1. ChannelNewsAsia - 29 Nov - 4 SMRT bus drivers charged with instigating illegal strikes
4 foreign Chinese bus drivers are being charged for instigating strikes among their fellow colleagues. They were reported discussing about the strike on 25 or 26 of November, just a few days after their pay day. The strikes took place with some bus drivers not reporting for work. From this, I have learnt that workers have to let their employers know of their grievances through legal means. In order to do so, employers have to establish a system so that they would be able to know what the employees are feeling. Strikes are an extreme method to go to just to let the employers address their complaints. Hence, employers can elect a employee to represent the majority so that employers know the reasons behind the strikes and can prevent more strikes. However, I feel that the most important thing is that employers have to know to respect that the employees are humans, and they have their own limits and capabilities.
2. ChannelNewsAsia - 1 Dec - Youths concerned about housing and education
About 100 youths gathered together to discuss about the topics of their future in Singapore. Some key topics were about the education system in Singapore, where they wanted more attempts to 'bridge the divide between elite schools and non-elite schools'. Other topics included the rapidly increasing prices of housing where some of them were worried that they could not afford the price of a house in future. This sparked an idea to establish a Youth Parliament to nurture the future generations of Singapore. From all of this, I indeed agree that more should be done to bridge the gap between the two types of schools. This would ensure in a fairer education system where the a child is either in a very good school or a normal school. People can see that non-elite schools have their own talents who might not have students who are academically-inclined but talented in other areas. Also, the housing problem is a rising issue of concerns among the young generation. In this case, I think that only the government can take measures to bring down the inflating rate of housing prices. No doubt they have taken many attempts at bringing down the prices, but investors are bringing up the prices quickly.
3. ChannelNewsAsia - 1 Dec - World's oldest marathoner to compete in Singapore's marathon
101 year-old Fauja Singh is competing in Standard Chartered's 10 km marathon in Singapore. To some elderly, walking is a problem but he is still going to take part in the marathon as the world's oldest marathoner. He was an amateur runner in Punjab in his youth, and only started taking marathons seriously at the age of 89. And he has completed 9 full marathons in the elderly stage of his life, holds the world record for marathoners over 90. I find his passion to run very inspiring where he does not stop running when his age poses an obstacle to him. Even though he started running at an old age, he does not let age restrict him and continues running without caring about the age restrictions. By doing so, he is telling people not to stop pursuing their goals or passion even when there are many obstacles. He is very old, but he has shown that age is not an restriction to achieve what we want to do.
4. BBC News - 27 Dec - Ninety people die in Ukraine as temperatures plummet
Temperatures are plummeting as low as -20 degrees Celsius in Ukraine with very low temperature and piles of snow. Many homeless Ukrainians have little clothing for them to protect against the cold, and official numbers coming in are reporting over 90 dead due to the severe cold. The government is setting up temporary shelters in many parts of Ukraine, where people can go there for some heat and a cup of warm tea. However many said that the shelters are located in the outskirts of the main cities, or unable to be located by people. One even said that she had to take a bus to reach the shelters and since they are homeless, they would have no money to pay for the bus fares. I think the government should do something about this as the weather forecast states that it is only going to get a little warmer in January. The government can locate the temporary shelters closer to places where they find more homeless people, or let everyone know all the locations of the temporary shelters. They can also send out volunteers to help those homeless people or just give out more coats to let them protect themselves against the cold.
5. BBC News - 27 Dec - Gracie McNulty feeds homeless at Christmas in memory of dad
10 year old young Gracie who lost her father August this year to an accident is not grieving for her father, but doing what her father would want to happen this Christmas. She opened her family's cafe on Christmas to homeless people to provide them with food and gave them a Christmas dinner. With the help of her family, 36 men and women had a filling Christmas day dinner. She followed in her father's footsteps, who often gave up his time to doing charity work. She wants to continue doing this on every Christmas, to open their doors to the homeless. I think that her father set a good example for her. By donating all his time to doing charity work, he was showing her how to be compassionate to people. And even when he is gone, his daughter continued to do what he wanted to do. Instead of being sad that her dad is gone, she looks forward in life and finishes what he wanted to do. She had actually thought it was impossible, but she was determined to do it for her dad and she actually fed 36 people. I feel that this is very mature for a 10 year old, who has to deal with the loss of her father, and pick herself up and continue with her life.
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