Newspaper Article 2

Clean an estate? It's no mean feat. (Page B4) - Monday, August 18, 2008

Keeping the estate clean, disposing rubbish bags into litter bins are what we as citizens should do in order to maintain a clean and green city. But have we ever wondered who are the ones who clear the rubbish bins as well as sweep the roads?

Singaporeans should learn from Kimberly Spykerman as she cleans up Bishan estate with Mr Muhamad Talib, an estate worker. Experiencing jobs that Singaporeans are unwilling to do is a daunting and boring thing to do. We tend to take things for granted, even for the minor things that happen in our daily lives. Cleaning up an estate manually, heavy lifting of rubbish bags and sending them to the garbage disposal are jobs of cleaners that help Singapore to be so clean, but majority doesn't appreciate it.

I think that Singaporeans should take the initiative to clear up their own estate, and not to contribute to the litter. This can greatly help reduce cleaner's jobs as they go around every corner to pick up rubbish.

In my opinion, schools should organise CIP activities, whereby students can get to experience such jobs under the hot sun, and to understand and go through the hardships of the cleaners as they put themselves into their shoes, so that they will learn from their past mistakes and not to litter again.

Presenting cash awards for Housing Development Board (HDB) cleaners is also a good way to attract jobless Singaporeans to take up cleaning as their job as nowadays people are not keen on cleaning jobs. Hardworking and diligent cleaners will be able to receive cash rewards for their great service towards the nation in keeping the city clean.

Nowadays Singaporeans are contributing more litter on grounds and we should strongly encourage them not to look down on cleaners as cleaners have done their best to clean and they deserve the most. They are the ones that made foreigners have a good impression of Singapore. So let's keep the country clean and green!

Newspaper Article 1

Their lives are an open (Face)book (Page B7) - Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The number of teenagers hanging out on social networking sites, such as Friendster and Facebook, are increasing enormously.

Ever wonder why teenagers create accounts in such websites?

I have many friends who have such accounts, and i know of some who make use of these social networking sites to socialise around with people whom they do not know.
Teenagers tend to spill their problems and troubles to their "new" friends as even if the other party let the cat out of the bag to their friends, no one knows who they are talking about.

Normally, teenagers will upload pictures, write up on themselves, add friends, and many more. Creating accounts in such websites can also eradicate boredom of the teenager, thus it is so popular among teens.

There are pros and cons of creating accounts in social networking sites.

As they socialise, they will be able to build up on their confidence level as they meet the outside world. Socialising through the net is also one of the ways to curb loneliness of the user as they find someone they can pour out their troubles to.

Although creating accounts in social networking sites have their advantages, they also have their disadvantages.

Making friends in these sites and thus hanging out with them is not appropriate. The other party might not be what as described as they are in their site at all. As teenagers get addicted to such sites, they might spend the entire day sitting in front of the computer and thus neglecting their parents, having little communication among one another. This widens the generation gap and the teens will start to grumble about their parents not trying to understand what they are doing.

Teens often create thoughtfully designed profiles that prominently display "friends" who number in the hundreds or even thousands.

Parents should supervise their children closely, and check for any sensitive information on their profiles. Abuses on such sites can come from exposing too much of one personal information online, such as phone numbers, address and photos.

I find this situation very common among teenagers nowadays, and it's very important to find out more about such cases, and thus helping both the young and the old in their relationships, as well as teaching the youth to be careful of what they are doing.