The One-child Policy

   The one-child policy was implemented in China in 1979 in order to relieve problems with the society, environment and economy. A 2008 survey reported that the Chinese population was generally supportive of the policy. The focus on population control helped improve health services for women and a reduction in the risks of pregnancy. The reduced number of mouths to feed also helped household by them not having to buy as much things for infants. The excess money and time give the Chinese more power to invest and thus improve upon their financial situation.
   However, as with most things, the policy also comes with an outstanding flaw. Most Asian families prefer male children and will try to get rid of the female infants through forced abortions, female infanticide and ultimately cause a upset in the balance of genders.
   My parents are from China and the reason they came to Singapore was mainly to have a second child without worry. This policy does not apply to the entire population of China. If a parent is an only child, the couple can then have two children. The policy also does not apply to foreigners.
   The main point I am trying to get at here is to appreciate life, the fact we are alive. What if I was born as a Chinese girl? I might not be typing this now...

Our holidays (Yihui)

My holiday basically consisted of homework and CCA. I was in Choir and we had a concert on the 30th of November. Before that, starting from the end of End of Year Exams, we had started practicing every Tuesday and Friday. CCA only got more tiring after the holidays started, with a almost 10 hour practice twice every week with an hour of Physical training and one and a half hour lunch at twelve. 

At the start of the holidays, I was very sick and tired of choir, and I hated it a lot, especially the one hour Phyisical training as I was never good in sports. My batch mates and I complained a lot about the long practices and that we could not make it for many activities we planned with our classes and friends. We were singing the same pieces everyday and always got scolded as we were not singing up to their expectations. We went home everyday all burned out and unhappy, after a day of being criticized despite trying our best. 

After a few weeks, we started bonding with each other within our batch. When I was running at the back, a few of my batch mates slowed down their pace just to support and run with me. Although I was still last, I felt a need to try even harder than before to 'thank' my batchmates in a way. Practices got better as we bonded, and we shared our problems and tried to help each other in any way possible, be it encouragement or sharing with them techniques. We went for batch lunches and batch outings, and made a lot of memories. We still get criticized, yes, but we pull through, together, which is what bonds us together, even more than ever. 

My Reflections (Yihui)

For the first week of CID, we were told to write and share to others about what we did during the December holidays. After we all posted, we read each other's posts and learnt about the interesting things our friends did during the holidays. 

For the second week of CID, we learnt about poverty in Africa. We saw the photo of 'the vulture and the girl'. The girl was trying to get to the feeding centre, already half dying from hunger, and a vulture was waiting for her death to feed on her. All of us had mixed feelings about this incident. We were also told to write about 'Poverty in Singapore' and our group decided that Singaporeans were poor in etiquette, instead of having not enough money. 

For the third week, we basically just viewed each other's blogs and commented on the good and bad points. 

Overall, I would say CID was enjoyable and I had very awesome group members. I had actually done very little for this blog and I would like to thank my group members for bearing with me.