“The death penalty is murder and should be abolished.” Do you agree?

Capital punishment also known as the death penalty is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. Capital punishment can be carried out through various ways such as hanging, lethal injection, etc. The main reason behind this capital punishment was to punish the criminal as well as to appease the victim’s family.

One reason on why the death penalty should be abolished beacause it is just the same as murder. The only difference is that the execution of the convict is carried out in a lawful manner. As it is said, two wrongs does not make a right. What use is it to execute the convicted only after he has commited the crime? Furthurmore, the reason given for the death penalty is that the criminal is a threat to society which should be eliminated. However, if the convict is in jail, he would now be of no threat, so there is no reason to execute him. Some say that capital punishment may lead to irreversible miscarrages of justice and that it violates and denies the rights of the convict.

Some might argue that capital punishment serves as a deterrence to others as they would think twice before committing a crime. They would be afraid of the consequences if they had committed a crime. However, statistics have shown that deterrence has little effect in decreasing capital crime. Some criminals have no choice while others are strong willed, therefore, they would not be deterred easily.

In conclusion, i believe that the death penalty should be abolished as it denies our basic rights as human beings. I believe that criminals should be given a second chance in life and not have their precious life thrown away. Therefore, the death penalty should be abolished.

Consider the merits and demerits of censorship and explain why it is un/necessary

Censorship is the removal or withholding of information from the public by a controlling group or body. Typically censorship is done by governments, religious groups, or the mass media, although other forms of censorship exist. Censorship is not a new concept at all, it was already being practiced during ancient times.

Reasons on why censorship is necessary include the intention to protect children and weak minded from offensive materials such as pornography, violence, etc. If children are exposed to all these, they might grow up with wrong values inculcated in them and might poise to be a threat to society.

Some might argue otherwise as censorship only delays the time children get exposed to the real world as they would eventually do. This could lead to curiosity and children would find means of obtaining information on topics such as sex through various sources such as the internet.

Censorship also helps to maintain peace and national security. Racial issues are very sensitive in Singapore. Imagine a video leaked showing a certain race being discriminated against. This would cause chaos and could eventually lead to racial riots which would result in instability of our country. Therefore, censorship is needed to prevent this from happening.

In conclusion, I believe that censorship is necessary as the benefits would outweigh some of the problems that would arise from it.

How does the media and its subjective perception affect the way this incident is handled?

In society nowadays, the media has a lot of influence among the public. It is not only able to feed us with the information about major events happening all around the world, but also manipulate the viewers at the same time. So, should we believe everything the media reports? The information that we get may not be as accurate as you think it would be. The media has the ability to show us some parts of events and therefore, we are unable to get the entire picture.

In the case of this incident, the media has chosen to depict our swimmers in bad light. They showed our swimmers smiling at the disqualification of the American team. This would give the viewers the impression that our swimmers are mocking them for their mistake. However, in reality, our swimmers were only smiling in shock and had no intention whatsoever in celebrating their disqualification in the competition. This incident shows that the media is very subjective in its perception and has no desire to get to the bottom of things. This resulted in this controversy in the first place.

In conclusion, the media and its subjective perception can cause a lot of problems as the viewers may be upset to see what they show. This incident is one good example.