Civil Servant Pay Rise

This topic has been a hot thing in Singapore. Everyone ranges from students to elderly are discussing whether it is good to give a pay rise to the civil servants. However, I feel that most of us, including the press and media are focusing more on the ministers and high ranking officers. Thus I will like to set my perimeter to the normal civil servant like teachers, policeman and service officer in various government departments. Indeed, civil servants are paid lesser compared to the private sector employees. In addition, private have more benefits in terms of paid leaves, medical benefits and non-wage benefits. Although some may say that civil servants' jobs are "iron bowls “. But I can assure you that it is a wrong idea as the ineffective and inefficient people will be asked to leave the jobs. And most of the high ranking officers will have to pass through a lot of tests and trials before they can assume the positions. And their actions must be honest and clear as they represent the government, which give no leeway to mistake and abuse of power. Thus the civil servants must uphold a higher order of conscious and attitude.

Civil Servant don’t enjoy the following:1) No concession bus rides2) No concession MRT rides3) Bus fare up = they are affected5) Cab fare up = they are affected6) GST up = they are affected7) They pay taxes just like every other Singaporean8) They have never-ending work to do9) On top of doing work, they are cursed by Singaporeans who think civil servants are not affected by all those above.10) Subjected and must comply with the Civil Servant Instruction Manual which has several hundred pages.

This give us a idea that civil servants do not have more benefits. Instead they have to suffer more than others. Moreover, I feel that civil servants are very noble as they are willing to serve the community and their aim are not the money but the chance to serve us. So, the least we could do is to give them a small pay rise to overcome their needs.

Nowadays, the mass media do not report the news; they make the news.

Media is defined as organisations of various newspapers or television channels. I truly agree that some time they are making inaccurate reports. In my opinion, they have forgotten the most fundamental value of a member of the media - to report the truth and fact and nothing more. Nowadays, due to globalisation and opening of the societies, reporters are losing their focus and concentrating too much on the audience. They face strong competition and they hope to sell their papers well. So they want to publish articles that people are interested in and the norm are more fonds of scandals and information of celebrities' work and love life. For example, Chinese celebrity Jolin Tsai was to have affair with one of the male celebrity at one of the hotel. Although the manager of d came out to clarify the matter and rebuttal what the mediam plus evidence was shown to the public that the affair was just made belief, even how to now, the public have a deep impression of the "affair".

But the good thing that most of the news reported are true as they are being checked by the government agency which would not even tolerate one untrue statment. But in my opinin, the reporters and editors of the mass media should understand a important point that they are the bridge that link the world together. Thus it is important to be stand on the fence and not be biased to any of the sides, and if they are interested only in earning money and gaining fame, they should never be the "bridge". These are noble jobs that require a group of justice and upright people to uphold.

These have been cases that untrue reports were made and it caused a uproar in the world that causes serious harm to people. One of it would be the racial descmination that occur during the 1960-1970 when mass media(Malaysia) broadcast Malays in Singapore getting bullied. Althogh this was fake and the singapore government came out to clarify. It was to late and there was bad blood between the chinese and the malays which caused the race riot in singapore. Many people were injured and some even died.

This show us that it is thus very important for the mass media to make truthful report as their actions will affect the communities greatly.

1. “YouTube has no ethics, it's been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.” Do you agree?

In my opinion, i do not feel that way as youtube is just a video hosting and video sharing website. It all depends on how to users treat the website. Although some may seen it as a place to watch animes, movies, and MV (music videos), i see it as a database website. All the wonderful and interesting videos are kept there and the purpose of uploading these videos are a form of sharing and learning. You can learn alot of things such as learning to cook a proper meal using very limited resources, lifestyle of other countries people and even learn a skill through demostration videos uploaded there.

youtube is definitly a form of entertainment as we can access interesting videos such as magic tricks and

Some may say that the host earn money from hosting youtube and their purpose of hosting youtube is only for profits. I have to agree that the web host of youtube earn money through advertisment and contract with other company. But this is what they do for a living. You cannot expect them to not earn money. Then who is there to feed them and support them financially.

Emo Teenagers

After reading the articles, I have to admit that indeed a considerable sum of teenagers nowadays seems to become emo and perform self-inflicting acts. To most people, they might think that they are just crazy and have nothing better to do. But to view this problem deeper, I feel that this is due to the ever-changing society. In Singapore, everyone is aiming to excel in academic results or to be outstanding in their own fields. We belong in a competitive global world which cannot condemn mistakes and too self-centered. Thus when teenagers nowadays encounter problems, they have no one to fall back on and they considered themselves to be outcasted. And the most crucial problem that now the teenagers are going through a transition period (puberty) where not just the emotional but physical growth of the teenagers. At this point, the teenagers are confused and stressed; they need someone to show them the path to adulthood. These emo people are those that have no form of support and they go astray. Without any form of help, these emo teenagers use self-mutilation to communicate with the "outside world". Though we find them nonsensical and nuts, we have to realize that is we who cause their weird behaviour,

In order to solve this problem, I feel that we should offer a helping hand to them and engage in social activities with them and try to interact with them and get their moral thoughts back to track.