Wikileaks

What is Wikileaks? - It is an international non-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources and news leaks. (As stated in Wikipedia)

The recent release of thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables is just the latest in a long list of "leaks" published by the secretive site. Wikileaks has established a reputation for publishing sensitive material from governments and other high-profile organisations.

In October 2010, the site released almost 400,000 secret US military logs detailing its operations in Iraq. Before this, the leaked out nearly 90,000 classified military records, which gave an insight into the military strategy in Afghanistan. Not only these, Wikileaks posted a video on its website in April 2010, that shows a US Apache helicopter killing at least 12 people during an attack in Baghdad in 2007.

Wikileaks is operated by an organisation known as the Sunshine Press and claims to be "funded by human rights campaigners, investigative journalists, technologists and the general public". Since Wikileaks first appeared on the net, it has faced various legal challenges and it had fought off more than 100 legal challenges successfully.

In 2008, for example, the Swiss bank Julius Baer won a court ruling to block the site after Wikileaks posted "several hundred" documents about its offshore activities. It was eventually overturned.

Above information is extrated from www.bbc.co.uk as reference.

Written By : Chan Jiayi

Branded Goods in SMU

Friends chosen based on the wealth? In this case of SMU, friendship seems to be measured by the amount of branded good you have. To me, this is not acceptable. These people are superficial and do not know what is called true friendship. How can something of the external (eg, chanel bag, LV wallet, iphone4) determine if a person is to be considered as a friend or not?

A friend, should be based on the inside because that is what determines us as a person. Being materialistic and having lots of branded goods cannot be the determining factor when we look for friends. That just shows how rich a person is. It certainly does not mean that he/she is worth is to be a friend.

While it may be good to be able to afford those branded items, this should not be how we seek for friends or determine a friendship. True friends will be able to accept one another, the strength and weakness of each other. One may be rich while the other is not. But what matters most is the heart.

Ask yourself a question today. Have you ever befriend someone just because he/she is looking cool with the latest gadgets or expensive apparels? And if you did, Do you think that there is any value in the friendship you have? It's time to weigh friendship against amount of wealth. If given a choice, would you choose a genuine friend who may be poor or a rich friend who may just be looking for cool friends to hang out with and not care about the inside?

Written By : Chan Jiayi

US diplomat cable leak

The recent hit policy news is regarding the wikileaks, the leak of confidential documents of detailed correspondences between the US State Department and its diplomat missions around the world. Mr Julian Assange was arrested after his website published these documents.

After reading and researching regarding this news, I kept asking myself, are all the confidential or secret documents done by the government are kept safely? I've watched many movies regarding politics & some scenes showed the government saving their confidential documents in the computer with lots of password. I'm not sure whether that is exactly what the government from all over the world did. But if they do, and confident enough that it would not leak, then how come Mr Julian Assange were able to detact those important documents?

This isn't thr fisrt time. There were also the Afghan War document leaks in July, and the Iraq War document leaks in October. Are the government careful enough or just simply careless?
They are many cyber genuises around the world. Saving vey important documents in the computer are not very safe, especially when it is regarding the politics. Even if it is saved in a high tech computer, these genuises will somehow get through it.

This may be the time where all the government from all over the countries to come together & discuss regarding the leaks of their confidential documents. Or else, it may cause conflicts among the countries, & the friendship that they had built will be thrown down the drain.

Branded Goods or True Friends?

Ever wonder whether you should seek a friends that own branded goods such as iphone, itouch or PSP, or simply because of their personalities & characters? Well, it's no harm to have these expensive goods with us, this shows that we're a fortunate. But if we don't have all this, we still can have friends around us. However, this doesn't happen in Singapore Management Universities.

Some of the "rich" students there who own chanel bags, prada shoes, only befriend with the people also own branded and expensive goods. What happen to those who don't have these? They wouldn't think twice to make friend with them. This kind of behaviour is really an embarrasement to them. They may be in the local university, but do take into consideration that there are also foreign students. They may think that local students are immature. They are in the same school. That shows that there are equally smart & intelligent. Owning expensive items doesn't make them extra smart. Their behaviour may be labelled as the "mean girls and boys" in the school.



I'm lucky enough to be in the school with students with no such behaviour. Some of my clique of friends do own itouch, but not me. However, we still good friends. We're together because each of us have our own personalities, & never fail to make each other laugh & smile. They are really my true friends. Always help each other when in need. What's the use of having those expensive items when your friendship with your friends are not sincere? We seek friends not because they're rich or poor, but because we make each other feel that we belong there. :D

Michelle Obama's Visit

As we all know, there was a big story on Michelle's Obama. It was about a handshake that happened during her visit to Indonesia. It made the headlines because, the minister that was once believed as a holy person, who does not shake hands with woman unless they are related, shoke hands with Michelle's Obama. It made uach a controversy because Michelle Obama was the first lady that he shoke hands with and it was caught on video and pictures.

In defending himself, he said that it was Michelle who insisted on shaking hands. From what i saw from the video that was posted, it seems that he gladly held out his hands and shaked her hands.

As we all know, handshakes is somewhat represents acknowledgment and courtesy towards the other party. If we dotn shake their hands bak, it shows that we are being rude to them and they might take that as an insult. In my opinion, the minister shake Michelle's hand is because he doesnt want her to think that he is being impolite and also not wanting to severe ties/bond between the 2 countries. A simple thing could ruin anything. Therefor, maybe he doesnt want to take the risk as it was dangerous.

Michelle Obama however is an American. Americans are open kind of people. They greet each other by shaking hands, hugging and sometime kissing also. Maybe she was too used with the kind of surroundings that she had experienced when she was younger, that made her to do the same thing to the minister.

Lastly, from what i can conclude, Indonesian's should not have made such a big deal out of a handshake. They shld be abit open at some point of time.

Handshake

Michelle Obama's handshake with Indonesia Prime Minister made headline. This act seem to be highly undesirable for a religious man like Tifatul Sembiring, the prime minister of Indonesia.

The minister defended himself that it was t

he friendly Michelle Obama who offered the handshake and he had not choice but to shake her hand as well. In any case, the handshake is done, so let's look more the knowledge behind a good handshake.

First of all, What is a handshake? As stated in wikepedia, It is a short ritual in which two people grasp one of each other's opposite hands, and most cases accompanied by a brief up and down movement of the grasped hands.

How to give a good handshake?

A handshake is important as it can make or break your first impression on a person. A handshake that's too limp or weak shows weakness or lack of self-confidence. However, one that's too strong or crushing can convey hostility. A good handshake is one that conveys self-confidence, trust, and a genuine interest in the other party. It should be of appropriate strength and duration. A handshake that last longer than it should be will cause awkwardness between the two.

Given this basic knowledge, we should practice shaking some hands. Practice makes perfect!

Written By : Chan Jia Yi

Michelle Obama's visit to Indonesia

As most of us know, Obama and his wife visited Indonesia recently. However, due to a handshake that Michelle Obama's had with the Indonesia Prime Minister, it had caused an unpleasant scenario to the country. The Prime Minister is one of the Religious person, who doesn't accept any handshake from the opposite gender. However, he broke this belief during the presence of Michelle Obama.

In my opinion, handshakes don't cause any harm. It is just a way to show the other party that we acknowledge them by being polite and acccepting their handshake. That is what i also do with my collegues. Everytime we met for our night meeting, we would always shake hands with each other and gave a hug after every handshake,regardless male or female. It's a way to show one another that we going to miss them, and hope to see each other soon. It is not always that i get to meet my work friends. Not only the handshakes, but the hugs also give a warmth feeling to all of us. It also shows that we need each other at work.

Thus, Indonesian don't have to make a big deal about the handsake between Michelle Obama and their Prime Minister. They should think about what Michelle Obama going to think about the Indonesian manners if their Prime minister was to refuse her handshake.

So now, think about it. Like i mentioned, my work friends and i would hug each other after a handshake. Most people do this too. So, is hug a new handshake in our culture?

Michelle Obama's handshake with Indonesia Prime Minister

A conservative Muslim government minister, Tifatul Sembiring, which is usually cautious about shaking hands with females not related to him, recently caused a controversy during Obama's visit to Indonesia. It was reported that the Indonesian minister whom flaunted his conservatism and says he avoids contact with women who are not related to him, has shook hand with first lady Michelle Obama.

The minister tried to defend himself by saying that Michelle Obama was the one who initiated the handshake, but it was shown otherwise. I personally find that the minister does not need to lie to defend himself as the culture of the western world is different and they have a different way of greeting each other. In this case, it was a handshake. As it is a common practice for the westerners to use handshake to greet each other, it would be rude if Sembiring did not do that. However, it would be different if the other party was from another country because different country have different ways of greeting and their different beliefs.

Therefore, Sembiring does not need to deny the fact that he initiated a handshake with Michelle Obama. It was only right for him to initiate a handshake to Michelle Obama to acknowledge her presence in the western way.

Downtown east murder

On the 30th of October , a 19 years old Republic Polytechnic student , Darren Ng , was killed in a murder case at Downtown East . From what i read from the newspaper , Darren do not deserve to be slash to death .

It really scares me , as i always have thought that Singapore's gangster will never slash a person with no reason . And now , right after Darren Ng case , 17 person were being slash at bukit panjang by a group of 6 guys .
These 6 guys were shouting "369 " when they were slashing all this innocent victims .
From what i saw from the newspaper , youngest victim in the 17 were just 8 years old .
And all this 17 victims have no idea why they were being targeted to be slash .

In conclusion , there is a rise in teenage gang violence .
These cases maybe cause by teens trying to gain attention and make a name in their so called gang .
But no matter what reason , all this slashing have cause lifes of innocent.

Murder in Downtown East.

The news of the death of Republic Polytechnic student, Darren Ng Wei Jie, at Downtown East was a shocking news to everyone. The case was after holloween that many passer-bys and shop owners thought that the slashing case was part of the halloween performance, and no one went to help out earlier until they found that something was amiss. Darren managed to run towards a row of restaurants, when later he crashed into a glass panel. Members of the group then caught up with him and continued hacking him. After they fled, Darren's friends dragged him away, leaving a trail of blood.

It is surprising that how teenagers are so bold and bad tempered nowadays. How could they just claim a life because the other party was staring at them. Those involved in the hacking of Darren, should consider the consequences of killing and how it would affect the deceased family members and friends. Also, if the members of the group were caught and found guilty, will be sentenced to death in Singapore. Their family members and friends would be devastated.

Downtown East Murder

What happened to Darren really made a great impact on his family, friends and even some of those who did know him. I felt sorry for him as he did not deserve to die in such a way. After reading the papers, what i could conclude is that, Darren is not the type of person who finds fault, he is the friendly and cheerful type of guy. And alot of his friends couldn't believe that such an innocent and sweet guy could be hacked by gangsters. This tragedy had different stories to it. Some said it was a staring incident, others said that the fight was really called for. But for whatever reasons, youths nowadays are very bold and daring. How could they even have a fight in public when there were alot of people around, especially kids? How dumb could they be? I cant imagine myself being there when the incident happened. It had caused alot of chaos at Downtown East. Imagine witnessing someone being hacked and tortured in front of you, it will "haunt" you every night, picturing whatever you've seen and repeating it in your head over and over again.


I really hope that the 4 people who are responsible for Darren's death, is charged guilty and sentenced to death penalty. They deserve it for what they have done to Darren.

Written by: Dian
(9 November ,2010)

Downtown East Murder

The moment i heard the news about the murder of Darren Ng at Downtown East, i followed up the news in order to know who are the murderers. Being so young and innocent, he was not deserve to be killed. It was even sadden to know that he was a friend of my classmate.

I've ever lost a friend. She was technically my secondary school junior. We were together in the Student Councillor Board. It all happened after i joined the board a few months later. Every morning, we had to come to school early for our morning meeting. However, on that particular day, all the student councillor (SC) were asked to gather in the library instead of the assembly area. When we reached the library, our principal, vice-principal (VP) and discipline master were all there too. That was when our VP broke the news to us. Our junior, Amanda (not her real name) was killed in a hit-and-run. We were told that she was crossing the road towards a neighbourhood library when she was knocked down by a car. She died in the hospital. The news was brought to us first before the principal told the whole school.
Amanda was only 14 when she died.

Down Town East Murder

A 19 years old student died in a murder case that happened in Downtown East, on 30 October 2010. He was killed during a fight which broke out among 10 other youths.

Before he was slashed, verbal and physical confrontation happened between him and the group of youth. Thereafter, He was being hacked repeatedly by some of the members in the group of 10. 19 years old , Darren , later died from the wounds. 4 chinese men who were among the 10, were arrested and will face death penalty if charged with murder.

This is such a tragic incident. This young man is still pursuing his studies in a polytechnic, yet he died in such an unfortunate manner. This could have been prevented if youth nowadays can think before they act.

Written By: Jiayi