The paper chase in Singapore and its implications

In Singapore ,although this is gradually being improved, a person's certificate or papers are the most important thing he or she requires to get promoted apart from consistently giving good quality work.In some cases however, the latter may not even be required.
Parents armed with this knowledge have learned that good examination results are very important and thus the paper chase began with children being pressured to score high marks for examinations whereas the non-acadamic aspects of their education are forsaken to allow the children more time to focus on their all important studies.
This will cause the childrens to think that exams are the only important aspect of their education.They might thus neglect taking up a Co-curricular activity(CCA) and doing CIP which will prevent them from having a holistic education.Singaporean students will thus be "exam smart" or bookworms who only know how to answer exam questions but lack initiative to bend rules,take risks or do something different which are important in the working world.
Also students will lack creativity and we will lose our competitive edge as our most important resource is our workforce and we will definitely lose out if our future workforce is incapable of creative thinking.
Therefore, measues should be taken to teach parents that that piece of paper also known as a certificate is not the most important thing. It is what their child knows,thier child's ability to think and their child's personality that is most important.

Global warming

The floods in Malaysia are by no means an unexpected disaster.It was caused due to the effect of global warming.

Global warming is caused by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide that are being emitted into the atmosphere and this will cause heat to be "trapped" in the Earth causing rising global temperatures.

Now what is so bad about rising global temperatures? Well for one the polar ice caps will melt causin to sea levels to rise and it is causing receeding shore lines in many places that are located near the ocean or seas for example,Singapore.

Also currently many scientists have attributed the recent erratic rain to the effect of global warming and have said that climatic changes like severe droughts are happening around the world due to this increasingly severe global warming.

Furthermore, global warming also will cause stonger hurricanes and tropical storms hurting many people around the world as the frequency of such natural disasters is slowly increasing.

The worst part of this is that it is virtually certain that global warming is the result of our burning of fossil fuels that release emissions of greenhouse gases.However there is not much we can do due to our dependence on fossil fuels for electricity and such unless we completely change our lifestyles or unless an equally efficient source of energy can be found.

Many people blame the government for all the problems of the emissions but then again even with the Kyoto Protocol,where emissions of greenhouse gases are planned to be cut back by the year(2012 a deadline that isf quickly approaching), not much is being done to help the issue.This is because we still have to depend on the buring of fuels for most of our daily routines like driving and turning on the air-conditioner etc.

Although certain "green projects" have been carried out by our government, there is only so much one country can do since America is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world.An alternative source of energy would be the most easily accepted method of reducing emissions as there would be no need to change our lifestyles to save the envirnment.

Therefore i feel that unless an alternative source of energy is found it will be extremely difficult for this problem of global warming to be solved. At most, it can only be maintained or alleviated.