Apart from living on the same planet, many of us have countless beliefs and perceptions that are different in a way or another from the people that are around us. Some of the differences as mentioned by the writer of the article are the cultural, religious and political differences. And for most of the times, these differences we have from each group of people may be the fundamentals for prolonged conflicts like those in the Middle East and some parts of Europe and it may even turn out to be amusing to the other parties that are exposed to the cultures and behaviors of a particular group of people.
On the other hand, international conflicts that occur between nations and groups of different civilizations leave us to ponder upon the factors leading to an outbreak of a full scale war. Furthermore, the widening of the income gap between the different levels of people in a society contributes to the tension of it too. As pointed out by the write, it is not only in Islam and Indonesia that internal conflict can be observed, it happens on a worldwide scale which consists of superpowers such as the U,S and Russia in the diverse aspects of a society such as economic, politics and industries.
In conclusion, although there are many aspects pertaining to the cause of the conflicts, many of which boils down to differences, we have to learn to accept and compromise a belief or a culture that is totally different from ours to be able to stop all the conflicts and decrease the complexity of certain issues.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Visits to the Yasukuni war shrine- Respectful or a preview to chaos?
62 years after the second World War, grudges against the Japanese still lingers in the air, especially with their present Prime Minister still visiting the shrine as he had promised the members of the Association of War Bereaved Families to gather more supports for himself.
The shrine honors war criminals from the war, among which are 14 Class A War Criminals and is often seen as a symbol of the Japanese military aggression. However, it is made known to Japan that it is all right for Prime Minister Koizumi to visit the shrine but not his purpose in doing so by China and South Korea. Furthermore, his fellow countrymen are also not supporting him in this decision of his.
If this carries on and he holds on the post as Prime Minister for a second term in the upcoming elections to be held in September, Japan and the neighboring countries may run into some problems with regards to their economic and political relationships. Being one of the most developed countries in the world, Japan requires the backing of the other countries, especially those in Asia and vice versa for the region to prosper. With weak economic ties with China and political ties that are on the brink, his determination to fulfill his promise to continue his visits to the shrine may worsen the situation. Moreover, this may even lead to unnecessary a conflict that is disadvantageous to the world today with terrorism all around us. On top of that, he visits the shrine every 15 August, a sensitive date that the other Asian countries would not like to remember, the day the Japanese surrendered. It somehow implies his sadness in the fall of the country.
Therefore, the only way out is for PM Koizumi to stop his visits to the shrine or maybe change the date of his visits to a date which is less sensitive that would not enrage his neighboring countries, jeopardizing the economics that may have adverse effects.
The shrine honors war criminals from the war, among which are 14 Class A War Criminals and is often seen as a symbol of the Japanese military aggression. However, it is made known to Japan that it is all right for Prime Minister Koizumi to visit the shrine but not his purpose in doing so by China and South Korea. Furthermore, his fellow countrymen are also not supporting him in this decision of his.
If this carries on and he holds on the post as Prime Minister for a second term in the upcoming elections to be held in September, Japan and the neighboring countries may run into some problems with regards to their economic and political relationships. Being one of the most developed countries in the world, Japan requires the backing of the other countries, especially those in Asia and vice versa for the region to prosper. With weak economic ties with China and political ties that are on the brink, his determination to fulfill his promise to continue his visits to the shrine may worsen the situation. Moreover, this may even lead to unnecessary a conflict that is disadvantageous to the world today with terrorism all around us. On top of that, he visits the shrine every 15 August, a sensitive date that the other Asian countries would not like to remember, the day the Japanese surrendered. It somehow implies his sadness in the fall of the country.
Therefore, the only way out is for PM Koizumi to stop his visits to the shrine or maybe change the date of his visits to a date which is less sensitive that would not enrage his neighboring countries, jeopardizing the economics that may have adverse effects.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Eradication of poverty in the world totally
Poverty, a essential factor in the world that keeps everthing in the balance. As the saying goes, whenever there is richness, poverty will also exist concurrently too.
Athough poverty can never be totally eradicated from the surface of the world, it is possible for the people living in poverty to improve their lives slightly with the help of the more developed countries as mentioned by Jeffery Sachs who was interviewed by Singapore Press Holdings on his view of poverty in the world and he suggested that anyone can be involved in helping the poor by just learning exactly how we can help and overcome the physcological barrier of being not afraid of them.
Furthermore,the more developed countries can offer their helping hand by providing these poverty bound countries with resources such as food,clothing,housing,medicines and even volunteers which include doctors, nurses and humanitarians as there are usually lots of diseases spreading in these areas.
However, regardless of how willing the rest of the world wants to help,sometimes it is not possible and we can do really nothing about the situation such as the geography of the area. It is a vital factor that decides the prosperity of a nation as put forward by the author in his commentary,"Can a poor country become rich?". In it, he highlighted the significant role of geographical features can affect the economy. Some of the examples are the lack of natural resources that can improve the economy dramatically and the numerous natural features lke the mountains and the rivers. Moreover, the culture of the country is also important in shaping the success of the country's economy.Without any basic schools that provides it's citizens with the required amount of education that can help to operate the factories and technological sector of the nation,the economywould just remain stagnant.
Therefore, we must analyse and investigate the root problems that is causing poverty in these countries before we can start on our journey to eradicate poverty in the world totally.
Athough poverty can never be totally eradicated from the surface of the world, it is possible for the people living in poverty to improve their lives slightly with the help of the more developed countries as mentioned by Jeffery Sachs who was interviewed by Singapore Press Holdings on his view of poverty in the world and he suggested that anyone can be involved in helping the poor by just learning exactly how we can help and overcome the physcological barrier of being not afraid of them.
Furthermore,the more developed countries can offer their helping hand by providing these poverty bound countries with resources such as food,clothing,housing,medicines and even volunteers which include doctors, nurses and humanitarians as there are usually lots of diseases spreading in these areas.
However, regardless of how willing the rest of the world wants to help,sometimes it is not possible and we can do really nothing about the situation such as the geography of the area. It is a vital factor that decides the prosperity of a nation as put forward by the author in his commentary,"Can a poor country become rich?". In it, he highlighted the significant role of geographical features can affect the economy. Some of the examples are the lack of natural resources that can improve the economy dramatically and the numerous natural features lke the mountains and the rivers. Moreover, the culture of the country is also important in shaping the success of the country's economy.Without any basic schools that provides it's citizens with the required amount of education that can help to operate the factories and technological sector of the nation,the economywould just remain stagnant.
Therefore, we must analyse and investigate the root problems that is causing poverty in these countries before we can start on our journey to eradicate poverty in the world totally.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Some of the underlying challenges of Singapore
In the recent years, as Singapore develops into an international stage for businesses to flourish and a role model in ensuring that peace is possible although there are so many different races living together in harmony. However, as the number of foreigners coming into Singapore increases significantly, it gets much more challenging to maintain this beautiful and safe country the way it is for more than 40 years. maintaining a multi-racial nation with 4 different races was already a huge challenge, what more with this increase in the variety of races raoming in to Singapore?
Some of them are due to the increasing tensions created by the terrorists in the international community wehich have made all of us jitty and always on the look out, thinking that the person thats beside you may blow himself up or do something 'crazy'. Everyboby now tends to be more suspicious about the people around them and are not trusting others as easy as before. This therefore tends to cause turmoil in the country when a spark is ignited.
Furthermore, although the skin colour of some foreigners are similar to the locals, its only a sperficial connection and does not really contribute much to ensuring that this pool of people wll definitely blend in with the locals with regards to their cultures, backgrounds and living lifestyles. This may in turn cause unnecessary quarrels and unwanted conflicts which may even lead to dire consequences, disrupting the peace and harmony in Singapore.
Some of them are due to the increasing tensions created by the terrorists in the international community wehich have made all of us jitty and always on the look out, thinking that the person thats beside you may blow himself up or do something 'crazy'. Everyboby now tends to be more suspicious about the people around them and are not trusting others as easy as before. This therefore tends to cause turmoil in the country when a spark is ignited.
Furthermore, although the skin colour of some foreigners are similar to the locals, its only a sperficial connection and does not really contribute much to ensuring that this pool of people wll definitely blend in with the locals with regards to their cultures, backgrounds and living lifestyles. This may in turn cause unnecessary quarrels and unwanted conflicts which may even lead to dire consequences, disrupting the peace and harmony in Singapore.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Backfire of peaceful intentions to boost tourism
In the recent decade,privacy have been an increasingly sensitive topic that has been continuously been debated on.With the dramatic advancement in the technology, it has made our lives easier but on the other hand,privacy issues have been of much concern to many people,especially those who has 'dark secrets ' and embarassed about people knowing things about them .
Google,a popular search engine which allows many to search for anything you want on the web has recenlty added a new function to their service-the ability for users to check out a neighbourhood or remotely visit a city that is far away. This made things alot easier for the residents and especially to the tourists that often met with much difficulty getting around the area, a visual aid will definitely make enjoying their stay in the country a more enjoyable one.
However,this has caused much of a commotion when the residents in the area are concerned about these google services infringing into their lives and intruding their privacy. Another group of people that will be affected by this service will be the mentally ill,the recovering drug addicts and te homeless. It shows the dark side of the country which will have a b=negative effect on the nation.
Therefore,in conclusion,like what the author suggested, it is only right for the management of Google to come out with solutions to these issues raised by the people in the region or make do without this service if necessary.
Google,a popular search engine which allows many to search for anything you want on the web has recenlty added a new function to their service-the ability for users to check out a neighbourhood or remotely visit a city that is far away. This made things alot easier for the residents and especially to the tourists that often met with much difficulty getting around the area, a visual aid will definitely make enjoying their stay in the country a more enjoyable one.
However,this has caused much of a commotion when the residents in the area are concerned about these google services infringing into their lives and intruding their privacy. Another group of people that will be affected by this service will be the mentally ill,the recovering drug addicts and te homeless. It shows the dark side of the country which will have a b=negative effect on the nation.
Therefore,in conclusion,like what the author suggested, it is only right for the management of Google to come out with solutions to these issues raised by the people in the region or make do without this service if necessary.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
The hidden side of Human nature
In response to Melvrick's blog on "Where's the love?Economic Pragmatism overrides humanity" dated 20 May 2007, I totally agree with his view point about the great powers being overly concerned with the government system Iraq and invading in the nameof concern for the people there when they are living quite normally there while on the other side of the world,citizens of Somalia and South Africa are suffering,living off each day with less than a dollar or even not a single cent at all! Although the international and regional organisations know about these problems,it has always been left at the back of their minds and humanitarian and economic aid that are sent to these needy people are very minimal which is not really sufficient to even sustain them for more than a week.
With the recent outbreak of the Iraq War which I strongly believe that it has no real threat towrads the world or any other countries to the extent that troops need to be deployed to Iraq and cause an armed conflict in the region. I really do not see the purpose of the actions of great powers except that they are just doing it for the sake of doing and showing it to the rest of the world that they are still in power at this point of time. Even though it is stated in the charter of the UN that it is an international body where every single member country is represented in the General Assembly and are able to voice their problems to the rest and ask for aid and help,but the U.S and the other 4 Superpowers are the ones that have the final say in the decisions made in every resolution,who would really listen to the representatives of the poorer countries when they can give nothing in return to the superpowers? Human beings in nature are selfish ones, they would do everything in their stride to protect their own interests before they consider extending their help to these countrie s that are truly in "bad shape". It's always me or my own country before the others,there are hardly any governments that looks after the other poorer countries before their own as all governments are set up with the primary interests to protect their people and make sure their economies benefits from every decision they make. It's just the way things are,we may just have to accept it and carry on with life in this culture.
With the recent outbreak of the Iraq War which I strongly believe that it has no real threat towrads the world or any other countries to the extent that troops need to be deployed to Iraq and cause an armed conflict in the region. I really do not see the purpose of the actions of great powers except that they are just doing it for the sake of doing and showing it to the rest of the world that they are still in power at this point of time. Even though it is stated in the charter of the UN that it is an international body where every single member country is represented in the General Assembly and are able to voice their problems to the rest and ask for aid and help,but the U.S and the other 4 Superpowers are the ones that have the final say in the decisions made in every resolution,who would really listen to the representatives of the poorer countries when they can give nothing in return to the superpowers? Human beings in nature are selfish ones, they would do everything in their stride to protect their own interests before they consider extending their help to these countrie s that are truly in "bad shape". It's always me or my own country before the others,there are hardly any governments that looks after the other poorer countries before their own as all governments are set up with the primary interests to protect their people and make sure their economies benefits from every decision they make. It's just the way things are,we may just have to accept it and carry on with life in this culture.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
The effectivenes of punishment to enforce law and order
Law and order, as the term explains, is to ensure the obedience of one and that nobody dose anything to harm another or even commit a crime that betrays one's conscience.
I do agree that punishment is required to a certain extent so as to enforce the firmness of the government to protect the safety of the people under their charge. However, i do not agree to it being used as the main form of rehabilation process of a person when he or she commits a crime. This is because, the people that commit crimes usually only does that when they are left with no choice due to some causes they do not wish to go through. Who would enjoy going against their conscience or commit a crime and be indifferent after that?
Therefore, i believe that the most effective method to change the thinking of a person or help them out of their crisis is to talk to them, understand them and from there work out a solution to help them get through. Yes, punishment is inevitable, but it is to be used to a small extent and not as a method to force them to change for the better as it may cause them to become worse in terms of their conduct and mentality.
And of course, i would also not agree that any form of punishment in terms of maintaining law and order must be justified as laws are also written and passed by fellow human beings and it may contain mistakes in these laws too. I strongly disagree to the one life for another law where a murder will also be killed as a punishment for taking the life of another. Why do the judges have the authority to take alife of another when it is stated in their book of laws that it is very wrong to kill someone? Furthermore, there are many othjer ways you can punish someone, regardless of whether it is mentally or physically but i think killing someone for the mistake he have made is a little too much.
In conclusion, i strongly believe that certain principles of the present society should be revised and look into yet again so as not to slap our own face with our hands.
I do agree that punishment is required to a certain extent so as to enforce the firmness of the government to protect the safety of the people under their charge. However, i do not agree to it being used as the main form of rehabilation process of a person when he or she commits a crime. This is because, the people that commit crimes usually only does that when they are left with no choice due to some causes they do not wish to go through. Who would enjoy going against their conscience or commit a crime and be indifferent after that?
Therefore, i believe that the most effective method to change the thinking of a person or help them out of their crisis is to talk to them, understand them and from there work out a solution to help them get through. Yes, punishment is inevitable, but it is to be used to a small extent and not as a method to force them to change for the better as it may cause them to become worse in terms of their conduct and mentality.
And of course, i would also not agree that any form of punishment in terms of maintaining law and order must be justified as laws are also written and passed by fellow human beings and it may contain mistakes in these laws too. I strongly disagree to the one life for another law where a murder will also be killed as a punishment for taking the life of another. Why do the judges have the authority to take alife of another when it is stated in their book of laws that it is very wrong to kill someone? Furthermore, there are many othjer ways you can punish someone, regardless of whether it is mentally or physically but i think killing someone for the mistake he have made is a little too much.
In conclusion, i strongly believe that certain principles of the present society should be revised and look into yet again so as not to slap our own face with our hands.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)