Great Leaders

Many people have different perspectives on what a great leader is. To some, there is little difference between a good leader and a great leader. However, in my opinion, I feel there s a big gap between a good leader and a great leader.

You can see on this website http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879377,00.html who different historians or philosophers think are the greatest leaders in history. The person I agree with most is Jean-Francois Revel, a French author who commented,"A great leader has original ideas and succeeds in having them accepted by millions or billions. These ideas can be wonderful or dreadful."

Therefore, I think one of the greatest leaders in history is Adolf Hitler. In the beginning of his life, he was a nobody who fell into poverty in Austria. He encounted many obstacles yet he is the same man who led a country to conquer almost the whole of Europe! Why is that so?

The main reason for his rise to power was the ability to "brainwash" everyone into doing what he says. In the 1933 German elections, his party managed to win the elections and its popularity rised 37% in 1 term. Despite Hiter's ideas being relatively unpopular, he managed to convince everyone to vote for him.

Eventually, he also convinced the Germans to get revenge for their defeat in World War 1 and that the Jews and communists were to blame for the defeat. One cannot understand why the Germans bought into his idea but they did due to Hitler's charisma.

The Germans built up their army and World War 2 started and eventually Germany were defeated 6 years later.

However, one cannot argue that Adolf Hitler was a great leader.

The Lottery

I have just completed reading through the story--"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. If you have read the story, you would have known that the content of the story is not very relevant in today's context. However, there are still a few lessons we can learn from the story which can still applies to today's world.

Let me list the themes in the story.

1. The dark side of human nature.
   
2. The danger of ritualised behaviour.
   
3. The potential for cruelty when the individual submits to the tyranny of the status quo.

Let us take a look at the first theme. The dark side of human nature can be seen after Tessie won the lottery when Mr Summers did not spare a thought for Tessie and immediately said "Let's finish quickly". Apart from that, Mr Adams told Old Man Warner "that over in the north village they're talking about giving up the lottery". I can infer from that he is actually afraid of winning the lottery and does not support the lottery. Yet, when Tessie Hutchinson was "chosen", he "was at the front of the crowd of villagers". This is a great irony and shows that Mr Adams is only concerned about his and his family's own well-being.

Actually, this is a common trait among people these days. Our world is a competitive one which leads us to being self-centered and 'kia-su". Rarely do we spare a thought for others. When others fail, we not only do not sympathise with them, we actually cheer. This is a cause of concern and I feel it is about time that we change for the better. It is not necessary for us to allow others to take advantage of us but we could just help others when they are in need or support them when they are down. These simple acts would go along way to make this world a better place.

On the second point, the danger of ritualised behaviour is not a problem in Singapore as it is quite a modern country and most people think more scientifically and do not believe in such rituals (apart from Thaipusam which I will not elaborate on).

The final point is highly relevant in today's context. In today's circumstances, people are very concerned about how they appear to others both internally and externally. Therefore, people are always stick to status quo in fear of being rejected or laughed at by others. People rarely express their objections when majority of the people accept that idea or are alright with that way of life.

(Perhaps you want to listen to watch this track from High School Musical on YouTube.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIv5uwSKu88

In my opinion, this mindset seriously needs to be changed. In the story, some of the people were not happy with the lottery taking place. Mrs. Delacroix said that "there seems to be no time in between lotteries any more" and "it seems like we got through with the last one only last week". Mrs. Graves agreed when she replied, "Time sure goes fast". The men also shoed some signs of dislike for the lottery when "they stood together, away from the pile of stones". Also, Mr. Adams also talked about giving up the lottery. It can be seen that they do not believe in the ritual sacrifice having any purpose. However, they submitted to the status quo and none of them had the courage of properly protesting against the lottery taking place.

If something is not right, we should stand up and put our views forward. I am glad that my school has a PSB (Pupil Suggestion Board) on the SMB (Summary Message Board). It allows students to share their views on school policies, rules or problems they may face and how the school can rectify or improve (on) the situation. In spite of this, the problem that we face is that we are afraid to air our views in fear of objection. The only solution for this is for us to pluck up our courage and for people to be not so critical of others' ideas.

This just about sums up my feelings on how the story "The Lottery" can be relevant in today's context.

Deaths at NTU

The 2 recent deaths at NTU (Nanyang Technological University) have come as a surprise to many including myself. Let me elaborate on my viewpoint.

In the first case scenario, a final year student, David Hartanto Widjaja, 21, from the electrical and electronic engineering school of NTU is believed to have stabbed Associate Professor Chan Kap Luk, 45. This happened on 2 March.

(Read the whole story at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=NTU&id=412478)

It has been stated that the reason why the student tried to stab the professor is beause the professor did not give him the grade he wanted. As a result of the bad grade he received, his ASEAN scholarship was revoked. Obviously, feeling guilty and knowing the consequences of his actions, he plunged to his death.

This incident reveals a few things. Firstly, everyone knows that bad grades are not the end of the world. Why did the Indonesian undergraduate have to take the life of the professor (although he did not in the end) and himself? However, in our morden world, to students, grades are the most important thing in the world. It is not their fault. People judge you according to the grades you get. Your future is more or less determined by the grades you achieve. Unless a person possess superb talent, the world rarely looks beyond your academic grades even if you have other un-nurtured talents in other areas.

I feel that people should start looking at other qualities or talent a person has other than academic grades. It is not possible to change the mindset of the entire world overnight but it can be done. One such example of the above would be the DSA (Direct School Admission) exercise introduced by the Ministry of Education allowing secondary schools to accept students on other criteria other than PSLE results. Unfortunately, schools also use it to attract smart (in an academic sense) students to their schools which I feel defeats the purpose. Still, this is a good start.

Back to the issue on the student stabbing the professor, I would like to pose another question. Are students these days educated enough on the importance of life? These many children enjoy playing computer games, many of which involves life and death. In these games, children kill their friends' virtual character as well as their enemies. Although majority of the children do not practise this violence in their real life, a small minority become violent and treat life and death as no big deal. Although this may not be directly related to this young man's death, I feel that it is an issue that needs to be brought up.

The second death was that of a 24 year old, Zhou Zheng, an infocomm project officer of NTU, who hanged himself on the balcony of his apartment at NTU.

(Read the whole story at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/413708/1/.html)

This once again brings up the issue on the importance of life and death. The man, who was a China National, had been jobless for a few months before being employed by NTU 5 days before his death.

In both scenarios, the 'victims' were both in their early 20s. Although they are both not Singaporeans, it does show some signs about the youth these days and what happens when they enter the real world.

Hopefully, other youths will not follow in their footsteps and we will never have these incidents happening again.