Leaders - Martin L. King

Martin Luther King is well known for his role in the African-American civil rights movement.

I admire Martin Luther King because he used non-violent resistance that helped abolish racial segregation in the USA. He could maintain a non-violent stance even though his opponents threatened him and tried to blackmail him. He did not use force even though he was provoked and segregation activists used violence against him (bombing his house et cetera). And even segregation activists respected him for this.

However, he had his weaknesses. Lyndon Johnson claimed that King was a “hypocritical preacher”. Ralph Abernathy, an associate of King, stated in And the Walls Came Tumbling Down (1989) autobiography that King had a “weakness for women” and that King was a womaniser. Biographer David Garrow said that King had numerous extramarital affairs, one with a woman he saw daily that “increasingly became the emotional centrepiece of King’s life”. King himself claimed that these affairs were “a form of anxiety reduction”. Apparently, these affairs were accompanied by depressions.
I find King interesting not because he managed to carry out great things but because he dared to try even though he faced a lot of opposition from segregation activists and from some of the white population of America. This just goes to show that we can accomplish anything as long as we have ourselves. We don’t really need anybody else (to a certain extent, of course). Another interesting thing is that even though many threatened him and used violence against him, he never attacked back. He just took whatever opponents gave him and used it to fuel his vision.

Hooray for King!

Animal Farm by George Orwell a.k.a. Utopia

Utopia is what a lot of people dream of. Or at least people who live in the terror of violence. Utopia is defined as "an imaginary perfect world where everyone is happy". Of course this is completely impossible, but this doesn't stop people from thinking about it. All the world's problems...gone. A lot of people want it to be like that, but the only way to do it is to kill everybody(there won't be anybody to be unhappy).

But why is it impossible?
Man's and (probably) all the living beings on this earths' inherent evilness prevent us from achieving an utopia. Technically, a utopia coould be achieved like in "The Giver" but with a huge infringement on human rights(killing people without them knowing that they're dying). All of us humans have an instinct to get the most we can out others for our own benefit. So, no matter how perfect the system is, no one will be completely contented because it is our nature to want more...and more...and more...and more...and more...and more...and more...and more...

I suppose we'll just have to live with it.

LOLWUT

Reasons why I never visit my rich friend! Once while visiting a very rich friend, the maid approached me and.....
Question : What would you like to have...? Fruit juice, Soda, Tea, Chocolate, Capuccino, Frapuccino, or Coffee?
Answer : Tea please .
Question : Ceylon tea, Indian tea, Herbal tea, Bush tea, Honey bush tea, iced tea or green tea?Answer : Ceylon tea.
Question : How would you like it? Black or white?
Answer : White.
Question : Milk, or fresh cream?
Answer : With milk.
Question : Goat's milk, or cow's milk
Answer : With cow's milk please.
Question : Freezeland cow or Afrikaner cow?
Answer : Um, I'll just take it black.
Question : Would you like it with sweetener, sugar or honey?
Answer : With sugar.
Question : Beet sugar or cane sugar?
Answer : Cane sugar.
Question : White, brown or yellow sugar?
Answer : Forget about the tea, just give me a glass of water instead.
Question : Mineral water, tap water or distilled water?
Answer : Mineral water.
Question : Flavored or non-flavored?
...

Cynical youngsters

Well, I just had my three day Sec 1 camp, which explains the break from blogging. Sorry. Anyway, I thought that the camp was okay but practically all the time I had to listen to group mates harping about how sucky the food was, how much money they had paid to get themselves dirty et cetera(yes, write abbreviations in whole to make posts longer and also always give detailed explanations like this one). Philmann absolutely refused to sit down on the grass(was he afraid that worms would bite his butt off or what?) until they said if he didn't sit down they'd make him lie down. So, apart from that which was needed, most of the dialogue between my friends was about how much they hated the camp(except for rare ones like Darren Ho:))

Why are youngsters so cynical nowadays? Criticising this, criticising that. It's as if the grass isn't green enough for them. And there's no other side. In relevance to the camp, there would be no point in complaining, other than venting anger. But once you begin to criticise just for the sake of it, it just ruins your own day. We had to go through the camp anyway. And complaining would have just worsened the experience for us. So why complain?

Complaining doesn't improve situations. It just causes us to be filled with hate and anger. And living with hate isn't enjoyable. Why do people think hating is cool(or at least I'm given that impression)? There is no point in having anger or hate towards others. It may sound "gay" but if everyone accepted each others' differences and lived in harmony it'd be the end of our problems.

P. S. Kudos to Shan Wei for the excellent storytelling during the sec 1 camp.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

We had to read "The Lottery" for English lit.
Click here to read it.

At first I didn't realise what happened to Tessie until I looked closely at the text.

Well, the story is really relevant to today's society. In today's society, there are many traditions and discriminatory practices that are not abolished even though they are outdated and inefficient, which in the story are represented by the lottery. An example of a discriminatory practice that is officially abolished but still practised by some people would be racial segregation. The

A lot of the relevance to today’s society is also from its themes. This is part of a literature worksheet so I can’t divulge the reasons behind the themes otherwise my classmates will copy them. I promise I’ll post them after the assignment is submitted.

Anyway, the main themes that can be found are “the inherent evilness of mankind” and hypocrisy.

The inherent evilness of mankind is very relevant to today especially because of advances in technology like computer games and movies that have violent content, causing people to be influenced by them. Many would not have believed that a 20-something foreigner studying in Nanyang Technical Institute who had great grades would later on stab one of his teachers then jump to his death. However, it did happen, probably because he got addicted to Warcraft, which he played a lot. After that, his grades dropped and his scholarship was withdrawn. Basically, my point is that it is possible, improbable, yes, but definitely possible, for even the man next door, a hardworking student, or a quiet, unassuming bank clerk to someday commit an atrocious crime that makes the headlines.

Hypocrisy is also a major theme. Nowadays, people are becoming more and more unscrupulous. Friendships nowadays are sometimes formed purely for gain from someone or to “have friends in places”. Sometimes people in leadership positions tell their employees that because there is an economic downturn they should tighten their belts, but they themselves are spending extravagantly, renovating their offices and buying new dustbins *ahem*. Some people in the American government criticised the Chinese government for having advanced surveillance and not giving anybody any privacy. However, they themselves voted in favour of such a scheme in America. The Americans have also criticised China for not giving their people any freedom (holding political prisoners et cetera) when there are still people in America who live on the fringes of society and have no freedom of speech. America also says it’s dangerous for other countries to have nuclear weapons (like N. Korea). But America itself stockpiles nuclear weapons. If countries such as N. Korea or Iran can’t be trustworthy to stockpile nukes, what makes America trustworthy? There is nothing that qualifies America to be “The Holder of the Nukes” that has the privilege to wield these weapons when others don’t have this “position”. I’m not saying everybody should be allowed to have nuclear weapons, I’m saying that everyone should not have nukes. If America wants others to not have nukes, it should dispose of its own stockpiles first.
I conclude that The Lottery is relevant to today’s society and no one should say that it is taboo. If you say that The Lottery is utter nonsense, then you’re a hypocrite because you’re definitely guilty of some of the crimes mentioned above (I am too. Everybody is).

Today's society

I really have to give credit to my friend and ex-classmate, now studying with me in my sec school, Timothy Toh for this story.. His blog link is somewhere on the right. I don't mean to make fun of the people mentioned though...esp. Obama(I copied and pasted this directly from T. Toh's blog)

Today's Society:
Look at this mess society is today. I mean...
The little red hen called all of her Democrat neighbors together and said,'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?' 'Not I,' said the cow. 'Not I,' said the duck. 'Not I,' said the pig. 'Not I,' said the goose. 'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.
::~::~::
The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain. 'Who will help me reap my wheat?' asked the little red hen. 'Not I,' said the duck... 'Out of my classification,' said the pig. 'I'd lose my seniority,' said the cow. 'I'd lose my unemployment compensation,' said the goose. 'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.
::~::~::
At last it came time to bake the bread. 'Who will help me bake the bread?' asked the little red hen. 'That would be overtime for me,' said the cow. 'I'd lose my welfare benefits,' said the duck. 'I'm a dropout and never learned how,' said the pig. 'If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination,' said the goose. 'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen.
::~::~::
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see.They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said,'No, I shall eat all five loaves.' 'Excess profits!' cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi) 'Capitalist leech!' screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer) 'I demand equal rights!' yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson) The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)
::~::~::
UNFAIR!
::~::~::
And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities. Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, 'You must not be so greedy.' 'But I earned the bread,' said the little red hen. 'Exactly,' said Barack the farmer. 'That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants.But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.' And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, 'I am grateful, for now I truly understand.' But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled. 'Fairness' had been established. (Bread became scarce and the price tripled).
Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared...so long as there was free bread that 'the rich' were paying for.
IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT??


Today's society is falling apart because of the lack of...(guess before scrolling down)

::~::~::

TRUST. No trust ==> lots of red tape ==> inefficient work place
==> when accidents happen, we may blame the innocent ==> hatred ==> inability to work together

And after a long chain of effects and causes, people become alienated from each other and then try to take advantage of each other. Families fall apart. Siblings have deadly rivalry. Divorces become the norm.

And all this will happen...unless we take action. Which we are most capable of. The human race has reached out into space, explored the depths of underwater trenches. If we can accomplish that,
NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE and IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING

Blogging and ACE points

Well, it's grading time for my blog for term 1.
I just have to put a few more comments on classmates' blogs and I (hope) will get 3 CPs :).

Humans and computers (and lots of questions)

Has anybody watched "I Robot"?
It makes me think.
Must we bind advanced robots and machines to our commands to prevent them from harming us?
Do they have a soul?
Do they have feelings? Will these stop them from hurting out of malice(if a robot can have that)?


Many argue that because robots are mechanical, no matter how advanced or high thinking-order they are, they will never be "equal" to humans and they will never have a soul.
Read on, and wonder, whether you agree with me or not(wondering is great).
When computers or AI become "high order" through extensive use of neural networks, will they begin to have feelings?
Well, first, we must look at how humans have feelings. Did we have feelings because we had feelings then expressed them with expressions? Or did we start off just having expressions to communicate with each other as hominids then come to embody them so much that we began to have feelings? Nobody knows.
But if feelings were created from a soul, and souls come from animals(and maybe even plants?), and animals come from carbon, then, can feelings come about from souls, that came from machinery(because even the most human-like AIs are just machines), that came from silicon?
If this is possible, why won't advanced AI have feelings?
I don't mean to create souls, that would be taking the place of God, but creating a body that can accomodate an entity with feelings(like in Xenocide and Children of the Mind from the Ender quartet). Is something like the "computer mind" Jane possible? An entity that can live in a mechanical mind as well as a carbon-based mind? Or even, are all humans like that? Is there a vast, empty space filled with body-less living entities that is extra-dimensional such that we cannot access it? Is one entity, or aiua, pulled away from this vast, empty world and pushed into our universe when an organism comes to exist, whether it be an alien, an E. Coli, a plant or an animal(human or non-human)?

Will we ever have AIs as our equal companions, just like humans?
Will, silicon-based machinery ever feel sadness, happiness, or love for human beings and each other?

We may never know, but my mind never stops wondering.

The Environment

I suppose this topic sounds familiar, especially with the ongoing debate on whether global warming exists or is happening.
Well, it needs a look into the past to understand what is happening.
Originally, humans thought that we could not affect the atmosphere or our environment much. However, after the industrial revolution, more natural environments were converted and changed to human environments. Also, humans began to release more waste products to attain a higher standard of life e.g. manufacturing air-conditioners, cigarettes, household appliances etc. converting raw materials to products. These waste products, of course, are waste and some of them are harmful. We don't want to dump waste on our own property, right? After all, we got the whole earth and others' property to dump our waste. This was and is the mentality of most humans, and even people like me think like this. It's our primitive selfishness. So, all of this waste was dumped into the environment, which, because of this, is treated like a giant dumping area to put our stuff when we no longer want it.
As a result, the impact on the environment is huge, so natural patterns in the environment are all changing...for the worse.
Even if it isn't global warming(true, some places are getting colder, though this can be explained), something is happening. Storms are becoming stronger, coastlines are receding and so on. The South Atlantic had its first tropical storm. Some people say that it's just a cycle. If it's a cycle it should return to normal eventually. Question is, when is eventually? Will we be destroyed by the adverse parts of this cycle before it returns to the norm(if there is a norm)?
Something is happening to our environment, and we have to save it for our own survival.