Was the assassination of Osama Bin Laden correct?

After the assassination of Osama Bin Laden that occurred on 2 May 2011, a debate rose up around this incident, One side of the debate felt that the decision to assassinate Osama was correct, as he was a threat to countries and innocent citizens, but the other side maintained that Osama should have been given a fair trial, just like any other wrongdoer, as every human deserves the right to have a fair trial. I feel that the assassination was the correct decision, as Osama was a threat to the world, and him living would cause the al-Qaeda terrorist group to have hope. Additionally, Osama tarnished America's reputation as a superpower, as it managed to cause such a massive destruction and kill so many lives in the 911 incident.

Firstly, the reason why Osama should not live is that the fact that he is alive, can give hope to his terrorist group. the very aim of capturing Osama is to get rid of him so that al-Qaeda will be forced to disband due to the lack of a leader. However, if the USA actually just captured him, he can still inspire followers due to his very presence, and thus it will be impossible for al-Qaeda to disband. Therefore, Osama should be assassinated.

Another reason why he should be assassinated is that through the 911 tragedy, Osama and al-Qaeda had actually disgraced the USA's reputation as a super power, as they got affected so much by a terrorist group. If Osama was not killed, the USA would have shamed themselves even further, and thus the only way to repair their tarnished reputation for once and for all was to get rid of the leader of the group, who was Osama. Therefore, it was absolutely necessary for the USA to kill Osama.

Finally, Osama should be killed, as if he was merely captured, there would be a chance of him escaping again. This would motivate the al-Qaeda group to increase their rate of bombings on USA, which would not help anyone. In fact, the al-Qaeda may put so much pressure on the USA and cause them to actually release Osama. This would not be beneficial for anyone at all, and thus the simplest and quickest way was to kill Osama.

Shylock: Victim or Villain? (MOV)

           Shylock, a major character in Merchant of Venice. However, should he be classified as a bloodthirsty villain seeking for revenge, or a victim of the Christians' bullying? There is much debate about this topic, but I feel that Shylock is a victim. He lost his daughter, religion and money all due to the Venetians, and in the end, when forced to convert to Christianity, he would be shunned by both the Jews and the Christians. 

           I feel Shylock is a victim, as at the end of Merchant of Venice, he is only person with a bad ending. His entire fortune was given to Antonio, the one who insulted Shylock the most, and Lorenzo, who stole his only daughter. This makes him a victim, as in addition to not having his revenge on Antonio, Shylock is forced to give away his money, the only possession that he really loved, to his arch enemy Antonio, who insulted him and his religion, and Lorenzo, who stole Shylock's daughter who was the second most important in his life. That was like adding insult to Shylock's injuries, as he had to give his most precious possession to two people in the world that he hated most. Therefore, Shylock is a victim.

           Additionally, Shylock was also forced to convert to Christianity. In addition to being the religion that his enemies have, converting to Christianity also turns Shylock into a "in-between", as his Jew friends will desert him, but the Christians would also not want to associate with him. Even his daughter, who was once always by his side, would no longer be seen as related to him any more, being on the side of her lover, Lorenzo. Therefore, Shylock has truly been turned into a lone man, whom no one would want to know nor like. Therefore, Shylock is a victim.

Cyber bullying

In today's society, cyber bullies are everywhere, hiding behind a mask of anonymity and sending hurtful comments from behind a laptop/desktop screen. It is a very serious problem, and can cause much psychological harm to the victim, resulting in effects such as depression for the victim. The victim would also certainty suffer from low self esteem, a long term effect which will affect the victim's future life. Therefore, I feel that it should be stopped at all costs.

Firstly, cyber bullying can cause problems such as depression in the victim, which might then lead to a suicide. In recent years, there has been an increasing spate of cases of suicide, due to cyber bullying by classmates. Sometimes, the bullying is due to the pent up anger/stress inside the bully, and thus he/she releases it by taking pleasure from hurting others. However, this is the wrong way to relieve stress. Though the bullies might feel relieved, the victims do not. Action must be taken against cyber bullying, to ensure that this is prevented.

Additionally, the victims suffer from long term effects such as low self esteem, which can then affect them in their future, causing them to become timid or affecting their school/work performance. Also, the victims sometimes turn into bullies themselves, due to their low self esteem, hence they want to establish superiority over something to prove that they are strong. This will not be good, as how can our society progress if it is made up of just bullies and victims? Therefore, cyber bullying should be stopped.

In conclusion, bullying should be stopped at all costs. It harms our society by reducing the number of talented workers we have, as well as cause tragedies to happen, in the form of suicides or shootings.Quoting Randy Harrison,"The bullying stopped once I claimed myself and proved that I wasn't afraid. A lot of it was when I was hiding when I was younger." If the victims of bullying stop hiding and start seeking help, bullying can be eliminated.

Arranged marriages

Marriages can be split into two categories, one of which is the love marriage commonly seen in movies, where after a long trial of hardship and such, the two lovers get married out of true love. However, there is a lesser known type, where marriage is arranged between parents of the to be husband and wife without their consent. Often, the to be couple have never even seen each other before, and their marriage is their first meeting with each other. One may think that arranged marriages only happened in the past, and would be impossible in today's society of outspoken youth. In fact, arranged marriages are still largely practiced in South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and to some extent in Southeast Asia and East Asia.

"What is so wrong about arranged marriages?", some may ask. They feel that arranged marriages are beneficial for the parents' offspring, as the parents use the benefit of experience to help their child choose partners that they feel are most suited for them, with the best values. This would solve one of the problems in a love marriage, where the two sides marry on impulse and end up divorcing after the initial feelings fade.

However, I prefer a marriage of love, rather than arranged marriages. Imagine that one day, your parents suddenly announce to you that they have arranged a marriage to an unknown girl for you. What would be you be feeling? Shock, surprise or indignation? Marriage is an important part of a person's life, where he/she is partnered to another person for the rest of their lives, or until their divorce. Having to live and sleep with a stranger whom you just met is not a very welcomed situation. 

Additionally, in an arranged marriage, your parents or a relative chooses the partner for you. Mismatches, where the partner they chose does not get along with you well, are very likely to happen, as after all, they choose the partner that they like best, and not the one whom you might prefer. Living long term with someone who you cannot get along with well is not a very appealing prospect, and this would almost certainty lead to a divorce.

In conclusion, I feel that love marriages are preferable to arranged ones, as the chance of a mismatch is reduced, and it is better to get to know your partner better rather than find out who he/she is only on the day of marriage. Even though in arranged marriages, parents who are more knowledgeable help you choose a partner with the best values, if you are not compatible and do not get well with each other, the marriage will not succeed,

Should US have dropped the atomic bombs on Japan?

At the ending stages of World War 2, the US dropped the atomic bombs, Little Boy, upon Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, and Fat Man upon Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, in a bid to bring the war to an end as quickly as possible. Till today, there had been numerous debate about this issue, and whether the atomic bombs should have been used to end the war. Personally, I agree with the US's action to drop the atomic bombs on Japan, as otherwise, there would have been more casualties, and Japan would have fought to the last, causing the war to be dragged on for much longer, prolonging the suffering of the both the prisoners and the civilians caught in the war. Also, for the US, it was preferable for the Japanese to die rather than its own citizens. Therefore, due to the reasons stated above, the US dropped the atomic bombs on Japan.

The world's biggest bun fight

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/05/11/hongkong.bun.festival/index.html?hpt=C2

I was just surfing through the internet when I found this article about the Cheung Chau Bun Carnival, which looked very interesting. 

The Cheung Chau Bun Carnival is held on the island of Cheung Chau, and coincides with Buddha's birthday and a public holiday in Hong Kong. Being such a popular event, it attracts thousands of visitors to the island, all wanting to join in the festive atmosphere, watching the performances and buying souvenirs.


The scaling of a 'bun mountain' is the main part of the Cheung Chau Bun carnival, and in this game, participants are supposed to collect as many buns as they can and reach the top of the bun mountain, all in just two minutes. For safely purposes, the buns are covered in plastic, and the audience is watching from a safe distance.


This event is the first of its kind in the world, and this unique event attracts tons of curious visitors to the island of Cheung Chau, turning it into a lively island. This is definitely an event not to be missed, and if I have the chance, I will definitely go there the next time.

How do I define normal?

Normal is a measure of what is acceptable in current society. People who fit in society are called normal people, while other people are called abnormal. People called abnormal are just a minority who have some traits different from the majority of normal people, like differences in their attitude, beliefs, physical traits etc.

When it comes to evaluating if a person is normal or not, I use myself as the basis of comparison. If that person is too different from me, in his actions or behavior, I will think that he is weird/abnormal, while if that person has some similarities to me, I will feel that he/she is a normal person. 

However, focusing too much on normality may cause people to have to do things that they do not want to. Just because  "Everyone is doing it" does not mean that one has to do it as well. However, many people are influenced by this, and may end up doing things that they do not want to do, like stealing just because all my friends do it etc.

Also, people feel that they have the right to criticize others, just because they are different. However, there is bound to be people who act differently, and even if they are different, one still doesn't have to right to ridicule others.

In summary, I feel that the definition of normality depends on the current society and the person himself/herself. Also, focusing too much on normality, and doing things because others are doing it is not a valid reason. Also, no one has the right to criticize or ridicule people who are different, as there are bound to be people who are different from oneself.

Let Kids Rule the School - Blog Prompt for 12 April

I do not think that students can be given the autonomy to decide their own curriculum, as not all of them have the responsibility and the attitude needed to decide their curriculum.

There are students who can handle the privilege of deciding their own education, but what happens to those students that cannot handle it? For example, if a lazy student gets the power to decide the lessons he can take, he will just take the easiest lessons. This will not be beneficial to his future, as he cannot find a job in the future, as no company would want him. Therefore, students should not be given the power to decide their education.

Also, students should have a balanced education to open up more job options for them in the future. If students
only focus on their favorite subject and prepare for their dream job, their future career options will be very limited. If they cannot get those jobs, then they will have to learn more skills, which means that their previous education was wasted. Thus, education should not be decided by students.

There is an advantage of students that decide their own curriculum, which is that they will have more interest in that subject that they had chosen, which will be beneficial for their education as they will have more passion for learning. However, this will limit their job options and if they cannot get a job in that field, will waste their previous learning, which is what I have stated earlier.

Ultimately, I feel that partial control can be given to students who have been proven to have the responsibility to handle it, as this will allow them to prepare for their dream jobs earlier, while still giving them a balanced education.

Why should we care about what happens in places far away from where we live?

We should care about what happens in other places, as our country is dependent on other countries for nearly everything, like food, economy and others. We have to import food from other countries like Thailand, and if a disaster happens there, our reserve food store cannot last for very long, and thus if that happens, we then have to prepare immediately for that.
Also, Singapore is lacking in land area, raw materials and consumers. Therefore, we need to invest in other countries for land, import raw materials into Singapore, and export those raw materials as products to other countries.Thus, Singapore is heavily reliant on other countries. If anything happens to these countries, Singapore would be badly affected, and our economy might fall, thus creating a bad situation for Singaporeans.
 Also, for incidents such as natural disasters, we can send help to that country immediately, both to
fulfill our moral duty and to show off our military power to other countries, killing two birds with one stone.
It is also important to get a knowledge of the current affairs, to improve ourselves and be up to date with the world. Also, we have to get a better understanding of the world, so that we can learn from the situations in other countries. For example, for Japan's nuclear scare, we can use it to think through whether Singapore should use nuclear power for electricity. Also, if there are beneficial situations in other countries, we may be able to apply the situation in Singapore if it can help.

Online Lesson - Descriptive Piece on War

Lying behind a flimsy board, I looked around at my comrades. We urgently needed medical help, but were surrounded by enemies from all sides. Being discovered would mean instant death, a prospect none of us were looking forward to. All of us were injured, but I was one of the lucky ones, a cut by a bullet grazing past my thigh. However, my friends were not as lucky, some on the verge of death, kept awake only by sheer determination.

I thought about risking a peek outside, but it was dangerous. If I succeeded, we would be able to relay our location to the main camp, who would then send a squadron of soldiers to help us. I dared not think of the consequences of getting seen by the enemy. Muttering a quick prayer, I raised my head slightly over the the board. No enemies in sight, check. I quickly relayed our location to the camp, and they promised to send aid immediately. I ducked my head down and slumped in relief. "Help would be coming soon, so lets just hold on for a little longer", I whispered, providing everyone with a fresh burst of hope.

Encouragement letter

Dear Kumiko,
I read about what happened to you, and I hope you and your son are faring well now. I was shocked to hear of the massive earthquake that occurred on 11 March, and after reading yours and other people's survival stories, I had an idea of how terrifying the day was for the people in Japan, not knowing if another earthquake would strike.
I can imagine how hard life is now, in Japan where everyone is panicking and stocking up food. However, there is no need to panic. The whole world is supporting and providing aid to Japan, donating food, clothes, money and much more. We will all help Japan to pick itself up, one step by one step, and before long, things will be back to normal again.
So, do not despair and give up hope, because everyone is behind you, all willing to provide any needed help or support in any way. Ganbatte!
Best wishes,
Xu Shi Guang

Random stuff: Pokemon online

Pokemon is a very fun game, but when I first started to play this pokemon online thing, I lost quite a number of games, especially to Bryan, who still beats me now. I was originally at the very end of the player ranking, but with a little reference to www.smogan.com and a little tweaking, I proceeded to the 1k++ ranking out of 19k. I think this is a quite good achievement, and I sure hope that I can surpass Bryan in the future, preferably with a snorlax soloing his whole team(I like snorlax).

Random stuff: My mousehunt ban

Well, I got banned on Mouse hunt last Saturday, because of multiple accounts. The image displayed on my screen was: You got sent to the King's Stockade and there was a picture of a glitch paw mouse, along with a list of rules on the lower half of the screen. When I saw this, I was initially quite sad, as if it was a permanent ban, I would have lost all the free superbrie( 600++) that I had gotten for free. Luckily, I asked Ian, a very very very very nice friend for help, and he helped me appeal. Incredibly, the appeal succeeded, even though it seemed like it was going to fail, and they gave me one last chance. I am definitely going to treasure the chance, as I have amassed a great collection during my time playing and I certainty do not wish for my collection to be gone, nor my great collection of mice caught(or maybe not, as Bryan and Ian had surpassed me in the one week I was banned). Now I am off to get an acolyte mouse!!!

Random stuff: Staring off into blank spaces

Have you ever tried staring off into blank space before? It is quite interesting. You still see stuff happening in front of you, but after you stop staring, somehow you will forget what you saw, or maybe you only remember parts of it, leading you to wonder where you got those information from. I usually do this when I am immensely bored, like during a bus ride, or when I don't know what to do or write( I did that before thinking of writing this random thing) or during boring classes.( Not In Language Arts!) But now, I do that lesser as trying to daydream or stare off into blank spaces while sitting next to Bryan is too hard, as he is too active. However, I daydreamed a lot in class in my primary school( luckily I never got caught by teachers), and I don't know I managed to get into Hwachong(maybe luck). So here ends my random post about staring off into blank space.

Machines vs human teachers

Machines might be able to replace human teachers in the future, but not now. Machines are not able to process information independently, needing a controller to input suggested answers when marking, and they are not flexible enough when it comes to marking, being only able to mark things based on the inputed information and not based on their own knowledge. It is true that the internet is a great source of information, but what are are the true and false information present in the internet. Not everything on the internet is absolutely correct. Also, getting a machine to teach is akin to asking students to read their textbooks. It is the same, as since machines cannot process thoughts and can only repeat the data given to them. Also, though information present in the textbooks are supposed to be correct, some information might be wrong. If there was a human teacher, the teacher might be able to correct the information. but since the machine teacher does things based on information given to it, it cannot correct mistakes and all the students will be implicated. Thus, the current machines cannot replace human teachers.

Random stuff: Journey to school

Going to school is a very boring thing to do, and having to go to school half awake makes it even more tedious, especially when you do not feel like going to school. However, I have met with some interesting incidents while going to school. I live at Sengkang, so it takes about 1 hour to reach Hwachong. During this trip which takes 1/24 of one day, interesting things rarely happen. There was only one incident that was slightly interesting in my one year plus trips to Hwachong. One happened last year, at about May(I think). My friend(in pro ed) and I had just boarded the 67 bus at Little India and were standing in a full bus. Halfway through the bus ride, just as the bus was leaving, it stopped. A silence replaced the usual vibration and noise of the engine. All of us felt the change and guessed correctly; the bus's engine had stopped. Refusing to believe it, the bus driver turned the engine key multiple times, but his futile attempts failed. He had no choice but to ask all the passengers to exit, giving us a ticket for a free bus ride and sending us all out of the bus as he went to the back and tried to fix the problem. I stuffed the ticket into my wallet and promptly forgot about it, only finding it this year when it had already expired. Even though I wasted my bus fare, at least I got an interesting experience out of it. And thankfully, I was not late for school.

A book review!!!

Book review

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

Ever wanted to live in a world full of mystical creatures? In Fablehaven, that is the situation. Kendra and Seth, a pair of siblings, are thrust right in the middle of the action. But in order to prevent people who have not read this book yet from getting confused, let’s start from the beginning. With a rather calm beginning, Fablehaven begins in the middle of a rather boring car journey. Where to? Their old and boring grandparent’s house, of course. (Or so they thought) However, once they arrived, many mysterious things occurred (or noticed). For one, dragonflies and butterflies in there like drinking milk and staring at their reflections in a mirror. An old witchy woman was found a deep forest, while a secret garden was found in a corner of the forest. Cryptic clues given by their grandfather, along with three keys mystify the siblings even further. The breakthrough came one day, as the last and final key unlocks a seemingly empty journal to reveal a single line of text, “Drink the milk” As Kendra ponders the meaning of this line, a butterfly alighted onto a bowl of milk, and starts drinking. Realizing the meaning behind this line, Kendra then drank a little milk from that bowl, getting Seth to do so as well. When they opened their eyes again, a new world is revealed to them. Dragonflies and butterflies are transformed into fairies; while the old woman is revealed to be a witch and magical beings are present everywhere. All these are due to their grandparents being keepers of magical preserves, and out of all their grandchildren, Seth and Kendra were the only ones that passed. And this is where the action starts. Due to the mischief caused by Seth, the fairies now do not offer their protection for the house, and thus renders the house vulnerable, with midsummer eve coming up, a day where all the boundaries of the preserve were released. In the night, deceptive goblins and evil beings trick both Kendra and Seth into opening in the window, thus allowing them in. They wreak havoc in the house, and it was only due to the extra protection that they were saved. The adults were not so lucky, however, and in the morning, had disappeared. Alone, the siblings seek for help, and then, managing to transform their grandmother back from a chicken, search for allies and weapons to use against the evil forces present in the preserve, even have to give a mountain troll a massage to gain its help. They turned out to heavily outnumbered, and lost. Kendra survived, but had to leave her grandmother and Seth behind. Using her last resort, pleading with the fairy queen, she gained access to the shrine. The fairy queen gave her the recipe for a potion that will turn the miniature fairies into human sized warriors, turning her into fairykind in the process, a human with fairy powers. After gathering all the ingredients and summoning the fairy warriors, they rushed to battle, just in time to prevent a revival of the demon Bahumat, which if given the chance, would destroy the entire preserve. After all the normal commotion over the reuniting of the family, they return to the rebuilt house, and with a hint of more books to come, end the story with their parents coming back for them, after the vacation. This was a quite captivating book, and I believe that Brandon Mull is a great writer, being able to sustain my interest till the end of the story. I practically devoured the book, finishing it within a day, reading even while eating.

Nature versus Nurture

I think that nurture is better than nature, as the government must give equal rights to the people. If not, the worse off people would not bother studying and improving themselves and forever remain in their bad living conditions forever. This will lead to a loss of productivity and loss of income as the workers’ standard of work will fall, affecting our economy adversely. People will just think,” Oh, I was born like that, and use that excuse for everything, refusing to work hard or to try.” Instead, I think the true reason for this is because the graduate parents can tutor their child themselves, helping the child’s grades, and they know how and what to study, based on their own experiences.

All summer in a day

The venus children deal with people unlike them by bullying them and trying to get rid of them. This is clearly shown in all summer in a day, where they push and shove and call Margot names, and their bullying kept getting worse, finally reaching a point that they wanted her to go away so much that they did not let her see the once in seven year sun, despite knowing that she was desperate to see it. But, a bit of the fault lies with Margot, as she purposely holds the fact that she saw and remembered the sun over the other children, agitating them and causing them to act like that. Actually, if she made more effort to fit in, and not do those things, she would have blended in very well with the other venus children.

Straits Times article review

For this article, I think that the author is right. Not only do the disabled need help, so do the caregivers. Often, caregivers are affected by the people they take care of. They are both emotionally and physically affected. In the case of the father trying to find a nursing home for his son, the father worries too much for his son, and his children, hence he resorted to trying to kill his disabled son, to spare his son the agony of feeling like a burden, and to spare his children the burden his son will bring to them.

To Kill A Mockingbird: Poetry

By Xu Shi Guang and Bryan Leong and Lee Yun Jie

Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley

Arthur Boo Radley, notorious for his deeds
He was mad, the warnings heed
Morbid mutilations, occurring in the night
With the pets and animals, unable to put up a fight

Arthur's house, an object of fear
Nobody dared to venture near
Things that went over, never came out
For their house was cursed it was rumoured about

The Radleys kept to themselves, Mr Radley “buying cotton”
Not meeting anyone, getting cursed by others, their souls to burn
Not church goers, the Radleys prayed at home
Slowly, building up an invisible dome

Soon, the Radleys vanished from sight
Only, to be remembered like a creature of the night
Rumoured that Boo, Made friends with Cunninghams,
forming the nearest thing, Maycomb had to a gang

In one fateful night, under the influence of alcohol
They came together, up to mischief
Resisting arrest, locked Mr Conner behind a door
Ended up in the court getting charged like thieves

Mr Radley, came to court
To prevent Boo from being sent to be taught
And thus forth Boo was never seen again,
He was neither here nor there, forever detained.

LA online lesson 26/1/11

I walked bare footed on to the sandy beach, feeling the warmth of the sand on my toes. I shaded my eyes as I looked up at the azure sky, enjoying the magnificent view. The Sun shone its warm rays upon me as I chose a spot under a tree, in the cool shade. I had originally planned to read my book, but it was just so quiet and serene that I soon drifted off to sleep…

My sleep was broken by screams of children playing around in the water, their parents watching over them from the shore. I looked around, wondering how long I slept. There were tons of families around me now, while little kids raced about, playing their games. I gave up on trying to read, moving towards the jutting patch of sand, the clear blue water lapping away at the sand. I admired the beautiful scene and, dipping my toes into the clear water, enjoyed the cool sensation of the water. I scanned the beach, briefly watching the children at play. It had always amazed me how creative children were, and how fast they made friends. It was time to go. I looked around the beach, trying to imprint the mental pictures into my memory.  I turned back, packed my things, and left.

National survey about youths

Well, if this survey is true, I am very different from the average youth, as I am not very happy. I am extremely stressed, and am not satisfied with my life at all. Every day, it is the same thing, homework, class, a LITTLE BIT of computer time and eating and sleeping. My life is very boring. I suspect that they chose the good reviews to put up, as the elections are coming up and the PAP needs more voters. My life goals are only to earn money. Also, I do not believe in marriage and spend way more than 10 hours with my parents. I hate to be challenged by anyone, so this survey, which is very different from my and my friends feelings, seems very suspicious.

Article about chinese mothers

Are chinese mothers really better in taking care of children that western mothers? Well, I think that it depends on the personality of the child themselves.Some children may be more suited for the chinese mother's style of teaching, a world of strict rules, punishments and so on. However, other children may not be suited for this kind of life, and may break down. Therefore, it really depends on the child, whether they just need to be pushed to work or if they really cannot do it.Also, chinese mothers are more harsh, willing to use every resource to push their child to greater heights, while the western mother tries to teach the child to be self reliant, to educate the child by changing their mindset about learning, and to constantly reflect upon themselves. But the chances of succeeding is greater for the chinese mother than for the western mother, as children generally react more to the chinese mothers due to their harsh mothers. But, I do not know if all chinese mothers are like that, as my own mother is actually quite slack about this kinds of things, and only interferes when my grades get really low.

I chose the flags because they represented each of the countries, and they help to bring my point out, which is that Singaporeans litter more than other countries. Then, there are people throwing rubbish in the bins in other countries, but when it comes to Singapore, there is a young boy throwing away his trash. This shows that in Singapore, all ages of people litter, even children.Therefore, my entire comic displays the message that Singaporeans are do not care for the environment, carelessly throwing litter around.

21 Jan LA lesson

Though our class seems to be quite united, I still have observed similar incidents happening to a certain member in the class. He is not disabled or anything, but people still dislike him, and no one wished to sit next to him in class. Something similar happens in the article, where the writer's son is disliked, and thus ignored, due to him having mild autism. The classmates taunt, call names and whispered behind the writer's son. In addition, he was isolated. These were so hurtful that the son sometimes returned home in tears. But, what I find heartening is that when he transferred over to Singapore, Singaporeans accepted him more readily, and he made three friends before the day ended. He was actually happy among Singaporeans than with his previous classmates in Dubai. I feel that this is really good, that Singapore students can accept people that are different from them readily.

All summer in a day, LA

I think that it is better to have never known something than to lose it, as you can do without the pain of losing it, especially when it is very dear to you. I much rather live in ignorance than to live a life full of knowledge and regret. Since ultimately, if you choose the second choice, what is left is only bad emotions. So I would choose the better ending, which is having nothing to be happy for, but having nothing to regret in the end as well.

18 January online lesson

La Lesson

I forgot most of last year, so I can only remember one occasion where it was like that. It happened during English class, when our English teacher asked us to form into groups and discuss the meaning of prejudice, I had to join a group whose members I was not very familiar with. I was an extra in the group. I had no one to talk to; hence I just watched as they did all the work and chatted cheerfully among them. Even though I felt a little lonely, at least I did not need to do any work and could slack.