"Long night of questioning for 80 youths"

This article was taken from an edition of the Straits Times.

Basically. the article is about 80 youths, aged between 12 and 21, who were alleged to have been helping a loan shark syndicate by distributing name cards and pamphlets advertising illegal moneylending services. The youngsters have since been released on bail. The youths were being paid $14 for distributing 1000 pamphlets and $16 for distributing the same number of name cards. The instructions given to the kids was simple: distribute the pamphlets and name cards for three days before being paid. The father of one of the kids who were arrested said that his son had responded to an advertisement on classified website Gumtree and did not even know that he was working for a loan shark syndicate.

I think that the kids should not be blamed as doing so would only be unfair to them. After all, they are youngsters and are hardly as mature as adults. Most of them, like the boy mentioned above, probably responded to the advertisement and took up the job because they wanted some extra pocket money and anyway, they also had nothing to do during the holidays too. Additionally, the youngsters also did not know that they were working for the loan shark syndicate. Hence, they should not be blamed.

On the other hand, I think that the loan sharks are really cruel to do things like that. They are adults, hence their thinking is more mature and also, they know the minds of children as they themselves have also been children before. Hence, when they posted the advertisement, they were taking advantage of the inmature thinking of children as they knew that the children just wanted extra pocket money and hence would sign up without question. Therefore, it can be inferred that these loan sharks are really despicable.

Blog Prompt 5.7.2011

The question for today was: Should the US have dropped the atomic bomb on Japan in World War II?

The dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the deaths of many innocent civilians. The next generation of civilians was also affected by sicknesses such as radiation poisoning. However, was the dropping of these two atomic bombs really necessary?

First of all, the dropping of the bombs were the reason for the end of World War 2. The bombs completely decimated the two cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According the the pilot who was instructed to fly there to survey the damage, a scar in the land which was still burning and a great plume of smoke was all which remained. Animals, humans, buildings had all been seared to nothing. Why was it necessary for the US to bring about such an extent of destruction on a city in Japan, which was already on the losing side. Moreover, the US has already been bombing 67 cities of Japan, so why should they suddenly drop the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Furthermore, was not the decimation of Hiroshima and the deaths of about 90,000 to 166,000 people cruel and tragic enough? Why the second bomb on Nagasaki?

Well, the answers will all be explained here. It was most probable that even the U.S, the creator of the atomic bomb, did not know the extent of its power as no other country has ever created an atomic bomb. Hence, it is highly possible that the bombing of Hiroshima was both a so-called test drive for the atomic bomb and also serve as a warning to Japan of the destruction the U.S could cause and therefore maybe get Japan to surrender. Therefore, it is not necessarily fair that the U.S had meant to cause such destruction in Hiroshima. On the other hand, the second bomb on Nagasaki was dropped because before that, the U.S had already issued an ultimatum to Japan that if Japan did not surrender, the U.S would then actually drop a second bomb on Japan. However, because of the fighting spirit of the Japanese, they would not surrender no matter what. Hence, the second bomb was then dropped on Nagasaki. Therefore, these pieces of evidence show that the U.S did not necessarily mean and want to cause so much damage in the two cities.

Another reason why the U.S dropped the atomic bombs on Japan might be a show of power by the U.S. It is important to note that the U.S entered the war more out of revenge than of peace. It had all the high technology weapons and hence it was more satisfied to sit back and make money out of selling those weapons to other countries needing them. However, then came along Japan, who had already signed a peace treaty with the U.S. Japan bombed the U.S's Pearl Harbour. U.S was probably extremely angered by this betrayal and entered the war to defeat Japan so as to take revenge. Thus, it could also be said that the Japanese actually brought the disaster upon themselves.

"Taleban's latest weapon, Child Suicide Bombers"

This article is taken from the Straits Times.

Basically, the article is about the Taliban now turning to using women and young children, especially young children, to become suicide bombers and carry out their dirty deeds for them. For example, some members of the Taliban in Afghanistan, two days ago, approached a seven year old girl and asked her to carry a package to the nearby police contingent for them. Then, as the child approached the vehicle, the men detonated the bomb in the bag she was carrying from a safe distance using a remote control device. Amazingly, all the policemen survived, but the child was literally blown apart. In another case, a boy believed to be between 10 to 12 years of age managed to slip past 6 security cordons and detonate the bomb on his vest, killing 30 recruits who were training there.

I am just so disgusted with the Taleban for committing such acts. How could they resort to using children and women to carry out their suicide bombings? They exploit the innocence of children and mental weaknesses of women, the supposedly weaker type of people, to carry out their evil deeds because they themselves just do not have the guts to carry it out themselves. They are the ones who are unhappy with others, for some reason or another, but to the point that they have the desire to kill those who do not practice what they do. However, when they do not dare to kill, they get others weaker then them, thorough brute force or lying, to do it for them. I think that this is the behaviour of cowards. If they do not dare to do it, then why do it at all, let alone get others to do it for them through underhand means?

Also, the children and women who do their dirty deeds for them are innocent. They do not have grudges against anyone. They just want to live their lives peacefully. They are living in a country which is poor, hence they do not even have big plans for themselves. However, even that cannot be granted to them!! It is so ironic that the members of the Taleban satisfy their thirst for blood and get what they want by denying others what they want to have, for example denying the women and children suicide bombers the merry, peaceful life they yearn to live. Essentially, what the Taleban is doing now is dragging others into their grudges and their fights. Take the pitiful girl for example. She thought that she was being kind by helping the men take the bag to the police contingent and hence she was probably feeling all good and melty inside. However, her reward was to have a short life ended so abruptly and probably with great agony. How is this being fair to her? I do not think that any of the Taleban actually have families and kids. If they do, they are just inhumane. This is because if they have their own children, then they will probably know what love is, how precious their children are to them. And yet, they can snuff out the lives of other children without blinking an eye.

In short, the Taleban are made up of savage, unfeeling men who should not even be called humans. They can watch a life being snuffed out and yet be indifferent about it. The acts they engage in are horrifying and cruel. They should be destroyed as quickly as possible. Ironically, I believe that most people would rejoice over their deaths just as they rejoiced sadistically over the deaths of the innocent, as the earth would then be rid of much evil.

"The Wonder of Not Knowing"

This article is taken from an edition of the Straits Times, but it is actually from the New York Times. It is basically about the essence of not knowing and its many benefits.

If you really think about it, like how this writer obviously has, there are a lot of advantages of disadvantages of not knowing things.

I agree that life must have been much more exciting in the past. This is because people, especially children, asked a lot of question about a large variety of things. Therefore, because of the lack of technology, they had to find out the things themselves. Life would have been more exciting because of the thrill of looking for the answers by oneself, and the satisfaction and pride that one had found out something and widened his pool of knowledge using his own means. Nowadays, although it is certainly much easier to find out things which we want to know, for the information is just one mouse click away, it takes away all the excitement which existed in the so-called "good old days". The curiosity only lasts a while because it can only last for the time which we take to boot up the old laptop.

I personally like to read about the unexplainable, or related topics, like mystery stories. This is because knowing that no one can find out the answer makes the whole issue extremely mysterious and exciting. Knowing that there is actually an answer, as the writer says, takes away the mysteriousness of the whole issue and leaves me quite disappointed. I can truly testify to this, and so can anyone else. This can be accomplished simply by picking up a mystery book. While still thick in the plot, one feels excited and curious about why this and that happened, and how it is going to solved. However, when one reaches the end of the book, where the mystery is solved, one feels a twinge of disappointment because alas, there is an explanation for all the things which happened in the crime, in the mystery. The next time one reads the book, all that excitement is gone, because one already knows what happens. The suspense no longer exists. This may also be the reason why people like to watch horror flicks. Because there is suspense. There is the crawling on one's skin and the cold clammy hand over one's heart. That is exciting.

However, there is still a downside for not knowing, which is quite obvious. The reason is that one will not be able to enhance one's knowledge and know how the world works. Man has long looked for answers to how things work, and since different people have different ideas, Google appeared. This search engine provides comprehensive answers to almost any question one can think of, and not from only a few but instead a seemingly endless list of sources. This is so that people can search for answers as easy as 1,2,3 and satisfy their thirst for knowledge.

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"Ask and you will be rewarded"

This article is from an edition of mypaper. Basically, it is about the writer, despite being Asian and the Asian culture where people normally feels very inhibited from asking. However when she picked up courage, she met with unexpected results. Firstly, when she picked up courage to approach the counter to ask for a replacement of fries when they were not prepared well, the fries were replaced without question and thus the write was very much relieved. The second incident was at a shoe shop. The writer would get a discount if she was to buy two or more items, but as she only needed one pair of shoes, she decided to ask another shopper if they could combine their purchase. Fortunately the shopper agreed and hence she got to enjoy a better discount than she would have asked.

I think that this kind of behavior should be encouraged, especially among Asians. I do not know how this kind of thinking came about, but it seems 'integrated' in us Asians, including me. Sometimes when some one whom I have never met or just met a few times asks me if I would like to have some snacks, I accept because I feel uncomfortable about saying anything else. I strongly agree with the writer that 'if we ask questions, we would learn so much more than we would by keeping silent', even though 'Most of the time, we are afraid that we would be laughed at for asking a silly question'. Also, if we ask, there are only two ways to go from there: one is to be rejected, the other to be accepted. However if we do not ask at all, the answer will forever be 'No", rejection. We have to ask to clear our doubts. If we walk around all day will a head full of clouds, how are we supposed to get anything?

In my opinion, the prime reason why Asians are afraid of asking questions is because they are afraid of being embarrassed, or diu lian, in Mandarin. That is where the problem comes in. The solution, however, should be very simple. One just has to cope with rejections and embarrassment from time to time. These are parts and parcels of life, which one has to go through. It does not matter if one is embarrassed, because at least one's doubts about that certain problem are cleared. However, trying to get over embarrassment is a very big obstacle, which may explain why although the solution is so simple, so many have trouble getting to it.

"Marcus Chin ordered to pay wife $4k a month"

This article is basicially about how freelance radio and television personality Marcus Chin, 57, was ordered to pay his wife $4k a month. Initially, when he walked out on his wife, who is called Madam Yan, he promised to pay her $6000. However, when he took up with a 25 year old woman who has since borne him a daughter, he told Madam Yan that he could only afford to pay her $1500. The latter took the case to court and hence after a four0day maintenance hearing in the Family Court, he was ordered to pay his wife $4000 monthly and $7000 in costs. Marcus Chin's reasons for not being able to afford to pay Madam Yan the sufficient amounts of money were that his income had shrunk to $9000 a month 'as a result of the very public fallout from his affair with Ms Eileen Cheah, the mother of his daughter.' However, he failed to explain why his income was now less nor gave evidence of what it was before. However, I also fail to understand why $9000 is not a sufficient amount of money for a family of three to live on. Also, even after he gives the promised $6000 to his ex-wife, he still has sufficient amount of money as $3000 cannot be said to be very little and also, it is highly impossible that he has no savings of his own from the days when according to him, he had much more salary.

Marcus Chin also said that he stopped performing in getai during the Seventh Month from 2009, and that his earnings from such shows in that month accounted for half of his annual income. This excuse is just ridiculous. He stopped of his own accord, so who can he blame but himself? Therefore, this excuse is totally invalid.

Why are Singaporeans just like that, especially actors. First it was Jack Neo, and then now Marcus Chin. First of all, a wife is supposed to be one's partner for life. If one wants to marry a certain woman, one must be prepared to overcome all the obstacles in the course of the marriage and not just walk out on one's wife. Secondly, a promise is a promise. One must stick to one's promise no matter what and also be prepared to face the consequences if one breaks the promise he has made.