Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Casino in Singapore. Boon or bane? @ 8:45 PM
I know I haven't posted for a long long time, but that was because my schedule was crammed with tests this week. So now I have managed to squeeze out some of my precious time, just to write for those avid blog readers out there :D
Yup so until now, the IR in Singapore has opened its doors to the public for about a week or so. And the main catch of the IR - the casino. Many people have welcomed the plan of the building of a new casino in Singapore, but others aren't. Let us first look at both sides of the situation. Singapore's 40-year old ban on casino was lifted in 2007 in view of the new casinos being built in Marina Bay. Initially, it raised a hue and cry from conservative Singaporeans, including the mainstream religions. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong explained that Singapore could no longer afford to maintain his father's ban on casino gambling because its tourism industry was facing a serious slowdown, citing falling statistics of tourism revenue. Furthermore, other neighborhood countries like Malaysia and Thailand are likely to get in on the action too. He emphasized the need to change or risk being left behind. "We cannot stand still. The whole region is on the move. If we don't change, where will we be in 20 years?"
He also argued that the two casinos would be a boon to Singapore, doubling the number of tourists here to 17 million, increase tourism revenue three-fold and create nearly 100,000 direct and indirect jobs. Finally, he assured the public that the government would shelve the idea should it prove too dangerous.On the other hand, Singaporeans are worried that casinos in Singapore would make them more susceptible to the temptations of gambling and eventually, addiction. However, the problem is that there are absolutely no statistics for Singapore as of yet to form a conclusive case. Furthermore, according to the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) more than 83 percent of Singaporeans are willing to have the casino built here.
Personally, I support the construction of the casino. I feel that a casino in Singapore will be a major boost to our economy. Take Las vegas for an example. They have managed to have a good economy through their tourism industry, where people flock there to go to their casinos to gamble. I can understand that one major concern of Singaporeans is that they might be addicted to gambling, as a casino is right at their doorstep. However, we must remember that if we have the heart and determination to not gamble, we will not become addicted to it.
The Singapore government has already taken measures for this. They have decided to let people to sign a form, prohibiting themselves from entering the casino. There will also be a namelist of those who are avid gamblers and cannot be allowed into the casino.
Finally, I fell that a casino in Singapore is a boon. Firstly, Singapore has already established itself as an fast growing city in the world. To attract more visitors to our homeland, Singapore have to think of ways to boost the tourism sector. And this also includes removing some bans like what Singapore did to build a Casino here. With a casino, more people in the asian countries might come to Singapore to gamble and thus boost our economy. Also, tourists who come to Singapore will not only have sentosa, the bird park, botanical gardens to go to. With the casino, the tourists will have one more place of visit and they will probably lengthen their stay just to go to the casino here.
In conclusion, I feel that the casino will be a major boost to Singapore's industry and will add a sparkle to our mundane lives.
Friday, February 5, 2010
CA discussion - Chinese @ 11:34 PM
Hi guys, its been about a week since I last posted so yeah, here's my new post of the week.
Today i had some CA discussion for chinese and i was the grader. It was a fairly easy job as I only needed to grade the panelists for their performance. And whats more, today's session was filmed! So i really hope i did not screw it up :). I also had my maths test today. I found it relatively okay, but I still hope i will be able to get an A1.
And today's training was ok, but i sprained my ankle. So it is like damn pain now :'( I still managed to walk home and at least it is healing quickly.
I have finally booked the tickets for the Paramore concert which will be held in the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 7 March ! I can't wait for the concert :) Also, tmr I will be going to Heeren at Orchard and hopefully will be able to get a new converse shoe, most preferably a multi- eyelets one :0
So yeah this ends of my post, and probably I will have time to post again tmr about something else :D
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Help up at NYPS P5 camp @ 8:19 PM
This is a very late post about my experience at the NYPS P5 camp during 25-26 Jan. As NYPS is my alma mater, I volunteered to join their P5 camp as a Student Leader.
First Day : 25 January
In the morning, after going for flag raising, my other friends and I went to the open-air carpark to await the arrival of the bus which would send us to Sarimbun Scout Camp for the NYPS P5 camp which would be held there. The bus finally arrived after like 20 minutes of wait and went to NYGH to pick up the student leaders there before finally driving us to the campsite.
We reached the campsite after approx. 40min of drive and checked in to our dormitories which had AIR - CON specially for the student leaders ! We were then drafted to our respective group and the group I chose was group 16. They came up with a cool group name called : BONECRUSHERS ! My group then had some fun activities until our lunch which was at 1pm. As the students leaders, we could get our food from a place which was specially for teachers. How privileged! After lunch, we had some team building activities and it clearly showed the spirit of my group :) We then had a fun activity called high elements where you have to climb up and walk on a rope or log etc. After that was our dinner, which was at 5+pm.
After dinner, we had song sessions and our baths. Then at about 8pm, we had the coolest activity of the dat which was called "Blind-man's walk". As the name suggests, the students will be blindfolded and only the trainer and student leader will guide the NYPS pupils around the campsite. The whole activity ended at about 10pm on a high note. We had our supper and the NYPS pupils went to sleep while the student leaders had a debrief by the camp chief. We went back to our dorms at about 11pm. However, one guy's bag was infested with ants and he took a few hours trying to clear the ants.I shall not elaborate further on what happened that night :P
Second Day : 26 January
In the morning, we woke up at about 6am and had our breakfast at 7am. The student leaders then went to their respective groups to help out the trainers. My group had this activity called "Backwards-man cooking" and in my opinion, did it successfully. After that we had "Abseiling" which basically means that you try to scale down a wall. Then we had lunch, at about 12pm.
After lunch, my group went to the "Mud Slide" and I went down too due to the pestering of my group. I was relatively cooling due to the hot weather then. Then after the Mud slide, we had rock climbing, the last activity of the day for us, student leaders. My group had one pupil who could climb very high but gave up in the end. Then after the activity ended, we had our dinner.
Then it was time to say goodbye to the pupils as we would be heading back to school. It was overall an memorable experience as a student leader there for me.
I hope that more opportunities like this would come :)