Will people be deterred from piracy activities through conviction of one person?

Article- The Straits Times(19/5/07)
-HK man loses Internet piracy appeal

My stand on this issue is that the deterrence effect will only be a short term one for most people and people will resume to the use of Internet as a medium of sharing files thereafter.

Nowadays, the main medium at which people receive media files are either through downloading from the Internet, burning of CDs or through sharing of files with friends, while some people still buy the original CDs. Through these trends, we can see that there is a high usage of the Internet to obtain media files. This is probably due to several factors, such as the cost, the accessibility to such media files, the range of media files available, the rate at which the more recent media files are uploaded on the Internet and the most important factor being that no governments are acting against such acts of piracy. All these factors tend to cause people to prefer the obtaining of files through the Internet.

Back to the article, one HK man has recently been sentenced to a three-month prison term for infringement of copyright as he uploaded movie files on the Internet and this is the first case of people in the world being convicted of distributing movies over the popular online BitTorrent network. Thus, this issue would have led to much commotion amongst the public for a while and probably, this might lead to people stopping their uploading and downloading of media files through the Internet.
However, I feel that this effect is going to be short term. From the reasons I have stated above, people are accustomed to obtaining of media files from the Internet due to the high accessibility and the low cost of doing so. With the many benefits of the Internet in the aspect of obtaining media files, piracy will tend to continue. In addition, with not many governments are acting on people violating the issue of copyright in this aspect, general public will tend to continue to obtain media files through use of Internet.

What has the sand ban issue affected Singapore?

Articles: The Straits Times(12 May 2007)
-Contractors hit sand ban to get help

Not too long ago, Indonesia imposed a sand ban on Singapore, claiming that the exportation of sand to Singapore has indirectly affected its environment. This sand ban on Singapore has caused much problems for Singapore as alternative sources for sand, such as China, Vietnam and Myanmar, has to be found and the costs of importing sand from other areas are more costly as well. However, this issue has also showcased Singapore’s side of being able to deal with problems efficiently and pragmatically.

New sources of sand have been founded and even a new form of concrete, the NewConcrete, has been invented as a more cost-efficient substitute for sand and granite, hence reducing the reliance of Singapore on these natural resources. Through the usage of the NewConcrete, a solution could be found faster should another similar issue occur.

The sand ban has also caused the cost of development projects to rise greatly as much sand and granite are used in construction. The government has also acted on this area, calling for contractors and developers to share the costs of the rising prices. These steps the government had taken has allowed for the construction industry in Singapore to carry on without much impact and hence accounting for the pragmatism and efficiency for Singapore’s government.

This issue has also taught me one thing- being a small country and having little natural resources, Singapore is easily affected by external factors (sand ban being one of them). Therefore, a strong and reliable government is necessary for handling such issues efficiently and pragmatically. Without a strong government, Singapore’s construction industry could have already succumbed to the effects of the sand ban.

Global Warming- How has it affected us?

Articles- from THE STRAITS TIME(5/5/07)
- Road map on climate change accepted
- Hot in Beijing
- Dry in France

The phenomenon of global warming had been present for a long period of time and this is a phenomenon that can never be resolved. The rapid improvement in technology worldwide has caused a higher usage of fossil fuels used to power many of the electrical appliances and vehicles. This usage of fossil fuels is possibly unable to be stopped until another form of viable energy source is found.

Many problems have arose from this phenomenon of global warming and some of the more significant ones are the changes in temperature, sea levels, as well as the natural disasters occurring. From “Hot in Beijing”, it is said that temperature in Beijing soared to 31.9 deg C, a record high in forty years. This has even caused a forest fire in a Western Beijing nature reserve and “the skies of the capital turned a smoggy grey due to the inferno which was still smouldering.” From “Dry in France”, another problem is arising from global warming and that is the lack of rain, which could lead to a summer drought. The Farm Ministry stated that “Successive drought periods over the last few years, combined with above-normal temperatures, require vigilance and anticipation.” All these evidence showed that the problems due to global warming require our attention or the worsening of the situation could prove detrimental to our environment.

However, it is heartening to see that governments worldwide are getting together to discuss solutions to this problem. As stated from “Road map on climate change accepted,” governments are even willing to give up a percentage of their GDP to control the rise in temperature. However, the willingness to give up a percentage of the governments’ GDP is not without a cause. As stated from the article, “Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown by 70 per cent between 1970 and 2004. For carbon dioxide alone, the increase was 80per cent in the same time period.” This showed the anxiousness of governments worldwide in tackling the problems arising from global warming.

In my opinion, the phenomenon of global warming is definitely a cause for concern. Temperature has been rising due to the effects of global warming and this is leading to many more problems. Should the phenomenon of global warming be allowed to continue, the consequences could be unimaginable in years to come. Hence, the problem of global warming should be dealt with as soon as possible and the governments’ anxiousness to deal with this problem is understandable.