Geraldine *^.^*

A site I wish to preserve

According to the latest news, Mc Ritchie rainforests has to be cleared for the new MRT line and I really want to preserve it. Mc Ritchie has seen the entire development of Singapore in the cause of fifty years and as a fellow nature lover, I hate to see it destroyed.

SINGAPORE SHOULDNT BE COMPLACENT OF HER ACHIEVEMENTS

Over the 51 years of independence, Singapore has been evidently successful and is the fastest growing nation the world has ever seen. We have grown from a third world country to a first world country in a short period of only fifty years! We should definitely feel proud of our founding fathers, but isn't it a pity if we turn complacent and we fall into the same condition as fifty years ago? Complacency has been many people's Achilles heel that eventually led to their downfall. Complacency is a virus that spreads through societies eating us from inside out, we need to learn humility and build up our immunity against this virus that led to so many deaths of a country's success.

INTRODUCTION OF MYSELF

  My name is Geraldine Goh(04) and I am from Class 2K. i do not really have much of a personal life but ill try to fill you in on as much things as possible that occured before.


         During my primary school years at KMPS, I participated in the green carpet's awards by the national geographic association and Nikon. Attaining myself as a nominee for best journalism, I was also forced by my teachers to participate in other activities like the clean and green carnival, the amazing camera race at Bugis and also the MOE Exel festival (though I didn't particularly mind this one -there were tons of freebies) talking about marine conservation. I guess this apparently managed to spark a love in nature and animals in me. My hobbies are collecting seeds from around the world ( one of my prized one is an eucalyptus jacksonel seed from the valley of the Giants), gardening, caring for animals, photography and reading. I enjoy the company of all sorts of animals especially my five rabbits although most of the time, it is dogs and *some cats that actually think of me more of as a friend than an owner.. 

    On a more recent note,I am currently in RV ELDDS debates and have participated in one competition and of course, not that I expected much, failed. I got a quirky quill award and also the silver award for the Queen's commonwealth essay last year. So, it's no surprise that my favorite subject is English. Although I got a decent GPA, I still managed to be conditionally promoted because of my Chinese (sorry about that).
       During the December holidays, I visited Sydney Australia. However, I did not feel this trip was as particularly fun as the other annual trip to Australia. It's not that Sydney is any bad but making me inhale car smog and sleep to the lullaby of police sirens and car horns is NOT my ideal way of spending the holidays. But the main highlight of the trip for me was in the countryside. My family and I made a 7km hike across the island of Manly beach, up a mountain and back down. Then, we decided to trek again on the last day at the blue mountains. Trekking is our family's way of bonding. We also rode on a hot air balloon for the first time.

                                       

                                              a photo I took in Sydney (Bondi Beach)

             


RV's Extra Out Of The Ordinary

This is the picture I selected to show the extraordinary of  RV. River Valley High is an urbanised government school that is situated in the city of Singapore. However, just located behind the hostel is a quiet place with green bamboo shrouds rising independently from the ground. Its strong and vivid stem makes way to lush blankets of cheerful long leaves that danced in the strong wind found in this certain area. This provides a good place for birds to nestle and examples I saw were the yellow oreole, bulbul, spotted necked dove, zebra dove, eurasian tree sparrows, javan mynahs and common mynahs. This miniscule little patch of utter greenness is enough to warm hearts of any nature lovers in RV. Sadly, few visit this particular area due to the dark and dilapidated route taken to visit this place in all its glorious beauty.

RV60 REFLECTIONS

The purpose of this year's RV60 is to celebrate our school's sixty years of success and to let every student and staff have a full experience of the school's diamond anniversary. 

However, I would not consider this celebration perfect. There are some issues that needs to be raised. One example is the fact that the people from the wushu category was locked in the hostel canteen after 5.10 pm. I also would like to raise the issue of the lack of practice sessions before the red letter day, which lead to the disorganised environment and the celebration's finale turning out to be a bit uncoordinated. Also, no food was issued to the students even when they had to stay back later than their rightful dinner time. As some students live quite far away, I have heard a few complains that they can only have their dinner at eight or even nine o'clock after practice sessions ended as late as 7.30 pm. I also thought that RV was a little too concerned about her image. An example I can provide is the Chinese Orchestra having pre recorded their music using only a few selected students and played it through the speakers on the day itself. The other unselected students were forced to be present but play softly, so as not to tarnish the recorded music blasting from the speakers. I found this action insincere of the school's part. 

 Thus, the school should try to be a little more organised and strict pertaining to the students' not-so-stellar behaviour and act honestly because mistakes play an important role in a performance as well. It was these little mistakes that, after all, made us uniquely RV and that brought us closer to perfection than a very coordinated performance would get us to. The students also learnt a lot from this experience although a number might not have noticed. It also brought many RVians from all sorts of CCAs together, forming a great bond that if fortunate, shall stay the same for years to come. 

I believe that school pride in the RV students and their parents have brought us numerous parent volunteers that helped in the food arrivals, the costumes of the students, the student's make-up and much more. Without these helpful patriotic parents, RV60 would not have been such a humongous success as it had became. Through this, I believe that the willingness of the students to participate in this celebration and also the singing of the song '立化情' involuntarily at the end of the finale was a great show of considerably plenty school spirit and pride. RV60 had also made me even prouder to be an RVian while me and hundreds of others were standing on the field and making the audiences smile, laugh or even cry. I am willing to make these assumptions that we have succeeded in moving many united hearts that day and RVians have enjoyed themselves in the making of this beautiful diamond anniversary gift to our much loved school.

However, the number of students (which is quite a big number) had numerous negative things to say about RV60. Many of which have been accompanied by a vocabulary of cusses. These group of students who were content in living in their solipsistic minds have caused much problems in the making by forcing themselves to look bad in front of the audiences. I feel that these people have much dampened the RV60 spirit while less and less people start to put in all their efforts to make it a success. This made teachers do last minute preparations like restricting the places we were allowed to roam. this is a preventive measure on the teacher's part to stop these team of quite self-centred rebels from running into the limelight during another performance.

Although all these downsides, there is a silver lining to the rebellious student's grey cloud. The common agreement brought us all together one way or another. I gave us a lot of extra memories to share together whether complaining about the way many behaved during the celebration or praising each other on how well it turned out. It taught us perseverance while rehearsing under the sultry sun all week. And last but not least, taught us to be appreciative of the school and what we have.

立德立功，化愚化顽！

By: Geraldine :)

DOES BEING RICH NECESSARILY MEAN BEING HAPPY?

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small fishing village.
As he sat, he saw a fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish.
The businessman, impressed, asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”
The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”
“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was puzzled.
“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.
The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”
The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap. When evening comes, I join my friends in the village to play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”

The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.
“I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you could spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible and sell the remaining your family does not eat. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon, you will be able to set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to the city, where you can set up a headquarter to manage your other branches.”

The fisherman continues, “And after that?”
The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house. You'll will be rich!”
The fisherman asks, “And after that?”
The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire. You can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap, and when evening comes, you can join your friends to play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”
The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”

            This is a classic tale from brazil that can help to explain perfectly that being rich does not necessarily mean being happy. Although this folk tale does not show a big contrast in happiness level, we can tell that the end result of both scenarios are the same regardless of whether the fisherman decides to extend the business or continue to fish enough for his family. 

           Money is just a currency that people use as a more advanced or organized way of bartering. However, many people think that the amount of money you have is the determination of how happy you are. I dont think this is true as statistic shows Indonesia has happier people than Singapore although we are the country with better economical strength. I think that we should focus on being happy rather than to get richer. Loosen those muscles and smile! :)

3-2-1 REFLECTIONS

3 things that I learnt

1) I learnt that a one child policy does not only affect the country, but it also affects the children that are born after the one child policy is implemented.

2) I learnt that the children born after the one child policy are least likely to take risks, are more self centred, more sheltered and less entrepreneurial.

3) I learnt that the country have been greatly affected by the growing population and the lack of entrepreneurial minds, thus, the economy would decrease in china in the long run.

2 perceptions I gained

1) I found out that there are always going to be problems in the long run or in the short term that may affect someone or even a big group of people negatively like in china. I find that the chinese government have to look further than just a few years and prepare in advance for the possible disadvantages that a new policy brings before even implementing it.

2) I find that the government also has to understand that all policies bring harm and we have to be careful and think twice before saying or doing anything or some things we do that might once seem harmless does not leave a deep negative imprint on anyone we care about.

1 question that I have

1) Is there anyway to make the benefits of a policy more prominent compared to the negative impacts of a policy. Thus, this can achieve a better social response of the people.

CHINGAY 2016

LIGHTS OF LEGACY BRIGHTER SINGAPORE

       

          From a humble beginning emerged a bright and colorful international celebration. Chingay has stolen many people's hearts, bringing them closer together and igniting their passion for Singapore in many years to come. 

        The bright and shining festival used to celebrate Chinese new year but now, transformed into a whole new culture pertaining to our pledge's " regardless of race language or religion." People from all over the world fly to Singapore every year not only to participate in this huge festival but also to perform.

       This year, there were many floats of many diverse countries like Japan, India and many more. This represents the racial harmony Singapore can bring us all and hopefully it can " build a democratic society" by allowing every race and religion to portray themselves in the brightest and most colorful way. At least every culture in Singapore had one bright colourful float that fully represented them in all perspectives as possible. Hence, this fully achieves the criteria in our national pledge " Regardless of race, language or religion."

      However, I have to bring up the fact that our founding father, as they mentioned, Lee Kuan Yew, created this festival to celebrate Chinese new year, as a compensation of the ban of firecrackers as a fire hazard in Singapore. I have to admit I was a little disappointed when in found out how much Chingay has changed over the years. Now, only a small portion of Chingay represents the direct meaning behind the very reason why it was created in the first place- Chinese new year. 

       I really wish that in the year's to come, Singapore will not lose Chingay's oldest culture and meaning. It will be very pitiful to see it change to just anther festival without the very core reason why it even exists today. I believe that although new culture has to be generated, we must preserve our old cultures and beliefs so as not to lose them in time to come.

      Regardless, i can safely assume that Chingay can " achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation" among Singaporeans...

on a brighter note, here are some photos that I was able to take during the festival or that I can find on the internet:

Chingay 2016
A brighter Singapore
Lights of Legacy

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