Rising Divorce Rates

The rising divorce rates in Singapore nowadays is a big social issue because it has many detrimental effects on our society. Firstly, it will definitely lead to a decline in birth rates because with less couples around, there will be less babies born. The government is currently trying to change the situation by offering incentives for having babies, namely the Baby Bonus scheme. Under this scheme, couples will get monetary and non-monetary rewards for having children. With divorce rates so high, won't this scheme be useless? Secondly, those couples already with children will have their families broken up as a result of their divorce. The children are the ones who suffer the most, and the long-lasting impact on the children is unthinkable. The children had nothing to do with it, why make them suffer? Is it fair to punish the children because of an adult's folly? I think that is is not fair. Thirdly, it can affect our economy greatly. When couples go through a rough patch in their relationship, their careers will be affected. They will not be as productive with such thoughts on their mind. This leads to a decline in the economy.

In the year 2006, divorce rates hit a record high of 7061. Twenty years ago, the figure was just a measly 2608 annulments. These figures reflect our mentality and mindset. Now, many couples put themselves before the happiness of the family. They would rather forsake their loved ones than suffer together with them. Such is the selfish thinking of young people nowadays. This scenario happening today also reflects what sets of values we possess. This actually shows that we take marriage for granted. In the past, when people took those solemn vows, they meant what they said. Now, people take it as a sentence of empty words, said in a moment of impulse, which they will probably regret for the rest of their life.

It is not going to be easy to tackle this problem, let alone solve it. Hence, I think that the duty lies with the couples themselves to combat this situation. Firstly, the couples need to learn tolerance. Only through learning tolerance can they understand each other more thoroughly. Everyone has flaws, no one is perfect, but learning to look over these flaws is what makes the bond between couples strong. If they learn to "give-and-take", these numbers which we are seeing will surely see a sharp decline. Secondly, couples need to learn forgiveness. Everyone makes mistakes, even more so in relationships. Therefore, forgiveness is a key virtue which couples must possess. If you cannot stand even the slightest mistakes of your partner, how would you cope if he really screws up? The answer is you would be unable to cope, and go for the ultimatum - a divorce. Lastly, and most importantly, sacrifice is needed in a relationship. If you are able to sacrifice your luxuries for others' well being, no one can fault you at all. It is the most important value because if you learn sacrifice, tolerance and forgiveness is not needed. This is so because there will then be nothing for your partner to be irate about. Hence, eliminating conflict between the two.

In conclusion, I think that what couples need to do is to tolerate, forgive, and sacrifice for a relationship to work properly. These are the few easy steps required to solve the problem.

By Daniel Low (22)
Article- http://newslink.asiaone.com/user/OrderArticleRequest.action?order=&_sourcePage=%2FWEB-INF%2Fjsp%2Fuser%2Fsearch_type_result.jsp&month=11&year=2007&date=19&docLanguage=en&documentId=nica_NP_2007_7511450

Democracy creates stability in society

I agree to a large extent that democracy creates stability in society. There are many reasons why democratic societies have stability. Firstly, a government is elected by the people; hence there will not be many disgruntled voters. Everyone has equal rights in a democratic state where people are not stereotyped by race, religion, gender, or ethnicity. Because there is fairness in society, nobody will feel injustice and hence more stability is created in the society. In a democratic state, everyone has equal rights including a monarch or a president. If they commit crimes, they are under jurisdiction by the law. This shows that democratic societies have equality throughout, which creates stability because everyone is treated equally.

In democratic societies, people have a “duty” to participate in activities of the state such as voting, civic meetings, and debating issues. Normally when only the government is involved and making decisions, the citizens have to blindly follow the law. But in democratic states where people are involved in state affairs, they will better understand the state and its laws. They will not just listen to the government without knowing the rationale behind it. In non-democratic states, if the government passes an unreasonable law, the people have no right whatsoever to change the law. However, in democratic states, people have the right to peacefully protest against the law. This makes the society more stable as less people will resort to violence to get their message across to the government. This means that the citizens have the right to prevent the elected government from abusing their power. If the government’s performance is unsatisfactory, the citizens can peacefully remove them from office and elect a new government. All these rights given to the people in a democratic government make them able to govern their own state according to the people, not according to the government.

Examples where the people have more power than the government is that the government must act on petitions with 2% or more of the voter’s signatures. Essentially, the government is elected as an authority figure just to carry out the will of the people. Therefore, everyone in a democratic state is satisfied and more stability is created.

However, there are instances where democracy creates instability in society. Even though peaceful riots are allowed in a democratic society, the government is not obliged to listen to the riots, so in the end, people might just resort to violence, causing instability in society. Although people can remove politicians from office if they abuse their power, the impact might be long-lasting on society. Even after removing them from office, it will be hard to undo the changes made. Furthermore, even if the law sees everyone as equals, it does not mean that the people see each other as equals. Even if there is a law that prevents racial discrimination, people might still have prejudices against each other which are not openly expressed.

Therefore, I think that democracy does create stability in society.

By Daniel Low (22)

Teenage Violence

During our teenage years, our bodies are raging with hormones and we sometimes are prone to excessive violence where we are unable to control our own actions. Some teens bring violence upon others, while other teens have it inflicted upon them. Although it does not matter where the source of the violence is, it can affect our lives greatly in many different ways.
Violence cannot entirely be blamed on our hormones because there are other sources which can influence us into turning violent. One example is the media. Television and video games now contain much violence. From the article, 17% of video games have killing people as the main motive. Almost 50% of television shows have violence in them. These numbers are staggering and much more than expected. With technology advancing at the rate it does today, the media is one of the most common ways where we can be influenced. Almost every household has a television, and with more channels being available, teens are very likely to get influenced by these shows. Some teens in the US go on killing sprees before committing suicide, and some of these cases can be blamed on the influence from video games. After playing a certain violent video game, some teens get too excited and want to try it out for themselves, thinking that it seems very heroic. Other reasons why teens go on these "shooting sprees" is because of depression, hence not all the blame should be put on the media.
Depression can cause a person to fall into a state of distress and do unthinkable things. However, depression does not randomly set in, it has to come from a source, one which comes over a prolonged period of time, in order to make a person go into a state of depression. Bullying in schools is one of the main causes which lead to teens and university undergraduates to do violent acts. When these people are bullied and taunted by their peers in school, they might turn violent and try to hurt the bullies. One case where a student in a university killed many people because he was simply taunted by his American classmates for being of Asian origin. This simple taunting may not seem very harmful, but it can emotionally hurt a person very much. Emotional bullying is not the only cause of violence, but physical bullying is another big cause as well. Depending on the person, being emotionally bullied could be less painful than being physically hurt. Hence, both forms of bullying will sometimes lead to violence.
After all this is said, it seems like we should blame the media and the schools. However, the problem still boils down to us, where we ultimately are the ones who commit the violent act. Even if someone receives all this hurt, we are still the ones who must control our feelings. It is wrong to entirely blame the media and schools, but we must blame the teens as well for having no self-control. The teens may argue that the hurt is too great, but think about it, is it right to return violence with violence? Is it right to hurt someone who hurt you? By doing so, you not only are saying that you promote violence, but would not care if violence was inflicted upon you. Ultimately, by having self-control, all these violent incidents would stop happening.
Still, violence is not only restricted to teens, adults and even young children can be prone to violence. Adults frequently get into fights, murder people, and commit other sinful crimes. But why is the focus all on the teens? Because we are growing up, we are still learning, and hence the focus is on us. But violence is not restricted by age. In Feb 2000, a six year-old child took a .32 caliber pistol and shot his classmate, all because of a verbal spat.
So, why is the spotlight on us?

By Daniel Low(22)
Article - http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/00344/