Amanda and Ying Jia newspaper article response

Singapore is at a crossroads in its management of wild monkeys, and to cull or not to cull these native creatures has emerged as a key question. The public feedback on monkeys, mostly complaints and related to safety and nuisance concerns, fell sharply from 1,860 instances in 2013 to just 750 last year because the Agricultural-Food and Veterinary (AVA) killed about 570 monkeys, about a third of the estimated population at that time. 

I feel that it's inhuman and cruel to kill monkeys even though there are overpopulation. They are living things and have feelings like us even though they cannot communicate like us. Just because they cannot communicate with us, it doesn't mean that we can slaughter them whenever we want to. There are other methods to actually cut down on this animals' population, such as, sending to other countries etc..  Even if they possess harm, that is just because they do not have such high IQ like us and are unable to make rational decision. Whether there are an overpopulation or not, we should not be killing those innocent animal.

Personal Response to "Is illegal downloading stealing?"

Is Illegal downloading really stealing?

Summary:Many millions of people throughout the world will illegally download the fifth season of Game of Thrones,released today by HBO.Legally speaking,what they will be doing is a violation of intellectual property rights,or "piracy".Intellectual property rights are important means by which people gain profit from the effort they put into the production of creative works.They can earn profit in this way and it provides an important incentive for them to engage in socially useful productive activity.

Response:Personally,I feel that people should not download a file of someone's copyrighted property wihtout permission.By downloading something from one's copyrighted property,it is considered illegal and morally wrong.The artists that created the files paid a lot of money and yet people just got the file without any payment.It is certainly very unfair to the artists.It is equivalent to stealing something from a store.Without a doubt,one would face the same music as getting caught stealing in a shop when caught downloading illegal files.

-Jing Chun and Audrey :)

Personal Response to "Is illegal downloading really stealing?"

Summary: This article briefly says that millions of people all over the world are illegally downloading songs, movies and even TV series from the internet. Are these people doing anything morally wrong?  For some, they consider illegal downloading to be a victimless crime and do not think it imposes significant cost one anyone. However, some believe that illegal downloading is indeed stealing as they think that it is similar to common theft, the owner of the property is entirely deprived of it's use as well as his ability to share it and dispose of it as he chooses, his gain your loss.

Personal response: We feel that illegal downloading is stealing. Theft is taking something from someone who is the rightful owner without their permission. It doesn’t matter if the rightful owner keeps an original version or not. If one is to download digital material such as music or movies from an unofficial source without the permission of the owner, it is considered as stealing. The only way you can get the right to download a digital material is via a legal transaction from which the rights owner can make a profit. When the owner produce a digital material, it is their property, in this case “intellectual property”. Property means that the owner has the right to ask something from you in exchange for you gaining access to the music. This may be money transaction, it may also be the requirement that you clearly recognize the artist’s moral right to always be mentioned as the creator of that song. 

- Huiying and Shiqing

Personal Response to the article 'To cull or not to cull pesky monkeys'

Summary: The article states that the for the first time, the complaints about monkeys in Singapore have plunged. The public feedback on monkeys, mostly complaints related to safety and nuisance concerns, fell sharply from 1860 in 2013 to just 750 last year. This was achieved by the extensive culling of the monkeys. In 2013, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority killed about 570 monkeys, about a third of the estimated population. 

Response: I do not agree with the culling of monkeys. It is a cruel way to control the population, and I think that these animals should not be killed. Though the population needs to be managed, culling need not be necessary. There are alternative methods that can be used as well, which could perhaps achieve the same result, such as herding monkeys away from homes and sterilization. Also, if we could all play our part and stop feeding the monkeys, fewer monkeys would be drawn to the residential areas to search for food and there will be lesser problems and nuisance caused.

~Yan Yang & Fiona

My personal response to the article 'To cull or not to cull pesky monkeys'

Summary: Singapore is at its crossroads in its management of wild monkeys-to cull or not to cull. Extensive culling of monkeys lately led to complaints about monkeys falling sharply but some people say it was due to other reasons such as installation of monkey-proof bins etc. They are searching for more data about monkey population, and alternative methods that are more humane such as sterilization.

Personally, I disagree with the culling of monkeys. No matter how much trouble they have caused, we should not resort to such cruel methods as they are also living creatures. They may become endangered in the future. We can use other alternative methods which may achieve the same desired results instead such as installation of monkey-proof bins, campaigns to get people to stop feeding them and monkey-herding. However, this will mean more inconvenience for people living in those areas with wild monkeys. They need to take extra precaution to prevent monkeys from disturbing them. Perhaps they can also keep their food out of sights from the monkeys and try not to provoke them. I think they should take the responsibility of doing those things because they chose to live in that place. In addition, it is heartening to know that complaints about wild monkeys are falling and many Singaporeans do care about animals. 

-Andy, An Ni

"Create buddy system to support scholarship holders."

Brief Summary : 

• Writer thinks that an interview with psychologists can be conducted regularly throughly the duration of scholarship 
• This can be instituted to keep track of students well being 
• Peers are in best position to provide feedback on a scolarship holder mental health 
• Buddy system could provide invaluable support , when scolarship students face serious problems , before situation deteriorates 

Response to significant points : 

  

      I agree with the writer that an interview with psychologists will give a more complete picture of each applicant. This is their field of expertise and they are able to determine the applicant's personality and mental health status much better than a screening test. Definetely, such constant interviews will make it easier to track the applicant's well being. 

    Also, a big part of a student's life is his peers and they are definelty in the correct and best position to provide feedback on the mental health of the scholarship holder. As such, I agree with the buddy system. Peers can indeed provide invaluable support and can help the scholarship holder to face many difficulties that may appear. In school, friends are what we look forward to, they are our family outside of home. They are the first people we would turn to to share our problems and to ask to have fun with. The scholarship holders are under a lot of pressure and their buddy can help to relieve that large amount stress. Thus, the buddy system will definetely benefit the scholarship holders. 

YingYing (06) Sher Yee (21)

To cull or not to cull pesky monkeys

The Straits Times Thursday, April 16

Summary

Singapore is at a crossroads in its managing of wild monkeys, and to cull or not cull these native creatures has emerged as a key question. Complaints on monkeys has dropped from 1860 to 750. This sharp decrease can be due to culling and other reasons like monkey-proof bins and campaigns that encourages people to stop feeding the monkeys.

Response

I think that we should not cull the monkeys. Although monkeys can be a nuisance and cause a lot of trouble, there are many other ways to reduce their population. As mentioned in the articles, monkey-proof bins is one of the best methods in my opinion. When the monkeys are unable to obtain food from the bins, they will usually move to another area. If all residential areas used these kind of bins, the monkeys will move to places like MacRitchie trails and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Thus, the monkeys' population can then be controlled.

Jiakai and Jinhua