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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The acceptance of the two ideologies..

The first crossing between the penisular of Korea in 56 years since the Korean War in the mist of the Cold War between the US and the USSR left Korea separated up till date. Does it mean that the two ideologies that were previously unwilling to give in to the other are now able to tolerate the differences they have held strongly to decades ago?

I do not agree so,communst activities are not widely used and in states that adopt communist values of giving everything to the state and not leave any surplus to be sold for their own profit has not been enforced after the fall of USSR. Instead,ideas of capitalism have been inducted into the communist states that survived through the Cold War like Vietnam and North Korea. They are now mostly democratic so as to remain in the race of this ever-changing and continually globalising world that cannot wait for these states to catch up if they stick very closely to the basic principles of socialism.

However, the crossing of the trains from both states signifies an important event in history where it is the first time the two ideological blocs opened up to each other, especially in Korea. The conflict in Korea was so heated during the Cold War that it had evolved from a proxy war between the US and the USSR to one that involved the UN in sending in peackeeping forces that included soldiers from member countries and China, a Soviet ally. The tension arising from the tension has kept the two states strangers to each other made this train service quite unbelivable. It thus shows that nothing is really impossible and that the era of communist is fading into the shadows of capitalism.

The 21st century 'weapon'

In the recent decade, technology has evolved so rapidly that our lives are evolviong around it. Although it was invented to improve the lives of the people, some have made used of it to climb up the ranks,bully and even get famous.All you need is a click of the mouse on the 'send' button on the screen.
Teens nowadays s within reach of publishing their thoughts even faster than an entire newsroom 10 years ago. Furthermore, there is no need to go through a series of editiors and executives to get the article publish,its all a one man show and they are responsible for what they have posted on the internet.However, only a handful are punished for the issues they published on the internet through their websites and blogs which leaves them feeling nothing for the things they type and ignorant about the feelings of the people they are referring to especially those that are humiliating their 'enemies' through the net.All these are due to the unnecessity to use our real identities in the world of cyberspace.
If this misuse of the luxury of freedom is to be carried into the next 2 decades, everyone will just be unfeeling beings, indifferent to the feelings of the people and soon the world will be filled with selfishness and hatred. Until then, we can still make changes to the lifestyle and the issues we discuss through the internet.It would be alright if we discuss and exchange ideas with people from around the world, as it is what the internet was invented for, but to use as a tool to hurt someone else or to climb the ladder of successes, it will be an insult to the personality of mankind.