This is me...

Are men and women all equ­al? Is it equal when it comes to chances and opportunities waiting for the both sexes in modern Singapore society? Why are the low birth rate and aging population issues inevitable in Singapore?
Apparently, conscription for National Service in Singapore for only males between 18 and 20 is a major mistake and the key cause of these uprising problems.
Ladies and gentlemen, in my speech, I will discuss why there is an essential need for the government to make National Service compulsory for the ladies in Singapore.
Firstly, the equality of men and women. Why are women “spared” of enrolling into the military? Are they of the weaker sex? No, they are just competent as men. You would question of their physical competence when they are enlisted into the military. However, I believe many of us are aware that there are support vocations that do not require any physical labour. Such examples are the medics and admin. Girls can work in the backline or enrol in the air force. It is common to see many female pilots working in the air force and serving their country in Europe and the United States. In Singapore, there is a compelling need for her citizens to be enlisted into the military, so as to protect this island from unexpected intrusions. If the government wants to achieve this goal, then it is really unrealistic to conscript male youths solely. Aren’t women equal to men in terms of social status? Then isn’t it ironic to not enlist female youths into the military?

I believe that it would be rather impractical to recruit the females into the military for a long period of two years, which is the amount of time the males are required for national service. Perhaps one to one and half years would be the most ideal for most girls to be equipped with the necessary life skills and own the sense of belonging to­wards Singapore.
Talking about time, it brings me on to the next point of the standings of men and women in the societal ladder in Singapore.
Statistically, let us first analyse the birth rate of Singapore in the recent years. According to latest 2010 statistics, Singapore’s resident total fertility rate (TFR) reached a level of 1.22 in 2009. What is the reason behind this figure? In Singapore, male and female youths of the same age do not step in the society at the same time. After their junior college or polytechnic education, the girls immediately can be promoted to universities in Singapore, whilst guys have to start serving their national service from the age of 18 to 20. When they have served their term, they will realise that the girls of the same age are much ahead of them. The girls will be the dominating force in the working community as they step in society at an earlier age and can gain more experience. In Singapore, the most common scenario will be the females of the same age at a higher rank or superiority in working posts than the males. The females ultimately will become the working contenders of the males. This issue will definitely lead to the decrease in the number of citizens getting married as both sexes cannot find suitable partners of the same age generation in their working environment.
To conclude, I believe that Singapore government should make National Service obligatory for both genders in Singapore so as to effectively resolve the issues of equality of the sexes and the low birth rate that will lead to an aging population.

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女士们，先生们，我想一针见血地对”新加坡应强制女生参加国民服役”这个论点发表看法。我个人认为，新加坡应当限定女孩子服役1年至1年半的时间。

在21世纪，我们讲求的是男女平等。我们提倡的是没有任何封建思想的社会。我们梦想的家园应该是开放，自由的。可是，新加坡政府所采取的政策却和我们现代人的想法有着天壤之别。
男女在新加坡真的平等吗？我想不是。

若男女平等，那为什么只有男孩子需要服两年的兵役而女孩子却可以继续升上大学，并且比同龄的男生提早踏入社会？
女孩真的比男孩弱吗？并不是，她们比我们想象中更加地勇敢、强悍。她们可能在体力上没有我们男性那么的强，但在军营里有很多后援部门和职位适合女孩子，例如急救护士和做文笔工作的职员。她们不一定要上战场以表对新加坡的忠诚，因为这样实在是很肤浅。捍卫国家，人人有责，不论性别。我认为若这项计划实行，女孩子该服役的时间应该要比男孩子少，大概在1年至1年半之间。因为她们需要做的事情相比之下少得多，而也容易多了。她们可以在这段时间内掌握军营里所学的知识和技能，并且也能从心内萌长出一份对国家的挚爱。

第二，我们也要考虑男女在社会上所面对的竞争。

因为女生比男生早两年步入社会，她们自然而然会获取更多的经验。当男生们服完了兵役，他们最大的竞争对手则会是他们同一届的女生们。女生会控制住职场，而男生则会成为女生们的下属。男孩子最大的工作对手极有可能是和他们年龄那个相仿的异性。这会使新加坡的结婚率一直维持在现在这种低潮的状态。而离婚率也会不断上升。在2007年，离婚案件高达7226起，而那年总共才有23,996个结婚案例。 这说明了男人和女人在择偶时，遇到了很大的难题。

从以上两点可见，女孩子参加国家服役的确是个值得考虑的政策。

CLEAR? LET’S START…

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In its more recent history, specifically the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Peranakans sent their children to English-medium or Christian mission schools, rather than to Chinese schools. Many were sent to England for tertiary education or professional qualifications and returned to jobs in the then British Colonial Civil Service or in British trading firms. The Peranakan community reached the zenith of its existence in this period, enjoying immense wealth, cultural expansion, and good relations with the Malay royalty and the British colonial administrators.

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Modernization of the Peranakan community

· In the recent history, Peranakans in the nineteenth to twentieth centuries sent their children to English or Christian schools instead of Chinese schools as they did before.

· Peranakans also mainly received tertiary education or professional qualifications overseas in England, before returning to serve the British.

· Peranakans were rich and enjoyed comparable social statuses to the Malay and British royalty.

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"Younger Babas in their twenties in Singapore who would have by now abandoned Baba Malay in a language shift to English are beginning to use it again. This has been mainly a result of their having taken part in recent drama productions in Baba Malay which are enjoying a current revival after an almost thirty year gap. The recent plays are Pileh Menantu "Choosing a Daughter-in-Law" (1984), Buang Keroh Pungot Jernih "Let Bygones be Bygones" (1984, unpublished), and Laki Tua Bini Muda "The Old husband and the young Wife" (1985). Baba plays were extremely popular in the 1950's in Singapore.

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Younger Babas in their twenties in Singapore who would have by now abandoned Baba Malay in a language shift to English are beginning to use it again.

Source: http://emilyemerald.tripod.com/peranakan.htm

and the rest are available @:http://prezi.com/7nfgsdkuulyf/english-literature-emily-of-emerald-hill/. Go and have a quick look!

Unseen Poetry Assignment

1(a)

In the above poem “Casualty-Mental Ward”, written by Vernon Scannell, the persona of the poem is commonly associated with people that are psychologically unsound or in harsher words, insane. From the title of the poem, we can infer that the poet intended to depict someone that was injured mentally and was rehabilitating in a ward. The persona had experienced immense torture and trauma in a war and subsequently went berserk. There was confusion in him and he apparently still could not recover from the horrific experiences that haunted him as a soldier, over and over again. In this essay, I will list down evidences in the poem that clearly suggests the persona was mentally disturbed.

In the first stanza, the poet started the poem by giving the reader a clear sign that the persona went mad. “Something has gone wrong inside my head”. This sentence was later repeated 2 to 3 times in the poem and the repetition was always found in the last sentences of the later stanzas. The effect of repetition was to enhance the certainness of the persona that he himself was a lunatic. The repetition was also implemented to show the confusion and chaos that took place in the minds of crazy people. Insane people could never sort things out right because their brains have gone haywire. The repercussions of the war haunted the persona so badly that made him could not think right. The memories of the persona in the poem were fragmented as this was a device used by the poet to make the poem seemed more alike to what a crazy man would think. “The sappers have left mines and wires behind”. This was the persona reminiscing of his former comrades of war that were fighting in the frontline. He partially remembered what happened and this stanza ended with the line “I hole long conversations with the dead”.

In stanza 2, the persona briefly described his weak mental situation as he could not remember things clearly. “I do not always know what has been said; The rhythms, not the words, stay in mind”. This shows that the persona was mentally unsound as he could not evidently remember the words people had spoken. All he knew was fragments. He could only trace back to the pace and grooving when the people spoke to him but not the content. Everything was revolving in his head but he just could not sort them out. The poet used a similar diction in this and the following stanzas. All of the last word of each line of every stanza ended with a letter “d”. His main purpose was to make the overall poem seem cohesive as most of the times he wanted to use past tense for the word of the last line. Most past tense words end with an “ed”. He wanted to make the poem sound “sad” and to tell the reader that all the scenes in the poem were recollections of the persona from the war as everything was over. There was a false calmness as the aftermath of the war was even more daunting.

The third stanza shows what the persona experienced after the war. He experienced nothing but trauma and nightmares, however the poem describes this is in a subtle way. “Not just the sky but grass and trees are red, the flares and tracers- or I’m colour-blind”. The only reason why the persona saw everything in red colour was because he had a physiological barrier in front of him that he had yet to overcome after war. In war, what do you see? Blood, nothing else but more blood. There was a red veil on his eyes that could never be torn down. His mind was flushed with those bloody images of war which made him more and more fragile. Secondly, he was mentally unsound because he could not differentiate things. The poet used contrast comparisons of colours to show how severe the persona’s condition was. The sky as we know is blue and grass and trees are obviously green. His meaning that was implied here was “Not just blue things are red, green things are also red”. This was so absurd and ridiculous that became an apt evidence to prove that the persona was mentally aroused. He asked himself whether he was colour-blind because he saw all things red, including real red things like fire sparks. He was so baffled and started doubting himself by asking himself questions on whether he was colour-blind. The poem started to get into its main point from the end of this stanza when the persona said “I hold long conversations with the dead”. This was some sort of prelude into the next stanza where the persona believed that he could communicate with dead people. The dead people were actually his fellow compatriots that fought but died in the war.

Moving on to stanza 4, “Their presence comforts and sustains like bread”. The poet used simile in this sentence. The persona thought that the spirit of his dead comrades still roamed around him but with a time period. Bread is a dairy product that has a certain expiry date. The spirits that lingers within the ward soothes the persona. And again, in the end of this stanza, the poet concluded with a repetition of “Something has gone wrong inside my head”.

In stanza 5, the persona was much mentally unsound as he continued to describe the relationship between the spirits and himself. “They know about the snipers I dread And how the world is booby-trapped and mined”. The persona was recalling the days when he and his comrades were in war. They had faced countless ambushes from the enemy, which made them suppose that the world was a dark and callous place. “Booby-trapped” means there is bait awaited to lure people and injure them. The persona believed that the world had become an evil place after experiencing the entire trauma from the war.

In the last stanza of the poem, the persona imagined that his war pals were surrounding him and whispering consolation when he was about to fall asleep. “As all eyes close, they gather round my bed And whisper consolation”. The poet used “round” instead of “around” here because he wanted to create an imagery effect of the people literally crowding the persona’s bed in a circle. This would create a stronger impact on what the poet wanted to express. When the people had formed a circle and they started whispering, the persona would feel more disturbed as the voices of the people interfere with one another when the sound travels.

In conclusion, the poet used many literary devices to exaggerate or describe the mental condition of the persona. The persona had endured too much trauma from the repercussions of the war. The persona insisted that he could converse with the people from the other world and apparently, he went berserk. The mood of the poem was subtle, with little or no violence at all; but was poignant and strong in the language used which adequately portrayed the horrors of war. The persona was never sane from the start of the poem, all he remembered were dreadful and bloody scenes from the war that were rooted in him mind for the rest of his life.

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1(b)

In Vernon Scannell’s “Casualty-Mental Ward”, Scannell conveyed a couple of messages regarding war and several themes were shown in the poem. In my essay, I will first discuss the themes on Horrors of War, Deaths and Comradeship and then talk about the message that Scannell wanted to convey.

Firstly, one of the themes evident in the poem is definitely the horrors of war. The persona of the poem is a perceived crazy man which lost his senses after fighting in war. All the horrible memories haunt him over and over again, each and every day of his life. All the bloodshed, the killings and dying of people; they were just too much to endure. The persona could not face himself to embrace what had happened and eventually became mad. Everything just continues to play non-stop inside his brain like a broken record or cassette. He could not control his mind to stop thinking of these issues but to face them. His values and perceptions of the world had been distorted after the deception and lies he had gone through. All the fragmented memories come back to haunt him day and night, whenever he gets lonely. From the first stanza’s “The sappers have left mines and wires behind” to the 5^th stanza’s “And how the world is booby-trapped and mined”, there was a relation between these two lines. The poet wanted to make the world seem an ugly place by using a repetition of the word “mine”. The effect was to degrade the world into a place that only war occurs and is full of traps.

Death is also a theme in the poem. The persona mentioned numerous times in the poem that he can communicate for a long period of time with his former comrades of war. His comrades had sacrificed for the country during the war and the crazy persona believed that their spirits were still around him. The death of people was also an important theme in this poem as there had been several repetitions of lines like “I hold long conversations with the dead”. People who perished in the war also had major influences on the persona. The persona would feel very empty and clueless when he saw his comrades that had been fighting alongside with him die, one by one. He had to experience all these trauma and mental torture. Death and casualty in war often are reduced to figures or statistics, but in this poem, the humanness of the dead soldiers was brought out through the vivid descriptions of the happenings.

Thirdly, comradeship or brotherhood was also a theme found in the poem. When the persona was all lonely inside his wad in the rehabilitation centre, what he first thought of were his friends in the war. This poem actually could be a eulogy for the people who had died during the war and a remembrance from the persona. The persona believed that his former comrades were still there by his side although they no longer existed. It was the tight bond that had formed during the days of the war when they relied on one another’s moral support for survival. When his comrades died, the persona still treated that they continued to exist so that he could feel better. He did not have the courage to accept reality that so many died. It was simply adding more mental burden for himself. “And whisper consolation”, this shows that the persona imagined that his comrades gave him support. He really needed support to pull through this ordeal of mental sufferings.

The message that the poet Vernon Scannell really wanted to convey through this poem was to shed light on the truth of the war. A lot of ardent and nationalistic youths in those times were so eager to fight for their country. Most of them had been brainwashed by their country and they therefore believed that fighting for their motherland was something glorious and dying was even more heavenly. This however, in the poet’s view was not true. If you look at the poem, what do you see? Yes, nothing but suffering and agony. The persona not only had to endure physical pain, but mental torture. The poet wanted to convey that the price that people had to pay for going to war was immensely huge. War was no laughing matter. It could literally kill you. In the end, people who join war may possibly land in the situation like the persona- a crazy man who believed that dead people exists. “Something had gone wrong inside my head”, it was evident what had gone wrong. And he was going to spend the rest of his life in a cold mental asylum.

The poet is hence, also disapproving war as he believed that war would bring nothing but sufferings. His intention of writing the poem was to pinpoint blame not just on the pro-war people, but more on the people who did not stop the war and caused so many tragedies that could be prevented.

The poem had three different themes, namely: Horrors of war, Death and Comradeship and Scannell wanted to express his thoughts by shedding light on the actual truth of war.