Reflection for Day 5

Today is a very short day with just only three hours of lesson before we head home. Weekend is approaching.

Early in the morning we had our test. I am glad I don't have to redo the test because after I pressed the Submit button, the browser cannot load the result page. Thankfully the result still went into the system. I scored 16 out of 20 and I think it was badly done. I could have done much better if I remember some of the facts. I must do better in the next up-coming test in order for me to score well for this subject. Well at least after the test, my mind is off-loaded with content from lecture 1 - 5.

We did something more relaxing after the test. We visited talkingcock.com. I remembered that I once visited this website years ago when my friend introduction it to me. At first I am very shocked on why this is allow in Singaporean. It was part of the practical. We were supposed to evaluate by website. The class was split into three groups and each group will add as a role. There are three roles which is Singaporeans, Foreigner and lastly Prime Minister. My group was given the role of Prime Minister. We did have fun being the Prime Minister for a few minutes. There are many articles in talkingcock.com that are mainly targeted at the Singapore Government. I believe that if the members of government seen it, they will be very angry. However as a Singaporeans myself, I know that what is in the website sound quite true. It represent the feeling and though of the citizen of Singapore. That is why I think that there are some uses of this website. For example if the Prime Minister read the website, he will know how a typical Singaporean will feel. For example when the people complain about the traffic jam, (Electronic Road Pricing) ERP is being put up to solve the problem. However with the ERP, the users will have to spend more money on the road. Even though the problem is solved in this case, not everyone is happy especially those people that are from lower and middle income group. The upper income group will not feel that pinch of having to pay the extra few dollars to travel faster. I would rather paid a few extra dollars than to be stuck on the road wasting time. For me, if the issue on the internet is not too serious, I think that it should be allowed going on. Otherwise we will have less local content. We should be more open-minded.

Some Singaporeans will think that this website is very good because it uses mainly Singlish and not properly English. Singlish is very common in Singapore especially at places such as coffee shop. Some of the less educated Singaporeans usually communicate with such language hence their English never improve over the years. However if too much Singlish is used, it will be a disadvantage because foreigner usually does not understand Singlish which is a mix of many different other languages. Some of the Singaporeans also agree that the website represent their voices. What would the foreigners think of Singapore when they see that? Some might think negatively even though some will still think positively.

Foreigners tend to have many different views on this website. If such website is very common in their own country, they will not think too much about i. Some countries are already more open-minded then Singapore. However if the article is being targeted at a certain country, those foreigners from that country will be the unhappy one and also get angry over it. Not only that, they might start a conflict with us, Singapore. To reduce such problem, there are laws that will punish those that write article which will start a conflict to break out. However the internet is so big, it is not possible to track and see all the websites since the number of websites can be a lot. There is not enough manpower to do so.

Lastly as the Prime Minister, I think it is better not to ban the website as we should let the people have some free space and also freedom to write whatever they want. We can also know how to people feels toward a particular policy. Most Singaporeans does not add to point out their unhappiness on the government in public for fear of getting into trouble. A ban should only be done if it is too serious and will greatly change the views of the people. The foreigners claimed that Singaporean needs them as they are considered foreigners talents and that we must respect them. I think that is not completely right, although we do need to respect them. However I think that they also need us. Example will be the bus driver. There are an increasing number of bus drivers that are from China. However they didn't know that they can never get the salary that they get here in China. Furthermore with some many people in China, graduates have problems finding a job. Even if they found, they paid will most likely be lower than in Singapore. Hence this is an interconnected world; no single country can survive on alone.