14 Years Of Living On A Place Called Earth

In this blog posting, I shall discuss about some reflections of my own.

What differentiates us from other living things is that we have emotions. What are emotions? Emotions, as defined by Wiktionary, is "a person's internal state of being and involuntary response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data." There are several key points in this definition we need to take note of. First of all, an emotion is internal and is felt in the soul and mind. Facial expressions which we show are effects of emotions. Next, it is an involuntary response, meaning that emotions are evoked unconsciously or subconsciously. Following this, I would like to add on that emotions are evoked due to links with personal experiences. Some basic emotions which we all experience in our daily lives include happiness, sadness, and anger.

Values we adhere to and experiences we go through often change our emotions based on the circumstances. Happiness is often associated with laughter and physical gains, but it goes much deeper than just that. Fortunes and positions of power only bring us temporary satisfaction and self-fulfilment, but what we really want to achieve in life are friendships and love. When we do feel real happiness, we think of such memories with nostalgia when we look back at them. It teaches us to treasure what we have around us, and not take them for granted. "No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change." ~Barbara de Angelis

Sadness takes on many different forms and comes in different levels. Sadness can be losing a loved one; it can be losing in a competition; it can be losing a precious item or it can also be failing to meet expectations. Whatever the case, our body's most natural reaction would be to shed tears and cry one's heart out, hoping to forget all the grief and agony one suffered. Sadness makes us reflect upon our own memories and experiences, and change ourselves for the better. Even though sadness is said to be the opposite of happiness, a healthy body requires a balanced mix of all these emotions.

Anger can have forms such as revenge, hatred, and dislike. Hatred is commonly seen in racial prejudice, dislike could be due to envy or jealously, and revenge, when one is wrongly accused of something or has been done a great wrong. Anger is mostly said to be harmful to one's soul and body; when we frown we get more wrinkles or; a frown uses more muscles than a smile. However, I feel that anger can be beneficial if we know how to express it and use it to our advantage. Anger can commonly lead to violence, depression, and various mental disorders. In order to prevent ourselves from falling prey to these effects, we need an avenue to change this anger into something we could use to our advantage, similar to sadness above.

In the world of media, advertisements have become a part of our everyday lives. What makes advertisements successful is that they appeal to our emotions, like our sense of humour. Advertisements which really touch our hearts reflect our personalities and the values which we live upon. Two advertisements, which I will mention below, have story-lines which really touched my heart (and can relate to based on our experiences).

First, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH9Vwk5YLVU&feature=related

This video was shown in the Assembly session, but I had watched the short clip a few months back. If one ignores the last few seconds of the video and follow the plot closely, the last scene where the girl plays the violin with amazing vigour and skill, represents the girl's anger of suffering over the past few months, by being bullied physically and tormented mentally. It is similar the eagerness of a caterpillar to "burst" out of its cocoon to become a magnificent butterfly. To me, I feel that this story is very relevant to our current society. Many of our disabled individuals are being ostracised by some members of our society, and we are able to see how someone else can save such an individual from giving up on himself.

The second video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZhJqhXpEio&feature=youtu.be

The underlying plot is very common in many advertisements we see today which promotes filial piety. The reason why this video stood out was because firstly, the language and culture, and secondly, the effective use of music. Third, the continuous emphasis of how the old mother is not being tolerated by her family members, and fourth, the scenes which the action are set in are much relevant to our society today. With the fast pace of today's society, we often neglect those who are closest to our heart, and those who looked after us in times of need, or when we are unable to look after ourselves. “百善孝为先”, which can be translated to filial piety is the most important among all virtues. Refer to the 24 Stories of Filial Piety, a collection of 24 stories of filial piety in Ancient China.

Our emotions are affected by our experiences, and our experiences shape our character and determine our strengths and weaknesses. Emotions are natural; and we should try our best not to hide behind a mask when we come into contact with others.

Comments

Dear all,

For the list of comments I have made, please visit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dL6kziHKIppIbSRPQIydeaQfYEhXe21FGv_p2GSHKTE/edit?hl=en&authkey=CJHHsPIH

Two comments are awaiting moderation at the moment. If they have not been moderated, I have the comments in the Google Docs.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused,

Ivan

ArtScience Museum Visit - Reflection

The ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands.

A bronze statue of the ruler, Genghis Khan.

A replica of a camel at the The Silk Road exhibition.

All pictures were taken from my mother's blog at http://singtatter-corner.blogspot.com/

The ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands opened on the 17^th of February this year, and features 21 gallery spaces with a total of 50,000 square feet. The ArtScience Museum was designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie and was inspired by a lotus flower. It has also been said to resemble the shape of a hand with ten fingers surrounding the building. The building is also relatively “green”, as each of its “ten fingers” have glass windows at the side of the galleries, allowing natural sunlight to light up the exhibitions. The curved roof of the structure channels rainwater through the central atrium of the building 35 meters down into a renewable water supply for the restrooms. The building is also surrounded by a 40000 square foot lily pond reflecting pool, and allows visitors to rest at its terraces, while admiring the magnificent scenes of Marina Bay.

There were four exhibitions in the museum, one permanent one (the ArtScience Galleries) and three temporary exhibits: Genghis Khan (The Exhibition), The Silk Road (Travelling Ancient Pathway to the Modern World), and the Shipwrecked (Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds).

The Genghis Khan exhibition showcases more than 200 artefacts from 13^th century Mongolia, and includes silk robes, musical instruments, war weapons, gold and jewellery ornaments and the royal mummy of a Mongolian aristocrat who died in the 11^th or 12^th century. The galleries were organised in chronological order of Genghis Khan’s life and the brief history of Mongolia, from his birth, to his rising and success as ruler, to his death, and how his legacy lives on and influences our society today.

The exhibition had videos regarding this ruler which were screened in English, while information, quotes, and artefacts were labelled in both English and Chinese, and kiosks were set up in the exhibition which featured the fictional story of six characters who lived in Genghis’ reign, of which the words used were simple and easy to understand, and the plot effective in conveying the key messages we can learn from Genghis Khan. There was also an area for children to dig up “artefacts” buried under the sand. Hands-on like a scaled down version of the catapult allowed children to play with them These various initiatives reach out to audiences of different age groups, the old and young alike, and engage them in various aspects.

I have to admit that the artefacts on display were indeed an eye opener for me. The artefacts ranged from various categories including weaponry, jewellery, music, religion and culture. Instead of just learning about Genghis Khan from textbooks, we are able to see for ourselves and imagine the way of life in Mongolia in the past through these artefacts. By relating to these artefacts, we are able to travel back into the past and they leave a deeper impression in our mind. This is perhaps the most attractive part of exhibitions that makes me learn things outside the curriculum.

From this exhibition, other than the key information provided, I was able to relate the knowledge to our present society, which is not limited to history alone. For instance, my Chinese History teacher once asked the class why we, as Chinese, sit on chairs, while Japanese and Koreans sit on the floor, despite our same ancestors. She told us that it was because of the rule and spread of culture and tradition by Genghis Khan and his descendants that we do so. The Mongolians were used to riding on horses and felt uncomfortable sitting on the floor with their legs close to their body. Instead, they sat on chairs and this has been passed down ever since.

The Silk Road exhibition brings us back to between AD 600 and AD 1200, where four key cities along the Silk Road were introduced, Baghdad, Samarkand, Turfan and Xi’an. Before this exhibition, I did not know about the Silk Road at all. I have learned that the Silk Road refers to trade routes that spread across China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tibet and the Mediterranean countries, The Silk Road saw goods like, spices, silk, fabrics, perfumes and glassware which were traded across Asia. In addition to commercial trade, cultural trade and technological trade were also made along this route.

In the exhibition, there were many exhibits which aimed to reach out to our others senses other than sight. There were different types of perfumes which we could smell, videos of traditional folklore stories were played on a screen, admire various displays like a massive replica of a Tang-era silk making loom. There were also an interactive board for children to play with, while learning about the Silk Road the same time and an interactive quiz at the end with topics of today’s civilisations. These interactive displays brought the exhibition to a higher level by bringing in all the 5 senses except taste. Similar to the previous exhibition, different displays catered to different groups of audience.

The last exhibition was Shipwrecked, which displayed about 450 artefacts from a marine archaeological find of some 60000 objects of items traded along the Silk Road found at the bottom of the ocean near Indonesia’s Belitung Island in 1998, which were undisturbed for over 1000 years. There were Chinese blue-and-white dishes, cups, mirrors, gold pieces and numerous ceramics. Never before have I seen so many archaeological finds in the same gallery before. There were meters of ceramic plates which featured different designs of animals and plants. Two of the several artefacts which were highlights of the exhibition were a green-splashed ewell with a lozenge motif on its body and leafy fronds at the top of the ewell. The ewell has a gold handle and a dragon-head stopped made of bronze.

I do admit that this exhibition might be less suitable for children due to the highlights on the artefacts. However, there was a table at the end of the gallery for visitors to construct the paper models for the ewell and gold cup. Overall, I feel that this exhibition is more suitable for visitors who want to knoe more about the Silk Road from actual goods traded in the past.

From this visit to the ArtScience museum, I have explored a new type of exhibition which displays archaeological findings, which is related to history. In my Integrated Humanities lesson, I understand that Singapore has few archaeologists due to various reasons like long working hours and the low pay given to them. It is relieving to know that there are probably still many objects buried under the ground which sheds light on the history and heritage of Singapore. Through these artefacts, archaeologists and historians are able to recreate history and bring this information to the public. After this exhibition, I am impressed by how the organisers introduced different exhibits to attract and engage the audience. I would definitely visit more exhibitions in the future to further my learning horizons.

References:

ArtScience Museum. (2011). Museum Brochure 2011. [Brochure].

ArtScience Museum. (2011). Genghis Khan, The Exhibition exhibition guide. [Brochure].

ArtScience Museum. (2011). The Silk Road, Travelling the Ancient Pathway to the Modern World exhibition guide. [Brochure].

ArtScience Museum 2011. (2011). Shipwrecked, Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds exhibition guide. [Brochure].

Exhibitions - An Introduction

Whereas in a previous post I introduced theatre, I shall now briefly talk about exhibitions. Exhibitions come in many different forms and serve different purposes, audiences and incite different actions. The most common exhibitions we see today are art exhibitions, interpretive exhibitions and commercial exhibitions.

Art exhibitions, as the name suggests showcases the Arts. The Arts takes on different forms such as music, film, sculptures, paintings and photography, and require different equipments and facilities which are suitable to exhibit certain artworks. For example, paintings and sculptures are damaged to a certain extent, depending on their materials used to create the artwork, by factors like the lighting, temperature and the relative humidity. One example of an art exhibition in Singapore would be the Singapore Biennale, which showcases artworks of many different forms.

In the 2008 Singapore Biennale which I visited, the places used to exhibit the artworks were carefully chosen, modified and even created to create the intended atmosphere and mood. Containart Pavillion was created was made up of 150 ship containers and 35 recyclable paper tubes. I also remember the artworks in the City Hall building. One artwork which I still remember includes paintings of daily commercial objects, like Coca Cola and cornflakes brands. More likely than not, I believe the artist was inspired by Andy Warhol, who is famous all over the world for creations like the design of Campbell’s Soup cans. From this we can see that artists get their inspirations from what they observations and interactions with society. They also inspire one another to create innovative artworks.

Interpretive exhibitions include those involved in natural history, archaeology, history and science and technology. These exhibitions display facts, photographs, diagrams and statistics in a creative and interactive manner. They can also include hands-on, 3D-figures, talks, performances and videos as a complement and supplement to words and statistics. One exhibition I had visited in the past was the Reign of the Kangxi Emperor and the other permanent galleries in the Asian Civilisations Museum.

For the Kangxi Emperor exhibition, there were artefacts like the robes which the Emperor wore, and allows the audience to admire the grandeur of the emperor’s reign. There were many walls of information about his family lineage, different periods in his reign which were significant, and how his contributions have lived till today. The most interactive exhibit was a digital version of one of the scrolls of the Kangxi Emperoro’s Southern Inspection Tour, which stretches for over ten meters in length and 67 centimetres in breadth. Technology offers us many advantages today, and convenience is one advantage that we cannot do without. However, I still prefer art exhibitions as compared to interpretive exhibitions, possibly due to the hard facts of history and the sciences.

I shall not go deep into commercial exhibitions but they basically showcase commercial products in a specific industry or interest. Such exhibitions include those which display furniture, cars, phones, computers, televisions and the like.

In the next post, I will reflect upon my visit to the ScienceArt Museum. Additionally, I will blog about my reflections for the 2011 Singapore Biennale which I will visit this weekend.

LA Essay

The Arts should be made a compulsory component in the school curriculum. Discuss.

Singapore has been pushing out the holistic education model approach in primary and secondary schools in recent years. The reason why the government has been so active in this initiative is because one should engage in other forms of learning, not only academics but also the Arts. The Arts should be made a compulsory component in the school curriculum and more can be done to enhance the development of students holistically and their learning process in the aspect of the Arts.

In schools today, government has pushed out initiatives to allow students to be appreciative of the Arts and learn beyond the textbook. For example, the TOTE board in schools subsidises fees for performances pertaining to the Arts, like musicals and plays. This encourages students to take the initiate to appreciate the Arts in their free time. However, in Hwa Chong Institution, there is a phenomenon in my class and other classes, where students rarely use this TOTE board. Personally, I do not use this platform for appreciating the Arts as the process of obtaining tickets for a certain performance involves a troublesome step where one has to find a group of friends to watch the performance together with the individual before getting the subsidy. Thus, the Arts should be made compulsory so that students will use the TOTE board initiative more effectively to appreciate the Arts, and enhance our learning experience.

Equally important is that the Arts acts as a form of recreation to students for them to take a break from the academic curriculum. For instance, I regularly spend my weekends visiting museums, like the recently opened ArtScience Museum, and watching musicals like the W!LD RICE production, Emily of Emerald Hill. In addition to appreciating the Arts, I also engage in such activities to relieve my stress accumulated from school work, even if it is for a few hours when I watch a play. I immerse myself in the fantasy world created by the atmosphere and plot of the story to toss my worries out of the window for a short moment. In our school curriculum, we have numerous commitments like ACE, project work and 3^rd language. We should occasionally take a break and relax ourselves by appreciating the Arts and maintaining our social well-being. Thus, the Arts should be made compulsory to allow students to have a school-based avenue for recreation.

In addition, the Arts is an avenue where a student can be creative, imaginative and express oneself freely. For example, a topic which can be taught in the compulsory Arts subject could be Artist Trading Card, or ATC for short. For those unfamiliar with this concept, it is an artwork that has the only requirement of being able to fit in a standard poker card size card. Materials and topics for these artworks are up to the choice of the creator. Most importantly, once one has created an ATC, one should trade the card with someone else, so that one is exposed to the variety of art forms out there. One such avid trader is my mother. She has been creating and trading ATCs for a few years now. Whenever I ask her why she persists in this nobby, she will reply that she is able to let her imagination run wild in creating these cards, and she is able to express herself through these artworks; as the saying goes “a picture speaks a thousand words.” Thus, the Arts should be made compulsory to allow students to express themselves innovatively.

In conclusion, I feel that the Arts should be made a compulsory component in the school curriculum. Though some teachers and students might argue that this subject is unimportant and acts as a distraction from their academic studies, I believe that this is a stereotype of the Arts. When a student is able to engage oneself in the Arts, apart from the reasons mentioned above, one is able to live one’s life meaningfully and would be able to be more sociable. One is able to interact with others more easily as no one likes an individual who is only good in one’s academic studies, but an individual who has a whole rounded education and knows how to appreciate the Arts.

To Kill A Mockingbird - Themes

After one to two terms of analysing the novel, I have indeed gained a better understanding and grasp of the key themes presented in the story. For some of the themes which are evident in the novel, I shall discuss what I have learnt and its applications to our lives and society. These diverse themes range from self, family, to community and are interwoven in the novel.

1) Self - Childhood and Growing Up

Both children, Jem and Scout grow to a certain extent as they come to know of issues in the Maycomb society, and are also influenced by their neighbours and peers in school. Jem, initially curious about Boo Radley, who spent countless hours thinking of ways to communicate with him, eventually learned to see things in the perspective of a grown up. For example, when the mob asked Atticus to move away from the jail door, so that they can attack Tom Robinson and Jem, Scout and Dill were at the scene, only Jem understood the situation initially. He saw how tense teh situation was and even stood up for his father to protect him from these men. Although this behaviour is childlike, Jem's behavious has grown from that of childish. Scout, on the other hand, learned about the mockingbirds in the society and how to treat them appropriately. This theme of Scout growing up is evident till the last chapter in the story where she and Atticus talked about Boo Radley.

In our childhood, memories made with friends and families are most meaningful when we look back at them when we grow old. The experiences we gather and skills we pick up comes in handy in the future when we want to fall back on experience to learn new skills, or to perform a task. Growing up, though a painful process, is one that everyone has to go through. Whether or not we make good use of it very much depends on ourselves; we explore our talents, passions and dreams when we are young. In addition, childhood is the most adequate, and possibly the only period in our lives for our imaginations to wander (like how the children in the novel acted out stories and believed in superstitions), without paying the price of doing so. Today, in our pragmatic society of ours, we are often bound by the limitations of our family and career responsibilities that we have little time to do so. We then learn to cherish the memories we once has as a child.

2) Family - Nurturing (Education), Society - Education

For this theme, it is regarding Miss Caroline and her strict view that only teachers, and not parents, know how to teach, referring to Scout and her father. At home, Atticus nurtures Scout by reading to her excerpt from different forms of texts every night. Over time, Scout becomes more advanced in writing and reading as compared to her peers in the school due to the nurturing by her father.

In Singapore, we often see parents sending their children for tuition and remedial classes with the hope that these classes would help them further their children's academic grades. Whether or not these tuition classes are a blessing or a curse, remains very much open to debate. However, there is one fact that most parents cannot deny, that is nurturing plays a huge part in the development of our child's character and personality. Parents, friends, teachers, neighbours, peers, siblings, and strangers or play a part in educating us. The only difficult choice is in who we should learn from. In school, it is impossible for teachers to teach us every single skill and information required to survive in the world. Teachers teach us academic studies; friends teach us how to interact with others and how to control our emotions and feelings; parents focus on our character building and instill in us the right moral values so that we will not go astray. The responsibility of education no longer falls solely on the teachers. Everyone has a part to play in ensuring that a good education system is maintained in our society.

3) Racial discrimination and prejudice - Society

Possibly the most significant and evident theme in the novel is racial discrimination against Negroes by the "white folks". Despite the fact that these prejudices are deeply rooted within the Maycomb society, there are still some certain individuals who stand against these prejudices. One example is Atticus. He stays firm in his stand that racial prejudice and discrimination is wrong. He advocates and educates Jem and Scout to distinguish what is right and what is wrong, not based on skin colour, nor influenced my emotions like anger and hatred. Atticus was called a "nigger-lover" by many residents of Maycomb because he defended Tom Robinson, who was a Negro. His children were also taunted, insulted, injured and bullied both physically and verbally by different residents of Maycomb. However, at the end of the day, Atticus is still a staunch believer that racial discrimination and prejudice is wrong.

What we can do to prevent racial discrimination and prejudice in our society today is to actively participate in activities organised by schools and Residents' Committees (RCs). The first step to counter racial prejudice is to know the other races. Events organised in schools like the annual Racial Harmony Day celebrations encourages students to have a better knowledge of the other races. After knowing comes understanding, which means experiencing the knowledge. For instance, the local exchange programmes held in our schools organise activities across different racial groups so that students can undergo a first-hand experience at engaging in racial and cultural activities like Batik drawing, or Chinese calligraphy. We can bring understanding to a higher level by applying this knowledge and experiences. For example, I have participated in an Indian festival organised by my local RC. The activities they organise allows us to interact and communicate with people from other races directly though verbal any physical expressions. I believe that it is only through such activities that students are really able to forget about racial prejudices. We are fortunate that the society we live in today is much less racial segregated and discriminated as compared to other countries in the past, like Maycomb.

Essays, Language and Their Applications

In Term 2 for my Language Arts lesson, we went into the different types of expository essays and learnt how to write them in the proper format and language. Instead of mentioning what I learnt, I shall talk about my reflections and its applications to our daily lives.

When Miss Huang first told the class at the beginning of the term that expository essays would be the form of writing tested in Term 2, I stepped back to recollect fragmented pieces of memories of this topic since my primary school days. As far back as I can remember, the first time I came upon and learnt this text type was in Primary 4, where I did a report on my own family in the third person point of view. At that point of time, I just did the piece of writing for the sake of doing so, as well as to learn and know more about my family's roots and traditions. Despite this, I failed to see how expository essays would help us in our daily applications. I also roughly recollect that I had done several essays in concept units such as "Change", without having a generalised view of this text type.

After a whole term of analysing different types of essays from our lessons, I learnt about causal analysis essays, argumentative essays, comparative essays and many others. Personally, I found essays much more engaging and fruitful to write than narrative essays. For me, I find the whole idea of expressing my ideas an opinions clearly and precisely to others a little tedious and difficult. Despite the public speaking opportunities the school has given the students to speak up and let one's voice be heard in different settings, I find unease in putting my ideas into words.

After all, the language is something one defines, probably the only reason why we study languages is to allow and facilitate communication and interaction between individuals. I find that ideas need not only be expressed through words, as the only means of communication. Through my exposure to the arts, I have found that different art forms can also be used to express feelings, evoke emotions and convey messages, similar to what written and spoken words can do. In my opinion, music and art are just different variations of the language we define and use today. They are all subsets of one overall heading, with their common purpose of communication.

Now, wouldn't it be wonderful if music and art forms can become as popularised as languages are today, or even replace languages. However, I must conceive that this is just a remote thought that few people share. The arts could very well take over the role of languages in the future, but it will be something in the far future. The fact that languages are recognised as the common means of communication is because of the fact that since the beginning of the evolution of men, symbols (ancestor of words) have been the basis of communication. To change something that has been in the roots of human beings for millions of years, would be tremendously arduous and almost impossible.

Coming back to the topic of essays, we in fact unknowingly construct and use essays in our everyday lives, even if it might not be in written or spoken forms. For example, when we choose between two meals. For example, chicken rice and laksa, we will consider different aspects of both food items, similar to comparative essays. We may compare aspects such as their prices, healthiness, tastiness, hygiene and others. Nevertheless, this comparison which we do in our heads can be written down on paper as an expository text. The reason why I feel that expository essays are necessary, instead of thinking about ideas, is so that we can share our opinions with others who might be interested in the same issue as us. Expository essays which are written down also gives us an exposure to the variety of interests and issues out there.

Overall, I feel that the expository essays which we learn now also form the basis of our future working life. We would probably have to do analysis of certain issues, or give suggestions to improve the welfare of the staff, or how to increase profit for the company. Essentially, essays act as the bridge between thoughts and words, and between ourselves and others, in the sense that our thinking is reflected in another's mind, and possibly spark a new inspiration from there.

Singapore General Elections: Social Media

Different political parties have spent much effort in utilising social media in the hope of engaging youths in politics in Singapore, as well as to garner support for their respective parties in the 2011 Singapore General Elections. However, how successful were these campaigns? Are posters and talks more effective?

First of all, what defines social media? Social media is media used for social interaction (in this case, candidate to voter or voter to voter). Basically, it allows for the use of technology to interact with others such as blogs, forums, multimedia like photographs and video sharing, as well as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. In my opinion, social media poses many benefits to its users.

Convenience and accessibility is one key factor in social media. As compared to posters put up on lamp posts and street signs, I feel that engaging the youth in other means would be much meaningful. In the past when technology in Singapore was still on a relatively low basis, door-to-door visits and posters were the only medium of communication with the residents. However, with the rapid development of technology in Singapore, political parties should harness the potential of social media as it is more interactive as compared to posters. For me, I feel that the huge influx of posters and brochures is too large for me to handle. On every street I walk along, or at every corner I turn, I would definitely see a few political posters. Although I do agree that these posters constantly remind us to vote for the political candidates whom we feel can best serve their needs and the nation's needs, I am a little overwhelmed to the extent that I have no longer any wish to see any more of them.

Elaborating more on convenience, political leaders have little time to conduct door-to-door visits due to their busy schedules. This problem can be solved with social media. Recently, PM Lee Hsien Loong had used Facebook to chat with voters issues pertaining to the the "hot topics" in the General Election. The online chat session drew over 5000 comments in just a hour. This just shows that many youths today use social networking sites and are more free to voice their opinions online. In the door-to-door visits which candidates have conducted, I have noticed that few residents actually voice their worries and needs to the candidates, possibly due to this barrier of unfamiliarity, causing them (the residents) to be conservative in their views and opinions. The effort made by political parties by trying to directly connect with voters deserves an applaud. It shows that they are willing to go the extra mile to connect with their residents.

Former Foreign Minister George Yeo, can be said to be the most active government minister to use Facebook as a means of connecting with his citizens. His page has gotten over 80 000 "Likes" so far. His Facebook profile is regularly updated with photos and status updates to keep Singaporeans informed of his latest campaigns as well as his moments with his family. Indeed, I am more attracted by such an initiative as I get to understand our ministers better and feel a sense of warmness and belonging to them. Although Facebook is indeed an effective social tool for such purposes as above, candidates are putting themselves in a risky position by doing so. For example, the People's Action Party's youngest candidate, Ms Tin Pei Ling, has had personal photos hijacked from her personal Facebook profile and spread around the internet, and were subjected to a flurry of negative remarks from many netizens online. Candidates should explore the possible venture into the usage of social media, but should be cautious in doing so at the same time. As the leaders of Singapore are often placed in the public light for each and every of their move, they should be cautious for what they do and speak.

I do admit that social media only caters for a specific group of people, probably the Gen Y voters. In a simple survey done in my class, only about 2 pupils said that they would be interested in political parties utilising social media to engage youths in politics. I think that the main reason for such a turnout is because we (both candidates and citizens) are still fairly unfamiliar with such a platform like Facebook. I use Facebook to communicate with my friends on a personal level, and seldom use it for keeping up with current happenings or (political) news. Though this might be the current phenomenon, I do believe that in the next 5 years till the 2016 General Elections, social media will play a much huger part in engaging citizens in politics.

The Maycomb Tribune

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http://www.scribd.com/doc/54416694/The-May-Comb-Tribune

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