Wednesday, December 31, 2008
every year has its hits and misses. on the very last day of 2008, ZihWye Cheem is proud to present her very own list of hits and misses of the year 2008, based on personal opinion (with some support from others).
1) Album of the Year (Roy agrees!):
神秘嘉宾 Mysterious Guest - 林宥嘉 Yoga Lin
(every track on the album was tailored for him. in fact, even the album cover and music videos are very Yoga-ish. all that on top of the fact that we are not sick of it!) Deserves an award!
2) Newbie of the Year (Yoga isn't a newbie):
无法归类 Unclassified - 何维健 Derrick Hoh
(also if this was year 1998).
3) Surprise of the Year:
舞是刀 Dance is Knife (??) 叶乃文 Milk Ye.
seriously.
4) Disappointment/s of the Year (music):
Stefanie Sun/ Fish Leong/ Danson Tang/ everyone major who didn't release a (studio) album this year. (especially Stefanie Sun who spent the year in town and even had time to appear on "today in Beijing" with mark richmond and tao li during the olympics!)
5) Drama of the Year (outside TVB):
不良笑花 Miss No Good.
(Need I say more??????) It was almost Hot Shot, but Fated was never in the race for the title.
6) Worst Drama of the Year (outside TVB):
It was almost Woody but it redeemed itself in the last 2 episodes. I don't know, probably H&C, or some show I didn't watch.
7) Drama of the Year (TVB):
珠光宝气 The Gem of Life, although I only watched a few episodes when I was in hk. Its like the best show ever cuz the actors/actresses are finally playing roles that suit them. Plus its bitchy with meaning, unlike little nyonya.
8) Match of the Year (John McEnroe says "in the history of open era tennis"):
Wimbledon 2008 Finals.
(6-4 6-4 6-7 6-7 9-7)
9) Most Unexpected Turn of Events of the Year (ATP agrees):
when Nadal started winning everything after losing almost everything to Djokovic during the first 3 months of the season, after ATP reported that this was the first year since 1996 that the top two seeds have gone 3 months without a title.
10) Disappointment/s of the Year (tennis):
from "i'm going to be world #1" when he had the chance to overtake Nadal as #2, to "i'll see how far i can go" after losing to Nadal consecutively on clay, grass AND hard court. ladies and gentlemen, Novak Djokovic.
11) Discoveries of the Year (food):
the best California Maki is at Mirama Hotel, and the best Spider Handroll is at this Hokkaido Jap outlet in Mongkok, HK. in addition to 2005's - best Chawanmushi at the first ever conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Osaka, Japan. you'll never step into sakae again.
12) Discoveries of the Year (others):
that Z__ is gay. i kid you not. i did an entry listing the evidence but shaz said my alter-ego may sue me so i didn't publish it.
13) Question of the Year:
what the hell does 伯乐 mean??? its in Yoga's album, in Fated, everywhere except the trusty ol' dictionary. [Click here for the answer]
14) Yuan Chang's Achievement of the Year:
华丽上班族 之 生活与生存 because idols don't star in stageplays, because he is an actor.
the personal list:
1) Discovery of the Year:
TFS face masks! in addition to Himalayas' walnut/apricot scrub.
Nah, I really mean to say that people you know for 10 years may not know your temperament as well as those you know for 2. Tried and tested: it's true.
2) Funniest Convo of the Year (actually the only one i can remember):
when dengli and i argued over who wrote 你曾让我心动, we went to the extent of saying "I HAVE THE OST!"/ "ME TOO!"/ "I HAVE THE ZHISHU VERSION!"/ "ME TOO!" really...
3) Fakest Moment of the Year:
when someone dumb asked me a dumb question during truth or dare recently, which got me really pissed but i couldn't get angry there and then. its a state worse than being fake, its pure acting. just for that moment alone my acting i swear was better than zyc's.
4) Regret of the Year:
enough of that 'i don't regret anything i have ever done' crap cuz i don't believe anybody can live their lives without wishing they haven't done something they did, or that they did something they didn't. thankfully this is something small: i wish i didn't buy Triangle, cuz it really sucks.
5) Lessons of the Year:
In 2008 I had new catch-phrases, like "if the world was fair we'd be communist", but essentially, I learnt that life is fair, because I can never seem to have too much of any one thing, nor too few of another, without compromising or getting more of something else. This year I lost friends, not because I fell out with them, but because distance does awful things. I also had weird threats from all over the place before I entered uni - threats like how if you don't go for orientation camps you won't make friends and you won't get married. i don't know if i'll be married but surely whether i will or not is not dependent on whether i go for orientation camps. that i knew from the start, so i didn't go. for a while, i was a bit regretful cuz i didnt have groups of people to hang out with like in cj. then in psych tutorial i met two girls who became my study buddies for half the semester, in soci i met 4 awesome people i'll always remember, and for sw i had the best group (well, almost) for term paper though initially i thought it sucked. im not close to all but at least its proven untrue that you won't have new friends if you don't go for orientation camps.
The other thing is that interest is more important than practicality because often, interest influences practicality. For me at least, no point doing what I don't like because I won't be do well in it. Like me and geog, me and econs, me and maths. compared to me and social work (: half the people in uni across the world don't like what they are studying but are saying they love it much because of the prestige and potential income at the end of it. what they really love is something known as cognitive dissonance which i learnt from psych, which, by the way, i really enjoyed. (:
I'm glad I chose this path cuz I truly enjoy what I'm doing and the results are coming. Even if they are not straight As. It is finally no longer a case of me mugging yet failing. The awesome thing is that as much as other people think arts limit your prospects, this path is opening up many more doors than I would've ever imagined. at least for me, and life is what you make out of it, no?
Happy New Year, and to those who had a really rough 2008, i hope 2009 brings much joy for you. things will always be alright at the end, and if it doesn't get better, its not the end yet (Mucek, 2008).
edited from original published on http://ycroxmyworld.blogspot.com.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
cabbed to sw lecture (which i regret doing cos the first half of the lecture was some talk by sw majors) cos i was watching someone say, with gusto and pride, to the country he truly loves, "at this moment, change has come to america!" Labels: Singapore
i may not be american, i may not agree with the things that americans do, and more often than not i hear or read words spoken or written by americans that reflect the level of their intelligence, if at all. BUT as Singapore strives towards being a nation and not just a state (which we are now), i do hope that we would one day have everybody come together and shed tears of joy having elected our choice of president/prime minister/member of parliament, just like the americans did earlier today; to have people who will think it an honour to be a "servant" to the country (and not just because civil service = iron rice bowl).
granted, maybe they were being PR. politics is about POWER, and everyone wants power (i should know that, i just came back from a 1h 40min lecture on power), and for all we know, maybe Obama and McCain were saying all that just to remain well-liked. i will never know, and neither will you; but one thing that we do know is how the americans (in general) are damn proud of their country - they love the country to bits, and thats why they are so ignorant about the world outside their own, thats why they think canada only just got FM radio, thats why they think you're only asian if you're oriental.
if there is one thing that Singapore must learn from the US may it be how dedicated the people there are to their country, because it is non-existent in this state of our's. or is it impossible even, because in this country we strive for power through elitism and that in itself spells individualism?
if we can manage this feat - of bringing our people together as ONE PEOPLE, ONE NATION, ONE SINGAPORE - we can do without national service, total defence, social studies; because being a nation would be the best form of defence we would ever have. or is it because rome wasnt built in a day, and thats why we needed a quicker remedy to protect us from falling to our vulnerabilities?
(also published on: Publicly ZihWye; the two speeches from earlier today: Obama / McCain) My dad said if McCain spoke throughout his campaign the way he did today, he would've won; but i say nope, because Sarah Palin was obviously THE step in THE wrong direction. as The Economist put it, "the choice... epitomised the sloppiness. If only the real John McCain had been running."
Friday, February 01, 2008
周杰伦 世界巡回演唱会2008 新加坡站 Jay Chou World Tour 2008 Labels: Jay Chou World Tour 2008
performance: 9.5/10
stage presence: 10/10
audience/atmosphere: 6/10
overall: 9.5/10 (+1 for nan quan ma ma, -0.25 for no fei yu qing & wilber pan, -0.5 for no 七里香, 晴天, 星情 & 我不配 [and so many more], +0.5 for constant improvement and +0.25 for audience interaction)
i loved...
+ 安静，彩虹，不能说的秘密，夜的第七章，夜曲，菊花台，千里之外，牛仔很忙，开不了口- basically everything except those hur hur har hee songs.
+ his pursuit of improvement. you have no idea how good he was 4 years ago and you have no idea how much he has improved.
+ increased audience interaction - coming from JAY CHOU!!
+ nan quan ma ma including all their solo acts, especially 斗琴
+ birthday songs
+ jay chou, in general. (still do)
i didn't quite love... (*notice everything here has nothing to do with jay chou)
+ stupid people expecting others to sit down. wake up, darling, nobody's going to pay $201 for a jay chou concert and sit!
+ the cramped space- stupid concert promoters squeezed like thrice the number of seats as there are normally
+ stupid usher who tapped me and made me go back to my seat when there was no need to
+ the crowd, which was made up of more working people and corporate clients than fans.
+ PB2 row 24 seat no. 1
he could have improved on...
+ getting fei yu qing and wilber pan to perform, especially since they were supposed to
+ song selection - 黄金甲 is a big no-no as an opening number; what happened to 七里香, 晴天, 星情, 爷爷泡的茶, 简单爱 and 我不配??
i shan't pick on anything else since he has such high expectations of himself.
in a word, phenomenal. we know that Jay can compose and write music, we know he can direct music videos and movies, we know he can produce fantastic albums, we know he's a born performer. but we don't exactly know Jay as one who is very smart.
it appears that nothing can beat Jay Chou and nothing can get Jay Chou down. if he has a weakness, he'll turn it into a strength (ie his mumbling). for the record, Jay Chou can sing.
but probably most importantly, Jay Chou can perform. the stage to him is like the tennis courts to Henin, Federer and Nadal (sorry, just had to make irrelevant reference to what is highly relevant to my life). i like especially the way he can anticipate what we want. in a highly competitive industry Jay Chou knows that its not enough just working hard and churning out good music, but instead, to be able to give the audience what they want even before they even realise that they want it. it appears that even though i can't remember specific details of his previous concert, he improved on all that i had thought he could've improved on.
i want to make special mention of his increased audience interaction. after Show's concert, i realised the importance of audience interaction because that is going to be what gets people high. we all know Jay Chou to be of a rather quiet and mumbly character, but we also know that this has changed in the last couple of months. yet we probably didn't expect a friendly conversation on stage lasting for close to half an hour with the nan quan ma ma guys. i liked that, and when they did their rendition of 忍者 (another song i don't like). and then the two birthday songs for the 29 year old birthday boy.
i said in my review of Show's concert that Jay Chou will never make a performance that would make people happy, but i take back my words. Jay Chou is smiling and talking, and not simply introducing himself and telling us that he's coming back in 2 years. i did say that i had sky-high expectations and that i was rather disappointed at the start. but he made a fast comeback and redeemed himself even before the concert was 1/3 through.
perhaps, wrong choice of songs for certain songs i felt he could have done without; and some he couldn't do without but he left out. but if he succeeded in making me like the live remake of songs which i didn't originally like, such as 双截棍, is that not phenomenal?
Jay Chou strives for perfection and is proud of his capabilities and achievements, but Jay Chou is not self-indulgent. i award him much respect for giving others much opportunity to shine, as well as keeping a positive relationship with others in the industry be it fellow music makers and rivals such as David Tao (who was mentioned). any one else would give their protege opportunity to shine in the form of performing time during their concerts, but Jay Chou goes further than that. Jay Chou ensures that his proteges are part of the Jay Chou brand. wherever you see Jay Chou, chances are you'll be seeing his juniors; and they'll be doing as well as him. in helping himself, Jay is helping the industry and everyone who's part of it. who can deny the imprint that Jay has made on the entertainment industry, especially in terms of the quality of the music being produced?
i feel that Jay Chou is not one to go crazy over. Jay Chou is somebody you don't constantly think about, but whom you know is the only one totally worthy of your respect and support. you don't have to consider going for a Jay Chou concert, you just go ahead and buy the tickets (bearing unforeseen circumstances such as sistic's lousy website failing or an exceptional demand for the tickets, or both; or if you can't afford it) and go for the concert because you know you're in for a good time. and you don't have to be a Jay Chou fan to enjoy his concerts (although if you're unresponsive that will affect the atmosphere, like today), because Jay Chou performs for everyone, fan or not. you know how its like to have high expecations and them not being met, but apparently that will never happen for a Jay Chou concert. or, for that matter, a Jay Chou album.
much can be debated with regards to Jay's acting and movie-directing skills, but we bear in mind that he's new, and we remember that the guy is consistently honing his skills and striving to be better than before.
Jay's so busy (他"很忙") we never know when he's going to come back, especially for another round of concerts, but we know that when the time comes he'll be worth every minute of the wait, and every cent of the ticket.
*audience tonight sucked because as mentioned, most were working adults and corporate clients whom i assumed to have sponsored tickets. so they don't know the lyrics, they don't go high, they don't want to stand up. but halfway through you start to see them warming up and they have a rocking good time too because Jay Chou is one who performs for everyone, fan or not.
took 400+ photos using an exceptionally good camera, so photos are going to be mighty clear and nice. some guy asked me to send him photos and im going to do so. photos should be updated soon (although i know i haven't even uploaded those for Show's) but i will mark them to prevent unauthorised ripping. but if you're interested in having unmarked photos though, just contact me. i promise in Jay Chou's honour i won't charge you for them.
for the record, they were smart enough to move the merchandise sales outside and after the concert. but i didn't buy cos everything was grossly overpriced. hello, some ring set for $50?? did Jay Chou touch it or what? and some cap with no mention of any reference to the concert for $15. did Jay Chou wear it or what? and the poster with nothing to do with him, just the concert logo. anyway, we were given free posters with Jay Chou's superbly shuai (cos photoshopped) face on it.
forgot to mention, Jay (looked like he's) aged. but still mighty good when it comes to performing. and that i didn't shout ye xianglun when he sang 不能说的秘密 because i forgot.
i love you Jay (:
9.5/10 in 2hrs 25min on 18/01/08 for S$201
-ZihWye Reviews-
*nb: is very tired. very very very tired. 2.18am and im online just to write this.
*post edit:
forgot to add that when he sang 听妈妈的话 they had this video clip of jacky cheung singing it (which was probably fabricated but cute nonetheless). and, before yuhao and jay had their usual 斗琴, they played this short video about yuhao (goodness i typed 'hao yuhao') watching the 牛仔很忙 video and being in love with 大妮 (the fat girl in the video). and and and how when they were doing the happy birthday chit chat, jay asked zhang jie (from nan quan ma ma) to perform their composition (a song written when they were angry with jay, apparently) and reminded them '要好好唱哦，不然他们拿着荧光棒...' and when zhang jie asked yuhao to play it on the piano, yuhao responded with a '真的很难，比萧邦还要难!'
alot of memories coming back. can't wait for the dvd to be out. truly hope they use the singapore one.
okay here i am with my third blogpost of the day because im at work with nothing to do. to be honest, there are things to do lar, just that im avoiding it cos its filing and it involves the compactus. Labels: blogshop
anyway i formally bring to you: the market structure of blogshops.
-_- i don't believe i typed that. if i really do go into the technical details of the market structure of blogshops, i will most probably bring econs to shame, so i won't. what im going to bring to you today is instead a more business-oriented discussion on how to earn money through blogshops.
i swear, the market structure in which blogshops operate is that of perfect competition. even if you are not an econs student the name already suggests that such a market structure involves much competition (oh duh) so it is very difficult to survive and actually earn because all supernormal profits will be earned away in the long run because there is perfect knowledge (i mean, how difficult is it to sign up for a blogger or wordpress or whatever account and start putting up items for sale?) and because it is literally zero cost (unless you pay for the computer and internet access purely for the blogshop; which i highly doubt).
in such a market structure firms characteristically remain small. okay this is starting to sound like an econs lecture but HEAR ME OUT. the key here, is then, to grow in size so as to increase market share. in theory it might appear to simply increase the amount of things you're selling to attract more people; but that is certainly not the case. blog shop owners have already tried this out by dealing with overseas suppliers to offer sprees and pre-orders. but i highly doubt the success of this tactic, simply because the overseas suppliers are not just teaming up with one blogshop, but many many many other blogshops. while this will mean that the blogshops teaming up with these overseas suppliers get a bigger share of the pie, the difference is still marginal. hence the best way to increase market share is to team up with other blogshop owners and merge!
but increasing market share through mergers is never easy. real, listed companies i think hold years of talks and meetings before they finally merge. in the blogshopping world, the difficulty lies in communication. not in the technicalities of it, but in the fact that people of the blogshopping world usually automatically assume you are up to no good when you try asking them anything other than purchase enquiries.
thats not even taking into consideration that most of the people behind blogshops are, short of a better term, ah lians. and no matter what you say, real true-blue ah lians are the most difficult to deal with. not only because their command of whatever language they speak sucks, but also because they are the ones who always assume you are up to no good and are going to cheat them.
in addition to increasing market share therefore, it is imperative that blogshop owners know how to portray an image that is professional and trustworthy. one way to start is to not use blogshop, wordpress or any of these free servers. most of the professional and trustworthy ones make sure they get a .com. then again, because they've to pay for bandwith and stuff, so they also have to jack up their prices to ensure they still earn.
because it is a perfectly competitive industry as i mentioned earlier, blogshops must ensure their prices are way below market standard, like what i can get at far east. in addition, blogshops must also ensure that their prices are comparable if not lower than others.
some blogshops, like our very own http://fengsales.blogspot.com/ (which is by the way due for a revamp anytime now, which explains this entry to help me pen my thoughts on what kind of strategies i should employ at what stages), have attempted to offer free normal postage. however, it appears that people do not really care too much about postage but more about the goods they are getting. free normal postage only helps you get rid of stuff on youswop.com.
in perfectly competitive industries, firms offer the exact same kind of good and/or service. this is where the blogshopping industry does not fully coincide with the description of a perfectly competitive industry. however, we know that perfectly competitive industries only exist in theory, so it is perfectly fine to describe the blogshopping industry as that of one which is very close to being perfectly competitive. (i apologize for the weak pun)
in the blogshopping industry, most blogshops are selling clothes. increasingly, with the addition of foreign suppliers entering the industry, some are selling cosmetics and even contact lenses. a few have dared to venture out of the ordinary and into putting up homemade brownies and flowers for valentine's day for sale. but people know the risks in purchasing food online, they can't sue if they get food poisoning, and even if they die, nobody will be able to trace where the food came from.
product differentiation can't get far in the blogshopping industry, thats for sure. although i once came up with a million and one different ways to make it in the blogshopping world. alright maybe just one.
last year while studying for econs mid years i came up with this plan. my blogshop would basically offer a service to other blogshops to advertise their goods, but the customers have to go through me to buy the goods, and so i will earn from the customers through commission as well as from the blogshop owners because i will charge them for advertising on my blog.
thinking back now that idea's stupid; evidently why i didn't bother try it out. firstly, everyone in the blogshopping world rely on tagboards to advertise. yes, like "visit http://fengsales.blogspot.com/ for taiwan instocks" that kind of thing (PLEASE do not click if you really intend to look at taiwan instocks because http://fengsales.blogspot.com/ does not do sprees; but then again the tagboard there has a few links). tagboards are FREE advertisement. secondly, its not like i can guarantee page hits whatsoever, so i can't entice them to pay me money to advertise their blogshop. thirdly, on my site i'd have to state which website the goods are from, so the customers can simply go to the blogshop directly and forgo the middleman stage; thereby saving on my commission.
competing in a perfectly competitive industry is difficult. especially when you rely on your competitors to advertise. there is no conclusion in this discussion - yet - because this blog entry is but one part of more to come. i have no idea what is a fine way to survive in the blogshopping industry; but if you've any ideas, you can tell me, and i can offer you some insight as to its plausibility.
-to be continued-
Sunday, December 02, 2007
罗志祥 Show Luo 一支独Show/Show On Stage 2007 Labels: 罗志祥 Show Luo 一支独Show/Show On Stage 2007
performance: 8.5/10
stage presence: 9/10
audience/atmosphere: 8/10
overall: 8.5/10 (-0.5 for rainie yang, +0.25 for mention of energy, +0.25 for imitating aaron kwok)
i loved...
+ 灰色空间，爱转角，精舞门，恋爱达人, 自我催眠
+ audience interaction (based on this alone he deserves 10/10)
+ xiaozhu antics even during the emo songs
+ sincerity
+ smiling/high-ness
+ DANCING
+ "my name is show..." and all that english!
i didn't love...
+ not being able to stand up
+ yang cheng lin
he could have improved on...
+ 花样
+ nicer songs
+ a guest star he has more chemistry with
+ structure
Show can dance, and he can sing too. but if there's one area in which he's lacking, it'll be in the kind of songs he chooses to sing/ is made to sing. his voice isn't as weak as it appears to be - otherwise 爱转角 & 灰色空间 wouldn't be so addictive.
Show is the next best thing after Jay Chou. his concert is different from others in two main ways - audience interaction and his perpetual high-ness.
being a renowned tv host, it is difficult to imagine his concert without talking and cracking of lame jokes. according to earlier reports, Show did his best to not talk much because once he starts he can't stop. but i think he did an appropriate amount of audience interaction, including the parts of the concert where he got us to sing, and his attempt to converse in english.
to be honest, much of the concert reminded me of Jay's. i'm not sure if it was the hair or the outfits but at some angles onstage he resembled Jay. but it was different because of the smile that never left his face. it wasn't the cheeky kinda smile characteristic of him, but rather the smile from within. evidently, he was happy to perform. in fact, watching him perform makes people happy. the kind of feeling that Jay Chou will never exude.
i like especially the chemistry between the dancers and Show. it was something that i've not seen anyone else achieve.
the only part that was significantly disappointing was rainie's. i should cut her some slack because she barely had any time to prepare for her performance. but she has loads to learn about performing live and onstage because she has no stage presence at all. zilch. zero.
Show could've improved on the structure of the concert cos it seemed messy - the middle part was not as fun as the beginning. like, you get damn high, then rainie yang spoils it, and it gets worse cos the flirting with dancers part was terribly boring.
i had expected to sit down for the entire concert, but i changed my mind the moment the concert started because the fans were damnnn high, and Show was even high-er. with much regrets i sat among people who sung and cheered but didn't stand up (cos they are 'vips'). (so i couldn't stand too) and... there were alot of apparent celebrities who came late for the concert.
-digress- "hello, who are you to come late and leave halfway when he's singing 爱转角?!" i say apparent because they are the members of the local entertainment industry that includes alot of people whom we think are very nice people. there were people having fan photo taking sessions outside indoor stadium. its called 一支独Show for a reason, he's the Show, not you.
i also want to mention the part during which he got a member of the audience onstage to be his 'girlfriend' cos it was the first time the randomly picked seat was that of a guy's. the poor guy went onstage and was damn awkward throughout the entire 5min.
in conclusion the concert was like anything better than what i had expected. SHOW LUO DID A GOOD JOB. i have sky-high expectations of 18 jan 2008 and i wonder if Mr Jay Chou will be able to meet them. but in any case i will definitely buy Show's concert dvd.
btw, i can't chant 罗志祥 for nuts, it just doesn't sound as catchy as 周杰伦!
罗志祥 "一支独Show" / Show Luo "Show On Stage" 2007
-ZihWye reviews-
Saturday, September 15, 2007
The first similarity that often comes to mind when we think about the two concepts of morality and law would arguably be that they both work to define what is right and what is wrong... Labels: law and morality
how's that?
Friday, May 04, 2007
Discuss your personal view on the problem of free will and determinism Labels: determinism, free will
I believe that complete free will does not exist. However, significant elements of the concept of free will are essentially subsets of determinism. In this sense, I subscribe to both concepts of free will and determinism.
Determinism is defined as the idea that whatever happens occurs as a result of natural laws, a divine plan, or human nature. In other words, the notion of determinism advocates that our actions are subject to the rules of cause and effect. Determinism is the theory that all human action is caused entirely by preceding events, and not by the exercise of choice. It is based on the metaphysical principle that an uncaused event is impossible. In simple terms, the determinist argues that firstly, every event must have a cause. Human actions are events, and since thus, human actions must have a cause.
Determinism is well-illustrated in a popular example involving neuroscience. This case involves a man who reportedly became a paedophile because he had brain tumour. The life of this “gentle and intelligent” 40-year old school teacher first started going haywire five years back. Utterly unlike his usual self, he started visiting paedophiliac websites and making sexual advances to his young stepdaughter. His wife had him arrested for child molestation. Prior to going to jail, he complained of severe headaches. A benign tumour – size of an egg – was subsequently discovered in his bran. After an operation to remove the tumour, his paedophiliac urges vanished and he returned to the person he was before. Last year, the tumour reportedly came back and along came his paedophiliac urges. He has since had a second operation and is seemingly back to his old decent self. Doctors theorized that the tumour restricted blood supply to the area of his brain associated with impulse control.
This example illustrates determinism in the sense that this man has been said to not have had the will to choose his action (to be paedophiliac) but instead was subject to biological influences which were totally not under his control. It was these biological influences (the growth of the tumour) which reportedly made him a paedophile.
That science seems to eventually find a cause for everything supports the case for determinism.
Furthermore, it is commonly assumed as part of daily life that everything has a cause. We believe that every event has a cause (the issue of universal causality).
We can speak of evidence against determinism in relating our personal experiences with choice. For many events occurring in our daily life, we do not feel compelled to undertake an action. We feel that we could have chosen how we wanted to react to the circumstances.
On the other hand, Free will is the capacity of rational agents to choose from a course of action from various alternatives. It is commonly agreed amongst most philosophers that the concept of free will is very closely connected to the concept of moral responsibility.
An example of free will is evident in the following news article. In 2003, BBC News published a article, “Genes 'hold clue to cancer lifestyles'”. In this article, Dr Jonathan Chick, a consultant psychiatrist at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, who specialises in alcohol problems, told BBC News Online that regardless of the influence of genes, free will still played an important role. He said: “There is no genetic condition that completely removes free will with respect to drinking or smoking.” His stand was supported by Dr John Maule, a psychologist who specialises in how humans make decisions, who said that it was "implausible" to put too much emphasis on the role of genes in unhealthy living.
He told BBC News Online: “In younger people, certainly, it's much more about conforming, fitting in with other groups of young people - which seems to me to be quite far removed from a theory that everything is predetermined, and that you're either a risky person or a non-risky person.”
The argument here is thus that the ultimate motivation in propelling one to take an action is not uncontrollable factors such as biological influences. There is essentially an element of choice.
Common sense (and more importantly, the Darwinian Evolution) suggests that we do in fact have Free Will to decide and determine our futures within the limits of physical reality.
Determinism rejects our knowledge of being 'free' - our concept of freedom; in the sense that under the definition of determinism, all actions that we undertake are the result of cause and effect. This consequently means that we do not have control, or at least full control, over our actions. Our knowledge of freedom is challenged under the concept of determinism.
Determinism suggests that we have been ‘preset’ to live our lives in a certain manner, and that we have no control over it. In other words, determinism implies that man is ultimately just a puppet.
In stark contrast to determinism, free will supports our knowledge of the concept of freedom. Under the concept of free will, we know that all our actions are a result of our choices, and not pre-determined influences.
As determinism is against the concept of free will, it also rejects the notion of right and wrong, good and evil and moral responsibility, all of which stem from the concept that we are free to choose our actions.
The problem of whether we have free will or are all our actions pre-determined and is our apparent free will simply an illusion, therefore, is profoundly critical to humanity because the answer to this question will tell us whether we can determine our own future, and whether the concept of morality truly exists.
In conclusion, I personally subscribe to both concepts of determinism and free will. I believe that complete free will does not exist, but parts of the concept are essentially subsets of determinism.
I simply cannot reject the notion that it is highly possible that any action I take is a result of my biological make-up, or a divine plan that controls my life. I cannot be certain that I am not typing this essay because a growth in my brain makes me inclined to doing any assigned homework. Similarly, I cannot be sure that I am in full control of whatever I am typing; I cannot say with full certainty that it is not an external, divine force which controls all my actions. Because in the first place, I cannot, and neither can anyone, be sure that I have not been created just like the way we create characters out of computer games, and that I am not under the complete control of something else other than my brain.
I may feel that I have full control over the decisions I make – ranging from my subject combination in school to my lunch choice. But I do not know for sure that I am in control. I cannot say with certainty that I am a thinking object, because I may feel that I am thinking, but I may not be truly thinking.
May I propose a daring idea – we have been pre-determined to be able to make our own choices (hence that the concept of free will is part of determinism). If the concept of free will were to be part of determinism, the fact that biological influences may remove one’s propensity towards free will is still acceptable.
With regards to the problem of determinism and free will, the concept of freedom will not be acceptable by my understanding. Our knowledge of being ‘free’ is therefore non-existent. Hence, complete free will does not exist.
However, as mentioned above, the concept of choice and thus the notion of right and wrong, good and evil and moral responsibility are not unacceptable. We have been determined to have free will.
Bibliography
Free Will and Responsibility: How Free Are We?
Do we really have Free Will?
Philosophy: Free Will and Determinism
Writings on Free Will
“A Head for Trouble” Time Magazine – 9 July 2006
essay written on 3rd april 2007 for ki.
its on this blog because its the first essay i've passed this entire year. and i'm seriously damn happy considering how they almost forced me to drop ki.
i will continue to improve. haha.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Of grades, JC and poly routes. Labels: grades, junior college, poly
This entry assumes the comprehension of the articles published in the Sunday Times (18 March 2007) regarding the lack of spaces in polytechnics for O'level holders.
Pardon my plunge into the topic without a proper introduction.
Basically this problem of a lack of space at our polytechnics for the O'level holders who didn't do as well as their peers (e.g. 19 points compared to 9 points) stems from the very fundamental problem of our education system; which assumes - somewhat illogically - that in order to succeed or to get what we want, we must do well academically.
It is with this assumption that the school posting system ranks all O'level holders according to their grades (starting with the straight A1s) and then posting the students to their desired educational institution according to their grades. In a nutshell, if you get straight A1s, your possibility of getting your first choice is alot higher than if you got straight A2s, or even more so if you got a mixture of A1s, A2s, B3s like yours truly. And certainly more so if you got largely Bs and Cs.
A student interviewed by the Sunday Times said she or he deserved the place in the polytechnic because she/he, having 9 points, did well as compared to the others who got 19 points and lost that place in the polytechnic. If my memory does not fail me, the student said something to the same effect of "just too bad for them because its a competitive world we live in. I did well so naturally I deserve my first choice, whatever it may be."
Yes everyone, this is the kind of young people we are breeding here in our comfortable island of Singapore. Everything is all about competition, its all about survival. Ooooh don't remind me about this word or I might just lapse into morality issues.
As much as we want to be competitive as a global economy, as a global city, as a major player in the world economy blah blah blah, is this the kind of people we want to bring up? It seems pretty apparent that in their minds, all that matters is what they themselves achieve. And what's worse is that we judge people according to their academic capability. Oh you scored 9 A1s at O'levels, so certainly you deserve your first choice more than someone who got 3 B3s and 4C5s. Do you know what this means? This means that we value people according to the grades they achieve at national examinations!
And this also means that just because I got a mix of Bs and Cs at O'levels, I deserve my first choice less than someone who got all As, which also means that just because I got a mix of Bs and Cs, I don't deserve to get what i want if someone who gets all As happen to want the same thing as I do.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say that its wrong for the top students to go into the top JCs and leaving no space for people like me - who honestly wouldn't mind a place in a top JC. Naturally, we want the top people to go to the top schools and the not-so-top people to go to the not-so-top schools. Its not just about how good the schools are, but also because at different schools they teach at different paces to suit the needs of the different students. But here we discuss the issue about students who arguably are expected to enter JCs taking up the spaces in polytechnics originally intended for the students who didn't do well enough to enter JCs.
We can't fault the students who got 9 points but wish to go to polytechnics. We can't ask them to go to JCs. The thing about polytechnics is that they are for, apart from the people who can't make it to JCs, the people who know what they want and may achieve it through the poly route. The fact is that JCs are for people who aren't sure of what they want yet, or for people who want to enter university faculties such as medicine or law, which do not have poly alternatives.
And regarding the prestige of being in a JC - I see none. Unless you are in a top JC, there's no reason why being in a JC would make you better of than someone in a poly. The A'level certificate certainly isn't more valuable than any poly diploma. And it certainly isn't true that the A'level syllabus is very appealing either.
Lastly, it makes more sense to go to poly if it offers the course I'm interested in. Polytechnics - from what I understand from them - work according to a modular system. Students in polys do not have to consistently mug and cram stuff for year-end examinations, nor do they sit a national examination at the end of their course and get this - COMPETE against each other - to decide who's good and who isn't.
Ok, digressed abit too much.
Let me go back to my point about competition.
Competition is good because it leaves no place for complacency. We are all forced to work at our maximum levels and achieve the best we can. But we have to understand that not all of us are academically inclined, and forcing the academically inclined and not inclined to compete against each other in academic ways is NOT RIGHT.
And it certainly doesn't hold that just because one had 9 points at O'levels means he or she would make a better engineer/optometerist/businessman/banker/paralegal/etc than someone who achieved 19 points.
Thanks to all the blogs i referred to (countless) for html code help :) (esp. cyn' and sixseven)
Adobe Photoshop Elements for supernatural abilities
