According to thefreedictionary.com, utopia is any real or imaginary society, place, or state considered to be perfect or ideal [coined by Sir Thomas More in 1516 as the title of his book that described an imaginary island representing the perfect society, literally: no place, from Greek ou not + topos a place] .
A Utopia is the perfect society people wish to achieve where everyone is happy about what they do. This is nearly impossible, as many people would rather relax than work, and someone would have to work to get the luxuries the people desire. Besides this, everyone has different interests, and it would be virtually impossible to facilitate everybody so that everyone will be happy.
An element that contributes to an utopia is order. A place where everyone is at ease. A place where nobody works, nobody is doing anything stressful and everyone is having fun. Perfect communication is also there, where nobody feels insulted or insults, and there is good understanding between everybody. Another element is the lack of trouble, where everybody works together in perfect harmony. A utopia also has everyone doing what they enjoy, and enjoying what others do too.
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Friday, 20 March 2009
The Lottery
Revelance to today:
From the lottery, we can learn a lot about the way the villagers live. The villagers are stoning the person for the fun of it. The rest of the villagers, not having been stoned before, would not realise the pain of the person being stoned. The children may even think of it as a fun and exciting event, where they can exercise their violence. When the children grow older, they will continue the ritual. Throughout the years, the villagers forgot about the rest of the ritual, but only remembered the stoning. Why? This is because it is the most exciting part of the event where the villagers feel superior to the person being stoned and can do anything to the person without the person retaliating or being able to complain to someone with authority. All the children assemble first, which can show that the children are excited by this event. Tessie Hutchinson arrived cheerfully, which shows she is excited about the stoning. When she is the one who is chosen, she feels that it isn't fair and it isn't right, as she finally realises how it feels to be helpless.
In our society, many people behave like these villagers. When they watch others stoning people or join in the stoning, they do not defend them as they do not know how they feel, but as they enjoy the activity they continue to do so. After enjoying the stoning so much, they refuse to stop in these activities. This is especially in the case of bullying in the school. Bullies do not want to stop and want to have fun so they continue to bully. In the story, nobody stands up for the person who is chosen as they are afraid that they may be stoned, like nobody dares to stand up for victims of bullies as they are afraid they may be stoned. In the story, the villagers use the stones to stone the victims and encircle them to prevent them from coming out. In school, students may find what the bully says to be amusing and thus join in. In the story, when Old Man Warner, who had stoned for many years, knows that some villages were quitting the lottery, he felt irritated as he had never experienced being stoned and had fun stoning for many years and insults those who stop the lottery. Thus, asking these villagers to stop the lottery is quite hard as they have fun doing this and there is no one to stop them.
In school, when the bullies are reprimanded, they feel irritated and do not wish to stop as they have fun doing so. The students would not want to stop bullying the victims as they enjoyed the past events and do not see the disadvantages of bullying. Thus, asking these students to stop bullying is quite hard as they have fun doing this and there is no one to stop them.
From the lottery, we can learn a lot about the way the villagers live. The villagers are stoning the person for the fun of it. The rest of the villagers, not having been stoned before, would not realise the pain of the person being stoned. The children may even think of it as a fun and exciting event, where they can exercise their violence. When the children grow older, they will continue the ritual. Throughout the years, the villagers forgot about the rest of the ritual, but only remembered the stoning. Why? This is because it is the most exciting part of the event where the villagers feel superior to the person being stoned and can do anything to the person without the person retaliating or being able to complain to someone with authority. All the children assemble first, which can show that the children are excited by this event. Tessie Hutchinson arrived cheerfully, which shows she is excited about the stoning. When she is the one who is chosen, she feels that it isn't fair and it isn't right, as she finally realises how it feels to be helpless.
In our society, many people behave like these villagers. When they watch others stoning people or join in the stoning, they do not defend them as they do not know how they feel, but as they enjoy the activity they continue to do so. After enjoying the stoning so much, they refuse to stop in these activities. This is especially in the case of bullying in the school. Bullies do not want to stop and want to have fun so they continue to bully. In the story, nobody stands up for the person who is chosen as they are afraid that they may be stoned, like nobody dares to stand up for victims of bullies as they are afraid they may be stoned. In the story, the villagers use the stones to stone the victims and encircle them to prevent them from coming out. In school, students may find what the bully says to be amusing and thus join in. In the story, when Old Man Warner, who had stoned for many years, knows that some villages were quitting the lottery, he felt irritated as he had never experienced being stoned and had fun stoning for many years and insults those who stop the lottery. Thus, asking these villagers to stop the lottery is quite hard as they have fun doing this and there is no one to stop them.
In school, when the bullies are reprimanded, they feel irritated and do not wish to stop as they have fun doing so. The students would not want to stop bullying the victims as they enjoyed the past events and do not see the disadvantages of bullying. Thus, asking these students to stop bullying is quite hard as they have fun doing this and there is no one to stop them.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
How Singaporeans are doing their part to save the environment
Singaporeans do a lot do their part to save the environment. Firstly, they recycle used water to get water through NEWater, where used water is purified. Secondly, there are rubbish bins around, to prevent litter from being thrown all over the place. This helps to reduce the amount of rubbish being littered around the place. Singapore also has many nature reserves to preserve the wildlife flora and fauna in Singapore, and there are many trees along the roads. Singapore also treats waste water before allowing it back to the ocean, so that poisons and toxic waste will not be released into the sea, and will not poison the fish.
Singapore also helps the environment by using the rubbish for landfills instead of dumping them and cutting down tress for this space. Singapore also recycles paper, plastic and metal, instead of throwing it away. This helps to reduce the amount of trees cut down, amount of metal mined and amount of plastic made. This effectively reduces the amount of rubbish produced. Singapore also makes sure that everybody does not destroy the habitat, imposing a law which bans people from plucking flowers from parks so as to conserve the environment.
Singapore also charges for plastic bags on Wednesdays, to discourage people from using plastic bags and use reusable bags instead.
Singapore also helps the environment by using the rubbish for landfills instead of dumping them and cutting down tress for this space. Singapore also recycles paper, plastic and metal, instead of throwing it away. This helps to reduce the amount of trees cut down, amount of metal mined and amount of plastic made. This effectively reduces the amount of rubbish produced. Singapore also makes sure that everybody does not destroy the habitat, imposing a law which bans people from plucking flowers from parks so as to conserve the environment.
Singapore also charges for plastic bags on Wednesdays, to discourage people from using plastic bags and use reusable bags instead.
Sunday, 15 February 2009
New Fish
Last week, I bought 3 new fishes from Qian Hu Fish Farm. The picture shows one of them in the quarintine tank. Please see if you can identify the type of fish this is.
Monday, 9 February 2009
Interviewer: Good Morning, Miss Kinnian.
Miss Kinnian: Good Morning.
Interviewer: Being the former teacher of Charlie Gordon, how do you feel about Charlie before the operation?
Miss Kinnian: Charlie used to have a good nature, was interested to learn and was eager to please others. Charlie was a sociable person who liked to be with friends. When I first saw him, I was surprised how he managed to find my learning school all by himself. I found out later that it was due to his motivation to learn to read and spell and to be smart. Charlie asked many people where he could go to learn. I was very happy to have him as he showed genuine interest and tried very hard. I was unsure if he should take the operation in the first place as I thought that Charlie would stop communicating with others and that he would change to a anti-social man.
Interviewer: How did you feel about Charlie after the operation, during the first few weeks?
Miss Kinnian: Good Morning.
Interviewer: Being the former teacher of Charlie Gordon, how do you feel about Charlie before the operation?
Miss Kinnian: Charlie used to have a good nature, was interested to learn and was eager to please others. Charlie was a sociable person who liked to be with friends. When I first saw him, I was surprised how he managed to find my learning school all by himself. I found out later that it was due to his motivation to learn to read and spell and to be smart. Charlie asked many people where he could go to learn. I was very happy to have him as he showed genuine interest and tried very hard. I was unsure if he should take the operation in the first place as I thought that Charlie would stop communicating with others and that he would change to a anti-social man.
Interviewer: How did you feel about Charlie after the operation, during the first few weeks?
Miss Kinnian: After the operation, I got to coach Charlie personally. During the first few weeks, I learned a lot more about Charlie and felt happy that he was given this opportunity to prove himself. I felt a lot of pity for him as he was bullied by his so-called friends and yet he still treats them so well, not understanding that they wanted him around to make fun of him, due to his trusting nature. Charlie also behaved very nicely to me and it was nice to be able to talk to him as an equal. I was sorry that somebody with such a good heart would be manipulated by the society so that they could laugh and make fun of him. Charlie was stilll good-natured then, and could communicate well with me.
Interviewer: How do you feel about the Charlie-Algernonn experiment as a whole?
Miss Kinnian: I do not think that it was successful. As Charlie got more intelligent, Charlie treated me less nicely and could not communicate well. All Charlie did most of the time acquire more knowledge to benefit himself. Soon, by looking at his progress reports, I could see that Charlie was getting more proud and arrogant. I felt very sorry for Charlie as he could not communicate. When he started his mental degression, he made me feel bad when he asked me to go away. I think that Charlie felt very bad about his mental regression as I heard from Miss Flynn, his landlady, that he was very violent in his room and refused to go to work. Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur had also stopped giving Charlie his salary after seeing that the experiment was a failure. It made me feel bad on how they treated Charlie like an animal instead of a human being. If Charlie had not gone through the operation, he would not have to be hurt this way.
Interviewer: Thank you for your time, Miss Kinnian.
Miss Kinnian: It was a pleasure to meet you.
Interviewer: Same to you.
Saturday, 7 February 2009
The Taximan's Story
1. The main irony in the story is that the taximan is against the way the younger generation who get tourists as their boyfriends for money and for love, when he makes money from them. The taximan makes a lot of money out of these girls and tourists for his daughter to get into university, and yet the daughter was actually like the people he made money from.
2. The themes raised from the story were love, disobedience and discipline. The taximan was very happy that the daughter managed to get good grades in school and was prepared to send her to university as he loved her very much. However, the daughter disobeyed her father and went with her friends to befriend tourists and stay back to make love. The father felt that he did not discipline the daughter well, like his father who disciplined him by caning. The taximan beat up the daughter in his anger and locked her up in her room for three days as he was ashamed of his daughter. The taximan wants to provide for his daughter but the daughter wants to have fun instead of studying hard.
3. Yes, as many other teenagers are behaving this way as well. The taximan drove many people like his daughter around to hotels, and thus the story is believable. Also, the taximan was not very educated and the grades may have been forged by the daughter to trick her father into thinking that she scored very well. The taximan also knows of many other kids who behave that way.
4. The taximan is a person who cares alot of his own family. This can be seen through how he works to get money to support the family. The taximan even drives people round and round and charge them by the meter so that he can earn extra money. However, when people bargain with him, he gets angry, as he has less money to support his family with. I feel sympathy for the taximan, as he has to work so hard everyday to earn a bit of money so that his daughter can go to university . However, his daughter refused to work and instead disobeyed him.
5. Yes, as many teenagers nowadays behave like that. His daughter should not have cared only for fun and should have put herself in the shoes of her father, who worked so hard so that she could go to a university. She could have instead tried to study hard and persuade her friends to stop their ways and try to study hard as well.
6. I feel sympathy for the other girls that boarded the taxi, who gave the taximan a lot of money they earned from their boyfriends. They were throwing their lives away and as their parents were not aware of what they were doing, they did not intervene. The taximan should have not drove them to their destinations and instead asked them to go back home, instead of taking advantage of their money. They might not be able to make a living in the future because of that.
2. The themes raised from the story were love, disobedience and discipline. The taximan was very happy that the daughter managed to get good grades in school and was prepared to send her to university as he loved her very much. However, the daughter disobeyed her father and went with her friends to befriend tourists and stay back to make love. The father felt that he did not discipline the daughter well, like his father who disciplined him by caning. The taximan beat up the daughter in his anger and locked her up in her room for three days as he was ashamed of his daughter. The taximan wants to provide for his daughter but the daughter wants to have fun instead of studying hard.
3. Yes, as many other teenagers are behaving this way as well. The taximan drove many people like his daughter around to hotels, and thus the story is believable. Also, the taximan was not very educated and the grades may have been forged by the daughter to trick her father into thinking that she scored very well. The taximan also knows of many other kids who behave that way.
4. The taximan is a person who cares alot of his own family. This can be seen through how he works to get money to support the family. The taximan even drives people round and round and charge them by the meter so that he can earn extra money. However, when people bargain with him, he gets angry, as he has less money to support his family with. I feel sympathy for the taximan, as he has to work so hard everyday to earn a bit of money so that his daughter can go to university . However, his daughter refused to work and instead disobeyed him.
5. Yes, as many teenagers nowadays behave like that. His daughter should not have cared only for fun and should have put herself in the shoes of her father, who worked so hard so that she could go to a university. She could have instead tried to study hard and persuade her friends to stop their ways and try to study hard as well.
6. I feel sympathy for the other girls that boarded the taxi, who gave the taximan a lot of money they earned from their boyfriends. They were throwing their lives away and as their parents were not aware of what they were doing, they did not intervene. The taximan should have not drove them to their destinations and instead asked them to go back home, instead of taking advantage of their money. They might not be able to make a living in the future because of that.
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