Four-five rocks!

1. I feel that Teo’s punishment is very fair. Although he might have a bad childhood and past, he had many intentions to kill others and commit a robbery. For example, he told pimp Ong Boon Jun that he would use the riffle to commit a robbery and told his buddy Ong Chee Wee that he wanted to kill his girlfriend after they broke up. He had not only broken the Oath of Allegiance that the NSF took, he was also a threat to a family and in a Cineleisure. In Singapore, this is no laughing matter as Teo could have fire the riffle at innocent people just to air his angst; people could have just died if he was not caught.

To me, the punishment that Teo has serves as a warning to everyone who has intensions like Teo’s. Who would want to go through 9 precious years of his life reflecting on something that is obviously against the law? Who would want to receive 18 stokes of the cane for such a silly mistake?

You can say that he’s just a young adult, but can Singapore afford to have another Teo? Singapore is quite well-known for her high security levels. I feel that if the punishment is any lower, some people would want to try what Teo did. If another case like Teo’s were to happen again, Singapore’s and our NSF’s name be tarnished. If Teo were to blame others for the hefty punishment he was sentenced, he should really reflect on why he chose to do that as there is many ways to solve a problem. After all, his life was mainly in his hands, not others.

However, if the punishment is even heavier, like 24 years for the maximum, I feel that it would be quite redundant as this punishment could result in a reverse psychological effect on Teo. Hence the punishment is very fair.



2. In my opinion, the sale of organs is rather disgusting, especially if it is not done properly. Normally people find trading their health for money is a fast way of escaping poverty or even getting richer. But most of them forgot that if their health is deteriorates, they can’t even enjoy the money they have earned for their family etc properly. The donor maybe able to safe another person’s life, but do they know that if the procedure id not done correctly the donor can die too? However, I do empathise those people who are duped into such trade. It’s a pity that we can only prevent such things from happening.

If the sale of organs were legalised worldwide, I feel that these are the possible outcomes.

a) The price per organ would be cheaper.
b) Some people may want to dissect “fresh” corpses illegally just to make more money. This would spark unhappiness between countries or communities.
c) Those who are in need of an organ would not have to wait for a long period of time. On the other hand, if the most of the surgeons are not skilled when the sale of organ is legalised, even more people/ donors will die.
d) Organs will be “recycled” to safe more lives instead of being wasted.
e) People may become more complacent and may lead an unhealthy lifestyle as they know that the chances of getting an organ are higher.

Even if the sale of organs were to be legalized, I would not really support the Idea as I feel that this would create a more negative impact than positive. I believe that a donor should not donate an organ for money, but donate it out of compassion and free will.



3. Well, maximising resources definitely has an impact on us. This could mean less resource from other countries for Singapore. As the governments in other counties also have to cater for their people’s future, they would implement bans, campaigns or even rules. When they implement all these, certain trading rules would have changed, thus Singapore would not be able to trade as freely as before. Hence, this would result in lesser import from other countries and even price hikes for certain products. A very good example is the shortage of certain food in Singapore which resulted in a price hike.

I believe maximizing resources in Singapore is a good move. In Singapore, we have very few resources. Should we not maximise our resources now, in the time to come, we would not enjoy the luxury we have now. So, by maximizing our resources, Singapore could play a part by contributing to the world and also saving money for future development. An example will be reusing plastic bags to reduce the demand. When less plastic bags are needed, there will be less green house emission, and more money will be saved on manufacturing and disposing the bags.

As the article did not state the dwindling resources in Australia, I have not much comment about this. However, this issue will definitely affect Singapore’s food supply. Exotic fruits and vegetables, red meat etc are usually imported from Australia. Due to climate change, Australia could not produce enough for exportation. Thus, Singapore has to find an alternative country. That is partly explains why there is a price hike in food this year.

Kelly(: