Do you think the Merlion would make the best national icon to represent Singapore?

A national icon is important as it gives us a sense of belonging whenever we see it. Examples of the national icons are the Staue Of Liberty and Merlion. A national icon represents a country and relates to it. For example, whenever anyone mentions the 'merlion', many would interpret it is Singapore, since it is well Knowned as the national icon of Singapore. This clearly shows that the merlion is a significant structure of Singapore and it is very important to Singapore.

The body of the merlion symbolises Singapore's humble beginnings as a fishing village when it was called Temasek, meaning 'sea town' in Old Javanese. Its head represents Singapore’s original name, Singapura, or ‘lion city’ in Malay. Today, you can glimpse this legend at Merlion Park. Spouting water from its mouth, the Merlion statue stands tall at 8.6 metres and weighs 70 tonnes.

This icon is a ‘must-see’ for tourists visiting Singapore, similar to other significant landmarks around the world.

Symbolic Meaning
The lion is significant as Singapore's name is derived from the old Sanskrit term simha or singha, meaning "lion". The symbol in the icon represents courage, strength and excellence. It is in solid red against a white background, a reflection of the colours of the national flag. 

Its mane's five partings represents the five ideals -- democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality. These are the same ideals as embodied in the five stars of the national flag. The lion's tenacious mien symbolises the nation's single-minded resolve to face any challenges and overcome any obstacles.

The lion head was chosen as a logo, as it best captures, the characteristics of Singapore's reputation as a Lion City. It was introduced in 1986 as Singapore's alternative national icon. 

Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty resulted in the economic growth of China. This is because the Silk Road was opened during the Tang Dynasty. The Silk Road allowed people from the west to trade with China, maintaining their good relationship as well as grow as a country economically. Like singapore, during the Tang Dynasty, their relationship is maintained well with the West. I think that the main similarity between the Tang Dynasty and Singapore that can be obviously seen is that we grew economically because we opened up trade. In the past, Singapore was a port for traders to stop by. That was the main factor that caused Singapore to become such a successful country. Also, in the Tang Dynasty, there were many educated people that caused many businesses to successfully happen. Just like the Tang Dynasty, Singapore is well educated and most of us are bilingual and we can speak in English and Chinese. This allows us to be able to communicate with countries that are economically rich such as China.

Reflection On Suzhou Industrial Park

To make Suzhou Industrail Park happen, Singapore and China collaborated and established it, However, at that time, there was another park built that Suzhou Industrial Park had to compete with. Because of the new park, Suzhou Industrial Park suffered much loss. This resulted in Singapore losing much money as well. Although China had a part of Suzhou Industrail Park, Singapore held the larger share of the park, hence it affected Singapore more. Also, China had other parks that could compensate the loss they made from Suzhou Industrial Park. Through this incident, I think Singapore has also learnt that we should actually think and plan twice before making a decision so as to not make a loss. Nevertheless, we have already learnt our lessons about businesses and we will not make the same mistake twice. Instead of losing, we will make profits instead.

Reflections

Process on preparing speech

Preparing the speech was quite a difficult thing to do since I had nothing much to talk about chili crab. However, i started to think out of the box and think what is really the exact reason I chose the chili crab to represent singapore. This is when I realised it's because chili crab is so significant to singapore that I had to choose that picture. 

Presentation 

I think I stuttered quite a lot because I kept forgetting my points. I also kept looking at my script since I was not confident enough. I think I should have prepared more so I can stop relying on my script

How you think class did 

Overall the class did well. However, I think that we should try to refrain from relying on scripts since it made us look unconfident. 

Reflection on China's economy growth

 Since initiating market reforms in 1978, China has shifted from a centrally planned to a market based economy and experienced rapid economic and social development. GDP growth averaging about 10 percent a year has lifted more than 500 million people out of poverty.

With a population of 1.3 billion, China recently became the second largest economy and is increasingly playing an important and influential role in the global economy.

Yet China remains a developing country （its per capita income is still a fraction of that in advanced countries）and its market reforms are incomplete. Official data shows that about 98.99 million people still lived below the national poverty line of RMB 2,300 per year at the end of 2012. With the second largest number of poor in the world after India, poverty reduction remains a fundamental challenge.  

Singapore may be implicated since many of us will move to China to do business because of China's economy growth. This will cause us to have less business people in Singapore. 

Comments on Group 3's Presentation

Group 3's presentation was great and the 'advertisement' that was made as a skit caught my attention as it was funny and loud enough. The skit was interesting and caught my attention because it was quite silly but the ideas were clearly shown. However, I think that not all the members participated in the skit and the skit would be even better if all the members participates

Life in 2020

Life in 2020 due to aging population

 I feel that in the 2020, the number of elderlys will increase and the number of young people will decrease. This is because, nowadays, people on singapore tend to prefer a smaller family, which can lead to couples having less and less children. Hence, this may lead to an aging population. The number of  people in the workforce will decrease, hence, retirement ages will increase as there will be a lack of workers to increase the economic of singapore. The productivity and economic growth will also decrease since there are less workers. The young people will have to work harder to support the elderlys and more facilities must be built to support to the elderlys. More hospitals must be built to support the elderlys who have weaker bones in general and they are more prone to injuries unlike the young people. Young people will also have the pay higher taxes since there are less people paying taxes. The work load on the young people will be much heavier as there are more elderlys than the working population.

Poverty in Singapore

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Poverty in Singapore is commonly seen. From streets to outside mrt stations or outside the malls.

Poverty can be shown in the form of old people selling tissue papers to earn money or collecting newspapers or cardboards to sell them.

Most old people that sells tissue paper appear outside the mrt and in coffee shops. They would buy packets of tissue papers and sell them at a higher price to earn a living. The old people are probably people who lost their families and have to earn money themselves. There are also cases when people cannot find a job. Because they need money to eat or buy necessities, they have to find a job. However, it is now difficult to find jobs as there will be certain job requirements. People may not be able to reach the job requirement and hence cannot get the job. Therefore they have to collect newspapers, cardboard, or other recyclable materials from the neighbourhood to earn money.

December Holiday Reflection

I spent my holiday going for CCA, staying at home and traveling to Phuket. I enjoyed traveling to Phuket the most because I get to see a relaxing part of the world. Phuket has many road side stores where they sell food like fried banana, fried fish and many others. In Phuket, the beaches are relaxing because it is very clean and the sceneries are very nice. I had a lot of different experiences in Phuket such as Wakeboarding, shooting a real gun and so on. At first, wake boarding seemed really scary to me as I have never tried it before. However, after riding it for a few times it was not as scary. Although I kept falling into the water, it was definitely a fun experience for me. I also went shooting and realised that what I thought about shooting was different from what it felt like. The gun was very big and very heavy. When the gun shoots, it is very loud and therefore I have to wear ear gear. The gun was also very hot. In conclusion, I had many new experiences in Phuket and it was a really fun family trip.