Assignment 4 Ri Zhao and Zheng Qian 4C

Wang Ri Zhao (23) Chua Zheng Qian (18) 4c

Summarise from Paragraphs 6-9 why education might not be the best solution to poverty in about 100 to 150 words.

A research done presents a new look that contradicts traditional views of education enabling social mobility. Students believed that diligence is the main factor in deciding academic and career achievements. It is obvious however the opportunities, options and future of each pupil depend on the social class they are born into and their affluence. Education put up clearer border between each level of the social hierarchy. Students are categorized according to their abilities the day they arrived at schools. This is so even in top schools, whereby less affluent students are more likely to get lower GCSE grades than their compatriots.  The level of education parents have and the careers they are in have a great impact on the options taken up by their children. They welcome the idea of taking up jobs their parents once did instead of preferring to become much more affluent.

145 words

Do you think the author’s views on why education might not be the best solution is applicable to Singapore? Provide your reasons in 1 paragraph of no more than 200 words.

The author’s view on education is applicable to Singapore. Singapore’s education system is shaped to endorse the brighter minds. Higher ability students are sent to better schools with more resources and better learning environment to enable them to achieve their fullest potential. Students are separated according to their abilities since the start of secondary school after their PSLEs. This creates a social gap due to the fact that the higher ability students in top schools generally come a more affluent social class. These students inherited their richer parents’ “better” genes and have more opportunities for expensive tuition classes to be better academically than their poorer peers. With a better education received and more interaction with fellow bright minds in their elite schools presenting them better working opportunities in the future, students belonging to this exclusive group grows up be like their parents becoming richer than the average. The less affluent students stay in their social class as their families are unable to provide them with enrichment classes and also because poorer families generally care less about academics and advancing up the social class as they can be happy living in their social class given the high standard of living experienced by all Singaporeans regardless of their social status. This poorer group of students also have less opportunities in the future as their fellow schoolmates also belong to these less ambitious groups due to the segregation at the start of their secondary school lives. Hence education is not a tool to solve the problem of social immobility in Singapore and in fact may even encourage it to further develop. The author’s view on education might not be the best solution enable social mobility is thus true in the Singapore context.

198 words

Assignment 3 Why kids care more about achievement than others (ZhengQian and Rizhao)

Summarise in 100 to 150 words, the reasons why children value achievement more
Summary: A new study conducted in the name of The Making Caring Common Project at Harvard's Graduate School of Education has shown results indicating that, out of 10,000 surveyed middle and high school students, almost 80 percent had ranked achievement or happiness over the caring of others. The prevalence of such a trend can be traced back to the rhetoric gap between the values that parents attempt to inculcate into their children, and the behaviour of parents themselves. However, studies have proven that empathy is the key to a child's increased levels of happiness and success, as it activates the moral reasoning and characteristics which the child needs to maintain satisfactory relationships with others. Also, as discerning and perspective creatures, children can easily identify the meaning that parents wish to convey through their behaviour. Therefore, parents should make the extra effort to help their children, be it through encouraging them to view the world from multiple perspectives, or making them pitch in to household chores, or doing meaningful deeds for others on a consistent basis.
Do young people in your society care more about achievement than helping others? If so, why do you think that is happening in your society and how do you think we can inculcate in them the importance of helping others?
Reader Response: The young people in my society seems to care more about achievement than helping others.Singapore is a meritocratic society. With the increasing acceptance of skilled foreign talents into our society, Singapore is becoming more competitive than ever in terms of jobs, social standing, salaries and work environment. Everybody aims for a high paying white collar job capable of promosing them a life of comfort, and the main criteria for such jobs is based upon one's achievements in life, as the notion that achievement is equivalent to one's capabilities is a widely regarded one. As such, despite claims made by parents that development of moral character is an essential part of their children's growth, when faced with the social pressures of our meritocratic society, it eventually boils down to the primary concept of one's achievement in life being of utmost importance. This is a result of the belief that one's achievement is reflective of one's capability, happiness, social standing, and it is merely the nature of parents to react in favour of achievement over empathy, as achievement being equivalent to one's success and comfort in life is the general consensus.  But as the studies in the articles have stated, empathy, and in general one's moral character, defines who you are and determines your standing and image in the eyes of the public. Generally, empathetic, morally upright individuals will receive the acceptance and respect of peers and those whom they have extended a helping hand to. Not only will they be welcomed with open arms in society, they will receive the feelings of gratitude from those whom they have helped, and feel a sense of joy and meaning, resulting in increased levels of happiness with life. Therefore, the development of empathy and character in children should be piroritised over pure achievement, as no amount of achievement can ever cover up for one's lack of principles and morals, and trouble is inevitable. Parents and teachers alike should encourage children to participate in more community involvement projects, as these provide learning opportunities for children regarding the plight others may faced, and in the process of helping them, they will gain a meaningful insight into lthe many woes of life and understand how they can contribute to other's life, and as a result understand the need to be more empathetic.

ELA Reading Assignment 2 ( Chua Zheng Qian (18) and Wang Rizhao(23) )

ASSIGNMENT 2: “When Governments Attack --- Online”

SUMMARY QN:

 Summarise the key points of the news article in 100-150 words.

This article brings to our attention the increasing severity of the threat that the cyberspace poses in recent years, in particular the use of malware or bugs to disrupt or perhaps even shutdown targeted cyber systems and intercept specific data to disadvantage a particular group or nation. Cyberspace provides the very platform that the governments of belligerent states seek, to manifest their desires of surveillance, disruption and dominance into lethal bugs and spyware, so as to instil fear into any who stand against them. Be it a lack of prudence or simply ignorance, one could easily fall prey to the malicious software disguised as a benign site. Unsuspecting companies or employees are then lured into these sites in a moment of folly, and unknowingly fall to their demise at the hands of vicious hackers by providing access to highly classified information. Therefore, discretion and vigilance is highly recommended by the author to safeguard oneself in the risky cyberspace.

READER RESPONSE QN:

 Discuss the importance of online security for individuals, companies and governments and how might this be achieved. Provide reasons for your answer in one paragraph, with reference to a specific argument in the article, within 200 – 250 words.

 For an individual, online security entails one’s very existence in the cyberspace, as online security is the only line of defence between one’s privacy and the rest of the world in the cyberspace. With the growing popularity of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype, millions have flocked online to indulge in the pleasures of cyberspace, unwary of its vulnerability and susceptibility to hackers. As such, they openly divulge personal secrets and details of their life in their profile pages, with the false mentality that the fragile security network would ensure maximum privacy, unbeknownst to them though, the online security provided by social media platforms can be easily shattered with a few taps of a keyboard. Controversial images and racist remarks could be uploaded in a moment, which could blacklist the individual and ruin his or her reputation in the eyes of the public in an instant. For activists such as the Mamfakinch, a pro-democracy citizen media project in Morocco, the risk is even greater as the details of their private life on social media can be easily used as blackmail and intimidation on individual members, leading to an eventual breakdown of the group in its entirety.   

As for companies and government bodies withholding classified and essential information regarding other nations or economic investments, massive stalls of data can be wiped in a blink of an eye (as evidenced from the South Korea Shinhan Bank cyber-attack whereby tens of thousands of computers were wiped of their data, leading to $756mil economic loss), dealing a huge blow to corporations and government bodies alike and stalling their economic, social or political progress by a great deal. The enormity of the stake at risk here is in the millions, billions and possibly trillions, and one can barely imagine the magnitude and severity of consequences if highly classified data is lost or delivered into the wrong hands.

Therefore, the above examples have highlighted to us the utmost importance and urgency regarding the implementation of measures pertaining to online security. If we are to secure our very existence in the cyber world, and very possibly in the real world, then we ought to realise how huge a potential and asset the cyberspace is, but also be aware and vigilant to the threat it entails as a double edged sword, and subsequently focus on online security to avoid unnecessary backlash and undesirable consequences.

Relfection for film by YEO YONG LIANG

After watching the film menstrual man, I  can see that with determination and a clear goal, one's dreams can be accomplished. I can also see how innovation can impact the world in such a big way. The film shows an indian man who through his hardwork and innovation managed to spread sanitary napkins to women in the remote parts of india. He had no shame in experimenting the sanitary napkins on himself to improve it, and did not give up even when his wife left him after that. After all this, he managed to successfully spread the sanitary napkins to women all over india, maintaining the menstrual hygiene in women. I feel that he is a very magnanimous man as he works for a noble cause, to provide better hygiene for women. He also would not accept money from people in the metro cities to buy his machines to produce sanitary napkins, and he said that he is not looking for the money, but to spread these sanitary napkins to rural regions at a low cost.
I wonder how far innovation will go in this world and with the current generation of young minds. I also wonder, just how many people within our strawberry generation are actually willing to stand up against all odds to fight for a noble cause?
After watching the film, I have also learnt more of the film industry, especially local films. I feel that local films tend to send out strong messages to the audience about how we should behave in the society, teaching us the core moral values that we should have. That is the beauty of local films as they tend to reach out to one's heart and is not purely for entertainment. They make use of certain scenes to make people empathise with the problems we dont face, and prepare us with the right mindsets to tackle these problems.

Article 3 Chua Zheng Qian (18) and Wang Ri Zhao (23)

Summary:

The U.N. Human Rights Council voted to demand justice for Nazi-style atrocities in North Korea.
U.N. human rights investigators said last month security chiefs and possibly Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un himself should be tried for ordering systematic torture, starvation and killings, saying the crimes were "strikingly similar" to those committed during World War Two. There was an overwhelming amount of evidence that North Korea was violating these human rights hence the Council could not remain silent and had to confront North Korea. The U.N. Security Council and the General Assembly need to bring North Korea's leaders to justice for their human rights crimes, however Western and Asian powers concede that for now their chances of holding North Korea liable for crimes against humanity are slim because North Korea can only be referred to the International Criminal Court by the U.N. Security Council, whose veto-wielding members China and Russia both voted against the motion to bring them to justice.
The U.N. Human Rights Council also extended the mandate of its investigator on North Korea by one year and agreed to set up a field office to help him collect more evidence about allegations including that up to 120,000 people are held in political prison camps even though North Korea denies existence of the camps. This is in hopes of getting enough evidence to take action against North Korea.

Reader Response:

I agree that human rights activists have the right to widen the scruntiny of North Korea beyond its disputed nuclear program to a large extent.  When the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany became apparent after world war 2, the world came to a consensus that a distinct universal declaration that specified the rights of individuals was necessary to give effect to the UN charter of human rights, and it was finally adopted on 10 December 1948 by the UN General Assembly.  Some of the underlying priciples of the declaration include indivisibility, transparency and accountability. Therefore, one would have assumed that such basic human rights would be provided for in our increasingly globalised 21st century economy, with a highly educated younger generation. Yet, North Korea's governance easily infringes and violates most, if not all of the given rights. From a UN investigation in September, defectors have compared life in the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) to that of German concentration camps in WW2. Public execution and the forced murder of one's own kin are some of the examples of the atrocities commited. This may only be one of many overwhleming human rights violation examples in North Korea. North Korea's stance is that countires should "mind their own business" , and refers to the United States as an aggressive nation who has consistenly infringed on territorial and sovereign rights of other countries as well, which can be compared to that of a gangster. Although this may be true to a certain extent as seen from the US involvement in the war on terror in Iran, North Korea should be held accoutable and responsible for its own violations on rights before it is qualified to criticise the shortcomings of other nations. North Korea's argument centers about the principles sovereignty, which was widely emphasized during the world conference on human rights, 1993, Bangkok Declaration as well. However, its argument is flawed and unapplicable as it goes against the absolute, basic rights of human beings, which mainly include the principles of liberty and right to life. North Korea's isolation and censorship aims to contain its atrocities within its nation and prevent the interference of other nations on the basis of sovereignty, but the atrocities inflicted onto humans goes against the very basis of humanity. If human rights activists do not scrutinise the human rights violations in DPRK and implement measures to deal with the root of the problem, it is akin to idly sitting by watching the lives of others get trampled upon and ruined. Therefore, human rights activists have the right to scrutinise North Korea's actions beyond the nuclear program, as this is the first step to bringing justice and freedom to its oppressed citizens and putting an end to the atrocities of the DPRK regime which violate the fundamental humanity of its people.