Blog Prompt 5: True Justice and Mercy

The trial scene in the Merchant of Venice has a theme which is Justice versus Mercy. So Is there true justice? I partially agree that there is true justice. Shylock kept saying throughout the trial scene that he wanted true justice, that Antonio has to let him cut off a pound of his flesh as Antonio failed to comply to the bond. So Portia did gave him justice in the end, by making good use of the law and saying that Shylock can cut off a pound of Antonio's flesh but under one condition: There must not be any blood dripping from the flesh. Since Shylock wants justice so much, Portia gave him the true justice he wants. Shylock's plan to take revenge on Antonio is backfired by himself. But in a way, there is no true justice. Portia is actually just playing with the law, and just by adding a few more words or changing them, Shylock is thus doomed. Also, Portia is a wman, and women are actually smarter than men. Therefore it is unfair to Shylock.

Is there true mercy, as expounded by Portia? I partially agree that there is true mercy too. Antonio in the end suggest that Shylock convert to a Christian is actually for good. This is so that Shylock will not be mocked so often and will lead a better life in the future. But there is also no true mercy. At the end of the trial scene, Shylock is being forced to give up half of his estates to the State and the other half to Anotio. This is as good as taking his whole life away, like what he said. This is just too cruel. Shylock should be let go after not taking Anotnio's pound of flesh but in the end the tables turned on him too abruptly. Portia is somewhat a bit inhumane in this sense. Anntonio also wants Shylock to convert to Christianity, which i think is the last thing Shylock would expect to happen.

Justice and  Law can be manipulated by people in power. I agree with this matter. For example, in Merchant of Venice, when Shylock wants Antonio's flesh, everyone, including the Duke, wants to persuade Shylock to have mercy on Antonio. This happens just because the Jews were considered a lower class people than  the Christians in the past. In the end Shylock lost. In real life, some people escapes from having punishment in court because their friends or family member hold high authority and perhaps pay the layer and witnesses to help them get away from the charges. It is just unfair.

Blog Prompt 4: A Letter from a Student to the Education Minister

A Secondary Four student recently wrote a letter to the Education Minister, Mr Heng Swee Keat, which generated much heated debate again about Singapore's much-discussed education system. I agree with the issues that the student has raised in the letter. Indeed, Singapore's education system makes learning 'dead' for the students as they are supposed to memorise and just throw whatever they have learnt in answering the questions. This is not beneficial to them as they do not understand what they are learning. They are just memorising the answers for the sake of memorising. Therefore, some students may get good marks in their work but actually they are not smart. They only change what they have memorised to anwer the questions. To some extent, they are not even thinking. In the future, if they were to be in charge of a company or even govern Singapore, they will not do a good job and lose out because their minds are not flexible, too prone to memorising stuff. Therefore, Singapore's education system plays a significant role in nurturing students. But under circumstances, Singapore's education system is quite effective. Even though it results in the students memorising most of the model answers, they will also be able to learn something, at least. When they revise their work another time, they may try to understand the answers to the questions they did so as to make memorising easier. Through this process, the students are naturally gaining some knowledge. And also, if Singapore did not apply this education system, there will be lesser successful people in the future and this will lead to Singapore's downfall.

As for Singapore's Civics and Moral Education, I feel that it is also ineffective to some extent. Teaching Civics and Moral Education through file and texbooks in the form of Social Studies will definitely not help the students to hone their character and teach them good values. As long as the students are not paying attention, this method of teaching Civics and Moral Education is not beneficial. If Singapore want students to inculcate good civics and moral values, they have to do it from the bottom of their heart and willingly, not by being taught from textbooks and files. But sometimes, Singapore has no choice but to try all sorts of ways to let students have good civis and moral values because most of them simply lacks those values and this is worrying. Regarding the fact that teachers often eat up CME lessons to have their own lessons, I am agreeable. This tells us that the teachers do not take CME lessons seriously but only academic studies. But if someone were to be smart but did not have good civics and moral values, they will be unaccepted by the society. Because they will not get along well with others and will result in failure. But eating up CME lessons may be necessary at times. the teachers may really be lagging a lot on lessons and are thus afraid that students may flung their tests. This is even more worrying as this will result in a straight failure in the future. It is better to carry out more academic lessons as students will also not pay attention to CME lessons, so why not teach them something which can let them have higher chances of having a bright future?

I feel that the letter the Secondary Four student wrote is a well-crafted letter with the appropritae tone. She addresses the Education Minister, Mr Heng Swee Keat, formally and her tone is also very encouraging. She lists out her arguments but did not say that what she listed is totally correct as she mentioned that she is young and may not be so mature in her arguments and thinking. Her attitude is also very pleasant as she did not write any strong words to describe her argument and does not offend Mr Heng Swee Keat in any way throughout the letter.

If I should write a letter to Minister of Education, I would raise a couple of issues, including those two regarding Singapore's Education and Civics and Moral Education system raised by the Secondary Four student. One of the other issues I would raise would be the dressing of the teachers. Some of the teachers dress too brightly or attractively, and this would divert the students attention to the teacher and not the lesson. The students would be easily distracted and would not pay attention in class. This would affect their scores in tests and exams as they hardly learn anything in the lessons. Another issue I would raise would be the durations of diffent subject lessons in a week. There are times where a certain subject has a greater emphasis over other main subjects as more time is given to the subject lessons. This is unfair because the students will only gain more knowledge out of that certain subject but as for other subjects, they will learn less. This will not be benefical to the students as when there are tests or exams which all Singapore schools will take, the students will noly excel in one or two subjects and may not do well in the other main subjects.

Blog Prompt 3: Importance of Money in Relationships

In my opinion, I do not think that money is important in relationships. It is true that money can buy anything in this world that you want, but not happiness. If someone enter a relationship with the other party just because he is rich and you will have some of his money when the other party is in love with you, you will feel that you are indeed happy because you lead a lavish and comfortable life. For example, at the start of Merchant of Venice, Bassanio wanted to marry Portia just because she is rich. He said to Antonio in Act 1 Scence 1 that "In Belmont is a lady richly left" and "her sunny locks hang on her temples like a golden fleece." They emphasize Bassanio's thirst to marry Portia as she is very rich. But do you think you are truly happy? You only find true happiness when you are with someone you really love maybe because there is something attractive in the other party that makes you love him/her and you are happy going out with him/her. This happiness lasts forever at no cost. When someone get into relationship because of money, the happiness does not last forver and is not true because once the other party becomes poor, the person will definitely feel angry and sad and will get out of the relationship with the other party. The other party will feel sad and angry too at the same time because he/she realises that the person does not truly love him/her, only the wealth he has. But I personally think there is a upward trend of relationships and marriages valuing money over other qualities. I think it is possibly because nowadays people are more materialistic and only thirst for money. As the society is now more developed, things tend to get more expensive and people will start to have intensions of having more money to buy whatever he/she wants. They are willing to give up love for money.

Blog Prompt 2: Evolution of War from the Past to Present

In my opinion, there are many types of how war evolved from the past to present. One of the most significant one would be the lethality of war. In the past, the only weapons used were the guns and probably swords as the technology is not advanced. Thus the number of deaths were very few as people were mostly killed one by one with those weapons and only a small group of people could be killed at most. But technology is more advanced now. Nowadays every country has its own military vehicles and weaponry which can cause mass destruction, especially nuclear and atomic bombs. They can easily take away the lives of a thousand people once droped to the ground at a level. This is worrying for the people whenever there is a war between countries as there is a higner chance of them getting killed. For example, in World War I, the total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I, was around 37.5 million. There were 16.5 million deaths and 21 million wounded making it the 6th deadliest conflict in human history. But in World War II, over 60 million people were killed. Casualties include deaths caused by strategic bombing, Holocaust victims, Japanese war crimes, population transfers in the Soviet Union, other War Crimes and deaths due to war related famine and disease. So most of the deaths can be said to be caused by advanced weapons and bombs.

Also, the war has also become more inactive nowadays compared to the past. In order to conquer a certain land, or fight for the rights of the land, the countries, especially those with a strong militray force, will disagree on matters with other countries and it will slowly lead to a war. The country who wins will have the final say in everything. So you can see, war is becoming more inactive nowadays, compared to the past where wars were started because they want to discover new land and conquer it to make good usage of land. The people over there had to rebel and of course wars were started. As time passes, countries are beginning to develop and the lives of the people are becoming more hectic. They have better things to do than to start a war. Thus, war did not happen too often in the present. Furthermore, nowadays land can be easily reclaimed more usage due to the advance in technology.

There were more unnecesary wars in the past compared to the present because the government nowadays knoew how to handle problems well. In the past, governemnt's either were too corrupted or had false accounts of problems that led to disputes. It was just a shame that more wars in the past started when they should not have. There was simply a no need to. An example would be The War of 1812, the Mexican American War, and the Spanish War of 1898 which Americans fought in the 19th century. In the 19th century, Americans fought these three unnecessary wars, each motivated by expansionist interests yet initiated through dubious and exaggerated claims. The War of 1812 resulted from the efforts of Congressional “War Hawks” like Henry Clay to “take Canada.” In 1846 President Polk, an ardent expansionist with an eye for the vast territories controlled by Mexico, fabricated reasons for a war resolution. Finally, in 1898, James McKinley took the nation to war against Spain on the basis of false reports. Thus, war really has evolved in many ways from the past to present.