Hitler's speech--analysis

This speech is about how Hitler wants the country to be; not to collapse and be obedient to the government. After listening to his speech, I felt the charisma in Hitler and finally understood why the German people adored him so much. This was because his speech was so convincing and the people were somehow 'brainwashed' by him. The overwhelming response of the people after the speech tells us that how much they revere him.

It was during probably the election time when he gave this speech as he wanted the people to vote for him and hence get the power of the whole country. He was actually quite clever in the sense that he could craft his speech so well to persuade almost half Germany to vote for him and statistics shown later were in his favour.

In my opinion, I think that his speech was actually quite true at that time as there was a Great Depression and the German economy fell weak. Hence, Hitler wanted to tell the Germans that must bbe loyal their motherland and serve the country when they were young and not waster their teenagehood doing other things. Hitler also wanted the people to be obedient as maybe he was afraid that some people who were after that not agreeable with him and would overthrow him. If I am in the crowd that day, I might be convinced and perhaps carried away by the speech without even using critical thinking.

Great Leader

If you would ask me who is a great leader in history, I would say that David Ben-Gurion is one fine example. He was the first prime minister of Israel and helped Israel fight for independence, returning to their homeland after centuries. The Israelis were being invaded by several countries and were caught away to be slaves in another country. Hence, the kingdom of Israel was split up and Jews were scattered all over the world. In a chapter in Isaiah, God mentioned that He would gather Israelis all around the world to come back and be reunited in thier homeland. This Ben-Gurion helped them.

He was born in a poor Polish-Jewish village and was clever from young. He had good oratorical skills, which most leaders have. He was a good planner and thought of an excellent idea for Israel to be united again when times were dire. During World War 2, Jews were being round up by the Germans and were killed. Most countries denied asylum so he thought of an idea. He inspired tens of thousands of young Jews from Palestine to join the British army in fighting the Nazis, but at the same time authorized an underground agency to ship Jewish refugees into the country. As the British were intercepting, deporting and locking away these survivors of the Nazi inferno in barbed-wired detention camps, world opinion grew more and more sympathetic to the plight of the Jews. This strategy helped bring about the favorable atmosphere that led to the 1947 U.N. resolution, partitioning Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.

Later, he helped Israel achieve peace by resolving conflict among the Middle East states. Hence, I think he is a great leader as he was a person who had the initiative to reunite the long lost country and had the will to achieve independence for the nation's people. I think that such attitude and mindset are good examples for us to learn.

The Lottery

I think that this story has great relevance to our modern day society. Humans are cruel by nature. We cannot avoid it. In the story, they were cruel for the sake of a good harvest. Now, we bully other people or even harm them just for the sake of our own benefits. Sometimes, we also fail to reject what is wrong in the society and continue to do it without thinking of the consequences and sometimes even cause huge problems to the world.
Hypocrisy is also very common nowadays. Tessie Hutchinson was very cheerful when she arrived at the lottery and even joked when it was supposed to be a solemn ceremony when somebody was bound to die. However, when she was chosen to be stoned to death, she claimed that it was very unfair when she support it for years. This also represent how selfish someone can be. She stoned other people in the past but now, when it was her turn, she said that it was not fair and demanded a redraw. The world is very unfair and nothing is fair to anyone. Some people may be better than the others. Hence, we cannot make the world fair but what we can do is to be fair to others first and we would naturally not feel the unfairness that is around us. We can learn a lot from the story such as thinking before we do, think through if the thing is logical and humane before materialising it and not following the tide and stand up for our own say when we think that things should not go by that way etc.

$110 - the pessimistic post

$110. I would not forget this sum of money. I wasted it due to the compulsory camp. It went down the drain. Let me elaborate on it.

Nothing was positive there. Once I stepped into the campsite, I could sense a premonition that nothing good was bound to happen. The most common voices heard was. "Headcount!", "Line up in two straight rows!", "Distinguish yourselves!" So irritating... We are already distinguished enough to go into a good school. What for distinguish ourselves in this camp. I feel so despised. Why do the student leaders need to head count every single minute? How could we escape from this dilapidated and unmodernised place? There is only one bus and we do not even now where it goes to! I feel so depressed at the thought of being treated like a primary one schoolkid. Even if we get lost, we are also able to find a solution right? And somemore, they use the tone like used in the army. Why can other leaders be gentle while you need to scream and shout at us, making yourselves unpopular as ever? I think you are the ones who caused the camp to have very low ratings.

Next, you force us to do things that we do not like, especially a clean person like me. You force us into the Milo pond but you do not have enough time to do so. You force us to sit on the mud. You force us to wait till our stomachs grumble like bears then allow us to eat. Yet you want us to have fun. Is that logical? Is that fair? Is that dictatorship? Is that 'humane'?

The food we eat is the lousiest quality. The rice and fish soggy, the chicken cold, the fruits sour. Is that enjoyable? We pay $110 to enjoy these things? You must be joking. But you are not. I am so relieved to be out of this terrible camp.

Edit to Scarlet Ibis 2

In Scarlet Ibis 2's post, I made a mistake. The perception of winged creatures for the second part is wrong. It was my own perception. Hence, I wish to clarify this mistake.

The Peacock has a ten-foot tail which is considered a very long one. In the beginning of the story, there was a a description of a tail when naming Doodle William Armstrong. Hence, the peacock in his own fantasy story refers to himself as he wants to be admired and respected by others. Peter also refers to Doodle as his robe was so bright that even the sunflowers turned away from him. Only divine light can do this kind of thing. Hence, the winged creatures refer to angels and James Hurst, the author of the story, thinks he symbolises one.

Conman or Patriot?

Look at this news article.

Is he, Cai Mingchao, a patriot or a conman? Actually, I personally do not take any particular stand as both sides may be somehow logical. He was willing to stand up for his own country for getting back the precious statues by 'violating' the Christie's rule and become somehow infamous. would you, readers, do that just to demonstrate how much a love your country and want to get back the statues desperately just for the heritage sake of the country? I think that most of us, including me, would not do that. That is how patriotic a person can get. You may think that lay man like us cannot and will not get this chance to show our great patriotism. However, simple things like singing loudly during National Day could also show that we love our country dearly. Hence, being patriotic does not need great things to be done.

Maybe he is also a conman, considering he did not pay for the statues after being eligible to do so. Yves Saint Laurent has the power to keep the statues but I still think that the statues should be returned to China. Yes, this two statues has been lost during the Opium War and should be the Westerners who keep them but still, it should return to their rightful owner.

China should also think about their past and instead of desperately wanting the statues back, they should reflect on their failure in the Opium War and treat that as an invaluable lesson.

This is a video showed to us by our form teacher, ms lee. I think this video of Van Gough paintings with background music by Chiyi is a very good one as it illustrates the starry night very well and I am somehow touched by the paintings. The paintings are very beautiful, with every stroke of paint illustrating the dark nights. Did you notice something? There is Snoopy in one of the paintings! Watch carefully and have fun searching!

Scarlet Ibis 2

To add on to yesterday's post, I would like to share what ms soh taught us about symbolism. Symbolism is to use something to represent something else. In my opinion, I think that it is a superb literary device to use during compositions although it may a bit hard for me. In scarlet Ibis, the author uses the scarlet ibis to represent Doodle. When it died, it foreshadows the outcome of Doodle later on.

When Doodle talked about the winged creatures in his fantasy stories, his main point was that he wanted to be free instead of being confined in his boundaries. He also wanted to tell others that he was proud of his brother and at the same time wanted attention in his story of Peter and his peacock. He yearned for his brother's love, care and attention. The wooden objects that his father made for him symbolises the fact that his parents has lost all hope in him and did not expect much of him. He was literally confined to his go-cart and his life seemed hopeless until his brother taught him how to walk.

But was his brother really that kind? No. I do not think so. He taught Doodle how to walk just because he did not want others to look down on him as having a crippled brother. To save himself from shame, he forced Doodle for trainings but was too harsh and in the end, Doodle died because of his inability to handle that amount of hard work. Hence, Brother could be indirectly responsible of Doodle's death.

The name of Doodle his brother gave him was probably the worst thing he had done to him. Doodling means to scribble mindlessly and unintelligently. That means that the author is trying to say that his brother was useless and nobody expected much of him.

I think that Scarlet Ibis is a great story to help us reflect on how we treat other people and the values of real love etc. Hence, I recommend all to read this book as it is both a pleasure to read and a tool for reflection.

The Scarlet Ibis

Now, as I am reading The Scarlet Ibis, I wonder if I had even reflected on some things nowadays. Was I also like Brother, forcing Doodle to be the same as the rest? Are parents nowadays forcing the best out of them? Are our parents like Daddy, confining their children in a certain area, not allowing to grow and learn?

Maybe or perhaps I was Brother.

I have a sister who is six and I always find her irritating. Why? Maybe because of the age gap like Brother and Doodle. They were six years apart and I am too with my sister. I cannot empathize with her and often find myself scolding her as a result of not knowing her somehow naive thoughts compared to mine. I always treat her as if she is my friend, but somehow, after a few minutes of talk, I find myself diificult to communicate with her as she has a completely different mindset. I being a considerably pessimistic, find that her thoughts are unworkable ALL the times. However, as I reflect on my past, I notice that she is in fact very mature compared to me when I was her age. Hence, some of her ideas are quite good in the sense of a six-year-old child. Although my sister is not slow, I always make her think that she is not right.

We should not be like Daddy.

We should not underestimate anyone as who knows? They might become someone famous and we may regret terribly like Brother in the story. We should not be like Daddy as he is TOO pessimistic and even thought Doodle would die even before he was given a chance to live. Parents should not give their child the understanding that they are very lousy, cannot make it to the top universities. Instead, we should help them know their strengths and develop on it. However, we should not be too forceful, expecting the best from the children. They must learn how to accept failures so instead of scolding them, we should give them a few encouraging words and teach them how to handle these failures. Hence, we should be lax in the sense that we give children the place and the opportunity to learn but not focing out the best of them, making them stressful.

Beach Cleaning

When we all hear 'Beach Cleaning' for CIP, we would pull our faces and say, "Why us? It should be the workers job." When we have that kind of thinking, we are wrong. We should try do our part to serve the community. Let me share the experiences I had.

Early in the morning 7 o'clock, we had to go to the beach to clean a lot. It was dirty there, and not a single patch of clean sand could be seen there. (I know that it is a bad rhyme...) It was true that Changi beach was extremely dirty. We could see all kinds of litter, from a shoe to a dozen batteries and from cigarette butts to Apollo biscuit wrappers. So atrocious. So inconsiderate. So funny. Can you imagine a shoe on the beach? Or a dozen of batteries lying around you when you are suntanning? It would be extremely unsightly. No wonder there were so little people despite the fact that it was a Saturday. East Coast Park is so much cleaner... (not trying to be bias.) I learnt that we must be considerate to the environment and the same time to the people around us. By doing that, we are actually practicing responsibility. Although we clean the beach for CIP hours, we should really learn to serve the community as the community has served us. Hence, we should not do this just because of the hours. (though sometimes I am that kind of people.) It was indeed a great learing experience for me to learn.

Complacency

Everyday we meet people who are complacent. Even the government was complacent. This led me to think about the Mas Selamat case. In his escape, so many people were affected. Even the common commuters travelling along the Causeway were affected. Who is to blame?

The goverment?

Or the erred guards?

Which one of them? Think about it. Did the goverment take too little action to maintain the detention centre? Or was it the guards who did not take too much attention on Mas Selamat?

Actually, in my own opinion, I think that both sides were complacent. The government thought that Singapore was a very reputable place for good security.Hence, they thought that enough has been made to keep the prisioners 'safe' inside the camps. However, did anyone of the ministers thought that some terrorist could actually escape through the toilet? And did the guards not pay much attention to him because they thought that the security was too good for Mas Selamat to escape? Please comment as this is no laughing matter and over lives could still be in danger under the escape of Mas Selamat. Nobody knows when would he appear again...

A Story II

(continued) However, two vigilant policemen passed by block 452. They saw a lift going up the block to the highest level and saw a shadow appear. Who was it? Why was the person there in such a deep night? Without hesitation and having the same thoughts, they ran to the lift and boarded up. When they reached the 16th floor, they saw slowly but carefully. They hunted when... bingo! The murderer was hiding between the flowerpots. Of course, he got arrested.

This is a story told by general Teo when I went to the Police Heritage Centre yesterday. The background information is this: There were a few continuous burglary near the bungalows of Dunearn Road. Hence, Sergeant Boo Tiang Huat tried to comb the area in the middle of the night. He and his companion saw a suspicious-looking men walking around the Newton Food Court. Hence, they ordered the men to empty the contents inside his huge haversack. However, he fished out an axe and chopped Boo's neck! Hence, he died instantly and was given the gallantry award by the president. This is just an example of a policeman who was willing to risk his life serving the nation. The main objective of this journey is to educate us about Total Defence Day and let us know the important role of a policeman in our society. We should follow their example and serve the country when we grow up, i.e. serving in National Service etc. It was therefore a meaningful and at the same time interactive and fun trip. I hope that there would more of such trips in future.

A Story

BOO was axed. Axed terribly. The axe could not even get out of his neck. Terrified, horrified, petrified were the murderer's emotions. He ran. Ran as fast as he could. HELP, he thought, I am so not going to be caught by the police. He ran to block 768 and went to the topmost floor. Where should I hide, he thought again, AH there is the place! Behind the flowerpots. No one will see me. Hehe...

Meanwhile, Boo's companion was in a shock. Witnessing a murder taking place! How terrifying was that! However, he immediately fished out his walkie-talkie and said," SOS! SOS! Back-up needed... ..." He waited and waited. They came finally. RUN LIKE THE WIND! GONE WITH THE WIND! They combed the whole Newton and Dunearn area. But to no avail. However... (to be continued...)

Valentine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. How did it come about? I have done a little bit of research on it. Please see below.

(Saint) Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. In the West, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The day was originally a pagan festival that was renamed after two Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines". Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.

One of the version of the origin of Valentine's Day is:

It was said that Claudius II banned young men from marrying as he felt that unmarried men could become wonderful soldiers. A priest named Valentine secretly helped a couple hold a wedding ceremony. It was said that Valentine was killed by the emperor for not listening to his law. Valentine died in AD269 14th February. Hence, 14th February is named Valentine's Day in remebrance of Valentine.

There are many more sayings of Valentine's Day. Personally, I do not celebrate this festive day as I believe that in such a young age, we should not be involved in such affairs. However, we can use this day to say a 'thank you' to our parents for giving us so much of their love and kindness. Happy Valentine's Day!

acknowledgements:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_day

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%83%85%E4%BA%BA%E8%8A%82

Flowers for Algernon

5. Should science be used to artificially improve someone's intelligence or external appearance?

As a christian myself, I totally disagree with this act. This is "playing god" and defying against Him. When god created us, He thought that everything he did was perfect and did not regret anything. Everyone is special and we should not change ourselves just to blend in with the others. That is all as this is a stub and not the 'official' question I would want to answer.

Flowers for Algernon

3. What makes an ideal human or the ideal life?



Actually, there are many aspects of ideal. Happiness, family, friends, discipline are all factors. The main topic I am going to touch on is happiness as it covers most of the other aspects. Without happiness, how are you going to live your life? Without happiness, how are you going to socialise with people? There is one story that I read before when I was young. It is one of the Mr Men stories. It is, as you may have guessed, Mr Mean. He was a very stingy person and would not even spare someone a coin when he or she needed it. He lived in sadness and had no one to talk to even though some people tried to to him. Finally, one day when he was sleeping, he had a vision that he would be going to be an old and lonely man and would die unnoticed. He was so afraid that he immediately became friendly and became one of the most popular person in town and was never called Mr Mean again. This simple story tells us that we should be kind to each other and thats makes our life more interesting and happier. If we are not happy and not socialise, then we are like Mr Mean. Freinds. If we do not have friends, even virtual ones, then we are living our lives for nothing. We cannot just have our families around us. We need to ourselves with others to know the outside world better and socialise. We might be mad if we do not interact with others. Family is also important. They give us encouragement everytime we need them as they are the closest to us. They are important when we meet failures etc. Orphans find themselves very lonely and have no one to talk to and usually remain lonely for their life. A person without discipline will find it very difficult to things as he or she does not have self-discipline to do things themselves without somebody to look after them. Hence, I think happiness, having friends, family and self-discipline is a an ideal human and can live an ideal life.

Chinese New Year is Over! ):

Chinese new year is over. That means that we must start to study hard and treasure our time. Yesterday was yuan xiao jie and the moon was very round. It is said to be the roundest moon ever seen since 52 years.

Cyclist on Bukit Timah Road Riding Dangerously

Yesterday, when I was going back home from school, I saw a cyclist riding dangerously. He was riding slowly in front of my bus 170. As a result, the bus had to keep to his pace as Bukit Timah Road was very jammed yesterday. If the bus driver had not noticed him, he would have knocked down the cyclist. I think that the cyclist should take care of himself and not put himself and others at risk. I think the government should also create a lane specially for cyclists like other countries such as the States. Cycling not only does not pollute the environment but is also good for one's health. Hence, I think the government should think about it as it is safer for cyclists and others near them.

The Taximan's Story

1. The irony of the story is that the taximan's beloved daughter went to cheat him and went to become a prostitute. That broke the taximan's heart as he had loved her and did not think that this kind of irony would happen to him.

2. The themes are: i. Self-dignity. -- Lay Choo did not demonstrate it.

ii. The abuse of the excuse of school activities. -- Lay Choo said that she had meetings and went to Orchard Road.

iii. Love of father. -- Father loved her daughter--> textual evidence --> he saved money for her to go to university.

iv. Perspective of taximan's family. --> Taximan told his version of story.

v. Irony -- see above

vi. Abuse of love -- Lay Choo did not respect his father who gave her so much love.

3.The story is very realistic as nowadays, students always use the excuse of school activities to go out and gamble, play, shop etc. However, teachers do not know this most of the time. Hence, I believe that the communication and interaction between parents and teachers is very important to prevent such things from happening.

4. I think the taximan is very greedy and and the same time should be sympathised of. He already objected her daughter to become a prostitute. However, now he goes to Elroy Hotel where many of them are there as he wants to earn more money. Hence, he should set a good example for his daughter to follow. At the same time, he is using this money to help his daughter to go to University. However, Lay Choon misuses his love and do the things that is not right for her to do.

5. I agree with his lamenting in some parts and am against other past. I agree with him lamenting about the behaviour and acts of his daughter but am against him lamenting about people bargaining with him. He should be more concerned about his family's well-being instead of complaining about petty matters.

6. I sympathise with the taximan's eldest daughter. She is so obedient and filial towards her parents but does not have good health whereas the second daughter is so unfilial but is healthy and strong. I also sympathise with the teacher as she does not know the condition of students nowadays. Being a teacher, she should know her students the best as they spend half of their time there.

Happy Chinese 牛 Year! (haha)

Today is the day of Man! Happy day! This year's Chinese New year was fabulous! First, we had the half-day celebration which was really wonderful. Firstly, we had an extra day off! (: Secondly, there were wushu, lion dance and many other performances. They were really wonderful and interesting. Next, we went to our former primary schools to see our teachers. It was nice to see my teachers back although they sometimes scold us horribly... They gave us all sorts of advices which were of at least some use to me. (haha)

Then our whole Lim family had renunion dinner at my uncle's place. Everyone was early and this should be the first time in history that that happened. (We were always late.)Then it was Chinese New Year! I slept to about 10 and our family was like OH NO! We are so late today! We reched my grandfather's place at 2. Then we exchanged mandarin oranges. (Actually all the oranges were taken from the same pile. (haha)) We went to take pictures of our entire clan at the park. My uncle, being a photography lover, took many scenes with care and creativity. But suddenly, it turned dark. Then I realised what was happening. There was a solar eclipse today! My family rushed to the science centre to witness the historical moment. It was so beautiful! I hop e there would be another one... (Yes, there would be another one on July 22 but its a school day so...) So this is the end of my happy new year. I am somehow rich and happy. How about you? Au Revoir! (By the way, I am learning french.)