What does it mean to be singaporean?

To me, being a singaporean is being multi racial among other races. Understanding each other's differences, problems and living with it. Singapore is almost the only country with different races living with each other in peace. Unlike other countries, we have overcomed and learned from our past mistakes and live among other races. Being singaporean has taught me to understand people's cultures, diversity and way of people are living. It may be different but that's the  way they are living and we should have no problem with that but to learn from it. I am going to experience the national service soon, which a compulsory of 2 years in serving the army and many years after that. I think that would help make me a stronger and confident individual in the coming future. Who knows for what is to come, all we can do is prepare for it. If given a choice i would leave the shores of singapore, to experience more different cultures and diversity among the world. I have lived the United States before, in the beginning i did not like it because of my way of living of singapore was different. but i got used to it and lived among them. Experiencing Middle and High school was great a and i hope to experience college. I would like to pursue a degree in law and forensics. As i find both careers interesting and exciting. In the end i would also like pursue a degree in photography. I find it amazing how beautiful life is in a picture. Guess the saying is true, a picture does say a 1000 words.

Book Review. The Bean Tree-Barbara Kingsolver

T he Bean Trees opens in rural Kentucky. The novel’s protagonist, Taylor Greer, who is known at the beginning of the novel byher given name, Marietta, or by her nickname, Missy, remembers a moment in her childhood when Newt Hardbine’s father was thrown to the top of the Chevron sign after his tractor tire exploded. Ever since then, Taylor has been afraid of tires. Taylor goes on to tell the story of Newt Hardbine, a peer of Taylor’s who died while Taylor was still in high school. Although Newt and Taylor seemed like identical kids when they were small, Taylor was the one to escape small-town life. She did so by avoiding pregnancy, getting a job working at the hospital, and saving up enough money to buy herself an old Volkswagon bug. About five years after high school graduation, Taylor says goodbye to her beloved mother, Alice Greer, and leaves Pittman County, Kentucky, for goodThe protagonist decides that she will drive until her car runs out of gas and then take a new name based on wherever she is when her car stops. She ends up in Taylorville, and changes her name from Marietta to Taylor. Her car breaks down in the middle of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, and she stops in an old bar for a cup of coffee and a hamburger. As she sits in her car, getting ready to leave, a woman approaches and puts a baby in the front seat of Taylor’s car, telling her to take it. She tells Taylor she is the sister of the child’s mother and that the baby was born in a Plymouth car. The woman leaves with no further explanation. Taylor is bewildered, but drives off with the child. They go to a hotel, and while bathing the baby, Taylor discovers that the baby, a girl, has been abused and sexually molested. She names the baby Turtle because the girl clings to things like a mud turtle.

Eventually, Taylor and Turtle make it to Tucson, Arizona. When Taylor’s two back tires blow out, Taylor goes to an auto-repair shop called Jesus Is Lord Used Tires. There she meets the owner, a kind, wise woman named Mattie. Mattie takes to Turtle right away. Taylor moves into a Tucson hotel with Turtle and finds a job working at the Burger Derby.

The narrative switches to the story of Lou Ann Ruiz, another Kentuckian living in Tucson. Lou Ann has been abandoned by her husband, Angel. On January 1, she gives birth to a son, Dwayne Ray. Lou Ann’s mother and Granny Logan come west to visit the baby, and Granny Logan brings water from the Tug Fork River in Kentucky, which she suggests should be used to baptize the baby. When Angel comes home to gather up some of his things, he pours the water down the drain.

Meanwhile, Taylor has started her new job, but she quits six days later. She begins to look for a place to live, and finds a room for rent listed in the paper. The room turns out to belong to Lou Ann. The two women become fast friends, and Taylor takes the room. Without work, Taylor is left with no option but to take a job working for Mattie at Jesus Is Lord Used Tires. One day Taylor meets two of Mattie’s friends, Estevan and Esperanza, a married couple from Guatemala. Soon, it is evident that they are illegal aliens living with other illegal aliens in Mattie’s home above the tire shop.

A month or so later, Taylor takes Turtle to see a doctor and finds that Turtle’s growth has been stunted because she was abused. Turtle is not a baby, as her size indicates, but a three-year-old. That same day, Angel tells Lou Ann that he is leaving her for good.

On the night of the first summer rain, Mattie takes Esperanza, Estevan, and Taylor into the desert to see the natural world come to life. Turtle is left with her baby-sitter, a blind woman named Edna Poppy. Edna and Turtle go to the park, and because of her disability, Edna does not notice when a prowler approaches Turtle. Taylor returns and hears as much of the story as Edna can tell: Edna heard struggling and swung in the direction of the attacker with her cane. She hit him and then felt Turtle tugging on the hem of her skirt. Turtle does not seem hurt, but she has stopped speaking and has the same vacuous look in her eyes that she had when Taylor first saw her. Turtle’s trauma and the difficulties of Estevan and Esperanza make Taylor depressed. To make matters worse, the police investigation into the attack on Turtle reveals that Taylor has no legal claim on Turtle. Taylor will be forced to give her to a state ward or find a way around the law. The social worker in Tucson gives Taylor the name of a legal advisor in Oklahoma, where the laws are different.

Mattie becomes worried about Estevan and Esperanza’s safety. A recent crackdown on illegal immigration will force them to find a new home and a way of getting there. Taylor decides she will transport Estevan and Esperanza to another sanctuary for illegal immigrants in Oklahoma. While there, she will look for Turtle’s relatives and see if they will consent to a legal adoption. Once in Oklahoma, Taylor returns to the bar where she received Turtle but finds that it has changed owners. There are no signs of the people she met there seven months before. Taylor, Esperanza, and Estevan decide to go to the Lake o’ the Cherokees. During that time, Taylor concocts a plan to convince the authorities in Oklahoma that Estevan and Esperanza are Turtle’s biological parents.

Once in the office of Mr. Armistead, the legal authority in Oklahoma, Esperanza and Estevan pretend to be Turtle’s biological parents. Esperanza sobs real tears at the prospect of giving up Turtle, and Taylor realizes that Esperanza is grieving the loss of her own daughter, who looked so much like Turtle. Taylor and Turtle drop off Esperanza and Estevan at their new home, a church in Oklahoma. Taylor says a tearful goodbye to Estevan. Taylor then calls her mother, who comforts her. Taylor and Turtle head back to Tucson, a place that both of them now call home.

El Draft 3

Veera woke up with the feeling of regret, as he was still not at peace with himself about what happened 10 years ago. His mind and heart was drowned with feelings of guilt and sorrow. His sleep was eaten up by those feelings as if the incident had happened last night. The incident was so intense that he could remember the exact details from start to finish and could play it back as if it was a movie. It all began….

 

The year was 1967. Veera was about to celebrate his 16^th birthday with his family and Surya’s family. Both of them were the best of friends .The relationship of the two families had grown stronger over the years because of their friendship even though living in Sri lanka has it’s limitations and restrictions. Since Veera was a Tamil living in Sri lanka, his family has to struggle to live. They were not given enough rights to live as a citizen of Sri lanka as compared to Surya’s family.

 

“Bring!”

 

The school bell echoed through the hallway.

 

“Happy Birthday Bro!” Surya exclaimed.

 

“Thanks Man. Yeah! Finally 16 now!” Veera reminded himself in excitement.

 

“Where are we going to celebrate it at?” Surya questioned.

 

“Our families have decided to have the celebration at the beach. It is the safest place by far due to all the riots. No riots or trouble would like pop up there I  suppose.” Veera explained.

 

As Surya and Veera was about to leave from their to school to go to the beach, where their families had decided to spend the afternoon to celebrate Veera’s birthday.  As they were walking to the bus stop, they saw their families boarding the bus on the way to the beach. As they were running towards the bus, the bus driver drove away and the boys had missed the bus. What happened next was the most horrendous moment of the boy’s life. As they watched the bus drive away with the engine roaring, they turned around to walk to the bus stop to wait for the next bus. As they were walking, they felt a large amount of propulsion coming from the back and a loud blast, which had deafened the ears of the two boys. As they turned around, their faces were drowned in horror. The bus, which had contained their families just suddenly, blew up into flames. The chances of survival were absolutely zero.

 

“What the hell just happened?” shouted Surya.

 

“I think the bus just blew up. AND our families were in there.” Veera remarked in shock.

 

As the sirens of the police drowned out every other possible noise, the boys overheard that the Tamil tigers were responsible for the bombing of the bus. At that exact moment, it seemed like the boys had shared one mind. They both knew what to do next. They both had decided to join the Sri Lankan army to avenge the death of their families. The anger and confusion had overcome them both. Nothing else had mattered to them but to kill and avenge their families. All else in the world had seemed to mean nothing to the boys anymore after the incident.

 

The year was 1975, after spending more than 9 years in the Sri Lankan army, both of the boys had eventually calmed down about their incident that happened a few years back. Surya wanted to leave the army, as he had wanted to start anew and felt as if being revengeful all his life would just be pointless. Veera had agreed to leave also but they had to complete one more task. To patrol the city one more time. That night, As the men were patrolling, they were ambushed. Panic took over as there were too many Tamil tigers surrounding them. Veera managed to get away and hide but could hear the screams of the best friend Surya crying out in fear.

 

“Veera! Stay back! Do not come for me! Save yourself! NOW! RUN!” shouted Surya in fear.

 

 

As he peeked back, shocked and rage consumed him like ants on a piece of candy. Surya was shot directly to the head and had dropped dead on the spot. The men who had shot him had just laughed and left his body there. There was nothing that Veera could have possible done.

 

“I’m sorry Surya, I would do anything to have saved you. But there was nothing I could have possibly done. I’m sorry,” whispered Veera to Surya under his breath.

 

As Veera played back the memories of his nightmare, all he could do was try to move on. That would what Surya had wanted him to do all along. 

Euthanasia

Euthanasia is a form of ending a life in a painless manner. I think that this is the most humane way of killing someone. It doesnt involve the victim or person any pain, and it probably feels like the person is going to sleep. Except for the fact that they aren't to wake up anymore. It should be legalised as there are no consequences to it. It is reliving pain from the one who is suffering. Although there some consequences to it, it is used for morally good purposes. Like putting a pet who is in pain die a painless death or putting a criminal to justice. And thus, i do think that euthanasia should be legalized and practiced.

Book Review (Totto-Chan)

Well the book totto-chan takes place Pre-world war 2. Although much of the war is going on, it doesn't affect the life's of Totto-Chan. Well, not till the very end. In the beginning she gets expelled from the very first school that she went to because the teacher could not handle her behavior in class. The next school she goes to was called Tomoe. The school was quite unique at carrying out its daily schedules in school. Instead of a fixed schedule, they could study whatever they want, when ever they wanted. Totto-Chan had a close relationship with the headmaster of the school, who had grown very fond of her. Towards the end, She loses two good friends of hers, her dog rocky and her friend who had suffered from polio, Yasuaki-Chan.

The part that intrigued me was how strong she was to get Yasuaki to climb her tree. She didnt give up even though he was much bigger and heavier than her. In the end , she succeeded getting him up.
One of the part that had disappointed me while reading, was when she lost her pet dog, Rocky.
Felt like the dog had been the most important character in the book to her because they had been through a lot throughout the story.

I learned to look at life as a blessing everyday. No matter how bad it is, there's always a silver lining. Just smile away. You'll never who's day you'll brightened.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone out here. 100%. It's a great book. Definitely will brighten your day.

Xin Jiang Riots

A riot had broke out between the Han Chinese and the Muslim Uighers due to Ethnic Disagreements. More than 600-800 people died due to the riots that were caused in the city of Urumqi. The causes of the riots were probably misunderstandings of each other's religons or disagreements with the two. Which eventually led to the killing of 800 innocent people. No one could be safe in the city of Urumqi as all the people were fighting one another. A man was helplessly walking down the street and unfortunately got beat up by some other men who were full of anger and despair for revenge. The riots could have been prevented if the paramilitary, who were reponsible for stopping and preventing the two groups from fighting, did their job. Instead of protecting them from fighting, they simply turned their heads the other way and ignored the importance of the job. If this situation would happen in Singapore, i would try my best not to get involved and leave the country. Why live a life full of anger and anger. As a wise man once said, live a life of despair, is living life blindly.

Notes and Plot. :D

My Plot


My Research