Did the criminal get his just desserts?

***From GyPsyGal.moblog dated 6 Jul 2007, 4:32:28 PM***

Recently, there is this local case where an offender received the wrong number of strokes (unfortunately MORE) for Caning. He then proceeded to sue Singapore's Prison to demand a large sum $$ compensation but to no avail. PAP govt all insisted that the poor prisoner victim had no less than 3 chances to check that he was issued 8 strokes (but in actual fact only 5)...

How foolish +)

Similar to something that happened in Prison as well, but not in our beloved Singapore, Pedophile priest John Geoghan was murdered by fellow prisoners!!!

Geoghan's 34-year career as a serial child molester in the guise of friendly parish priest ruined many young lives... As such, do you agree to the point that he should deserve to DIE instead of serving various 10 years ( Note that he was sentenced to 9/10 years for one of the 147 cases which he was accused for) behind bars?!?

Is it really true that even prsioners themselves view very lowly of Pedophile? Looks lyk it is true when they even transform the hatred to murder of the 'priest' before he managed to serve 1 year of the jail term :p

However, his death has yet left many feeling 天理何在？again :X All in all, the vigilance death sentence that cut short Geoghan's atonement violated both his victims' and the nation's sense of Justice.

#4. Holiday Blogging on RH

***From GyPsyGal.moblog dated 2 Jun 2007, 2:54:03 PM***

Blogging task

Singer believes that freedom of expression is essential to any democracy and therefore should not be limited. On the other hand, Szilagyi believes that more focus should be placed on social responsibility.

In the context of Singapore’s multi-racial society, where there is cultural and religious pluralism, which author’s view do you think should be adopted?

Write a response of at least 300 words and 2 content paragraphs, and include materials from both articles as well as your own knowledge and experience.

For full-length article, please view:
http://www.freewebs.com/vivloh/juneblogtask.htm

---

Since Primary school, we have been learning about the 5 aspects of Singapore's <Total Defence> of which one is Social Defence, whereby all Singaporeans should understand and be sensitive to the cultures and traditions of one another, in order to build strong bonds across different ethnic groups. Only then can we strengthen Social cohesion; so I feel that Singapore should adopt Szilagyi's view of everyone practising social responsibility instead of Singer's view of having unlimited Freedom of Speech for all.

No doubt it's true that freedom of speech is essential to democratic regimes, and it must include the freedom to say what everyone else believes to be false, and even what many people find offensive (extracted from article 1 by Singer). I disagree with the point that all issues, including those which will threaten National security, to be made public for any Tom, Dick and Harry to appraise! Have we not forgotten about the 1964 racial/communal riots between Malays and Chinese over two five-day periods beginning on 21 July and 2 September respectively?

Therefore, there must be some forms of Censorship by local media companies to prevent the incident like the provocative nature of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, which is condemned by many all over the world. As discussed in one of our GP lessons for Term 2, the values of Cartoons and Comics may not be just that simple... They may include: Economy, Humour (Satire), Accessibility, Attention, Subtlety, Implicitness, Impression/ Impact.

As I have mentioned before in Blog entry #2, "Race and religion are potential fault-lines for social division", it is just not practical to allow firms to republished (the cartoons) and mass production, knowing very well that this may cause chaos in Singapore (-_-)

It is stated in Article 2 by Szilagyi that, "In our networked world, existing societal and political tensions can be inflamed instantly through the transfer of messages from one cultural context to another." This is very true as due to the concept of a SHRINKING WORLD with advancement of technology, now we all effectively live next door to one another :p Learning lessons from real-life examples that happen in other countries, Singapore must be careful as to not step on the list of Social Taboos and destroy her own future.

Bearing in mind that Humans is the only resource that Singapore has, we can't afford to have any outbreak of internal conflicts as it will hampers her development in this ever-competitive century. Given so, the system to protect the collective interests of society is preferred.

I am glad that Singapore does value Freedom of Expression and Individual Rights to a certain extent: Singaporeans are free to comment on anything as long as they don't pass any eg racial opinions which intentionally or unintentionally to create unrest in Singapore; for our government will not tolerate anyone regardless of what their social status is!

The million dollar question is none other than-- " How to strike a balance between both!?!"

Thank god that the beloved country that I am born in has the capability to do so and managed to keep Social Tension to the minimum; or should I say almost none =) 21st July marks Racial Harmony Day for Singapore annually. Other than having the luxury to be clad in beautiful traditional costumes to school, we students should not forget the rationale behind celebrating this day, don't you agree with me?

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Able to disinguish the differing views of the authors and relate them to own experiences. Nicely, jean!Grade: B
Posted by Guest-mdml @ 9 Jul 2007, 08:30:38 AM

Revision Lecture=)

***From GyPsyGal.moblog dated 22 May 2007, 11:39:51 PM***

Good!

I was really happy that the dept organised a GP revision lecture on this last week of Term 2 to help students consolidate what we have been learning over the weeks and better prepare us for the Mid-Year on first day of Term 3 :X

ASPA is something that we should always bear in mind while doing Paper 2.

So... do Analyse, Select relevant text, Paraphrase (Plan for summary) and Structure your answers accordingly :)

Thinking of it as a boring lecture where many will dose-off?

NO way, it's pretty interesting and 100% insightful...

Lecturer was effective and clear in delivering the entire lecture! Although, i have never been taught by him nor know him beforehand, i'm extremely grateful for his lecture which conveys lots (",) It focused on Compre, Vocab and even Summary skills with good time management for each section respectively in that 1 very hour (*_*)

We students get very irritated when lecturer dash thru' slides and disallows us to copy down the answers and main points :p None of this happened for Lt1's GP lecture this week. Hopefully, other students will find this particular lecture useful! Afterall, GP lecture is like diamond-- rare and precious +)

Be a Vigilante!

***From GyPsyGal.moblog dated 16 May 2007, 12:18:40 AM***

During this week's GP lesson, my class have an active discussion over issues of Vigilanism and Pro-Life etc. while we were accompanied by "Devil L" for a visit to HELL :p

We were divided into 5 groups and different situations were given to each group; requiring one member to take the HOT seat and justify "Why you should not end up in Hell"...

My group's task is MRT HERO: this guy who took a knife and killed a terrorist suspect that plan to plant a bomb in Orchard station (but never succeed in the end, All thanks to me :X).

Question: Am i considered a murder and are my actions justified???

Representing my group, i mentioned the reasons which caused me to act on my own, on the spot, to prevent a disaster from happening. Imagine a bomb out-brust in our crowded Orchard station!?! It's only right for me to stop such a tragedy from taking place!

It's like cause one to die instead of having many innocents dead as a results (*_*)

There were too enthu debates for other 'convicts' such as the Dad-killer that decided to stop his life-supposrting machines and the cold-blooded mother wanting to abort her 5 months old baby!!!

Interesting activity, isn't it?

Basically, A vigilante is someone who takes the enforcement of law or moral code into his or her own. If you feel that such practice should not be allowed in a civilised nation where Laws applies then what explains the latest Movie Blockbuster-- Spiderman3?

Do you know that he is considered a vigilante too? What about the ever-famous Tomb-rider and Charles Angels? They also attempt to bring Justice to the world via their own means!

" With great power comes great responsibility" Hopefully, these heros will be responsible for conveying the set of wrong ideas to the next generations (-_-)

PW results...

***From GyPsyGal.moblog dated 27 Apr 2007, 2:46:04 AM***

Upon release of the A level results for Project Work (two weeks ago), many J2s were unhappy about it :X

(source: My paper 26 April 2007)

Apparently, the distribution of As is not even amongst the various Junior Colleges:

Hwa Chong- 85%

Raffles- over 40%

Meridian- over 50%

Temasek- only 7%

St Andrew- less than 1% !!!

If i am not wrong, AJ managed to get over 10% of the students getting As and we are not in the extreme cases mentioned above +)

However, this makes me wonder how my cohort will do then given the fact that we are just embarking on the PW journey yet such a furore was caused among students in many JCs!

I'm not sure how actually were the grades assigned; local or Cambridge? MOE or respectively schools internally? I (totally) am worried about it...

Afterall, it's going to make up 10 per cent of Universities' admission criteria :p

#3 Dealth penalty :X

***From GyPsyGal.moblog dated 23 Apr 2007, 4:36:25 PM***

Blog Task 3

"The death penalty is not a deterrent, it is murder" Do you agree?

In the nutshell, the Dealth Penalty is practised in countries like Singapore, South Korea, Japan and even the US for severe court cases eg 1st degree Murder (planned by the convict beforehand), Drug trafficking, Treason (spy), Terrorist attacks and any acts against national security etc.

The argument that raised much controversy is "Whether the Dealth Penalty is humane and necessary?"

Afterall, these countries are mostly developed countries and are somewhat the leading nations of Globalisation... How civilised is it for them to execute and take the life of another fellow human beings???

Personally, i am not against the idea of having capital punishment in our country. Reasons being, these convicts (no doubt humans too!) have done something so serious that the Law have no choice but to resort to the worst case--Death Penalty.

In a way, 'they deserved it' and if we do not treat these severe cases with great Warnings, it may encourage copycat crimes from the rest; as our nations gets more 'Daring' seeing that previous suspects can get away with the Death sentence! It will be too late to save the nation then if there are simply too many hard-core prisoners who will eventually be out on the streets again after their jail term :p

Well, just give every of them a life-long prisonment instead of Death sentence!?!

No, this is not a solution to the problem as who will be paying for the huge expenses to keep all these prisoners alive throughout the years and decades? The government will be wasting too much of tax payers' money to feed this 'useless' lot of people--whom many have given up hopes on-- when they can't even contribute to the country's (econmic) growth in any ways (-_-)

This is not practical to let them live behind walls for ages and spending unnecessary money to support these people! Besides, for a country like Singapore which tries so hard to maintain the low crime rates that we have achieved, it is certainly not wise to have the Death Penalty abolished. I'm afraid that if the court really decide to put a stop to Death Penalty, the wrong image will be sent to the Evils for them to commit more (serious) crimes. So, why give them the Green light?

Capital punishment assures the public that the felon no longer poses a threat to the society and there is a reason why our government make Death Penalty legal in Singapore for all these years.

However, some feel that it is purely cruel to end one's life; but have they ever thought about the fact that it was they themselves who did something wrong and Against the Law to receive such a pathetic ending of their own life!!! There is no excuse for a country governed by the LAW to not 'grant' them death sentence and serve Justice for the society.

I do agree that "Life is preious", but that's more for the case of preventing suicides in our country not to do away with the Death Penalty completely...

It's just not appropriate!

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a thoughtful entry, but you could also explore the case studies discussed in class a little further, jeanGrade: B+btw i don't get the graph paper image, let alone that formula
Posted by Guest-mdm l @ 7 May 2007, 11:35:18 AM

SEVEN!

***From GyPsyGal.moblog dated 21 Apr 2007, 10:35:10 PM***


How is art distinct from pornography? Is it possible to regulate 'artistic" media?





Above is an extract from Taiwan drama series "Hana Kimi" that i personally like a lot :) Not only is it an episode with great insights but in this case, it's perfect in helping me explain the different between Porn and Artistic Masterpieces (^_^)

There are many photographers and artists all over the world that love their works to feature some naked body and stuffs. Why do we term them as ART instead of Pornograpghy then? Basically, when the certain masterpieces are able to present the whole theme in a very tasteful and Artistic way, so much so that as viewers, you don't feel anything uncomfortable about it, He has succeeded! Then, these ae not Porn +)

Recently, i have read this article that Singapore banned "SuperStar" by Leslie Kee, the intentionally-acclaimed photographe who was born in Singapore. I find this unacceptable that the censorship board decided that this book is NOT suitable for Singaporeans...

May i ask, what reasons do they have to ban the sale of this book?

Afterall, Kee is one of the most watched and admired photographers today and he does deserve the freedom to showcase his successful works to his homeland-- Singapore. Besides, it was further argued that the book being priced @ $400 is highly unlikely to be exposed to many Singaporeans!!!

I disagree with the attempts done in trying to regulate 'artistic' media esp. in this case where the famous HK artist was not naked (his black trunks were removed digitally in the final picture). I feel that such 'artistic' media should be left alone to a large extent in order not to change the creator's initial intentions for his audience :X Most of which intentions are healthy one, just like in the Video attached above where famous photographer 元秋叶 wanna link TRUST with the very fact that humans are connected with (as expained in the extract)...

P/s: Don't believe me? View the 'youtube' extract again and sense the deeper meaning, yeah? Who knows, you may just love it like what i do :p

To me, i feel that 'artistic' media are just like cartoons. It's very difficult to set the standard and regulate them in terms of censorship. I feel that as long as the works are acceptable by people on the whole, there is no Logic why they are not to be allowed then!

What's more, we are living in the 21st century in this global, world-class city!?!