Term 1 Week 2 - Blog prompt Q1

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

My name is Tay Ching Leon and I am a member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty To Animals. I will be delivering a speech to raise the awareness of the cruelty of whaling in Japan.

In Japan, whale meat is a delicious delicacy and many people love to eat it. However, have they ever thought about the dwindling whale population? The answer is no.

Due to the popular demand of whale meat, fishing industries hunt for whales to supply to restaurants although it is illegal. They use whaling harpoons to shoot at the whales and catch them. Then, they will cut away some good parts of the whales that they want and throw the half-dead whales back into the sea to leave them to rot.

In a year, about 1,330 whales are being slaughtered. As a result, whales are now considered endangered animal species. However, is it worth hunting a species like the whale to extinction so that some people can eat its meat while other food is preferred and far more available?

I hope that the Japanese government will force stricter laws on illegal whale hunting to deter people from doing so and to save the decreasing whale population. In addition, the government can put more emphasis on scientific research on how to save the whales. Hopefully, one day, the whale population will not be endangered.

Thank you for listening attentively to my speech.

Term 1 Week 2 - Blog Prompt Q3 - Silver Workforce

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

I have been invited by the Manpower Ministry to give a short speech on why you should hire older workers. By hiring older workers, you only stand to gain as there is a "Advantage" scheme created by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency which pays the companies money for recruiting, retaining and re-employing older workers. A single company can be provided up to a maximum of $400,000 for recruiting workers aged 40 and above, retaining workers aged 55 to 61 and re-employing workers beyond 62.

Another reason is that older workers are more experienced than younger workers. When they were young and working, they had faced many challenges and gone through a lot of hardships, thus they would have learnt from their mistakes and would perform better in their work.

I feel that the government could expand more employment opportunities for older workers, enhance cost competitiveness of them, raise the skills and values of them and shape positive perception towards them. Hopefully by 2010, more older workers will be re-employed and the economy in Singapore will pick up.

I have come to the end of my speech. Thank you.