Wk 5 Blog Prompt

This 'zzz' blog is based on Merchant of Venice Act 4 Scene 1.

1) Is there true justice? Frankly speaking I don't think so. Portia purposely twisted the law so that the law backfires to Shylock, which is not actually the intended result or true justice.

2) Is there true mercy in the scene? It may seem so at the first glance when Portia and Antonio give Shylock a chance to evade death by taking his properties and convert him to Christianity, but actually it's highly debatable. During Shakespeare's times, Christians and Jews are potential enemies and converting to another religion means betraying their original religion and to think of converting to a religion you discriminate really gives you a guilty and uncomfortable feeling doesn't it? Antonio and Portia and other Christians in the court may view Shylock's conversion to Christianity as an act of mercy, but to Shylock is it really so? I think not. Shylock even propose to die rather than be converted to Christianity in the trial scene.

3) Justice and Law can be manipulated by people in power? Well, let's view this issue from two sides. On one side, justice and law are just and fair, and every people who disobey the law will get the same punishment for every people regardless of rank or power. On the other side, however, these punishments are usually imposed by the judge, and a person with a higher rank or greater power will try to force the judge to lighten the punishment or even judge them not guilty in exchange for some benefits. This is obviously a second against-the-law-and-justice act(for the judge, first for the client).

Let's relate this topic to the MOV trial scene again. Notice that the intended justice of Shylock of getting a pound of Antonio's flesh (meaning sentencing Antonio to death) was entirely manipulated and now the arrow, first facing Antonio, faces Shylock as Portia(the people in power?) twisted the law against him, thus making this entirely going the wrong way, achieving the wrong result. While it may seem that Portia is an intelligent girl, her aim is to save Antonio's life and thus she has to do this since she could not beg for Shylock's mercy of sparing his life.

As a Malaysian who knows a bit of Malaysia's politics, as far as I know the judge as well as the police (and most of the Malays?) supports the current ruling party, the Barisan Nasional. They gave a lot of incentives to Malays and the natives, however biased against the Chinese and the Indians. In courts, such cases happen A LOT. As what I said, a lot of people with power accused of committing a crime-and at rare times even confirmed'-turned out to be innocent instead! This is totally going against law and justice. Some things which I feel that is too bizarre is that former prime ministers, the so-called "Tuns", will not be sentenced to prison or death no matter what crime or how many crimes he committed unless he commits a very serious crime.

In conclusion, to solve this issue largely depends on the person, notably the judges. If a judge are fair and just, justice and law will not be manipulated no matter how much power his client holds. Likewise if the judge is afraid of the client for the power he/she holds, justice and law will surely be manipulated.

Wk 4 Blog Prompt

The recent news show a S4 student writing a letter to our MoE here. You can read her letter through here (YES SHE IS A GIRL!!!).

To a certain extent, I find some points raised are in fact true about education systems in Singapore. For example, she raised an issue about students not often taught to ask ‘Why?’ What she means is that why aren't children answered with questions of reasoning like "Why is the grass green?" or "Why is the sky blue?" In fact "Children are curious and inquisitive, asking their parents questions many parents themselves are not able to answer."

I realised in Singapore (since I'm Malaysian) competition is frequent among students. Parents always ask their children to do well in their studies without even learning the true stuff!!! It seems like the aim of learning for us students is only to get good grades rather than learning stuff we are suppose to learn. Or in general, our learning is a dead learning, meaning we only memorise stuff from textbooks and pour it all out during tests. In this modern world where creativeness is one of the most important factors of success, the education here seem to go off the right track.

Notice the language she uses. How does it reflect the girl's attitude? From what I see, she seems to have been unsatisfied by the education system for a long time. Although she is complaining in the letter, she minds her language and remains her manners while writing to the minister. Still from the tone I think she is still quite concerned about it and I can see how she wants this matter to be solved as soon as possible. Quite well-crafted, and the tone is appropriate too.

If I really were to write such letter I would just explain the current system and the desired system. Frankly speaking I have no opinions too. However, some important issues I would raise may include something like teachers blame students straight away without finding the truth, or like what the girl has raised about educating moral values, or maybe uncreative education. I would also give suggestions after raising these issues.

Week 3 Blog Prompt

Third random post...

In my opinion, I feel that money is important in a relationship to a certain extent. Money is of course needed to survive but it is not a factor that I look for in a relationship. I do not be with someone just because she is rich. I believe in true love. Being in a relationship with someone because of money is not love. It is love for the person’s money instead. I feel that this kind of relationship will not be a romantic one, and the love is a fake one. Loving someone is to be willing to go through hard times for that someone and you have a special affection for that someone. True couples should be working towards a blissful life and this is when they work hard to earn enough money to support a family. Money should not be a criteria for a relationship but something that couples work for. Sometimes there are cases whereby people use money to make someone they like but does not like him/her to go in a relationship with him/her. Will this kind of relationship last? I seriously think we should not play with other people’s feelings. If we do not like that person for who that person is, we should not start a relationship with that person just for money. I do think there is an upward trend of relationships and marriages valuing money over other qualities. Other than liking someone for money, there are also cases where couples lose interest in each other and continued to be together for the sake of money. People are getting more materialistic nowadays. They do not care about love anymore. All they want is to live well and love does not matter to them anymore. I really feel disappointed that love is being cast off and money is now the most important in life. Love is actually something very wonderful. It can change a person’s character. It can spark off a person to work even harder. Life without love is really boring and meaningless.

Week 2 Blog Prompt

A random post again...

"A country cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."

- Albert Einstein

Indeed. In fact, even though war had ceased in most places, or seemed like that, war is always ongoing even for this second. Just matters that it now differs in purpose and its way compared from the past to now. It's obvious from Einstein's quote that war is still ongoing but because of present conditions we usually do not prepare for a war that many.

War has evolved, in general, a traditional war to a modern war. War has a very long history of up to thousands of years, yet many people are still fighting it. From traditionally using only simple tools and weapons to compete for food, to using troops of thousands to conquer land using basic weapons, eventually to guns and cannons and ships and aircrafts for war, and even nuclear weapons which could turn a huge area of metropolis to a pile of scrap heaps in just a short time!

From how in ancient China the famous Chinese generals like Yue Fei and Sun Tzu leading several troops consisting of tens of thousands of armies, winning battles and conquering lands, to the Civil Wars in America, to World War I and World War II, where the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki which raided thousands of people dying either directly from the bomb or the radiation aftereffect, to the recent death of the leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, we know that war is always ongoing non-stop.

Although the ways of fighting a war is not the same throughout the years and that their purpose is not the same, war to me is just a fight, mostly an unnecessary fight between a huge number of people, that usually leads into bloodshed, and can be avoided at all costs. As what Albert Einstein had said, a country cannot possibly take too many wars at once, so why fight the unnecessary fight?

"As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure."

- Jacques Chirac

Book review - Merchant of Venice

I've read this book before school holidays, and it is a wonderful book. It features Antonio, the merchant of Venice, along with Bassanio, Gratiano, Salerio, Solanio, Lorenzo and more. There is also Shylock, a Jew who drives himself into hatred, and Portia, an heiress of Belmont who is also a wise maiden.

Ironically the main character is not Antonio, the merchant of Venice. Rather, it is Shylock, the Jewish money lender. While I think there is no way one would consider Shylock a nice fellow. I came away believing that he was more wronged than anyone in the play whom he harmed. He is presented as a nasty and greedy money lender. No doubt that portrait played well in a time of rampant anti-Semitism, but I came away with great sympathy for him. Even Antonio, the merchant, is just horrible in his judgment of Shylock, much more based on his race and religion than his money-lending practices.

The play is a mixture of romance, tragedy, mostly comedy, and has a happy ending. It also tells us, from Shylock and Antonio, that Christians then hold much prejudice towards the Jews. We also see romance between Lorenzo and Jessica, and Bassanio and Portia. The way of how Portia finds a suitable husband is seemingly interesting, and of which Portia already predicts her future husband, which is Bassanio.

The twist comes in when Shylock, having arrested Antonio, demanded a pound of flesh from Antonio's body rather than three thousand ducats. This trial, judged by the Duke, becomes very interesting when Portia, disguised as a lawyer defending Antonio, though pretending to agree with Shylock to cut off a pound of flesh near Antonio's bosom, suddenly says that no blood should be dripped while cutting the flesh, or Shylock will lose his fortune. In the end Shylock chose to pay instead.

The Merchant of Venice is a wonderful read. Touching, challenging, insightful and fascinating; just a delightful read.

Reflection on the Middle East riots

The recent riots going on in the Middle East has it's news spread worldwide. Over the last few weeks we have heard about riots in Tunisia, Egypt, Lybia, Algeria, Bahrain and more, mostly powered by the disruptive role of social media like Twitter and Facebook, to the point that in many cases governments have been forced to block Internet access.

The Soldier by Rupert Brooke

The spirit of the narrator possesses a strong essence of patriotism towards England. In Malaysia, there also lies a potential power of patriotism under every people, but buried deep due to the recent political affairs. This is because our fore fathers are willing to negotiate with the British to achieve independence. If they were to sit there and do nothing, we would not have life as it is today. I also think I have some patriotism in Malaysia because of the comfortable lives in Malaysia, but partly none because of the government.

About being a Hwa Chongian, I'm actually proud of it. This is because to enter Hwa Chong Institution from Malaysia requires a number of challenges, and among thousands of candidates, I was one of the few who are eligible to study in Hwa Chong Institution. With such a good oppurtunity, I felt proud to be in this school and shall study hard to prove it.