The person i am going to discuss about today is Mary Bell.

she is one of americas most notorious criminals and was involved in the murder of two young child. whats so shocking about this you may ask. it is the fact that mary bell was only 10 years old when she killed both her victims. according to statements by mary bell and her friend norma bell which had contradicted at times, mary bell had strangled both victims to death.
to me, the question to be asked is not why did mary bell strangle her victims to death. or what did she stand to gain from such an act. instead, we should ask "what gave her the idea to kill her fellow playmates and strangle them to death so unfeelingly and in such a cold blooded manner?" even after the killings, mary bell showed no signs of sadness, guilt or shame. instead according to statements by the chief investigator on the case, she was acting as though everything happening around her were something that happened commonly in movies.
this again brings us back to the point on the influence of means of communication and entertainment be it audio or visual in our modern day society. televisions and radios are "necesities" in homes nowadays where some have up to two or three sets in a single house. the influence of movies, tv shows, advertising cannot be ignored. just ask yourself, how often have you heard children singing the theme songs of the Teletubbies, take quotes out of sitcoms or drama serials? definitely one time too many to know that indeed, they do have a large impact on the intended audiences.
in this case, could it have been due to an excessive exposure of the child mary bell to shows of excessive violence that led to her developing such a sick mentality? could she have been instigated to try out the act of strangling to see if it really could kill a person because of something she saw on telecision? i think the chances are very high.
if what i proposed is true, then i say that people such as parents guardians and all who are directly or indirectly responsible for a childs well being play a more active part in ensuring that a child receives proper education and learns proper morals. this is a "free" world where there is freedom of expression of speech and expression. yet, censuring must always occur in the case of the young as they themselves do not have the innate ability to think and differentiate the black from the whites.(meaning right from wrong)

capital punishment is the sentencing to death of a person who has been charged guilty of heinous crimes according to law. usually applicable to drug peddlers and those convicted of crimes such as multiple murders and such. in our previous forum, we have discussed two points of views and thus i shall briefly state some points that the opposition made.

Against capital punishment.

as fellow human beings, we are all of an equal status. who is there to judge what is right and what is wrong? different individuals have different beliefs just like any society has different beliefs and threshold regarding certain actions. in the end, it all boils down to a person's point of view. when a person commits murder, how different are the jury and judge from that person who murdered the others. we all know it is in the name of the one big word "justice" . however, imagine a scenario where for example a person kills his wife for eloping with a man.(very common cases occuring in singapore nowadays) should he be punished with the death sentenced? although in a more bloody way, his intention was to bring justice to his wife for betraying his trust and so on. yet the person will also finally be punished with capital punishment. instead, we should perhaps give such people a second chance. changing their death sentences to long imprisonments and rehab sessions, making them reflect on their mistakes and hence lead a better life when they are released.

For capital punishment

since singapore started changing its laws to suit our own needs, question have been raised mainly by australia regarding singapore's "cruel" law. such as the michael fay incident. people question the credibility of capital punishment and corporal punishment in making the criminal repent and the effecgt achieved with such punishments.
first, ask this question. do prisoners really repent when sent to jail? do they really face the wall and start reflecting on their past mistakes. i would dare say, most of the time not. therefore it is even more so not a feasible idea to send criminals such as harcore drug peddlers who have time and again commited the same mistake into prison. in fact, it is just another liability to tax payers when they have to support these kind of scums of the society when they are in jail.
in order to maintain peace in our country, the government thus has to carry out capital punishment. by carrying out the death sentence, it achieves the effect of "once bitten twice shy". true, the offender is already dead and cant possibly do it a second time. however, it serves as a warning to all others out there, be it those who consider joining such trades and discourages those who are already in this trade to stop what they are doing anymore.
according to official reports, singapore has one of the worlds lowest crime rate despite the large amount of criminals being hanged each year. this has proven that capital punishment has served as a major deterrant. causing people to think before carrying out any stupid moves that will eventually land them in serious trouble. thus, i would like to emphasize that the practice of capital punishment must carry on.

according to reports, the child prostitution industry has a turnover of billions of dollars per year. these children are sumtimes forcefully taken away from their parents while others are even sold by their parents for some extra income. the amount of mental pain that such children go through is nothing we can imagine. more often than not, the sex slaves are exposed to abuse and brutality by their "customers" when they refuse to obey their orders, often leaving them with bruises all over. such an industry is morally incorrect. yet it is such a good source of income for the people in the country that most governments have turned a blind eye to such activities. from the lowest levels, authorities such as the police can be simply silenced by the pimp by paying them a certain fee. it is no wonder that such an industry is rampant in poorer countries where people scrimp and save to get by. this viscious cycle will never end with a steady supply of "demand" as can be seen by the thousands or even millions of tourist who visit such places for cheap sex. the only thing that can break this chain is for the authorities to crack down on such activites. more attention must be paid to these young girls in order for more not to end up with the same fate as the million of others out there.

technology of the 21st century is indeed scary. nowadays, plastic surgery IS the norm. as shown in the video clip, the young teenager had not thought twice to go under the knife to enhance his looks by having double eye lids instead of having only on originally. all this in a bid to hopefully have a breakthrough in the showbizz. his actions are justified by the many other coursemates who have done similar surgeries all also hoping to obtain stardom. indeed, it is not something wrong for us to try and beautify ourselves. i have even read a news article reporting that a european woman had basically had her entire face replaced after an accident with her cat when it scratched and bit her in her face repeatedly. yet, this act raised questions of whether plastic surgery is ethical. after all, the skin is the largest organ of the human body. ask yourself, how different is such an act from the replacing of organs in the human body? speaking of technology being scary, imagine what would happen if people such as osama could simply go under the knife and do a "facelift"? wouldnt there be widespread chaos eventually? therefore, even though technology of the 21st century has benefited people greatly in their quest for beauty and perfection, it has also brought with it new dangers and bringing crime and terrorism into a new era.

Indeed, YouTube has brought about dramatic shifts in our medium of entertainment. Yet there has recently been raising concerns and complains about the ethicality of YouTube in its dealings in the media industry. More often than not, it has infringed upon copyright laws when people of the YouTube community upload video clips that are copyrighted onto the site. It is a known fact that such acts are not ethical as they undermine the works of others when people do not support the producers, acknowledge the hard work by buying the original videos or music albums but instead turn to YouTube which can be almost considered “piracy”. Though materials such as X-rated clips and copyrighted clips are quickly flagged down by viewers and then promptly removed, the damage has already been done and thousands or even millions of viewers already had the chance to view the clip. The intentions of the trio who started the site were good- to allow people to have endless entertainment on the net. Yet, the way which their site functions is flawed. The only solution is therefore to screen all videos before they are allowed to be uploaded onto the site.

The emergence of youtube has brought about drastic changes in our medium of entertainment. The shift in preferences of entertainment such as movies and television program to YouTube is almost comparable to that of pagers to mobile phones. YouTube attracts millions of online viewers daily. The amount of attention it gets is almost unparalleled by any other source of entertainment. One reason for it being such a success is due to the fact that it has a wide range of clips. From Music TV to homemade videos or even Animes such as Naruto and One Piece, it is no wonder that viewers can sit in front of the computer screen hours on end just watching the video clips available. Other than that, new clips are uploaded daily by many of the viewers themselves. This ensures a daily supply of interesting videos for all to watch, meaning that the viewers will never tire of visiting the site. According to reports, many people have even altogether scraped watching television programs and news, solely relying on YouTube for their daily dosage of comedy and news reports. It is evident that such cases will soon be the norm in the future. humans are moving in the direction where the only thing that restricts speed is our own movement and thinking ability. Improvements in technology and increasing the pace of obtaining information such as those available on YouTube is greatly appreciated by most as they can obtain almost all kinds of visual and audio information and entertainment on the net. It is therefore obvious that YouTube has and is still changing our medium of entertainment.