Friday, April 17, 2015

Presentation reflection

My post presentation reflection...

At the first instance, I felt kind of relieve as it is finally over. However, I felt rather slightly disappointed with my performance as I have really wanted to share my insight on terrorism to my classmates. Nervousness took over me during the second slides when i try to remember the definitions and statistics for the various slides and how to link to the following slides.That was the moment when I started to stutter a lot as i try my best to find the appropriate words to describe the slides.

Nevertheless, i am glad i have made these mistakes during today's presentation. As the saying goes, 'practice made perfect'. I believe these mistakes I made today will definitely motivate me to brush up on my presentation skills by being more well prepared next time.


problem solution essay draft 4

Up to date, terrorism remains a global issue that nations are facing today. Islamic States extremist groups have taken advantage of the anonymity of the online platform to execute their operations, such as propagation of their ideology, terrorist recruitment, fund raising and training-i.e. how to build a bomb(UNODC, 2012).  It is challenging to trace and eliminate all these terrorist activities with the rapid sharing of terrorist related materials that are easily accessible on social media websites (Conway M., 2007).

 Number of terrorist related websites has increased tremendously, from 12 in 1998 to nearly 10,000 today. (Weimann G., 2007). In addition, online forums and chat rooms have allowed these terrorist groups to disseminate terrorist related information such as agenda and operation of the terrorist groups and answer queries that sympathizers of terrorist group had virally. (Harf M., 2015)
High internet penetration of 73% in Singapore has allows for the rapid dissimulation of terrorists materials throughout the nation. (We Are Social, 2015) Majority of the Malay population in Singapore is Muslim, and makes up 13.3 % of the total population (Statistics Singapore, 2010). Therefore, it is vital that young people receive proper preaching to prevent them from being self-radicalized by the vast amount of terrorist material online.

In order to keep terrorism on social media on bay, Singapore’s government has taken a proactive and preventive measures, which includes, regional dialogues, religious group counselling, internet surveillance and censorship.

Extensive social presence of terrorists on the social media has required nations to discuss and devise strategic counter terrorism measures to keep terrorism under control. Regional dialogues between terrorist experts and regional leaders include discussions on the radical preaching on social media. This has promoted a more comprehensive counter terrorism measures towards terrorism on social media and a strengthen cooperation between the nations.

Religious group counselling is also a counter measure that the Singapore’s government have devised to counter against radical preaching on social media.  The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), which is in charge of the welfare of the Muslim community in Singapore, ensures that the Muslim community Singapore receives accurate and proper Islamic teaching. MUIS has set up various websites to educate the general public about Islam and its practices. These websites include, www.iask.com.sg, www.invoke.sg, www.radical.mosque.sg. In addition, Religious Rehabilitation Group (RPG), headed by a group of Islamic scholars and teachers, allows vulnerable teenagers that are taken in by false beliefs by the extremist s on the social media to seek counselling helps. (Ustaz A., n.d.).

Internet surveillance and censorship also act  as deterrence against propagations of terrorist ideology. As part of an initiative to counter against terrorism, the Internal Security Department Counter-Terrorism Centre (ISD CTC) was established in April 1998. The ISD CTC is mainly involved in the monitoring and investigation of terrorist activities or incidents, including terrorist threats online. A 24- hours incident response centre was even set up to provide immediate response to security incidents. Intelligence gathered from cases of security incidents will be collected and stored by the ISD CTC for further evaluation and analysis of traces of terrorist activities. In addition, as a means to identify and assess new emerging threats to national security, the Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning (RAHS) was developed and launched by the National Security Coordination Secretariat in 2004. Analytical tools such as SKAN and Vanguard are part of the software that RAHS had developed, enabling the modelling and monitoring of emerging strategic solutions.

These control measures that are devised by the Singapore’s government are only preventive measures to counter radical preaching on the social media and not the root solution to elimination of radical preaching on the social media. Therefore, apart from the various control measures that Singapore’s government has devise against terrorism, personal initiative from the public can aid in the fast identification of potential targets of people radicalized by terrorism. Furthermore, regular roadshows and educational talks about terrorism can be conducted in schools and cooperation. This can help to educate the public of the significance of terrorism and how they can contribute to deter against terrorism.
In conclusion, it may be impossible to stop the radical preaching of terrorism on social media due to their abundancy. Nevertheless, coupled with counter terrorism measures such as regional dialogues, community engagement, internet surveillance and censorship and personal initiative, we can limit the operations of radical preaching of terrorism on social media.

·         Singh, B.  The Straits Times. (2013). Budget 2013: Self-radicalised individual re-detained. Retrieved from: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/budget-2013-self-radicalised-individual-re-detained-20130307

·         Win Kwang, S.S. Home Team News. (2013) Maintaining vigilance against terrorism and sharpening cyber enforcers to counter online threats. Retrieved from: http://www.hometeam.sg/article.aspx?news_sid=201303078WLmFeUoaLxV


·         Lever, R. Yahoo! News. (2014) Social media a key element for terror groups. Retrieved from: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/social-media-key-element-terror-groups-203545974.html

·         Hussain, Z. The Straits Times. (2015). PM Lee: Greatest damage from a terror attack would be to trust and confidence. Retrieved from: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/pm-lee-greatest-damage-terror-attack-would-be-trust-and-


·         Xue, G.Y. Channel News Asia. (2015). Masagos urges Singaporeans to be eyes and ears in fight against terrorism. Retrieved from:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/masagos-urges/1693232.html

·         Internal security Department. (n,d). ISD Counter-Terrorism Centre (CTC).Retrieved from: http://www.mha.gov.sg/isd/abt-isd.htm


·         RAHS .(n,d) RAHS Programme: Origin and Progress .Retrieved from: http://www.rahs.gov.sg/public/www/content.aspx?sid=2952

·         Chen, R. The Straits Times. (2015, Jan) Terrorism: How prepared is Singapore?. pp D2-D3




Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Role of Peer and Tutor Feedback

Time flies with a blink of eyes. It is finally the last week of ES1102: English for academic purposes. In this short eleven week tutorial classes, I have learnt to write and read critically. This is not possible with the continuous feedback that I have received from my peers that are taking this course and Mr. Blackstone. I remembered walking into the lecture room during the third lecture thinking that the lecture will be dry and uninteresting as the typical English class. Nevertheless, i was taken aback by Mr Blackstone enthusiasm and passion in teaching his students that makes lesson not as boring as it will be.  

The strong emphasis on peer evaluation throughout this course has allowed students to learn from other students’ work. I have enjoyed reading and evaluating well written essay  by my classmates as this has allowed me to learn from them and further improve on my essay. Even if the essay is not well written, evaluating and editing the other students’ essay can help strengthen my resilience on commonly made mistakes such as fragmentation in sentences and grammatical errors.

Setting apart from the mundane English classes that drill students on basic command on English, ES1102 has also break the norm by cultivating an interactive platform that encourages group discussions for the various in class and assignment activities. This has enable greater interaction between students and make learning of language not as tedious as it can be. Usage of social media, such as blog, has also allowed me and other peers from ES1102 to provide timely feedback to each other and view each other progress.

Despite being a supporter of the peer evaluation system, peer evaluations are usually not as precise and comprehensive as tutor's feedback. Furthermore, it can be counterproductive and not beneficial for the students if both students’ command of English is weak. A possible solution to remediate this situation can be a pairing system between the stronger and weaker students in class.

 The most beneficial take away from this course for me will be the proper structures for different writings (E.g. Reader’s Responses and Problem & Solution essay), fundamental grammar and proper citation and referencing. These knowledge gained has enable me to write more professionally and critically in any written assignments I will encounter throughout my course in NUS, in particular, FYP report and degree dissertation.

Last but not least, much appreciation to Mr. Blackstone for taking time and patience to read through each and every of our written assignments and giving timely feedback to help us improve on our essays! :]!

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Outline of critical reflection post : The role of Peer and Tutor Feedback


  • Judging other peoples' works has allow individuals to think critically and learn from others people, both the positive and negative segments of other students work
  • Interactive platform instead of rigid language class which focus on basic command on English, such as tenses, fragmentation of sentence, etc.
  • It is only effective if both or either one of the individual command of English is good. It is rather counter productive and not beneficial for the students if both parties command of English is weak.
  •  A pairing system between stronger and weaker student can help to eliminate this issue.
  • Peer feedback may not be as precise and comprehensive as tutor feedback




Problem solution essay draft 3

Terrorism remains a global issue that nations are facing today. Islamic States extremist groups have taken advantage of the anonymity of the online platform to execute their operations, such as propagation of their ideology, terrorist recruitments, fund raising and training-i.e. how to build a bomb. (UNODC, 2012) It is challenging to trace and crack down on all these terrorist activities with the rapid sharing of terrorist related materials that are easily accessible on social media websites. (Maura C., 2007)

Number of terrorist related websites has increased tremendously, from 12 in 1998 to nearly 10,000 today. (Gabriel W., 2007) In addition, online forums and chatrooms have allowed these terrorist group to dissimilate terrorist related information such as agenda and operation of the terrorist groups and answer queries that sympathizers of terrorist group had virally. (Marie W., 2015)

High internet penetration of 73% (We Are Social, 2015) in Singapore has allows for the rapid dissimilation of terrorists materials to majority of the nation. Furthermore, Malay population attribute to a total of 13.3% of the total ethnic group in Singapore (Statistics Singapore, 2010). It is vital that Islamic practitioners of the Malay population have receive proper preaching to prevent being self-radicalised by the vast amount of terrorist material online.

In order to keep terrorism on social media on bay, Singapore have taken a proactive and preventive measures, which includes, regional dialogues, community engagement, internet surveillance and censorship.

Extensive social presents of terrorists on the social media have required nations to discuss and devise strategic counter terrorism measures to keep terrorism under control. Singapore have organise and participate in various regional dialogues on terrorisms. A dialogue that Singapore has attend is, ’EU-Asia Dialogue, 2015’. Information sharing between terrorist experts and regional leaders through the conferences have promote a more comprehensive counter terrorism measures with the cooperation between the nations.

Community engagement is also a counter measure that the Singapore’s government have devised to counter against terrorism on social media.  The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), which is in charge of the welfare of the Muslim community in Singapore, ensures that the Muslim community Singapore have received accurate and proper Islamic teaching. MUIS has set up various websites to educate the general public about Islam and its practices. These websites include, www.iask.com.sg, www.invoke.sg, www.radical.mosque.sg. In addition, Religious Rehabilitation Group (RPG), headed by a group of Islamic scholars and teachers, allows vulnerable teenagers that are taken in by false belief by the extremist on the social media to seek counselling helps. (Ustaz A., n.d.)

Internet surveillance and censorship also acts as deterrence against propagation of terrorist ideology. As part of an initiative to counter against terrorism, the Internal Security Department Counter-Terrorism Centre (ISD CTC) was established in April 98. The ISD CTC is mainly involved in the monitoring and investigation of terrorist activities or incident, including terrorist threats online. A 24 hours incident response centre was even set up to provide immediate response to security incidents. Intelligence gathered from cases of security incidents will be collected and stored by the ISD CTC for further evaluation and analysis of traces of terrorist activities. In addition as a means to identify and assess new emerging threat to national security, the Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning (RAHS) was developed and launched by the National Security Coordination Secretariat in 2004. Analytical tools such as SKAN and Vanguard are part of the software that RAHS had developed, enabling the modelling and monitoring of emerging strategic solutions.

Apart from the various control measures that Singapore’s government have devise to deter against terrorism, personal initiative from the publics can aid in the fast identification of potential targets of people radicalised by terrorism. Furthermore, regular roadshows and educational talks about terrorism can be conducted in schools and cooperation. This can help to educate the public of the significance of terrorism and how they can contribute to deter against terrorism.

In conclusion, it may be impossible to stop the propagation of terrorist related materials on social media due to their abundancy. Nevertheless, coupled with counter terrorism measures such as regional dialogues, community engagement, internet surveillance and censorship and personal initiative, we can limit the operations of terrorist activities and casualties brought by terrorist attacks.

References


·         ·         Bryna S. The Straits Times. (2013, Mar). Budget 2013: Self-radicalised individual re-detained. Retrieved from: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/budget-2013-self-radicalised-individual-re-detained-20130307
·         ·         Win Kwang S. Home Team News.(2013, Mar ) Maintaining vigilance against terrorism and sharpening cyber enforcers to counter online threats. Retrieved from:http://www.hometeam.sg/article.aspx?news_sid=201303078WLmFeUoaLxV
·         ·         Rob L. Yahoo! News. (2014, May) Social media a key element for terror groups. Retrieved from: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/social-media-key-element-terror-groups-203545974.html
·         ·         Zakir H.The Straits Times. (2015,Jan). PM Lee: Greatest damage from a terror attack would be to trust and confidence.Retrieved from :http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/pm-lee-greatest-damage-terror-attack-would-be-trust-and-
·         ·         Jian Yue X. Channel News Asia. (2015, Mar). Masagos urges Singaporeans to be eyes and ears in fight against terrorism. Retrieved from:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/masagos-urges/1693232.html
·         ·         Internal security Department. (n,d). ISD Counter-Terrorism Centre (CTC).Retrieved from: http://www.mha.gov.sg/isd/abt-isd.htm
·         ·         RAHS .(n,d) RAHS Programme: Origin and Progress .Retrieved from: http://www.rahs.gov.sg/public/www/content.aspx?sid=2952
·         ·         Rachel C. The Straits Times. (2015, Jan) Terrorism: How prepared is Singapore?. pp D2-D3



Monday, March 9, 2015

Problem Solution Essay Draft 1

Terrorism remains a global issue that nations are facing today. Islamic State extremist groups have taken advantage of the anonymity of the online platform to execute their operations, such as propagation of their ideology, terrorist recruitments, fund raising and training-i.e. how to build a bomb. It is challenging to trace and crack down on all these terrorist activities with the rapid sharing of terrorist related materials that are easily accessible on social media websites.

A research that has been conducted by Gabriel W., Professor of Communication at Haifa University, have shown an exponential increase in the number of terrorist related websites from 12 in 1998 to nearly 10,000 today. In addition, online forums and chatrooms have allowed these terrorist group to dissimilate terrorist related information such as agenda and operation of the terrorist groups and answer queries that sympathizers of terrorist group had virally.

Referring to, ‘ Budget 2013: Self-radicalised individual re-detained’, an online news article by Bryna Singh, The Straits Times, it is challenging to de-radicalise someone once he has been drawn to terrorist ideology. Abdul Basheer, a law graduate turned self-radicalised terrorist, had been deeply drawn into terrorist ideology that despite being detained for three years, he returned to his old ways soon after his release. Not long after his release in February 2010, he was caught again later last year for wanting to undertake militant jihad operation abroad. This case study had shown the strong influence brought by the alteration of Islamic teaching by the Islamic State extremist groups. Based on Statistics Singapore, Census of Population 2010, Malay formed 13.3% of the total ethnic groups in Singapore. It is important that these Islamic practitioners receive proper preaching and not the altered version by Islamic State extremist groups online.

In order to counteract the influence of terrorist ideology brought by social media, the Singapore government had employed various strategies which range from heighten surveillance online and island-wide, mass scale simulation exercises to regional dialogue and exercises. These strategies are illustrated in the following sections.

As part of an initiative to counter against terrorism, the Internal Security Department Counter-Terrorism Centre (ISD CTC) was established in April 98. The ISD CTC is mainly involved in the monitoring and investigation of terrorist activities or incident. A 24 hours incident response centre was even set up to provide immediate response to security incidents. Intelligence gathered from cases of security incidents will be collected and stored by the ISD CTC for further evaluation and analysis of traces of terrorist activities.

As a means to identify and assess new emerging threat to national security, the Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning (RAHS) was developed and launched by the National Security Coordination Secretariat in 2004. Analytical tools such as SKAN and Vanguard are part of the software that RAHS had developed, enabling the modelling and monitoring of emerging strategic solutions.

To increase surveillance of suspicious terrorist activities or objects, the Police MRT Unit was established on August 2005 to increase patrol on Mass Rapid Transport network to protect the public transportation installations. Personnel from the Special Operations Command (SOC) and the Gukha Contingent (GC) have also been deployed to complement police officers on patrol. In addition, the Police Coast Guard (PCG) had stepped up its effort to inspect ferries and other vessels in Singapore territorial waters.

To deter against potential terrorist attack, specialised military, law enforcement and civil defence units are established. These units include, Singapore Special Operations Force, Special Operations Command and Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosive Defence Group. Rigorous trainings and exercises was carried to prepare these special operation units for emergency civil attack. One of the mass scale impromptu simulation exercise, Exercise Northstar V, have been carried out to evaluate the readiness and coordination between the relevant units in civil emergency. This exercise also helps to raise the psychological readiness of publics in situation of terrorist attacks. A total of 22 agencies and 2000 emergency personnel and an additional of 3400 commuters are involved in this exercise.

Regular dialogues and information sharing between regional leaders and police officers enable the development of strategic counter-terrorists’ measures, monitoring and crack down of potential suspicious terrorist activities.

Up to date, Singapore have not encountered major terrorist attack apart from the Singapore embassies attack plot initialled by the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in 2001. This might had lower the public awareness of the potential terrorist threats in Singapore. It is thus important to have regular roadshows and educational talks in schools and cooperates about the risk of terrorists and ways publics can aid in the uncovering of potential terrorists activities. Furthermore, the public can help notify the authorities of terrorist contents on social media once spotted.

In conclusion, it may be impossible to stop the propagation of terrorist related materials on social media due to their abundancy. Nevertheless, coupled with counter terrorism measures such as stringent surveillance virally and island wide, simulation exercises and regional and community cohesiveness, we can limit the operation of terrorist activities and casualties brought by terrorist attacks.

References




Sunday, February 22, 2015

"An Influential Event"


"An Influential Event"

I had never thought of or realized what the true purpose in life was until my Grandmother had passed away.

It was five years ago, at the wake of my Grandmother’s funeral. The usual laughter and chattering within our family members were missing. Instead, sadness was written over every family members’ faces as each of us took turns to pay our respect to Grandmother before she was cremated.

On the way home after the funeral, I pondered about the fragility of life. It was hard to predict when we would die; but how could we had no regrets in life even if we only had a few weeks or months to live?

For some people, their sole purpose in life was to be the richest man in the world. They striven hard from young to old just to accumulate wealth that they could not even spent in a life time. By as they got richer, they got more depressed. True friends and life partners were hard to identify as people that roamed around them are people that were only interested in coveting on their wealth. Therefore, instead of the pursuit over superficial subjects such as wealth and fame, it was better to pursuit over happiness which could lead to a more enriching life.


To end off, life passed in a blink of eye, so it was important to cherish every moments in our life. Maybe life gave us lemon once in a while, but there would always be a rainbow after the rain. Pursuit of happiness instead of superficial objects such as material needs and fame can be a step further to a life of no regrets.