Rebecca S04: How important are dreams? 2008 A Levels Q2

When the word ‘dreams’ is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is more often than not the desire to be rich, the aspiration to be like someone successful or even the hope to banish poverty from the face of the earth. Most of the time, these dreams play a crucial role in everybody’s life. However, in certain cases, dreams may not be entirely necessary because they provide a false sense of happiness.

At the individual level, aspirations are necessary because it will motivate individuals to work hard. This is because individuals can envision events in the long term and in order to achieve it, they will need to direct a great deal of effort. Take for instance, the newly appointed President of the United States of America Barack Obama, he had a childhood dream of being the first African-American President of the United States. He worked hard as a student and eventually enrolled at Harvard Law School where he also served as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review and was a member of the Executive Board of the Black Law Students Association. This goes to show that dreams have indeed played a major role in Obama’s life in providing the motivation and encouragement he needs to achieve his ultimate goal of being one of the most influential people in the world.

However, many may argue that dreams are necessary, but the chances of them becoming reality are largely debatable. This may be due to unforeseen circumstances that may occur and impede one’s effort to achieve his dreams. Renowned science-fiction author Jules Verne wrote the novel “A Journey to the Center of the Earth” in hope to educate the readers by placing the different extinct creatures the characters meet in their correct geological era, to show how the world looked a long time ago, stretching from the ice age to the dinosaurs. But, most of his ideas about what the interior of the Earth contains have since been proven wrong. This suggests that while Verne wanted to achieve his goal of educating his readers, the obstacle he faced were to prove that his visions of the ‘center of the Earth’ were actually true.

Perhaps to some, dreams may simply be an illusion which deceives many. However, many of these illusions, so to speak, have the capacity to bring happiness and contentment. Since the desire to be happy is central to human nature, dreams are indeed crucial. Almost everybody was brought up by listening to fairytales with happy endings and no doubt that from that moment onwards, we continue to dream that problems will solve themselves and we could have our happy ending as well. It is also likely that we picture ourselves as the person we admire the most and gain gratification from the very images that whiz across our minds.

At the national level, governments have to craft dreams as well in order for their countries to progress in the long run. This would involve a lot of foresight and accurate predictions which would piece the government’s desires and hopes. For instance, Singapore had a dispute with Malaya over the closing down of the Bank of China in Singapore because the Malays suspected that it had been providing support to the communists in China. However, the Singapore government displayed excellent foresight by realising the potential of the Chinese market and did not close down the Bank of China and eventually when the market. Eventually when the Chinese market opened up in the 1980s, Singapore reaped tremendous benefits and enjoyed prosperity.

More often than not, these predictions may be largely accurate but it is more important for the government to address the pressing needs of the people at present. The big plans for the country’s progress could be carried out more effectively only if the basic needs to the people are met. These big plans should also be carried out in stages so as to counter any minor problems that may arise before it snowballs into bigger problems. Singapore has established the SPUR (Skills Programming for Upgrading and Resilience) program to counter the problem of unemployment as the global recession sweeps across the nation, SPUR will equip workers with the necessary skills when the economy picks up in time to come. In addition, Singapore also has set goals for the country through the Singapore Masterplan 2 which is set to be achieved by 2015. This suggests that if Singapore does not address the issue of unemployment first, she will not have the skilled labour force needed to propel Singapore to achieve her goals. Moreover, if the issue of unemployment is not tackled, it would lead to widespread unhappiness among the citizens and the government would have to deal with even more issues.

Dreams have inspired people to fight for a cause and address issues such as those concerning humanity, all in hope that there would be a higher standard of living as well as fairness in the world. Notable figures such as Muhammad Yunus who developed the concept of microcredit which allows the impoverished who are too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans to make small loans without requiring collateral. Another figure is Jeffery Sachs who is the founder and co-President of the Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty and hunger. This suggests that these dreams are important because they affect the equality of mankind in the world positively by ensuring that the impoverished are not left stagnant in their financial status and giving them ample opportunities to make a proper living.However, even if the dreams and desires to fight for a cause may appear meaningful, the effectiveness of the actions carried out may be severely undermined with the presence of those who do not share the same belief. For example, while Nelson Mandela was campaigning against apartheid in the 1980s, he was met with resistance which resulted in a guerrilla war against the apartheid regime in which many civilians became casualties. Instead of making the situation better, it took a turn for the worse when Mandela was eventually thrown into jail and was labeled a terrorist