What is Actually Right?!

The title of the article itself is self explanatory of the complexity attached to the issue of freedom of expression. In our current 21st century, where the world is technically shrinking due the astounding advancement of technology and its ability to connect to the global community; information is dissipated at the blink of an eye and events happening at one end of the globe serves to be the flash news at the very next moment. Due to the staggering growth of our society, the issue of freedom to express one's individual opinions is one that is accepted with mixed reactions. Moreover in our cosmopolitian city of Singapore, where it is essential to maintain racial harmony and cohesion, the debate of freedom against societal responsibility is ongoing and , till now, never ending. My take on this issue is that social responsiblity should have precedence over the need of freedom of expression,but, with it still being given importance and thus, not neglected. Thus I would have to agree with the author, Szilagyi's view.



In the land where its forefathers came from various ends of the globe and the present day society diverse with rich cultures and heritage contributed by the different races, it is no wonder that the Singapore government is careful not to displace the balance it has obtained between securing pluralism and yet maintaining social harmony. This is so as radical racial views expressed under the blanket of freedom of expression is not accepted here in Singapore. Last year the blogger who discriminated and disgraced the islamic religion, and doing so almost instigated bitterness between the various racial communities, was given due punishment by the law. This is so as people grow sensitive to remarks that are said pin pointing a specific religion or community, irregardless of whether it is deemed of being showcased under the blanket of freedom of expression or not. Thus the issue of sensitivity is one that is very volatile, subjective, and definitely not to be taken lightly as one's individual opinion tends to be interpreted differently by others thus causing it to possess a life of its own depending on how it is being manipulated. So excercising social responsibility and being wary of how even a small comment could snowball into a major issue, paving the way for terrorism and racial conflicts could save a multi racial country like Singapore from undesirable outbursts and racial tensions. However, one can argue that freedom of expression is a right that an individual possess and that the public is to be blamed if it not discerning enough and thereby naive to take heed of another's sayings. But the crux of the matter is that expecting others not to form undesirable opinions on one's expressions is somewhat silly, and hence by preventing those conflicting expressions being displayed in the first place and practicing social responsibility, one is assured that the cradle of sensitivity is not tampered with thus ensuring peace is maintained.





Secondly the surging media makes the concept of freedom of expression even harder to integrate in our societies. The issue the media is grappling with is whether to secure individual freedom or work towards collective interests of the society. Of course the Danish and Norwegian newspapers that originally published the cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad had no intentions to spark off rage in the Muslin world; but it did. So the mass media's and the press's ability to disseminate information and make it avaliable at our fingertips, causes the importance of displaying social responsibility to increase even further as the vulnerability of the expressions increases as well. The internet also serves to be the gateway in which personal opinions are displayed. However displaying our private thoughts on the world wide web serves to be an irony as it is no longer private and individual but rather made public and promulgated. Thus the freedom of expression comes under the control of the manipulation of the media and so posses a greater threat to cause imbalance in the society with regards to issus such as religion and terrorism. with Singapore striving to be an Inter Faith hub, social responsibility is clearly more important as it ensures that no particular religious community gets offended and the public is able to live harmoniously despite the diverse heritages.

"Prejudice is a disease we can never get rid of" Discuss.

Since the dawn of time, the world has been moulded and shaped to our present 21st century ,evidently through the human beings' thoughts and opinions . The power of our views and our mindsets determine a huge aspect of our lifes and greatly impacts our immediate society. Our individuality is the factor that not only created diversity but also the element of prejudism in our society. It is the different perspectives in our thinkings which leads to our varied reactions to adversity that causes the poison of prejudism to spread through. To change our individuality is impossible ,or rather impractical, but to change our approach towards the incidents that lead to prejudise thinking is certainly not. Thus the claim that prejudism is a stain that can never be erased from the face of the human population is truly of debate. Prejudice thinking can be eroded if people are willing to embrace each others' differences and celebrate one anothers' uniqueness which success is then truly dependent on the people. Thus prejudism is a concept that can be gotten rid of but only to a limited extent.

Prejudism is essentially an effect to a much bigger adversity at hand. So to have any chances of eradicating prejudism it is fundamental to change one's way of thinking so as to prevent escalating the effect, which is then best achieved through education.Singapore, being a multi racial and multi religious society, understood the importance of cooperation and the possibility of prejudism between the spectrum of races all too well. Thus it intergrated the National Education Programme which commenced in 1990 into its education system which help educate the students about the different races and their unique traditions. By explaining the presence and the significanceof these varied customs and cultures , Singaporeans are then better able to appreciate and understand one another which then helps to decrease the risk of prejudism. So the aspect of prejudism can be gotten rid of ,but the reality is, it is not eroded completely. However the success is solely dependant on the people and to support the fact that prejudism has not been rampant, Singapore has not faced any major racial riots since 1965.

“YouTube has no ethics, it's been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.” My Views.

The word ethics is defined as the moral rules or principles of behaviour which goes into deciding what is right,what is wrong and which lies in the grey area. Thus, is it right to proclaim that the newly founded yet sensational YouTube has all its morals and values in place? After all it is too a form of business, where the key element of focus lies in the profit that is generated. Moreover, YouTube is also a form of mass media, which is nitially created to inform people of the happenings in the world but essentially more so, to entertain them so as to add the colours of joy and amusement to ones mundane lifes' in whichever ways possible hence increasing its marketability. Thus the issue surrounding YouTube's ethics is clear; it simply has none .
Since its launch in February 2005, YouTube has grown to be a highly popular and sought out form of entertainment, where an estimated 100 million videos are watched by people worldwide each day. There is clearly no restriction which specifies what types of videos are permitted to be uploaded and watched by those accessing the global web. Thus how can one say that YouTube has ethics as if it did, they would be security programmes implemented within Youtube itself to screen and eliminate videos inappropriate for displaying within YouTube. Due to the given freedom, a huge spectrum of videos are present for the publics' view, stretching from health videos to porn videos and many more where only some are suitable for viewing and most of them are not often displaying violence and disrespect. One such example is that of a 44-second film which violated the respect for the Thai King when it aired displaying graffiti over the King Bhumibol Adulyadej's face. A ban on YouTube then followed which was issued by the Thailand government. One can argue, claiming that it is unfair to accuse YouTube when it is the selective few who display the videos that are not suited for public viewing. But isn't the main cause YouTube, which readily provides the space for the clip to be aired without any constrains. The condition of the car has to be full proof before placing the blame on the driver for the accident as the car is the medium while the driver is simply just manipulating it.If the medium denies access , there is nothing the manipulator can do isn't it?

Hi everyone. My Name is Sri. Actually my full name is K Sri Karpageshwary, but i guess it is just too hard to pronounce.
I was previously from Crescent Girls' School and I really love that place alot. I did have my fair share of ups and downs in Crescent but that was truly what which made me bond with and have a close affinity to the amazing school. I really hope that I can foster that sort of belonging to Anderson as well. ;)
I am a person who is very passionate, both in my academics and the activities that I engage outside of school. I also believe that woman are of no less than equal in capabilities and skills in comparison to men. Maybe thats why I was in National Cadet Corps(NCC) in Crescent and had the Second Sergeant rank. I was also a marksmen for the 100 metres M-16 range.
Finally, I hope I would have awesome times in Anderson and that this blog would help my english and general paper.