Justice AND Mercy in MOV

1) I think there is no true justice at the end of the trial scene. I must frankly admit that I am a supporter of Shylock. The bond clearly stated that Shylock would be getting the pound of flesh from Antonio when Antonio was unable to repay Shylock the sum of money he borrowed. However the manipulative nature of Portia and her intelligence in spotting the loopholes in the bond, adding to it the biased Duke had contributed to the prevention of true justice. Firstly Portia manipulated the whole court, firstly she manipulated Shylock's feeling luring him into the trap (Shylock want to seek for true justice), and at the point of time Shylock was being lured into the trap Portia used the play of words. She said that since the bond only stated that Shylock would cut off the one pound of flesh from Antonio so there should be no drop of blood. This is JUST A PLAY OF WORDS, how can there be no blood when you cut off flesh from someone's body. In the end Shylock instead of Antonio was punished.

At this point of time, I would also want to defend Shylock for his deeds. Shylock is known as the "villain" in the text but look at how Antonio treats Shylock, don't you think that Antonio is also the "villain". When Antonio wanted to lend money from Shylock, it was him that told Shylock that think of lending money to him as ending money to an enemy not a friend. Antonio has already made it clear so can't we say that Shylock was just listening to his instructions. Although having empathy and being forgiving is a good quality, however how many of us would still be forgiving after being insulted like how Antonio insulted Shylock. How many of us would turn the other cheek to be slapped after being slapped once. We often say we must have empathy, be forgiving but how many of us really did that. Shylock is also a human, he too will feel angry and urge for revenge thus I do not think that Shylock should be considered a "villain".

2)I think there was no true mercy. "Mercy" in the trial scene is used by Portia as a tool to trap Shylock. When Shylock realized the loophole in the bond, he decided not to pursue the matter. Bassanio asked him to take the ducats and go but it was Portia, the one who talked about "mercy" who stopped him and forced him into the situation where there was no turning back. Antonio thought that he was being merciful to let Shylock convert to Christianity and sparing his life. However by taking away the means he live and his religion, was the actions of the Christian Characters true mercy?

3)I agree that Justice and Law can be manipulated by people in power. From the text the Christian Venetians are considered the powerful people and they certainly manipulated Justice and Law. Portia used the play of words and her manipulative nature and manipulated law and justice. She being under-covered as a fake scholar,using the twist of words and controlled the court and the law. There was no true justice achieved at the end! In our modern day lives, this is also the scenario. Look at the Lockerbie bombing, there was a;ready evidence to say that the mastermind behind the Lockerbie bombing was Gaddafi, however he was not being convicted for his instigating the killings.

However in Singapore, Justice and Law can hardly be manipulated by people in power. In the Michael Faye vandalizing case, the punishment for him was to receive caning and indeed he received the punishment he should get despite appeals by the President of the US, Bill Clinton. This is a example where Justice and Law cannot be manipulated by people in power.

Education in Singapore-Is it really that bad???

Greetings to all. I am Wang Ri Xin a Secondary 2 student from Hwa Chong Institution. After reading the letter by Janelle, thoughts and questions about our education system began flourishing in our mind. There are certain things she mentioned that were really true however also I do agree with some of her ideas about our education system.

Singapore has a high literacy rate and almost all of us here have at least received primary and secondary secondary education. However, Singapore's education system have always been a highly debatable issue. People always say that students in Singapore study not for knowledge but for exams. Assignments and tasks when not graded would not be done properly while those being graded and affect our academic grades, we would do them within the best of our abilities. For example, this blog post that I am currently writing, I am writing it because I want my marks.

Janelle stated that the beauty of education is to ask "why" and that "why" has became a taboo word in schools. I do agree curiosity and an inquisitive mind in important for learning to take place. However, when we are really curios with something, we will go out and venture and find out for ourselves, that's when real learning takes place. Look at Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Isaac Newton, they asked "why" for many things but the reason why they are so successful is that in order to satisfy their curiosity and desire for more knowledge, they venture out and search for the answers to their questions. If you want to ask the question "Why?", then you must also ask yourself the question of "Why?". If you expect things to be spoon-fed to you, then what is the point of writing this article in the first place? The reason why the new generation are known as the strawberry generation because when things are not being spoon-fed to them, they would start ranting and complaining, but not take action and find out for themselves.

I personally do not find memorizing a problem but the most important part is whether you understand what you memorized. Memorizing plainly and memorizing with with understanding are greatly different. When you memorize with understanding that is when your knowledge taken in by your brain and that you how to apply what the facts you memorized. Furthermore, when you memorize with understanding thats when memorizing becomes something much easier. I do feel that Janelle's scope of our education is rather small. For example she only managed to look at primary school and secondary school education but what about JC and University education, what about GP in the A levels.

I think her letter to the Minister of Education is quite a well-crafted letter. Her tone and attitude clearly depicts that she is genuinely a student under the local education system. I think she used quite a number of good examples however ,thereare also some examples (why carbon is not a non-metal) that she used which I think are not good enough to question the local education system. Furthermore her tone and attitude gives me a feeling that she is not questioning the local education system but instead complaining about how hard her examinations are. Thus I think these are areas that she can probably improve on.

I personally thinkthat improvements to be made to our education would be adding in more skill-based questions, one of which would be inference and analytical skills. In terms of science, I think more applicational question can be added so as totest whether the student really understood the concept or not. Lastly, nowadays we students care too much about marks. Thus I would also like the Ministry of Education to take note of this and try to emphasize the study not for exams butfor knowledge and wisdom. Lastly, I also hope that our education system can turn us into someone not only intellugent but also courteous. The government should put greater emphasis on moral education. Lastly I would like to end off this post with a quote by Helen Keller, “One can never consent to creep when one feels the compulsion to soar” .