3 minute speech

The theme that I have chosen is racism. Does Racial Harmony Day do enough to sensitize students to racial issues? In my opinion, the answer is no, it does not. I feel that the current way of us celebrating Racial Harmony Day is insignificant to sensitize students to racial issues. I have celebrated Racial Harmony Day since primary school and still feel that it is not enough to sensitize us students to racial issues.

Given the way we celebrate Racial Harmony Day, I feel that it is not enough to sensitize us to racial issues. As we all know, we had recently celebrated Racial Harmony Day. How many of you actually are more aware of the current racial issues that we are facing now? During Racial Harmony Day, there was basically three things that the students would usually do in Hwa Chong, they dance the Bollywood dance, watch a cultural dance that some secondary 2 students took part in with other schools and finally go to the cultural bazaar.

During the cultural dance, I noticed that some students were laughing at the awkward dance steps that their friends who were chosen to dance. Isnt this action showing sensitiveness to the way people from other cultures dance? Instead of accepting that people from other cultures danced differently, these people were not giving a thought to how the people on stage dancing were feeling.

Furthermore, the cultural bazaar only provided a small knowledge of other races and their cultures. I feel that we have very little to learn from the cultural bazaar as the people mending the stalls are mostly people from our school which consists of mostly Chinese. How would those people be able to understand the cultures of other races if they are not of that race itself?

I suggest that we invite people who are aware of the current racial issues to come to our school to give talks so that we would be able to prevent these racial issues from reoccurring. In conclusion, I feel that Racial Harmony Day is not enough to sensitize students to racial issues.

Expert circle

topic 1

topic 2

Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. She was also known as the virgin queen, gloriana. Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. In 1558 Elizabeth succeeded the Catholic Mary I, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.

Relations with Spain & France prior to 1567

Philip II of Spain, most powerful man in the World, had been married to Elizabeth's estranged sister, Mary I. But such a direct Spanish link to England had offended the common people, and Elizabeth declined Philip's offer of marriage to herself upon her accession. This did not mean, despite the later war, that she was spurning the Spanish at all - in fact, following the Elizabethan religious settlement, it was only Philip's influence that delayed Elizabeth from being excommunicated from the Catholic Church. In 1559 the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis spelled the end of war between England, Spain (on one side) and France. But for it Elizabeth was forced to sacrifice Calais and its pale, meaning that England no longer had any territory south of the Channel. This was quite a blow for Elizabeth in terms of prestige, and whilst the port had been a drain on financial resources it was useful in controlling the Straits of Dover through which Spanish shipping passed to the Netherlands and French to Scotland.

Anglo-Spanish relations before the Armada, 1567-88

In 1566, the Dutch revolt began. In the Netherlands the people turned against Granvelle and Philip, and the Duke of Alva was sent at the head of a great army to resolve the situation. The appearence of a great army under Spanish command in the Netherlands changed the international situation enormously. Many of Philip's advisors wanted him to take a harder line against the Protestant England, and the English themselves perceived that the Spanish would try to assault Protestantism wherever it was found. The actions of Alva in the Netherlands during the Dutch Revolt only augmented the image of the Spanish King as wicked and hateful of heresy. The outbreak of the Second French War of Religion meant that France would not be able to check Spanish power, and the English were fearful. The first major clash occured in 1568.

Queen Elizabeth I liked when plays were acted out for her. She was very fond of Shakespeare’s plays. In some of his play, Shakespeare cleverly hinted passages referring to the Queen and other events that affiliated during both of their life time. Queen Elizabeth I was a great supporter of the arts, mainly she supported plays and masques.

eare cleverly

war poem

The cries and wails of homeless babies fill the village,

rubble from once crowded buildings fall onto the road.

People wonder around the streets aimlessly,

Often tumbling over motionless cold and red painted bodies.

Then, the rumbling of engines are heard in the distance.

Discriminated, fallen soldiers trudge across the streets.

Occasionally being poked by sharp, deadly knives on guns,

wielded by smirking heartless creatures.

The Japanese have won the war.

war R and R excercise

1. 1. Sandburg is talking about the cannons of war ships.

2. 2. The jackies are the enemy in their ships. The jackies have just won a battle and are celebrating their victory

3. 3. The gun was used by a soldier in the war and the shovel is used to bury the fallen soldier.

4. 4. The significance of the title is to show that the soldiers are like slave tools used in war and nothing more.

5. 5. The effect of the contrasting actions is to show that war is never ending and repetitive no matter how we try to avoid it. The person’s attitude towards the soldiers is very demanding and heartless, he treats them like their lives were useless and they are just tools that are going to die.

6. 6. In my view, it is harder to build a city back up again than to destroy it. If you plan to destroy a city, all it takes is just some firepower and manpower to blow the cities up into smithereens. However, if you are trying to rebuild the city back to its original glory, there are many obstacles that you have to overcome. One such example would be the post war fear that is implanted into the people’s minds and it could haunt them for ages. Another example would be that after you destroy a city, people die and this leads to homeless children and jobless people which would affect the city’s economy. Thus I conclude that it is harder to rebuild a city than to destroy one.

7. 7. The way wars are carried out is changing. People used to fight with weapons and many lives are lost through the war. However, now machines are made to do the dirty job of fighting the war and these wars are quicker and the lives of people are not greatly affected.

8. 8. I feel that one example is the fall of Gaddafi, now people are following their own beliefs which shows the change of leadership to democracy.

What if human beings were not inherently optimistic?

Yes, the world would be completely different if human beings were not inherently optimistic. People would not be able enhance technology, even might not be able to persevere to complete a simple task.

If people do not have the mindset of moving forward or thinking about new possibilities, we would not bother to think of the possibilities of what we can do and just toss the idea aside when the idea was actually in our grasp. If human beings were not inherently optimistic, our ancestors might not have bothered to venture out of their caves and look for something new and we could still be running around in the jungle with clothes made out of animal fur looking for food. Furthermore, it was because of the optimism that Isaac Newton had that allowed us to have a much better understanding of gravity.

Without being inherently optimistic, human beings would not be able to persevere to finish any task. People would not think of all the good things that they can get after completing a certain task and could find it not worth finishing that task and just stop right there. If that task was a big project like constructing a world class hotel which could cost millions of dollars and the person in charge just felt that finishing this project was not worth it and stopped the entire operation, the building’s construction would come to a halt and this would not only bring disappointment to the people who were expecting the completion of that building and also cause a waste in resources as the unfinished building would have to be demolished eventually.

I feel that if humans were not inherently optimistic, there would be many disadvantages that people would have. We would have many difficulties in our daily lives. One example of such disadvantages would be not being able to start any thing new as we would think that doing such a thing would not be worth it and not bother to do anything about it. Another example of the problem of not being inherently optimistic in our daily lives would be that I would not be able to complete a difficult homework as I would not want to finish it whenever I encounter a tough question as I would not think of all the good things that I can benefit from such a question and would leave it blank. I feel that it would be best if humans were inherently optimistic as it would benefit them more than not being inherently optimistic.