Reading the Sunday Times on July 26, 2009, I found other articles about the Ming Yi case. But before that, another headline caught my eye. "Duo show it's possible to overcome failure" it talks about the cases of Mr Tan Koon Swok and a Mr Glenn Knight.If you are scratching your head in confusion, "Huh? What has two unknown stranger overcome failure?" Well, I was too.

Mr Tan was an ex-Malaysian Magnate and Cabinet Minister: Mr Glenn was an ex-CAD director. Both high flyers, one must agree. Mr Tan came down first. He was charged and prosecuted by Mr Glenn, for abetting a criminal breach of trust in the high profile Pan-Electric Industries case. After that, Mr Glenn was arrested and found guilty of tying to cheat three businessmen of $3 million and faking an invoice to get government loan.

Both were jail. Both were fined. Both were under the influence of money.

Just like Ming Yi, they were corrupted by money, and they paid the price for it. I feel that many of us people are vulnerable to this. It is important to note that while money is important, one must know that money is not everything. Money, although can buy you a good meal, cannot buy you happiness. This may sound cliched, but I cannot emphasize the importance of this. Its like a cycle, these people grew up with a big dream, and accomplished it. They started with a pure heart, wanting to do only good, but when they have accomplished that, they start to get greedy. No one, no matter how honest you are, can resist the temptation of money. Look at T.T. Durai, the NKF guy. He was commended for setting up such an organization, but was charged for corruption charges. Next is Ming Yi.

Who's next? What has Singapore become?
5:10 AM By Eugene

Scanning through The New Paper (TNP), July 20, 2009, an interesting headline caught my attention: “Will you take the Pledge” I read the article and I can’t say that I’m pleased. Two survey questions were asked, the first one being “Do you know the pledge?” A startling 41% said no, and only a mere 35% said yes. The other question, “Will you say the Pledge at 8.22pm on 9 August” 58% of the people interviewed said no, while the other 42% said yes.

This has really got me thinking. How many of us Singaporeans would actually stop our activities for 30 seconds just to renew our vows for Singapore? Not many, I presume. Also, how many people can actually say the Pledge word-for-word without stumbling? All of us should take the pledge seriously. It doesn’t rake much out of us to pause for a mere 30 seconds to remind ourselves how lucky we are to be citizens of this progressive and happy nation.

If you are too shy as to stand up and say the Pledge, do not think of it as something awkward. Just think of it as like giving up your seat for a person in the MRT. You are just imagining the stares, and maybe, people might be envious of you! So go on, prove me wrong.
5:07 AM By Eugene

By creating the casino, a money-maker and a job creator to me, I think it would be helpful in Singapore after a careful decision by the government.

After interviewing my parents for his views, I got mixed reactions from them. My Father said that by building the casino, it would create many job opportunities for the citizens of Singapore and boost our Gross Domestic Product( a rate on how the country is doing on their economy) thus, boost our economy as there is much more cash. Also, the workers in the casino will be able to receive a stable income from the casino, thus, there is a sense of stability for their families. By building the casino, it would also promote tourism and thus, more tourism and more cash flowing in to the government. Tourists from Indonesia had to go to Genting to gamble, but now they can come to Singapore to gamble. Not only that, but he also said that more tourist will look forward coming to Singapore for a tour and go to the casino for a spin of luck. This will create more money from the casino, and thus, the government will get all the money, reducing our loads on the taxes and the Electronic Road Pricing.

My mother, on the other hand, said that by by building the casino, it will also cause some harm to Singaporeans. A quote from the National Council and Problem Gambling said,"20 years ago, only just a handful of women were gambling, but now, almost half are female." This shows they there are more gambling addicts in the entire world. Not only that, psychologist Paul Goods from Atlanta even said," Women gamble to escape their routine everyday lives." Women and men are getting more addicted to gambling and this is a problem which will be happening in Singapore. More men will get addicted to the casino and they will have a broken family, ruining their family because of a man’s foolishness to gamble for once and get addicted forever.

To summerise, I feel that building the casino is like a double-edged sword. As there are advantages, there are disadvantages. As a Singaporean, I feel that this casino would boost Singapore's economy. But one must measure the pros and cons of every situation. It all boils down to self-discipline. Self-discipline helps people not get addicted. Therefore, as long as addiction to gambling is scarce, I will generally support gambling.
8:01 PM By Eugene

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