Saturday, July 25, 2009

Poem - The lesson by Roger McG, teacher style

Chaos ruled OK in the staff room
as bravely the student walked in
the teachers ignored him
his voice was lost in the din.

The homework for today is violence
and a test will be set
We're going to teach you a lesson
one that you will never forget.

One picked on the student
and throttled him here and there
another garrotted the student
(he was held up in the air)

Sword in his hand, the next teacher hacked the student
between the chattering rows.
First come, first severed, he declared
fingers, feet and toes

They threw a sword at another student
it cleaved her right into two
Then pulling out their guns,
The rest joined in the fray too

The blasts cleared the worksheets
(they were happy they were gone)
They burned amidst the chaos
Their work was gone

Please, may I leave the room?
a trembling student enquired
Of course you may, said a teacher
She put her gun to his head and fired

The head popped a head round the staff room
to see why a din was made
ran away immediately
then got shot by the rampant teachers

And when the ammo was well spent,
with blood everywhere
silence shuffled forth
with its hands up in the air

The teachers surveyed the carnage
the dying and the dead
they waggled their fingers
Now let that be a lesson, they said

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

lesson 5

The first poem is very descriptive, it depicts a person going into a casino, losing then whining.
It is probably quite true, as gamblers will usually whine when they lose.

The second poem describes a person gambling, then losing his money. He continues to play as he wanted to recover his loses, but to no avail whatsoever, and to also get revenge and humiliate his opponent.

The third poem depicts how dangerous it is to put all your eggs in one basket, a term used to describe placing all of your valuables, assets, etc. into one area. The gambler uses his one and only dollar to bet on number 13, and loses the bet. He loses all of his money and does not have any money for food and other things.

lesson 4 - part two - paper by Cathrine Lim

The story depicts a man, who desperately wanted to own a huge house, gambling in a more uncommon and unheard of form -- shares.

He and his wife live in a terrace with his mother. The man and his family are all saving up their money to save up money to fulfil their dream of having their dream house. Only the man's mother was unsupportive.

The man then turned to shares to gather the money required. He was successful at first. They were making loads of money. But towards the end, their shares plummeted, leaving them close to bankruptcy.

The man eventually dies leaving his wife, children and mother. and an unfulfilled dream.

The man's mother decided to hire a person to make a house in exactly the same specifications and features as her son pictured the house to be. Except that it was made in paper.

The house was to be burnt to 'send' it to her son in heaven.

The man was driven mad by his desire to build his dream house. He was so set on it that he sacrificed everything just to make it possible. In the end, when he realised that he was unable to do so, he gave up his life.

leeson 4 - rocking horse winner ( copied and pasted on wikispaces when I have access to the discussion)

I feel that Paul's parents, Uncle Oscar and Bassets were responsible for Paul's death.

First, let us start with Paul's parents.

They have high standards of living, wanting to indulge in the most expensive of things. Things that they cannot really afford. Hence, the need for money in the family. Paul was driven so insane by the family's need for money caused by his parents, that in order to make his parents happy and to get rid of the sound of the house ' saying ' that ' we need more money.'

Next, is Uncle Oscar.

When he realised that Paul was winning repeatedly, instead of convincing Paul that gambling leads to addiction, he forged a partnership with Paul, volunteering to be partners with Paul, exploiting his luck in the horse races and helping him keep his money. He was adding fuel to the flames of Paul's gambling addiction.

Lastly, is Bassets

He was one of the main reasons of Paul's addiction. He volunteered to help Paul bet on the races and was also exploiting Paul's uncanny ability to predict the winner of the horse races to make some extra money. He started Paul's addiction by helping him bet.

lesson 6 - lotteries and gambling

First, to answer the question, I would condemn the construction of a casino in Singapore.

Casinos were supposed to be a money maker for governments and the owners of the casinos and to create jobs for people. However, people have abused this 'form of entertainment' and started gambling, thinking that it could actually help them make lots of money.

Many Singaporeans who have lower incomes want to strike it big and obtain large amounts of money in a short amount of time or with little effort. Hence, they turn to gambling in lotteries or casinos in the hopes that they will help them fulfil their dreams of being rich.

Unfortunately, some of them win at first, causing them to think that gambling is the way to go. When they later start losing, they will want to recoup their losses and keep on gambling until their funds have been depleted. This is evident as shown in the quote from Johnny W. found below:

'After awhile, the winnings I was getting wasn't enough. I always wanted more. I found myself going in. If i had i had to leave, i found myself to going back in at every opportunity.
But in the winnings, I started to lose as well. The more I lost, the more I found myself wanting to get back my losses more.'

Gambling addicts often find themselves in a financial crisis or in trouble with their family or loan sharks. They borrow money from them in order to attempt to get back their losses. However, more often than not, they fail to do so, and end up owing the loan sharks money.

Hence, I condemn the building of casinos in Singapore as they can cause a terrible predicament to themselves and their family and land themselves in debts.