One has to stay slim to stay beautiful.

It was not too long ago when Singaporeans were discussing about the harmful side effects and dire consequences of the slimming pills that we are again saddened by the recent news report of the death of a young man who died as a result of the complications in lap-band surgery. Whether it is for the vanity or health reasons, people nowadays resort to the so called fast and effective way to lose weight so that they become or remain attractive to the society. I think this is sad. As much as I agree that people should keep a healthy weight for ease of movement and lower risks of health diseases, I still feel that there is a social stigma attached to less-than-perfectly-slim (or read: skinny) people in the affluent society like ours. This seems like a perpertual worry for the younger female population. Though more and more young men are trying to lose weight in the hope to look physically more appealing to their female counterparts, I still feel that the society has given tremendous pressure to the young female women to look SLIM. This is probably why people resort to drastic methods to lose weight only to get caught in many health complications later on. I still believe that society should give space and respect to people who are trying to lose weight in the healthier but slower ways.

Tact and sensitivity go a long way in life. Discuss.

With the recent uproar of the inability to exercise tact and sensitivity in blogging, both in my personal experience and in the media, I personally feel that young people, or people in general, need to be more aware of these virtues or habits. Relationships are ultimately very important in our lives. No man is an island. We need people to be with us. We interact, form relationships and hopefully keep them. We enjoy good times with people around us and they form a good part of our memories in life. However, very often, we are hurt and offended by others' actions and words. I would rather believe that people are fundamentally kind and no sensible adult in the right frame of mind would choose to deliberately hurt someone with evil and hurtful remarks and actions. Afterall, it is in every religion, faith and Man's philosophy on earth to live in harmony. To me, all these start with tact and sensitivity towards others' feelings. What say you?

The Battle of the Sexes!

I personally feel that women are the world's greatest creatures! Afterall, men were born from women! Women have to go through ten months of pregnancy, carrying the 10kg load of water, blood and baby in their wombs. After that, they have to sacrifice their hour-glass figures and suffer from post-natal consequences. When everyone is looking at the baby, saying "Oh, how cute is the baby!" The mother is there, lying, ignored and BLEEDING! When the women are suffering from all the pain from child birth and breast-feeding, the men are happy gallivanting outside, looking at sexily-clad women!

Teenagers should not engage in sexual or sex-related activities. Discuss.

Teenagers are very advanced in sexuality or sex knowledge these days! I have been 'shocked' by the kind of questions youngsters are asking these days. For example, yesterday, Rafee(4E3)asked me if I knew the meanings of the terms he mentioned. Honestly, I had absolutely no clue what he was referring to. He and Diamanta were laughing or should I say, sniggering at me then. Later, Kia Jin recommended some adult (sex) shops in Bugis. I wondered how they knew about these places. Sigh... although it seems we are only a generation away but the knowledge acquisition and experiences in such sex-related topics are so vastly different! In my (old/senior) generation, we never had an opportunity to view remotely naked people even if we were desperately curious and raging in our puberty homornes, not to mention adult movies or pornographic video clips. Sex, to us, was seen as something to be done after we are married or at least when become adults. People who engaged in premarital sex then (if we even came to know about it) were seen as super BOLD, LIBERAL or even SHAMELESS. Nowadays, it is a tall order to advise young people to abstain from premarital sex. Published cases like that of Tammy's not only shocked older generation people like me, they also alerted me to the diluting moral values young people hold these days. I am tempted to say that the world has changed drastically for the worse in this aspect, but I am going to hold that conclusion for that moment. Let's debate!

Blogging is indeed exciting!

Being an IT 'suaku' (as some/many of you call me), it is the first time I am so IT-savvy, trying to create my own blog. Initially, I was skeptical about all these new ideas about expressing yourself 'publicly', allowing people or even strangers to read your inner thoughts, feelings and viewpoints. Although I enjoy the exchange of ideas and sharing my emotions with my friends, I would not want the whole wide world to know about them. Nonetheless, I got really interested ('provoked' you may call it) after knowing that youngsters like you guys are so good at BLOGGING! That led me to the first step to create my own blog. Today, with the ingenious enlightenment of my beloved, 3-year long 'friends' in 5A1, I got more inspired and am determined to get myself educated on this new IT world.

It is important to speak clearly.

All of us should learn to speak clearly. Seek to be understood by pronouncing your words accurately. It takes a lot of effort to move your lips, your tongue and teeth (in fact, every part of your mouth) initially to ensure good articulation. Not only is it helpful for us to learn and practise speaking accurately for the coming oral examinations, it will take us through our life; we create good first impression if we speak well in our daily lives. So, get your mouths to do some aeRobics (instead of Arrow-bics)!Oh, by the way, for moral reasons, those who laugh at others' 'short-tongues' should ensure they are able to pronounce ALL words perfectly (Haha, you know who you are).