THE PROBLEM WITH GENERAL PAPER IS THAT IT IS TOO GENERAL

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Name: cerlyn
Age: SIXteen
Sex: F
Schools: peichun pri, cedar girls, anderson junior college
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THE PROBLEM WITH GENERAL PAPER IS THAT IT IS TOO GENERAL
Sunday, May 06, 2007

"YouTube has no ethics, it's been created
for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.'' Do you agree?

Personally, I do agree with the statement. Youtube was indeed created in the first place, for the purpose of entertainment and money. So the concept of ethics has difficulty kicking in where money and entertainment are made the top priority.

Many people feel that Youtube has little regard for ethics whereby it allows people to upload offensive materials. One example of such is Youtube broadcast of material critical of the Thai king. The issue upset the Thais considerably, and the Thai government has banned access to Youtube video-uploading website. Because of the freedom that Youtube provides for users to upload their videos, ethics is often difficult to keep or even forsaken. But before lambasting Youtube for its perceived failure to incorporate ethics into its business, we should note that they may have little choice in this issue.

Youtube is a massive success because of its convenience and ability to reach to millions whereby anyone can put up anything onto the website. It is also these very factors that brought Youtube success that may bring about its downfall. Youtube is currently facing charges for “massive intentional copyright infringement”.

The issue about copyright is a complicated matter. Personally, I feel that it is almost inevitable for Youtube to face charges regarding copyright considering that Youtube gets 65,000 uploads a day. It is highly challenging for them to filter through all the videos and then upload those that do not contain infringing or offensive materials. Thus, because of Youtube inability to do so, it had led to the questioning of its having no ethics.

Personally, i think that it is difficult or even impossible for Youtube to please everyone, especially so when it caters to millions worldwide. The rip off for the entertainment that Youtube brings would be the fact that materials put up might be offensive to people or involved infringement of rights. However, i feel that Youtube should up its effort in filtering the materials put up and respond more actively towards notification by a copyright holder claiming ownership of certain materials put up. Perhaps so, youtube would be viewed in a more positive light when the public recognizes their efforts to keep up with feedbacks.

Posted by cerlyn at 11:32:00 PM
Saturday, May 05, 2007
The Virginia Tech massacre

The Virginia tech massacre is an obvious tragedy and I also feel that it is a total waste of lives. The person responsible for the misery of hundreds who lost their loved ones –Cho Seung-Hui.

Many of the people killed in the shooting were in their prime of their lives. One of the victims was even a survivor of the holocaust! The 76-year-old professor, Liviu Librrescu blocked the door of his classroom with his body so as to buy time for his students to escape through the window. For that, I salute him.

Rather than me going on condemning the brutality of the gunman’s actions, I think that it would be more productive to evaluate the causes of the tragedy and hopefully prevent another one from happening.

Personally, I feel that there are two major reasons that led to the tragedy- gun control in America and Cho’s mental state.

The issue about gun control in America has been brought up many times due to the numerous campus shooting that occurred throughout history. The Virginia Tech shooting has once again brought the issue to public’s eye. Generally, I think the issue is not as simple as allowing gun trade in America or not. The American idea of human rights has already been deeply rooted in their culture. Being strongly defensive of their rights, it is highly doubtful that they will even consider the thought of banning gun trade. Also, since a large number of Americans currently possessed guns, the general public feels that they need a gun in their household for self-protection as well. Thus, I suggest that, since a complete ban is almost impossible, perhaps a stricter regulation on gun trade would put a stop on psychopaths like Cho from getting their hands on a gun. A psychiatric test can be a pre-requisite for purchase of gun, thus detecting any hint of mental illness in the potential buyer. This brings me to my next point. Why have Cho’s mental illness gone unnoticed?

Through the reports I read, it seems that Cho is indeed suffering from mental problems. He stalked two of his female classmates and has an inclination of writing essays filled with gore, bitterness and hatred. I can understand that not many would have the guts to try interacting with him, lest say understand him on a deeper level. But I think that his family and the university should have detected his queer behavior earlier and get him to seek help. Perhaps then, this tragedy would not have happened.

Also I would like to discuss about the controversy surrounding the airing of Cho’s video of hate-filled rant. To a certain extent, I agree with the networks rational of airing the video. The network felt that the general public has the right to view the video and gain a better understanding about Cho as a person, thus they did not wish to withhold that video from the public. However, It brings further grieve to the family and friends of the victims as they had to view the video whereby Cho made taunts. This led to the idea that the network is fulfilling Cho’s death wish by airing the video just as he wanted. It seems that there is no way to please everyone regarding this issue, since there are probably people who had genuinely wanted to view Cho’s video to gain an insight of Cho’s thoughts and there are also another camp of people who did not want to be reminded of that fateful shooting, much less see the image of their loved one’s killer vividly on screen. I think that the public should have been given a choice as to whether they would want to view the video or not. This can be done so by airing the video only a few times and with warnings given minutes before the airing so that those who did not want to view the video can avoid seeing it.

Before I end off, I would like to express my condolences to the victim’s family members and friends.
Posted by cerlyn at 10:02:00 PM
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Hello. My name is Cerlyn, from class 16/07. I was in Anderson Junior College for the first three months and my class then was 19/07. My current co-curriculum activity is hockey and my subject combination is chem,history,economics and maths, all at H2 level. Though i take 2 science subjects and 2 arts subjects, i am considered a science student.

My secondary school is Cedar Girls' Secondary, and i enjoyed myself immensely during my 4 years there. i also attend church servive regularly at Brighton Youth.

My life nowadays revolves around church activities, studies and hockey trainings. Life as a junior college student is really taxing, i guess i have to practise more self-discipline in order to survive the tests and exams.
Posted by cerlyn at 9:47:00 PM
Sunday, March 25, 2007
TESTING.

WHOOHOO. IT WORKED.

Posted by cerlyn at 4:55:00 PM