The Gift of Rain-By Tan Twan Eng

  The Gift of Rain could be one of the best books that illustrate this region’s pre-war and post-war colonial history. It is about Philip Hutton, a Eurasian born to a British father and Chinese mother in Penang. Malaysia. He struggles to realize his self-identity, should he belong to the Chinese community or the British community. With his mother dying when he was young, being the youngest child in the family and a confusing and complex family background, he seeks refuge and self-discovery with a Japanese, Endo San, staying on his father’s island, learning martial arts, Japanese, however, to discover later he is a spy when World War 2 breaks out in South-East Asia, and is forced to make hard decisions to save his family and friends. He recall this many years later when  the wife of the late Mr. Endo came to visit him when he was 72 years old.

  Personally speaking, I feel that this book shows a very vivid description of the Malaysia peninsula’s beauty and splendor at that time in history. The strong emotions and pains in the many characters are highlighted strongly, and it was with much interest and thought too when I was coincidently, reading this book on holiday in Ipoh, Malaysia.

  The main theme that resonates in this story is destiny and choice. Is our life a matter of our own hands or our fate? It attempts to look at this in both Western and Eastern points of view. However, I feel that the author may have put too much emphasis into the Eastern ideology, which is forgivable, given the context of this story. Even so, I feel that a line in the story struck me, even thought I believe that life is about your own choice and lies in your own hands. When Philip asks his grandfather about choice, he asks him back “Who makes the choices for you then?”

  It made me think hard really. I had encountered failures too in my life. It may not seem significant now, but then, it was really a hard time and we often want to blame the Gods, the heavens for our suffering and where we are now. However, I personally think if there is such a thing as fate, we still can live differently.

  In our lives, we always meet things we do not like, and want another choice.  However, is it not our responsibility too? When we make the wrong decisions, when we have sad and unlucky encounters, we blame fate. More often than not, we are the ones who chose to make the decision in the first place, and since we had made such a decision and this had happened to us, there is no use denying and just accepting the ways things had turned out. World War One and Two did not just end due to luck and miracles. The Nuclear bomb did not fall onto Japan without its reasons. Disasters had been linked to Climate Change and Global Warming, whose responsibility can ultimately be attributed to humanity. There is no denying that we are the authors of many of our failures, but are we willing to learn from it? There should not be crying over spilt milk. Instead of blaming something we cannot see, we need to take up the moral courage and personal responsibility to reflect and admit we had been wrong too, live on and persevere. Only then can we change in future to become a stronger person. Only in agreeing that we have a part in our pains, can there be salvation.

  However, another argument is that what happens to us can be unexpected and are beyond our control, like Natural Disasters, illnesses and other “Acts of God”. This could be used to show that fate chooses our lives. However, the blessing that humans also have is their brain. The ability to persevere, never look back and just accept things for the way they are. People are pulled out of rubble from earthquakes mostly because of their perseverance to live on and their strong human spirit. Such scenes were seen in Xinjinag Province in China in 2008, Japan this year and Christchurch, New Zealand similarly. The Japanese Economy had recovered quickly as the Japanese do not sit around and mourn but work their way out of their problem. We have a choice to take the hard way out or sit and die in the flood of doom. What will be our decision?

  Fate may be a realm of religion and myth, or it could be very real in our lives. However, despite our beliefs, to end off, we must always remember that ultimately, we are still the pavers of the large part of the road we make and walk on, and there is always a way, a reason and silver lining in a dark cloud.

Who Will Listen?

   I was watching the news one day when I noticed the famine situation happening in the Horn of Africa, and Somalia made me recall the production that I watched a while ago held by the English Drama Club of our school, in collaboration with Clementi Secondary School. It was quite an interesting Friday evening for all of us who went there to watch and support our friend. However, the last play in the production was what I recalled as I watched the famine unfolding in Africa.

  The play, Checkmate, was about a future world that is made up of only one country. There is a water station, which is the only freshwater source left in the world. However, there is a limited supply of water. Thus, the king, the leader of the country, is facing a dilemma. Who will get the water and who will not? His advisers and him then decided that getting rid of the lower class was probably the best way to ensure the survival of everyone else. Thus, the lower class were left to die or exterminated. It was supposedly a better world with only the middle and upper classes.

  However, there was a problem, maintenance of the water station's filtration system led to a further lack of water. There was a need to get rid of more people and thus a evil scheme was underway, the advisers sabotaged one another, and in the end, the one that was last civilized was exterminated, or “checkmated”. The king got the secret police to kill his enemies and those who were the weakest of the flock. However, the king’s son found out about this. While he had always been against the king’s cruel methods, his father, getting the excuse that he was too young to understand what was going on in this world, had given him the cold shoulder. However, this was the last straw and he led a revolution to stop this totalitarian regime from going on. However, it did not work and he was captured. Even though his father was furious over it, he spared him, but the son, in a act of martyrdom, sacrificed himself and finally the father regretted his actions.

  This shows a quite obvious phenomenon happening in our world today, There is an emphasis on the people who are useful and leaving the once who can’t cope to die. It had happened so very often and is still going on today. The famine in Africa has been declared as a humanitarian crisis. Yet the deficits and risk of defaults dominate the headlines all day. I have seen shocking comments of how Africans only know how to have lots of children and corruption, which is why this famine is their own fault. However, I wonder if most people have not sat down to consider a few things. How does Africa step out of their poverty if the world does not care? The simplistic view that Africans do not know how to use their resources is wrong. The world does not give enough help to these poor nations. They contend with allowing corrupt officials and groups to become even more so, and we use Africa as a rubbish dump. In a Newsweek article, it was commented that the Western World’s E- Waste mostly end up in poor countries, such as outside Ghana in the other end of Africa. In order to have birth control, the people of Africa need to have proper contraception devices and education, both of which is not provided to them by richer nations. In order for Africa to do well, it is essential that other countries start caring and lose their simplistic views.

  There is a excuse countries like the US is not able to help others if they cannot help themselves. Yet this shows a very big flaw. While it is true that the USA is suffering from a debt problem, the shocking reality is that the richest 1% of US Americans earns nearly a quarter of the country's income and controls an astonishing 40% of its wealth. Yet another form of greed is underway in developed nations. The richest people and large Companies are becoming richer each day while the poor become poorer. The selfish behaviour and lack to share had been the reason for these dilemmas in the world today.

  The excuse used by some to justify this is that the weakest of the flock causes their own problems. However, that is once again a simple assumption by others on this matter. Some are just born to be weaker, but when we do not give them a chance and leave them to die, like in the case of the famine in Africa, and when we are doing so much better like large corporations, yet use these people to our advantage and selfishly keep the money to ourselves, it really becomes a question of morals and initiative. As humans, if we are doing so much better, should we not show more compassion for others who are not doing as better than us? Or have we lost our moral values in our pursuit of wealth, power and comfort? Do we now care so much about money, celebrities and entertainment and choose to turn a blind eye, which explains why our media had been so quiet about the famine going on in Africa.

  There are still signs of compassion and love in people. The UN has started to airlift aid into Somalia. The important thing we should always remember is that while we are not pursuing an utopian or equal society, as it is impossible, we should always extend a helping hand to others in need when we can, or risk letting pragmatism and pursuit of materialistic needs rule of life, for if we do not try to help others, who will listen?

BREAKING NEWS

Have our ever growing appetite for news finally driven news media off its brink?

Is it solely their responsibility for what had happened?

  With the world in shock and mourn over such a shocking massacre in Norway, which left 76 dead, one often misses the story behind the story which essentially had been how the media had been reacting to this incident. At first glance, they seem to be business as usual. However, many news channels and print media had spread the assumption that this was the work of Muslim extremists linked to Al Qaeda, only to find themselves reeling with the great error and shock upon the realization that it was a Christian extremist, Anders Breivik, who had been the mastermind behind the attacks, there was an unseen reflection among many, had our media gone too far with their stereotypical view about Muslims today?

 

  It is not exaggerated to say the least that many people today have a “fear” of Muslims. The 9-ll incident in America, the London Underground Bombings in 2004, and many more terrorist acts by Muslim Extremists had made the world almost had a “Muslim-Phobia”, to say the least. However, there are more people responsible for such a discriminatory act in the media today, for without our needs, the media will not cater.

 

  The media today had become a 24-hour network. All over the world, news channels have became quick-paced as the world is suddenly connected so quickly with so much news flooding in. Thus, as the news keep on coming, it is inevitable that news channels take the quickest and easiest way out. The first news that appear, the first information and expert they can find, they will say it out. This is why all over the world, from CNN to the Wall Street Journal, it is a vicious cycle. For when news start rushing in, news outlets turn to their inferences for answers and jump at the first information they get, for example, in the video from the unknown source at the New York Times, and get in so-called experts to discuss about this, only to get their greatest embarrassment when they were proven wrong later. For news outlets have to provide news first-hand, they will undeniably have to go to such drastic measures and assumptions, which breaks their ethics, which is the nee to be secular and providing honest information, for the news media’s influence is great and widespread, and their actions could very well affect many people’s opinions of Muslims irreversibly. Thus, even when they realized the truth, when many news channels and newspapers quietly changed their terms from Muslim “terrorists” to Christian “extremists”, instead of publicly apologizing they had indirectly implied their racism and dishonesty, and they should reflect on why they had became so desperate.

  However, it brings us to the next question too. If the media have to have a responsibility, do we, the viewers too need to foot the bill? For we as viewers had demanded news first-hand with our voracious appetite for news today, which had driven news media to get news first hand, without checking its sources. We want juicy news and we want to know more, thus the need to get interesting tidbits of information arises, like the Muslims bombing Norway, and the subsequent false truths that many proclaimed experts called by the news channels said later. Our decreasing attention span and our inability had made the news channel do so, for they cater to us, and if we not approve of their actions, will they do so? Thus, we as viewers have a huge role as an incentive for the news media.

    The introduction of many new ways to get information, Social Media, the internet, live conversations and discussions had made our information first hand, but not necessarily accurate. In this case, the New York Times wrote about a source from a forum, claimed that a unknown Muslim extremist group did it, causing a domino effect. It had become harder to decipher which is true and what is not in the media today, due to the many sources of information. However, then the media and we viewers do have to take the initiative to verify and confirm these before disseminating it others.

   With that, it can be concluded that the reasons for the stereotypical event that had happened in the news media. As Europe, especially Norway reflects on what had gone wrong and goes into mourn, we too as viewers and the news media have to evaluate ourselves and reflect on our actions, so as not to cause unnecessary allegations and discrimination to others in future.

Is War A Necessary Evil?[Edited]

  

  War is evil. Its cruelty, harm and damage caused incomprehensible and appalling. However, despite knowing that, despite the great efforts of many humans to prevent it, wars continue to erupt in the world in the modern age, such as the Iraq and Afghanistan War. The evolvement of dangerous weapons and larger global consequences of war had made humans question, is war necessary?

    There is no denial that war is evil. It brings about large amounts of deaths, destruction and suffering. Humans had thought of many ways to prevent war in this day and age, such as international co-operation and peace talks. However, they have their flaws and thus, war it is still needed in this world for it is still the only way to defend a countries’ interests and dealing with uncooperative and oppressive countries.

  Countries inevitably have to protect their own self-interests, at the end of the day. Thus, going to war for self-defence will happen simply because at the end of the day, there will be unreasonable countries like North Korea which will attack other countries and refuse to settle the matter in a cool manner. This could be well seen from North Korea sinking the South Korean navy ship, The ROKS Cheonan , and the subsequent bombing of South Korean Yeonpyeong Island, provoking retaliation from the South. Tensions still remain high between the two countries, with not only South Korea but also America too threatening to fight back on any further provocation, which clearly shows that without a clear stance that their country is powerful and fighting back, a country will be unable to guarantee its self-interests and will be at the mercy of the enemy. Thus, in such cases, a country has to resort to force to ensure the safety and prosperity of their own nation.

  Also, military intervention is needed when a country is being brutally oppressed but their leaders. In the Middle East and Africa, many countries that have oppressive regimes are facing protests and revolutions, which had sparked a violent response from the government. A stark example will be the situation in Libya, where a revolution had evolved into a civil war between the rebels and Colonel Gadaffi’s army. This had led to the international community intervening as Gadaffi had been cruelly oppressing his people with military power, causing a humans’ right issue. With no compromise for negotiation, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) had intervened, with the aerial bombing of Libya’s army’s facilities to prevent them from harming civilians. For others have a responsibility to intervene, when seeing such cruelty happening, which leads to such cases today.

    While the ideas of peace talks and international agreements may sound great, it requires for amicable leaders and countries, which is an almost utopian notion in a far too realistic political environment. The six-party talks for the Nuclear disbarment of North Korea had broken down, another oppressive regime, Syria, had refused to budge from its position of oppressing its civilians despite facing great outcry, criticisms and possible sanctions from other countries. These situations clearly show that the reason why peaceful measures fail to prevent war is most importantly, the refusal of illogical and unreasonable leaders to settle for things the way they are, which then requires force to prevent them from posing danger. Even so, there could still be a glimmer of light on the horizon. North Korea and South Korea did solve their tension peacefully at the end by South Korea not attacking back again. This proves that with more cool and reasonable minds, peace is still attainable.

  To conclude, war is a necessary evil for there are still situations when people and countries are suffering or are being threatened that calls for war. However, we must always remember that war is essentially evil and we must do all we can, no matter what to maintain peace.

The Clash of the Tri-Tans

Title-quote of @kellchan

 It’s the Battle of the Tans, or at least for now. The presidential elections had been the talk of town recently and so far Dr Tony Tan, Tan Kin Lian and Tan Cheng Bok had stepped up to express their interest in competing in this round of presidential elections, and it seems almost certain that it will be a three-cornered fight between the three of them.

  However, there have also been some things that had popped up recently to make us question if this presidential elections will be as simple as it seems. One thing to take note of course is its predecessor, the General Elections held last month, which saw some large changes to the political scene including a opposition team fighting for a GRC being elected into parliament. Thus, it is not surprising that what people say about this being a equally interesting election certainly coming true.

  One thing that had popped up is of course, party affiliation. All three candidates had served before in the People’s Action Party(PAP) before and although it had been claimed that party affiliation will not influence the vote of voters, it is not certain to say that some will consider in mind at the ballot box. After all, the PAP have a clean track record for running the country well and have a almost clean track record, with good reputation among other countries in the region and also, low corruption. It is almost naïve to assume that some Singaporeans will vote thinking about this for people when voting for a president will consider his or her background and that ultimately, will end up coming to the conclusion that these candidates have good prospects for having once served as “Men in White”.

 This brings us to the next point. Political figures including former Senior Minister S Jayakumar and Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean had expressed that the president’s job is significantly different from that of a Prime Minister and Member of Parliament. That had been quite a surprising claim to many that other ministers say so but they are not far from the truth. It is almost undeniable that the president in Singapore ultimately, is a figurehead. Although it is true that many have pointed out that he holds great power in guarding the countries’ reserves, that is only one small part of protecting the countries’ interests which ultimately ends up with the ruling party and PM. Thus, some may wonder if that is perhaps the reason why Mr. George Yeo, who had garnered much interest with his Facebook post on his thought on running for presidency have decided to step out from the presidential race. The President will still, as many have said, be a envoy of Singapore overseas, a person to inspect the soldiers during National Day and jokingly, a VIP at the Star Awards.

  Although it is wrong to say that the president does not play a role in Singapore’s political scene, he does not play a significantly large one still and with that in mind, as well as bearing in mind of the Tans’ political background, Singaporeans must once again choose wisely when the time to choose the country’s next president comes.

Nursing Home Abuse-A work of our own hands?

  Recently, there have been much anger and outrage over the issue of abuse in nursing homes after a secretly taken video was revealed showing a elderly woman being abused by caregivers at the Nightingale Nursing Home in Singapore by being left naked in everyone’s view, flung onto a bed, and being slapped, prompting many to question what happens behind the walls of nursing homes and criticism of things including the large majority of staff at nursing homes being foreigners and monitoring of what happens to the old folks there.

  All these had led to the Ministry Of Health saying on the 11^th of June that it will conduct a review of all nursing homes in Singapore. However, many suggestions and criticisms should be handled and considered carefully as such abuse or large presence of “uncivilized” foreigners may be another occurrence in future unless more Singaporeans start stepping up and show initiative to take care of the elderly.

  Most of the staff in a nursing home consists of foreign workers, which had driven the criticism of many who claim that these workers do not have proper training and when met with unforeseen situations, turn to force. However, most of the nurses have been said to be quite understanding, and Singaporeans are unwilling to take up these positions, as this job, like many others, require not only a lot of patience but has low pay, long hours and words of abuse and fits from many ill old folks. Thus, who are we to blame them? Who are we to criticize these foreign workers when we pointing the finger are unable to step up to take care of our elderly?

  Although it is true that the Ministry of Health have a huge responsibility for this incident, and it certainly seems fishy that the MOH only released such footage and promised checks on all the Nursing Homes in Singapore in June when they were already alerted in March. Also, they too play a part in ensuring that there are security measures like the installation of CCTVs in nursing homes to ensure that such a incident does not happen. However, even with surveillance, some places cannot be surveyed due to invasion of privacy, not to mention the mammoth task of making sure all 63 nursing homes in Singapore have 24-hour surveillance. Singaporeans too should play a part by visiting nursing homes to help monitor living conditions and also, Singaporeans whose parents are in nursing homes too should take the initiative to visit them and try to understand how they are living there.

  To conclude, MOH should, as some had suggested review the elder care sector and provide more incentives and promote caregivers’ jobs so as to attract more Singaporeans to be caregivers and the MOH should also pay more attention to the training and guidance, as well as surveillance of caregivers. In turn too, Singaporeans must start realizing the importance of caring for the elderly and play a part in ensuring that the elderly’s stay in nursing homes will be enjoyable.

The test of Life and Death

  My father employed a maid for my Grandma when she fell ill years ago and till now, she had already served us for ten years. When she was first helping us, she was bad at English and struggled to communicate. However, my Grandma and other family members could speak Malay quite well and was able to converse with her. Until now, she had learnt the ropes and now speak not only English, but Chinese as well, and is very faithful to our family.

  Many had long argued that many things cannot be determined by tests, and most of all, faithfulness, skill and sincerity. Is that not what many Singaporeans hiring maids worry about? That she will abuse your child or steal your things or slack? How good is a person if she is wonderful at subjects like English but is dishonest, or lazy, or does not even know a pint of housework? Do people hire helpers to provide help or have another English speaker at home?

  Also worth considering is the maids’ background. Many people struggle to grasp any language, be it English or any others all over the world, for the Americans, is it not hard for the average citizens to grasp a foreign language? If so for a developed country, what more for a developing country like Indonesia where many still live below the poverty line? In my knowledge, many Indonesian and Filipino maids who come to work in Singapore do so to earn more money for their families who find it hard to do so in their home countries, and thus, it is not a unfounded claim that many of them had never been exposed to the English language for most of their lives. It is unable for them to master even the basic English standards for the exam given the lack of time, resources and familiarity to the English language which many others take months, if not years to master.

  Even though many argue that maids should that the initiative to communicate with their employers and that they must be able to speak English in order to do so, most should consider two factors. Is there any way the maids are able to grasp the English Language so easily and why shouldn’t the employers also take some initiative? Maids do not have British Council teachers training them and it had been revealed that most of the time, they rely on themselves to learn the English language. Thus, without enough help or guidance, many maids suffer trying to understand the language. Also, just like how my Grandma did, employers should take the initiative and try to learn at least some basic native words of the maid’s origin for is not the relationship between a employer and employee a important one, and both should try to care and understand one another. Similarly, the relationship between the employer and the maid is as such, and thus, the employer must be willing to sacrifice time to communicate with the maid and if the maid have dedication to the employer, she too will be touched and work hard to do so in return.

  Thus, with this, I conclude that the Ministry of Manpower and any other concerned agencies and people should revise the examination or even do away if it if it was possible, for pen and paper will never be able to test the will of one’s heart, and more should be done to provide to the maids’ needs such as providing more English lessons and resources instead of just a sample of examination questions for them in order to ensure that such a tragedy will not happen again and to ultimately improve the relationship and understanding between maids and employers

Background to this post 

  The incident last Saturday in which a maid ended up in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after a failed attempt to commit suicide after failing her Foreign Domestic Worker Entry test before dying on wednesday have led to much debate.

  The Foreign Domestic Worker Entry Test that had been put under much scrutiny in the past few days. The test was first introduced in 2005 by the Ministry of Manpower(MOM) to improve the literacy and numeracy level of  the maids, and maids of all nationalities must take it. It consists of 40 multiple choice questions on topics like home safety and basic childcare and takes half an hour to complete. Maids can take it three times in as many days and they can prepare for the test by going through 120 sample questions.