Story of James

(http://www.amazingchange.com/_pdf/james.pdf)
Story of James



The article talks about the story of James, an abducted child kept as slave in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), being tortured and forced to kill his own brother. Though rescued, he has suffered from fragile psyche and is unable to open up and get back onto life. People look into this issue and exclaim, “How can LRA do this? It’s immoral!” Instead, I would like to focus on the individual himself. After all, how can we solve a big picture disregarding all individual parts?



Indeed, such acts are unacceptable but we should not think that our part is to just stop this from happening and forget all about it the next minute. We should always look at the consequences too. The boy suffered physical torture, but that’s not all. So was his mind and soul.



At a tender age, he was exposed to the harshest of brutality of life; being treated worse than a slave, even forced to kill his own brother. His life was toyed around by the LRA, tortured in unthinkable ways. Sometimes in life, we do not have a say in our decisions. What has this world become? People are simply using power to overpower the weaker ones. How could the sufferer have thought? Imagine going through life without any motive, other than the countless commands you have to obey at such a young age. How can we let the purity of the soul be trampled on worthlessly? We should all stop this suicide of the soul.



The boy would be traumatized, even after his rescue, his mentality have been changed, unable to adapt to the society. After all the brutalities, can he still trust human? His mind might be scarred for life. He may be free physically, but spiritually, imprisoned.
He needs the support from everybody, anybody. Yet, it’ll take time, years of them. Stop this massacre of the spirit.



Similarly, in this life, not everything is within our control. Though not as traumatizing, this society is massacring our souls and mind, forcing us to get on with it, leaving us with no escape. Do we have ultimatum control over what we do, considering all the influences brought on us? I doubt so. It leaves me dumbfounded, how human nature crumbles under these impurities of values and life. While we are unable to completely rule our mind, let us pursue what we desire, when we have still have the means and abilities. Take control of your life. You will only live it once.

Suicides by older folk on the rise again

I refer to the article ‘Suicides by older folk on the rise again’ (ST 20/05/07). The trend of old folks committing suicide is increasing and this has brought about the concern of the society.

While some experts believe fluctuations in suicides cases in a small country like Singapore is common, many disagree. It is believed that pain, loneliness, depression and financial problems are all factors that led to the thought of their lives. Through research, many saw retrenchment and retirement as the lost of hope in their lives. Single elderly are also at higher risk, as there is no one to share their woes with. But is this trend only accountable by their mindset?

I trust that the society should be indirectly responsible for this trend. Is our society opening up to the old folks’ needs? In our society, our lives are rushed through, fast forward. Old folks who retire lose their pace in life, feel that they cannot keep up, and become outcasts from the society. Forced into a corner, disconnected from the social world, negative thoughts would definitely arise. The increasing numbers of elderly singles also would not help, as they would be completely left out without companion.

But would plain organizing of programmes targeted at old folks be helpful? I doubt so.

Elderly feels that they have lost their importance in the society. Discriminated as outcast, they have come to the thinking that they are nothing but a burden in the society, giving themselves every reason to commit suicide. They grow tired of the world. They keep to themselves and finally, refuse to accept this world. A great help would definitely be at the most primary level, their families.

From self-based interviews, I realized that elderly who have a family to take care and be taken care of keeps a positive outlook because they play a part in their family. However, elderly singles wander around lifelessly, feeling unimportant or as they deem, ‘no worries’. Such mindset can only be changed from the environment. OPEN UP! As a society, we must be open-minded, and keep them connected with the society by interaction, making them feel important, let them feel wanted. Do we really have to face the consequences before realizing its importance?

Similarly, we should all open up to ideas in our lives. Stop getting cooped up in our own ideals and put our noses high above, we might just missed out that very little sparkle underneath. Accepting knowledge is part of knowledge as well. Creating awareness of our surroundings, get involved in connecting ideas. We can make a difference too, in the lives of the elderly, and anybody around us.

Citizenship Day to mark shared national identity?

I refer to the above article ‘Citizenship Day to mark shared national identity?’ In the article, it was said that Singapore might have its own Citizenship Day soon – introduced to all citizens in order to celebrate a common identity as Singaporeans. It would serve as a day to celebrate its citizens coming together as a community, as said by Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng. The purpose of this day is to integrate immigrants into our society.

Yes, such a day would indeed be helpful to support and encourage immigrants into integrating into society, narrowing down differences of each and every one of us, as said by Mr Wong. Integrating everybody into our environment is essential for improving the lives of the citizens, and everyone would benefit from it. As stated, events can be organized to promote interaction between new citizens and native – such that we can remove stereotypes and prejudices.

Personally, I agree that efforts should be done to narrow down differences between citizens. From the point of view as a citizen of Singapore, I would think that such efforts would pay off, as the public knows how important a democratic society is. Moreover, we know full well that we depend on our economic for our country’s growth and any commotion would bring the country’s economic to a standstill. Introducing new talents and allowing them to integrate into our society would definitely be beneficial to everybody as the economics continues improving. Peace and harmony would also stay due to the good human relationship with one another – a pleasant outcome desired by most of us.

However, we should also take into account of the mindset of the immigrants not familiar to Singapore. Rushing these plans might put these immigrants off from our society too, resulting in backfiring of plans. We should let them fit into our culture slowly and comfortably to prevent them from feeling repulsive. We must take into account that time is needed to adapt to a new environment and rushing would only worsen the situation. As seen from situations in Australia, the forcing of citizens to give up their culture and fitting into their own unique culture definitely backfired as racial tension is still observed within communities. In conclusion, I feel that plans should be taken but should be implemented to fit the lives of the new immigrants so as to let them have more space and time into integrating into our society. Citizens would definitely approve it in order to create a more harmonious society. I feel that the main purpose should be promoting the good relations within the society as that would also bring in good economy for Singapore.

Stay off sex or have safe sex?

I refer to the above article ‘Stay off sex or have safe sex?’ This article talks about sex education and response from teenagers aged 21 – 24, discussing on how the issue of sex education should be brought across to youths now. From recent statistics, out of a total of the 2, 703 reported HIV-positive cases in Singapore, 22 are in the 10 to 19 age group, with another 483 in the 20 to 29 age group. Singapore International Youth Council founder Bernise Ang noted that abstinence message could be harmful despite its good intentions as it does not reflect reality.



From responses of the various teens, it was noted that one great obstacle to educate the youths mind is due to the open-mindedness, no ‘fear factor’ and rebellious mentality of youths. Many deem that these trends are observed due to the younger generation are becoming more experimental and sexually active at a younger age.



I feel that the very trigger to such a trend that should be noted is the increasing number of boy-girl relationships (BGR) – even in primary schools, where such cases are becoming more and more common. The very concept of ‘love’ was not brought across in the right way to begin with. We should understand that as a child starts to enter teenage years, emotions start to set in. Many are unable to deal with these emotions and starts to get into a BGR. They feel satisfied that they are able to share their feelings with each other, and deem these feelings as love for one another when they are merely infatuations. With all these wrong concepts of ‘love’, comes into place the development of these relationships with reference to sex education. Youths talk about sex, and how sex means the very essence of love and devotion to each other. They feel that they are matured enough and therefore are able to analyse and make their own decisions on issues of sex.



But I beg to differ.



Instead of claiming that youths are becoming more matured, I feel that this very occurrence of the trend describes otherwise – that youths are becoming more childish. Being unable to understand what love actually is, disregarding all consequences of having sex are just part of these signs of being immature. Rushing through the decisions and being rebellious only reflects that the youths indeed, are unable to analyse their situation. Promoting safe sex only give teenagers the impression that it is all right to have sex, but nothing is done to allow them to understand the misconception of love and sex. I agree that we should not focus on creating HIV-risk awareness, and instead, we should guide youths in their ways of thought on love and sex, and implementing new approaches that encompass what the teenagers want to know.