Wednesday 20 November 2013

Working my way through

Assalamualaikum :) 

Well , I have MUET exam in a few days and this is my second attempt trying to answer the past year question. For the time being, I honestly don't have the mood to write. 
Leaving my draft here. Just in case I feel like continuing it.



“Women make better leaders than men”

Main Idea

-For peace to prevail. (world history suggests that violence and conflicts were more evident under male leadership than under female leadership )
-great leaders have great communication skills. (women prefer to communicate directly. Ask big-picture question about their work and its value . And they listen to others’)
-more sensitive towards the need of society . and most women are more meticulous and detailed . (look for minor details)

Draft 1

              Apropos of this statement, I am in consummate accord with it; women make better leaders than men. Observing this issue from some perspectives, I believe that a leader is like a helmsman of a sailing ship. It may seem like a rather simple and easy task:- to steer the vessel and conduct the whole crew to arrive at the desired destination but the responsibilities are huge. The team are wholly reliant on the sacrosanct ability of their leader; one small mistake and the whole ship sink. Nevertheless, despite the capability that a leader should possess, many of us still keep bringing up the issue of who have the potential to be greater leader, men or women? We have not only seen this debate between genders for these past few years but since time immemorial. In my humble opinion, it is rather a more accurate notion to agree that women make better leaders due to their creativity in solving problems, sensitivity towards the society need and ability to communicate directly.

             To begin with, women do prefer to solve the problems in a more creative way, unlike men whom mostly preferred to end any confrontation with violence.  As far as we can submerge ourselves in the world of history, we see wars, power struggles, conflicts and violent competitions between humans as the revolutions stroke. Predominantly dominated by male rulers and leaders, the tendency in prevailing peace always ended in vain or else, vie. As the ruling powers relegated from men to women since these past few years, only then people start living in amity.

Google : Hatshepsut … queen victoria….bloody marry, record their approach towards war vs other kings.


Continue later ….
Disputing: 
Have wars BUT...
Even though most of the women who are known to be great till date, e.g. Queen Isabella of Spain, Queens Marry, a.k.a. Bloody Marry, Victoria, and Elizabeth of Britain, all have ruled over vast spectrums of power. And they often have done so ruthlessly, achieving goals with an iron hand. They have waged wars that are barely comparable to only few of those devised by men. These women are not anomalies of history, but examples from numerous others, who went beyond the boundaries of gender in the path of prevailing in power while expending peace whenever they deemed it to be expendable.


Concluding paragraph ?

              The two greatest wars of modern history, World Wars I & II, have taught us that wars are impersonal. Race, religion, nationality, sex are only pretence to the universally human lust for power. During both the global conflicts men were in the rulers’ thrones. 
It will also be foolish to ignore that Margaret Thatcher, the famed Iron Lady who spared no rod against a minnow enemy in the war of Falkland, whom has prevented a larger scale of war (compare with: how the greats Winston Churchill and Franklyn D. Roosevelt had been tackling the Axis of Hitler). A deeper perspective always reveals to historians that conflict is a generic tendency of humans. So peace being disturbed is not the liability of men only, but humans in general, and a power shift, from men to women, is destined to be fruitful in prevailing peace.


Argument for male leaders: 
The gender issue is only a determinant in the battle of the sexes, not the battles among nations and peoples. It is therefore impertinent, if not irrational, to conclude that world conflicts result from the rule of a particular gender and the finer sex would do a better job at prevailing peace if selectively put at the helm of human nations….. OR .




* I should read more. At time like this, I started to realize how important it is to read :'( 

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The myth behind vampirism, a definition essay


Written by : Anis Fakhira bt. Mohd. Khirzani and Siti Hajar Bt. Idris . 


Vampirism : The Myth behind it
   Vampires. We often perceive about this undead creature who feed on the blood of the living. Albeit the tales about vampires might have been recorded in many cultures through the prehistoric times, the term vampire was not widely used until the early 18th century. Known by different names at the areas where vampire legends are numerous, such as Balkans and Eastern Europe (vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania), topics regarding vampires had become frequent, especially after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe. Due to this increasing level of vampire superstition in Europe, hysteria and cases resulted in corpses were being staked – even the innocent people were accused of vampirism. Then, people started to make a big fuss about vampire. Strong, mortal, can command the evils ; as Bram Stoker had written in his book, Dracula, we cannot argue more but to believe how great the vampires are. Nonetheless, this essay will give you further explanations regarding this creature, comprising the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses.
         A person who died violently, committed a suicide or was wrongly accused and killed, were told to have the power to avoid death by becoming a vampire. Various stories were told during that time about dead people ; they might come again and suck their friends blood or they will transform their family into vampires too. Of course, who would not be afraid of this haunting creature? Described to have a pair of red flaring eyes that will send shivers down humans’ veins, this creature somehow only have a slight different from the human. They might appear to look like human but they are not.
         This pallid face creature or sometimes known as the blood sucker, cannot live without blood. As blood is the elixir of life, it gives them energy, power and also replenishes their
body - blood is the key of mortality. Since the blood will only circulate in their body for a short time period, they do not suffer mental disorder or any other real humans’ diseases. The bloods that they drink only act as the oxygen supplier. Thus, it is impossible for them to die due to the infections. However, some might not know that vampire can be killed, which means their mortality can be ended. There are many ways that can lead towards their deaths such as burn them, remove their brain or just simply stab their heart by wood. Some said that they can be killed by using religious symbol but this method is not yet approved.
          As the intriguing stories about vampire were told from one generation towards other, we learned that they definitely have a lot of unnatural power. Not only peculiarly strong, vampirism also increases ones speed to superhuman levels, complete with surpassing grace of werewolves for vampires live beyond mortal time - they can travel from one place to another through a small amount of time, allowing them to move quicker than what the human eyes can notice.  They often appear to be much faster than they truly are; they can across a room in what seems like an eye-blink. In fact, the speed will keep increasing as they survive longer. Thus, tempering with time, the vampires can grow stronger.
           To have the ability to shape-shift into certain animal like bats, rats, cats, raven, and wolves, vampires definitely gain the power to control the animals like their puppets. Thus, it is possible for them to be able to call the animals; each vampire usually can call an animal only – one vampire could call bats and another could call wolves, for example. However, not all vampires have an animal to call. Hence, being able to call more than one animal is even rarer since it will be considered as a prime power, yet it is only effective for related animals such as leopards and lions or bats and rats. To call both snake and bear at the same time is impossible, hence. These animals will protect the vampires, act as servants and sometimes can kill the masters if they use the power for something improper and against the ability of the animals.
          Despite all the inhumanly great powers and strengths, vampires definitely have a long list of weaknesses too. Some accounts from the folklore indicated that vampires live in their graves during the day and rise during the night. It was quite a mystery back then before they finally figured out that it was all due to the sunlight. Vampire cannot endure the pulsing beams of the sunlight. To avoid the unrelenting rays, they only appear to be active at night; hunting and quenching the thirst for blood. Since vampirism turns people into a creature of evil, it is not an unusual occurrence that they restrain from sunlight:- sunlight represents good or in other way , it means that sunlight signifies God. Sure it is, even the vampires are afraid of the power of God.
         Other than the beaming rays of the sun, vampires are also vulnerable to the garlics. We often read from the myth, which vampire is an ancient metaphor for the horrible and unexplainable epidemic diseases (at that time). Then, how does this story of garlic circulate?  Infections like the plague and cholera that killed thousands of people coming without any visible cause, had caused the people to bring out the ‘garlic stories’- due to the benefit that the garlics provide; to kill germs. Another concept is, garlic is also a known insect repellent which reportedly works well against mosquitoes as vampirism can be seen as the symbolic of mosquito bites. While the origins of the myth cannot be confirmed, we can be sure that Dracula must have had a really bad breath. This would fit well with the vampire folklore and gothic fiction.
            Vampires have haunted our dreams for ages. Most are scared because of their appearance, dark, predatory, and some may even say, devilish. While others were wary of them because of their abilities, the idea of having overhyped supernatural abilities like flying, transforming and immortality boggles and fascinates the human mind because of their illogical nature. Only by placing these tempting and illogical thoughts to illusive creatures like the vampire can we find solace and peace to sleep at night. And if they do turn up to be true, we have quite a few ways to kill them, be it beheading them, staking and burn their hearts or stuffing the poor vampire’s mouth with garlic. Even though the origins to the myth of vampires can roughly be traced to the ancient time, the human mind will forever remain entwined with the idea of the immortal blood sucking creatures and constantly evolve the legend, adding more characteristics and abilities.
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