Having problems accessing to not only my blog but quite a few others too. When I click on the url, I end up getting ti blogger's homepage. Arghz, this can be frustrating! Not can be, it is frustrating! Haha.
How time just goes past, tomorrow's the start of a new semester. The hols seems to just whizz past. Have not done so many things that I've set aside to do but heck it lah.
Been surfing around quite a few welfare and NGO sites and they have placed much emphasis on the children. Them being the future and all. I cannot agree more with them that education etc should satrt with children as they are the future. But taking a look around at the children of today in Singapore, I really do not see a very bright future so to speak. Majority of the current Singapore children fit into the word "brat" with much perfection. It seems as though the word was made specially for them. Many a times we can see a child's potential but the current kids? I see in them a spoilt lifestyle with no damn regard for others. They seem so absorbed in their own material world and the egoistic. It certainly does not help that their parents shield them so much that I got a feeling that many of them know that they can get away with "crimes" they commit. It does not matter is the child is pissing the entire bus or train or mall, but parents just seem contented to see their child happy at the expense of the displeasure of many others. From young they are drawn into this very competitive mindset and I can safely say that many of them will carry this mindset with them. To make things worse, many also have little regard for authority. Combine these two and you will probably have a child who will grow up with little regard for anything but himself or herself, a child who may stop at nothing to get his or her way. Anything meaning even selling out their friends so as to get their way. Look at today's ST for example, so one wrote in about children playing with their "heelies" at the MRT station and foodcourt. It does not take a genius to see the hazard these kids are to others and instead of reprimanding their kids, these parents are smiling away seemingly so proud of their child's "intelligence". Can also be certain that the parents will blame SMRT if anything happens to their child like say fall on to the track. Can almost visualise them saying that the train stations are dangerous etc. Please don't give me that crap when it is so damn obvious that bad parenting is the main cause. What kind of signals are we giving the young when we do not correct their mischief? Is it not easier to correct them when they are young? Maybe I'm not a parent so I do not feel the blues of being a parent but hey, isn't it logical to discipline a person when he breaks a rule? Spare the rod and spoil the child. How true indeed. How many of us can actually say that we have never been caned before? How many will agree that these caning may have had hurt like hell than, but have made us better people? Yes, I do agree that caning may be cruel at times but its really how you deliver it. Too much of anything is certainly bad and caning is no different. The right dosage will do more good than bad.
Waited quite a while before I got my hands on "Heart of a Soldier". Its been one of the best books ever written about war and Sep 11. It brings out a perspective of war not found in many books. Its a book about the life of now a national hero Rick Rescorla. A decorated nam veteran who became a hero when he fell with the Twin Towers. He died a true hero simply because he did something so humane as to go help others in the time of need. He could have simply left the building but he insisted on going up again to make sure that no one was trap. The book also touched on something that most war books will keep of; the most war trauma. Its been much of a fact that after a war, not many veterans will want to talk about it simply because it is never a joy to recall how you can survive it but not others. Its never fun or heroic to see you best friends falling beside you. Why do books not want to portray that? Simply because they want to keep the romance of war. Heart of a Soldier also talked but We were Soldiers. If any one who read the book and watched the movie would feel that the movie did justice to the book. Some nam vets think so too but the movie had done injustice to Rescorla simply because it had failed to portray Rescorla. In fact they took measures to ensure that Rescorla's platoon was not mentioned. Maybe because they took part also in the terrible LZ Albany. Those aside, the book really tried to get the reader to be in the book. The writer admitted that most of the times the conversations were just memory and the words were not exact simply because it is not possible for on to remember every conversation. No wonder the writer James B. Steward is a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize.
Rick Rescorla
May 27, 1939 - September 11, 2001
A letter that Rick's best friend had written but will never have the chance to mail it to Rick
One of my life's biggest regrets is that I couldn't have been with Rick at the moment of the last greatest challenge and crisis of his life. Then again, maybe it was so destined, because if I didn't survive, there would be nobody left to tell his full story.
Kipling wrote that "all men should count with you, but none too much."
I failed there. Rick counted as the world to me.
Somebody cautioned that if a person or thing means the world to you, and you lose that person or thing, then you have lost the world.
I lost the world when Rick died.
- Daniel Hill
Six months have passed since that fateful day
When evil took you away.
I asked over and over why couldn't you stay,
But God and the Universe had their way.
A new mission you had to take in the course of the horrible wake.
I honor your life and your death
To the end of time and with each breath.
Together, our love is forever.
- Susan Rescorla
A thing that I think people should change the notion that safe sex advertisements do not promote premaritial sex. With or without the ads, there'll still be people doing it before marriage, so why not have the ads so as to try to minimise the chances of them contracting HIV. I think the parents should also be responsible and not hide the fact that condoms do exist and what its for. And if they are anti premaritial sex, than they should let their child know about it. If they trust their child, than so be it. Just let them know that unprotected sex puts both party at risk. So if they really want to do it than at least protect themselves. Why hide all the ads etc? Its not as if by hiding or not displaying the ads, HIV will just disappear. And I seriously doubt just be having condom ads, the number of people practising premaritial sex will shoot.
Also can't stand the fact that man usually rather have the female take pills etc so that do not need to wear the condom. You don't need to be a sex guru or female just to know that most contraceptives for female will result in her having side effects. Guys, if you really care for the girl, please don't put her through all that trauma. Girls, if the guy insist on making you take the contraceptive despite knowing the side effects you have or had to go through, ask him to go drill a hole and fuck the wall.
he spoke at 11:52 am
War. Croatia, 1994
Children walk towards the remains of a bombed building in the town of Turanj in Croatia. Heavily damaged during the 1991 fighting between Serb and Croat ethnic factions, in 1994 the town hosted refugees fleeing war in the neighbouring republics of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Landmines blanket the area, injuring primarily children.
School in refugee camp. Afghanistan, 1996
Girls study in a makeshift classroom in the Sakhi camp for refugees from neighbouring Tajikistan, in the Mazar-e-Sharif region of Afghanistan. In 1996, this region, also at war, was under the control of the Northern Alliance faction.
Rwandan refugees. United Republic of Tanzania, 1994
A baby gazes at his mother, sitting amidst thousands of other Rwandan refugees in a giant encampment near the town of Benako in north-eastern Tanzania. Fleeing genocidal killings in their country in April 1994, some 350,000 Rwandans crossed into Tanzania in less than a week. By the end of that year, some 700,000 Rwandans had been killed, 2 million were refugees and an estimated 100,000 children had become separated from their parents. This national trauma in Rwanda will take generations to heal and continues to be affected by conflicts in surrounding countries.
Coal industry workers. India, 1989
At the end of the day, two families leave an open-cut coal mine, pushing the carts they use to bring food to miners, in the Dhanbad region of the state of Bihar in India. Increased mechanization, needed to keep the industry competitive and make India self-sufficient in coal, threatens the livelihood of an estimated 400,000 people in the region.
Woman and girls. Ecuador, 1982
A woman and two girls on their way to a religious meeting stand in front of a gateway intersecting a footpath in the mountainous rural region of Chimborazo in Ecuador.
Manila slum. Philippines, 1999
Children play and care for siblings in a squatter community of thousands - many of whom are migrants from rural areas -- who live beside active railway tracks leading in and out of downtown Manila, capital of the Philippines. The tracks constitute the only open space in this community and accidents from passing trains are common.
Boy. Sudan, 1995
A boy sits in the Natinga School at a camp for the displaced in southern Sudan, a country at war for more than 20 years.
Girl. Ecuador, 1998
An indigenous girl stands in the Cuello Loma mountains in the region of Chimborazo in Ecuador. Villages in the region are now populated primarily by children and women because so many men have left in search of work.
Boy. Afghanistan, 1995
His school satchel slung across his shoulder, a boy stands in the Kamaz camp for displaced Afghans in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan, a country at war for more than 20 years.
Kurdish girl. Iraq, 1997
An ethnic Kurdish girl lives with her family and other displaced people in the former prison of Nizarke Fort, in the city of Dohuk in northern Iraq. An internationally protected zone since the end of the 1990 Gulf War, the region's predominantly ethnic Kurdish residents have lived through decades of conflict and continue to face instability and displacement.
These images testify to the right of all children to be, not victims but actors in an environment of protection and encouragement. The Global Movement for Children aims to create a world where every child's right to dignity, security and self-fulfilment is achieved.
UNICEF Special Representative Sebastião Salgado has donated these photographs for a poster series in support of changing the world with children.
Credits
Taken from Changing the world with children
© All images Sebastião Salgado/Amazonas Images
he spoke at 10:05 pm
he spoke at 1:01 pm
"We, the grown-ups, have failed you deplorably… One in three of you has suffered from malnutrition before you turned five years old. One in four of you has not been immunized against any disease. Almost one in five of you is not attending school…. We, the grown-ups, must reverse this list of failures."
- Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General
"If we want to overcome poverty and the instability it breeds, we must start by investing in our young people. I implore national leaders to seriously examine their records on children. Are you getting all your children into the classroom? Are you protecting all your children against disease? Are they safe from abuse, exploitation and violence? Unfortunately, we already know the answers. We know we have work to do."
- Carol Bellamy, UNICEF Executive Director
The above were spoken at the UN's Special Session for children. Held from 8-10 May 2002. Almost two years, but the work is still being carried on. Reading just the extracts of the session and the goals and I sincerely hope they will succeed. Even without hearing the words, just merely reading the words, can feel the emotions and hopes of the children who said them.
"We, the children, are experts on being 8, 12 or 17 years old in the societies of today. Nobody knows better what children actually need. To consult us will make your work more effective and give better results for children. My proposal is that you make children part of your team. It is good to see that so many children are represented in Government delegations here at the Special Session. I hope that every government will include children when you now make your national plans of action."
- Heidi Grande, 17, Child delegate from Norway
"On behalf of Afghan girls, my plea is to help us remain children, unmarried for some time until we pass our childhood."
- Nadia, 12-year-old Afghan girl who lives in an orphanage
"War and politics have always been an adult game but children have always been the losers. I hope you will remember my words."
- Elisa, 17 years old
"I am afraid to cry because I know that I have to work so hard to be a good person, because what they have done to me can turn me into a monster… Today I feel like I am 100 years old, but again, I feel like I am 6 years old."
- A young Ugandan girl who became a soldier at age 9, and remained a soldier for almost 11 years
"Children are change makers…. We are not crawling insects, but butterflies. We are birds of freedom."
- Sanjog Thakuri, 16, from Nepal
"For every day that we're here, there are children dying, there are children being exploited, and there are children whose rights are being violated."
- Laura Kerstin Hannant, a 11th grade student from Canada
"We've gained from today."
- Thomas Burke, 17-year-old from the United Kingdom
"The fact that I am standing here means that youth participation is taken seriously, but the fact that I am only one of the few youth representatives standing here means that is it not taken seriously enough. We are experts in our own field. We must not only be consulted, but we must involved in the whole decision-making process."
- Willemijn Aerdts, 18, Netherlands
he spoke at 9:36 pm
An usual celebration or should I say countdown of sorts. Started off with meeting Wil for dinner in town. No fancy makan place but the chicken rice at Far East. Wil was complaining about the service and to a certain extent kind of agree with him. The guy was over enthu to "chase" customers out. We than went to play snooker. Yea, a "super happening" game of snooker. After Jop came down, we set of to Wil's place to get his car. On the way, we saw a motorcade was wondering who. It turned out to be the PM and his family. For once he did not look so much like the PM but a family man with his grand children and all. Really nice to see him like that as it really gives a softer and more humane side of a politician. man, I'm going to miss him when he steps down. He's been an excellent premier! Jos later drove down to Wil's place to meet us and we went down to Holland Village for the countdown. As what Jop kept saying, it was kind of a break in "tradition" cos we usually go to Sultan. Holland V was not too bad I guess, a different crowd and certainly less crowded too. We are hoping to make it a point to go back there once of these days cos the pubs there do seem quite appealing. Actually Tango's and Wala Wala in particular. Rakus seem not too bad too. Most interesting part of the countdown? There was this staff at Tango's who took out a pot and started striking it and going around the place at midnight. In a way the crowd was amused and relished it. How often do you see that!
Went makan at 85 after that and it was super pack. The bak chor mee was sold out and we waited for almost an hour for porridge. In the meantime, Elgin kept calling us to rush us to go to his place. So after makaning, went down to his place. Did not drink there but was playing mahjong with Wil, Serena and Elgin's sis. After a while changed kakis to Wil, Clarence and Libert/Joe and ended the game with Wil, Clarence and Jos. Jos and I initally wanted to leave earlier but ended up leaving at around 0550. So by the time I got back, just slept. Thanks also to Jos for being so nice to send me back! Happy New Year to all again!
he spoke at 1:29 pm