Capital Punishment

Capital punishment is controversial. Merits and demerits of capital punishment makes it hard to decide whether to abolish it or not. While many first world countries have abolished the death penalty, countries such as Singapore still continue with it as it acts as an effective deterrent, and it allows the guilty to pay for his crimes.

Capital punishment deters future crimes. It serves as a warning to those who are going to commit a capital offense and makes them think twice about doing so. Less people will commit the crimes in fear of being executed and hence a decrease in the crime rate of capital offenses.

Many might argue that capital crimes, such as murder and drug trafficking, occurs when the guilty is desperate and had no other ways to solve their problems. In my opinion, this is not a valid excuse. What rights do you have to cause harm to the innocent even when u are desperate? If u can't solve your problem, why don't u take your own life instead? End your torment and don't inflict pain and sufferings to the innocent.

I would agree that a death by electric chair or gas chamber is inhumane; a shot to the head is faster and more cost efficient. however, besides that, many propose life sentence as a substitute for the death sentence. personally, i would rather prefer to die without dignity than to live a life without dignity in darkness, and living life with no sense of purpose. What is the point of living when there is no freedom, no happiness for the rest of the lifetime. The wait for one's death is torturous, yet it is inevitable. Be it the death sentence or life imprisonment, one will still have to die.

Hence, my point on the case is that mandatory death sentence should be abolished, and convicts will be given the choice of taking their own life or life imprisonment. There is no denial of human rights as it will be their personal choice to do so.

Censorship

Censorship. Is it a must or a thing of the past. Censorship is used to protect youths from being exposed to undesirable materials. Yet, censorship is also seen as a restriction to the freedom of expression. The million dollar question; should censorship be allowed? What are the merits and demerits of censorship?

Censorship serves as a barrier to sieve out undesirable materials such as pornographic or gory animations. Adults and parents fear for the innocent minds of their children will be corrupted when exposed to undesirable media. Censorship protects youths and help to develop socially responsible adults in the future.

Censorship also serves to protect the government and country's interest. Incidents such as the danish cartoon would never have happened if there was proper censorship. Sensitive issues are not know to the general public to prevent outbreak of violence or displeasure. Information on imminent terrorist attacks are not disclosed to the public to keep them calm. Censorships help countries maintain peace.

However, censorship is a restriction on the freedom of expression. Singers express their thoughts in songs, only to find parts of it edited by the censorship board. People feel that they have the rights to know what is going to happen even if it will cause them great unrest. Others feel that censorship should be banned to allow the society to gradually accept the progress.

On the whole, I feel that censorship is necessary to as it prevents the corruption of society and self.