RI KS Bull 2006 Issue 1

2kdtEli- spbu rssue T 2006I Rames Junior Collese ''ercfessiona' spon today is nothinS butenlerbinment and profiC' Do lou agreel [Aw lia QuanJoet, tA0tB] ''Prcf6sjo.al \pofl Loday I' norhins bu s'.rrahmenr and prcfrL Do /ou J8.eet lB.endr coh.t^o|Bl "Purishment for cam€ qacts retribu.ion, compensate tne victims. aod renabi{itatB the ot:iendert'Io what extenr do you agree wid\ thu aseflion? [Grh See wei M,n&lA0lBl "Pnnishment for crimg q.acts..,:tnbudon, €ompensates the victims, and rehabilitaEs the oflenderl To whar exlenr do you agree with thh 6senion? ltimYinsfiry D€nile, lA0lBJ ''Pol'r.al apattry rmont yourh 'n Sin8apore is rn.u.able D6cu5s lsh'vin Nadra tAOTAJ h I''lan a i'lach'oe? FhenYiYan, lSoJQl D@s d'e. 'n6dem world reV toe muth oi echn;bryl trrnette c6h suk-Hui, I S0lL1 Do$ dE mod;rn 'qld rerr, @ mud, d r<hnologyl [Yeo sdm lq lA0lAl . fiegRi i,oter.t tlEq;Aii:ihould bE b"b*"d by 'n €qu[/ 8ra( sen* or 6poneb,t,q4 Discuss. [erg?na breJasti,lA0lBl 3 4 6 I k pari.irim nill ,dMr h rhe modem wrtdf lcail Chua. l5O3LI . :fdenf m4iiEiiirininjH{r.t9i;silii lr.irellAtig iiuin;r,tA0lB]', Do mo;J tudards impede dle prosl* of wence, [M Adirr!- I So]Cl Do m; sta{d;rds imgede dre proe; of scien<e? [Koh pdncwa, I s03Kl ',f"lils..+i!djo#.,i-ci,",4+tid.!bbece!gslisat'"rlyt'ile r"np ire.4e't it' .*-.srlsa'rtrtrayeo,2so]Jl ,:..|itiatAli!Ie.-,fiii1.:"4!1it-f,ieiq,i!ii;;attrin lit;l;iiriiiiBidai;mii;'irrtiB rcdtst ti;.nthaw?rker-lmith,2so3ll 1..$-4gtijinbdtlitp;s.i.'!!rt*iriiiel*iii;iaii'rlrexinsrr inrerconneeied world. Do /ou "ar€e, [sn8yi zhi Eusene,2s06cl ;:];#i!iii.4!ili;ie-,*r.!hiirlnrqe.6iiii; t:i;i.ii+rn8t int"r.qigeiGii wpria. Do you aer€€r yvonne Guo, 2Ao r Bl "i;!E-a'i'..r'++ia8rr rnt -dp"i;d ivoird. D6.:t!,u ryreer lApain; saniiv AFr.2A!38] t0 l2 t4 l6 t8 20' 17 74 26 78 l0 32 t4 36 38 40 42 46 t il

RamesjuniorCollege spb!l rue 1.100.' --ir?Gil Foreword Learning the Art ofwriting "That is what learning is.You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way." - Doris fesstng The GP Eullerrn, or the Cp Aul/ as it f'as come to be known, is a collection of outstanding essays p.oduced by RJC students for General Paper. We have compiled the essays to share with students of RJC as well as other colleges because we believe that good essays should not be kept filed away and forgcitten. lnstead, they should be read and enjo/ed by all, and even inspire readers to write essays that are as good as or even befter than those featured- We hope that the essays in the GP Bul/ will also serve a more Practical purpose for GP students in that they can be a useful model of the various approaches that are adopted to present ideas in GP Our intention is for the essays to complement what students have learnt _ for them to have a "Eureka" moment when they discover how an issue can be discussed from different perspectives, and be excited about exPloring various angles and presenting the arguments cogently in an essay. This process is perhaps what Do.is Lessing, an acclaimed writei would describe as leoning - to suddenly understand something you have understood all along in a new waY. With $is GP &11i, we hope to be able to extend the intellectual buzz here at RJC to other campuses, and to give readers a gljmPse into the education we provide at RJC. Enioy, Auspicium MelioiisAevi f uJu*'* \N inston Hodge Principal Raffles Junior College 3

4 fffimtlr3lntfr:rlEifimlnsrl spblll $u. I 2006 i Raffles Junior College Title:"Profess ional spojji today is norning but enreruinment and pronil'Do you agrcel Name;AwJia Quanloer Class: rA0tB LeSendary Liverpool Football CIub manager, Bill Shankly, once said,"Football is not a matter of life and death.lt is more imPortant than that."Thatwas. howeverdecades a8o, and one can definirely arSue thac the professional football s€ene, as well as that of most professional sports, has changed a lor, for better or worse.The proliferarion of Professional sports as a form ofpopular recreation, especially with the advent ofsatellite and cable television and th€ penetration o{ the goggle box into any urban environment, as well as the increasing profirability of the trad€. have naturally led the wider public to question the purpose of professional sport.ls it for nothing but entertainment and profit? lt is indubitable that professional sports teams and leagues are increasingly managed and operated as business units, and the entertainment value of teams is inextricably linked to the survival and growth of a team, or an enrire le-ague or tournament, if only for the importance of attmcting more fans whose suppor t rranslares to more money, sceptics ar8ue. I disagree, howevei for surely rhere must be more to professiohal sports than entertainment and profrt. One only has to look at the number of people who tuned in to warch the 2002world Cup Finals to understand the global standing ofsports as a fo.m of ente rtaanment. A few hundred million people reckoned that seeing the likes oI Zinedine Zidane kick balls in Japan or Korea was enrerEinrng enouSh ro warranr paying their locat broadcasting network.The number ofpeople who turn up at the Camp Nou, home stadium of Barcelona Foorba Club, amountinS to at ieast 80,000 week in,week out, is testament to the level of entertainment football provides.When one loves a Same so much that his life is deemed incomplete without it,watching it played by the best is certainly an entiralling exPerience- lt is hence especially expedient for society to question the purpose of professional sports in an epoch of widesPread media penetration and accessibility, since it is reasonable to assume that most of the audience watch sPorts for entertainment rather than for genuine affection and loyalty to the teams or players jnvolved,since watch- in8 is only a channel sul{ away, and makes for nice meal time entertainment. Now fans do not have to bundle themselves to a golf course in London to warchTigerwoods pocket another birdie on a pcA rour. NBA fans can also watch Shaquille O Neal throw slam dunk on his opponenLs on the dedicated NBA web charnel, NBATV While this new age of media and communications has ushered professional sports into an e,? of unprecedented exposure, and hence,vast global entertain ment appeal, it certainty has made sports (incomparably) profitabte. profes- sional sport is, as any other free market good, afected by the demand and supply. Atthough lhe audience has increased exponentially since the advent of'live'sports broadcasts, rhe number of leagues for a sport hrs normally remained stagnanLCoupled with the income from television stations,owning a sports team has become a dream for many. Money is increasingly an important factor in sports, as the decisions made by professional sportsmen are ostensibly based on tieir wages, or potential wages_ For example,Joe Johnson, previousty of the NBAWest Confer_ ence Finalists Phoenix Suns, recently moved to the Atlanta Hawks, one of the worst teams in rhe NBA last season because the Hawk could offer him a waSe much hi8he. than the Suns could- Besides lucrarave player contracts, the operation of clubs, or sports tournaments (such as the Open series for tennis), is determined targely by the profit mar8ins expected or desired. Consider Chelsea Football Club,which recenrly changed its ticket pri€es so that the highest tier of tick€ts costs about f85,and handacapped fans have to pay as much as the rest of rhe fans.The lucrative sports bLtsiness has also led otherwise unrelated businessmen to invest in sporrs,which is a clear sign ofrhe influence Profit-making has on sports. Consider also, Russian oil magnate Roman Abramovichs takeover of Chelsea Football Club two years ago, which has since changed the face of EnSlish footbalt_ However, there certainly is much more to professional sports than entertainmenr and prorlL Prof€ssional sports, some of which have existed for generatjons, such as basketball and football, both of which were invented in rhe ninet