Hey geeks 8)Maxwell and I worked together to research on our death penalty piece. Anti Death Penalty
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
12 Angry Men
This is a movie about people's perspectives can be easily influenced; proof is never always right (sometimes interpreted wrongly); and when someone's life is in your hands, you must not just dismiss and deny the right of the guilty to live. Also, never give up hope even when you're the loner- you must be patient and insist- trust your intuition, it will bring you where you want to be.
I like the part where the old man in the jury related the simple and natural habit/ action of the man in specs (which is massaging his nasal bridge) to the woman who claimed to have witness the crime. Again, observance is extremely important at this point and habitual actions, though easily overlooked, it can coerce the jury into wrongly sending the boy to die.
My favourite jurors were the man who firstly defended the innocent boy and the old man with white hair.
I live in a century where action-packed movies or soapy romantic films rule and dominate, so this black and white movie was definitely kind of boring- especially the introduction. Also, the introductory part was a little too long and mundane. Perhaps they can go straight to the point, and that'd have captured the attention of viewers faster. The setting is boring because they never leave the meeting room which is locked and ever so stuffy. One thing that abhorred me was the men's sweating armpits marks on their shirt. That is just plain unhygienic and disgusting and it ruins my viewing pleasure.
3 stars I'd say. Original and interesting storyline but the setting somehow ruined it. Yet again, I contradict myself. If it ain't in a meeting room, how'd they sit down and listen to each other's views about the case? Perhaps a nicer room would settle my complaints.
This is definitely not a insipid movie, but outlined with many many interesting points. This movie is not jejune at all, it's more to meet the eye. I'm highly impressed with how a stereotypical boring meeting can turn out so interesting and colourful with a rich and diverse mixture and clash of personalities and emotions.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
A CASE STUDY
Cyber-bullying. In relation to the rather serious cyber-bullying case in our school where two students were suspended, we had at least two talks regarding cyber-bullying. One was conducted by Mr. Steven in which the talk featured some wonderful videos about cyber safety, while the other was conducted by a rambunctious teacher from Singapore which lightened up the tense atmosphere in the theater by talking about Facebook and Formspring, which we can easily relate to.
The case study is a concocted story that Ms Suzy made up. This is a pretty good job as it made me realise that cyber-bullying is the last thing that you'd want to be involved in.
1. Who is the perpetrator in this case? Who is the target?
At first, Nazar was the perpetrator as he manipulated others into 'unfriending' Chong Wei. However, Chong Wei was in the wrong later on when he created a facebook group 'Why I hate Chong Wei' and accused him of things that CW never did. CW never knew the existence of this site yet. When this launched a heated debate among their friends, their friends who made their own accusations and suggestions on how should Nazar should be treated was also involved in cyber-bullying as well.
2. What acts of cyber-bullying has happened? How serious would you rank them?
CW: engaged in singling and excluding
Nazar: Why I hate CW- harassing and targeting
Accusations about CW- insulting
Other members: suggestions- insulting
I think I would rank Nazar's actions as the most serious as he engaged in many cyber-bullying acts. He did not just stop after creating the group. He continued to insult and post fabricated shocking 'revelations' about CW without his permission or knowledge. CW would come in the next as he pressurized others in unfriending Nazar. The last would be the other members who participated in and was aware about what was happening. They shouldn't join in the conversation and make 'incredible' comments and suggestions about how Nazar should deal with CW.
All in all, I think CW bears the same responsibility as Nazar because he initiated this whole terrible event. A domino effect it seems, as Nazar won't commit into cyber-bullying if CW did not pressurize others into unfriending him. This is wrong and nobody should do that.
We live in a world where technology rules all. For the better or the worse, cyber-bullying should be last in the list to restrict our internet, social networking sites in particular. We live in a digital world, make it civil.
Nicole
The case study is a concocted story that Ms Suzy made up. This is a pretty good job as it made me realise that cyber-bullying is the last thing that you'd want to be involved in.
1. Who is the perpetrator in this case? Who is the target?
At first, Nazar was the perpetrator as he manipulated others into 'unfriending' Chong Wei. However, Chong Wei was in the wrong later on when he created a facebook group 'Why I hate Chong Wei' and accused him of things that CW never did. CW never knew the existence of this site yet. When this launched a heated debate among their friends, their friends who made their own accusations and suggestions on how should Nazar should be treated was also involved in cyber-bullying as well.
2. What acts of cyber-bullying has happened? How serious would you rank them?
CW: engaged in singling and excluding
Nazar: Why I hate CW- harassing and targeting
Accusations about CW- insulting
Other members: suggestions- insulting
I think I would rank Nazar's actions as the most serious as he engaged in many cyber-bullying acts. He did not just stop after creating the group. He continued to insult and post fabricated shocking 'revelations' about CW without his permission or knowledge. CW would come in the next as he pressurized others in unfriending Nazar. The last would be the other members who participated in and was aware about what was happening. They shouldn't join in the conversation and make 'incredible' comments and suggestions about how Nazar should deal with CW.
All in all, I think CW bears the same responsibility as Nazar because he initiated this whole terrible event. A domino effect it seems, as Nazar won't commit into cyber-bullying if CW did not pressurize others into unfriending him. This is wrong and nobody should do that.
We live in a world where technology rules all. For the better or the worse, cyber-bullying should be last in the list to restrict our internet, social networking sites in particular. We live in a digital world, make it civil.
Nicole
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Rank 'em
Hello Geeks,
1 = Totally acceptable and appropriate
2 = Possibly wrong, but no action needs to be taken
3 = Wrong, and school authorities or Internet service providers should take action
4 = Wrong, and civil action could be taken by the target or the target’s parents
5 = Wrong, and criminal charges should be pressed
1. A student posts a negative review of a concert given by another student’s band. The review focuses on the band members’ skill as musicians and the quality of their music.
2 = Possibly wrong, but no action needs to be taken
4. A student writes a letter to the school administration stating that a teacher has used improper discipline in class.
1 = Totally acceptable and appropriate
5. A student finds that photos of her, which were taken by her (now ex) boyfriend have been uploaded to his Facebook page. Then they were copied and reproduced in many more places, including photo-sharing sites. Her ex-boyfriend says that he is not responsible for what was done with the photos after he uploaded them.
3 = Wrong, and school authorities or Internet service providers should take action
6. A teacher asks students in her class to help write holiday greetings in a variety of languages for the school’s Web site. Without the teacher’s knowledge, one of the students’ contributions is a false and insulting statement against another teacher.
3 = Wrong, and school authorities or Internet service providers should take action
7. During an instant messaging session with several participants, a student accuses her boyfriend of cheating on her.
1 = Totally acceptable and appropriate
8. A student creates a Web site in which she criticizes school policies and suggests that several teachers, whom she names, are overly strict in their discipline.
3 = Wrong, and school authorities or Internet service providers should take action
9. A student creates a Facebook group in which he states that one of his teachers is a space alien who is scheming to abduct students and take them to her home planet.
1 = Totally acceptable and appropriate
1 = Totally acceptable and appropriate
2 = Possibly wrong, but no action needs to be taken
3 = Wrong, and school authorities or Internet service providers should take action
4 = Wrong, and civil action could be taken by the target or the target’s parents
5 = Wrong, and criminal charges should be pressed
1. A student posts a negative review of a concert given by another student’s band. The review focuses on the band members’ skill as musicians and the quality of their music.
1 = Totally acceptable and appropriate
2. A student posts a story making fun of a teacher, suggesting that he is unqualified to teach. The teacher’s name is not used, but he is clearly recognizable to anyone who knows him.
3 = Wrong, and school authorities or Internet service providers should take action
3. A student uploads to YouTube a video of his band performing a song that makes fun of teachers. No specific teacher is named or is identifiable from the song.
2 = Possibly wrong, but no action needs to be taken
4. A student writes a letter to the school administration stating that a teacher has used improper discipline in class.
1 = Totally acceptable and appropriate
5. A student finds that photos of her, which were taken by her (now ex) boyfriend have been uploaded to his Facebook page. Then they were copied and reproduced in many more places, including photo-sharing sites. Her ex-boyfriend says that he is not responsible for what was done with the photos after he uploaded them.
3 = Wrong, and school authorities or Internet service providers should take action
6. A teacher asks students in her class to help write holiday greetings in a variety of languages for the school’s Web site. Without the teacher’s knowledge, one of the students’ contributions is a false and insulting statement against another teacher.
3 = Wrong, and school authorities or Internet service providers should take action
7. During an instant messaging session with several participants, a student accuses her boyfriend of cheating on her.
1 = Totally acceptable and appropriate
8. A student creates a Web site in which she criticizes school policies and suggests that several teachers, whom she names, are overly strict in their discipline.
3 = Wrong, and school authorities or Internet service providers should take action
9. A student creates a Facebook group in which he states that one of his teachers is a space alien who is scheming to abduct students and take them to her home planet.
1 = Totally acceptable and appropriate
10. A teacher discovers that students are being pressured by a popular student to remove an unpopular student from their Facebook “friends” lists.
2 = Possibly wrong, but no action needs to be taken
Nicole (:
Eye of an eagle, perception of a human
1. We are humans, thus we are definitely not perfect. We make a considerably amount of mistakes, whether we know it or not.
2. This brings me to my point that well, unfortunately, witnesses's witness on a particular event cannot be trusted entirely.
3. The reasons being:
(a) ENHANCED by drugs, regular exercise, chilli, coffee, sleep, binoculars, glasses, electronics etc.
(b) DISTRACTED while we focus on something else.
(c) MISTAKEN as we are humans and have our own prejudices.
4. Yes, I do admit that a lot of factors influence our perception, but they cannot be not trusted completely. This is because eyewitnesses' witness are at time in certain cases are the only evidence thus it help polices to narrow down their suspects. Yet again, our perceptions vary too much to be taken in account and they do result in innocent people being dealt with instead.
5. Therefore, I would like to say that we cannot altogether trust eyewitnesses account. We cannot use eyewitnesses as a concrete evidence to prove someone guilty. We need to have concrete evidence that cannot be biased in any way or other in order to prove that someone is guilty.
Selectivity Perception
A child dying in poverty as seen by a doctor, economist, a social worker, the child’s father.
Doctor (Nicole) : Inability for medical aid to reach poor people.
Social worker (Kai Song): We should help those who do not have the ability to support their child/ family. We are responsible to bring them up maybe in orphanages.
Economist (Maxwell) : Economic gap is getting bigger and this is not a healthy thing for a society. We should try to find out ways to improve the social and living condition, by providing mor job opportunities.
Child's father (Bryan): I think that it is very sad o see my child dying in front of my eyes but I really do not have the ability to provide him with what he is entitled to. I felt sorry but I too hope that there will be aid from the society to help the poors.
A sunset as seen by a religious figure, a physicist, an artist, a farmer.
Religious figure (Bryan): Nothing is eternal. Everyone will die one day, no matter how healthy you are, how wealthy you are. Like the sun, it will set one day. Pray, listen to God, and you will have a wonderful life after death.
Artist (Nicole): This is a perfect opportunity for me to express the beauty of nature.
Physicist (Kai Song): *Cough* Listen carefully, this is caused by the earth rotating around the axis. Isaac Newton has discovered gravity.... bla bla bla bla bla
Farmer (Maxwell) : End of a day, I can finally go home, what a hard day!
A tree as seen by a biologist, a logger, an environmentalist, a native from Sarawak.
Logger (Nicole): The forest is a gold mine.*sings* "Money money money, must be funny, in a rich man's world"
A biologist (Bryan): To the logger, please stop cutting down tress as they lock up carbon dioxide.Without tress, there will be a rise in the earth's temperature..... *Continues the 30 minutes lecture*
An environmentalist (Maxwell): We borrowed nature from God and we owed it from the future generation.
There you have it. Our very argumentative group with two distracted souls. The other two are sane, at least. Or not? Who knows.
Tata,
Nicole.
2. This brings me to my point that well, unfortunately, witnesses's witness on a particular event cannot be trusted entirely.
3. The reasons being:
(a) ENHANCED by drugs, regular exercise, chilli, coffee, sleep, binoculars, glasses, electronics etc.
(b) DISTRACTED while we focus on something else.
(c) MISTAKEN as we are humans and have our own prejudices.
4. Yes, I do admit that a lot of factors influence our perception, but they cannot be not trusted completely. This is because eyewitnesses' witness are at time in certain cases are the only evidence thus it help polices to narrow down their suspects. Yet again, our perceptions vary too much to be taken in account and they do result in innocent people being dealt with instead.
5. Therefore, I would like to say that we cannot altogether trust eyewitnesses account. We cannot use eyewitnesses as a concrete evidence to prove someone guilty. We need to have concrete evidence that cannot be biased in any way or other in order to prove that someone is guilty.
Selectivity Perception
A child dying in poverty as seen by a doctor, economist, a social worker, the child’s father.
Doctor (Nicole) : Inability for medical aid to reach poor people.
Social worker (Kai Song): We should help those who do not have the ability to support their child/ family. We are responsible to bring them up maybe in orphanages.
Economist (Maxwell) : Economic gap is getting bigger and this is not a healthy thing for a society. We should try to find out ways to improve the social and living condition, by providing mor job opportunities.
Child's father (Bryan): I think that it is very sad o see my child dying in front of my eyes but I really do not have the ability to provide him with what he is entitled to. I felt sorry but I too hope that there will be aid from the society to help the poors.
A sunset as seen by a religious figure, a physicist, an artist, a farmer.
Religious figure (Bryan): Nothing is eternal. Everyone will die one day, no matter how healthy you are, how wealthy you are. Like the sun, it will set one day. Pray, listen to God, and you will have a wonderful life after death.
Artist (Nicole): This is a perfect opportunity for me to express the beauty of nature.
Physicist (Kai Song): *Cough* Listen carefully, this is caused by the earth rotating around the axis. Isaac Newton has discovered gravity.... bla bla bla bla bla
Farmer (Maxwell) : End of a day, I can finally go home, what a hard day!
A tree as seen by a biologist, a logger, an environmentalist, a native from Sarawak.
Logger (Nicole): The forest is a gold mine.*sings* "Money money money, must be funny, in a rich man's world"
A biologist (Bryan): To the logger, please stop cutting down tress as they lock up carbon dioxide.Without tress, there will be a rise in the earth's temperature..... *Continues the 30 minutes lecture*
An environmentalist (Maxwell): We borrowed nature from God and we owed it from the future generation.
There you have it. Our very argumentative group with two distracted souls. The other two are sane, at least. Or not? Who knows.
Tata,
Nicole.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Inhumane or Justice? -Death Penalty::The timeless question.
Centuries ago, the prevalent rule of thumb was an eye for an eye, or in some cases, a life for a life. So the question becomes have we advanced far enough in our social and political structures to ban the death penalty? Or when is the death penalty justifiable? Is the death penalty appropriate for an accidental homicide? How about for a mass murderer?
Death penalty is still practiced in 58 countries, and our country is one of them. Some view it as inhuman, some view it as it should be practiced. In this post, I will be exploring the for and against arguments about death penalty.
Why Death Penalty?
(ii) as a deterrent to others;
(iii) to prevent any danger of re-offending.
First of all, death penalty is enforced to uphold justice. Some feel that justice means that good has to be rewarded and evil has to be punished.
If someone commits the most egregious of crimes, such as raping and murdering a child or a woman, the perpetrator deserves to be executed. If a murderer is executed, than he cannot commit murder again. No one can be harmed by that murderer again, so technically the death penalty saves the lives of the innocent.
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| Tools used to KILL (death penalty) |
The history of criminal law has furnished a myriad of examples where convicted murderers were sentenced for a certain amount of time in prison. After the perpetrator got restored to liberty, he/she committed murder again. It could not be more obvious that such a criminal should NOT have been given a second chance. All of us have free will. Everyone can decide on their own whether they will muder innocent people or not. Those that does not want the capital punishment being inflicted on them should avoid murdering innocent people. In this context, death penalty acts as a deterrent for those who wants to commit a crime.
A social contract should look like this - if you do not murder the innocent, we will not execute you. If you decide to take innocent lives anyway, you know the consequences, that is you will be executed.
Death penalty is supported because an adequate retribution for the most egregious crimes should be executed. Also, it protects the innocent population. With the death penalty, this also prevents the uprising of vigilante, which obviously causes social distress in a society. Without trust, nothing is possible.
If the whole world rescinds death penalty, it will foster egregious crimes and this will make the society more disorderly: there is no sense of security at all.
The death penalty is a kind of ancient penal code: it punishes the committing crime members.
NO to death penalty!
(i) killing someone is always wrong, and two wrongs can never make a right;
(ii) there is in fact no evidence of a deterrent effect;
(iii) life without parole is just as effective a way to prevent someone reoffending as executing them;
(iv) saving money can never be a justification for taking someone's life;
(v) mistakes are bound to happen, and that means people being put to death for a crime they didn't commit (imagine if that were you or someone you loved).
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights thereby states in Article 3 that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. So there is indeed no reason for death penalty to stay.
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| "MAYBE THIS WILL TEACH YOU THAT IT'S MORALLY WRONG TO TO KILL PEOPLE!" - HOW IRONIC |
And statistics have shown that death penalty has no deterrent effects at all. The main reason that people commit crimes is due to financial reason. Another main contributing factor is that many people are uneducated, thus unaware of the crime that they are unconsciously committing. Crimes happen because of poor law enforcement. Death penalty is not a solution to crimes. To solve the problem, we have to review the causes that people commit crime.
I quote the great Mahatma Gandhi, "AN EYE FOR AN EYE MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD BLIND". Indeed, by fighting violence with violence will just encourage violence. On top of that, it is BARBARIC!
I quote the great Mahatma Gandhi, "AN EYE FOR AN EYE MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD BLIND". Indeed, by fighting violence with violence will just encourage violence. On top of that, it is BARBARIC!
In the 10 Commandments, it also states that "Thou shalt kill."
So isn't it clear enough? Death penalty should definitely be abolished.
All in all, discretion should be used in this matter. Whilst I cannot agree on the total abolishment of death penalty, I propose that amendments should be made to improve the legislation of the death penalty.
NICOLE X
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Define.
1. What crimes did they commit?
2. How many people did the criminal kill/ harm?
3. How were the criminals charged?
4. What was the charges given?
5. Did they have real intention with the crime?
6. WHY ARE THEY FAMOUS?
I choose the Moors Murderers.
Nicole X
2. How many people did the criminal kill/ harm?
3. How were the criminals charged?
4. What was the charges given?
5. Did they have real intention with the crime?
6. WHY ARE THEY FAMOUS?
I choose the Moors Murderers.
Nicole X
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
To Punish or NOT to Punish?
We feel that the punishments posed in Malaysia is quite moderate. After all, punishments are performed to teach the criminals a lesson and to prevent them from doing it again. Although we practice death penalties for more severe crimes, but all in all, it's quite moderate. We also feel that the courts and the prison services are quite moderate as well. To our knowledge, prisoners don't often get abused in prisons.
lawlawlaw
24.02.2011
The visit to Palace of Justice was indeed an eye-opener for me. I got to understand the different judicial systems and the types of courts here in Malaysia. For me, courts are places where lawyers wear their white wigs and long black robes and have civil verbal fights with one another to defend/ sue their client- while the Judge, will be listening intently and decide, upon the knock of the hammer. For me, the hammer symbolises the authority and the strictness in court and that no nonsense is tolerated in court- plain like that. All in all, hammer means no laughter/ giggles/ lame comments/ lame attitudes.
The most interesting part was when we got to actually go inside a court and attend a hearing. It was pretty impressive. The way the documents are prepared for reference to fight for just one case is incredible- it was so thick. I was dismissing this idea when we were told about the helpers helping the Judges to locate pages having in mind that "can't they just flip it themselves"but when I actually saw the document all heavily binded, my jaw dropped. I didn't at all expect it to be so thick and imagine what the lawyers had to go through when preparing the whole document to fight the case as well as for references for the Judges.
The language used in court is definitely not casual, but I also don't think that the formality in court is as petrifying or nerve wracking as in a SERIOUS MUN conference. As long as you refer to your Judges as M' Lord and do not attempt (any at all) to intrude and cut in when's he's speaking to you, I think you're fine. A Judge has a HUGE responsibility to uphold as the result of the case rests directly on their shoulders. One waver or one wrong interpretation might just kill the innocent.
24.03.2011
Mr. Ramesh was kind enough to grace our small event in school and he did gave us a lot of insights into how being a lawyer is like and he was kind enough to enlighten us on the rungs to become a lawyer. His speech was quite informative and he was willing to share. He even told us about the ethics of a lawyer, which I (personally) feel that it's contradicting. I particularly like the part where lawyers wear the wig and the long robe to 'disguise' themselves which also brings out the fact that they themselves as a person is totally different and separated from their profession as a lawyer.
In conclusion, the two days were rather informative and I enjoyed it very much. I hope that we will have excursions/ speeches just like these in the future. (:
Nicole X
The visit to Palace of Justice was indeed an eye-opener for me. I got to understand the different judicial systems and the types of courts here in Malaysia. For me, courts are places where lawyers wear their white wigs and long black robes and have civil verbal fights with one another to defend/ sue their client- while the Judge, will be listening intently and decide, upon the knock of the hammer. For me, the hammer symbolises the authority and the strictness in court and that no nonsense is tolerated in court- plain like that. All in all, hammer means no laughter/ giggles/ lame comments/ lame attitudes.
The most interesting part was when we got to actually go inside a court and attend a hearing. It was pretty impressive. The way the documents are prepared for reference to fight for just one case is incredible- it was so thick. I was dismissing this idea when we were told about the helpers helping the Judges to locate pages having in mind that "can't they just flip it themselves"but when I actually saw the document all heavily binded, my jaw dropped. I didn't at all expect it to be so thick and imagine what the lawyers had to go through when preparing the whole document to fight the case as well as for references for the Judges.
The language used in court is definitely not casual, but I also don't think that the formality in court is as petrifying or nerve wracking as in a SERIOUS MUN conference. As long as you refer to your Judges as M' Lord and do not attempt (any at all) to intrude and cut in when's he's speaking to you, I think you're fine. A Judge has a HUGE responsibility to uphold as the result of the case rests directly on their shoulders. One waver or one wrong interpretation might just kill the innocent.
24.03.2011
Mr. Ramesh was kind enough to grace our small event in school and he did gave us a lot of insights into how being a lawyer is like and he was kind enough to enlighten us on the rungs to become a lawyer. His speech was quite informative and he was willing to share. He even told us about the ethics of a lawyer, which I (personally) feel that it's contradicting. I particularly like the part where lawyers wear the wig and the long robe to 'disguise' themselves which also brings out the fact that they themselves as a person is totally different and separated from their profession as a lawyer.
In conclusion, the two days were rather informative and I enjoyed it very much. I hope that we will have excursions/ speeches just like these in the future. (:
Nicole X
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