Japanese earthquake and tsunami

Japan suffered from a 9.0 magnitude earthquake on 11 March, Friday. This incident teaches us Singaporeans to be well prepared and not to take things for granted. I am impressed by the Japanese on being well prepared. Although Singapore is not in the earthquake zone, we should still be well prepared in any case of such incident happening. I think most of the Singaporeans do not know how to react in any case of an earthquake hence I hope that they can make use of this opportunity and learn from the Japanese and not think that Singapore would not have earthquake and hence do not learn. I am also impressed by the Japanese as they were able to unite as a nation to overcome this incident. I hope that we Singaporeans can learn from them and stay united when we meet a crisis.

Literature

I think that literature means to me learning about life. Sometimes in literature, there are moral values to learn. For example, To Kill A Mockingbird teaches us to be tolerant, compassionate and not to be prejudice against others. Moral values are important as it will help you to live life better. Literature can help one change his perspective of life. Literature also helps to improve your imagination and creativity. It teaches you to further analysis it and enable you to gain knowledge through that. It is because in literature, the language used is quite different and there are poetic devices like metaphor and assonance.

Racism

In my opinion, I think that not enough actions have been done to combat against racism. In the past, there is many cases of racism in USA but now the number of racism cases had significantly decreased. Although many countries had put in effort to stop racial discrimination like hold world conferences against racism, there is still cases of racial discrimination. Today, there is still people thinking that their race is more superior than other races hence leading to cases like racial segregation. I feel that racial harmony is very important as we can avoid misunderstandings and also conflicts of different races. I hope that more actions could be taken to combat against racism like having people of different races to come together and understand each other better.
I think the government in Singapore had done well in combating against racism. There is Racial Harmony Day for people to come together and understand other races cultures. Also, the government makes sure that each HDB flat have different races to prevent racial segregation. By having different races in HDB, people of different races can live together in harmony. I hope that more such actions could be taken against racism so that races can live together in harmony.

Reflection on CIP

On Monday, 21st March, it was Founders' Day. Most of my friends went to ST. Andrew's Cathedral for CIP. However, I was involved in another CIP which was the Lion Dance performance. Some of my CCA friends were also involved in this performance. As there were two performance, one in the morning and one in the evening, we had to stay in school for about 6 hours. We spent most of our time in the library playing chess and reading comic books. The rest of our time we spent playing hide and seek around the school.
The lion dance performance was not too bad as we had been practicing for a few months. I was glad we were well prepared so nothing would happen. However we were scolded and punished by our seniors because before the performance, as we were waiting for quite long for the VIP to arrive, we started chatting with each other as made quite a lot of noise. Hence we were punished. From this, I learn that I should wait patiently and not make a lot of noise as it would leave a bad impression on others. I hope that I would not make such mistakes again.

What I learned from Mississippi burning

From the movie ' Mississippi burning', I learned that we should not be prejudice against people as it would bring them fear and would make them suffer. We should try to have a good relationship with everyone around us and not despise them just because they are different from us. In the movie, the Mississippi people were prejudice against coloured people and would always burn their houses and hurt them. This caused the coloured people to fear them and also suffer a lot. Hence, they did not dare to tell the FBI about it as they were afraid of getting involve and end up getting hurt. I hope that everyone would be treated equally so no one would have to suffer.

Singapore Short Story Draft 3

Year 2488. What would Singapore become…?
It had been centuries since Singapore become an underwater city long before I was born. Due to greed, our ancestors had polluted and destroyed the environment by carrying out one of the many activities such as deforestation and the building of factories to increase productivity which were very profitable back then. It was because of the booming economy which makes them great money-making opportunities. For the sake of developing the country, the people had neglected the harmful effects of such activities. Over decades, as the vehicles on the road increase, it eventually leads to a serious air pollution which causes huge masses of dark clouds to fill the sky. Also, global warming caused the sea level to rise rapidly. Global warming was caused by excessive use of vehicles and also the increasing number of factories. Thus, the environmental condition was no longer suitable to support life as there was serious air pollution and the sea level had risen very high.
Fortunately, the scientists had predicted this outcome year ago and after years of researching, they finally invented a impenetrable bubble that prevents anything from entering it and at the same time, it is able to provide endless supply of air to support the living things surviving in it. Each special bubble also known as the ‘crystal ball’ is able to hold more than 2 million people and several bubbles were built deep in the sea and placed beside each other. All the ’crystal ball’ are connected to each other hence it is easy to move from one bubble to another. If people wants to leave the ‘crystal ball’, they can do so by leaving through a specially built exit that would enable you to leave the ‘crystal ball’ without allowing a lot of water to enter. Scientist also invented a special suit that would allow people to move normally like in land when in water without slowing down and also able to convert dissolved oxygen into oxygen. Hence people were able to move in water freely.
In these ‘crystal balls’, you can see many high rise buildings for people to live in. This is because if we have high rise buildings, we are able to save more space to be able to accommodate more people and also have more space for recreation like parks. I heard from my grandfather that life in the ‘crystal ball’ is almost the same as life except that we have the problem of land constraint in the ‘crystal ball’ hence the government needs to have a proper planning. During my leisure time, I would go to the park and fly kite or cycle. I find this much more relaxing than playing computer games.
When I was younger, I was always curious about what is in the outside world. My grandfather was about 20 years old when the government wanted every Singapore citizens to shift in to the ‘crystal ball ‘as the environment outside was not suitable for living. My grandfather had experienced to outside world before and I would always ask him to tell me about it. I was very interested in the outside world but my parents would not let me go out as they say that it has been polluted and the air is not fresh hence if I went out, it would be very harmful to my health. Hence for a few centuries, not a single person ever dared to go out of the water. They also told me that the sea level had risen very high hence there is nothing much for me to see. However, I was determined to leave the ‘crystal ball’ one day to see what Singapore had once look like.
One day, I went out of the ‘crystal ball’ to the sea to have a swim and relax myself. While swimming, I saw a sea turtle swimming. I was interested in knowing where he was going hence I followed him. I followed him for a while not knowing where I was going. Soon, as I was swimming, I was blinded by bright light. Out of curiosity, I swam upwards trying to find the source of the light. Finally, I reached the surface and found out that the bright light was the sun. When I realised that I had went up to the shore, I was shocked and felt scared. I look around and noticed that the environment was nowhere near what people had described the outside world of. There were no black clouds in the sky and the sky was clear. I walked forward and noticed that there were a lot of green trees and also many birds in the sky. The environment must have recovered on its own when we were not around. The sea level had decreased greatly and now I am able to see the land. Amazed by this discovery, I immediately went back to the ‘crystal ball’ to tell my parents about my discovery. They were shocked at first and did not believe but finally I managed to convince them to follow me. When they arrived at shore, they were shocked beyond words. They immediately went back and told people about it.

Soon, everyone knew about it. People started to leave the ‘crystal ball’ to go to shore to witness it themselves. People finally get to know what it was like in the past. Some people even started to live here on the land. Now people would be able to live in both water and land and there will not be a problem of overcrowding. I hope that our generation would take good care of the environment and not follow the footsteps of our ancestors so that our future generations can have a better environment to live in.

LA Reflective Writing

During an art lesson in Primary 3, we were suppose to use paint to paint our drawings. My art teacher told us to do our work silently while she go to the art room to collect some items. I was sitting down quietly painting my artwork when suddenly one of my classmate accidentally swung his paint brush and some paint went onto my uniform. I was shocked at the moment and immediately tried to use a tissue to wipe it off. I even used some water to wipe it however the paint was still there. My classmate did not apologise but continue to laugh. At that point,I was quite angry but I decided to continue with my work.
Just when I was about the finish painting, my classmate walked pass my table and hit my palette and paint was all over my uniform and painting. When my classmate saw that he immediately burst into laughter. I was very furious and without any hesitation, I took my palette and threw on his uniform. His uniform was also filled with paint. He glared at me furiously and shouted out profanities. All of a sudden, my art teacher entered the class. He saw my classmate scolding me and asked what had happened. After finding out the whole incident, he scolded me and my classmate and also decided to give us three demerit points each. We also had to apologise to each other. From this incident, I learnt that I should keep my cool at all times and not do anything without thinking of the consequences ever again.

LA Reflective Writing

I can still remember when I was about seven years old, I went to China, Shanghai, during the december holidays. When I was in the supermarket in China, I noticed that there are a lot of people there shopping for groceries. My mother told me to stick close to her to prevent getting lost in the crowd. We shopped for things that were not sold in Singapore. After walking for a while, my mother said she had a stomachache hence we went to find for the toilet. Because I did not need to go to the toilet, my mother told me to wait outside with my father. I waited with my father for a while and soon started to get bored. When my father was busy looking at the fruits, I walked away to the candy section without informing him. I was fascinated by the many variety of candies it sold there. I spend my time there admiring these candies.
After a while, I wanted to go back but I realised that I was lost. I did not know the directions back to the toilet. I started to panic and started to run around, trying to find my parents. Fortunately, one middle aged man saw me and asked what had happened. I told him that I was lost and did not know the way to the toilet. He told me not to be afraid and brought me there. The moment I saw my parents, I immediately ran towards them and hugged them. I explained what had happened to them and they thanked the man. From this experience, I learnt that whenever I am in a place which I am unfamiliar with, I should stick close to my parents and not run away without informing them to avoid getting lost again.