What is utopia? When I searched the dictionary up, the answer it gave me was: an ideal place or state or any visionary system of political or social perfection.
If you were to ask me what elements constitute utopia, it would definitely not be the political elements of Thailand, neither would it be Taiwan a few months ago. I would say utopia would constitute of political stability and no unrest. Democracy would be controlled to a certain extent, like Singapore, unlike Thailand, when the Democratic Party had a stand-off at the airports of Thailand. Utopia would be a place where the government does not totally control the market, this might lead to more black-marketing, but this might be a good thing too, as it brings the citizens in the country more ways to purchase lower-priced goods that have the same effects as the higher-priced goods.
Another kind of utopia to me would constitute of a leader who leads the country, not with an iron-fist, but morals and charisma and still lives frugally, just like the other normal citizens.

Whenever anyone mentions the word leader, I would think of a powerful figure, one of authority. Whenever they say the word "great" before the word "leader", I would immediately think of
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aslo known as, Mahatma Gandhi (which means Great Soul). I must agree that he is indeed a great soul, as he led a NON-violent campaign in an attempt to give civil rights to Indians. He also led the Dandi Salt March to protest about the British-imposed salt tax.

More about this great leader include leading nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, but above all achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Now, do you also think that he is was a great leader?! He should obviously be recognised as one of the world's greatest (dead) leaders.

The fact that he fasted in jail when he was caught by the British is an even better reason to believe that Gandhi was a great leader; he actually fasted in his jail cell as a form of self-purification and social protest. He once actually fasted for 20+ days when he was very very old, this would mean that after his fast, he was terribly weak. He was bedridden for a few days.

He also swore to speak the Truth and only the Truth. He was so strongly attached to the Truth that even once, when his friend told him to eat meat so he could be as strong as the British and he ate meat, he confessed to his parents voluntarily that he ate meat! His Hindu and Truth practices went hand-in-hand and he grew up to be a famous and great leader, his campaigns never involved any violence. He told his followers never to adopt the ways of violence to solve problems.

After reading all this, I am sure that you feel Gandhi was a great leader... But now, for his minus points which I sometimes cannot understand.

He wanted to practice Brahmacharya. Brahmacharya is a good thing, but the actions he made that led him to practice it are quite strange:

When Gandhi was 16 his father became very ill. Being very devoted to his parents, he attended to his father at all times during his illness. However, one night, Gandhi's uncle came to relieve Gandhi for a while. He retired to his bedroom where carnal desires overcame him and he made love to his wife. Shortly afterward a servant came to report that Gandhi's father had just died. Gandhi felt tremendous guilt and never could forgive himself. He came to refer to this event as "double shame." The incident had significant influence in Gandhi becoming celibate at the age of 36, while still married. (Definition: A celibate is someone who abstains from sexual relations; or stays unmarried for religious reasons) So, Gandhi had sex when he was not supposed to, this might not be a big blow to his campaigns but nevertheless, it will affect what the later generations think of Gandhi.

All in all, I feel that Gandhi, despite his impulsive action (mentioned in the paragraph before this), I feel that his non-violence campaigns were carried out very well and he succeeded in making India an independent country.

This is the end of my blog-post for this assignment. And by the way, Gandhi was assasinated in the end. The assasin, Nathuram Godse, and his accomplice were found, convicted and executed on the 15th of November.
Gandhi's last words were believed to be "Oh God". Long live the Great Leader of India, Mahatma Gandhi.

Question 5: Relevance to today

What can we learn from this story? (How is it relevant to our society today? Do we have our own form of "lottery" as in the story?)

Answer 5:
1) What I can say is that if I were to bring the story's "lottery" into today's society, I would say that it would be refering to a dog-eat-dog society; one has to fight others to survive. The lottery shows the elimination of others in the society. When one person gets too laid-back, they are prone to the elimination from society.

2) To say that we are living in this kind of society is not quite right, because Singapore is quite an evened-out society when talking about jobs. I say this because Singapore has quite a number of jobs that people can take up. It's just a matter of whether Singaporeans want to take up that kind of job.

What is Time? Time is probably what people perceive as the clock, or a watch perhaps? They might perceive it as the "ticking" and "tocking" away of what we know as, Time.
But what really is Time? Is it something that exists in a parallel universe? Does it control our lives? Does it control our actions? Is it something that can be over-powered? Can we control Time? The answer most of us will give is a straight, flat "no". But what if we considered Time-control?
It would be beyong our wildest dreams! Being able to relive a happy moment or undo a fatal move... Yes, the luxury of Time-control or Time-travel is such a fantastic yet, unreachable destination... Or so we think.
If we could find a way to reach the speed of light, we would be able to travel back in time. But is this even at all, one bit, feasible?! If we cannot even reach the speed of Mach-12, why do we even need to think about reaching the speed of light? The idea of travelling back in time is not feasible now... But perhaps, not in the near-future however, scientists (you might be one yourself) might be able to find a way to reach the speed of light and sending people back in this "time-machine".
But what are the problems that might arise with the constant usage of the "time-machine"? Well, these are some of the possible factors/outcomes of the possible Future Scene:
1) The heavy reliance on the "time-machine" might lead to its abuse
2) The time-travel might warp time and this might lead to horrendous, irreversable changes in the events of Time
3) Crimes could be carried out via the "time-machine"
4) etc... There are many possible things that mgiht happen if there was such a thing as a "time-machine".

Now, think of one time when you were sleeping and then you woke up, only to find yourself experiencing a terrible cramp in your leg. You might begin cursing your lungs out, or sobbing silently to yourself, or just sitting there and...? Enjoying the pain.
Most people think that the enjoyment of pain = sadism. This is mostly true but if you were to look from an egocentric guy's point of view, he'd say,"Pain makes me stronger!" Either he is egocentric OR he is a madman you might think. Well, what he says does have some truth in it. Pain does make you stronger some times. But if you were to look from a normal person's point of view, he/she would want to end it as soon as possible.
I, for one, do not enjoy pain. The pain of the muscles if something that does not bother me but when it ocmes to emotional or psychological pain, the pain is unbearable. Everybody, if I can say so, will go through this sort of excruciating mind pain. It is not a heartache, neither a headache, it is a inner-thought ache. Or a mind-ache if put in simpler terms.
Some people would expel the thoughts of emotional or pychological pain by laughing out or doing something enjoyable. This feeling of instant-gratification would last only so long, it cannot last forever and go on like a merry-go-round with no coin slot. Pain will always come back, Pain is always there to haunt you. You canot do anything about the existence of pain, except blame Eve for listening to the serpent; or blame Pandora for opening Pandora's Box. Of course, we should never blame women for the downfall of men, though many sources state so. I feel that women are there to support men and vice-versa, so there should be no prejudice among the two sexes.
Pain is a cause for concern sometimes... BUT. According to science, if you did not have the nervous system, you would not even KNOW what is Pain! You would not be able to feel Pain at all!
So I conclude, although Pain may be good sometimes, ultimately, no one wants to feel pain.
You might want to ask yourself the following questions:

1) Is there actually such a thing as the enjoyment of pain?
2) Is there an END to Pain?!
3) Should we blame women for men's downfall? (my answer is an absolute, straight NO!!!!)

Death is a taboo subject for many people on this Earth. Especially superstitious people, who think that once you talk about death, it will jinx you and you will be cursed with near impending death. But if you do not talk about death, how are you ever going to cure yourself of sicknesses?
If people do not speak of death, do not go near dead bodies and such, they would have never found out about such a thing as the conduction of autopsies. Thus, it would have led to the death of more innocent lives.
So is the topic of death approachable? Or is it meant to be another unreachable, ucomfortable topic like sex?
Some people think that the mention of even the word "death" will make the person die. This, I can tell from personal experience, is not true. As I have brought up the topic of death many times, though I have dreamt of Death but it never comes.
Now, on the topic of actually believing that Death is a personified as a "person" of undead and that he is there to take you away whenever you stay too close to him or talk about him. Imagine, if someone talked too much about you or stayed too close to you (exceptionally the ones who are diseased), would you cause the person's death? Or even want to cause the person's death? Obviously NOT! So who is to say that "Death" (as a personified character) would kill you if he heard you talking about him or attending funerals? If he did, I am very sure he has a warped mind of morals. But of course, Death has no morals.
Understanding Death. It is the state where a person is not living, unconscious. Totally oblivious to the world around him/her, simply because of the reason that he/she is dead. The state of that could be very disturbing to those who are not yet "ready". But Death, like Time, does not wait for anybody and will not ever stop. Death is happening everyday, everytime, and Time is happening. So if you are not "ready", it is just too bad that you die. Simple as that.

Consider the following questions:

1) What can you do for a dying person?
2) What of your soul, when you die?
3) Do you understand the concept of Death in relation to Time? If you do, bravo.

Glass and paper. One fragile, one flimsy. Imagine if you had a heart of glass or paper.
It would be terrible would it not?
The fragility of a glass heart. It would shatter into a million pieces if someone tried to break it. If a ray of light shone through the glass heart it would refract and light up the glass heart. One of a glass heart would be easily affected by his or her surroundings. Be it joyous or heart-rending.
The flimsiness of a paper heart. It would shred into a million strips if the person felt guilty. If a ray of sunlight hit the paper, the brightness would miraculously travel through the entire piece of paper and "light it up". The paper-hearted person is also very vulnerably affected by anything around his/her surroundings.

Would you like to be a paper- or glass-hearted person? Which heart would you choose? The glass heart is a heart that is transparent but has many sides, you might seem strong but you are fragile inside. If you are bearing a paper heart, let not the fire consume you, lest you are led astray into the devil's mouth...

Remember whether it is the heart of glass or paper, make sure that you make full use of them. Glass loves fire but paper does not. Please hope, dear reader, you do not stumble upon a glass heart when you are paper or a paper-heart when you are glass.

Now, after reading this, please reflect with thses few questions:

1) Are one of the people you know a glass/paper heart? What are you supposed to/ not suppsed to do around them?

2) Are you one of the paper/glass hearts?

3) Do you understand what I am talking about in the first place?

On the 3rd of March (article taken from the Chinese Daily news), an NTU prefessor was stabbed in the back, and attained multiple injuries to his hands and arms after a struggle with the student who tried to stab him. It was reported that the NTU professor was trying to stop the student from committing suicide after he stabbed him (the professor). I must say that this professor is a very good man, he would still try to save a student who stabbed him in the back.

Now, stated in the article, was a reason why the student committed suicide. The reason being that he lost his scholarship and so, I am infering that he could have felt great remorse over such and could not handle the stress - and so, resorted to committing suicide.

For the matter of the loss of the boy's scholarship, he lost it due to his incompetence (put harshly) and regress in grades of the subjects he was to be taking at the university. His grades had regressed indirectly (or perhaps, directly?) to the fact that he had spent more time on computer games. Mindless, useless games that wasted his precious time, that he could have used on studying for his courses (which he had worked so hard for the schlolarship to pay for the courses).

I feel that, in my own opinion, which should not play too much computer games (that is, I am not totally against computer gameplay) and spend more time doing more meaningful things, like interacting with our family and friends or, of course, studying.