GP is fun???

2007-05-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

THE PROBLEM WITH MEDIA IS THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE A SENSE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE. Do u agree?

According to www.dictionary.com, social justice means" the moral principle determining just conduct pertaining to the life, welfare, and relations of human beings in a community" I personally feel that media do not have a sense of justice.

Media is given the responsibility of reporting the truth and facts to the public so as to increase awareness of the events that is happening around us. It is through media that the public can get more knowledge. But are they doing their job?

Media tends to distort facts based on their monetary benefits. In order to increase total revenue, to get more people to read their news articles, they report news that captivate the attention of the speaker. An example would be the case of the Virginia Tech incident. The media did not practice social responsibility and social justice, and even reveal the video content that was actually not to be disclosed to public.

Also, because of fear for authority, media did not live up to the expectation of being the watchdog for democracy. In the case of the violent persecution of Falun Gong in China, the media chose to reveal that the chinese authority did not torture the practitioner but instead they commited suicide. Because of fear, they chose to take the easy and more convenient way out. So how exactly have they displayed social justice?

Therefore, i feel that media does not have a sense of social justice as they only considered their own benefits instead of doing what they should be doing- reporting the truth to the public.

2007-05-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

The media is corrupting our society. Do you agree?

How do we define corrupting? We defined corrupting as destroying or subverting the honesty or integrity of something. So is media corrupting our society? I shuld take it as a YEs.

Media is affecting all areas of our lives, since we live in the era where communication, broadcastings were common. We get both facts and opinions from what we see and hear from the media. Media is a form of propaganda that often is guilty of misleading their people with distortions, exaggerations, subjectivity, inaccuracy and even fabrications, in order to receive their support, in order to increase their sales, eg is the NKF issue . The extensive report on TT Durai caused a commotion and changed the public's view of NKF.

Media is so influential that if a author writes a biased article, u will tend to find yourself swaying towards the author's stand.

Also, since media is given the authority as a watchdog of democracy, there is no one to watch over it, no one to ensure that media themselves practice free media and democracy. They might just report things that are beneficial to the company as a whole, rather than for the benefit of the readers. in addition, journalists face threats of censorship, beatings and even death for reporting issues that may be controversial or not in the interests of power holders.

Therefore, i took a stand, that media is corrupting the society.They report news for monetary benefits and forget about their job ethnics. They forget the importance of reporting true accounts to their readers, giving them one-sided stories.

2007-05-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to get rid of prejudice.Discuss.

Prejudice is defined as unreasonable dislike and distrust of people who are different from you in some way.

Prejudice can be illustrated through the example of Chinese who still take grudges against the Japanese soldiers that invaded China during World War 2. After the war, the Chinese was angry at how humiliated they were, by the Japanese soldiers. They called the Japanese soldiers " ri ben gui zi" which means Japaneses ghost. Even till now,decades has passed, yet Japanese soldiers are still known as the Japanese ghosts.

Also, it can be seen in the scenario whereby people have the stereotyped thinking that the whites are more superior than the blacks.Ever since the 16th century to the early 20th century,blacks were kept as slaves in the European countries by the whites. Although the blacks are more capable than the whites, they are not accepted by the society and were often seen as 2nd class citizens.

Another incident could be the conflict between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Tamils were being treated as 2nd class to the Sinhalese. Even though they performed better than the Sinhalese, they were not given jobs in government service.what does this shows? The Sinhalese were bias against the Tamils, they believed that they should be more privileged than the Tamils.

Since the ideas of prejudices have been instilled into people’s heart, it is a very difficult task to influence the person as we are all from prejudiced families. It cannot be totally uprooted. Only the negative impacts of prejudice could be prevented by educating people to allow them to think in a more mature way. But the idea in the public’s mind of prejudice can never be removed, unless they are being brainwashed by some major events.

2007-04-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, the mass media do not report the news; they make the news. Discuss this with references to recent events.

Mass media is considered the watchdog of democracy. Are they really doing their part to protect democracy? Do they report the news or do they make up the news? Judging from the numerous cases reported by the press, we can see that the media are abusing their rights and withholding the truth.

Take the recent case of the Virgina Tech massacre for instance, it has been more than one week but the press continues to report about it. Reason being, this will boost up their sales since it capture the attention of many. Their reports on this issue caused the society to be more aware, educate them of what is happening around us. But again, is there a need for them to even visit Cho's parents? What is their foremost priority in doing so? I presume that it is used again to boost it's ratings, to cook up more stories with reference to this event. Also, NBC's release of the videos that Cho has taken , shows one thing about them-unethical. they chose not to care about the families of the victims and distribute the videos, photos and manifestos. In order to get the 1st hand news reported, Chicago Sun-Times journalist Michael Sneed among several others, had incorrectly identified a Chinese American and a Chinese national as the suspected shooter. The erroneous report was released to the public twelve hours before the correct identity of the gunman was officially disclosed by the Virginia Tech authorities.

Also, in the case of NKF's dispute, the press have deliberately published the issue weeks after weeks. This caused much unrest and brought the whole nation to have bias views about charitable organizations. Imagine this, there was only a few articles on NKF's director Mr Durai's embezzlement of the funds, will it cause such a great commotion? Will people shun other charitable organization?

All this was due to the press abusing their power, abusing their privilege of freedom of expressions. But again is this their fault? The media reports anything that interests their readers, who do we have to blame if it was we, who encouraged the idea of making up stories?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre#Inaccurate_media_reports
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Kidney_Foundation_Singapore_scandal

2007-04-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

“YouTube has no ethics, it's been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.” Do you agree?

I agree that Youtube has no ethics and that it has been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.

Youtube is a site whereby people can upload any videos or download any videos for the sake of entertainment. As a result, people tend to take advantage of this and uploaded videos from VCDs and song albums. This is indeed an evidence of youtube not having any ethics. People now get to watch all these shows for free. So who will want to fork out money if there was a Free-Of-Charge deal. Now, the poor actors would have to be paid lesser, since the entertainment industry is unable to generate sales. This has infringed the Law of Copyrights and it is actually an illegal stuff. But what has Youtube done, regarding this matter? To protect their own interest, they chose to be ignorant about this issue.

Youtube do not have much restrictions regarding on the type of videos that were uploaded. This is do that they can have more people visit their website and so more commercialists would want to pay money to have their advertisements up on Youtube. Recently, it was reported in BBC’S NEWS-- Thailand blocks access to YouTube which was considered insulting to him. Youtube did not remove the video upon request as this is conflicting with their interest. But didn’t they even think of how the King of Thailand felt when he know of this insulting videos.

Also, youtube seems irresponsible regarding the content of the videos. There was an article, “Is YouTube just what the doctor ordered?” , dated 2^nd jan 2007. This might not be an accurate piece of information, and following these wrong insturctions might lead to deadly consequnces. Imagine someone who watched this video, asked their friends to view and so on, followed these wrong instructions and informations might cause harm to their body.

All in all, I agree that Youtube has no ethnics and that it should be more responsible for all videos uploaded. This is the minimum effort that they have to put in, in order to be fair to those patronising Youtube.

2007-04-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

Teenage life is the best time of one’s life.

Look around you and you will see cliques of teenagers hanging out in public places like shopping malls and bus stops, laughing and giggling amongst themselves, enjoying each other’s company. But then again, is teenage life only filled with laughter? Just flip through the newspapers and one can find articles on teenagers who committed suicide, abortion committed by teenagers due to pre marital sex and many other depressing things that teenagers are going through. So is teenage life really the best time of one’s life?

Nowadays, teenagers tend to follow an “emo” fashion trend. This could be due to peer pressure or influence from the media. Look at the one of the top twelve finalists of the “Singapore Idol”, Paul Twohill, is also into this trend, which is characterized by his wearing of tight shirts and actually having a fringe that covers his face. While is it is okay to follow the fashion trend, some teenagers have gone overboard and has even resorted to self-mutilation to fulfill a fashion trend. Examples include the slashing of their body parts, or even the wrist, which is potentially harmful. Is harming and torturing of oneself a sign of happiness at living the teenage life, especially since it’s a disturbing trend and a sign of unhappiness which is contrary to the belief that teenage hood is the prime of one’s life.

Teenagers are mostly impulsive and there are some who have done things regardless of the potential consequences. Recently, there has been a law enacted that any teenagers under the age of eighteen found in the streets late at night will have their parents notified by the police. In short, a curfew has been placed on teenagers. What does this show about how teenagers are seen and treated even by the government? That teenagers generally as a whole is seen as a group of people by the society as a group that has to be controlled or kept at home for otherwise they will be out in the streets making a din of themselves to the public. It can also be seen from this action that teenagers are not trusted to be able to make decisions that they will have to make in the future anyway, hence how can teenage life be the best time of one’s life if one is not even trusted by the society to make responsible choices?

Then again, teenage life is also one that is highly enjoyable in that one has no need to assume the burdens of a full-fledged citizen of the society. There is no need for teenagers to assume the burden of providing for a family or to even provide for themselves generally. Decisions made by teenagers also have lesser impact than that made by adults, as they generally do not determine the survival of oneself and their family. Teenagers also have no need to worry about tax increases, and most other societal issues. Hence a teenage life is often more care-free as compared to an adult’s life and other than friendships (or relationships issues) and studies, a teenager’s life is more preferable to that of an adult because of the lesser responsibilities that society requires from this group of people due to their younger age (or maturity level).

Teenage life is also the period of time in which one have more time for interaction with peers, to play and to enjoy the company of friends. Through spending time with one’s friends, the teenager is also able to learn important social skills that are not taught in class settings such as handling different types of relationships. A child below the age of twelve would hardly have the freedom to be able to spend time with friends as he or she is usually considered too young and will instead spend most of the time at home or in school. For the adult, one may be too busy working to have the time to spend with friends. On the other hand, a teenager will have both the freedom and the time to spend with friends and hence can then acquire important social skills that will serve him or her in good stead for the rest of his or her life.

The teenage life is indeed the best time of one’s life, where learning is a pleasure as it is easy for one to pick up new things. Also coupled with the newfound freedom that one acquires upon completing childhood and the lack of responsibilities that the teenager faces in comparison to the adult, the teenager life is indeed the best time of one’s life.

2007-02-03T03:46:00.000-08:00

PassinG The Mortar Board Around

Regardin the issue of alumini giving back to their school, i feel that it is a good spirit and that everyone should learn from it. This not only enhance the school reputation of being able to nuture students with strong rootedness to the school, but also help the next batch of students to excel. i agree that a strong alumini is important especially in the university because government is not giving as much aid as they are to secondary and JC, thus the only way for students to receive aids and subsidies to pursue their niche area would be from this alumini. Imagine if all the schools is able to nuture such students, where everyone can think of how much they have received and give back to the next generation. This is like a cycle, the previous generation help us, we help the next generation. In this way, everyone can benefit.

We should not comapare the amount or the percentage given by alumini by each school. There are always a lot of factors to consider, it is unfair to NUS or other school when they have to be compared to SMU. The student base in SMU is far smaller than NUS thus maybe there is a sense of bondedness betwwen the faculty and students. And perhaps the alumini gave back to the school not in terms of monetary but in terms of service?

2007-01-24T07:30:00.000-08:00

How Critical is the Role of the Family?

In our modern society, i believe the most highly held in esteem will be our career, followed by money den family. Is family bonds gettin less and less important in the eyes of society? Let us all not forget our roots.Who we are now, is mostly dependent on how much effort our family has put in us, how they have nutured us, protect us from the dangers lurking in our living enviroment.

The moment at which we entered the society, we are probably the most immature animals
born. Helpless kittens can leave home at six weeks. within hours of birth, ants can help contribute to their fellows by helping to carry the food load.What about the most intelligent- mankind? The only thing that babies can do will perhaps be only, crying. we cry when we are hungry, when we are sick and when we pooed, etc. Imagine the effort and workload that parents have to handle when they take care of us as babies. Even till the age of 18, we are probably still staying with their parents, living on them and and taken care by them. Our family will always strive their best to ensure that we can survive and become adult members of the society.

The fact that we are born, is the result of consummation by our parents where two fuses as one. The sexual activity that they engage in, is usually expected to take place within a marriage relationship.Families exist to control sexual behavious so that the new offsprings are as healthy as possible. In Singapore, families play a major role in society in that they produce the future pillars of our country and increase the birth rate so as to maximise the potential of opur economy.

Children are born egocentric, believing themselves to be the centre of everything that takes place around them. Their most important 'trainers' who will teach them the rules of society are most likely their family members. Family members teach the children the social norms and manners so that they can fit better into the society they live in. This is extremely important as the critical years of an individual, when one's character is moulded is the time spent with the family as a young child. And with influence from the media, it is even more critical that parents discipline and inculcate the correct values in their children. In Nepal, nature is the parent of the children in that their biological parents did not really parent them. Thus when they come to Singapore to study, most of them are often the more ill-behaved lot in the class. This is due to the fact that they are often distracted by the media here, which is limited in their rural home.

Very often, children turn to theur family for financial support. Families provide money, food and shelter for the children. When they enter tertiary institutions such as universities, where tuition fees are hefty sums of money, family provides them the financial capacity to advance themselves academically. Who else in the world will be willing to help ease such a burden when money is a sensitive topic that is usually avoided?

People need to feel love and wanted, especially the very young. Family is by far where people usually form their strongest emotional bonds. A research conducted revealed that children will find it difficult to learn how to love and care for others if they have never been taught how to care and love for others. A newspaper report in Strait Times in 2002 has also reported that a serial murderer actually came from a single parent family where he was frequently abused by his father when in a druken state. This goes to show the importance of family love.

Family provides us with a sense of purpose and position within the society. It is where one is bonded and wanted and that such bonds that an individual has can help one to improve oneself - students are known to finish assignments, do well for tests and exams because of their family. As the popular saying goes, "blood is thicker than water". Children will hence excel according to family expectations due to strong bonds forged with other members of the family.

In conclusion, family plays a critical role not just in the lives of individuals but also hold key roles in society. Those who dispute their importance are in the minority.