AQ/ALICIA/10S403

In passage 1, the author states that an observation is that murder and violence are higher in nations with the largest income inequality. When there is income inequality, it may mean that there is a difference in level of education between those people who are earning more income than those who are earning lesser. Hence, they have different skills and thus have different kinds of jobs which different pay. These may lead to those people with lesser income to resort to crime as their income may not be sufficient for their daily necessities. These same group of people may be the less educated ones too as their parents could not sent them to school and without any skills, they cannot get jobs and may have no choice but to commit crimes for their livelihood. In South Africa, there is a high crime rate that has always been an issue in the country. Reports have shown that those who commit the crimes like fraud are people with very little education. Hence it is true in this context that crime rates are higher in countries with large income inequality. In Singapore, there is a low crime rate. This is due to the fact that the government subsidies education and makes it compulsory for every child to have at least a primary school education. This would have equipped them with some skills to be able to find a job. Even when people in Singapore have financial problems due to their low income, the government will help them and thus, there is no need to commit crimes to get money. Therefore the author's point is applicable to my society.

In passage 2, the author states that riots are occurring in destitute neighbourhoods. People who live in such neighbourhood are usually the poor. These people may also have little education and thus face a hard time trying to get a job hence they may be unhappy with the way their life is and thus start riots in order to get the government's attention to do something to their neighbourhood so that their life will improve. This is not very applicable in Singapore as there is a strict law regarding riots and thus people do not start riots. As Singapore is a small country with little land, it is not very accurate to say that they are destitute neighbourhoods here. The government tries to help its people as much as possible when it comes to housing and jobs. Hence, people do not have to start riots in order to get the government's attention. Therefore this point is not much of a concern in my society.