you do not seem sincere in studying enough, you think you have not studied as much as the others. Studying may not be a dangerous thing, but indeed it is a scary thing. You might see people doing bold stuff like bungee jumping but still have that smile on their face after doing it, but when someone is troubled by something they do not know but have to know, you see them frowning. And this frown would never disappear until his or her doubts are cleared. If they do not get their doubts cleared they feel emptiness inside their head, they somehow feel useless and thus their confidence level decrease greatly. But when they know, they feel proud they feel knowledgeable they would then have the confidence to do well in tests.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Poem on Mrs Dubose
Mrs Dubose lived alone in constant attendance,
She was very old,
and spent most of each day in bed,
We hated her,
We would be raked by her wrathful gaze,
And given a melancholy prediction on what we would be when we grow up
Jem and I walked back home,
he had just bought a baton for me,
We passed by Dubose’s house,
She screamed at us,
and called Atticus a nigger lover.
Jem was so angry, he whacked her flowers with my baton,
Atticus made Jem apologise,
he had to read to her for a month,
He was furious
Her house was filled with odour
an odour similar to rain-rotted grey houses
It makes jem afraid, expectant and watchful.
Her face was that of a dirty pillow-case
The corners of her mouth glistened with drool
which inched like a glacier down her chin
She was very old,
and spent most of each day in bed,
We hated her,
We would be raked by her wrathful gaze,
And given a melancholy prediction on what we would be when we grow up
Jem and I walked back home,
he had just bought a baton for me,
We passed by Dubose’s house,
She screamed at us,
and called Atticus a nigger lover.
Jem was so angry, he whacked her flowers with my baton,
Atticus made Jem apologise,
he had to read to her for a month,
He was furious
Her house was filled with odour
an odour similar to rain-rotted grey houses
It makes jem afraid, expectant and watchful.
Her face was that of a dirty pillow-case
The corners of her mouth glistened with drool
which inched like a glacier down her chin
I'm Tired...
"I'm tired of this nonsense!" my tuition teacher exclaimed as she saw how badly done was my assignment. I have not had enough time to complete my tuition assignment or at least get it done neatly. Science test was coming up so I decided to put aside all other subjects work to focus mainly on Science. But my tuition teacher thought otherwise, she thought that I should at the same time study for mathematics too because it does help if I remember the laws of mathematics slowly as the mathematics test comes. I too am tired of test weeks! Although I have no choice but to work hard for it, I hate it like every child hates bitter food. Then, she took out her writing pad from her bag and handed me a fresh piece of paper. I was told to draw a timetable and follow it strictly. I hesitated to write “study” on the timetable, so my tuition teacher snatched it from me and wrote it as she liked it to be. Morning, breakfast, study, rest, lunch, study, rest, dinner, read then go to sleep. I stared at the timetable and felt my heart sank as I heaved a sigh of disappointment.
Monday, February 14, 2011
My Neighbourhood
The neighbourhood always filled with smiles on the residents faces as the environment is much more "green", with plants and trees planted almost everywhere. Where neighbours give and receive things like its Christmas everyday. Walking down the stretch of HDB blocks where you will see little children enjoying the grace of playing in the playground, where parents have constant worries of their children getting injured, or where housewives talk about current gossips. On weekday mornings you see parents sending their children to school. In the afternoons you see older children, walking lethargically home in their school uniforms. Occasionally you see a group of men meeting and making a racket and causing trouble.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Childhood Memory that Influenced Me Greatly
When I was young I met with an incident that influenced the type of person I am today. I remembered that when I was in primary school I once tried to cheat by changing my test result.
I think I was in primary 2, where after getting the math test results I tried to change the marks. Although I did not score very low, a 99/100 I very much wanted a full perfect mark. So I guess I was immature enough to think that I could get away without anyone knowing. After collecting the papers back in, my teacher confronted me, but i denied the truth. Only after everyone has left the class for recess then I confessed my wrong doing. From then on, I did not dare to cheat in tests anymore. Maybe it is because I became more mature, but that incident in primary 2 really affected me very greatly.
I think I was in primary 2, where after getting the math test results I tried to change the marks. Although I did not score very low, a 99/100 I very much wanted a full perfect mark. So I guess I was immature enough to think that I could get away without anyone knowing. After collecting the papers back in, my teacher confronted me, but i denied the truth. Only after everyone has left the class for recess then I confessed my wrong doing. From then on, I did not dare to cheat in tests anymore. Maybe it is because I became more mature, but that incident in primary 2 really affected me very greatly.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Draft Two
It all started when I was in primary four, where I finally realized how Singapore actually revolves around money itself. Singapore having absolutely zero amount of natural resources had to depend solely on her own abilities to survive in this ever-changing economy. Taxes are applied on almost anything; prices are higher compared to other countries. Take for example education fees, which was one of the main reasons I was enlightened. Kindergarten fees were ranged at about three hundred to four hundred dollars a month which is very expensive which would total up to at least three thousand dollars a year just for basic education. Going up to primary school, more books, and more materials would be needed for learning to take place. Although school fees would not be as high as three hundred or four hundred, the book prices are not very low too. This brings hypocrites, a school bookshop sales person would always persuade the buyer to buy as many files as possible, saying that the school said it was a need to have so many but in fact just a small portion of it is actually used.
There is also another thing that as I grew up, I noticed; Singaporeans lead a very fast-paced life, mainly because they all work extra hard to earn more money. Because the taxes are too high, the prices of most products are therefore increase due to taxes. Taxes for example buying a car in Singapore, one car in Singapore can be bought 2 more times; one car in Singapore is equals to two cars in another country another factor to add on to cars being overly expensive is the car fuel needed for a car to run. Also, land in Singapore is limited, therefore the prices of houses in Singapore soars up; a flat in Singapore may allow one to buy a private apartment. With all these increased prices, Singaporeans naturally have to work extra hard to be able to cope with the economy. This fast-paced life was caused by a problem and has caused many problems. One of them would be littering, Singaporeans have to do things fast because of the fast-paced life, making them lazy to look for a bin and just leave their rubbish wherever they like.
Money itself is also a cause for a very huge problem. Gambling which is an activity that has led many men to turning to loan sharks and causing trouble to their families. Even if loan sharks are not involved, gambling would lead these gamblers to be bankrupt; which also means no money, in Singapore no money would indirectly mean no more hopes. But this problems does not stop Singaporeans from gambling, therefore I would say that nothing would stop people from falling in money’s “trap”.
This strong item, money, has influenced my childhood deeply. When I was young, my parents did not make much money also worsened by the tragic fact that my father was a gambling addict as well as an alcoholic, he hardly brought home any money to help my mother make ends meet. On the contrast he would always demand more money to be given to him for gambling and drinking. Therefore, I never had new things; my schoolbags were given to me by my neighbours or my relatives, my stationeries were often free, given to my mother by her company and my textbooks were gotten from donation drives.
Now, a joy to say that that ugly fact never held me back, I worked harder than children with new textbooks and I wrote better than people with new stationeries. I became a boy who scrimped and saved a boy who never thought of anything else other than my studies, fashion, technology never got the better of me. With a loving mother supporting me as I go along the long stretch of my schooling life, I told myself to repay her kindness whether or not I become successful in the further future.
Now I am a successful businessman, without having to worry about financial issues. Of course not forgetting my mother who had sacrificed so much to bring me up into what I am today, I repay her love to me by giving her a better life. Not forgetting my past, I donate to orphanages and many donation drives to aid children that are going through a somewhat similar life as my childhood. Sometimes, as I look back at my past, I find myself humorous but clever, learning to bargain prices like a housewife at the market at primary school age. But ironically these humorous things were the things that enabled me to pay the school fees and educate me.
Money is an essential thing, but money is not everything.
There is also another thing that as I grew up, I noticed; Singaporeans lead a very fast-paced life, mainly because they all work extra hard to earn more money. Because the taxes are too high, the prices of most products are therefore increase due to taxes. Taxes for example buying a car in Singapore, one car in Singapore can be bought 2 more times; one car in Singapore is equals to two cars in another country another factor to add on to cars being overly expensive is the car fuel needed for a car to run. Also, land in Singapore is limited, therefore the prices of houses in Singapore soars up; a flat in Singapore may allow one to buy a private apartment. With all these increased prices, Singaporeans naturally have to work extra hard to be able to cope with the economy. This fast-paced life was caused by a problem and has caused many problems. One of them would be littering, Singaporeans have to do things fast because of the fast-paced life, making them lazy to look for a bin and just leave their rubbish wherever they like.
Money itself is also a cause for a very huge problem. Gambling which is an activity that has led many men to turning to loan sharks and causing trouble to their families. Even if loan sharks are not involved, gambling would lead these gamblers to be bankrupt; which also means no money, in Singapore no money would indirectly mean no more hopes. But this problems does not stop Singaporeans from gambling, therefore I would say that nothing would stop people from falling in money’s “trap”.
This strong item, money, has influenced my childhood deeply. When I was young, my parents did not make much money also worsened by the tragic fact that my father was a gambling addict as well as an alcoholic, he hardly brought home any money to help my mother make ends meet. On the contrast he would always demand more money to be given to him for gambling and drinking. Therefore, I never had new things; my schoolbags were given to me by my neighbours or my relatives, my stationeries were often free, given to my mother by her company and my textbooks were gotten from donation drives.
Now, a joy to say that that ugly fact never held me back, I worked harder than children with new textbooks and I wrote better than people with new stationeries. I became a boy who scrimped and saved a boy who never thought of anything else other than my studies, fashion, technology never got the better of me. With a loving mother supporting me as I go along the long stretch of my schooling life, I told myself to repay her kindness whether or not I become successful in the further future.
Now I am a successful businessman, without having to worry about financial issues. Of course not forgetting my mother who had sacrificed so much to bring me up into what I am today, I repay her love to me by giving her a better life. Not forgetting my past, I donate to orphanages and many donation drives to aid children that are going through a somewhat similar life as my childhood. Sometimes, as I look back at my past, I find myself humorous but clever, learning to bargain prices like a housewife at the market at primary school age. But ironically these humorous things were the things that enabled me to pay the school fees and educate me.
Money is an essential thing, but money is not everything.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Favourite Movie Scene
My favourite movie is "The Fast and The Furious". This movie is about cars and also about the friendship between a group of people who love to modify cars and have a strong feeling towards engines. My favourite scene was when the group of people when to raid a truck. The truck driver was informed beforehand that the group of people would be raiding that truck, thus he brought a gun with him. The group of people new too late that he had a gun where one of their members were already approaching the truck. Vince, the guy approaching the truck got his hands stuck to a metal wire, leaving him swing around at the truck's side as the truck moves. The other group members got their cars ruined by the truck driver's gun. At the point of time that everything for the group seemed like there were no hopes to save Vince, at that point, their good friend arrived and saved Vince. I like this scene because it drives bubbles of excitement through me as I am watching it, and as for a person who loves to appreciate cars too, I would say that that scene was the best.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Favourite Fictional Character
My favourite fictional character is Erza from the manga "Fairy Tail". Although she is a woman, she is much stronger in terms of both mentally and physically. She as a child led a very tough life, separated from her family and forced to work under very bad working conditions. She had to see friends being tortured or even killed just to save her. This tough life however has made Erza become a very strong woman, feared by most men. Erza uses magic to create swords and armours to use in combat, with her powerful magic, she was named "Titinia" which means Fairy Queen. Although she is a female who led a tough childhood, she has surpassed most other men or women who had lived a better childhood. She is a great help to her guild and everyone around her.
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