PM Lee urges small nations to team up to amplify their influence

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The countries represented are part of the Forum of Small States (FOSS), an informal grouping started by Singapore almost 30 years ago to make common cause together. From an initial headcount of 16 states, the club has grown to 107 members, well over half the membership of the United Nations.

"Our economies are smaller and more exposed to fluctuations in the global economy. More importantly, our margin of error is much narrower than for big states, which can absorb multiple hits...."If there is a war, we lack the strategic depth to defend ourselves. If we suffer an extreme weather event, we can take years to rebuild and recover."

can respond more nimbly and adapt more easily to changing circumstances..."Our sense of insecurity and even paranoia are also constructive as they motivate us to deal more decisively with challenges and threats

less hampered by regional interests and differences, or multiple levels of government, that bigger countries must grapple with

small states were a source of stability for the international system. "When we look at current geopolitical calculations, the voice of calm really comes from smaller states

Qn: ‘Being a small country is as much a good thing as a bad thing.’ Discuss. (MJC Prelim 2015)

More govts 'spreading disinformation'

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Governments are spreading disinformation to discredit political opponents, bury opposing views and interfere in foreign affairs.

the continuing challenge for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as they try to combat disinformation, particularly when the perpetrators are governments.

Qn: The internet makes it more difficult for governments to govern today. How far do you agree with this statement? (TJC Prelim 2016)

Youth suicide cases worrying: Lawrence Wong

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Close to 800,000 people around the world die due to suicide every year

a United States study which found that teens who spend more time on electronic devices and social media are more likely to be at risk of depression and suicide.

social media shapes a person's self-worth....link between social media and suicide: "Perhaps it is due to cyber-bullying on social media platforms, perhaps it is because social media plays a part in shaping their sense of self-worth, and it drives a certain fear of missing out - there is even an acronym for it, FOMO - and the fear of being left out, it amplifies negative emotions of insecurity and inferiority.

Last year (2018), 94 young people chose to end their own lives [in Singapore].

Note also how exposure to the high life or good looks posted by people online can cause viewers to feel depressed, envious and resentful.

TOC hired foreigners to pen negative articles, says Shanmugam

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an interesting local example related to foreign meddling is the Pink Dot Campaign, where the govt disallows foreign funding, the reason given being that only Singaporeans should be allowed to dictate the direction which they want the society to head towards, as only they have a stake here, unlike foreigners...

Part of the problem is that the business models of such companies militate against proper self-regulation. The more content and users such sites have, the more user attention they can sell to advertisers....

"Removing fake users, removing fake accounts, investigating coordinated inauthentic behaviour - these are all costly," he said. "The tech companies are in a position of conflict, where their business interests often conflict with what needs to be done in the broader society's interests."

For qns on:
=the media
=need for censorship/regulation
=foreign countries meddling with another (think Russian meddling in US Presidential Elections, HK protest, etc....)
=whether businesses have other obligations apart from profit-maximization (i.e. accountable only to their shareholders who are only interested in profits)

Singapore population grows at a slower pace to reach 5.7m

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Useful your society stats:
total population hit a record 5.7 million

Citizens accounted for 3.5 million of the 5.7 million, while the rest were made up of permanent residents (PRs) and non-residents who include foreigners who work here and international students. [the alarming observation is only about 60% of population is citizens]

Immigration has helped to moderate the impact of ageing and low birth rates in the citizen population, and has kept it from shrinking in the longer term

what matters is the age profile of the population, rather than size.

greying population in which one in four people is aged 65 or older by 2030.

The foundation of Singapore's religious harmony

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IGNORE THE WHITE PATCHES IF U SEE ANY ....I don't know what they're doing there....

Speech by PM Lee in New York recently....A good read to get a grasp on the context of Singapore....

Singapore's population: racially and religiously diverse - 5.7 million Chinese, Malays, Indians, Eurasians and others

Some of the measures in place to promote racial harmony/equality:
=Presidential Council for Minority Rights
=Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act
=In parliamentary elections, political parties are required to present multiracial slates to contest multi-member seats. You put up a team of four, five or six - one member of the team must belong to the minority race designated for that constituency ...The point of this is to discourage political parties from championing particular racial or religious groups, and dividing our society along primordial fault lines.
=We amended the Constitution to ensure that our president, who is a directly elected head of state - we ensure that he or she will come from one of the minority races, if no president from that race has been elected for some time.
=in public housing estates, where houses are sold to people and after some years you can then freely transact and resell the houses - we have ensured that in every township, every precinct, every residential block, we have an ethnically mixed population....Since over 80 per cent of Singaporeans live in public housing, we have no racial enclaves, we have no ghettos.
=In our schools, students of all races and religions study together.
=in our media, we do not allow blasphemous cartoons, songs or other offensive material that denigrates or disparages other races or faiths, whether this is done in the name of entertainment or freedom of speech
=For example, mosques tone down their loudspeakers that carry the prayer call, the azan, and to make up for this, we broadcast the azan on national radio...On their part, Christians exercise restraint proselytising to people of other faithsthe Inter-Religious Organisation
=Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma)

Vocab: Policing the Internet is a Sisyphean task   [exercise in futility....in the myth, the guy pushes rock up hill, only to have it roll down again, so he has to come down to push it up again -- endless cycle where the task is never accomplished]

Good Quotation: "A crime committed in the name of religion is the greatest crime against religion."

Teen activist warns world leaders: We won't let you get away with this

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Dont know about u..but i find this whole thing about the teen scolding and lecturing the adults at the summit quite 'funny' (plz dun flame hor...)

We're back to Greta Thunberg, the teen climate activist who skipped sch to lobby for climate change, sparking off a global movement about youths worldwide...btw, in previous posts, I think I have mistakenly wrote that she's a Swiss (from Switzerland), but actually, she's Swedish (from Sweden) -- not same same but different!

She has a few choice quotes for ur BANGs in essays; here r a few, in order of my preference:

=How dare you! [she repeated this a few times!]
=We will not let you get away with this. 
=if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.
=You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words
=The eyes of all future generations are upon you.

Maids detained under ISA: Those open to radicalisation often lonely, seek sense of belonging, says expert

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Religion rarely has anything to do with radicalisation....Rather, those who buy into radical ideology are usually lonely and seeking a community to belong to, often online...

three radicalised Indonesian maids had been issued detention orders under the Internal Security Act while investigations into their terror financing activities are ongoing...They had actively galvanised support online for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and donated funds to overseas-based entities for terrorism-related purposes.

Qn: Religion has done more harm than good. Do you agree?

Movies On My Mind: A box-office break from Orientalism

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Other than the values that it is a vehicle for, successful movies like this (and the superhero in it) serve to make locals proud of their own culture, removing the need to turn to other foreign cultures....This can help stem cultural dilution in a highly globalized world where one's culture may be at threat from foreign ones....

It can also act as a kind of soft power if the movie or superhero is popular globally, as it helps strengthen the global appeal of one's culture, much like how Japanese and American culture wields worldwide dominance -- thanks to Hello Kitty and Mickey Mouse.

Think of Nezha as the Avenger Heroes movies, except that it's from China....

Qns:

1. Do films offer anything more than an escape from reality? (Cam. 2014)

2. Do superheroes serve any useful purpose? (TJC Prelim 2015)

Food and fast cars help brand nation

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Note how hosting the F1 is Singapore's attempt to leverage on its soft power....to show the world that Singapore is a modern First world city (to correct misperception that we are 3rd World 'cos we are located in a region of 3rd world nations), and that we are an exciting city that has the buzz, that can be fun -- a 'playground' for the international community ( to counteract the image of Singapore being an efficient but dull, insipid and boring place).....The attraction to tourists and potential migrant talents is obvious....In short, the whole hosting business is actually a major PR (Public Relations exercise) to shape the world's perception of Singapore, to put dazzling little red dot in their face lest they overlook us since we are 'little'.
BUT had the haze condition worsened, realise how the whole plan would have backfired and received and the opposite outcome from the intended.....

the Singapore Grand Prix gives the city skyline its most glamorous selfie moment as the glittering backdrop to the night race. Off the track, the event offers first-rate music acts as well as a chance for people to star-spot as celebrities come to town.

Even the most jaded Singaporean cannot deny that the city skyline and centre, threaded through with the dazzling race route, looked like a sparkling jewel. That Instagram-worthy sight marked Singapore's international debut as an iconic cityscape. It was a soft-power moment that has also brought in hard economic benefits. In its first 10 years, F1 brought more than 450,000 visitors and an estimated $1.4 billion in tourist receipts. The annual broadcast of the race reached more than 780 million viewers.

Qns:

1.     Hosting major sporting events creates more problems than benefits. Do you agree? (Cam. 2005)

2.     Does sport merit the vast sums of money that are spent on it? (Cam. 2010)

'Dying' to help bring climate actions to life

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If u r doing 'O' level, pls note the catchy title using contrast of 'dying' vs 'life'...note more of such catchy slogans:
Clad in red, they held up banners bearing messages such as "no planet B" and "I stand for what I stand on"

Although the event was organised by young people in solidarity with the global youth climate movement kick-started by Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg, the first Singapore Climate Rally was attended not just by the young.

"Singapore talks a lot about emissions intensity and about our mitigation efforts and about $100 billion going into our climate adaptation plans. But the $100 billion is not going to address the crisis. We are not stopping the rain, we are buying a $100 billion umbrella."

under the Paris Agreement - the Republic pledged to become greener economically and to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted to achieve each dollar of gross domestic product by 36 per cent from 2005 levels, come 2030. It also pledged to stop any further increases to its greenhouse gas emissions by the same timeline.

The rally is the first one here since the global youth movement led by Greta began in August last year. Now 16, she had gone on the first solo climate strike, skipping school to pressure the Swedish government into taking more drastic climate action. Since then, many young people have followed suit, missing classes on a Friday in protest against climate inaction....#FridaysforFuture global school strike

For qns on yotuh activism in Singapore....relate to the AQ from the 2018 'A' lvl paper....

Jokowi halts Bill that would ban sex outside marriage

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Note how tradition/religion can lead to intolerance and oppression, and deter tourists and foreign talent...

Many of the wide-ranging Bill's provisions - it had 628 articles - mirrored elements of syariah, the Islamic legal code. It would have restricted access to contraception for minors, outlawed cohabitation, restricted freedom of speech, reduced the rights of religious minorities and imposed harsh punishment for insulting the dignity of the president.

Around the sprawling archipelago, local governments have enacted more than 600 measures adopting aspects of syariah, including requiring women to wear hijabs and imposing curfews on them unless they are accompanied by a male relative.

The ban on consensual sex between unmarried adults would have applied to foreigners as well as Indonesians, and it would have been likely to discourage some Westerners from visiting at a time when the country is trying to attract more tourists.

And foreign investors, also much desired by the government, are likely to take such far-reaching legislation into account when deciding where to put their money.

Qn: How important is it for people in your society to retain a sense of tradition? (Cam. 2010)

Strides in AI raise killer-robot fears

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Note the opening BANG sketching out a doomsday scenario...

There is no 100 per cent accurate AI system, just as there is no human being who is 100 per cent accurate all the time. What if an AI robot system misfires and kills someone on your side? Or, what if a self-driving car makes its own decision to avoid an accident and ends up causing another accident? Who will be accountable?

47 per cent of jobs may be replaced by automation in the next 25 years, but experts note that AI machines are equipped to perform singular tasks rather than complicated functions that humans are adept at doing.

computers rely on both quantity and quality of data to gain in competency during the deep learning process, which means time is needed to work out the kinks.

It may drive a car or play a game, but it cannot drive another car, or play another game

the need to "distinguish very clearly between performance and competence

Qn: To what extent does the use of artificial intelligence enhance human life? (CJC Prelim 2019)

PSA's green move makes money sense too

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PSA Corp is buying 200 liquefied natural gas (LNG) trucks, representing 15 per cent of its truck fleet....a doubling of the diesel tax to 20 cents a litre earlier this year

natural gas truck produces about 26 per cent less carbon dioxide (CO2) than an equivalent diesel truck.

A good example of how going green can save costs....and note how this nudge to the green path is due to the govt's imposition of the carbon tax on diesel....

Having more female staff, leaders will benefit firms, says Halimah

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Our society has been built on principles of meritocracy and equal opportunity for all.

female representation on the boards of the top 100 primary-listed companies here has doubled in four years.

companies where at least 30 per cent of the directors were females fared better than firms with all-male boards.

new technology helps more women to participate in the workforce, especially as it enables them to work from home. "If you can do something via technology, why not... this would be one of the ways to keep women working and empowered, and (be) part of the ecosystem," 

Promote sharing as one way to reduce waste, combat climate change

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To save the planet, other than the 3Rs, we can also share....think of it as part of changing lifestyle habits to do our part for the envmt....think also carpooling....

to safeguard Singapore from the impact of climate change. They include the requirement for new developments to be built at least 4m above the mean sea level.

Note the measures tkaen by the private sector business community: FairPrice, McDonald's

Role of social media in sharing:

=digital technology has made it possible for people to share their possessions through collective consumption of goods and services.

=leverage social media to publicise their work, or work with residents' committees and community centres to promote their initiatives.

Sharing is environmentally friendly - initiatives such as Lendor (an online peer-to-peer platform where people can rent or lend merchandise) and Sharella (an umbrella sharing initiative) reduce the need for people to own assets. The Singapore Really Really Free Market provides a platform where goods and services are shared at no cost, and Repair Kopitiam generates a second life for products through repairing and reusing. In so doing, sharing promotes sustainable consumption and generates less waste in the long run.

Sharing also means caring - towards residents who live within the same locality and towards people who share similar interests.

several barriers impede people from participating in sharing. 

=first is the entrenched culture of consumerism in Singapore. People would rather possess items, even if they use them infrequently. Our study also found that some Singaporeans feel embarrassed to share

=second barrier is the lack of familiarity among Singaporeans with the practices and norms of sharing, such as being considerate of other users' needs and taking only what is needed.

Many Americans want climate change action now, poll finds

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About a third of Americans do not think climate change needs to be addressed soon. When asked why, the top reason they chose is that climate change is being exaggerated (39 per cent), followed by "there's really nothing we can do about it" (26 per cent).

Republicans are more sceptical about the degree to which human activity contributes to it, and think the issue is less urgent. Republicans do not think the issue of climate change is as pressing as Democrats do. 

some specific proposals to help lessen any changes in the earth's climate:
=preserving and replenishing forests and wetlands (90 per cent), 
=manufacturing more fuel-efficient cars (82 per cent), 
=moving towards renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar (81 per cent), 
=promoting awareness and direct action by people (80 per cent), and
=international agreements to reduce carbon emissions (77 per cent).

important they do things to protect the environment but say they do not have the time or money to do them right now.

Qn: “Countries have far more urgent priorities than protecting the environment.” Do you agree? (JJC Prelim  2015)

Forest fires 16,000km away affect Singapore

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In the tale of two burning rainforests, there is a common thread: As the flames roar through the Amazon and South-east Asia, hopes of limiting greenhouse gases are going up in smoke.

tropical rainforests help to take up planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, locking the carbon in tree biomass such as trunks and roots. When the tropical rainforests burn, the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere and the planet loses its natural defence against climate change.

One of the main ways that the Amazon can affect the global climate lies in its ability to soak up carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is blind to borders - it has the same impact on the climate, no matter where it is emitted

At six million sq km, the Amazon rainforest is more than 8,000 times the size of Singapore. But a huge swathe of it - 18,650 sq km, or more than 25 times the size of Singapore - has been set ablaze by farmers looking to clear land for agriculture

solutions have to go beyond putting out fires to addressing the root cause. "Robust forest governance, funding and legislation that support deforestation-free supply chains are  essential."

Forests, for instance, provide clean water, help to cool the surrounding environment, prevent floods and enhance physical and mental well-being. They are also treasure troves of biodiversity

From a practical standpoint, the future cure of cancer could be lost in those fires. From an ethical standpoint, losing the Amazon means a huge loss of natural history...

Singapore GP will continue if 'the price is right'

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Hosting of F1 race inSingapore:

raking in more than $1.4 billion in tourism receipts since 2008

gives us a chance to brand Singapore overseas because the race is broadcast to more than 840 million viewers. And when they see how beautiful Singapore is, I hope they have an interest to visit us

Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix drew more than 263,000 fans over the three-day event, the second-highest attendance after the 300,000 at the inaugural race in 2008

cost of hosting the race had decreased by about $15 million to $135 million.

for the younger generation, for them to have interest in F1 and related activities because it is also linked to the learning of science, technology and engineering

Qn: Hosting major sporting events creates more problems than benefits. Do you agree? (Cam. 2005)

ST poll: Safety before privacy in AI surveillance

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Essentially two broad points that can be framed as a rebuttal pair: security vs invasion of privacy/freedom

people here viewed AI surveillance for safety and security positively.

If AI surveillance becomes too intrusive to the extent that our freedom to be left alone is encroached upon, such as with pre-emptive policing, people will have reservations

Ultimately citizens and individuals must feel that all these initiatives at the end of the day are focused on delivering welfare benefits for them

AI has also been known to perpetuate racism and prejudice...if the data collected shows that people from a particular race, occupation or district have a higher incidence of turning to crime, defaulting on loans, doing badly in exams, being less productive, etc, then the AI will judge and treat applicants accordingly:
the technique that allows machines to learn from enormous sets of data is less acceptable when used to determine people's credit worthiness or work productivity.


Qn: To what extent does the use of artificial intelligence enhance human life? (CJC Prelim 2019)

Plastic bag fee at some FairPrice outlets

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Examples of the business community stepping up to do their bit to nudge consumers towards the green path....

Note the four stakeholders in the battle for climate change: govt, business community, consumers and NGOs.

Parliament: New zero-waste law to compel big firms to take greater action

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Other than the carbon tax, this is another example of the use of legislation to force producers to go green.....

Parliament: 7,700 cases of high-rise littering in past three years

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NEA has deployed surveillance cameras with video analytics since 2012 to catch offenders in the act...the cameras have "contributed significantly to improving NEA's enforcement effort".

high-rise littering, in the wake of the death of a 73-year-old man struck by a wine bottle thrown from a height at the Spottiswoode 18 condominium...Australian national Andrew Gosling was charged last Friday with causing death by performing a rash act.

NEA redesigned the CWO vest for offenders to increase the deterrent effect. The vest, which was in fluorescent yellow, is now a luminous pink and yellow combination that is hard to miss.

Mitigation measures can reduce impact on wildlife, says LTA

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-the line may go 70m under the reserve - in a move by the authorities to further mitigate environmental impact

-alternative alignment could add about $2 billion to the rail project

Depending on how u use this example, related issues involve:

-govt listening to feedback from society

-environment giving way to urban development...