Dictatorship

Dictatorship is a form of government in which one person or a small group possesses absolute power without effective constitutional limitations.
(Definition from http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9030347/dictatorship)

Examples of countries under dictatorship are:

AFRICA
1) Tunisia
2) Libya
3) Egypt
4) Algeria
5) Gabon
6) Cameroon
7) Uganda
8) Gambia
9) Equatorial Guinea
10) Djibouti
11) Rwanda
12) Eritrea
13) Zimbabwe
14) Sudan
15) Congo Brazzaville
16) Cote d'Ivoire
17) Ethiopia
18) Angola
19) Chad
20) Guinea
21) Central African Republican
22) Congo Kinshasa

CARIBBEANS
1) Cuba

OCEANIA
1) Fiji

ASIA
1) Kazakhstan
2) Azerbaijan
3) Syria
4) Maldives
5) Turkmenistan
6) Uzbekistan
7) Tajikistan
8) Pakistan
9) Myanmar
10) Cambodia
11) Yemen
12) Bangladesh

"The mother of revolution and crime is poverty"(Aristotle)

Poverty is being without things, having little money, not many material possessions and in need of essential goods. In short, being poor means that the people have nothing, and they have to struggle to even survive everyday. After physically and mentally tortured for a long period of time due to poverty, evil thoughts of getting out of the vicious cycle through illegal ways or new ideas that they think that will improve their lives will gradually start to form in the poor people's minds. These thoughts and ideas cause them to forsake their values and they may eventually change their attitude and behaviour towards issues that are happening around them as long as they can stop being poor.

I only agree that the mother of revolution is poverty. There are many examples that happen in the past or happening around us now which can support my stand that poverty is the root cause for quite a number of revolution in history, however poverty does not increase crime rates in countries.

The famous revolution in Soviet Union is an example of revolution caused by poverty. The peasants suffered under the rule of the Tsar because many of them were too poor to even afford food for the whole family. They wanted someone to stand up and lead them out of the poverty cycle. And when Lenin the leader of the Bolsheviks stood up and offered the idea of "Peace, Land, Bread", and the idea of having equal shares of everything in the state gave the poor hope, eventually Lenin took over and formed the government. From this example, we can see that poverty indeed as the ability to spur people on to rebel so as to achieve a normal life and do not have to fear of starvation.

The other famous revolution is the Iranian Revolution and it has been called "the third great revolution in history," following the French and Bolshevik revolutions. It is a revolution that transformed Iran from a monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic. Extravagance, corruption and elitism (both real and perceived) of the Shah's policies and of his royal court had caused people in Iran to live in poverty. This was similar to the revolution in Soviet Union where people were attracted by the promise to have better lives after the revolution. This revolution also supports my stand that the mother of revolution is poverty.

Apart from these two revolutions, there were still many other revolutions and the similarity between them is due to poverty of people.

It is not true to say that crime rates will be higher in less developed countries because there are more poor people while crime rates are lower in more developed countries because there are less poor people. Instead, it is the other way round. From statistics from NationMaster, it is shown clearly that crimes such as thefts, bulgaries, kidnaps etc. which are related to what poor people would do to earn money, are more common in developed countries than in less developed countries where there are more poor people. Statistics have shown that it is United States which is leading in crimes such as thefts and bulgaries. I feel that as a country progress, the people will have more desires, hence more crimes are committed to earn themselves enough money to buy what they want. It is not true to say that poor people are not involved in crimes but the poor do not commit as much crimes as the people in developed countries do. Therefore, the statistics support my stand that poverty is not the real cause for high crime rates in countries around the world.

In conclusion, I feel that poverty is the cause for many of the revolutions but i do not agree that poverty is the main reason that cause crime rates to be high.

Other Forms of Discrimination

Lookism

1. http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/19_2/19_2_2.pdf
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lookism
3. http://www.lookism.info/eng/index2.html
4. http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123853&page=1

Ageism

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageism
2. http://www.ilcusa.org/prj/ageism.htm
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5334972.stm
4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5326774.stm
5. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5378876.stm

Disablism

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disablism
2. http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/disablism
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/columnists/tom/060904_index.shtml
4. http://thefamilyvoyage.blogspot.com/2007/05/blogging-against-disablism.html
5. http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/departments/closerlook/000947.html

Xenophobia

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophobia
2. http://www.answers.com/topic/xenophobia?cat=health

"The death penalty is not a deterrent, it is a murder" Do you agree?

I agree that the death penalty is a murder.

The main intention of the death penalty is to punish criminals who have committed serious crimes such as murder and act as a deterrent to others so that other people will not commit murder. However, I feel that death penalty is unnecessary as it does not really decrease murder cases. Many murder cases occur as the murderers receive huge blow which have a huge impact on their minds. This causes the murderer to go 'insane' at that point of time and commit murder. Therefore, death penalty cannot act as a deterrent to other people when they are not in their right mind when they are going to commit murder.

Many people may feel that criminals must be sentenced to death as the criminals had killed people and it will only be 'fair' if they die too. I feel that people will say that as the criminals are not related to them so they will think that death penalty to ensure fairness. I feel that if criminals received death penalty, their families will be the one that will suffer. The family members will be despised by other people and also, they will have financial problems if the breadwinner of the family is the one who gets the death penalty.

I also feel that the murderers should not be hanged and instead they should be given punishments whereby they can repay their crimes and contribute to the society. Death penalty seems to be an easy punishment for the murderers.

In conclusion, I feel that as the world is progressing, it is beginning to 'rot' too. People become more selfish and there are many temptations that cause people to commit crimes. Therefore, i feel that there is no way to reduce murder cases unless the world stop progressing-which is impossible.

Merits and Demerits of Censorship

Censorship is the removal or withholding of information from the public by a controlling group or body. Typically censorship is done by governments, religious groups, or the mass media, although other forms of censorship exist.

There are many reasons that lead to censorship especially the media by the government. Some reasons are listed below:

1. Critics or negative opinions made by opposition parties in a country may be censored, as the government will feel that their powers are being threatened. If the critics and opinions are shown to the public, the feelings of the citizens may stir and problems may arise.
2. Some issues that are sensitive such as races and religions are often censored to prevent any unnecessary troubles. This can be seen easily from the past during the post-war period when racial riots are rampant due to the increasing tension caused by each race. Therefore, these issues are censored.
3. Some movies or drama serials contain scenes that are harmful towards the young. Such scenes are violent, sexual or scenes that carry ideas that will lead people astray. If the young watch violent scenes, they may people who use violence to solve problems. Sexual scenes may increase the number of underage sex, which is unhealthy for the society. Controversial ideas may lead to endless arguments and fights, which may have adverse impact on Singapore.

However, there are also demerits of censorship. Some examples are listed below:

1. Some documentaries on arts which show naked figures are considered harmful therefore they are censored. This is unfair to people who treat these as arts and who appreciate them. Not allowing these documentaries to be shown may have an adverse impact on Singapore's art aspect.
2. Lyrics of many European songs are being censored. This makes songs unentertaining and boring due to the censored tone being played throughout the song. Censorship may bring down businesses of the entertainment industry.

Censorship is a controversial issue because whether issues are harmful towards people or not are relative. And there is no real guideline to determine which things are to be censored. However, I definitely support censorship as it provides more pros than cons.

Response to 'Spilling blood with oil in Iraq'. What have you learnt about the media in the way they present what is perceived over what is real?

Media is a powerful tool that can brainwash people and instill in them new ideas that they do not accept at first. That is the reason why many leaders in around the world use the media to carry out propaganda and to achieve more support from the people. One of the examples of using the media can be seen from the article 'Spilling blood with oil in Iraq'.
In the article, media is seen as a propaganda tool to make people think that the war is necessary and the fault does not lie with the US. In the article, the media is also seen to tell lies to divert blames to other people. For example, when a Baghdad market was bombed, killing more than a dozen people, Iraqi anti-aircraft fire was blamed for targeting civilian areas. There are some words and phrases such as 'falsehoods' and 'catalogue of lies' that the writer uses to describe the actions of the media.

Initially, the media covered the US real intention in invading Iraq by reporting that the US army 'real' intention in invading Iraq was to remove Saddam Hussien and to find the mass destruction nuclear weapon. Many people believed what the media had reported and showed their support as they thought the US army was just carrying out justice and to the save the Iraqis from Saddam's regime. However, after a long period, the US army had yet found the nuclear weapon, instead they had show their true colours. The US was actually targeting at the oil industry in Iraq.

When the US army was in Iraq, the soldiers committed some heinous crimes but they were not being reported at first. When the US army attacked the Iraq's state television station, the incident was denied. After further news reports emerged of the attack, the denials faded away. Some US soldiers tortured the prisoners of war (POWs) by forcing them to take off all their clothes. This violated the Geneva Convention which concerns the treatment of POWs, one part which states no physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted or exposed to unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind. However, this issue was not being reported by the media at first.

In a modern world where there are always incidents happening all around the world, the media should even be responsible enough to report the truth to everyone instead of distorting or hiding the truth.

Task 4 for week 6/7

New plant ensures no rain water goes to waste
The Straits Times, Thursday, February 1 2007

Singapore, being a small black dot on the world map, is very vulnerable under many circumstances. This is due to the fact that Singapore has no natural resources; therefore we have to depend on other countries for resources to ensure our survival. The water issue is one of our main concerns since water is needed in many areas such as industrial works, domestic and recreational uses.

Now our water comes from mainly four “taps”: local catchment water, imported water from Johor, Newater, and desalinated. Recently in Singapore, the water engineers have made a breakthrough; both rain and seawater can be made drinkable using the same treatment plant, ensuring that no drop of rain that falls in Singapore goes to waste. This new technology adds to the last “tap” of the four existing ones that make up Singapore’s water supply.

I feel that the steps taken by the government are trying to make Singapore self-reliant. In the past, when Singapore just gained independence in 1965, we had to worry whether Malaysia would supply us with the water we needed. However, now we can rely on ourselves for water by treating wastewater. In this way, Singapore will become less vulnerable since the water issue is solved.