The President Scholarships 2011

This year, our Government yet again offered President Scholarships to outstanding Junior College students all around Singapore. However this year, there are a few issues that some Singaporeans are not happy with. The one I'm addressing is the controversial "Aaron Koh" saga. Aaron Koh, a senior in HCJC was the first student in the last five years to have a C in his A-level examinations. Whilst compared to the other 3, is rather degrading. Some people may say that his family had a say in the decision, I beg to differ. This goes to show that in Singapore, the Government does not only care about a students grades, but also put account their character, leadership skills. It give students all around Singapore the impression that no matter how good you are, or no matter how lousy you are, as long as your character is flawed it doesn't make a difference.

Thanks for reading!
Wei Jin

The Rupert Murdoch phone scandal

"The news media should be blamed for the unhealthy paparazzi culture and going to the extremes for sensational news. How far do you agree?"

Answer:
I agree to a great extent that the news media should be blamed for the unhealthy paparazzi culture and going to extremes for sensational news.
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people. Nowadays, to obtain new, interesting information about something big, news medias resort to unhealthy paparazzi culture, they camp at the houses of celebrities, famous musicians, just to be able to earn a story to tell to the world. Have you ever thought that celebrities or even musicians for that matter would want a normal life? Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe if the paparazzi was less intrusive or concerned with competing with other news medias, they may actually be willing to share updates about their life? It is clear that resorting to such disturbing means is wrong. News media were the ones who started all this unlawful tactics and should be fully accounted for it.
Intruding to a person's conversations throught phone hacking is even worse. You may think, how in the world are doing that or why are they doing this? The simple reason is to attract more readers and make more money, blah blah blah... But the main fact is that intruding a person's privacy is wrong, no matter who you may be.
However, the news media do have reasons for displaying such intolerable actions. For example, to attract readers, stand out among other news medias,etc. I can understand, everyone must have money to survive, but the thing is that they do not and should not resort to such methods to attract readers or even stand out for that matter.