Volleyball rox5

Draft 6

2009-08-02T07:33:00.001-07:00

Memories of the past flickered vividly through Alan’s mind like a black and white filmstrip when he saw the scars on his both hands. This incident left an indelible mark in his mind forever.

“All I could hear and see were the bullets and bombs. Dead bodies scattered around…” Alan recalled.

Alan lived in Colombo, where predominantly Sinhalese lived. After Sri Lanka had gained independence in 1948, Alan’s life started to change and danger was impending.

Alan had scored good grades. However, he was not able to enter University. He had to score even better grades than the Sinhalese in order to secure a place in the same University course.

“I feel so sorry for you,” his friend mention with sarcasm. That remark had caused the rift between his congenial Sinhalese friend and him deepened. Usually, both of them would go home together. However, that day Alan went straight home from school alone, without bothering his Sinhalese friend.

“Why are you not working today?” Alan questioned his brother as he removed his socks.

“I had been fired…” Bala muttered with tears welled up in his brown eyes, “The Sinhalese government had made Sinhala the only language of administration. It’s impossible for me to learn the language within three years…”

Alan flew into a paroxysm of rage and hollowed, “This is unfair!”

“Alan, nothing in this world is fair. You have to remember this,” Alan’s father whom spoke with wisdom and calmness.

Alan was no longer able to attend school because both his dad and brother had been retrenched from their work and were not able to afford Alan’s school fees. Worse still, the family of four had been chased out of their home in unwilling acknowledgement of them being stateless.

“Dad, where are we supposed to go now? Even our house has been taken by the Sri Lanka government,” Alan asked in dejection.

“Don’t worry, my son. We’ll slowly figure out where to seek food and shelter,” Alan’s dad assured, “Meanwhile, we must have the indomitable spirit to keep ourselves alive.”

Walking past streets, Alan and his family saw some assailants carrying out arson attacks such as setting the cars, buses and motorcycles on fire. Alan and his family had to remain vigilant at all circumstances when they were under siege. Alan and his family members decided to seek help from the nearby refugee camp.

Alan was flabbergasted when he saw the numbers of people were injured. He could feel a mood of melancholy descended on them. Bala decided to join the terrorist organization called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) to fight the rights for Indian Tamils.

Other countries were trying to think of some plans to ameliorate the situation. Alan and his family members, except Bala, decided to extricate themselves from the overcrowded conditions in refugee camps. They fled to Tamil Nadu in South India, vowing not to return back to Colombo, unless the Sri Lankan government had ended the civil war and redressed the injustice. However, Alan and his dad went back to find Bala. Fortunately, they found him. Bala persuaded them to stay and they gave in, albeit, the situation had not improved.

There was peace because Norway decided to intervene. However, peace was short-termed as Norway withdrew and so the conflicts came alive again.

“Are you Indian Tamil?” The Sri Lankan police pointed the gun at Alan’s temple. This had stirred Alan back to the normal.

“Not again.” Alan closed his eyes and held both his hands up. “Yes, I am. What do you want from me now?”

(593 words)

Draft 5

2009-07-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

Memories of the past flickered vividly through Alan’s mind like a black and white filmstrip when he saw his scars on his both hands. This incident left an indelible mark in his mind forever.

“All I could hear and see were the bullets and bombs. Dead bodies scattered around….” Alan recalled.

Alan lived in Colombo, where predominantly Sinhalese lived. After Sri Lanka gain independence in 1948, Alan’s life started to change and danger was impending.

Alan had scored good grades. However, he was not able to enter University. For Alan, he had to score even better grades than the Sinhalese in order to secure a place in the same University course. “I felt so sorry for you,” his friend mentioned in a sarcastic way. The rift between his congenial Sinhalese friend and him deepened. Alan went straight home from school, without bothering his Sinhalese friend.

“Why are you not working today?” Alan questioned his brother, Bala, while taking out his socks.

“I have been fired.” This was the moment when Bala’s eyes started to well up with tears. “The Sinhalese government decided to make Sinhala the only language of administration. I was only given three years to learn Sinhala. Unfortunately, I could not keep up the pace of learning Sinhala.”

“This is unfair!” Alan suddenly flew into a paroxysm of rage.

“Son, nothing in this world is fair. You have to note this,” his father was trying to keep him cool.

Alan was no longer able to attend schooling because both his dad and brother had been retrenched from their work and was not able to afford Alan’s schooling fees. Worse still, Alan and his whole family were chased out of their house, which had caused them to be stateless.

“Dad, where are we supposed to go now? Even our house has been abandoned by the Sri Lanka government,” Alan asked as he was filled with dejection.

“Don’t worry, my son.” Alan’s dad stroked his silky hairs. “We would slowly figure out where to seek for shelter and food. We must have the indomitable spirit to keep ourselves alive.”

Walking past some streets, Alan and his family could see some assailants carrying out arson attack, such as setting fire on the car and bus stations. Alan and his family must be vigilant in all time in case they were under siege. Alan and his family members decided to seek help from refugee camp. Alan was flabbergasted when he saw the numbers of people were injured and he could feel a mood of melancholy descended on them. Bala decided to join the terrorist organization called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) to fight the rights for Indian Tamils.

Other countries were trying to think of some plans to ameliorate the situation. Alan and his family members, except Bala, decided to extricate themselves from the overcrowded conditions in refugee camps. They fled to Tamil Nadu in South India. They would not return back to Colombo, unless the Sri Lankan government ended the civil war and redressed the injustice. However, Alan and his dad went back to see how was the situation at Colombo. After some persuasion from Bala, they decided to stay.

“Are you Indian Tamil?” the Sri Lankan police pointed the gun at my temple. This had stirred Alan back to the normal.

“Not again.” Alan closed his eyes and held both his hands up. “Yes, I am. What do you want from me now?”

Draft 3 & 4

2009-07-26T06:49:00.001-07:00

Memories of the past flickered vividly through Alan’s mind like a black and white filmstrip when he saw his scars on his both hands. This incident left an indelible mark in his mind forever.

“All I could hear and see were the bullets and bombs. Dead bodies scattered around….” Alan recalled.

Alan lived in Colombo, where predominantly Sinhalese lived. After Sri Lanka gain independence in 1948, Alan’s life started to change and danger was impending.

Alan had scored good grades. However, he was not able to enter University. For Alan, he had to score even better grades than the Sinhalese in order to secure a place in the same University course. “I felt so sorry for you,” his friend mentioned in a sarcastic way. The rift between his congenial Sinhalese friend and him deepened. Alan went straight home from school, without bothering his Sinhalese friend.

“Why are you not working today?” Alan questioned his brother, Bala while taking out his socks.

“I have been fired.” This was the moment where Bala’s eyes started to well up with tears. “The Sinhalese government decided to make Sinhala the only language of administration. I was only given three years to learn Sinhala. Unfortunately, I could not keep up the pace of learning Sinhala.”

“This is unfair!” Alan suddenly flew into a paroxysm of rage.

“Son, nothing in this world is fair. You have noted this,” his father tried to keep him cool.

Alan was no longer able to attend schooling because both his dad and brother had been retrenched from their work and not able to afford Alan’s schooling fees. Worse still, Alan and his whole family were chased out of their house, causing them to be stateless.

“Dad, where are we supposed to go? Even our house also has been abandoned,” Alan asked as he was filled with dejection.

“Don’t worry, my son.” Alan’s dad stroked his silky hairs. “We would slowly figure out where to seek for shelter and food. We must have the indomitable spirit to keep ourselves alive.”

Walking past some streets, Alan and his family could see some assailants carrying out arson attack, such as setting fire on the car and bus stations. Alan and his family must be vigilant in all time in case they were under siege. Alan and his family members decided to seek help from refugee camp. Alan was flabbergasted when he saw the numbers of people were injured and he could feel a mood of melancholy descended on them. Bala decided to join the terrorist organization called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) to fight the rights for Indian Tamils.

Other countries tried to think of some plans to ameliorate the situation. Alan and his family members, except Bala, decided to extricate themselves from the overcrowded conditions in refugee camps. They fled to Tamil Nadu in South India. They would not return back to Colombo, unless the Sri Lankan government ended the civil war and redressed the injustice. However, Alan and his dad went back to see how was the situation at Colombo. After some persuasion from Bala, they decided to stay.

“Are you Indian Tamil!” the Sri Lankan police pointed the gun against my temple. This has stirred Alan back to the normal.

“Not again.” Alan closed his eyes and held both his hands up. “Yes, I am. What you want from me now?”

Draft 2

2009-07-13T07:40:00.000-07:00

Memories of the past flickered vividly through Bali’s mind like a black and white filmstrip when he saw his Sinhalese friend and scars on his hands. This incident left an indelible mark in his mind forever.

Draft 1

2009-07-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

Sri Lanka is an island on the southern tip of India. It is also known as the ‘Pearl of the Ocean’. The Sri Lankans are made up of three major races; Sinhalese, Tamils and Moors. The Indian Tamils is the first generation Tamils from India.

“All I could hear and see were the bullets and bombs….,” Bali whispered softly to himself.

Bali lived in Colombo, where there were mixtures of Sinhalese and Tamils. When Sri Lanka became independent in 1948, the new government was made up of mainly the Sinhalese, introduced policies that favoured their own race. The Tamils, who held privileged positions during the British rule faced discrimination. Conflict arose on issues of citizenship rights, civil service jobs, and university admission and lastly resettlement after the British had left. There was a conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamils and Bali’s life had started to change.

Bali had scored good grades which allowed him to enter the university. He was not able to enter because the university admission was no longer based on merit. For Bali, he had to score even better grades than the Sinhalese in order to secure a place in the same University course. This had caused some tension between his congenial Sinhalese friend and him, as his friend was eligible for the University.

Sri Lankan government only granted citizenship to those who born there or their fathers or grandfathers. Unfortunately, Bali’s family was not so they were on disadvantageous. His brother, Bala was working in government service. However, the Sinhalese government decided to make Sinhala the only language of administration in 1965. This had put Bala in difficulty because he was only given three years to learn Sinhala, otherwise he would be fired. However, Bala could not keep up the pace of learning Sinhala and had resulting him to be fired.

Bali was no longer able to attend schooling because Bali’s dad and his brother had been retrenched from their work and did not have sufficient money to pay for Bali’s schooling fees. Worse still, Bali and his whole family were chased out of their house, causing them to be stateless. The reason behind maybe was that the policy wanted to transfer the poor Sinhalese peasants into the Tamil areas to provide land for the landless Sinhalese to live on and cultivate padi.

“Dad, why do they have to treat us in this way and where are we supposed to go now?” Bali asked as he was filled with dejection.

“Don’t worry, my son. We would slowly figure out where to go and maybe we will go to the refugee camp to seek for shelter and food first. We must have the indomitable spirit to keep ourselves alive,” Bali’s dad replied him calmly.

Walking past some streets, Bali and his family could see some assailants carrying out arson attack, such as setting fire on the car and bus stations. Bali and his family must be vigilant in all time in case they were under siege. After few hours of walking down the streets, they had finally reached the refugee camp. Bali was flabbergasted when he saw the number of people had injured and he could feel that a mood of melancholy descended on them.

Other countries, like India came to their rescue and tried to think of some plans to ameliorate the situation. They pleaded the Sri Lankan government to give the Indian Tamils citizenship. In the end, there were still 100,000 of them stateless. Bali and his family members had managed to extricate themselves from the overcrowded conditions in refugee camps. They fled to Tamil Nadu in South India.

Many of the Tamils youth felt discriminated and flew into a paroxysm of rage as the Sri Lankan government rejected the idea of a separate and independent state and decided to form a terrorist organization called Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). The Tamil youth decided to use violence to gain their rights. The Tamil Tiger and Sri Lankan government attacked each other days and nights. Norway decided to intervene so there was peace. Peace was indeed short-termed as Norway withdrew a year later. The war continued again.

The Sri Lankan government had to stop the civil war and redress the injustice because the war has claimed the lives of more than seventy-two thousand people since 1983. If the war continued, there might be more dangers impending. Although Sri Lanka was known as the ‘Pearl of the Ocean’, tourists would still try to avoid Sri Lanka which adversely affected the economy because of the conflict happening in Colombo. The conflict also resulted in loss of foreign investment because my investors had lost confidence in investing in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government should not be bias and must fairly treat the Tamils. If not able to carry out, Sri Lanka should ask other countries for help to solve the problem.

(810 words)

Career

2009-03-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

I cannot help liking some aspects and disliking other aspects of studying in school. I enjoy active lesson such as PE lesson as this is the only period that we are able to savor the moment with obvious relish. It does not require much thinking skills unlike from other lessons which are unglamorous, making the whole class very lethargic and sleepy such as physics and mathematics. I love to indoctrinate people whenever they have encountered some difficulties.

Eventually, I was mulling of being a PE teacher. However, I must admit that I am quite a bad-tempered guy, albeit, I am quite kind-hearted. The bad-tempered character causes me unable to tolerate pupils that are always being frivolous. In the end, I think I can forget about putting teacher as one of my career. Being a teacher need to have shred judge of studies and characters of every single student of theirs. Flipping through the newspaper and scanning through the webpage which offered different kinds of jobs thoroughly, I finally found a suitable job for myself.

I choose safety manager as my future career because the salary in the market is not too bad and the working duration is very short as you can arrange your own time. The safety that I have learnt in the courses which related to safety, can also apply in my daily lives and able to teach my neighbours basic safety. Being a safety manager is not as stressful as teacher. However, being a safety manager there is also a very big responsibility as safety is a strict interpretation of the law in Singapore. The higher the salary, the bigger responsibilities you have. If the company is sued for defamation, you might be landed in hot soup.

http://www.sfccnm.edu/sfcc/img/1024.jpg

The job of a safety manager is to investigate and assist the supervisors in the investigation of any accident and advice on the remedial measures to be taken to prevent any recurrence. Usually, safety manager will visit the particular workplace to inspect and discuss findings on the equipment or procedures that may cause bodily injury to workers working within the premises and advise on their remedial actions. Besides that, sometimes safety manager has to assist management in promoting safety awareness among workers by organizing safety campaigns, training courses, competitions and many other methods. By the end of a month, safety manager have to write a monthly safety report so from now onwards I have to buck up my English language in order to write up a good report for the boss.

safety manager giving lectures to the workers

There a few requirements requisite for this job in order to become a safety manager. The minimum requirement I have to achieve is a diploma or a degree in engineering discipline and also there is a need to achieve a specialist diploma in WSH (workplace safety and health). Some of the companies may only employ those who have a more than three years working experience and also have preferably fire safety manager certificate and preferably registered environmental control officer.

Chinese New Year

2009-01-27T16:52:00.000-08:00

On the eve of the Lunar New Year, I woke up early from my bird nest and quickly took actions to hang the decorations up in time before my cousins arrived. After I had done the enervating job, I had my steamboat lunch as my refreshment around late afternoon. The day I had my last steamboat meal was since the last Lunar New Year! Can you imagine that? My cousin and I threw a lot of food and ingredients into the boiling steamboat. By the time it was boiled, the aroma filled my whole house. We shared and cracked jokes while we ate greedily. Since, we seemed to think that our bowls were emptied so we decided to put more prawns into the steamboat. However, my aunt stopped us in the nick of time as there were still a plenty of food in the bowl of hers. We had no choice but to finish up for her before we had our second filling. Unfortunately, we unable to have our second fillings because my stomach had reached its maximum size if I continued my stomach ‘Bomb!’ like a balloon.

My Ah ma gave me Ang bao in advance and also gave four dollar more than my cousin, as I was her most beloved grandchild among her thirteen grandchildren. I appreciate her by saying: 恭喜发财. He he I received more money to spend and more leftovers to save in my bank for my future. My cousin used their Hong bao to gamble and some appeared to have a grin on their face but others were disconsolate. I hate gambling so I neither loss nor win more money over the celebration of Lunar New Year. Instead, I played computer game "Battle On!" and able to level up and learnt new skills. While I was playing, I ate the traditional Chinese food such as Bak Kwa, Love Letter and Pineapple Tart. I enjoyed eating them as it gave a fabulous feeling and atmosphere of Chinese New Year. However, there were still leftover. Sadly, I had to finish with my family.

The first day of Lunar New Year, my parents bought my sister and me to the temple so that we had a good year ahead. Immediately, after we reached home, my cousin came. Lucky that we reached in the nick of time otherwise they had to stand outside our doorstep. We played Xbox games such as Fable, X-men Legends II, Gears of War and more other games. After that, we had a simple lunch then went back to our games. When I had reached the final of my game, my younger cousin snatch my controller away and wanted to scold vulgarities, however I must endure as Lunar New Year so called “the law” mentioned that when scolded vulgarities might bring unfortunate matters. This time I would let him go as it was time to Lao Yu Sheng!!! The first words which came out of everyone’s mouth were “HUAT ARH!!!! HUAT ARH!!!" For me, I mentioned nothing but to just lift the chopsticks up and down with Yu Sheng and wished that my emissions. And the next thing was time for parents to give out Hong Bao to us. Every child must say a phrase that would wish them a happy and prosperous new year. For no reason, I was pertified. When it was my turn, my legs turned wobbly and no phrases seem to appear in my mind but at last I able to mention with the help of my cousins and my mum.
The second day of Lunar New Year, I fit into my brand new Adidas outfit and my cousin insulted by saying now economic crisis still spent so much money on these branded stuffs. But I thought through and felt it was worth it as the quality was good. Anyway I went to my uncle’s house and received a handful of Ang Bao. I was jubilant with the amount of money I had received. After we had settled quite a while at my uncle’s house, we decided to go home to have reunion dinner with my cousins. The food tasted delectable as there were broccoli with abalone and scallop, pomfret, chicken wings and other delicious dishes. This Chinese New Year would etched in my mind forever as it was one of the best Lunar New Year in my whole life.

I can make a difference

2008-03-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

I have done research on water conservation with my group members and from there, I have gained much knowledge from our research. I have learnt that water is as precious as gold bar and we need to save it. Water is a precious resource in our environment. Without it we cannot survive. Growing populations and ongoing droughts are squeezing our water resources dry, causing natural habitat degradation and impacting our everyday use of water.
We always will use the water to water our plant, bathing and other daily routes. Many of the countries use water to generate electricity. Government use water to generate electricity because it is much cheaper than burning coal and oil and it also help to reduce the amount of air pollution. As a result, water is very important to them and they cannot lose it. If this happen, they will lose a big sum of money as they have built the water dam.

Last time before I search the internet, I thought that water is enough and we ought not to use wisely. My friend told me that now the water become high tide and must use more in order to not to have flood or tsunami. I bathed for at least half an hour and sometimes even forget to turn off the tap causing it to flow out the gold bars into the sink. After did I know that Singapore may shortage of clean water in the years to come. This incident went to my ear when I had attended the courses and the campaigns which focus on the topic of how to reduce water. This has caused me to regret of wasting so much precious water into the drain.
I can play my part by reducing consumption from one hundred and sixty-one to one hundred and fifty-five. We must use water wisely and have to pay more attention to how we are using the water, and how we may be wasting it. We must bridge the gap between our understanding of how important water is to our survival and what we can do to ensure that we have an adequate supply of clean water for years to come.
The whole world must play their part and contribute to save water in order to save the whole world not only Singapore. The reason is that water filters out the harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun.

(400 words)

Confessions of Atychiphobia

2008-01-17T06:27:00.000-08:00

I was atychiphobia as I was afraid of failure.“Chug..... Chug.... Chug.....” the lift chugged up slowly. Normally noiseless, it was unusually noisy today. Somewhere below us, the mechanical pulleys clinked raucously as the lift groaned for all it was worth. Something was not quite right with this dirty old lift. That was my second time was taking the lift to the ground floor. I would usually take the stairs as I only lived on the fifth storey. That lift I always avoided like the plague. This how it had happened to me.
The dirty old lift had foul-smelling and filthy as banana peels, cigarette stubs and decomposing food lay scattered on its floor. I was convinced that there was no other lift in Singapore that was more foul-smelling and filthy. However, time was not on my side this time around. I was already fifteen minutes late for my tuition. If I bypassed the lift, I would have to scramble all the way.
The ten of us were packed like a can of sardines in the lift, if one did not include the scruffy, stray kitten crouching at the corner. Eight grown-ups, a wailing baby and the primary six boy on the brink of puberty. I covered my nose in disgust at the sight of houseflies buzzing merrily around a banana peel and a piece of decomposing cake that lay scattered on the floor.
Suddenly, there was a spluttering sound. The lift cabin swayed and jiggled for a few seconds before it came to a halt. It was power failure!
There was a collective groan. Everybody knew what a jammed lift meant. “Buzz....” I pressed the emergency button. There was no sound. I pressed again. Nothing happened. It was not working. Why I was not surprised?
The air getting stale and hot. The women were sweating profusely while the men were dripping buckets. The wailing baby wailed even louder. The stray cat purred agitatedly. Fingers punched hand phones vigorously, trying to make contact with the outside world. It was both nauseating and suffocating at the same time. With my examinations just around the corner, an ordeal in a miserable, stinking lift was not exactly the best of preparations. I slunk to the ground, covered my ears and prayed. Tick... Tock... Tick... Tock... my sports watch ticked ominously. Thirty minutes passed... then an hour. Were we ever going to be saved? With the heart in my mouth, I waited... and waited... and waited.
When the lift finally prised open by lift mechanics three hours later, they found me slumped pitifully on the floor, completely inebriated by the enveloping staleness of the lift air. Oblivious to the frenzied cries of relief that were erupting wildly from around me, I tried staggering out. Unfortunately, everybody have the same idea as me. Bump! Bump! Bump! In the ensuing stampede, I was “crushed” like a pancake and ended up black and blue all over! Now there, who said that lift rides were boring? And that caused me to fear of failure.