Langston Hughes

He was one of the earliest innovators of the new literary art form jazz poetry. He is one of the most known poets of all-time. He is Langston Hughes. A poet.

Hughes, like many black writers and artists of his time, was drawn to the promise of segregated America. Many of his lesser-known political writings have been collected in two volumes published by the University of Missouri Press and reflect his attraction to Communism. An example is the poem "A New Song".

I think he is a great person who fights for rights after reading his poem. He is a black that fights for black rights without fear.

In 1932, Hughes became part of a group of blacks who went to the Soviet Union to make a film depicting the plight of African Americans in the United States. The film was never made, but Hughes was given the opportunity to travel extensively through the Soviet Union and to the Soviet-controlled regions in , the latter parts usually closed to Westerners. In Turkmenistan, Hughes met and befriended the Hungarian Arthur Koestler. Hughes also managed to travel to China and Japan before returning to the States.

Although he was hated by many whites, he contiunued with his poems trying to make rights for the black. This shows how determined he is to change the social status of blacks.

Hughes' life has been depicted in various stage and film productions. Hannibal of the Alps by Michael Dinwiddie and Paper Armor by Eisa Davis are plays by African-American playwrights which deal with Hughes' sexuality.

Poems that he had write include:

The New Song

I speak in the name of the black millions

Awakening to action.

Let all others keep silent a moment

I have this word to bring,

This thing to say,

This song to sing:

Bitter was the day

When I bowed my back

Beneath the slaver's whip.

That day is past.

Bitter was the day

When I saw my children unschooled,

My young men without a voice in the world,

My women taken as the body-toys

Of a thieving people.

That day is past.

Bitter was the day, I say,

When the lyncher's rope

Hung about my neck,

And the fire scorched my feet,

And the oppressors had no pity,

And only in the sorrow songs

Relief was found.

That day is past.

I know full well now

Only my own hands,

Dark as the earth,

Can make my earth-dark body free.

O thieves, exploiters, killers,

No longer shall you say

With arrogant eyes and scornful lips:

"You are my servant,

Black man-

I, the free!"

That day is past-

For now,

In many mouths-

Dark mouths where red tongues burn

And white teeth gleam-

New words are formed,

Bitter

With the past

But sweet

With the dream.

Tense,

Unyielding,

Strong and sure,

They sweep the earth-

Revolt! Arise!

The Black

And White World

Shall be one!

The Worker's World!

The past is done!

A new dream flames

Against the

Sun!

I speak in the name of the black millions

Awakening to action.

Let all others keep silent a moment

I have this word to bring,

This thing to say,

This song to sing:

Bitter was the day

When I bowed my back

Beneath the slaver's whip.

That day is past.

Bitter was the day

When I saw my children unschooled,

My young men without a voice in the world,

My women taken as the body-toys

Of a thieving people.

That day is past.

Bitter was the day, I say,

When the lyncher's rope

Hung about my neck,

And the fire scorched my feet,

And the oppressors had no pity,

And only in the sorrow songs

Relief was found.

That day is past.

I know full well now

Only my own hands,

Dark as the earth,

Can make my earth-dark body free.

O thieves, exploiters, killers,

No longer shall you say

With arrogant eyes and scornful lips:

"You are my servant,

Black man-

I, the free!"

That day is past-

For now,

In many mouths-

Dark mouths where red tongues burn

And white teeth gleam-

New words are formed,

Bitter

With the past

But sweet

With the dream.

Tense,

Unyielding,

Strong and sure,

They sweep the earth-

Revolt! Arise!

The Black

And White World

Shall be one!

The Worker's World!

The past is done!

A new dream flames

Against the

Sun!

I speak in the name of the black millions

Awakening to action.

Let all others keep silent a moment

I have this word to bring,

This thing to say,

This song to sing:

Bitter was the day

When I bowed my back

Beneath the slaver's whip.

That day is past.

Bitter was the day

When I saw my children unschooled,

My young men without a voice in the world,

My women taken as the body-toys

Of a thieving people.

That day is past.

Bitter was the day, I say,

When the lyncher's rope

Hung about my neck,

And the fire scorched my feet,

And the oppressors had no pity,

And only in the sorrow songs

Relief was found.

That day is past.

I know full well now

Only my own hands,

Dark as the earth,

Can make my earth-dark body free.

O thieves, exploiters, killers,

No longer shall you say

With arrogant eyes and scornful lips:

"You are my servant,

Black man-

I, the free!"

That day is past-

For now,

In many mouths-

Dark mouths where red tongues burn

And white teeth gleam-

New words are formed,

Bitter

With the past

But sweet

With the dream.

Tense,

Unyielding,

Strong and sure,

They sweep the earth-

Revolt! Arise!

The Black

And White World

Shall be one!

The Worker's World!

The past is done!

A new dream flames

Against the

Sun!

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free?  Not me?
Surely not me?  The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

A Girl by Ezra Pound

The tree has entered my hands,
The sap has ascended my arms,
The tree has grown in my breast-
Downward,
The branches grow out of me, like arms.

Tree you are,
Moss you are,
You are violets with wind above them.
A child - so high - you are,
And all this is folly to the world.


How are the figurative language used in the poem?

1)Hyperbole-
NIL

2)Personification-
The tree has entered my hands,
The sap has ascended my arms,
The tree has grown in my breast-
Downward,

3)Similes-
The branches grow out of me, like arms.

4)Metaphor-
Tree you are,
Moss you are,
You are violets with wind above them.

5)Symbolism-
The tree, the sap.

Tell us why you like this poem in no less than 100 words.

This poem has a lot of variety of figurative language which makes the reader able to visualise or maybe have more feelings towards what the author is going to say. This poem tells us how the author is indirectly saying that an adult, or maybe a teenage, definitely not a child is not as mature as his age suggests. He uses that trees have grown, its sap volume increase, but over the years, the person still have not grown, as childy as a kid. I like this poem because of the way it express its feelings, and making a comparison between the trees and the person.

The End

Sex education-boon or bane

As sexuality become a srutiny in schools, what most parents said to be lacking is the information about such programmes. "Many of the 20 parents interviewed by the strait times yesterday said that they had no idea what went on during sexuality education classes in school" sadi the strait tiems. I was surprised at this statistic.

This statistics shows only two things. One, the students think it is just a trivial matter and did not inform their parents in detail.
Two, this shows the mindsets of parents. One perception is that they are not interested in whatever talk the school is going and do not care as much. Thus, they do not ask for information from their child.

Fortunately, Minister Ng Eng Hen had promised that schools will inform parents of the framework and topics covered in the sexuality talk, and also post such information on the respective websites.

However, the issue of opting out was raised by the parents. Last year, less than 1 per cent of parents said no to letting their children go for such classes. This can be caused by willingness of parents to go for such classes or the lack of information that they can actually opt out.

Personally, I feel that there is a weak link between two; parents and teachers. Based on a interview done by the strait times, experts said that these two groups are not fully equipped to pass on the right information and values to children.

I think most parents are simply embarrassed to discuss the issue with their children. What is worse is that many simply push their responsiblity, and tell their children to get their answers from their teachers instead. Thus, I think teachers need more training to overcome the awkwardness of talking sex in class.

In my opinion, parents are uncomfortable talking about sex because they were not taught by their parents not to talk about it. They also do not have a superficial meaning of sex education. They think sex is about making babies, but actually it is"an emotional, physical adn psycological thing.

Parents like mine may argue that we might be just to young to understand sex and this could pollute our minds. However, I disagreed, supporting it with the idiom that "prevention is better than cure'. Would you rather have your children to be in trouble for sex or to be awkward about telling them about it?

I end this post with a statement. Sex education is essential.

Who is your least favourite character in Village by the Sea?

I have the least favour for Hari's father, although he gave me a better impression towards the end of the story.

Hari's father is a good-for-nothing. He drinks toddy all day long with his friends. He did not do any jobs to support his family and even have to sell off their cow because of increasing debts. He come back home not only drunk, but also beat up his wife and his children.

There is evidence from the passage that Hari have hatred towards his father in his heart. He hated him so much that he wished that his father would be beaten by a snake to death.

His father was also the roots of the main problems in the family. Everything is linked up together. The family had become dysfunctional because Hari's father cannot seem to bother about work and his mother is sick. His mum could not be blamed. If you had read the later parts of the story, you would have known that his mum had suffered from malnutirition. If Hari's father had worked, his mother would have better food and would not have fallen sick.

He was also the cause of Pinto's death. As he had owe the Khanekhar brothers a lot of money, the brothers became annoyed and killed Pinto. This seems to be the last straw for Hari before he ran away to Bombay.

Above are the reasons why I do not favor Hari's father.

Is progress necessarily beneficial for society?

Is progress necessary beneficial for the society? Thats the question. My answer is straight. A definite no would be my resolute answer.

No, it is not necessary. However, it does not mean progress in the society is totally useless in the countries. Let me weigh the pros and cons.

Pros

1)It can allow things to be done quicker using technology. For example, with the new MRT lines like the Circle line which help students studying around MRT stations there to reach home in a quicker time, thus allowing things to happen faster.

2)It also provides convenience to people. Places that cannot be access easily before became more acessible. One example is the Marymount station that can only be easily accessed by bus before but now, it is accessible by Circle line.

3)It also reduced the number of work that we have to do. Some manual stuffs such as calculating the score has also become computer-generated. Calculation that have to be made is taken over by technology with the use of calculators and Microsoft Excel.

4)All this lead to more effectiveness while working. Thus, the tempo of life is much faster making the quality of life would be much higher. This links to high standards of living and people would have better food and shelter that they can enjoy.

Cons

1)As I had mentioned above, if there were to be progress, standards of living would be higher. With the standards of living being raised, the society would be more competitive. There would be more competition in life and people may be more pressurized than before. Because of not able to adapt to the high tempo of life, they may succumbed to suicide.

2)Progress also affects the enviroment. For example, the ozone layer had been damaged because we had produced too much greenhouse gases. We also cleared large pieces of forests to make way for factories, thus affecting the quality of the air.

3)This leads to privacy. You see, hackers have the technology to hack our accounts and do crimes out of it. This lands us in hot soup although we are innocent. This caused unnecessary worries and also add to the pressure, again.

4) Progress also affects the life of the villagers. For example, in Village By The Sea, the goverment in bombay wanted to build factories in Thul, a small village in india. Villagers were unhappy about it as they thought the gas emitted from the factories would affect their fishing industry and thus, not able to survive as fishing is their only source of income.

In conclusion, progress is needed. However, I believe everything has its pros and cons. We cannot grumble about progress hindering our lives, we must learn to adapt.

George Bernard Shaw once said,“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. ”

Which part of Village By The Sea do you like the best?

If you ask me which part of this novel I like the most, I would say the Coconut day.

This is the day where I can sense happiness for the family as I can sense new hopes ,dreams and changes for the better.

Hari - 1)He had got himself a stable job and thus earned a stable income, earning quite a lot for the family which makes us feel relieved that the family financial situation would be better.
2)He also expressed his wish to Mr Panwallah to go back home and also make us feel happy about the family re-uniting again.
3)It also tells us Hari had grown up from his experience as a worker and also had become a real city boy. He had also "learnt to push and fight his way"(Page 217). This made the reader feel happy for Hari as he had grown to be a more mature person.

Lila- 1)Although she is alone without his brother, she still copes very well and also had a stable financial situation from working for a birdwatcher. This lead to the reader not having to worry about the family without Hari.

Mother-1)She is recovering from her illness with medical care in the hospital. She is taken care by her husband. This makes the author feel happy as Mother is able to take up the role as a mum, thus, shifting back the roles of the parents which were taken by Hari and Lila before.

Father-1)He has turn over a new leaf and had changed from a drunkard to one that loves his wife. He also had taken up the responsiblity of a father by looking care of his wife. This gives us a hint that father would make ends meet for the family after his mother had fully recovered.

You may ask me why I did not choose the ending as my favourite part. I feel that from this coconut day, it already give me hints of a possible fairy-tale ending , thus the conclusion does not happen in a surprise, but act as a follow-up in my opinion.

I rather be the city rat than the country rat.

I am nuetral against this statement. Maybe because I have no preference for either of them. Each living have a different aspect of life. Thus, I am nuetral.

Let me first stand my point that countryside life is no better than city life.
Let me state why.

1)Lack of technology
Can u imagine a world without internet? I guess many would dread this kind of life. However, in villages, this type of life actually exist. Internet had become the dominant part of lifes. For example, in a future school like Hwa Chong Institution, we need to check the Summary Message Board everyday to check messages everyday. Without it, we would not be informed of important messages or events. Let me narrate a situation. In the event of a recent flu outbreak, there would be no news reaching the people living in the village. Thus, the disease might spread to them.
2)Lack of communication
In a city, there are lots of communications like the internet, newspaper and the most basic of all, phones. However, the country does not have that. It would be very difficult to contact a person that have lost and thus, leads to a bad point about city lives.
3)Lack of resources
Now, we get to eat food conveniently by going to a hawker centre of a restaurant. Could you imagine if we have to wake up very early to hunt for animals and even eat them raw. This is caused by a lack of resources. It can result in malnutrition or maybe food poisoning as the citizens may not be used to eating food raw. Medical care is also inadequate and thus result in a low life expectancy.

Next, let me stand why city life is also not better than country life.
Let me state why.

1)Lack of human relationships
In the city, people are rushing to work or for anything. The tempo of life is high. Thus, people may not have the chance to pause for a while and talk to each other. However, it is a different case for the country. People usually have a slower tempo of life and thus, able to stop and talk to each other. This strengthen the relationships and one doesn't need to worry about nobody to offer help when they are in trouble. People in city had also become boastful and had become more self-centered, unlike the villagers who are more selfless and still are kind and helpful.
2)Tempo of life
Have you ever wondered what is the meaning of life? For me, life is about unwinding after a term of hard work. However, in modern days like now, have you ever think of whether you would have the time to rest and ponder about life's really small details? I guess most people would say no. This is no good news. Let me cite a scenerio. A man is a doctor. He earns lots of money everyday but he still have a lot of them after years and years. Finally, it came to a day when he died and the money had come into no use. Isn't that pathetic? People had the wrong mindset about money being the first priority when the actual fact that the first priority should be happiness. In the village, this point is vivid, no question. However, in a city, this life theory began to fade away.

Even though I am neutral towards this statement, I still would choose to live in the city rather than in the country if i have a choice to change because of the need to adapt.

Feel free to leave comments.

Sex education- boon or bane

As sexuality become a srutiny in schools, what most parents said to be lacking is the information about such programmes. "Many of the 20 parents interviewed by the strait times yesterday said that they had no idea what went on during sexuality education classes in school" sadi the strait tiems. I was surprised at this statistic.

This statistics shows only two things. One, the students think it is just a trivial matter and did not inform their parents in detail.
Two, this shows the mindsets of parents. One perception is that they are not interested in whatever talk the school is going and do not care as much. Thus, they do not ask for information from their child.

Fortunately, Minister Ng Eng Hen had promised that schools will inform parents of the framework and topics covered in the sexuality talk, and also post such information on the respective websites.

However, the issue of opting out was raised by the parents. Last year, less than 1 per cent of parents said no to letting their children go for such classes. This can be caused by willingness of parents to go for such classes or the lack of information that they can actually opt out.

Personally, I feel that there is a weak link between two; parents and teachers. Based on a interview done by the strait times, experts said that these two groups are not fully equipped to pass on the right information and values to children.

I think most parents are simply embarrassed to discuss the issue with their children. What is worse is that many simply push their responsiblity, and tell their children to get their answers from their teachers instead. Thus, I think teachers need more training to overcome the awkwardness of talking sex in class.

In my opinion, parents are uncomfortable talking about sex because they were not taught by their parents not to talk about it. They also do not have a superficial meaning of sex education. They think sex is about making babies, but actually it is"an emotional, physical adn psycological thing.

Parents like mine may argue that we might be just to young to understand sex and this could pollute our minds. However, I disagreed, supporting it with the idiom that "prevention is better than cure'. Would you rather have your children to be in trouble for sex or to be awkward about telling them about it?

I end this post with a statement. Sex education is essential.

Mas Selemat Capture

The escaped criminal, Mas Selamat, had been captured. He had been caught on April 1 but the Malaysia policeman did not know his indentity and thus, resulting him in being indentified and captured now.

To recall, Mas Selamat escaped during february last year. He was one of the most dangerous man in Singapore as he was a JI member and had planned to attack Singapore before he was captured. He escaped when he faked a toilet break, and slipped out through a window.

It was definitely horrifying to see that Singapore, a country known for his security,
had such a hiccup that became so serious. I think the Singapore officials need to reinforce the securities. It also became a wonder how Singapore have another hiccup by allowing Mas Selamat to go to Malaysia unnoticed. This matter needs to be addressed.

Here are several areas I think our security can improve.
1) The most important mistake that the police make is to let Mas Selamat slipped off just like that. A question? Why did they made the windows in the first place? They might say it is for air refreshment. I personally think that they can change the height of the window so that it would not be as easy to climb out of the windows. They also can change the size of the window as it is suprising that one could actually slip through the windows and escape.

2) The other mistake that results in why it taken so long for Mas Selamat to be capture is the lack of borderlines security. I read in the Straits Times that they are several ways of escaping. One of them is actually from the Sewbawang beach to Stulang which was suprisingly just 1.1km away. Quoted from Strait times Prime 5, someone actually said,"Although they are boats guarding the coastline, one may easily swim through when they are caught sleeping". This make me awestruck.
This is serious. I think the they need to be aware of what is happening especially that they know that a criminal has just escaped. I think there needs to be more and shorter shift so that the guardmen would be more aware and not be tired, thus not doing their job.

I hope the security of Singapore can be better.

Please feel free to leave comments.

Food Poisoning- A question of the quality of hawker centres

Recently, most of you should have know that there was a controversy of food poisoning in Geylang when many people are found to be sick and even dead after eating rojak from the particular stall.

This is simply appalling. This not only tarnish our hawker centre's reputation, it also affects the tourism. Think about the consequences. Because of one that could not be bothered for the hygiene for his stall, it resulted in death. The direct impact was already a serious one.

I suggest that NEA make it a law that stalls should put up their hygiene grade of the most updated one. Most people have a habit of taking a look at the hygiene grade and decided whether to order food. However, most stalls had played "cheat" and used their old grade instead. This causes two innocent lives to be taken away.

In my opinion, the stallholder must be severely punished of his acts that resulted in such a havoc and a inconvenience for his fellow stallholders. This deterred locals and tourists away from eating at this hawker centre. A twenty year time behind the bars and a heavy fine should do the job.

I also suggest that the goverment introduce a policy for 75% of a food court stalls to have at least a b grade or else be forced to close. NEA would allow half year for stalls to improve on their hygiene before they would check again. In other words, chances would be given. This could 'inspire' them to maintain clean in fear of closure. They would also help one another.

Back to the consequences, this may also affect Singapore's economy as there are lesser revenue for tourism which is caused by the tarnish of bad reputation for the hawker centres. They could link the Newton Food Centre Case with this one together and thus have the wrong perception that food in Singapore is expensive and dirty in Singapore.

Please feel free to leave comments.

Food Poisoning- A question of the quality of hawker centres

Recently, most of you should have know that there was a controversy of food poisoning in Geylang when many people are found to be sick and even dead after eating rojak from the particular stall.

This is simply appalling. This not only tarnish our hawker centre's reputation, it also affects the tourism. Think about the consequences. Because of one that could not be bothered for the hygiene for his stall, it resulted in death. The direct impact was already a serious one.

I suggest that NEA make it a law that stalls should put up their hygiene grade of the most updated one. Most people have a habit of taking a look at the hygiene grade and decided whether to order food. However, most stalls had played "cheat" and used their old grade instead. This causes two innocent lives to be taken away.

In my opinion, the stallholder must be severely punished of his acts that resulted in such a havoc and a inconvenience for his fellow stallholders. This deterred locals and tourists away from eating at this hawker centre. A twenty year time behind the bars and a heavy fine should do the job.

I also suggest that the goverment introduce a policy for 75% of a food court stalls to have at least a b grade or else be forced to close. NEA would allow half year for stalls to improve on their hygiene before they would check again. In other words, chances would be given. This could 'inspire' them to maintain clean in fear of closure. They would also help one another.

Back to the consequences, this may also affect Singapore's economy as there are lesser revenue for tourism which is caused by the tarnish of bad reputation for the hawker centres. They could link the Newton Food Centre Case with this one together and thus have the wrong perception that food in Singapore is expensive and dirty in Singapore.

Please feel free to leave comments.

I am back!

I am back from hibernating.>.<
Had a lot of blog inspirations these few weeks when
I am coming back from school to home.
Decided to revert back to classic template.
I am starving for comments whether I should start a personal blog.
Quite sad that Liverpool drew with Arsenal actually.
Well, here I am , coming back from tests and spamming posts.

Book review

Today, I am going to write about a book written by Avi.
This book is called 'Sometimes I think I heard my name'.
It is kind of a romantic fiction although it can be kind of unrealistic at times.

Title: Sometimes I think I heard my name
Author: Avi
Rating: 4.25 out of 5

A brief description about this book:
This book is mainly about a boy named Conrad Murray which is separated from his parents who were divorced. He lives with his aunt and uncle who cares for him.

This day, he had a strong feeling to visit his parents. However, his aunt and uncle had already planned to spend the vacation with his cousins in UK. Conrad was upset upon hearing that.

While he was picking up a ticket to England, he met upon a nice girl named Nancy. She studied in St Agnes in St Louis which is where the writer stay and lives in New York where the writer's parents lives. It happen that Nancy did not want to go to New York which the author wanted to go. The author went to Nancy's school to ask for a change of tickets. However, he failed.

His aunt began telling him the procedures for going to England. It also happens that he is going to new york. ................. read the book to find out wats next.

My boring day

Well, 2dae is a quite boring day
Damn tired.
Dunno why still blogging
at this time.
Went to do project
with the three others
then went to Queenstown
Shopping Centre
Then...
Baboom ...
a pair of shoe
and here am I blogging

Plan backfired?

Well, today, while I was in my house, looking at the scenery from my flat's window, I saw a far stretch of "field" that was situated on the top storey of the carpark. I was quite shocked that there was this 'field' on the carpark. However, I recalled the newspaper article saying that goverment had been considering whether to put pots on the carpark to refresh the air especially in the Woodlands Industrial Area which I had been living in. Obviously, this plan backfired. You could easily see that all the grass had been dried up. The grass had turned brown and it is a unsightly sight to see.
I suggest that the goverment remove this plants away as this would affect the tourists that come here. However, i think it was a good move initiated by the goverment. This is a sign that Goverment are finally reacting to the woodlands resident on the air. This is not good for those that have asthma(like me!) and thus affecting their health. Maybe, the woodlands area should have more shrubs by the pavement as I noticed that some trees had been uprooted to avoid disrupting traffic so shrubs should not be a problem. The Residential Comitee may want to also consider starting a club where all the retirees can plant and nurture trees together. This not only beautify the environment, it also help stregthen bonds between them.

Birthday

Oh well, guys and gals, todae is my birthday! I got this laptop from my father and I was quite pleased with it. It is in the format of windows vista and this is so cool! I wish to thank my parents via this platform to sincerely thanks them for my birthday present. Thanks mum and dad!

Whose Birthday?

Well,today was someone's birthday.
Damn shiok celeberating his birthday.
He went to play squash,
before going home to celeberate his birthday.
Got a shiok HP laptop as a present,
which i oso happen to have today.
Eat in a restaurant,
drink like a fish.
It was wonderful.
Short and sweet post.
Nice.

HFM disease

Singapore on verge of hand, foot and mouth outbreak

Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:29pm EDT

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore is on the verge of a hand, foot and mouth disease outbreak, the Straits Times reported on Saturday, quoting government health officials.

The paper said 553 people were afflicted with the virus last week, up from 415 the week before. Last week's figure was just 12 fewer than the Health Ministry's official "epidemic level".

Hand, foot and mouth disease, which is treatable, usually affects children and causes fever and rashes on the hands, feet and buttocks. A three-year child died earlier this month in the city-state.

The disease has this year killed 44 people in China, 10 in Taiwan and 11 in Vietnam.

(Reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

courtesy of: www.reuters.com

Well, the HFM disease is coming. With 553 people getting this disease, it is sure to spread fast. In case you do not know what is HFM, it is a disease that usually begins with fever and poor appetite. There would also rashes on your hands and soles of your feet. There is also a wrong perception that adults would not be infected from this.

The goverment had been taking up several measures to prevent the spread of Hand, foot and mouth disease as having it as a epidemic would affect a lot of people. Imagine a epidemic occurs in Singapore. The direct consequences is that kindergarten would be affected. Some parents may think that the hygiene of the kindergarten is bad and that affects the number of parents sending their child to kindergarden, instead, they employed bebysitters to look after them. This would deprove the child's literacy level before primary level and thus primary school teachers would have a more difficult time teaching them, thus resulting in a lack of teachers.

Another problem that all schools may face is the hindering of progress of teaching as teachers would be hindered of their progress when time is needed for checking for check-up of the hand foot mouth disease symptons. Checking them in the first place would have a effect of nipping it into the bud and thus preventing it to spread to other students. Schools also may have to close down and that would affect students taking National Examinations as their syllabus would be taught at a faster rate and thus affecting their understanding.

Another problem affects the economy of Singapore. This would probably happens because parents who are working would take leave to take care of their sick child so that affects Singapore's working rate and economy.

Responsiblity

I was quite shocked that a hose was left unattended by the cleaners of Hwa Chong. As they were watering the grass which was a waste of time as they can survive on their own. This is definitely acceptable. It was not the first time I saw this serious waste of water. I felt that we should not put the blame to the cleaners as they are quite exhausted after a day's of work and could not be bothered anymore.
However, I seriously think that this matter could not be viewed easily as this is a matter that should be treated seriously. First, I think what HCI(hwa chong institution) is that they address this problem to all the cleaners of HCI. Some of the auntie and uncles cannot be bothered, thus imposing consequences for them is necessary. One punishment I propose is that they pay 10% of the school's water bills. This would be able to teach them that water is precious and we should not waste water.
However, we, as the sons of HCI also has a part to play in this too. When we see hoses like that spraying out water and it is left unattended, do a good deed by turning off the water supply. If everyone does there part, the school can save precious money that can be used for more useful purposes.
Should you have any comments or a strong objection, please feel free to leave your comments in the comment box.

The Might Of The Pen

February 23, 2009

MARRIED WOMAN TEACHER JAILED FOR HAVING SEX WITH 15-YEAR OLD STUDENT

Filed under: ARTICLES 23/02/2009, freedom, reforms — sjsandteam @ 14:29
Tags: MARRIED WOMAN TEACHER JAILED FOR HAVING SEX WITH 15-YEAR OLD STUDENT

SINGAPORE: A MARRIED woman who had sex with a 15-year-old student was jailed for 10 months on Monday. The 32-year-old former primary school teacher and mother of two pleaded guilty earlier this month to having sex with a minor under 16 at a chalet on March 10 last year. Five other similar charges were taken into consideration.

The woman had developed an intimate relationship with her young charge, then 14 and in primary 6 (equivalent to standard 6 in Malaysia), about seven months after they had gone on an overseas school trip. They kept it up after the trip, and stayed in touch with each other through frequent phone calls and SMS texting.

The friendship continued developing, and before long, the woman declared the boy her godson and began showering him with care and attention. Even after he left the school to go on to Secondary 1 (Form 1), they continued to meet, going window shopping, watching movies and having meals together. Before long, the boy told the woman that he had fallen for her, and she responded by saying that she would be his girlfriend.

She then began booking rooms at a Pasir Ris chalet to spend private time with him, and he was 15 when they eventually wound up having sex. She reported to the police on May 13 after the boy threatened to kill her and her family when she decided to break off the relationship.

District Judge Sarjit Singh On Monday said this case involved a serious breach of trust. When a person abused the authority and trust that had been placed on him or her, the punishment would be significant whatever the gender of the victim or the offender. She could have been jailed for up to 10 years or fined or both.

Coutesy of : http://sjsandteam.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/married-woman-teacher-jailed-for-having-sex-with-15-year-old-student/

I was quite amazed by this article upon reading this. It was simply unbelievable to have at teacher making love with her ex-student and worse still, doing sex with him. In my opinion, this incident could be prevented if the boy's parents had communicate better with their son and thus knowing about this relationship between the boy and the teacher and "nip it in the bud" before the matter goes out of hand like the one here.

I would like to criticize on the teacher for having this irresponsible behaviour with the student. As a teacher, she should set good example for her students as being a teacher means being a role model as every student is carefully observing the teacher's behaviour and following their example. What could be worse if the students of this teacher were made known about this incident and following too. I may be exaggerating but some students do not have the sense of right and wrong and just blindly follows it.

However, it was a right decision for the teacher to go to the police and confess her mistake after her conscience is clear and she know what she was doing is wrong. Besides the boy's threaten, she still mustered up her courage to end the affair before it gets out of hand and land them into hotter soup.

In my opinion, I think the boy threaten to harm the teacher by violent means as he could be afraid of his parents upon foresighting how angry they would be. On the other hand, he might also be afraid of going to a Boy's home and thus ruining his future which was once seem to be bright. I think counselling is seriously needed for the boy as his mind is in a state of frenzy. His parents might also want to talk to him in a more gentle way instead of scolding him fervently as this would cause the already grief-stricken boy to become more upset and he might end up killing himself.

For the teacher, I think she had already know what she is doing is wrong but she might also need some reassurance that everything is okay such that she would not be worried for the boy.

To prevent this from happening again, I suggest:
1)More sexual education talks for the upper primary level when they are mature enough. This would be the best time to educate them about sex so that crimes that regards to teenage sex could be prevented.
2)I suggest that parents take note of their children and be aware of what their son are doing after school so as to prevent them from getting into any other unnecessary trouble. As the saying goes,"Prevention is better than cure".

In this incident, I hope that this would remind students that no matter how close their teachers are to them, there is always a breach between teachers and students like how they respect their teachers like how they respect their parents and not treat them as friends. We still have to show them the basic courtesy.

Normal Day

Hi, I am back to post again. Well, today, nothing much actually, it is just a normal normal day. In the morning, I went back to school to do my Geography project which is issued by Mrs Ruth Ann. Well, drawing the map of hwa chong isn't a very easy task. Despite all the difficulties, we still manage to complete it. Then, I had a gathering with all of my fellow primary school and Liverpool Fc friends and played like ..........crazy? I played for a striker most of the time and I must say it was my best performance in this four months! I scored a few goals including one that is quite freaky. The ball was soaring in the air then a defender cleared it but I was brave enough to stand in the way and tada..... I scored through a deflection. Well, Wei Yang did not changed his habit of diving as a keeper and Jaye was stronger than ever！Heard that they pumped up the ball up the roof and it sucked. Well, my father came back from Jakarta, Indonesia. Missed him a lot during this week. Really hoping to continue my rate of posting during school. Have to post comments on newspaper articles so as to vary the topics I am talking and also share my views as a blogger as to how to change for the better.

Changing of blog URL

Sorry,
Guys and Gals.

Changed my blog URL without letting you guys know. Very sudden right?
Well, please relink me if possible.
I can guarantee you that my blog would be more funkier than ever.
I got to go.

Bye.

Response needed

Hi,
Guys and Gals, I need your response towards me changing my URL only for this blog to bunny-to-the-earth.blogspot.com as I felt that my CA(current affairs blog is quite passive) and the other choice is that i plead with my LA teacher to allow me to change blog URL. Any suggestions? Please leave your comments on the tagboard.

Manchester United 1 Liverpool 4

Manchester United 1 Liverpool 4

Well, Fantastic for Liverpool who won Manchester United in the Battle of the Reds.

At first
Cristano Ronaldo
scored from
a Penalty

Then
come Fernando Torres
who beat stupid
Vidic en route
to one on one
with Van der sar
and scored

then Steven Gerrard scored
and kissed
the camera

then Aurelio
flew the free kick
over the top
and scored
while Van der Sar
dreamed about his
girlfriend

Then dossena scored from a lob
that even i can catch
but Van der Sar Cant

First time
writing this way
hope LIverpool would
trash United
bye

Well, good job for Liverpool FC.

Results!!! The Horror

The Results!!! Horror

Today got back my results and it was a horror that I did not fail any of my subjects. Am I human or what? It was extremely shocking to get a B4 for my Language Arts(english) as it was my weakest subject and I had no clue what I was writing during the test. I also got 3OP (Oral Participation) points for my most of my subject which was ok based on how talkative I am during classes although nonsense sometimes. My chinese was Ok( according to my mother even though I got A1) and my the teaclher gave comments that my work attitude is poor. LOL. Indeed, I am known for just breezing through my homework and then chiong for the tests. I am starting to like Chinese, or maybe love it. I am mad! Starting to hate Mathematics. So complicated, I still got a A1 but still think i did poorly. Enough of these tests crap. Lets talk about something cheerful. Any Ideas?
Lets talk about the camp. What a Camp! We learnt some very funny cheers like the window. It goes like this.

The Window

The window
The window
The second storey window
with a flip and a flop
and a mighty throw
Throw them out of window!!!

Teachers here
Teachers there
Teachers teachers everywhere
Scold scold here
Scold scold there
Throw them out of window!!!

Well, the camp was full of activities although some activities were interrupted by rain.

Happy that Liverpool won Manchester United.

Nuisance callers dial up a 999 logjam

Pranksters swamp police hotline while others treat it as phone directory or compliant bureau

This article found in strait times 23/2/09 in home section pgB5, there was this article featuring about People prank calling the Police hotline and treat it as a non-emergency line for complains and things other than emergencies which really need the police help. Let me give you a example. The newspaper article mention about a neighbour who complains about his neighbour being very noisy by playing loud music that apparently disturbs the caller. This is seriously unacceptable. This incident should be made known to the town council or the neighbourhood police to solve this problem and should not call the emergency hotline.

This story is particularly NOT a millieu story. A millieu story is a story which happens in the world , whether is the real world or just a invented one. It includes not just the physical world but everything else. I think the reason for it not to become a millieu story is that although it happens in the real world, it does not really fit into the criteria of interesting the reader in both characters and environment as it only concerns mainly about the people,

As such, I think it is more of a charater-driven story who tells us about a police officer handling people who dialled the police hotline for the wrong reason and that mainly focus on the police officer named Norilla. This is the reason why I chose this as the character-driven story.

Personally, I feel that the citizens need to be given education on how Police Hotline are used or should I say, how they are used for. I think the first step is to give out phamplets to members of the Public so they can be educated and ther will be no more or lesser trouble with the hotline 999. Next, Police can also have a show or a adversetisements to tell people on how to use the hotline. I believe the Television set is the best form of media for the auties and uncles as they usually would not go out and through the TV programs, they can know better.

Imagine someone is fighting and resulted in Multiple injuries and the fight still continue and cease to stop, wouldn't you be very annoyed if you cannot reach the 999 hotline just because of some inconsiderate people. I hope my post could wake up people from frequently calling the 999 hotline "just for the sake for fun" . Please do not think that it is just only a call, it can result in live and death. Just think about it.

Today was a merely interesting day as I had a lot of fun activities going on. In the morning, I read the LianHeZaoBao and found it hte most the most entertaining newspaper(Chinese) that I had read so far. For those who are not in hwachong, We have areading period where we get to read newspaper and get them for free. ( cool right, so come to hwachong ) :). Then we had two periods of Chinese. Mdm Hoon gave us back our informal letter and i scored unexpectedly well. (16/20) I was expecting a 11/20 seriously. But the bad thing is for the correction, I have to write 2 1/2 pages. Very little right(sarcastically). That is the price to pay. Then we had recess which I had made a very funny observation. There was this JC boy from HCJC playing with a Junior(Sec 1 from Hwa Chong) and played closed with one eye( not literally). Then when a JC girls walked by, he started playing to his full potential and sometimes fancifully! This happened a few times and me and Lester laughed to tears. Then, there was this very lame geography test that was OK. Then it was history where I was bored to death. Then, tada......., our LA teacher Miss Caroline. She is back!!! Then we had ORM(ortus research module) that was OK and then I dashed to squash. It was really very very very fun and I think I got to distinguish badminton strokes with squash ones.( PLayed too much badminton already). I reached my home at 8 and finished my homework and then MAGIC, came out this post. OK, this is a extremely(X1000000000000000 times) long.

Pss, there is a short clip for all the goals during the portsmouth-liverpool match.

Project

Hi, yesterday doing the project with my friends and played Wii in Jie han's house. It was fun.:) Ya, yesterday also watched portsmouth vs Liverpool. It was fun.( for the second time ). Liverpool nick it 3-2 for a 3 points and keep their chances alive for the title. First, it was David Nugent who opened up the scoring at 62th minute, He ran on a through ball, spliting open the Liverpool's defence before slicing into the net and Pepe Reina was left stranded. Then, there was a short indirect free kick which Xabi Alonso lay off for Andre Dossena to rocket the ball into the net. Ports mouth came to score later but it was cancelled off again throug Kuyt's goal. However during injury time, Torres headed in a goal following a short cross. It proved to be a masterclass tactic to but torres on the bench. This was a satisfying result for all Kop( Liverpool Fan ) especially without their talismann, Steven Gerrad. Three cheers once again for LIverpool Fc.

Inactiveness

Hi all,
Sorry for my blog has been inactive for a while as I had been celebrating Chinese new year with my relatives. Be assured guys, I am back to blogging! Quite boring today actually, did my art homework, read up some blogs and revise for geography test. Then, I went to blog, Aiya , sianz. Nothing to do leh. Will come back with more posts tomorrow

My Day 18/1/09

Hi All,
Today is a fun-filled day(again)! Today I went to collect my scholarship and it was definitely fun! I met a lot of my ex-classmates like Aloysius, Jia Ming, Li Jun, Sharon Tan, Joycelyn, Jymie, Sharon Ong, Elaine, Rachel, Alvin, Ivory and..... no more. It was sad as I did not get a meet Wei Yang from RI(those who are in Hwa Chong) don;t bombard me).We took photographs with Mr Khaw Boon Wan and I was elated. We even take photographs together with my classmates and Khaw Boon Wan. I received $300 into my EduSave account. When I came back, I did a lantern made of hongbao with my parents and strethen the parent-son relationship. Then, we decided on the CCAs choices. Finally with much persuasion my mother allowed me to go to squash! In case you were wondering why didn't she allow, it was because it is an elite sport which need more days of practice. I was as happy as a bird and I even kissed my mother on the cheek! Yesterday night, I helped my mother to wash her legs as part of the follwing of the book di zi gui. My mother was so happy(I know I used that for the 3rd time). I never knew that being fillial can give give you a sense of achievements. Next week will be steven gerrard(Liverpool Captain) trials and I seriously hope that the judge would give a lighter sentence. Sorry that I had to end this post with sad note.

Fishy Business

"As tuna farming advances, but strict fishing regulations might be the only hope for the sushi fish" quoted scienceline.org. The bluefin Tuna is used for making sushi or rather sashimi and due to the overwhelming demand, it has become overfished. Scientists are now studying on how to breed these creatures in captivity, so as to prevent them from extinction. Some people may think that it is a good idea ,especially for sushi lovers. However some experts prefer not. they believe that the fish's habit are too idiosyncratic(abnormal) for commercial fish farming and that the breeding efforts are deistracting from the pressurizing problem of overfishing, said the website. According to a fish breeder, breeding blue-fin tuna from roe( the fully ripe internal ovaries or egg masses of fish and certain marine animals, such as shrimp, scallop and sea urchins)success rate range from 5% to 10% which relatively lower than the breeding way from fry which ranges from 30% to 40%. As a student blogger, I wish to raise public awareness of the cruelty of whaling in Japan. I feel that whaling is awful. Hundreds of species are killed every year and shouldn't we think about what rights we have to do so? Why should we eat the pathetic fishes when we have vegetables that make us healthy and strong and other tender meat? Another reason for slauthering these marine creatures is for scientific reasearh. I do not think that it is neccessary and really would want to stop this fishing. Being Humans does not allow us to pose a cruelty to our fellow animals. Eat less or no tuna at all. I wish this speech can raise public awreness and do a part, however small, to stop this cruelty. Feel free to leave comments on the tagboard

The best day so far!!!

Today everything went by so smoothly and I believe this is the best day of school so far. This morning, we went to the laboratory for our science lessons. It was OK. Then, we had our Chinese Lesson and we spent the whole lesson(or maybe less) to memorize and recite a poem from book writing on moral education called Di Zi Gui. After the class general meeting which everyone seem to be impatient, we went for our recess. We came back to class punctually and started in time for the Geography Lesson. Mrs Ruth Ann who had gave me the first impression of a stern teacher showed her funny side. She gave out worksheets that we had done terribly. Instead of scolding us, she gave us examples of work from ispark (the consortium which has Gifted students). They were surprisingly good. Mrs Ruth Ann also gave us some questions for us to answer about Geography questions. While we were copying notes from the slides she had prepared for us, she chatted amicably with us and i immediately felt the strong bond between us. The rule is simple-do not make her angry or interrupt her lessons. Today Maths was quite a difficult one for me to understand but my friends helped me a lot. Wonderful day!

First days of school

These few days, I had been home rather late for CCA orientation(HCI called them EP3) but school dismissal for normal days had been quite early at 1.20p.m. On the first day of school, I met a guy(obviously) from greenwood primary and became close friends. His name is called Yu Kiat. I also make some new friends but unlike jie ying(view her blog at http://illusion-edd.blogspot.com/) I did not manage to know much of my friends' name though(maybe old already OR study until mental problem;). If you are curious why I said not to spam comments on my blog, we had a point system called ACE in HCI which is to do self-initiated assignments or do projects or others that is not exam-based(like worksheets and tests). This blog would be viewed by my classmates and LA(Language Arts English) and be given ACE points.