Club de Pétionville Port - au - Prince

I first heard about Petionville Golf course when I golfed in Los Angeles with my dad and his childhood friend, Uncle David. Now it has caught my attention again weeks ago when the Haiti earthquake struck. Therefore, I have decided to write a blog post on it . I have to admit that I knew very little about Haiti as it was one of the poorest and the probably the most unknown country in the world. The natural disaster which happened there moved me and many others. Many people are helping the poor Haitians to restore orders in this devastated country.

One of them is Bill Evans who offers the property-The Petionville Golf Club-to help the Haitians. He is a 62-years old American who is the president of the Petionville club, and he said that the Club won't be a golf course any time soon, but it can in some way be of service to the army and the people of Haiti. So they filled ‘this without any par 5s short layout , indigenous and self-sustaining grasses’ with shabby tents assembled from poles and sheets, to make a makeshift home for the Haitians which they would call home for the next 2 years or so until the buildings are restored and peace is maintained.

Golfing in the Caribbean especially in Cuba and Haiti is unusual and is a privilege to most people. Petionville Golf course is a 9 holes rated at par 66 for 2rounds course. It has only 300 members and it is the only golf club in Haiti advertised on its website with a picture of a military helicopter on one of its fairways, ringed by paramilitary police toting assault rifles. Safety is clearly at a premium at the Petionville Club, whose members include a number of foreign diplomats, businessmen and visiting foreigners. It was my dream to swing in this swanky golf club one day. However, Haiti Earthquake has transformed the sweeping hills of The Petionville Club into a city of misery. More than 100,000 displaced Haitians are sleeping there at night, the largest camp in the Haitian capital. The only golf course in Haiti has become “The Petionville Club Base-82nd Airborne” –a tentage home for massive refugees who have lost their families and friends. Veteran aid workers are calling this disaster as the worst they have ever experienced.

I attached few pictures of this petite golf club before and after the earthquake and the recreational activities that was provided by the club and now the 82nd airborne base of Haiti.

I really wonder what we can help…and I am still pondering after writing this blog post.

After the Haiti Earthquake

Before the Haiti Earthquake


The home page of the website before and after the Haiti Earthquake.

Hope that all of you have been enlightened after this post. Let's work towards a better future!

Thank you.

Is there a difference between NATIONALISM and PATRIOTISM?

What is patriotism and nationalism? This would be my main issue that I would be covering today. Many say that nationalism and patriotism are alike, with their meaning and their root word somewhat alike. However, what they are missing out on this point is that they are totally two different words, with two meanings that are a far cry from each other.

What I don't understand is that why must people always confuse these two words with each other?

Now, I shall be addressing the issue. What are the definitions of these words? Firstly, nationalism generally involves the identification of an ethnic idntity with a state and the belief that their state or country is of primary importance and nothing can be more essential than their state or country. Secondly, patriotism is the devoted love, support and the willingness to protect one's country in times of need and the utmost loyalty to their own country.

So, then what are the differences of these two words? Nationalism is the identification of one's identity to one's country, but patriotism refers to one's devotion and loyalty to one's country. They are both different on their own aspects.

Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By "patriotism" I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people.

Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseperable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality.

A Patriot fights for his Country/Government as long as his Government is not breaking the law and is doing what is best for the people. A Patriot fights for his country and not his Government when his government is corrupt and evil. A Patriot fights for truth, justice, God and Country. A Patriot fights against anything, anyone and any government that takes away any of the God given rights of the people. A Patriot fights for his Country and that countries people.

A Nationalist fights for a Government and not the country or the people of the country.

These are the few obvious examples of the differences of Nationalism and Patriotism and how a patriot and a nationalist work.

Another example of nationalism is during World War I.many of the people who lived around that time did not want to be part of an empire because they did not want to be ruled by people who spoke in a different language or had a different culture. By 1900, the Ottoman's empire was too weak to stop the Slavs from breaking away from their empire, resulting in Serbia being able to become an independent country. Serbia wanted Bosnia to be part of a larger Serbian state. Austria-Hungary felt threatened by this and in 1908, it annexed Bosnia. This action infuriated many Slavs and made them set up secret societies that had only a goal in mind--to force Austria-Hungary out of Bosnia. The Russians were also of the Slavic race, so they felt that they had a duty to protect their fellow Slavs from Austria-Hungary.

A strong sense of nationalism can be seen from this tensions betwen Austria-Hungary and Bosnia and this would emplify the fact that nationalism was iportant to the Slavs and it is still as important to us as Singaporeans.

Nationalism and Patriotism are two totally different things and words with meanings that are unlike. Hopefully, everybody will know what the differences are, and what their meanings are.

Thank you.

Here is a video on Patriotism. Please enjoy the video.

Are Singaporeans that Self-Centred??

As I refer to Lee Wei Ling's post, I realise the true meaning of being self-centred. Well, in the newspaper post, she referred to Singaporean's as being self centred due to our upbringing. I think that there is a flaw in this argument.

As you refer to her article, you would be able to see that she is only showing an example of us being self-centred. However, there are so many of us who are not, and we work harder than what our peers do. It is also not only our upbringing that determines on who we are and what attitude towards life is. It includes all the external factors, such as peer pressure, your parents being a role model and much more.

I personally feel that Singaporeans are not concerned solely and chiefly about themselves. Singaporeans know how to help others who are in need too. An example was that, today, I boarded the MRT train and I saw a young person giving a seat to an old lady. Well, this is only one instance, but it is already enough to prove that Singaporeans are not that self-centred. They know when they are supposed to be concerned about themselves instead of others.

Singaporeans, as she wrote in this article, are "more self-centred and less hard-working than we were". Well, this should be blamed on the technological age where all of us are all "addicted" to the Internet and some sites such as Facebook or Twitter as networkings. The era of walking around to meet your friends has been long gone. Now, students, teachers and parents are all communicating through social networking sites or even MSN, which are all found on a single Windows XP desktop. People now don't talk to each other that much anymore, as technological advancements have replaced that. Like me, writing this blog post about Miss Lee here. We are all connected through handphones, so what is there for us to talk about when we can just type out a simple and fast SMS??

This is just one of the simple factor that affects why we are lazy and less hard-working. Being a single child of my family, I know what it was like to be pampered. We, as children, can have all the things that we want in the world, just by saying good things about our parents and they will fulfill any request that is within their reach.

I agree with Miss Lee here that our upbringing affects our personality in life, but it is not the only singled-out factor. Well, I personally feel that the world around us is spinning and we are changing the world by what we are doing right now. Soon, the technological era would come to a stop and another era of new gadgets would be in place of the old ones.

So, are Singaporeans self-centred by an only fact that our upbringing affects our character in life? I don't think so.

What are your comments on this, please feel free to comment.

Thank you.

Reasons for blogging!!

So, what are the reasons for blogging??

Well, you would be asking that question too, so let me introduce you to the importance of it.

Firstly, blogging is important because it enables bloggers to sustain an interest in blogging by creationg opportunities for each student to use their own personal blogs as an extension of their own identity and to garner a sizeable following for their blogs.

Secondly, by blogging more about the current affairs such as the controversy of using a simple word such as "Allah", we would be able to critically analyze and understand the purpose of this news. This would allow us to see things from far more different perspectives and have a global perspective in the end. We would firstly use Paul's wheel of Reasoning and other graphic organisers that would be essential in analysing the news or current affairs.

Thirdly,We would be able to find out more about our personalities and characters by using Paul's wheel of Reasoning to analyse. Then, we would applty these graphic organisers into our blogs. This would allow us to make changes to the content and style of the blog and attract more readers and followings who are interested in reading our blogs. This would aid us in the process of writing a blog post with compelling content, and writing with more variety and diversity of the words used.

Lastly, we would also be enabled to create and extend our identity through the content, layout, and other special features. We would also be encouraged to pursuit in an area of interest or passion that the blogger would express in his blog posts.

Thus, if you would be asking," Why am I blogging??", please refer to my answers and you would have a better understanding on why blogging is useful.

Thank you

My New Blog

Hi everyone, so this would be my NEW blog for Secondary 2. I am currently studying in 2P1 and having a great time so far with all of my new and old friends. So be sure to come to website often as I will have at least 1 or 2 new additions for every week! See you then!