The Presidency of Hosni Mubarak

This post is going to be, as you can obviously can see, is about the presidency of Hosni Mubarak.

Hosni Mubarak is the fourth President of Egypt, and he is the longest-serving president in the history of Egypt, serving from 1981 to 2011, making it a total of 30 years in power. He fell from power after 18 days of violent demonstration against his rule and on 11 February, Vice-President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned as president and and transferred power over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Mubarak, after completing his high school education, joined the Egyptian Military Academy where he received a Bachelor's Degree in Military Sciences in 1949. Then he left the Military Academy and joined the Air Force Academy in 1950, eventually receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Aviation Sciences. From here, we can therefore see that Mubarak is actually extremely smart. However, Mubarak may not have been a good president maybe because he was unprepared to be the President and therefore might not have actually planned what he wanted to do in Egypt when he assumed the important position. This is because became the President in October 1981 when the then President, Sadat, was assassinated.

While Mubarak was in office, political corruption in his Ministry of Interior rose dramatically. This was because of increased power of the institutional system that is necessary to secure the prolonged presidency. The corruption led to many negative effects such as imprisoning of political figures and young activists without trials, illegal undocumented hidden detention facilities, and rejecting universities, mosques and newspapers staff members based on political inclination. Even worse, each individual officer was allowed to violate citizen's privacy in his area using unconditioned arrests due to the emergency law. I guess that it was because of this that the citizens became unhappy with Mubarak's rule, and apparently he was not well-liked, because he survived assassination a total of 6 times!! Examples are like the time in June 1995 when there was an alleged assassination attempt involving noxious gas and Egyptian Islamic Jihad while he was in Ethiopia for the conference of the Organization on African Unity. Mubarak was also reportedly injured by a knife-wielding assailant in Port Said in September 1999.

I think that as the years grew, the unrest in Egypt among the citizens increased until they could not take it anymore and therefore stood up and demonstrated violently. This should be because Mubarak was constantly re-elected by majority votes. However, why should the citizens want to re-elect when there was so much corruption going on under his rule?? The answer is that the citizens did not vote for him since they hated him so much. However, there was no one else to vote. Due to a restriction in the Egyptian constitution in which the People's Assembly played the main role in electing the President of the Republic. So the people did not have any veto powers or even the power to vote. Naturally, their frustration grew until they could not handle that frustration anymore and then took it out on Mubarak.

Egypt- What's the Big Deal??

This post is going to be about the Egypt Revolution 2011 following a popular uprising that began on 25 January 2011 featuring a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil disobedience, labour strikes and violent clashes between protesters and security.

The Revolution was triggered when police forces beat to death a young man. Then the people of Egypt rose up in protest, and then finally, dictator Mubarak fell from power. Apparently, he had already lost the will to govern tthe country when his young nephew died after being on a coma. However although he had lost the will to govern, he was still determined to hold on but when so many citizens began to rebel, he resigned from his post. That is a summary of how the Revolution of Egypt began.

But why has this become such a big hoo-ha?? There was also uprising in Tunisia, but hardly anyone knows about it. But Eygpt has become such a big isssue because it has lots of resources and lots of countries including heavyweights on USA depend on those resources. Therefore if the people rebel, they might make their own decisions and maybe not want to supply them with resources anymore.

Egypt has huge reserves of natural gas, and liquified nitrogen gas is exported to many countries. Egypt has also developed an energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas and hydro power. There is also substantial coal deposits in northeast Sinai and are mined at a rate of 600,000 metric tons per year.

Therefore with all these resources, no wonder so many countries are so concerned about the uprising in Egypt.

Blog Prompt 21.2.2011

The blog prompt for today was 'Can the machine ever replace the teacher?'.

I think that a teacher will be better than a machine. This is because a machine needs input, and will spit out all and only what is put into it. Nothing more, nothing less. The teacher at least can plan out what he/she wants to teach. The teacher can teach what is necessary only, but he/she can also add in extra tidbits to give the students more knowledge on the subject he/she is teaching. I also think that a teacher is better than a machine because a teacher, firstly, is a living thing and has feelings. The teacher is able to care for the students, know their needs and address their needs, unlike a machine because like I said earlier, has only one function which is to proclaim whatever is fed into its system. Secondly, the teacher can respond to his/her surroundings. The teacher can reprimand and punish students if they turn too rowdy. He/she can also liven up the class by adding in games and discussions so that lessons will not be too boring. However, the lessons the machine gives will be so boring as the machine will just drone on and on in its monotonic, mechanical voice, just reading out everything that is fed into it.

Basically, a teacher is better than a machine because a teacher is a human and knows how to interact with other living things i.e students. That is the primary reason why the machine will never ever replace the teacher.

Blog Prompt 17.2.11

Today, we were asked to discuss on the song "Where is the Love?" by the Black Eyed Peas.

In the song, the issues addressed were terrorism, discrimination, war. These are my thoughts on the issues addressed in the song. On terrorism, the song says "Overseas yeah we tryin to stop terrorism But we still got terrorists here livin In the USA the big CIA the Bloodz and the Crips and the KKK" This is probably talking about the terrorism efforts in the USA. Apparently, the USA tried to help friendly countries eliminate their terrorism threats while still being faced with terrorism threats themselves. I think that the USA should first try to eliminate or at least neutralize their own terrorism threats and only help other countries when they are really in need and crying out for help. Although this may seem selfish, it is the best solution for USA. This is because when the USA still has its own terrorism threats and yet still try to help others, it may seem that they are not practicing what they preach. Also, other countries might not want the help of the USA when they see that USA also has terrorism threats themselves as they might not have confidence in the ability of USA to exterminate the terrorist threat.

The second issue mentioned in the song is discrimination. The lyrics of the song which addresses this issue are "But if you only have love for your own race, Then you only leave space to discriminate, And to discriminate only generates hate, And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah". I think that what the Black Eyed Peas are saying is very true. You cannot just love your own race and do not care about people of other races or even not like them. This is because when you do not like people of other races or do not care about them, you will start to discriminate against them. If everybody on the Earth just loved their own races and discriminated against other races and the whole world would be divided into the different races, against the saying "United we stand, divided we fall".

The third issue is war. About this particular issue, the song says "If love and peace is so strong, Why are there pieces of love that don't belong, Nations droppin' bombs, Chemical gases fillin' lungs of little ones, With the ongoin' sufferin' as the youth die young". On this issue, I also agree with the Black Eyed Peas. There really has to be more love in this world. After every war, people always say that everything is now well and this is the last war, and then what happens? Another war takes place again. I think that war only comes to place when two or more parties have totally exhausted all methods to see eye to eye with each other. And I do mean ALL METHODS. Even then, the parties should not resort to violence and war as this will just lead to, as the song says, "People killin', people dyin', Children hurt and you hear them cryin' ". Therefore everybody needs to care for each other more. Look out for each other in every moment. Try as much as possible to come to an agreement without resorting to violence, even if it means that you are on the worse side of the deal. If both parties were not so stubborn, a lot of wars, killings and foolish things would not have happened and the world would have been so much more a better place.

Household Smaller but more Affluent

Today I just read an article entitled [Household Smaller but more Affluent]. Basically it is about the latest Census 2010 on households and housing released yesterday. According to the census, the average household size dropped to 3.5 from 3.7. The percentage of homes containing only elderly people rose steadily from 2.7% in 2000 to 4.6% in 2010. Also, the percentage of people who were living alone rose from 8.2% in 2000 to 12.2% in 2010.

I think that this is a very bad sign because these number show that more people are not looking after their parents and only care about earning money for themselves. I think that as young people grow up and mature, they should not throw away respect for their parents as firstly, without their parents, they would not exist and secondly, their parents love them dearly and brought them up to what they are today, and therefore they owe all their lives to their parents.

Through the survey, I can also see that Singaporeans are now more money-oriented and are obsessed with earning money. This is because nearly half of married couples are drawing dual incomes. Singaporeans should concentrate more on their families and not be obssessed with money. There are just so many things money cannot buy.

Two S'pore hotels named and shamed

This post is about an article entitled [Two S'pore hotels named and shamed] . This article is quite old; it was an article in Wednesday's Straits' Times on 9 February 2011. Basically, as the title suggests, it is about TripAdvisor's 2011 list of Top 10 dirtiest hotels in Asia last month.

The Goldkist Beach Resort, a group of chalets located in East Coast Park, Singapore, topped the list. Some of the reviewer's complaints were dirty toilets, stained sheets and towels and roaches. Anothe Singaporean hotel, The Aspinal's Hotel, was ranked third on the list. Some of the reviewer's complaints were that there was a stale smell, the bathroom was filthy, and that there were bedbugs on the mattresses.

I think that these hotels should put more effort into the cleanliness of the hotels. This is because this will have a negative affect on Singapore, the hotels in Singapore and even the hotels that were listed themselves.

Firstly, having such filthy and unkempt hotels will spoil Singapore's image and lower the expectations tourists have on Singapore, especially since that Singapore has been labelled a clean and green city. Having hotels in the list of dirtiest hotels is already absurd enough for Singapore, let alone having one hotel in third place and still another one topping the list!! What's more, this list was made public, meaning that the whole world now knows that Singapore has such filthy hotels. How will foreigners now look at Singapore now?

Secondly, all the hotels in Singapore will also be affected just because of these 2 'black sheep'. This is because when tourists, after staying in those two filthy hotels and go away furious, they will have a mindset that all hotels in Singapore have such low standards and will not want to stay in other hotels in Singapore. This will affect the income of the hotels in Singapore and even Singapore's tourist industry.

Lastly, and needless to say, the hotels listed will themselves also will be affected. This is because once people come to stay, they will never want to ever come back. This will make the income of the hotel drop and drop until the hotels collapse, especially after this list has come out, as now the whole world knows which hotels to avoid if they come to Singapore.

That is why the hotels listed MUST brush up their cleanliness!!

More employers are giving convicts a second chance

I just read an article in Monday's Straits Times. It is entitled [More employers are giving convicts a second chance]. According to the article, a record of 2459 companies pledged to give former convicts a second chance- up 13 per cent from the 2118 registered with the Singapore Corporations of Rehabilitative Enterprises(score) in 2009. A record number of inmates and former offenders were also assisted by Score in their employment efforts last year.

I think that this is a very good sign. This is because if employers give convicts a second chance, then the convicts will then perhaps turn over a new leaf. Doing work will also take the convicts' mind off all the evil things or crimes he has committed in the past. Only then can the convicts really turn over a new leaf and even become successful in the future and earn good, clean money. If the employers do not give the former convicts a chance, they will have no jobs and no income. Only in this rotten situation do ordinary people turn into criminals, because they have no other path to go. In the same way, if former convicts are deprived of proper jobs, they will once again sink into the underworld and go out and commit crimes again.

Hey, the computer gave me an A for my essay

Today, I read an article entitled [Hey, the computer gave me an A for my essay]. It is basically about the computer marking system that some schools like Crescent Girls' Secondary have adopted. Firstly, hundreds of essays are fed into the computer to 'train' it to tell the difference between a bad essay and a good one. Then, teachers setting assignments will choose from a list of topics stored in the database of the computer to give to the students who will write their essays and then feed them into the computer which will grade the essays according to their content, style of writing, grammar and spelling. The software also points out mistakes and tells the students how to correct them.

There are pros and cons in this system. The pros are that mistakes, especially in grammar and spelling, will never be missed and therefore the student can learn and correct more mistakes. A whole load of work is also taken of the teacher's shoulders.

However, the cons are that the topics students are tested are likely to revolve around those stored int he database of the computer and nothing more. Moreover, readers of stories everyone aspires to write are humans, live beings with feelings. A story needs to be able to touch a reader, or make the reader furious, or get the reader excited. Only then is it considered a good story as it can engage the reader. However, how hard one may try, one is never able to 'engage' a computer, and this is the most important point of writing a good story. Therefore, I think that teachers are more suited to mark students' essays as they are humans and students are given a chance to attempt to engage them before they take on the feelings and emotions of the world with their powerful weapons- their books which they have written.

Blog Prompt 30.1.11

Hi. This is the blog prompt for 30.1.11 because I forgot to do it earlier. This is about a survey in which 67% of youths aged 15-35 have friends of different race, religion, or nationality. I think that we should try to make friends of other backgrounds so that we can understand them better and also know more about their practices and so on so that we will not offend them without knowing it ourselves. For me, I do not have friends of other backgrounds because my primary school was a Chinese school and now I am in Hwa Chong which is also a Chinese school so I have no chance of even meeting anyone of a different background. Personally however, I think that making friends of different backgrounds is too troublesome, firstly because friends eat out together more than any other thing they do together and therefore you have to know what your friend cannot eat and also choose a food that both of you like and also are able to eat. Secondly, you have to put up with their different practices which can be very muddling, and if you forget them even briefly, you might offend and hurt them deeply. So I am already very happy with my circle of Chinese friends who are all just like me.

Blog Prompt 7/2/2011

The blog prompt for today is about MM Lee's statistics on student backgrounds. His statistics show that most children who came from wealthy families would be more successful in life while children who came from broken or poor families would not do as well academically.

MM Lee says that he believes good parents would produce good children who would succeed in life but at the same time also believed that every school should have meritocracy.

However, I believe in the exact opposite. I think that it all goes down to the parents and children themselves, not their financial positions. A rich parent could either spoil the child by working everyday and supplying the child with no end of toys to keep them happy, causing the child to be unsuccessful in life or the parent could take the child in hand, look after him properly and give him a proper education, causing him to be successful later on. The child also has responsibility. If he is willing to learn and hardworking, he can become successful even if he is left on his own, but if he is unwilling to learn at all, even the best tutor cannot make him successful.