Can Justice and mercy co-exist?

Many people from all around the world have debated Justice and mercy. Both are good to have but also hard to uphold. However, the problem is that whether this two can actually co-exist.

Justice is something like an eye for an eye type of resolution. For example, if you take someone’s life, your life will also be taken. Justice makes sure that the culprit will be punished, and also make the victim feel good because Justice has been done to the one who hurt him. Without Justice, the world will be in chaos. There will be murder, violence, robbery and many other things because the offender will not be punished and will hence, continue to continue. After a while, the whole world will collapse because there is too many of this. Therefore, Justice is important.

Mercy is something like the opposite of Justice, where the culprit is not punished but forgiven. An example is when a person kills someone, he is given a chance to turn over a new leaf and never commit his crime again.

Mercy can never co-exist with Justice. When a person commits a crime and if there is Justice, he will be given his punishment but if there is mercy, his punishment will either be lightened or removed.

In conclusion, I think that both Mercy and Justice are good virtues and are needed for a society to function well. The main thing is to know when to use Justice or Mercy. When a person has gone into a point where he cannot be forgiven anymore, then there can only be Justice.

Term 3 Week 5 What do you think is Shakespeare's intention of creating Shylock in The Merchant of Venice? Support your opinion with examples.

Shylock is one of the most important characters in the merchant of Venice. However, nobody is able to confirm whether he is “more sinned against than sinning”. Almost every story must basically consist of a villain and a “good guy”.

At that time, the audiences of Shakespeare’s play hated Jews. Hence Shakespeare made use of this and made Shylock a Jew character. His purpose in the play is to “play a villain” and stand in the way of the good people like Antonio, Bassanio and many others. Without Shylock, there also will not be the court scene, which is actually the most important scene the whole of Merchant of Venice. Hence, Shylock also helps to develop the story and make it more interesting and exciting, making the audience start thinking who will win- The Jew that they all hate, or Antonio.

When Shylock is stripped of all that he has. In every story, the villain will always lose. In this case, Shylock plays the part where the villain loses and does not get a pound of his flesh from Antonio, and even ends up losing his money, pride, and religion.

Hence, we can conclude that Shylock actually plays an extremely important part in the Merchant of Venice as without him, there would not be any plot or climax in the story.

Term 3 Week 4 (Blogging Assignment) Read the following Newsweek article, How to Raise a Global Kid, byLisa Miller (July 18, 2011) http://www.newsw

Jim Rogers’s main point is that with the world’ rapidly evolving economy, we must have a global perspective and stay connected to the rest of the world and must also have a good grasp of various languages.

As we all know, America has accumulated a tremendous debt of $14.46 million, far worse than 2006, and its debt crisis is becoming ever more pressing. Although America is the superpower at the moment, Jim Rogers is critical of this, because many other countries are also rising. An example is China, which is developing very quickly each day. In the 21^st Century, the children will have to meet foreign people, especially those from China. Hence, we will have to start getting exposed to other languages so that we will be able communicate with other people from other countries in future.

I agree with Jim Rogers’s argument, as America will no longer be the one and only superpower in the world. Although English is still widely used, the other languages are also equally important now. Also, even though America might be a superpower, it will still have to depend on other countries such as China and Japan for technology and knowledge. China is also extremely capable of producing cheap goods, many of which are of almost equal quality of the original goods made from America. Of course, many people will actually choose the goods from China because they are cheap and good. Even in Singapore, schools are teaching their students third language, which shows how even Singapore already recognizes this fact and are trying to help its citizens to prepare for the 21^st Century.

Hence, it is a must to be able to speak foreign languages and not just English because it will be to our advantage, as we will not only be depending on America in the future but also many other countries.

Term 3 Week 3 (Blogging Assignment) Read the following letter: http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/07/12/an-open-letter-to-the-education-minister-fr

Singapore is developing very quickly and nowadays, almost everybody has received education. However, there are still some flaws in the education system in Singapore.

I think that what Janelle Lee said is quite true. Singapore’s education is very examination-based. In order to score well, a student simply has to memorize all the information that the teacher asks them to and they will certainly do well. I feel that this is not the right way. This will actually cause many problems. For example, many people will think this way” As long as I get an A1, nothing else matters to me.” Also, memorizing facts will only give us very little help when we go to work. What we need is the application to real life, not just test papers.

Education should be something like really teaching us something and not cause at the end of the day, forget what we have memorized and graduate with little knowledge in our brains. Our examination marks should actually be given according to how well we understanding a topic and not how well we have memorized the information because memorizing facts does not actually mean that we really understand what the facts are and why they are so. In my opinion, I feel that schools should actually focus more allowing its students to be more curious and not only teach what is in the syllabus but move one step forward to explain it fully.

Schools should also focus more on developing a students’ character. People these days are getting more selfish and only care about themselves. Most of them are only concerned about things that benefit them and if a friend needs their help, they will not help. This is important as as the child grows up, he will not be able to “survive” if he has this type of attitude because if he himself needs help in future, no one will want to help me too. What good is getting A1s if a person does not know his moral values?

I feel that it is impossible to have an ideal education. In the first place, how do we define ideal? Is an ideal education a one that helps us and by simply memorizing facts, we can get A1s or is it one that can help us to fully understand facts so that we can learn more. According to Janelle Lee, an ideal education is where students actually not just memorize facts from their textbooks, but also take a step further to understand them. It is one where students learn out of their love for learning and also curiosity. However, as we hear many people say nowadays, their goal is to study hard, get into a good university, get a good job, and earn a lot of money. Hence, many people will still prefer the old way of education, where people can easily get As if they take the time to memorize chunks of information and facts and just simply write down what they have memorized during the tests.

Term 3 Week 2 (Blogging Assignment) An article entitled 'The Religion of Water' was published in The Straits Times on 7 July 2011. In the article, i

Water is a necessity for all living things, especially human beings. We need water in order to survive and without it, there would not be a single living thing on Earth.

If we treat water as a human right, then everybody, including the poor, will have access to water. However, of water is treated as a human right, then only the rich or the average class people will have access, and the poor will have to suffer as they will only get to have a little amount of water.

However, I think that water should be treated as a commodity. Although, 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, there is only a little clean water, while the rest are not suitable for drinking. Furthermore, many people nowadays are wasting water. For example, many of us often take our time to shower and also do not reuse water by for example, using the water used to wash rice to water the plants. We might think that this will only save a little water, but if the whole world does this, then a lot of water will be saved.

However, when water is cheap and everyone has ample water, we will start wasting it. Hence, if water is treated as a commodity, then everyone will learn to reuse it as the poor, who will only have a little access to it, will try their best to save water. The average and the rich class will try to save a little of it as the price of water goes up. Hence, our precious resource, water can then be saved as everyone will do their part to save water in fear that they will not have enough water.

Term 3 Week 1 (Blogging Assignment) Veteran labour leader Halimah Yacob recently called for the legislation of weekly days off for maids working in

In my opinion, I think that maids should be given weekly days off.

Maids are also human beings like us and human beings need rest in order to continue with our tasks. If we do not give our maids weekly days off, they will not be able to relieve stress and rest, which will result in the efficiency of their work suffering. Hence, it is not right to think that the maid will be able to do more things for us if we do not give them weekly days off, because after they have taken a break, they will be refreshed and all ready to serve us better. In this way, they will become more efficient as they will not feel that their work is boring, and this will even reduce the chances of them wanting to run away from their employers’ homes.

Also, if we give our maids weekly days off, then many of them would most probably go to shopping malls to buy the things that they like and also expensive food, to reward themselves for their hard work during the weekdays. In doing so, they would spend some money, which can help to improve Singapore’s economy. You might think that this is just one maid spending just a little sum of money, which will only help to improve the economy a little, but if everybody in Singapore does the same, then this will help to improve the economy tremendously as there are many maids in Singapore.

Hence, we can conclude that there will be many advantages not only for us, but also for the whole country if we give our maids just weekly days off. If we can help our country just by doing something so simple, then why not?

Online Learning

Some information about the author:

Steve Carlsen was born and lives in Dowagiac Michigan. He joined the United States Army in October 2000 and went to Infantry Basic Training, and Airborne School in Ft. Benning Georgia. He then reported to D Company 1st battalion 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 82nd Airborne Division in Ft. Bragg North Carolina.

He deployed to Kosovo in November 2001 as part of peacekeeping operations. He Deployed to Afghanistan in of December 2002 where he participated in combat operations. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 2003. He currently attends Southwestern Michigan College where his professor, Dr Michael Collins challenged him to write about his experiences.

Point of view

The author is very likely to be someone who has experienced a war as his description of the war is very good and can only be from someone who had experienced the war and knows a lot about wars. For example, he knew that it would be noisy, which can be seen from “The noise is tremendous, terror I can’t define”, and also that they would have to sleep with their boots on, which can be seen from “We slept with our boots on so we were always prepared”. There are also many other examples.

Situation and setting

The war was at Kindu Hush, near mountains, which can be seen from” Those majestic mountains so steep, so high they kiss the skies” and “The Hindu Kush has changed so many lives”.

Language/Diction

We can see from the first line “they unloaded the dead and maimed right before our eyes.” that the author’s comrades were being maimed and we can infer from this that the author and his comrades had lost the battle and was one of the lucky ones to have escaped and survived.

Also, we can see from “We fought from the valleys to the mountain peaks, from house to cave, to car to creek, Dirty and tired and hungry and scared, we slept with our boots on so we were always prepared” that the author and his comrades had fought really hard even though they were losing the battle. They were determined to escape although it was nearly impossible because they were outnumbered. It also shows that they have fought for quite a long time.

Conclusion

This poem is a good one as it is so descriptive that it really makes and helps me to create and imagine a scene in my mind of what the author is going through although I am only the one reading his poem, not the one experiencing what he had experienced. Also, the content is interesting and realistic, making it one of the best poems I have ever read.

Should students be given more freedom in deciding school rules?

Term 2 Week 5 (Weekend Assignment)

Write a short essay of about 300 words on the following question:

'Students should be given more freedom in deciding school rules.' What are your views?

Post your essay on your blog. This will be a good practice for your common test. Think about what I've taught you about writing a good essay.

Many parents are now complaining about the strict school rules like no eating and drinking in class, only white shoes being allowed, handing up their homework on time and also many more. However, has any parent every thought about the reason why the school set all these rules? Surely, the school would not set all these rules for no reason. The school would obviously not try to harm its students but instead help them. So why?

Many students nowadays are very indiscipline as many of their parents work all day long and have no time to spend with them and to supervise them to make sure that they are doing their homework and revising for their examinations instead of playing too much computer games. This is where school rules come in. The students are punished when they do not do their homework. That is what makes students who are undisciplined do their homework.

Also, eating in class would dirty the classroom and if the students cannot even not eat in class, then how are they supposed to not eat in their rooms, especially when their parents are out and there is no one to remind them not to do so. Sooner or later, there would be insects in their room and there would be great trouble.

To conclude, if students are given freedom in deciding school rules, then they would most probably remove the rules stated above they would also have to face the consequences stated.

The slideshow

In this lesson, you will be exploring the theme of 'war'.

View the slideshow of war photos (the link below). Choose one photo and describe the photo. Your descriptive piece should focus on the mood and atmosphere of the photo chosen. Your objective is to evoke emotions of your reader through the description of the mood and atmosphere of the picture.

Your descriptive piece should be about 250 words long.

I crawled on the ground, trying to escape from the bullets of our enemies. There were bloodstains, dead bodies, debris, and dying people everywhere. The place was very messy and gunshots could be heard every single second. The people were running in every direction and trying to escape. I was shot and injured in the leg and hence, had no other choice but to crawl and also act dead at certain times. I used the debris of the buildings and also the corpses to protect myself from the incoming bullets.

My clothes were torn and tattered and my shoes had many holes in them and were also covered with blood. Even my gun had run out of bullets. Our enemies were all over the place and had totally outnumbered us. I was lucky to have been only hurt in the leg and not killed as almost all of our people was dead and I was one of the only few survivors left.

Slowly crawling, I threw rocks at the enemies from their backs and mot of them hit their heads and knocked them out. The others that missed surprised them, as they did not know where the stones and rocks came from. The stones were good “ bullets” as they were abundant and could be found from everywhere. There were those from fallen buildings, those from the ground, and also those that were from broken machinery. I knew that I would be killed if I kept throwing and hence, I only threw at those who were near to me and had a high possibility of spotting me from the debris.