7. Brilliant sentences

I am writing to complain about the insufficient radiance provided by the assigned light source.

I am writing on behalf of Emhyr var Emreis, The White Flame Dancing on the Barrows of his Enemies.

I should like to draw your attention to the insufficient amount of Vespene gas gathered for the construction of the Battlecruiser.

My main complaint concerns the abhorrent state of the lodgings of the marines serving in the Koprulu sector.

To make matters worse, the aforementioned light source appears to have spontaneously combusted.

I urge you to withdraw your accusations lest one were to lose his head in the heat of the discussion.

I demand that you relinquish the lands which de jure belong to my realm.

I would ask you to apprehend the villainous miscreant who hides away at the Scum and Villainy Bar and Grill.

Might I suggest you cease your operations voluntarily in the interest of time?

The fact is that a cake’s purpose is to be eaten and as such to claim that possessing a cake is benefactory over consuming it would be deceit.

What annoys me is that a growing number (though not the vast majority) of Christians merely use religion as a tool to provide for their own agendas (numerous of them being highly unchristian).

6. Opinion Essay: Should the Internet be more tightly controlled by governments?

The era of information that we currently live in houses many dangers to the unwary internet explorer. Some claim that governments should further regulate it but I think that trying to control the Internet would be folly.

The case can be made that regulating internet traffic aids in the fight against terrorism, reduces cyber-bullying and can remedy the effects of data theft. There’s ample evidence that the data sharing capabilities of the Internet have ruined many lives, whether through cyber-bullying, online witch hunts, or online scams. A heavily supervised and restricted Internet could (if such a system was feasible) alleviate these problems.

On the other hand, this would be a hefty blow to free speech. Those who would censor content are fallible and bribable. The Internet would become the marketing grounds of conglomerate corporations. The advertisements of smaller competitors would be rejected as unsuitable content, along with any criticisms of the products, most likely.

Furthermore, it is impossible to control all of Internet traffic. In my opinion, governments should instead opt to incentivise website owners to foster positive communities and reward such actions. For example, if bullying is universally considered unacceptable on a website, the few who would try to do it anyway could be swiftly dealt with. It would use up less of the government’s resources and there wouldn’t be a central authority that could control all of it.

What it comes down to is whether or not it is possible to rein in the negative emotions and habits of pseudonymous users and whether it makes a difference in the community (due to the influx of new unconditioned users which works against the effect). I believe that making the Internet a better place can be achieved without state censorship and control.

4. Vanishing Voices

Today there are about 6,000 languages in the world but about half of them are going to die out during the next century. 96% of the world’s languages are spoken by four per cent of its people.

Many events can kill a language: natural disasters, cultural assimilation, genocide, etc. On July 17 1998, an earthquake in Papua New Guinea, killed more than 2,200 people and displaced a further 10,000. As the survivors have relocated, will these communities and their languages survive the trauma of displacement?

Even if a people stay put, their language may still die as a result of cultural assimilation. At first, there is pressure on the people to speak the dominant language. Then there is a period of bilingualism. In the third stage, when the old language is giving way to the new, the younger generation find its old language less and less relevant. Those families that do continue to use the old language tend to do so in an idiosyncratic manner, resulting in “family dialects”. Within a generation, healthy bilingualism within a family can slip into self-conscious semilingualism, and thence into monolingualism.

We should care about dying languages for the same reason that we care when a species of animal or plant dies. It reduces the diversity of our planet. Encapsulated within a language is most of a community’s history, a large part of its cultural identity, and a wealth of knowledge which the rest of the world can access, such as knowledge of medical treatments from the folk medicine of an indigenous people.

A dying language will cause conflict within the individuals who have abandoned their ancestors’ language. The second generation, with battles over land claims and civil rights behind them, begins to reflect on the heritage they have lost. If only a modicum of effort had been devoted to language preservation, it would have left the option open for future generations to make their own choice.

3. Review of Meie aja kangelane

Meie aja kangelane (A Hero of Our Time) is a play by Galina Polišuk that is based on the book with the same name by Mihhail Lermontov. The majority of the play follows an officer, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, during the 19th century.

What strikes out about the production is that there is a pond in the middle of the stage and overall, the set design is impressive. The large venue variety and a refreshing use of paper props keeps the play from becoming stale.

What was most intriguing about the experience, however, is how it got me thinking. Something about Pechorin’s adventures made me dream of a improvisational production where the audience follows the adventures of the protagonist throughout the land. Of course, it would need a director, a great supportive cast and impeccable teamwork. The play’s real value to me, however, lies in making me realize that not only is such a feat possible, it has been a big part of my life for a couple years now. I speak of tabletop role-playing games and more specifically itmeJP’s by now multiple Rollplay shows. Before making that connection (while watching the play) I had arrived at the conclusion that I would gladly pay for such content (which is available for free online) which is why A Hero of Our Time was an eye-opening piece for me.

To sum up, I think A Hero of Our Time is an excellent play and I would recommend it for the ingenious set and prop design, even though it touched me more deeply than it might others.

5. Letter of Complaint

Dear Mrs Saar,

I am writing to voice my concerns about the flawed IT system in the canteen and the insufficiency of science classes in Tallinn Secondary Science School.

Firstly, if students don’t pay their food bills prior to each month, they can only wait at the left-side queue (which is typically longer and moves slower than the right-side queue) to be manually tagged when they swipe their card. I understand the need to know in advance how many students to prepare food for but manually tagging each student that was not prepared for does not accomplish anything. They can just as well be tagged automatically when they swipe their card in either queue. I believe a better solution (if you wish to disincentivize paying after each month as opposed to prior to) is to bill parents for the entire month unless they send an email the previous day to be taken off the list. Since the menu is updated online anyway, students can choose on the previous day whether or not they wish to eat school food.

The second issue I would like to address is of the lacking number of science classes in the curriculum. In my opinion there should be fewer mandatory courses and more optional ones. Currently, the name of the school belies the contents of its curriculum. In my opinion, there are plenty of ways outside of the school to get course points such as Mektory and Teaduskool, but with the current workload it is hard to justify studying other subjects in addition to those in the mandatory curriculum and as such it would be beneficial if the number of mandatory lessons was brought down.

I hope that you will take into consideration my recommendations and thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Yours sincerely,

Jaagup Kirme