I realise this post might be slightly delayed, but who cares, at least I did it.

Okay, so change is very wonderful and all that. We visited an organic farm where an old lady talked to us for half an hour on how we are killing off the Earth with chemicals and pollutants, how she uses only eco-friendly materials on her farm and all, before leasding us on a tour around the far, where we got lots of free food samples. Very noble, but how is she going to make money like that? In this age of technology and science, we cannot simply let old and traditional ways hinder our progress into the new world. And if life is going to be wiped out in a 100 years or so, I say we speed up the process so future generations don't have to suffer.

So here are some pics from the farm:


This is the entrance to the farm, where we are all milling about unsure of what to do or where to go.


This is the lady explaining the myriad uses of the loofah during the tour. Kindly ignore the fat lump of blubber holding a camera in the background.


This is some tree with a lot of medicinal uses. I can't remember the name, go look it up yourself.


Some weird purplish vine growing on a tree. See what happens when you use eco-friendly materials?


The lady standing beside a row of her precious plants.

So after all that, we made a trip to the hydroponics farm, where some punk was coerced into leading our tour, so he had this bueh song look on his face throughout the entire tour. At least he showed us some REAL technology, like the hydroponic greenhouses where they actually had air-con for the plants. Now that's progress and change for you. What's that? They only use hydroponics for less than 20% of their income? That's irrelevant, you philistinic tree-hugger. And we got free veggies after the tour! We probably paid more for the veggies than the tour though.

And the pics:


Outside the farm. The best place to view it from, I say.


The storehouse where they mix all the non-eco-friendly chemicals together to feed to the plants.


Cotton comes from a cotton plant! Amazing isn't it? And some bugger thought it came from sheep.


Random assorted plants.


Ah, wonderful methamphetamine, better known as Ice, grown straight from the farm. No, seriously, they're peppermint crystals.

Okay, then the next day was a visit to the Singapore History museum to see two galleries: 1st was the Greek Louvre Gallery, where they brought in statues and artifacts from the Louvre to display. Very fascinating and all, Greek history, but I'm quite sure they wouldn't have brought in the real artifacts to display here. What, you expect one whole gallery of the Louvre to go missing and end up being showcased in Singpore without maximum security and proper defenses to stop idiots like Chang Rui from touching the artifacts? I doubt it. Anyway, any civilisation who had a fetish with portraying naked people definitely makes me glad we've changed a LONG way since then.

Some pics:


Swinging chandeliers. Totally unrelated, I know, but too cool to pass up.


3 busts of persons we'll never meet and would never care to anyway.


Statue of Athena. Arms missing, if found please contact Louvre to laugh at their incompetence in excavating ancient artifacts.


Supposedly "One of the most intimate portrayals of love in Greek sculpting." Well, i can't see anything when it's all scratched and blurry.


Statues of Nike, goddess of victory. NOT mascot of Nike, sportswear and equipment manafacturer. I wonder if the Greeks could sue for copyright infringement?


Statue of Aphrodite, goddess of love. She doesn't look very appealing to me.

After the Greek Gallery, we went to the biggest gallery in the museum, aka the Founding of Singpaore Gallery or something like that. It showcases the change and progress Singapore has made(for better or for worse) since Stamford Raffles stumbled onto the shores in 1819. Man, that is one BIG gallery. Me and Gerard couldn't even finish the gallery in time and had to run all the way back to the meeting place so we wouldn't get left behind. So much for time management. But through all the bumps and mishaps along the way(or at least, those we saw), Singapore has still managed to pull through and become a thriving city of world-class standard. And nurturing politically correct students so as to prevent an uprising against the wonderufl government. Blah.

The pics:


A piece of the Singpore Stone, written in Sanskrit. If no one can read it, how cna they tell it pertains to Singapore's history? It might be a sign to the bathroom for all we know.


Broken pieces of pottery which are very valuable because they were made a long time ago and could not possibly be used again for a sane reason.


Stamford Raffles, our dear founder. This was probably painted after hours of primping in front of a mirror.


Pages of a treaty which was signed a long time ago and is invalid against all reason today.


Ancient squiggly glowing unreadable writing. Now THIS is something worth looking at.

So, all in all, change has occured in numerous and drastuc occasions throughout the past and has moulded our society to become what it is today. But if we let change spiral out of control, the potential consequences would be disastrous. What if someone came up with a way to harness air for energy? Not a good idea, as it would mean we'd have to put up with each other for longer and as with all such inventions, it would probably start a war. Thus we should control change and use it for our own selfish, human benefit, ignoring any other things which get in the way. Not that anyone cares.

By Brandon Yeo of 2J. If you haven't figured that out yet, I feel so sorry for you.

heavenknows

7:59 PM

I think that change is important for survival. The first farm we visited was the organic farm at Neo Tiew road. The owner was an old woman with a nice voice. All the crops that she planted were completely organic and she did not use any chemicals or fertilizers. Instead of chemicals, to fertilize the plants she used animal droppings(which according to her had no smell) to provide her crops with sufficient nutrients. However, she was being affected negatively in many ways because she refused to use Any other means other than organic methods to grow her crops. Firstly, it was extremely hard for her to keep away the pests which were eating her crops, resulting in some of her crops being badly damaged. However, she said that this would attract more predators to eat the pests, that would also help to plants and carry seeds of her crops. Also, she claimed that leaves with holes were better to eat. One of the major negative impacts on her farm was that the neighboring farms all sprayed insecticide and anti-pest chemicals on their plants. However, she did not, resulting in all the pests from the other farms moving to her farm. This is how her reluctance to change has affected her negatively.
Next, we visited the Hydroponics farm. It was an extremely Hi-tech farm and their methods, although consumed more energy, were more efficient than that of the Hydroponics farm. They use Macro and Micro Nutrients in water and fertilized the plants with these through pipes. They were able to produce 1000kg of crops ready for sale at NTUC every day. We were brought around the farm by a guy. He showed us the different types of plants they produced like the Basil leaf that could be used for Italen cusene and also the lavender( which sold not be exposed to growing boys because they might grow...) the tour was absolutely...exhilarating and thrilling!
The hydroponics farm was able to do well economically because of their willingness to adapt to their surroundings and change, and use hi-tech methods of farming. They were able to prosper with prosperity and fortune.
Although the museum tour is not very related to my topic, I utterly enjoyed the intricately detailed stone sculptures in the museum. They were fascinating. It was incredible how the artists were able to sculpture such realistic looking hair out of stone and marble.
Therefore, change is essential for survival.

This extremely interesting, informative, enlightening, educational and enjoyable post was typed by
Edward

heavenknows

3:13 AM

Being a first-time blogger, this was no easy task making a first post on the Singapore leg of the Secondary Two Cohort programme this year. Competition commitments have prevented my team and I from going to Malaysia with the rest of the cohort but no complaints over here, it is a sacrifice we would gladly make.
On the first day, we went to an organic farm somewhere at Kranji. During the long bus ride, we kept ourselves amused by cracking jokes, and the atmosphere of euphoria persisted throughout the whole day, even through the boring but educational talk by a lady who insists that organic farming is the best way to grow plants. Maybe it takes that kind of verve and enthusiasm for what she does that made her a figure who is known to many in Singapore. Over there, we saw many different types of plants, like the dragonfruit and the luffa, all home-grown by the lady and her gang of workers. Organic farming includes sharing of the crops with insects and birds and leaving nature to do the work of cultivating the plants rather than giving it fertilizers.
After this, we went to a hydroponics farm around Sembawang road. Conversely, the principle behind hydroponic farming is to erect nets to keep out the sun, rain, insects and birds while immersing the roots of the plant in a nutrient solution. The vegetables produced look generally more appetizing than those produced by the organic farm, mainly because there are no signs of the plants being damaged by insects.
On the whole, it can be said that it is better to control change than to be controlled by change. A best-case scenario would be to have an equal number of organic and hydroponic farms where we will not risk an outbreak of unknown diseases but still can cater to those who prefer food that looks good.
Unfortunately, I had to go for a checkup on the second day and missed the activities and the other three days were consumed by competitions.
That’s all for now.
Neo Seh Woon

heavenknows

6:17 AM

heavenknows

5:14 AM

My primary school teacher used to say that to our class. "Change is the only constant in life."

I find it true to a great extent,as seen from our visits to the organic farm,hydroponic farm and the museum.Change brought these places to where they are today.The organic farm, for example,is an example.Due to the advancement of research in the area of Science, many things have been invented to serve the needs of the consumers (in terms of farming),such as insecticides/pesticides, machinery, artificial fertilisers and such.

Personally,I feel that I have gained a lot of insight into organic farming during the visit.The farm was set up by a retired old couple, who reckon that technology have been overused,to such an extent that it is harming us more than it is benefitting us. The old couple provided a lot of information regarding the methods they use for organic farming,how they manage their business financially and advancements in farming methods all around the world. Their farm was very interesting.Due to the fact that they are practising organic farming,they have to follow the 4 principles by IFOAM( International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements http://www.ifoam.org/).

The farm has an interesting water system too.When it rains, the rainwater washes some nutrients from the soil (no pesticides and insectices,they don't use it) into a pond,within their own farm,which is filled with water hyacins (unsure of spelling).These plants multiply very quickly and can absorb some of the "nasty stuff" ( as quoted from the old lady.She said the stuff was too difficult for us to understand) from the water,which is then sent up to a little pump which pumps the water back all around the farm to sprinklers,which is then switched on and sends water to the plants. Since the water hyacins multiplied so quicky,they were,together with weeds,made into compost,which acts as fertilisers for the plants.

Another interesting thing is that the couple practise crop rotation and biodiversity in their farm.When we entered the farm,we were surprised by the messy state it in.Plants grew almost everywhere,not the usual image of farms we have where plants were plotted in neat rows.Of course,there was still a sense of organisation in it.Some small areas were allotted for different specific crops.The couple said that to counter pests,they relied on the multiplication of predators(since they don't use pesticides/insecticides).So having a biodiversity of everything sort of balances nature,to ensure healthy and high quality crops.(Most of their green leafy crops had holes in the leaves.The lady said it was healthy and alright,as a leaf without holes was probably sprayed with insecticide or pesticide.) Another way they countered pests,was crop rotation. For example,if they planted sweet corn on plot A this time and lettuce on plot Z, sweet corn would be planted on plot Z and lettuce on plot A the next time. On the first time, there would probably be many ants living on plot A and fed on it once it grew up.So on the second time,the farmer would plant sweet corn at the other end of the farm,where no ants probably lived,so by the time the ants moved house over to plot Z,the sweet corn would have probably been harvested.Isn't that cool?

Alright that's all for now.I can't remember much from the hydroponics farm nor the museum,except that the hydroponics farm tour was too brief and that we had not enough time at the musuem.I liked the design and technology at the museum though.The Companion was quit cool and the building design was appealing to me.I'll let my other friends tell you more about the other 2 locations we visited.(Water Polo people didn't visit the zoo on Wednesday,we had a match).

Tay Zhi Yuan :)

heavenknows

11:44 PM