How do you like to be captured on camera? If your answer is that you love it, how about by 14 cameras? If you still enjoy the attention, how about multiple times everyday, every time you step into the public? Well, even the hottest celebrity will not be able to take that. However, that is what every citizen in Britain goes through everyday. As research shows, one citizen is monitored by an average of 14 cameras, to prevent the committing of crimes, or to solve them. Surely, Britain does have a low crime rate, but is this investment worth what it gives? The maintenance cost of these cameras is extremely high, and costs a lot to keep them in working condition. It definitely reduces the number of crimes, but how effective is it? In my opinion, I feel the cameras are very inessential, and the benefits they bring are of much smaller scale as compared to their cost.
Firstly, the up-keep cost of these cameras totalize to an astonishing amount. By information, one camera takes around 50 dollars every half a year to maintain its condition. For Britain, a country with a population of around 61 million, there would be a very large number of surveillance cameras. According to calculations, Britain has already spent 200 million pounds on the upkeep of these cameras. This is a huge sum of money, which can be put to better use, like being donated to the charities, or build more schools for education, or even simply for improvement of the street lighting. These above alternatives are much better than wasting money filming down daily actions of the people, which data gets deleted every now and then.
Furthermore, statistics proves that the cameras are not utilized to their full potential. Members of the public complaint that the police did not bother to check the CCTV when a crime is committed, and simply goes by the conventional methods of investigating and collecting evidence. This shows that the cameras failed to serve their purpose of solving crimes, and do not speed up the process. According to the article, there is a significant rise in the level of complaints from the public, where it is perceived that police have not viewed CCTV. This number is approaching 100 per year.
However, the cameras definitely accomplished its job of preventing crimes from being committed. Britain saw a drop of 17 percent overall in rape, murder, aggravated assault and robbery, since after they implemented these new technologies. A piece of even more convincing evidence would be Bristol, which saw a drop of 35 percent in crimes across the board. Thus, we can see that the cameras really yielded good results which the Britain police force anticipate, and that it really did bring forth benefits and that the cost spent on it is not totally wasted.
Then again, when we compare between the benefits and the costs, we realize that the costs far outweighs the amount it can save and the benefits that it brings. It is shown that each crime case costs 20 thousand pounds to solve! Now, apparently a normal robbery case, which occurs in the highest frequency as compared to other crimes, is not worth this funding. The lost involved in these cases may range from some hundred pounds to a few pounds, but far from 20 thousand pounds. From this, we can see the inefficiency of this method.
In conclusion, although the presence of the large number of cameras does help in bringing down the number of crime cases, it is extremely inefficient in this context and uses up a lot of unnecessary money which can be put to much better use, and the cons far outweigh the pros. I would not like the day when every action of mine is captured on film, by multiple cameras at the same time, for I know money is being wasted every second that passes.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Extensive Reading Programme
Extensive Reading Programme
3 b) Recall an incident that required mastery of your mother tongue, and what the incident revealed about your appreciation of your own culture.
“TianYi! Would you please pay attention?” yelled Miss Lim, my Mother Tongue teacher. I grunted and placed my textbook on the table covering my head, and went back to dream land when her eyes were off me. I had always pictured Mother Tongue to be useless. In such a modern society which is connecting to the outer world, nobody speaks in a language other than English, which is rightfully defined as the universal language. However, my perception changed, on that day.
A beautiful day, it is. Not a piece of dark cloud in the sky. I should be enjoying myself in the pool or playing football, but now I have to finish my History project with my group. We had to take a video of the heritage of Ang Mo Kio, and we are trying to find a place called the ‘Bird Singing Area’, where people are supposed to bring their pet birds together and let them chirp.
There is only one problem. We could not find where it is! The map we got at the entrance probably has a wrong scale. Either that or we picked up some map of Sentosa instead of Bishan Park. “Hear any chirping?” I asked Daryl, who was standing beside me, looking as raggedy as me. “Nope” was the answer. We had already gone round the park for what seemed like ten times, and once we even wandered out of the park, but we still could not locate it.
“Let’s ask somebody. Maybe they know where it is” suggested Melvin. “Worth a try”, I sighed. We approached a man sitting on a bench who was playing a flute. “Hello sir, do you know where is the bird singing area?” I asked politely. Without even taking his lips off the flute, he shook his head, and looked at us in a sort of way that seemed to say “Do not disturb me”. We walked off, muttering a soft ‘Thank you’.
Undaunted, we went forward to an elderly couple. “Uhh, hello, do you know where the bird singing area is?” They replied in Hokkien dialect, which we could not comprehend at all. Desperately, I repeated the word bird, and Melvin flapped his arms furiously. Seeming to understand us, they shook their head.
“This is not working!” Daryl said. Although I hate it, I had to agree with him. “Let’s just try one more, just one. If we still get no answer, I suggest we go home”, I said. As they nodded in agreement, we walked to a man reading a book. “Good afternoon, sir. Do you know, uhh, where the, uhh, bird singing area is?” Afraid that he could not understand me, we attempted what we did just now, flapping our arms. To our delight, we saw a nod.
However, our excitement was drenched immediately, as he replied in Chinese! None of us did very well in our Mother Tongue, and Adharsh who was Indian, was of no help. I struggled to understand what he said, but to no avail. Looking into each other’s blank faces, we did not know what to do. We understood this is probably the only chance we have left to know where the place is, and I know I have to take the chance. With great difficulty, I tried to understand his words. Finally, with much sweat, frustration and hand signals, we managed to clarify our directions.
We received top marks for the project, and were commended for our efforts to capture the sight of the birds singing. Through this incident, I realized the importance of my Mother Tongue, for if we failed to understand his words, we would have never completed the project. Since then, I made an effort to read more and speak more in my Mother Tongue, and pay more attention in Mother Tongue lessons.
3 b) Recall an incident that required mastery of your mother tongue, and what the incident revealed about your appreciation of your own culture.
“TianYi! Would you please pay attention?” yelled Miss Lim, my Mother Tongue teacher. I grunted and placed my textbook on the table covering my head, and went back to dream land when her eyes were off me. I had always pictured Mother Tongue to be useless. In such a modern society which is connecting to the outer world, nobody speaks in a language other than English, which is rightfully defined as the universal language. However, my perception changed, on that day.
A beautiful day, it is. Not a piece of dark cloud in the sky. I should be enjoying myself in the pool or playing football, but now I have to finish my History project with my group. We had to take a video of the heritage of Ang Mo Kio, and we are trying to find a place called the ‘Bird Singing Area’, where people are supposed to bring their pet birds together and let them chirp.
There is only one problem. We could not find where it is! The map we got at the entrance probably has a wrong scale. Either that or we picked up some map of Sentosa instead of Bishan Park. “Hear any chirping?” I asked Daryl, who was standing beside me, looking as raggedy as me. “Nope” was the answer. We had already gone round the park for what seemed like ten times, and once we even wandered out of the park, but we still could not locate it.
“Let’s ask somebody. Maybe they know where it is” suggested Melvin. “Worth a try”, I sighed. We approached a man sitting on a bench who was playing a flute. “Hello sir, do you know where is the bird singing area?” I asked politely. Without even taking his lips off the flute, he shook his head, and looked at us in a sort of way that seemed to say “Do not disturb me”. We walked off, muttering a soft ‘Thank you’.
Undaunted, we went forward to an elderly couple. “Uhh, hello, do you know where the bird singing area is?” They replied in Hokkien dialect, which we could not comprehend at all. Desperately, I repeated the word bird, and Melvin flapped his arms furiously. Seeming to understand us, they shook their head.
“This is not working!” Daryl said. Although I hate it, I had to agree with him. “Let’s just try one more, just one. If we still get no answer, I suggest we go home”, I said. As they nodded in agreement, we walked to a man reading a book. “Good afternoon, sir. Do you know, uhh, where the, uhh, bird singing area is?” Afraid that he could not understand me, we attempted what we did just now, flapping our arms. To our delight, we saw a nod.
However, our excitement was drenched immediately, as he replied in Chinese! None of us did very well in our Mother Tongue, and Adharsh who was Indian, was of no help. I struggled to understand what he said, but to no avail. Looking into each other’s blank faces, we did not know what to do. We understood this is probably the only chance we have left to know where the place is, and I know I have to take the chance. With great difficulty, I tried to understand his words. Finally, with much sweat, frustration and hand signals, we managed to clarify our directions.
We received top marks for the project, and were commended for our efforts to capture the sight of the birds singing. Through this incident, I realized the importance of my Mother Tongue, for if we failed to understand his words, we would have never completed the project. Since then, I made an effort to read more and speak more in my Mother Tongue, and pay more attention in Mother Tongue lessons.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Why do humans do good to each other?
Humans are the dominators of the world, and we did not achieve it by chance or luck. We have qualities no other animals have, and these qualities place us on top of other organisms. Of course, interllect plays a very important part in this, but we could not have done it with brains alone. The most determining factor is that we know how to accomplish things as a team, and care for each other and do good to each other. But why do we?
According to the Hamilton's Rule, altruism evolves when the relatedness between individuals multiplyed by the benefit that a recipent obtained is greater than the cost of an act of goodness to that recipent. Interestingly enough, this is almost always the case. The cost of an act of goodness normally is much lesser than the good it can do to others. For example, a piece of bread may mean nothing to you, but if you give it to a beggar it can help him a lot. Thus, considering that the Hamilton's Rule is true, humans will always help each other.
However, the Hamilton's Rule does not explain all altruism. Another big chunk of goodness falls under the category of reciprocity. If I do good to you, you will do good back to me. This forms a cycle of goodness whereby people helps one another and one another helps people. One will like to help people thinking that they will help them when they are in need of it.
Thus, humans have many reasons to do good to each other, regardless of the cost or the consequenses.
According to the Hamilton's Rule, altruism evolves when the relatedness between individuals multiplyed by the benefit that a recipent obtained is greater than the cost of an act of goodness to that recipent. Interestingly enough, this is almost always the case. The cost of an act of goodness normally is much lesser than the good it can do to others. For example, a piece of bread may mean nothing to you, but if you give it to a beggar it can help him a lot. Thus, considering that the Hamilton's Rule is true, humans will always help each other.
However, the Hamilton's Rule does not explain all altruism. Another big chunk of goodness falls under the category of reciprocity. If I do good to you, you will do good back to me. This forms a cycle of goodness whereby people helps one another and one another helps people. One will like to help people thinking that they will help them when they are in need of it.
Thus, humans have many reasons to do good to each other, regardless of the cost or the consequenses.
Commentary that is graded
Imagine one day you walked out of your house, ready to welcome a fantastic day ahead, only to be scared the wits out of you by seeing multiple copies of yourself all over the place, greeting each other with the same name. To scientists seeking new technology or power-hungry people seeking strength, cloning may be just seem perfect and be exactly the answer to their problems. It is true cloning may be beneficial to mankind, but cloning is never accepted, or the least so by me. This is because it may lead to disastrous results like the rise of body part merchants and women being subjected to severe dangers. However, cloning is a double edged sword, and definitely can do good to society when correctly applied. For example, it can treat a spectrum of diseases.
The acceptance of cloning can easily lead to ‘smart’ people making loads of money through it. Body part merchants would arise and earn money through an unethical and considered by me an evil way. They would make clones of either themselves or other people, and raise them simply for one purpose, to sell their body parts away to people in need of it. For example, a patient is suffering from kidney failure and is desperately in need of a kidney, but no one is willing to donate to him. Now, the body part merchant can sell him kidneys from his clones. This is definitely immoral. For example, Mark Schofield, who is in need of a kidney, did not receive any transplantation after waiting for four years. Hence, he traveled to Philippines, attempting to buy one for £400,000. Imagine if body part merchants were willing to sell one to him for a cheaper price, and many body part merchants were competing with each other for customers. This will spark a dirty market in the dealing of body parts. I, and surely everyone, oppose to this.
Also, if cloning is accepted, women will be in great danger. One most crucial ingredient for a successful clone is the egg cell from a woman’s’ ovaries. Thus, people who want to clone a massive number of people for various reasons will be in need of a constant supply of the egg cell. This leads to abduction of women, as people who want to practice cloning need their egg cell. Not only that, it may even result in modification of a women’s body parts against their will, or women being forced to take drugs or stimulators to enhance the speed they produce egg cells, as one per month is probably not enough for the criminal. All women produce around 200 egg cells through their lifetime. Thus, when they fail to produce any more egg cells, the criminal will dispose of them, and search for another victim. The introduction of cloning will put all females in danger, and this stirs up troubles and problems in society, which we definitely do not want.
However, cloning has its good side too. It may be the answer to many of the questions we could not solve. It can serve as a cure for a numerous number of diseases we could not cure before, such as cancer and spinal-cord injuries. This is called therapeutic cloning, whereby a patient’s somatic cells, or body cells, are combined with an egg cell that has its DNA removed. As a result the body cell’s DNA is reprogrammed back to an embryonic state, and cells identical to those of the patient, called stem cells, are produced. These unspecialized cells can develop into cells with specialized purposes as needed by the patient. Thus, cloning helps many patients to survive, rather than dying without any cure. This helps the society and brings the world’s technology to a higher level.
In conclusion, although cloning has its own benefits, it gives rise to many problems that are hard to solve, and the cons outweigh the pros. I will not like the day which cloning is accepted and welcomed into our society, and never will. When I see myself all over the place as I open my door, I hope I will be able to wake up soon and get over the nightmare that haunted me the previous night.
The acceptance of cloning can easily lead to ‘smart’ people making loads of money through it. Body part merchants would arise and earn money through an unethical and considered by me an evil way. They would make clones of either themselves or other people, and raise them simply for one purpose, to sell their body parts away to people in need of it. For example, a patient is suffering from kidney failure and is desperately in need of a kidney, but no one is willing to donate to him. Now, the body part merchant can sell him kidneys from his clones. This is definitely immoral. For example, Mark Schofield, who is in need of a kidney, did not receive any transplantation after waiting for four years. Hence, he traveled to Philippines, attempting to buy one for £400,000. Imagine if body part merchants were willing to sell one to him for a cheaper price, and many body part merchants were competing with each other for customers. This will spark a dirty market in the dealing of body parts. I, and surely everyone, oppose to this.
Also, if cloning is accepted, women will be in great danger. One most crucial ingredient for a successful clone is the egg cell from a woman’s’ ovaries. Thus, people who want to clone a massive number of people for various reasons will be in need of a constant supply of the egg cell. This leads to abduction of women, as people who want to practice cloning need their egg cell. Not only that, it may even result in modification of a women’s body parts against their will, or women being forced to take drugs or stimulators to enhance the speed they produce egg cells, as one per month is probably not enough for the criminal. All women produce around 200 egg cells through their lifetime. Thus, when they fail to produce any more egg cells, the criminal will dispose of them, and search for another victim. The introduction of cloning will put all females in danger, and this stirs up troubles and problems in society, which we definitely do not want.
However, cloning has its good side too. It may be the answer to many of the questions we could not solve. It can serve as a cure for a numerous number of diseases we could not cure before, such as cancer and spinal-cord injuries. This is called therapeutic cloning, whereby a patient’s somatic cells, or body cells, are combined with an egg cell that has its DNA removed. As a result the body cell’s DNA is reprogrammed back to an embryonic state, and cells identical to those of the patient, called stem cells, are produced. These unspecialized cells can develop into cells with specialized purposes as needed by the patient. Thus, cloning helps many patients to survive, rather than dying without any cure. This helps the society and brings the world’s technology to a higher level.
In conclusion, although cloning has its own benefits, it gives rise to many problems that are hard to solve, and the cons outweigh the pros. I will not like the day which cloning is accepted and welcomed into our society, and never will. When I see myself all over the place as I open my door, I hope I will be able to wake up soon and get over the nightmare that haunted me the previous night.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Interesting Introduction
The Singapore Tourism Board spent 40million worth of Singapore dollars, just to give Orchard Road a 'plastic surgery'. Orchard Road has long since been one of Singapore's tourist attractions, being known as a shopping paradise. However, after comments of 40million having a lot of zeros and many complaints from local citizens, I believe that the 40million dollars is not well spent at all. The STB's efforts to decorate up Orchard Road are in vain. 40million is a large sum of money, and it can go to better use to the Old Folks Home, the Child Care Centers or 80million roti-pratas. Thats enough to feed all the people in Singapore who cannot afford a meal for say, few months at least. People think the amount spent on this project is around one million, rather than 40 times of what they thought. This shows how inefficent the STB spend the money, not to mention in the times of the global economic recession.
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