More help for pokect Money fund Students.

Title of Article: More help for pokect Money fund Students
Author: Grace Chua & Jessica Lim
Publisher: The Strait Times Home
Date: Friday, 29 August

Pocket money is a thing we frequently try to negotiate with our parents for. It is probably the only way for us as students to receive money and also on a regular basis. However even with this sum of money many of us are still not contented. We demand more money. We want the clothing we buy to be paid for by our parents. Even when we hang out with our friends we want our parents to “refund” us for the money we spent outside. Taking all these into account, to you maybe it would seem that it is normal. They are our parents after all.

However, after reading this article, I could not help but appreciate the things that I have around me more. This article left a deep impression on me and really showed me how lucky I really am. Often I would complain of insufficient pocket money or perhaps even not up-to-standard food in the house during meal times. But now looking back at all these luxuries, oh how fortunate for me to have all these things.

Now I am 15 and year 3 of secondary education. The pocket money of those children from more humble families get less than I do even when they are 17 as compared to when I was 13! It is quite shocking how often we tend to take things we get everyday for granted as we adopt an attitude where we expect to receive things from our parents. Little do we know how difficult it is to earn the money and the effort and time required?

From the article Mt Hamdan, works tries really hard and works hard just to make a living for his family. His family consists of his wife, homemaker, and six children aged 3 to 14. That would be a total of eight mouths to feed and currently earns $780 a month. If we take that into perspective, after covering the house bills and groceries for living, he would be left with a little or maybe no money for his children’s pocket money. They would not have enough money to eat in school!

With the start of this fund to aid people in similar circumstances, they will now be able to have some pocket money for the children and also more money to spend on their groceries. So with the start of this fund it would lighten the workload on the families.

I feel that this fund has the right intention at the right place. Pocket money is essential for a student to keep him well fed in school. I feel this fund is a good area to allocate some of the money from the government.

Democracy Creates a Stable Society

Firstly what exactly is Democracy? Democracy represents a system that is fair and treats everyone equally regardless of their race or religion.
Over the past few decades, there were many examples of racism and riots caused by it. Many people have lost their lives during those periods. This was often caused by a larger group of people from a certain race picking on the minorities who would be treated badly. One good example is the racism seen in the United States of America. For a long time the whites have been treating the African- Americans badly and were even considered them as their slaves. This racial prejudice is only due to the other party's skin color and they were being discriminated against.
Throughout all these conflicts the main problem is equality. Somehow through the midst of all these conflict it is the problem of seeing another group of people equal as compared to themselves. Therefore people have now demanded a democratic society. A society where everyone is equal in terms of rights and privileges. Most people belief that this is the ideal system to create a stable society. But how reliable is this democratic system in creating a stable society?
Well firstly I disagree to a small extent that Democracy creates a stable society. This is because as we all know that democracy gives an individual a right to vote. In the voting process of democracy, it follows the principle of majority wins. A country that has a much bigger majority than the minorities could vote for a government that would bring many benefits to them and not to the minorities. This therefore would result in riots and cause chaos within the nation. As a result there would be less and less people who would want to do business with the country while knowing that the country is unstable he might lose his investments at any point in time. In this scenario you can see that the nation will lose out both economically and socially.
However I agree to a large extent that democracy can indeed create a stable society. Not only does it provide equal chances and equal opportunities for the citizens, it also gives them a right to vote for the government. This means that the people have a say within the country and how the country is to be run and voting is the best way to elect a suitable government that would please the larger community of people. In addition to this, having a nation that is happy and pleased by the way it is run also provides social stability because there would not be any riots that would cause internal conflict within the country. This leads to a safer and more stable society. Following up my point in my previous argument about business from other countries. A stable society will then attract business to the country and therefore also benefit it economically. As for the political part of democracy. Democracy also creates a stable society because of liberalism. The government is elected by the people and if the government is not good, it can be changed. Therefore it is stable and progressive.

SocialStudies Assignment: Blogging About Democracy

"Democracy Creates Stability in a Society."

The Evolution Of Goodness

This report is basically talking about goodness and what drives people to do good. At the end of this long passage the writer finally reached the conclusion that goodness can only be performed when an act of goodness or kindness has been performed onto a person, then that person will have a better relationship as shown in the mathematical formula also known as "Hamilton's Rule".
However the examples of animals sacrificing themselves could not be resolved through Darwin's theory where by he feels that altruism was done to preserve their colony(which was the conclusion that Darwin finally decided to settle with) . But it did not fit into the idea that this was done through natural selection where organisms tend to adapt to the environment to survive instead of giving up their lives.
I feel that this concept is entirely WRONG! Accepting Darwin's theory means that we humans have relationships in order to survive. If anyone takes a look at this logically, they must be thinking this can never be true! Humans have emotions, feelings that affect our judgments, our decisions and ultimately our relationships with others!
Therefore I would like to end by stating that these theories of Charles Darwin and Henry Huxley are utter rubbish and cannot be proven no matter what way you look at it.

Singaporeans' Lack Of Social Graces A Social Disgrace

So sum it up, this article is written to the public to allow them realise their lack of social graces as suggested by the title. The writer is troubled by the fact that a large majority of Singaporeans do not exercise courtesy and respect for others. It goes on to say young university-educated Singaporeans who should be a more tolerant and enlightened are also committing the same "crime".

After reading this article, I thought about it and reflected on what it meant. I feel that this issue is indeed very real in Singapore. I myself have experienced too many times this disregard for others and this takes place most commonly in the MRT trains. During peak hours on the train, some people simply ignore others and before letting them step out of the train they rush aboard it afraid that they might not be able to get in later on. I feel that this kiasu nature of Singaporeans is the root of the problem. It might be because we are brought up in such a society that is very competitive. This up bringing eventually only becomes a bad habit and thus we are not sensitive to other people's feeling.

Just as the writer of this article ended of, this is what she wrote. "If Singapore is to increase its population with an infusion of two million people from the rest of the world, it can only be in our best interests to be, if not gracious, then at least civil."