Being Online: The Good and The Bad

I read an article named “Armed, Online and Dangerous” and thought to myself, is this article talking about online criminals that are up to no good? Well, as I read the article I was half right. These people on the article, they are not criminals, but their intentions were bad.
This article is about how harmful the internet can be. How can this be possible? You cannot kill a person online, so how dangerous can it be? The idea of popularity comes into play. The more people who visit your blog or uploaded videos, its mean the more famous you are. This is especially so for teenagers, who want all the attention they can get. The answer is to post attention seeking items online, the more shocking the better.
Remember the incident when a teenage girl was found drown in a canal? Her schoolmate wrote in her blog that the girl deserved it. Shocking? This is what keeps the ratings high.
This is not the only case. Teens have been trying to seek more ‘fame’ by posting videos of themselves beating up others. You call this fame? I call it shame.
The root of all this comes from mass media and technology. They are powerful tools but if we use them wrongly they become harmful weapons. Look at the teenagers out there, I think 7 out of 10 of them have handphones capable of filming videos. Just one wrong move from one of them and we can expect more shocking videos. Cyber bullies have outcast the traditional ones. They beat you up and threaten to post your videos online.
Well, this is life. But why have teenagers become so self-centred and fail to care about other people’s feelings? I think there is something lacking in us, that is moral sense.

Does high pay equate to good government?

Following the recent pay rise for ministers, there is heated debate about whether the ministers' pay is reasonable, and whether such amount of money are needed for a good government. Before giving my opinion, there is a need to look at some facts. A minister's revised annual salary is now $1.6 million and the Prime Minister's a whooping $3.1 million. Now let me get to my point. I personally feel that there is no need to have such high pay. After all the world's most powerful man, George W. Bush does not get even half as much and his country is doing well. Secondly, if money is the fuel to attract potential leaders to be involved in governing the country, can you guarantee that these future leaders really want to serve the people or are they in it just for the money?
Looking from another point, who dare say that Singapore was not governed properly for the past 4 decades? Despite frequent tax increases, Singaporeans never really met with major hardships under the government. Singaporean ministers do deserve that kind of pay. Then again, the salaries come from the citizens' taxes. I suggest that if ministers' salaries can be slightly lowered so that the citizens can have a better life.

US College Massacre

Groundbreaking news have happened last week, when 33 people were killed at Virginia Tech University. A South Korean, Cho Seung Hui, apparently mentally unsound, became the murderer of the greatest college massacre in history. This one person have caused terror throughout the United States and shock back in South Korea. Tensions rise after the massacre. Will copycat acts run rampant in the country? Are the South Koreans who are living in the States ever safe again after what a fellow countryman did? The American and South Korean governments are currently trying their best to curb the social unrest. However, at important point to take note of is that only Cho is responsible for the mass murder. An individual, not a people, have done such a terrible sin. Just because Cho is a South Korean does not mean that all Koreans are violent in nature. This incident should not be the reason for weakened diplomatic ties between America and South Korea.
Could this terrible massarce be avoided? Apparently from the video that featured Cho in arms, the answer is yes. He had said that "You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today but you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into the corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood in your hands that will never wash off." If what he said was true, then his parents, lecturers and roommates have missed many warning signs. Perhaps the root of his psychological problems started from young. Despite his intelligence, Cho had difficulty in speech. His parents, however, has overlooked his quietness and allowed his dark side to grow. Even at college, Cho had records of stalking girls and being violent in his writing. All these and more mounted up to the day of the massacre. How can somebody like Cho be allowed to walk around freely? If people paid more attention to these warning signs, this incident would not have happened.