Featured Article Task

The article is on the trial (verdict) of Tom Robinson.

http://www.filedude.com/download/EdNjAPOecM3a32f6e35e

Are rich children always happier than those who come from poorer families (Argumentative Essay)

He attracted stares from crowds of wide-eyed students, Keith, whom I always looked upon with admiration. He drove up to the school gate in a Rolls Royce, with a chauffeur at the wheel. We all came to look, and even the teachers stopped to take a peek. We all thought he was the luckiest person in the world, and obviously we thought he was happier than all of us.

Keith belonged to a family which was a major shareholder “Panasonic”, and like other privileged children that were born in rich families, he lived a life of luxury. He was always first to get the newest models of “Hot wheels” and train sets. Everyone thought he was happy and fortunate, but I eventually learnt that these children aren’t as happy as we think they are.

Keith would come into class with his Nike bottle, North-face bag and Timberland shoes each morning. Crowds of eager classmates swarmed him, to use, to grab, and to even just touch them. Stories would then come out from the mouths of jealous classmates; about how Keith is given new spoon with each mouthful of food and about how he lives in a house of gold. To be stereotyped isn’t easy, especially for Keith, who was a single child of his parents and needed friends. This eventually creates a wall between the rich and the poor, creating social tension, leaving the rich isolated and unhappy.

At break time, Keith would sit away from everyone. He would open his lunch box, and then bring out a cold sausage, 2 bars of chocolate and a packet of apple juice, while the others brought out plain bread to eat. When he topped the class for Math, the teacher awarded him with a packet of “Fruit Plus” sweets. He gave it out to the rest of the class. I then realised that these richer children have too much, so they don’t desire for anything. Perhaps he never wished for sweets or other delicacies (or so we thought they were), something that we rarely got, only as a prize for getting good grades. To crave for something and the joy of getting it. For the richer children, it was something they would never experience.

After school, Keith would be waiting for his chauffeur at the guardhouse, watching us play basketball. We laughed and screamed in joy, but Keith knew full well that he could play the same thing as us once he got home to his Wii. We knew it too, but by playing alone by his Wii, could he really be as happy? One would think that with the newest toys, games and technology, he would be happy, but obviously he would never experience the delight of playing with peers.

I would sometimes look back and remember, Keith’s emotionless face as he received the “Fruit Plus” sweets from our teacher. Although being rich gave him a more comfortable life than us, it definitely did not make him happier.

Online Lesson: Diary Entry - A personal response to war

Name: Mileva Frank Age: 13, Gender: Female, Jew, currently in hiding with family

A day in life of WW2
Dear Diary,

Things haven't been well recently. Mum and Dad are quarrelling almost everyday, so is Mr and Mrs S. The food isn't enough, the sirens at night makes us unable to sleep, the Secret Annex (our hideout) is so cramped. We don't have lights either. Well it's lucky that Uncle Fredrick (we are not blood relations) could loan us this area though. The Germans are on the patrol everyday. The other time I saw several man getting shot and I almost screamed. I heard Dorota got sent to a concentration camp, and her family too. It's the same as dying, everyone who goes there just disappears. It's so horrifying. New camps have been built already, five to be exact. Living in fear is terrible, when will this war end?

Yours,
Mileva

Online Lesson (Descriptive Paragraph) - A personal response to war

Bright scarlet blood trickled from his nose. The impact of the explosion had blown him off his feet. He was lying on the ground now, limp. His hands grew feeble and he loosened his grip of his M16 rifle, his palms wet with perspiration. His squad mate bended over him, screaming. But he lost it. His vision blurred, his hearing failed him, the stence of blood faded. He saw his other squad mate sighing, looking disappointed. He felt himself being wrapped in scrap pieces of cloth; a substitute for bandages which were not available. It was useless. He resigned himself to his fate. He closed his eyes, and let his hands drop. He was still.

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Again problem with the paragraphing :( it's still colour coded... This book is written by Khaled Hosseini. Although I read this book quite long ago, but I was reminded of it when I thought of discrimination (which relates to TKAM), so I wrote a book review. There is also "The Kite Runner", but I prefer this book because I think it is more emotional. It gives the reader an intimate look at Afghanistan and the difficulties of life in there. While Khaled Hosseini's other book, "The Kite Runner" deals with the relationship between men, this story deals with the relationship between women. It is an emotional story, which reveals how women of Afghanistan are treated, having to endure the hardships of life, the disdain of society, etc. There are two main female characters in the story, mainly Mariam and Laila, and the books constantly shift between both their perspectives. There are many heart-wrenching scenes, one of them where one of the main characters, Mariam, sacrificed herself to save Laila by taking the blame of killing her husband (in turn freeing Laila from the grip of her husband, who mistreated both Mariam [who was also a wife] and Laila). The use of some afghanistan words like hamshira , harami, and the jo and the end of the name also adds to the feeling attachment to the story. The story focuses a lot on the characters and emotions. It grabs the sympathy of the reader with various real-life circumstances (unhappy marriage, abusive husband, death of family member, daily life routines, etc.) We can place ourselves in the shoes of the characters with the author's vivid description. Overall, I think this book is really amazing. Although I have read it already, I still flip the pages from time to time. It shows the life of the two strong and courageous women, and successfully grabs the reader's sympathy.

Issues that foment political unrest

Sorry for the lack of paragraphs but there seems to be some error even though I tried to put the paragraphs (I coloured it though). The recent protests in Tunisia and Egypt have caught the attention of the world. What is the reason for this to reach such a dramatic stage? What factors spur citizens into action against the government? We will now look at the common issues that foment political unrest. Below are some of the conditions that fuel the growing feeling of unhappiness among the citizens. Authoritarianism The ousted presidents (Mr Zine El Abidine Ben Ali - Tunisia, Mr Hosni Mubarak - Egypt) were autocratic rulers that suppressed political opposition. They were also suspected of rigging elections that were help during their decades in office. Their authoritarianism has displeased the citizens of their country. Corruption The leaders ruling both Tunisia and Egypt have been suspected of corruption. The recent WikiLeaks revelation of nepotism in the Tunisian government have sparked discontent in the citizens. In Egypt, investigations will be launched to uncover the Mubarak's ill-gotten wealth. Poverty While the Tunisian goverment has been doing well in its economy, the distribution of income is not equal. The top 20 percent of people earn almost half the country's income, while the others remain poor. The low living standards in Egypt have been declining consistently. Egyptians survive on less that S$2.55 a day. We shall now look at the Xinhai Revolution that is similar to these cases. The Xinhai Revolution After thousands of years of emperors ruling China, this uprising led to the formation of a government of elected officials. The people had become unhappy with the corruption of the Qing government and the poor living conditions they lived in. The Manchus who headed the Qing dynasty tended to favour their own people, instead of the majority, the Han Chinese. The revolutionaries forced the abdication of Emperor Puyi, who announced the establishment of the Republic of China in Nanjing. Authoritarianism: Only sons of emperors allowed on the throne (instead of elected officials) Corruption: Already mentioned in text Poverty: Poor living conditions, favouring the Manchu people

Facebook sued for $1 billion over Intifada page - Should social networking sites be banned?

The news article can be found here (warning: the link may be broken after some time): http://sg.news.yahoo.com/facebook-sued-1-billion-over-intifada-page-20110401-165835-801.html Facebook and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg had been hit with a lawsuit of over $1 billion in damages over a page called "Third Intifada" which was against Israel. Facebook shut down the page this week, which had almost 500,000 fans. The lawsuit filed in court claims that the social networking site "showed negligence" by not quikly responding to appeals to remove the page. Facebook said that the page was intially tolerated because it "began as a peaceful protest", but direct calls of violence began to appear on the page and the page was removed because it was against Facebook policies.

Now I would like to pose a question: Should social networking sites be banned?

As technology advances, social networking sites are now more easily accessible (through portable laptops and iPhones/Andriods) and becoming more and more popular, especially among teenagers, as an easy way to communicate.

In this case, Facebook was exploited and used a a platform for people to hurt others. The new generation of bullying is cyber-bullying. It is becoming increasingly common nowadays. There are children as young as 9 that have Facebook accounts. This promotes cyber-bullying. People who create false accounts assume a false identity and this makes it easy to prey on their victims. Surely, the developers of Facebook did not create Facebook for such a reason. This leads us back to the question again. Should social networking sites be banned? Having that many negative points, we need to consider if social networking sites are actually helpful. Despite the negative points, I believe that Facebook is also useful in many ways. In the recent Japan earthquake, the news reported that a lady had used Facebook to assure her friends that she was all right, as she was around the region at the time of the earthquake. Additionally, there was another who posted a status message, trying to find her missing family member, sure enough, after a week, someone responded to her post. The person reassured her that her family member was safe and sound at a rescue camp. Also, Twitter is constantly used by people to update others on certain things, which provides stress relief and entertainment. These are all examples of social networking sites being useful to us. In conclusion, I believe that if everyone plays a part in keeping social networking sites a positive social platform (not exploiting them), social networking sites can be relatively safe and good to use.