Boxing match: Money vs Love

Money, money, money. In the highly competitive and tense society of Singapore, money can be said as one of the most important things in our lives. Indeed, without money nobody can survive. When we switch on our televisions and watches those love soap dramas, it will probably tell us about how love can win over anything but let us ponder for a while. Can true love really win over money??

In my opinion, I agree that true love is sacred and should not be polluted by the "transactional" element. However true love with zero dollars is impossible to sustain a relationship especially in the practical society of Singapore. My way of sustaining a long-lasting relationship is that one must at least have the means to provide your partner with a good, comfortable life. If a man can't even provide his other half a good, comfortable life then he is just a irresponsible man and a failure in life. Imagine your life-long partner struggling earn money, this thought really disgusts me. Thus true-love but no money, there is no relationship but just suffering. Look at those couples who are so poor that they do not have the means to lead a normal, peaceful life, worrying about when is their next meal, if you call that a successful relationship then I am quite sure that no one would want to engage in relationships anymore.

I think it is normal to have a certain amount of "transactional" element as it is reasonable for you other half to know that do you have the means and abilities to support her and give her a good life, if she was to engage in a relationship with you. In a successful and long-lasting relationship, the "transactional" element and true love each of them weighs 50%. Losing either will lead to a failure.

I think that there is indeed an upward trend of relationships and marriages valuing money over other qualities One should value money in a relationship but not too much that it pollutes true love. However nowadays , women sometimes value money so much that they are willing to sacrifice their true love which led to many outrageous examples in our real-life society. For example prominent Chinese Scientist Yang Zhen Ning married a 28 year old lady at the age of 82. I began pondering on the fact that whether the lady really loved this guy which 3 and a half times the age of her. Is it because of money and fame which ultimately led her to this decision or maybe age wasn't really a problem. But to me, I find it hard and outrageous to accept this kind of relationships.

How has war evolved from past to present?

War is a state of organized, armed and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, societal disruption, and usually high mortality. Countless wars have happened since from the pre-modern times. As time passes, war changes, it evolves at every stage of history due to the fact that at every stage of history, humans seems to be more mature in their thinking and in this blog post, I will examine the changes in wars from past to present.

Technology has certainly brought evolution to wars. Weapons certainly plays an important part in warfare. With humans venturing out to posses new scientific knowledge, weapons in warfare had certainly be improved to bring greater destruction to the opponent. In stone-age, when our ancestors fought wars with one another, they used spears and arrows made of stone and animal bones. Then followed by the bronze age, no longer stone, but bronze is used to make weapons. This shows clearly how new knowledge acquired by the humans were put to application in the creation of new weapons used in war. In the 9th century, a new chapter was marked out in human history and also warfare history when Chinese Alchemists discovered gunpowder. Gun powder was at first used for recreational uses such as fireworks. As time passed, fireworks could no longer satisfy the curiosity of mankind and gunpowder was put to experiment on weapons. For the following centuries, knives, swords, bows and arrows were no longer widely used in warfare and it was the era of modern warfare with canons, rifles, rockets, pistols. However, humans' search for new technology does not just end here. The industrial revolution was followed up by the inventions of cars, planes, steam ships, which was also added into the packing list for wars. New terms for warfare have also been coming out, such as "biology-warfare" which uses germs and harmful bacteria as weapons. Now, the moment we think about war, the first thing we have in our minds is the word "nuclear". Nuclear energy is indeed a powerful weapon that can cause mass destruction to your opponent in war, just take a look at the infamous bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mankind's crave for technology would certainly not stop and who knows what would be the weapon list for "future" warfare.

Causes and reasons to go to war have also change. In the past war happened because of disputes in basic needs like water, food, farmland. But look at modern warfare, which wars' causes is to fight for basic needed for survival? None! War now fought over the greed and desire of humans. The recent Irag war is a highly debatable topic in the world. The Americans claim that they fought the war so as to eliminate terror rule and Saddam Hussein's crimes against humanity, but who know what is the real purpose of the US fighting the war, probably the US eyeing one the oil reserves in Irag.

Of course the destruction caused by wars have also evolved through out history.The use of high-tec weapons inevitably would bring massive destruction.In the past, the effect of war on future generations is not that serious and obvious but now with the use of these destructive weapons, the effect of wars are long lasting. For example in the Vietnam war, the use of Agent Orange by the Americans caused large number of fetuses to be deformed, this explain massive the destruction, modern warfare can bring.

The evolution of war through different stages in history, from the past to the present is very obvious. However there is something that will never change, "we know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know more about living".

NS is for everyone. NS is a crime??

1) Why do you think National Service is important to Singapore?

National service is important to Singapore because Singapore is a country who is small in size, have a lack of human resources. Thus maintaining a large military, which both requires large amount land and people is very hard to achieve in Singapore. Thus National Service is important so that Singapore need not maintain a large military instead, every male citizen of her is part of the army and can defend the country. NS is also very important in terms of forging friendships and closer relationships between the different races. In NS these men would have a "live together, die together" spirit, where they will view one another as one big family. This will allow racial barriers to be broken down and this is vital for racial harmony and social cohesion in Singapore.

2) In the above poem, the speaker expresses his love for his country England. Do you have the same spirit for patriotism towards Singapore? Why?

I have the patriotism towards Singapore but at this stage of my life I don't feel that strongly to Singapore as the speaker felt to England. The sense of patriotism in me towards Singapore is due the reason that Singapore is my homeland where I grew up, received my education, made friends. Thus Singapore is the motherland that raised me up and I would never forget this place. However, although I feel a sense of patriotism but I believe that is not strong enough. I have that after I am enlisted is the NS it will help me further develop my patriotism towards Singapore.

3) Do you consider yourself a patriot to your country?

I have the patriotism towards Singapore but I do not consider myself as a patriot as a patriot is someone that speaks for his actions. I believe that only after I 've done something, made sacrifices to the country then I am considered as a real patriot because the real matter is not about whether you say that you are one or not but is actually that actions that truly matters, so I think that at this stage of my life I am not a patriot.