Controversial comments taken out of context

Politicians and Public Figures can speak their mind in public or private conversations. Discuss.

I believe that politicians and public figures should not speak their mind in public conversations. The politicians and public figures are important people in the society, what they do will be reflected upon Singapore and Singaporeans do look up to them as well. The bad publicity that we will get from this incident might cause distrust from other countries. I don’t think that speaking their minds is a bad thing to do but I do believe that they should be mindful of what they say as their words carry a lot of weight. Devastating wars can be ignited from a simple exchange of words. People tend to get defensive when facing criticism and the human ego plays a huge part in it.

Foreign Minister George Yeo slammed the released of the comments which he described as “gossip” and “cocktail talk” that should have remained confidential. However in my opinion, he should not be talking about such things with other people in the first place. The comments were highly disrepectful to the other nations and this will definitely cause friction between the countries. For example calling Malaysia a confused and dangerous state due to incompetent politicians, Singapore and Malaysia already has strained relations over the sale of water supply with this attack launched towards them, Malaysia could feel unjustified.

I also feel that Wikileaks is not fair to the policitians and public figures involved as they might have taken the words out of context, making a mountain out of a molehill. We should give the policitians the benefit of the doubt as we do not know how true the source is and the fact that they did not know that someone heard their conversations. I feel that Wikileaks should not be published in the first place as some of the documents are highly confidential and private. We are all human beings and everyone tends to gossip a little so what's wrong with speaking their mind in private conversations? However, Wikileaks do give the people transparency in all the governments decisions so they have a plus side too. They show us the things that the government might try to hide from us and if the nations have nothing to hide, they should not be afraid of Wikileaks at all.

Answers regarding Week 7's questions issued

Should the government allow people to "resign" from life? e.g through suicide or euthanasia
No I do not believe that the act of suicide and euthanasia should be allowed in Singapore. Singapore is a small country with no natural resources and our biggest asset is our people. If suicide is legalized, everyone will turn towards that resort for every small matter, we would lose a lot of our people. And the fact that everyone turns to the easy way out through suicide, we are not able to learn from our mistakes or try to find a way out of our problem. This will lead to Singaporeans giving up easily. However, Singapore does practice the Advanced Medical Directive Act. It is is a legal document that you sign in advance to inform the doctor treating you (in the event you become terminally ill and unconscious) that you do not want any extraordinary life-sustaining treatment to be used to prolong your life. The AMD is about letting nature takes its course for the terminally ill at the last stage of their lives.

escapism, should we take away the virtual life from singapore?

I do not think that virtual life should be taken away from Singapore to a certain extent. The virtual community is a growing community in the world. Yes, one may argue that there are negative effects of the virtual life. One may be so engrossed into his virtual life that he is unable to differentiate between reality and the virtual world. However, the virtual world has it's advantages too. Through the virtual world, we are able to make friends from different parts of the world, we are able to communicate and have a cultural exchange. According to Wikipedia, "Online communities seem to have a direct impact on civic participation. 20.3% of members do something in real life at least once a year to support a cause related to their online community. 65% of members have started involvement in civic causes since they connected to the Internet. 43.7% are more involved with social activism since connecting with their online communities. Over half of virtual community members sign into their respective communities every day and 70% interact with other members daily."

Therefore, I believe that the Virtual Community should not be banned in Singapore but the government should take measures to ensure that the line is not crossed. Technology is taking over the world, if Singapore bans the virtual life, we will be losing out to other countries in my opinion.

Peace Prize

Peace and Patriotism and at what price or Prize? Discuss

The Nobel Peace Price is one of the five Nobel Prizes given by the industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. According to Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize should be awarded to the person who have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for holding and promotion of peace congresses.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 Liu Xiao Bo is a democracy activist who has been jailed for 11 years on subversion charges. I think that it is a pity that the Chinese government has to resort to such an action to show their prowess or to silence the messenger. According to the article, there are members of Beijing’s intellectual community who disapproves the Nobel Peace Prize committee’s decision, as they believe that Mr. Liu does not deserve the award and they also see it as an unwanted lecturing by western countries. Getting the Nobel Award should be considered a great honour as the notable awardees are Nelson Mandela, Jean Paul Dunant, Aung San Suu Kyi and Barack Obama. Liu Xiao Bo was not able to collect his award by himself but what made the matter worst was the fact that he was not allowed to send any representative to collect the award as well. His close friends and wife have also been put under house arrest, police surveillance or even barred from leaving the country. It is sad to see China reacting like this as the Nobel Peace Prize serves to advocate peace around the world and by doing such extreme measures, they are showing the world how unappreciative they are and is causing more tension and criticism from the others.

I think that China should open up more towards other countries, allow more interaction and loosen up a little. They blocked YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to protect China’s local social networking industry and to effectively control information flow from the outside world. An example taken from Penn-Olson.com, “On Oct 8, the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee granted Nobel Peace Prize 2010 to Chinese citizen Liu Xiao Bo for “his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”. As soon as this announcement was made, thousands of Renren users began to share their thoughts. In fact, many paid honor to this Nobel Prize Laureate, which weren’t well received by the administrator. Within a few hours, all these information were removed.” This really shows how much the government does not tolerate any form of criticism and it is a waste to see that people are not given a freedom of speech. They are not unable to speak freely as there is a fear that if they show any form of criticism, they will be in some kind of danger.

China comes out with alternatives toward the Western such as the Confucius Peace Prize to counteract the Nobel Peace Prize; they have Youku instead of YouTube, Renren instead of Facebook and Weibo instead of Twitter. Are these actions good for their countrymen? Or are they just afraid of the Western culture being spread into their country and the criticism they face from their own people?

Man found dead at Queenstown MRT

Could this be a case of 0$P$ or a suicide? Gaming and Gambling addiction as well as depression and suicide are phenomena on to take note of - how should the Government of Singapore deal with such issues?

It is sad to see people taking life so easily. Everyone is given the chance to live but some just chose to give up. There are people who are diagnosed with terminal diseases but they chose to fight for their own life and cherish every moment that they have while some others are born healthy and yet they take their own lives. This article addresses the incident where a man was found dead after being hit by a train. The victim is a Chinese man in his late 40s, the police have classified the case as unnatural death and are investigating. Which brings us to our next point, what exactly has caused the death of this man? Could it be a suicide or a case of owing money and being unable to pay the debts so he took his life. I believe that it could be a suicide due to depression or the man’s gambling addiction gone out of control.

Gaming and gambling addictions are two of the rising issues that almost all countries including Singapore faces. In Singapore, we are exposed to all sorts of gambling day in day out. For example, the 4D (four digit number game) draws on every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. On Mondays and Thursdays, there is TOTO. The Singapore Pools also offer football betting whenever football matches are played which are usually the weekends or some times Wednesdays and Thursdays. From the above, we can see that everyday, there is at least one type of gambling conducted in our country. To me, it is just typical Singaporeans, give them four numbers and they go crazy. It might be human nature to feel excited when taking risks and the feeling gained from gambling could be no different. “Will my numbers come up?” “Will my team win?” The sense of anticipation creates an adrenaline rush, a feeling that some people believe they cannot live without.

How should the government of Singapore deal with gambling issues? The government has brought up the issue of gambling addictions again and again. They try to create as much awareness as possible through commercials seen on the national television, on the radio and through new media. There is the National Council on Problem Gambling and there are helpline and help services provided. It is important to educate our people and I believe it is up to the person himself to know his own limits. The government should also enforce stricter laws on illegal gambling and have more patrols so as to prevent illegal gamblings from happening. At this rate, the chances of people getting a gambling addiction would be reduced. There are too many cases of gambling gone wrong where people got into debts and are unable to pay the loan sharks. Driven to desperation, they committed suicide.

Gaming addiction is more prominent within our nation, where users play compulsively, isolating themselves from social contact and only focusing on game achievements rather than life events. People get addicted to gaming because they like the challenge of completing these games. It gives them a sense of being on top and being the best at what they are doing. It gives people confidence and satisfaction. To them, it is like an escape from reality.

The government set up the Inter-Ministry Cyber Wellness Steering Committee (ICSC) to educate the public on cyber wellness. In addition to that, schools also conduct workshops on cyber wellness for their students. There is also a cyber wellness centre set up by the non-profit organization Touch Community Services’. I feel that the government should play a stronger role in dealing with gaming addiction issues. Gaming addictions can be serious among the young adults these days, students are encouraged to look for their school counselors who are trained on managing addictive behaviour.

All in all, I believe that most gaming or gambling addiction is due to culture in our country. It is popularized through the word of mouth for the case of gaming addiction. If one's friends are all interested in one game, he will definitely join the bandwagon. It is important to know your own limits and know when to stop. Occasional gaming and gambling is okay as long as we don't get overboard.

Depression and suicide are also phenomena to be taken note of. According to the Ministry of Health up to 9% of our adult population suffer from depression and close to 6% of the senior citizens are also affected. In this fast paced society, people can get a lot of stress through work, family or even social. The depressed patient might not be aware of his own illness and sometimes depression even lead to suicide. I feel that everyone should take care of the people around them, if you see your friend feeling sad and having the loss of interest towards social activities, or even thoughts of death and suicide, you can try to talk to him or even encourage him to seek professional help so that a tragedy would not happen. Our country has a series of helplines provided if anyone needs someone to talk to.