Literature: Animal Farm

Hi all,

I am currently learning an interesting novel by George Orwell titled "Animal Farm". Animal Farm is a fable and at the same time an allegory as it has a deeper meaning too. Ultimately, the moral of the story is Lord Acton's famous quote: "Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely."

The entire novel closely parallels the Russian Revolution in 1917. The main characters of the novel are Napoleon, who represents Joseph Stalin, Squealer, who represents propaganda, Snowball, who represents Leon Trotsky, Boxer, who represents the workers, just to name a few (there are many characters in the book which parallel certain people in the Revolution).

Here is a summary of the character traits of several main characters. Napoleon is self-centered, scheming and cruel, often using fear and terror to manipulate the animals once it was made known that he had his own private army of dogs.

Snowball is also to some extent self centered, as seen from his agreeing to reserving the apples and milk only for the pigs. He is also inventive, thinking about the plans for the windmill and creating many animal committees.

Squealer, the mouthpiece of the pigs, is sly and can manipulate the animals by using his gift of the gab to convince the animals that what he says is the truth.

Boxer represents the proletariat. He is overly sacrificial and very hardworking. He is also strong and brave. However, his downside is his ignorance and blind loyalty towards Napoleon.

That's a quick introduction to Animal Farm's characters for you.

Issues: Earth hour

Hello readers,

Yesterday (Saturday, 28/3/09), from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, was Earth hour. Last year, about a billion people from approximately ninety countries switched off their lights for an hour to play their part in saving the Earth.

Yesterday, I took part in this event for the first time. My family and I huddled together in one room and switched off all the other lights. When any of us went out, we relied on torches as our source of light, for it was pitch dark outside. Despite the inconvenience, I was glad that we had switched off our lights for that one hour, for by doing that, we have contributed to the fight against Global Warming.

However, even if one billion people switched off their lights for an hour, it would only be equivalent to stopping China's emissions for a mere six seconds. That is a sad fact. Our never-ending need for energy is slowly but surely, destroying our planet's life. 2008 was the year of the frog as many realised the terrible danger amphibian species were in, not only from chrytid fungus but also from global warming.

We all share only one planet: Earth. It will require an international, transboundary effort (and also green technology) to reverse the damage done.

Events: A trip to Pulau Semakau (the wildlife 2)

Hello all,

Besides those two organisms I mentioned earlier, there is definitely more than meets the eye in these seemingly lifeless mudflats. Scuttling on the mudflats and darting away once we got too close for comfort were a few fiddler crabs. Fiddler crabs are well known for their enormous right claw, which dwarfs the left claw in size, is loudly coloured (usually red or orange) and is grossly large in comparison to its body. Actually, this enlarged claw is only present in males, which use their gargantuan claws to wrestle against each other to fight for the right to mate. They live in burrows under the sand and emerge to feed during the low tide. Once danger is imminent, they scuttle back to the safety of their minute hiding holes.

As the group ventured out to sea, we saw numerous tiny hermit crabs and mud-brown gobies in the tide pools. We also saw more types of small crabs, sea snails and shells in the vicinity. The picture on the right shows one of the many shells we saw in the mud, whereas the picture on the left shows a sea snail in a tide pool.

Further out, we saw a large stretch of seagrass before us. The tour guide told us some facts about seagrass and proceeded to show us sponges among the seaweed. Unfortunately, I am not very educated or interested in sponges or seaweed, so I know very little about them and have hardly any information about them to share with you. However, I learnt from the tour guide that you should never touch a sponge, as the consequences would be dire should you foolishly do so. If I remember correctly, many miniscule "splinters" would lodge themselves into your skin, just like fragments of broken glass. The lesson learnt? Never ever anyhow touch things that you are unsure about.

My brother spotted something round and brown in the water which he initially suspected to be a sand dollar. However, it was later revealed that the organism was in fact an upside-down jellyfish, a jellyfish species which I had never known before. The jellyfish carries algae in it and breaks down the algae's cell wall to let the sugar in it flow out. The sugar is in turn used by the jellyfish as a source of food.

Okay, this is enough for the time being.

Events: A trip to Pulau Semakau (the wildlife 1)

Hello readers,

The main highlight for the Pulau Semakau trip was definitely not the rubbish. It was a several-hour intertidal walk (the picture depicts the shores of Pulau Semakau). We got to explore the mudflats and observe the flora and fauna there. En route, my brother and I spotted around two eagles soaring high above us. They were presumably white-bellied sea eagles (which can be found in Singapore).

Not long after, the group of about 20 of us reached the mudflats. Because the tide was extremely low that day, we were able to see the fauna living in the tidepools. Despite the tide being low, however, the water was still almost up to my knee level (about 20cm deep) at the deeper parts. I suggest that if you want to go for the intertidal walk in Pulau Semakau, it is best that you wear boots or shoes with long socks (which is what I wore). Never wear slippers or sandals or even worse, go barefoot. For all you know, you could step on a stonefish or sponge and get hurt. If you want to explore the mudflats of Pulau Semakau and find the trip meaningful, you must appreciate nature and not be afraid of dirt (frankly, I was a little wary of the water level rising above my shoes but I got used to it later).

At a first glance, the murky waters seem lifeless and dull, but at a closer look, the organisms that secretly live in the mud would be noticable. Farther away from the sea, there would be little holes in the sand with several minute balls of sand near it. Those holes are made by sand bubbler crabs, which sift through the sand for microscopic food and produce the little balls of cleaned sand as a result, which they then chuck away. Numerous mangrove trees can be found farther away from the sea (the picture depicts a close-up photo of a mangrove tree). The guide pointed out to us the seedlings of the mangrove tree. To increase the chance of the seedlings' survival in such a harsh environment, the seedlings germinate while they are still on the tree and are later carried off by the high tide. By the way, the below video shows what the mudflats of Pulau Semakau would look like at a glance.

Okay, that is enough for the day.

Events-A trip to Pulau Semakau (the landfill)

Hello all,

I want to share about a trip a few weeks back. I went to Pulau Semakau on a Sunday. Contrary to what many people think, Pulau Semakau is not a filthy, stinky rubbish island with maladorous debris all over the place. Instead, there is little sign of the island being a landfill as the the country's rubbish is incinerated before being sent there. As a result, the rubbish is only reduced to a mere 10% of its original mass. The ashes are then covered with a layer of soil, on which grasses and other plants grow on.
Despite the rubbish's mass being greatly reduced, it is still quite a substantial amount. Pulau Semakau would only last us for a few more decades (perhaps until 2040) if we continue to produce this much waste. This is where the three Rs come into place. The Singapore government has already been taking steps to increase the recycling of our rubbish. New recycling bins are popping up all over the island. But of course the government cannot succeed without the people's support. Hopefully, more people would become conscious of the damage done to the environment and play a part in reversing it.

Man and the environment are interlinked.

An introduction to my blog

Today is my first day of blogging. Read my profile to learn more about me. As the title suggests, I will write about events in my life (be they trekking, competitions, etc.) or random but interesting issues on my blog.

My current display picture is that of a mantis shrimp, an interesting type of crustacean that has a very speedy punch (about 23 metres per second).

Actually, mantis shrimps are neither mantises nor shrimps. I guess they are named so because they resemble both species of animal. This species of mantis shrimp is also very vibrantly coloured, thus its name "Peacock Mantis Shrimp". I found this rather beautiful picture (my display picture now) on the internet. However, the video which I put up below shows a green mantis shrimp (which is a smaller species). I will also occassionally add in some interesting events that happened to me. Due to my tight schedule, however, I might not have the free time to write so many blog entries.

Most importantly, have fun reading!

(This blog post was slightly edited due to the blog revamping on 6/2/10)