Second book review

Harry Potter is going through his six year in Hogwarts. This year was important because it prepares Harry Potter to fight the Dark magic in the future. After five years of preparing and studying all the magic skills, Harry Potter and Professor Dumbledore study about Lord Voldemort past to know on how to defeat him and his followers known as the death eaters. Harry potter had suspected that his friend, Malfoy are working closely with Lord Voldemort to kill Harry potter and others. When Harry potter was going through his first lesson with Professor Slughorn, He received a book about potion making that was previously owned by a person who called himself the ‘Half-blood prince’. Harry and Professor Dumbledore still tries to find an object that could help them in defeating Lord Voldemort.

I choose Professor Dumbledore because he had helped Harry a lot of times ever since Harry just entered Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore had also been looking out for Harry and protecting him from Lord Voldemort.

I do not agree on the usage of euthanasia. No one has the right to take other people’s life. For example, if a person has illness that could not be cured, we should not end their life because it is not up to us to decide whether the person should die or to continue living. All this is up to God to decide. Euthanasia is not allowed in Singapore. I hope that it will stay that way because as I said, It is not up to us to decide whether a person should live or die.

'What does it mean to be a Singaporean'

To me, Singapore is very special. The reason is that although there are many races in Singapore, Singapore had not faced any racial riots for a long time. And also, even though Singapore is a small country, Singapore technology had been similarly advanced to other countries such as USA. Singapore had done a lot of things for us. For example, now we get to live under a proper shelter, we get proper education, jobs and many more. Singapore had given the citizens many opportunities to be a successful citizen. In return, I would try to my best to study hard so that I could help Singapore in the future. If I were given the opportunity to leave Singapore in hope for a better future, I would like to, so that I could learn more about countries around the world, but I will try my best to contribute back to the country.

DRAFT 3

Kannan lives in a peaceful village in Sri Lanka. During that time, he was just a mere teenager. He led a simple life. Every day, after Kannan return from school, he would help his parents. He was brought up and taken care by both of his parents. One day, when he was looking at how the leaves and branches swayed in the breeze, He wished that he would lead a peaceful life forever. However, what he wished for might not be happening.

In 1948, when Sri lanka had gained independence, the government had introduced the Ceylon citizenship act. These act had made a lot of Indian tamils to be stateless, including Kannan’s family. These had made Kannan’s family to suffer as they did not have basic rights such as education, jobs and also housing. His family had lived in poverty for quite a long time. Both of his parents had to work in tea plantations and did not have enough money to support the family.

Kannan’s family had gone through a hard time while he was growing up. His family had lived in poverty ever since he was a child. One day, he heard that a militant group was formed. It was called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE). The Tamil Tigers wanted an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of Sri Lanka by using force against the Sri Lankan government. Kannan wanted to join the Tamil Tigers. His intention was to have revenge on the Sinhalese for what they had done to his family. Before that, he needed to ask for his parents permission and advice. Just as his parents were resting from a hard day’s work, Kannan came to them to talk about the decision that he was going to make.

“Ma, have you heard the news? About the Tamil Tigers?” asked Kannan.

“Yes, a friend of mine told me about that, why?” She responded.

Kannan replied, “I will just go straight to the point, I wish to join them”

There was a long pause. Neither one had spoken a word. Kannan’s mom shook her head. Suddenly, tears were running down her cheeks. Kannan knew that her mom had refused to let him go. Kannan took off without saying a word. Kannan’s family did not know where Kannan had gone to, but her mom knew that her son had left to join the Tamil Tigers.

Since then, Kannan’s parents had not heard about their son. Lots of riot broke out during 1981 to 1983 between the government force and the Tamil tigers. Kannan had fought for the Tamil Tigers for a very long time. Unfortunately, Kannan found out that his parents were killed due to an explosion. Kannan had become more angrier as he thought that the government force were responsible for his parents death.

During the July 1983 riot, Kannan’s close friend was shot. When he was dying, Kannan was by his side. His close friend later admitted that he was the one who had thrown a hand grenade and killed Kannan’s parents, but it was accidental. Just as his close friends drew out his last breath, Kannan was shot in the back. In his last seconds, his only wish was that the war would end and he could see his parents again.

Totto-chan book review

The story is about a little girl called ‘Totto-chan’ who is going through her school life. Totto-chan was expelled from her previous school and she was posted to a school called Tomoe Gakuen. Her new school was very unique and different from other schools. For example, the headmaster of the school, Mr Kobayashi, teaches things that other schools do not. Totto-chan finds the school rather interesting and she loves the school. During World War 2, the school was bombed and was never rebuilt again. Mr Kobayashi aim was to build the school again but that never happened because He had died.
I had learn that we should try our very best to make our school life interesting, so that we could learn things in a more fun way. Every day, there will be something new for us to learn and we must continue to keep learning as it would help us in the future. I would recommend this book to other people because it shows us how important learning is.

In July, A riot had taken placed in the City of Urumqi between the Muslim Uighurs and the Han Chinese. Both ethnic races had conflict against each other ever since July. It all started when two Muslim Uighurs were killed in a dormitory by a Han Chinese workers. These had led to a riot where over 600 people had died. I feel that these two races should try to resolve their problems by peaceful way instead of having riots. The police of Xinjiang should try to prevent more fights from happening so that no more innocent people would get killed.

History of Sri Lanka.

· Sri lanka was colonized by the British between 1796 to 1948. During the British rule, it was known as Ceylon.

· Different types of race in Sri lanka. (eg.)

-Sri lankan tamil

-Indian tamil

-Moor

-Sinhala

The majority of people in Sri lanka are Sinhalese

Most of the Tamils are located in, Batticaloa , which is in the eastern side of Sri Lanka.

Ceylon Citizenship Act 1948

This act only granted citizenship to those who were born in Sri lanka and whose forefathers were born there.

These had caused many Indian Tamils to be stateless which means that they were not citizens of any country.

The Indian tamils do not have basic rights such as education, jobs, housing and voting.

Resettlement Policy 1950

The different races in Sri lanka are not evenly distributed throughout the island.

Sinhalese peasants were moved from densely populated southwestern and central areas to tamil areas.

The tamils were not happy

-Buddhist monks and the Sri lankan army which comprised of mostly Sinhalese came to occupy their lands.

Official Language Act 1956.

In 1956, Sinhala was declared as the official language in Sri lanka.

Most of the tamils were given a choice.

-They were given three years to learn Sinhalese or they will be dismissed.

Most of the tamils find it hard to find jobs and or be promoted.

New university admission criteria 1972.

In 1970, the government introduced new university admission criteria.

Tamils students had to score higher marks than Sinhalese students in order to enter the same course together.

A fixed number of places in the university are reserved for Sinhalese.

These had caused the number of tamil student entering university had decreased over the years.