“It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph.”

Where there is good, there is also evil. As such, there is always conflict between the two factions, but there have been many arguments as to which side has triumphed over the other. Good is typically associated with life, charity, continuity and happiness, while evil on the other hand is just the opposite of that. Some say that good will always triumph over evil, but is that always the case? Even now, many people are trying to find out what it means to be good and to be evil.

As said by Edmund Burke, “It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph.” Evil will definitely win the battle if there is no one to stop it. Mankind is born with an evil nature, with a tendency towards greed, money and violence. But we are also kind and good in our nature. As such, good acts as a counterbalance against evil. But if either good or evil were to disappear, the balance would be disproportionate. Good and evil are exact opposites of each other; therefore if a good man does nothing to fight against evil, evil would run rampant. Take for example a robber. He steals a lump of cash, and the police do nothing to catch him. Seeing how there is nothing stopping him from stealing even more, he continues to rob people of their money, receiving no punishment whatsoever. Thus, evil would triumph if good did not do anything to stop it.

Furthermore, a good man is someone who upholds justice and repels evil. However, if a good man stands by and watches evil take place, he would no longer be considered “good”, and “good” would become invalid. A man is not good just because he has done something that is justifiably right, but is good by continuing to carry out those deeds. Therefore if a good man lets evil slip past him, evil will triumph over good.

On the other hand, there are some cases in which good resists against evil, but evil still triumphs. Evil is present everywhere in our lives, whether in school or in work. Despite good’s attempts at stopping evil, evil can still overpower good. There are many events that display such an event, like how the Japanese forces took Singapore by storm, despite Britain’s attempts at “resisting evil”. The overpowering evil does not even need to be shown to such an extent; even in work, bosses who abuse their power triumph over the “good” workers, with the workers unable to retaliate.

In conclusion, evil can triumph over good if good does not lift a finger to stop evil. Ultimately, evil and good act as a balance for each other, so as long as they balance off each other, they can coexist. However, evil can, and will triumph against good if nothing is done to stop it.

Is War a necessary Evil?

War sweeps up countries and tears down civilizations, bringing health and economical catastrophe, leaving in its wake a trail of bloodshed and destruction. However, despite all this, a war is started to prevent a worse outcome. Sometimes it is to protect that which is precious to us. Sometimes it is started because there is no other alternative. In the end, war is still a necessity that helps to keep the world in order.

Not all wars can be prevented. War is necessary to resolve conflicts that cannot be stopped any other way. Some people say that through peace talks and negotiations, we can stop war from occurring and ultimately stop war. However this is not true, if you take for example the situation in Iraq. Iraq’s making of nuclear weapons are a threat to society. If Iraq were open to negotiations, it would have been possible to end the matter through peace talks and the like. However, since that was not the case, it was inevitable for war to occur. War was a last resort for peace, and despite efforts to try and come to an agreement, peace talks did not work. It is in our nature to want to solve things in the quickest possible way, with violence. As a result, war is completely necessary in this case.

Furthermore, war is not always to destroy and to eliminate. Sometimes, war is started in order to prevent a worse outcome from occurring. The Libyan war is one such example of war being for a more important cause; a cause of freedom of the Middle East. Gaddafi only wanted power over his country and the people, and did not care of their welfare, only pursuing his own agenda. In this case, negotiations were no longer able to be carried out because of the government’s greed for control, and war was the only option to free the people of Libya from the oppression. Peace talks were considered in order to try and save more people instead of going straight for war. However, if action was not taken, many more people would have suffered under the oppression of the Libyan government. Although a war takes away many people’s lives, and causes many others to suffer, a war is a justified one, allowing people to enjoy a better future. It is in these cases that war is for a greater good.

On the other hand, war is filled with death, injuries and the loss of many loved ones. Not just that, the country’s economy would suffer tremendously when war occurs in that country. Is the future of the country worth the death of so many people? Despite ending a war even, the infrastructure of the country would be down, and many funds and resources that would have been used for development would have been wasted on war supplies. Wars are destructive, disruptive and most of all, costly. If this is the price that we have to pay for a war to ensue, what is the point of a war then?

In conclusion, war is necessary as a last resort despite its destructive consequences. War is necessary in the case when there is no other choice but to wage war on another country for a greater cause.

Should US have dropped the atomic bomb on Japan?

World War II was a global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, which involved most of the world's nations, including all of the great powers: eventually forming two opposing military alliances, the Allies and the Axis. The Axis consisted mainly of the Germans and the Japanese, while the Allies consisted of the large superpowers like Britain, the US and the Soviet Union. In the war, over 60 million people were killed, far more than that of World War I. As for the end of the war, one of the most significant reasons as to why it ended, was the US dropping the two atomic bombs onto Japan, Little Boy and Fat Man. However, was it necessary to drop the atomic bomb and massacre thousands at that time in order to stop the war?

In my personal opinion, the United States decision of dropping the atomic bombs on Japan was a necessary decision: they were not wrong in dropping those two catastrophic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Despite the tragic lives lost in the process, the entire war was stopped mainly because of the dropping of the bombs. Imagine for a moment that the bombs were not dropped, and the war continued on for another few months: a even greater number of lives would have been affected. Therefore, the dropping of the atomic bomb was a right decision.

Some people may say that the level of severity in which the US used to stop the war was a bit high, it was said that the US had tried different methods by firebombing the different cities of Japan, but the war had still no signs of ending. Some may say that the lives lost during the bombing were all innocent lives, however the laws of war does not state that civilians cannot be targeted.

In conclusion, the US's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan was a justifiable decision as it resulted in the end of the war in an instant.

General Elections 2011 Singapore

Perhaps one of the most exciting and exhilarating events that has happened in Singapore recently could be the General Elections 2011. A general election in Singapore is held every half a decade, but what is so special about this particular year's elections?

The general elections this year is one of the most action-packed elections mainly because of the sudden and massive increase of opposition parties contesting. Out of the 87 seats in parliament, 82 were contested, the most ever. In previous elections, many GRCs and SMCs were walkovers due to the fact that there were few opposition parties and there was no contest. As a result, the public has hardly got a chance to vote in elections. But now that almost every part of Singapore is contested, many people are excited at the chance to vote and try and make a change for Singapore.

One of the other differences with the previous elections is the use of social networking and media. Now that many websites have come on like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and many more, even politicians are using these to communicate with the public, and especially the young adults who are more actively into this. As a result of using these websites though, the parties are able to reach out to more people and thus can secure a bit more voters this way.

In my opinion, i think that the opposition, although most may not get into parliament, has made the PAP work for their place in parliament instead of just the timely walkovers, and has forced the PAP candidates to make an effort to improve resident's lives and not just thank the public for the walkovers. Although the PAP is still the dominant party, having a different say in parliament is beneficial as there will be people to oppose decisions made and to let people think about the policies and schemes etc.

I look forward to this elections as many hopes are up for the opposition to take control of this election, yet the PAP may still have a strong hold on this elections.

GE 2011: Rally

I recently attended the final rally for the General Elections 2011, and I chose to attend the Singapore People’s Party final rally at Bishan Stadium. To be frank, one of the only reasons for me wanting to choose the SPP’s rally on the final night was to see Mr. Chiam See Tong speak, as I thought that his speech would be worth listening to among the other candidates. But I was surprised to find that the other candidates spoke well and were able to sway the audience with emotions despite this election being their first election as candidates.

The rally started with Mr. David Tan, and I felt that his aim was to use the public’s discontent of Mr. Wong Kan Seng and how he handled the Mas Selamat issue. I think that the weak link of the PAP team for this GRC is actually Mr Wong Kan Seng, because many people feel strongly that he should have taken responsibility for the issue and thus is not very popular among the people of Singapore. Mr David Tan’s message was to actually pull down the PAP and promote the SPP. I felt that the fact that he was the first speaker was a good move as his speech acted to rally people for the SPP and prepare the ground for the other speakers to speak.

Mr Sin Kek Tong was the next speaker, and he actually spoke about almost the same topics as Mr David Tan. The main difference though between their speeches was that Mr Sin used humour to get through to his audience and the public, starting out his speech by cracking jokes, instead of using a strong decision-making voice. Mr Sin and Mr Tan both emphasized on the monetary issues of the country, and how the income gap was very large, considering how the ministers are all earning top income salaries. I have to agree that the income of the ministers can be cut in order to provide more funding for the public. Our government has one of the highest paid ministers in the world although Singapore being a little red dot, so I think that it is not right to have the ministers of this country to suck the country’s funding.

The speaker I felt was the most influential was Mr Benjamin Phwee. He used Potong Pasir as an example to show the competency of the party and was straightforward in his stand, and yet had a sense of compassion towards the public. Despite my own constant reminder of trying to be neutral and see the viewpoint of both parties, I could not help but to be swayed by Mr Phwee’s speech. What I felt was one of his strongest topics that he touched on was on the fear of losing ministers through voting oppositions. I felt that he handled that issue well as he talked about how these ministers, although important, are not irreplaceable and so there is no worry when it comes to the minister places.

As the rally was coming to the end, the man of the moment, Mr Chiam See Tong finally stood up to speak. I respect Mr Chiam not only because he has stood and opposed the PAP for 6 elections and won all, but also because of his love and care for the community, the GRC. His speech was short, and I could not catch much of it. But what I could make out was this, “I want to make Bishan-Toa Payoh my kind of place.” I was touched by those few words, as it portrayed fully how much he cares for others and the community.

This rally is only the second rally I have ever gone to in my life, with my first rally being in the 2006 elections and when I could not understand these topics. But now that I have matured and understand what the candidates stand for, I feel a larger sense of national loyalty and cannot wait for when I am 21!

Why should we care about what happens elsewhere?

Current affairs are the events that happen all over the world, be it a royal wedding or the death of a terrorist. But the question now arises: are all these important to us? After all, we are not actually participants in any of these events. So how would keeping up with current affairs help us in any way? The answer to it is simple. No matter where in the world we are, or where the event is happening, we are affected by it and by knowing and understanding it, we can get a better understanding of the world, and then adapt to it.

Firstly, natural disasters that happen all around the world can affect us because if there happened to be an earthquake somewhere in China, its economy would come to a halt, and thus it would effect our trade with them. Natural disasters are unpredictable, and with it comes thousands of people dead or hurt. In order to support the people, the country's economy would slow down to a halt to use the resources in helping to support the wounded or help in rescue missions. This would affect us as our economy would also be affected due to the fact that the country would not be doing business at that period of time.

Secondly, what happens around us technologically can affect us. Technology now is a very important aspect of society, and a lot of things rely on modern technology. If some kind of great new invention were to be created in a country far off, it could help to improve our efficiency of our work or could largely benefit the way people work with technology. Take for example the Apple company's release of the iPhone. The iPhone was a big jump forward for technology, and helped people to work faster and better using smartphone technology. Therefore all of this can affect us through improving the technology world and helping us.

Finally, what happens to other countries largely affects us too. If there was to be a rebellion in a country, like what is happening currently in Libya, the country would not be stable and there would be a lot of changing of rules and would result in the country changing their policy and governments. This would also lead to other countries near there to be affected and could even lead to more and more countries starting rebellions!

Therefore it is important to care about what happens in other countries as no matter what it is, we are always affected in one way or another.

War

As we dashed away from the scene of battle in retreat, i heard a shout behind me. He was shot. Amidst the hordes of bullets and grenades that were slowly closing in, i turned back to help the fallen man. The smell of gunpowder filled the air as the colour red overshadowed all others. Bandaging the wound, i looked around as one by one, man after man fell to the ground, never to rise back up again.

A grenade exploded not too far away, and I knew that I could not stay. He gripped my hand tight, as if he had something to say. He breathed his last as he stared into my eyes with grim persistance and i could not turn away. The sounds of gunfire were coming closer and i knew it was time to leave. Placing him on the ground, i continued retreating, never to see his face ever again.