Write or Wrong?

Ode to the 300

2009-05-09T00:27:00.004+08:00

No this is not a post about muscular Spartans running around in cloaks and fur underwear. Today my D300 with attached 70-200mm lens was nicked right under my nose. Even Edwin, the friend I was having ice cream with, didn't see anything going on at all. It was so clinical I swear it was the finger smith from Roald Dahl's short stories.

So here's a toast to you, brave DSLR and lens who braved the trials of Nepal with me. Your lives were tragically terminated prematurely, but my only comfort was you saw and experienced much more than what others do in an entire lifetime.

Your last images of the Maoist torch rallies following Prachanda's resignation will always be remembered. It was good while it lasted.

The Dark Night in Kathmandu

2009-04-26T23:48:00.006+08:00

Part of an ongoing series of shots I am doing for a number of reasons. When I first started taking pictures of Kathmandu at night, it was for a change of pace from the political/protest coverage I have been covering.

Secondly, it was a good chance to take a look at the city at after dark. When I first arrived - as with any new place I first encounter I guess - I really feared being out alone at night. Now it's easy to strike up a rudimentary conversation with Nepalis hanging around.

In less than three weeks, I say goodbye to Nepal. Guess these are the memories I will take with me.

Water Crisis

2009-04-08T00:24:00.004+08:00

I never knew Kathmandu had a water shortage problem, despite living here for the past three months. Shame on me and my privileged lifestyle.

For the average person living here, water only comes through the taps one day out of five. Other times, they queue at wherever water is still flowing.

No one used to buy drinking water (except foreigners like me) but now apparently it's big business.

I tried recalling the last time I had water rationing in Singapore. I must have been five then and my Mom and I went downstairs with buckets to get water from the SCDF dude. Only thing is, that wasn't even a necessary rationing, it was only a drill just in case we really needed to do it. I remembered having fun watching everyone queue up to get water.

This time I didn't have any fun at all.

The Rustic Cantonment

2009-04-02T00:19:00.007+08:00

Was in Surkhet for a week to see the Maoist camps over there. That place is really deep inside the rural regions and I had no communications with the outside world. Nothing is going on in the camps now that the big Maoist parade last month is over and after waging a bloody 10-year civil war in the hills of Nepal, these ex-guerillas are now fighting boredom.

Weirdly enough I even bummed into these bunch of teenagers who were here for PLA recruitment but had to go home empty handed because the Supreme Court blocked the move to enlist more fighters.

Guard duty is perhaps the only time the soldiers don their military fatigues nowadays.

Cooking is now the biggest activity going on in the camp. Everyday 5 hours is spent preparing Daal Bhat and one platoon of 30 men can consume 10kg of rice per meal!

Carom is the weapon of choice to kill time but occasionally enough energy is mustered up to play a game of volleyball.

Now that the Maoists are in government, their army lies neglected in the wilderness. Sometimes I wonder if these fighters have been taken for a ride. Have they been sold a communist dream in a world where the Soviet Union fell about 20 years ago? Have they destroyed the monarchy only for their sold called communist leader Pranchanda to live like a king in the capital?

Who said monks were zen?

2009-03-11T11:43:00.011+08:00

Two days ago was the 50th anniversary of the uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule and there being a rather large Tibetan population in Kathmandu, obviously there was going to be some action taking place. It all began with a prayer session to mark the occasion and a speech by the Dalai Lama was read out in Tibetan. The session ended with the monks throwing something like flour, closing the ceremony with a flourish.

Then the march began and the monks, so serene in prayer, turned so angry in protest.

This was the first time I've seen the armed police force behave so aggressively. Usually all they do is clear the way for the protestors but this time they were out in full force to prevent them from leaving the monastery area.

They even arrested a few people, including a monk, and shoved them up a truck. I thought they were going to the slammers but the truck had driven less then 10m before stopping and all of them were freed!

Anyway, I fell after I was tripped by a metal chain. Some really ugly scratches on my camera and lenses. I have a few bruises too but thankfully no broken bones. The hazards of hanging out with holy men.

Saving Nepal's Future

2009-03-07T02:47:00.004+08:00

Visited Children Nepal, an NGO based in Pokhara, a few days back. They have a unique policy of not spoon feeding aid to the needy. Instead, the family and school of poor children are made responsible for the problem and take ownership by giving whatever little they have to put the child through education.

They must be doing something right because right there in their building is a room of 13 one-year-old computers with flat screen monitors. The computers are used for very basic computer literacy training for the children and I know it doesn't look like much, but this is probably the best computer room I've seen in Nepal.

Wacth your tongue

2009-02-20T01:27:00.003+08:00

At the huge rally, communist leaders from around the world were speaking in all languages (found the Chinese speech quite comical but it felt strangely good to hear something I understood). Things were going well until this Nepali decided he had to speak in Hindi instead of Nepali.

That got the crowd really pissed off.

I was really lucky to be near the crowd when this happened. Don't think any other photographer had a close shot. Had been tracking the guy with the red scarf for some time and rushed to his position when the crowd started getting riled up. But then the fellow behind him jumped up for even more drama.

Branding rivalry

2009-02-20T01:06:00.004+08:00

For all you capitalists out there, it will warm your hearts to know that even in the land where Karl Marx lives, product sponsorship is rampant.

Witness here the PLA football team donning Adidas gear during their march pass on PLA day.

And here the rival party UML is decked out in Nike.

Wonder how these giant companies will feel when they know communists are supplying cheap knock-offs of their products to party cadres.

Commie Punk

2009-02-20T00:26:00.008+08:00

Headed to this place called Butwal (had to suppress a snigger when I first heard the name of the place) next for the national congress of the Communist Party of Nepal - Unified Marxist-Lenist (CPN UML). They were picking their new leadership and leaders of communist parties from around the world, including China, Vietnam and North Korea, attended the mass rally.

Looks like the punk culture is everywhere.

The party tries to do a Mount Rushmore with their leaders of the past.

Children of the Revolution

2009-02-19T23:59:00.005+08:00

This story of mine made it to page one of the Nepali Times. Went into the cantonments, where PLA fighters are now staying after leaving the jungles following the peace accord. It's just such a cognitive dissonance to see these friendly mothers holding and breastfeeding their children while at the same time knowing they were once soldiers and killers that waged a 10 year civil war.

I was still doing my interviews through an interpreter until one fighter told me her age. 23. With one child. That was when I was really shaken in the inside. Our age was the only similarity we had. She had joined the PLA when she was just 17 and is now married to a PLA comrade with a one-year-old son. It took me a bit of time before I could fully concentrate on the interview again.

This picture made it to page one. The one at the top ran inside.

The Fierce One

2009-02-19T23:36:00.003+08:00

Depending on who you ask, Prachanda means "the fierce one" or "awesome". It's also the name of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, erstwhile Prime Minister and former guerilla leader of the PLA that waged a ten-year insurgency in Nepal.

Here, he salutes his Maoist army on their anniversary before letting his fighters know he is now PM and no longer their guerilla leader. If all this is alien to you, don't worry because it's equally confusing.

The fierce one's detractors call him Pranchanda-cho, the last word meaning "thief". I learnt this from my reporters buddies and the morning I was heading to the Maoist cantonments for a story, my travel mate gave me some good advice, "Don't say Pranchanda-cho."

When I returned safe and sound from the barracks, they continued to rip me about it. Apparently the image of a Koidey (foreigner) striding up to the Maoist sentry and politely asking, "Is this the camp of Prachanda-cho?" was stuck in their heads.

The American Maoist

2009-02-19T23:23:00.003+08:00

Capturing daily vignettes sometimes gives me more joy than spot news photography. It's really challenging to capture the oddities in daily life and I think this picture encapsulates it well.

For all the flak the USA gets for being imperialists and screwing up the world the past eight years, it goes to show how their soft power continues to be strong. A Maoist soldier has the stars and stripes on his head during the Maoist celebration of their war's anniversary.

The People's Liberation Army celebrated with a parade complete with mass dances, karate demonstrations and even a staged commando raid. I have photos of those, but they didn't turn out so well and I don't wanna bore you guys with them.

First of Many

2009-02-19T22:25:00.002+08:00

Just got back yesterday from a week-long road trip on a 350CC bike out of Kathmandu. On pillion and not as the rider. This is the first of a series of many posts about my life on the road. Would have wrote yesterday if the Internet had not been down last night.

Suffice it to say I had a great time. It was the first time I saw rain in Nepal, the first time I drank alcohol everyday for seven days straight and the first time I had Dal Bhaat (rice with gravy) for every meal for the same seven days.

If you are scrolling down from the top. This is the first/last post on my roadtrip.

Best day in Nepal

2009-02-07T22:44:00.003+08:00

Was a great day hiking around the outskirts of Kathmandu today. Pristine fields of crops (it's amazing how they can still grow anything after five months without rain), fresh air and a light breeze did so much to lift my spirits.

No photos for this entry because I decided to leave the mammoth tank behind and just enjoy the walk. I'm now flirting with the thought of getting a compact camera. Maybe the Panasonic LX3. That lens is some work of engineering.

Anyway, back to the hiking. It was a perfect way to get to know more Nepali friends in the media. Especially when the post-hike activity - drinking home-brewed alcohol - took place.

With alcohol, tongues were loosened and we had a great time swapping life stories with among ourselves. Today was a real holiday and on the happiness index it was the best day in Nepal.

Welcome to the Jungle

2009-02-02T21:55:00.008+08:00

Went to Chitwan over the weekend for a story on tigers and the work being done by scientists to track the number left in Nepal. Nope, didn't see any tigers but I did manage to catch a glimpse of a few birds, crocodiles and even some rhinos.

Entrance into the national park was about 10 dollars for a foreigner like me. But since our hosts were the good people of the biodiversity centre, we simply hopped onto an elephant and took the back door in the park.

What amazed me the most was the grasslands. Grass more than 8m tall! we were on elephant back and the grass was taller than us. Truly an assignment that was like a holiday.

Adopted New Year

2009-01-27T23:53:00.004+08:00

So the first day of Chinese New Year went by without barely a whisper. But today the Tamangs of Nepal celebrated their own new year. Photographing these bunch of merry-makers made me adopt their festival as mine.

It really helps that most Nepalis are not camera shy. They seem even press trained. When the camera approaches they continue to dance, sing and cheer, without scant regard to the clicking. Of course there are those who cover their faces and make a run for it at the slightest sign of a lens, but I'll bet my home country has much more of those people.

Happy Chinese New Year people. Eat all the abalone and bak kwa on my behalf. Somehow the second New Year away from home doesn't make it any easier.

The Road is Long...

2009-01-27T00:43:00.003+08:00

Sometimes it seems like we'll never get there. Seconds stretch to minutes. Days can seem like weeks.

But eventually everything passes. We always get to the end of the road. When it's suddenly time to stop, I all too often am at a loss of what to do, now that I'm finally at my destination.

This time, I want to know what to do.

Magic Hour

2009-01-19T23:16:00.004+08:00

Was lucky enough to be out and finally discover the magic hour of Nepal. Golden sunlight at its most glorious. Sometimes in the pursuit of that perfect frame I forget the simple of joy of taking a pleasing image.

Thanks must go though, to Zak for chasing the pigeons into their short flight span. And yes Bro, if you're reading this, I plagiarised your idea after looking at your photos from India. Ha ha ha.

First good photo

2009-01-18T00:36:00.004+08:00

Friday saw me going for a huge rally by Newaris, an ethnic group with their own unique language here in Nepal who are campaigning for an autonomous state. Min, a senior photographer who's been with Nepali Times since Day 1, was nice enough to ask me along for the assignment.

By the way, after spending a few hours with Min, I've concluded that he knows half the people in Nepal. Everywhere we went, he was shaking the hand of someone. Snapping pictures in front of the podium, running through the streets chasing the front of the march, riding a bike and meeting cops, everywhere there was someone who knew this guy. That's what being a reporter makes you.

The rally itself turned out to be quite a big affair. The numbers swelled as the speeches started but the crowd was very tame. I mean we see more action during Workers' Party rallies back home in Singapore. My theory is that these guys protest/strike/rally/do-crazy-stuff everyday but we only get to scream in public places once every 5 years so it all comes out then.

Lucky for me I still managed to capture one moment of passion. My first good photo in Nepal, rubber stamped by the Photo Czar back home!

This is not a bus interchange

2009-01-15T22:49:00.003+08:00

Electric three-wheelers blockading a major road in Kathmandu in protest of 16 hour power cuts daily. Wouldn't it be really cool if you could run across the tops of all the vehicles from front to back? If you notice, there's no bulb on the lamp post in the foreground. Wouldn't raise a Nepali's eyebrow.

Life changes dramatically without 24 hour power. Not to state the obvious, but still it's amazing how modern life is centered around electricity. Now we plan everything from time to charge the handphones, batteries to when we can cook rice. And longest battery life wins. Now I'm glad I left my one-hour Fujitsu at home!

Well, this is South Asia after all...

2009-01-10T23:20:00.004+08:00

I was told that Nepalis don't play Cricket, but Saturdays at Tundikhel, a mega field in the middle of Kathmandu, prove otherwise. There must be more than 10 Cricket games going on at the same time; football becomes a fringe sport.

It's a sport I don't understand and is bizarre - I understand the game stops for players to have a tea break - but at least I know it's a good thing for the bowler when he knocks down one of the wickets behind the batter.

Maybe I should pick up the sport here. If anything, there's always the tea. But then again, something tells me these amateur games aren't big on player welfare.

Motorcycle Diaries

2009-01-08T00:22:00.004+08:00

I think travelling by bike here is pretty similar to the experience in Vietnam. The traffic isn't that bad here but the locals refuse to believe it. It's almost like some pride can be had in having the worst traffic in the world!

Work is slowly picking up and I'm optimistic more exciting stuff will come my way. So far the biggest thing was going to photograph the Finance Minister. Am thankful for the chances to follow my bro on his shoots and so was a little more aware about what to do when the FM decided to plonk himself into a chair with his back to the window.

The Gift

2008-10-17T01:27:00.000+08:00

Probably a fitting birthday gift.

http://enquirer.sg/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/ntu-students-start-own-news-site-mypaper.pdf

Fake Accents

2008-05-10T03:08:00.000+08:00

One of my pet peeves is the fake accent Singaporeans adopt when speaking to foreigners. And though this is just speculation on my part, I feel the most popular accent among Singaporeans is the American accent.

There are a few kinds of fake-accent people around. The first kind is the malleable kind. They speak like you and me, the normal accent, when around other Singaporeans. But the moment they speak to a foreigner, the nasal accent just jumps out and bites you. It’s like the Singaporean accent is not good enough to be heard by foreigners.

Then there is the kind with the permanent accent. Whether it be years of overseas education or too much American TV (oh, please, as if they actively engage the cast of Grey’s Anatomy in conversation), their excuses for a permanent foreign accent range from the kind-of-believable to the outright laughable. For them, the Singaporean accent is not good enough even for Singaporeans!

I sensed that my outrage at the fake angmoh accents was reaching fever pitch, so I decided to analyse why I felt so. Firstly, when listening to a friend from Hong Kong speaking English in an American accent, I felt no sense of outrage. So that rules out solidarity to the Chinese race as a source of anger at Singaporeans who speak with a fake accent.

Then, I thought about my own process of learning another language. When I was learning Spanish, I often sough to imitate the exact way my Spanish teacher, from Spain, spoke. So in a way, aren’t I engaging in trying to fake a Spanish accent with my Spanish? Shouldn’t I be happy speaking Spanish with a Singaporean accent if I think Singaporeans should speak English with a Singaporean accent?

Then answer then lies with what sort of language Singapore speaks. I think that Singaporeans who speak English with a fake accent forget that Singapore is an English-speaking country itself. We are entitled to our own accent of English. We learn English from our own people, not foreigners who are here to teach us about it.

It’s the same with the Latin American world. I'm sure different countries in Latin America have their own accents speaking Spanish. A Mexican speaking with a “Spain” accent would probably draw the same ire from his countrymen as Singaporeans who speak with an American accent do.

So there is a difference with speaking a foreign language and trying to imitate it as best as you can to speaking your own language and trying to imitate others who speak it. Please, we all speak English, but not all English is the same. Have the confidence in your own accent. We didn’t learn English from an angmoh.

I give to thee...

2008-05-08T12:09:00.004+08:00

Being here has made me more aware of the English language due to various reasons. Firstly and most importantly it’s because of Editing and Design, a class that I’ve been taking that has really drilled me in English quite a bit. Secondly, it’s fascinating to see how within one country, there are different accents (Yankee accent, Southern accent, Northern accent), proving that the search of a native English speaker is elusive because we all speak English and it no longer just belongs to one country.

But the purpose of this entry is to discuss pronouns today. Yes, it’s going to be mighty boring unless you are a nerd so you have been warned.

I have drawn out in a table form the various pronouns in the English language.

	Subject/ Singular	Subject/ Plural	Object/ Singular	Object/ Plural
1^st Person	I	We	Me	Us
2^nd Person	You	???	You	???
3^rd Person	He/She	They	Him/Her	Them

Notice that the 1^st and 3^rd person has a unique term for all four categories in singular and plural, as well as the subject and object versions. The 2^nd person, on the other hand, is sorely lacking in the plural department. And the subject and object terms are not unique.

But in Shakespeare’s time, this was not the case. Thanks Gary for shedding light on this.

	Subject/ Singular	Subject/ Plural	Object/ Singular	Object/ Plural
1^st Person	I	We	Me	Us
2^nd Person	Thou	Ye	Thee	You
3^rd Person	He/She	They	Him/Her	Them

And we haven’t even gotten into the possessive phrases yet! I wonder what led to the death of 2^nd person plurals in English. It’s not as if it isn’t useful because people have invented terms to cope with the lack of plural.

Things like “you all” have popped up. Southerners in the US say it, but it’s a part of Singlish as well. This has probably come from 你们.

Anyone want to weigh in on how the 2^nd person plural disappeared?

President Clinton said to me...

2008-04-24T09:10:00.000+08:00

No, I did not download this picture from the internet. William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America, came down to little Elon University today to give his wife's campaign a little boost. I don't know if it's normal for big-time politicians to come down to small towns like these (Elon University, population 5,000) to pull for votes, but it seemed like the race for the Democratic nomination has gotten so tight it's now a desperate swipe for every vote.

Bill Clinton was quite a joy to photograph. Apart from the tiny little fact that he is a former president, he's pretty animated when he speaks. This gave me lots of chances to get many emotions of out him.

Taunting Clinton. Here he seems to be saying, "Told you we'll kick your ass in Pennsylvania, Obama." Hillary Clinton, of course, won the primary there, keeping her slim hopes of the nomination alive.

Angry Clinton. He might be saying, "I want Secret Service to find that blue dress with that stain on it and burn it, NOW!"

Eureka Clinton. Maybe he's saying, "Damn I left my favourite baseball card collection in the White House after I left office. I wonder how I can get it back... I know! I'll make my wife run for president!"

Sad Clinton. He looks like he's saying, "Shoot, I have to sign more autographs. I'll never make it back in time to catch American Idol."

And finally, here's Clinton saying, "Look, you Singaporean bugger, you better cut that out and stop making me look like a fool on your blog or I'm going to get your ass whipped like what you guys did to Michael Fay in 1994."

Ok, Mr President. I don't want to mess with you. So here's some flattering shots of how you're still ever so popular with the American people.

I think it was right about here that I could not longer resist being a groupie and reached my hand out to get a piece of Bill. Miraculously, he shook my hand, twice. On the second time, I called out, "Hey Bill, I'm from Singapore. All the way here just to see you!"

And Bill said to me, "I like your country."

Nice.

This is New York City

2008-04-17T09:39:00.001+08:00

So this is New York City. After seeing it on television and movies numerous times. Pretty surreal but here are some pictures to root it in reality.

Times Square and its overwhelming explosion of lights. The number of cops roaming the streets is unbelievable. Every 1o steps I took I saw 2 cops. That's quite a ratio.

Another one of the in-your-face buildings.

Central Park is really nice place to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. What's so amazing is its perfect rectangular shape. In fact Manhatten is just this series of straight interlocking roads it's quite a feat of urban planning.These guys were really hilarious buskers I saw in Central Park. "Your donations keep us out of two places. The poor house, and your house." Nothing like a little dark humour to keep the money rolling in.

The Empire State building looming over Manhatten. I thought it was a waste of money to go up there but now I'm kind of regretting not doing it. I'm just a stupid tourist at the end of day.

A day at the Museum. The American Museum of Natural History to be precise. Yes, the one where Ben Stiller encounters the living exhibits! Apparently, this here is a skull of a neanderthal, or Homo Erectus, a species that lived on Earth before the Homo Sepiens (you and I) outplayed, outwitted, and outlasted them.

Statue of Atlas outside the Rockefeller Centre. Rockefeller is that rich dude we learnt about in CS 207.

St Patrick's Church, which is directly opposite the Statue of Atlas.

The Brooklyn Bridge with the Manhatten skylight. It was nice to be able to get out of Manhatten a while.

And on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge I could see another bridge that linked Manhatten to Brooklyn.

Anyway, the last image shows the sewer fumes that come out of just about every manhole in New York City. Maybe it's the cold weather that produces this mystical smoke. Maybe the New York sewers are just really filthy. One thing's for sure though. The fumes really stink!

Gone for one week

2008-03-22T03:38:00.000+08:00

I’ll be leaving for New York City in a few hours’ time. Going to be an exciting trip I guess.

2 months of school in the US have passed just like that. All in all everything is going well and I hope things will continue to be OK once I’m back. I doubt it though because the workload is only going to get heavier.

Anyway I realised this is the only picture I have taken of myself so far in the US.

Why this Blog Unreservedly Endorses Barack Obama

2008-03-06T13:49:00.001+08:00

For the past few months, I have been unable to make up my mind between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

But my choice was made when it dawned upon me how Clinton is a symbol of the establishment and Obama is the call for change.

For Hillary Clinton, she has time and again emphasised her ability to be “commander in chief from day one” and often cites her experience in the government as a plus point. I must admit I found that argument pretty convincing.

However, as I listened to her speak after winning Ohio last night in the presidential primary, I felt a haunting sense of déjà vu. Her promises of being the best-prepared candidate are exactly the kinds of argument that the ruling party in Singapore uses every single time there is an election.

Deriding her opponent as nothing but an empty call for change is the same as how Lee Kuan Yew described opposition rallies as nothing but cheap entertainment that Singaporeans go to.

Declaring that Barack Obama will not be prepared to take the reins of the government is also akin to the scare tactic that the PAP often uses. Vote the opposition in and they will bring Singapore into ruin they say.

I have often told my friends to get real, that a few opposition members in the parliament will not cause Singapore’s economy to collapse overnight. Why did it take me so long to see through Clinton’s attacks?

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both promise a change in the way government functions. But the fact is Clinton is simply too entrenched in the political system, having been in Washington so long. With someone owing so many favours to politicians and donors alike, how much can she possibly venture off the beaten track?

As for Obama, having not much experience might really work against him. But if we don’t give him the chance to prove himself, where is that experience going to come from. Just like if we never give the opposition in Singapore the chance to appear in parliament, where are they going to get the opportunity to speak up for Singaporeans?

Listen to Obama and you will know that his calls for change are not empty. Just be glad that we get to hear him on TV. To hear a proper opposition standpoint, one has to go stand in an opposition rally. The press rarely, if ever, reports it.

And so as a person who finds much reason to support the opposition I cannot but feel a need to support Obama. As a person who feels the establishment is so arrogant they think they have a god-given right to rule, I cannot but feel Clinton’s current fall from grace is a kick up her ass that she needs.

One can only hope the people of Singapore gets the guts to kick our government up its ass soon.

Shotgun Culture

2008-03-05T09:08:00.000+08:00

Camping over at Guy’s place was fun, to say the least. His property is huge and there’re lots to do over there.

Things like firing shotguns. We had a hell of a time blasting clay pigeons – they don’t even look like pigeons, they’re like flying saucers – that were flying through the air. Blows my mind that someone can have his own firing range in his backyard.

It was nice too to go to the Grand Asia Market and then cook up a storm for Guy’s family. I learnt that the Americans rarely eat fish. And that they never ever eat a fish whole. “Eyeballs!” screamed Sheri when she looked at the fish I was preparing. Good thing she didn’t go to the market with us.

Hope to go back soon and get on the zip line soon. There’s just so much to do and have fun. Just really thankful I get to go off the campus every now and then.

Musings on Scouting - Attendance

2008-02-22T13:12:00.000+08:00

Being here has allowed me to talk with my longtime Scout buddy John on a number of issues relating to Scouts. I think I gained quite a few epiphanies here and I will blog about them as and when I feel enough energy to do so.

I realised that we can no longer afford to be too hung up on attendance within the Scout troop. For too long we have vexed over this problem because the boys simply aren't interested in turning up. By that extention, punishing those who do bother to turn up for the actions of those who don't has been a time honoured tradition, but I'm afraid the notions of solidarity no longer apply to the boys anymore.

Instead we should focus on working on those who are truly interested. Rather than spend the whole day sulking about bad attendance perhaps I should just try a little positivity (I know it's very hard, but just try) and make the activity enjoyable for those who turned up and let them feel like they learnt something at the end of the activity.

That in itself would be the greatest punishment to those who don't turn up. This is a highly idealistic point of view and it will take a long time before the Scouts themselves feel it. But after trying hardcore regimentation with the boys and achieving very little results, perhaps it's something we need to try now.

On a lighter note, it really frees us up in spirit when we stop sweating attendance and try to enjoy Scouting with the boys. Hopefully, when the boys see us enjoying doing Scouting related stuff with them, they will realise that the ASLs are still around after all these years because we enjoy Scouting, and not because we are power hungry or sadists. We are here on our own free will.

Which brings me to my next point. I guess at the end of the day, everyone is free to do what they want. Forcing a boy to turn up on Saturday in his Scout uniform may not be the memory we want to leave on him after his years in RV. This point is even more salient when we consider that almost all these boys did not choose to be in Scouting. They were just thrown in by the quota. So we can only entice them to be interested, and not push them to the point of rebellion.

But what about leadership in the troop, you may ask? Aren't the PLs supposed to compell their members to turn up for activities. Yes, they are. And they will continue to do so. But perhaps we should start guiding these young boys in the art of persuasion (letting the potential malingerers know the fun they'll be missing out on) instead of telling them to resort to coercion (threats of punishment on them or the those who turn up).

By guiding the PLs to take a more nuanced approach, perhaps we can mould them to become better communicators, negotiators, leaders and last but not least, growing human beings.

Sabbatical

2008-02-20T10:31:00.001+08:00

So it’s been about 3 weeks in the US for me, and I’ve kind of settled down here, having confirmed the modules that I’ll be taking and also getting into the groove of going to class. I guess it’s time to take stock of what has happened so far.

This trip has so far lived up to my expectation. I came here as a sabbatical of sorts, wanting to get away from the city in Singapore and experience living in a suburban place. To that extent, this place is everything like that. In the town of Elon, there are no buildings more than a few stories high and I seem to have plenty of time for everything, being torn away from distractions like TV, chatting with friends online and everything else that seems to eat away at time in Singapore.

But the pre-requisite to living in suburbia is having a car. I have no car. That gives me many problems in this country of vast landscapes. Getting around is a pain in the ass and my days have been largely spent in Elon, walking around the campus or exercising.

This place certainly resembles detox camp. I get at least 8 hours of sleep a day, I can concentrate on studying (the subjects that I’m taking have been really beneficial to me) and there’s lots of nature to take in. Only the food we eat here seems to be out of line of the whole detoxification process. My crazy friend, John, is here as well so as long as we can overcome the car problem – see the above paragraph – basically we’re going to have a great outdoor adventure.

Anyway, since I’m on the subject of subjects, let me give a quick rundown since I’m so satisfied with them.

Photojournalism is making me use my DSLR more and I’m happy about that. I’m learning something each class though the progress has been really slow since the course is catered to a wide spectrum of people with different cameras. But it’s something that I really want to pursue and it’s great that I’m here shooting away.

International relations really appeals to me intellectually and it’s something I don’t think I could have done back in Singapore. I’m glad I chose this module and that it’s turning out to be exactly what I wanted to do.

Editing and Design has been painful, in a Hedwig sense. But I know that it’s necessary in a Hedwig sense as well. I can actually see the benefits of the module. Developing a better grasp of English is definitely something I want. Apart from the annoying AP style that I don’t like, everything is basically good about the course. Ok, apart from the lousy scores that I got the first few quizzes, too. I just hope a Hedwig style moment of enlightenment will hit me soon like it did last semester. I also hope it won’t be so late into the semester like the other time.

Golf is just something I would like to pick up and I see it as a chance to hit some golf balls at the driving range. Today was the first time we got to hit the driving range and the coach said I was “hitting ok”. What he didn’t know was that I’ve actually been to the driving range in Singapore 4 times… Ha ha…

So far so good then I suppose. I really don’t mind the long stretches of so-called boredom because it’s a good way to unwind. I see this trip primarily as time out of the normal routine to relax and be by myself. Again sabbatical pops to my mind. To that end, I kind of feel sorry for Shannon who’s with me now. He seems bored out of his skull (does that contribute to his seemingly perpetual bad mood?) and I don’t know how much of an influence I was on his decision to come to Elon. So I guess I should feel a little bad. Wei Shan seems pretty bored too and on edge all the time. But she made the decision to come here herself, so I don't feel so responsible for that.

Snowing on My Parade

2008-02-15T05:38:00.004+08:00

The snow really woke me up to the idea that I was in a different country. I didn’t believe it at first when several people told me it was snowing because I couldn’t see it out of my window. But then after it started gathering on the shrubs and the ground, I opened my window and braved the blasts of cold air to snap a few pictures. It was surreal to see the little bits of ice falling on the window sill.

The next morning, I took a walk to the driving range for golf lesson – not knowing that it had been cancelled – and took in the sight of a snow covered land. Hearing the “squish” every time I took a step was fun and so was kicking it up the soft carpet of what looked like foam. Trees turned into crystals of ice and the vast sports fields blanketed in white were a first for me.

Being all alone looking out at the vast expense of blindingly white land, I was felt overwhelmingly like I was the only person on Earth (another I am Legend moment). Save for the footsteps in the snow and the occasional moving car far off in the horizon, there was no sign of life, except for my own shadow. I found myself wishing I had my camera with me at that point of time.

I was initially apprehensive about the cold, but now I’m glad I finally got to see snow after almost 23 years of existence.

Cabin Fever

2008-02-09T10:59:00.000+08:00

It’s been a week since I’ve arrived in the US and I must say things are going pretty smoothly so far.

I’ve been roaming the campus quite a lot, especially last weekend when I managed to check out the entire grounds of the university. It really is quite big and spread out.

Amazingly, I’ve managed to not take a single photograph ever since leaving home. I think not having a compact point-and-shoot makes the inertia of taking out the big camera way too much to overcome.

Well, all that’s going to change when I visit John this weekend. Will be snapping quite a few pictures over there. Not mention that I am taking a class in photojournalism so that would probably make me much more proficient with my camera.

I guess a few things have already happened that have been some sort of cultural exchange already. I watched my first Super Bowl and learnt the rules. Finally understood a bit of the excitement of the game but it’s still pretty boring for me.

I’ve also joined in the training with the college rugby team. I was really apprehensive about doing it but now it seems I’ve made the right decision because training is fun and it’s something I really enjoy. My father would probably be happy to know that I’ve also signed up for golf class and they can be transferred for credits back home.

Another thing nice about this campus is the large number of squirrels scurrying around all the time. Quite a few of my friends have said that I look like one and it is my favourite animal so it’s nice to have these cute animals around me.

The only thing that is getting me down is how early the sun sets over here. By 6 it would be the twilight zone and by 6.30 darkness will have fallen. With the incessant reminders that it’s not safe to go out at night, and the fact that the school was deserted as classes hadn’t started the first few days we were here, it was like “I am Legend” everyday, rushing back to campus before the sun set.

So it’s long hours indoors and added to that is the pain of sorting out our modules that we are taking here. Hope cabin fever doesn’t set in.

Oh, did I mention that the food servings here are huge? If not for the fact that food is so expensive here that I am reduced to almost one meal a day, I probably would be putting on some weight. Glad the gym facility is nice and I’m involved in some sports now.

All right, will be posing photos if I can overcome the laziness. Looking forward to finally meeting up with my crazy friend tomorrow.

What's in a name?

2008-01-19T01:02:00.000+08:00

When I just started university, I preferred the term “journalist” to “reporter”.

A journalist just sounded so much more sophisticated. More like an intellectual pursuit than something merely vocational. Being a journalist was like a profession, something of a higher level than just being a reporter.

But now, I prefer the term “reporter” to “journalist”.

It’s so much easier to understand. The term speaks for itself on what it’s supposed to mean. It’s not pretentious or “atas”.

It invokes the feeling of really getting into the field for some hard-nose reporting. A reporter just seems so much more in touch with the real world.
Best of all, one mention of the word and people understand what it means. And that, I guess, is what reporting is about.

Much Ado About Nothing

2008-01-08T00:53:00.000+08:00

I just saw Quek's tag and I must say, it's really been quite a long time. But I've been away for even longer periods of time so what is this man...

Today's the first day of school but owing to the fact that I am going for exchange I need not attend school. I realised I missed many parts of school. The building, the friends, the thought that I'm a student in my youth.

I also kind of miss the girls who always make an effort to dress up and at least look presentable. In the past when people on campus remarked to me that there are many pretty girls in CS I would be incredulous.

But now I'll admit that they are at least easy on the eye.

I also think I will regret this post in the morning.

Kids Nowadays

2007-11-23T22:47:00.000+08:00

Read in the news that some kid got 294 for PSLE. Well, that wasn’t what caught my eye. What I noticed in the newspaper report was that the previous record holder (292) was now a postgraduate student in NUS.

Wow, an out-of-this-world score in PSLE and that guy’s merely studying in a local university?

A few seconds later, the weight of that comment that came to my mind instinctively struck me. I suddenly realised a few things.

How I’ve been conditioned to think a foreign education definitely trumps a local one (no doubt from seeing how overseas government scholarships have a longer bond, showing how much more valuable, monetarily at least, they are).

How I’ve come to assume a high score in an exam means a person is intelligent and should automatically make it in life (and by extrapolation, how doing badly in an exam mean I’m screwed for life).

How I’ve come to see education and academics as a measurement of success in life (as opposed to happiness, freedom to do what I want, making a difference in life, or simply anything that hasn’t got to do with scoring As or making money).

All right if everything I just said just sounded like bull shit, I think I’ll just take another tack. People, scoring a kick-ass score in your PSLE (or any other exam for that matter) doesn’t matter that much in the long run. That guy with the 292 held a national record for 14 years, and now he’s just another faceless student in the see of postgraduates in NUS. Being famous when you’re 12 doesn’t mean you’ll be famous when you’ve outgrown your school uniform.

Stop whipping your kids just because of a bad grade.

The Hire…

2007-11-21T14:38:00.000+08:00

…is a series of 8 short films made as commercials for BMW cars in 2000 and 2001. These films were directed by world-renowned directors including Lee Ang, Wong Kar-Wai, John Woo and Tony Scott, to name a few.

What brought these films to my attention (other than the Youtube and film nut Liew Shi Xiong of course) is its confirmation that auteurism does exist in the realm of filmmaking. Making a movie is a highly collaborative and compartmentalised process in which roles like the producer, cinematographer, script writer, director of photography and many more, all come into play. How do we attribute a film authorship to a sole figure, the director then, when it is clear his role is dwindled given that so many others have a say in making a film?

Well, the auteur theory articulated by Andrew Sarris gives us a rough guide as to what makes an auteur.

1) Technical competence and expertise in the use of film language and techniques.
2) A coherent and identifiable personal style in visual form and narrative. The first attribute (technical expertise) helps deliver the second (own visual form).
3) Consistent world view, be it about politics, love, family, masculinity, feminism, the list goes on. This of course, brings about the personal style in the previous point.

The premise of The Hire, is simple. Split across two seasons, with 5 episodes in the first and 3 episodes in the second, it revolves around an unnamed driver (Clive Owen) who goes about a task assigned to him, showcasing the latest BMW model in the process.

Now these series of shorts transcend the mere stereotype of a stylised commercial simply because of the auteurs behind them. I will pick a few of the shorts to highlight my point.

Looking at Lee Ang’s piece, we see the familiar notions of circularity, and perhaps the idea of cause and effect. Ignoring the token references to Asians, we see the style of Lee Ang, which is the plot taking its time to develop, even in a short film such as this. There’s also the reference to the Hulk, another film by Lee Ang.

My favourite among the 8, this one by Wong Kar-Wai. From the very first shot, and the other two following, we immediately detect his signature style of a human face or form framed by a stark background. Love the way the intense trailing of the car is transformed into a romantic dance of sorts between the two cars, by the music and the calm voice-over. Also, the shot of the driver and wife, next to each other but yet so far apart. The camera refuses to move into a close up or even a shot-reverse-shot of the both them, signifying their distance.

Then there’s one by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the director who gave us 21 grams and Babel. We see the trademark washed out colours (seen in 21 grams) and the harsh depiction of life in South America.

In the second season we have John Woo with his usual “ticking bomb” scenario and SWAT teams converging on a hideout. It was also shot in San Francisco, with its sloping streets and waterfronts, bringing to mind another John Woo flick, Face/Off, filmed in the same location.

The last in the series was directed by Tony Scott, and we see his fast-paced, frenetic editing here. There’s also the subject matter of a race, which fits in well with Scott’s filmography that includes machines being pushed to their maximum capability in Top Gun and Days of Thunder. The story is really catchy too, Gary Oldman doing a really campy take on the devil.

Well, auteur theory is such that after viewing a few films from the body of work of one director, we can identify other films by the same director through the same style of film language being used. I guess, in this aspect, the Hire shows that individual styles do shine through, even when restricted to shooting what is essentially a commercial with the same actor throughout.

Never have I seen such Lions led by such Lambs

2007-11-16T00:27:00.001+08:00

Just caught Lions for Lambs. I liked the fact that it was like a revision of everything I’ve learnt in school so far. The hypocrisy of the middle class, the state of the media today, how a false dichotomy of us against them will lead us to irrational decision, and everything else.

Pretty heavy viewing for a break in between exams, but oh well, I liked it. Oh and check out the exchange between Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise... It was like a practical class in conducting interviews, with the furious scribbling of the pen, the probing questions, the sieving through of the puffery to reach the news, and it was done all the same time!

Ok I know it’s just very good acting but I would like to believe that’s how it really works in real life, because seriously, I have tried it and it’s really not easy.

Oh well, another inspiring Hollywood moment. Brought to you by the newly reopened United Artists studio after Tom Cruise jumped ship from Paramount.

2nd Wind

2007-11-15T00:11:00.000+08:00

The hardest part of the race - the middle. When the end seems so far, when it seems like I've already run a good first half. When it seems so easy just to let go now.

The 2nd night of a 3 day exercise. The 4th round of a 2.4km test. The easy part is when I'm full of energy and raring to go. It's the 2nd wind that kills.

I know this. So I know I musn't give in now and pretend that I've done enough already. Because I know, if I push hard enough, that elusive 2nd wind will come.

So I will not go to bed now. I will read that irritating textbook that I've avoided touching for the last few months.

Get Alive!

2007-11-13T16:21:00.000+08:00

Another one of my group works, this time for a module in Broadcast Journalism. We had to produce a full news cast. Really learnt a lot from this module in terms of camera work and editing I must say.

2646

2007-11-13T15:43:00.000+08:00

A quirky little video my group and I did for one of our modules in school. The parameters we had to work with was the 1 minute time limit and a linear editing machine.

We tried to do a homage to the drug testing scene in Infernal Affairs 1. So the sniffing and intense look on the bosses' faces came from there. Also there's a rather amateurish attempt at a track-reverse-zoom. Hope you guys can catch it.

A Reflection on Military Intervention

2007-11-11T20:15:00.000+08:00

In reading History of Communication Study, I came across a line that identified WWII as one of the few unique wars where the reasons for a call to arms were obvious. Mainly, Germany’s and Japan’s expansionism in Europe and Asia respectively, and the bombing of Pearl Harbour made war military intervention from the US not only inevitable, but more importantly, justified in the eyes of the public then and the pens of historians since.

However, it is easy to forget the opposition to war in the US prior to Pearl Harbour. Even in the face of Nazi aggression and its threat to swallow up the whole of Europe, some Americans were still opposed to war, content to think that the problems of Europe were Europe’s own and would not transfer across the Atlantic.

It took a direct attack on the US to galvanise the nation against its enemies and join the Allied forces. On hindsight, it seems that only when one feels the pain directly will they be spurred into action. Pearl Harbour also helped to legitimise the US entrance into WWII and became a tool for Roosevelt to lobby Congress to declare a state of war.

Of course, it’s over-simplistic to call WWII the only just war. There have been other cases of military action that have been overall, viewed as justified. The first Gulf War helped to kick Saddam and his forces out of Kuwait. Even if the US was just protecting its oil interests, the fact that Saddam was an invader was plain to see. Nato’s actions in the Balkans against Slabodan Milosevic were also timely, and supported by the international community.

Other conflicts have had the dubious honour of being known not because of military intervention by other nations, but because of the lack of it. The Rwandan genocide is infamous not only because of the extreme number of casualties, but because of the fact that the rest of the world stood by and watched it happen. Likewise, the ongoing crisis in Myanmar, which is by the way a human tragedy 40 years in the making ever since the Junta took over, surely calls for more international attention than the tokenism of a UN envoy who has so far, been unable to influence the military leaders at all.

I am of course, not calling for military intervention in every single hotspot around the globe. It is notoriously hard to predict the effects of pre-emptive strikes or military assistance, no matter how justified it seems at the moment when the general presses the “launch” button. Just look at the quagmire that is Iraq now. The supposedly noble goal of deposing a dictator (Saddam) on the pretext of (phony) weapons of mass destruction has descended into a military occupation and a sectarian war with no end in sight. Vietnam is another famous example of fighting for a lost cause from the moment the first bullet was fired.

Because of this, the moral authority and military capability of the US has been sapped, to the point where they are unable to wield influence in other troubled regions of the world which, arguably deserves more attention from them. North Korea continues to play a high-stakes poker game with nuclear arms as its chips. Iran is doing its outmost to join that gambling table. And surely Darfur needs a lot more attention than what is it currently given.

As such, military intervention must be a carefully thought out process. Indeed, a watertight case seems like the only type of war that a country should fight, if it is concerned with its reputation in the history books. The way the average man on the street views the war is of outmost importance, because the troops need to feel that they are fighting for a righteous cause.

Unfortunately, this means that many countries are unwilling to commit to justified cases, as they fear the consequences of military action that could unravel like Pandora’s box. Hence, we all put up this pretence of civility by hiding behind masks painted with a permanent smile. This ritual is called diplomacy.

Diplomacy is often touted as the proper way and seen as a panacea to the world’s conflicts. But sometimes, it just seems like a feel-good measure that does not achieve much tangible effect, put in place in order to convince ourselves that we are doing something, so that we can sleep with a clear conscience at night.

While diplomats take days and weeks to arrange meetings, jet to the meeting place and arrive in their limousine, it only takes seconds for soldiers to pull the triggers of their rifles to massacre masses of innocents.

So, even though I say this with the benefit of hindsight, I say that the US would have been justified to enter WWII even without Pearl Harbour. The war didn’t start when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. The war started when Hitler marched his troops into Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the rest of Europe. Sometimes, we should shed our penchant for short-term memory. Humans are made to remember for longer periods of time than that.

Creative Writing

2007-11-10T00:45:00.000+08:00

Inspired by the events of Pearl Harbour and the US’s entrance into World War II. Also inspired by “Lions for Lambs”, which is in my opinion a great meditation on the current political atmosphere.

Military tensions escalated yesterday as the President lobbied an undecided Senate in an impassioned speech to declare war.

Citing the recent acts of aggression against the country’s allies, President Wa Xi Ong said the expansionism of the Nazi forces was evident, and called on the country to go to its allies’ aid.

“The problem is not only with the Nazis’ belligerence,” said President Wa to a packed house. “The problem is with us, who stand by and do nothing.”

He also warned that if the Nazi war machine was left unchecked, the country could find itself embroiled in a war without its allies.

“Open war is upon us, whether we would risk it or not. The only option is whether we fight now with our friends by our side, or we wait till we are alone before we realise the dogs of war are already outside our door.”

Rounding up his speech, the president appealed to the Senate’s sense of loyalty, reminding them of the assistance from its allies when the country itself was attacked by the Nazis just a few years ago.

“They stood up for us in our time of need,” said the president. “It is time we returned the favour.”

The speech from the normally pacifist president drew an immediate response from the shocked Senate. Opinions on the need for war were split.

Some joined the president in the call to arms. Senator Ai Xio Pah called attention to the long history of unprovoked attacks from the Nazis.

“Remember how they tried to invade our land? Remember how they attacked our closest friends? Are we to forget, now that they are on the warpath again, that the Nazis never seem to get enough?” said Senator Ai.

But other parts of the house accused President Wa of warmongering. Senator Mai Luan Lai stressed that the Nazis have been friendly towards the country in recent times.

“It may not be the wisest of actions to provoke a country who has been cordial with us, there seems to be no justification,” said Senator Mai.

In response, President Wa pointed back to the ongoing attacks on its allies across the Atlantic.

“They’re punching the noses of our allies. They’ve punching them just like how they punched us,” said the president. “They drew first blood.”

The Senate will continue the debate and is expected to cast its war vote next week.

Wallowing

2007-11-07T20:52:00.000+08:00

I have always been fascinated by the seductiveness of self-pity.

How it is able to make my problems seem so big, when there are an infinitely larger number of problems out there.

How it blinds me to the root cause of the unhappiness and makes everyone culpable for it except myself.

How it paralyses me into inaction by making me think that feeling sorry for myself is a valid reaction.

How it tempts me into believing that I deserve better than this when I obviously do not.

How it causes something to affect me so profoundly, when it really shouldn’t matter that much.

How it makes me want to curl up on my bed, like an animal licking its wounds, and forget that this day ever happened.

What are the Chances?

2007-10-25T01:28:00.000+08:00

Today, something really freaky happened.

I was on my way out of school to do an interview. Met Jal at the bus stop and we got onto the 179 together.

Coincidentally, Kairu was on the bus already, and it turns out she was going for her driving test.

After sharing our horror driving lesson stories (it’s amazing how everyone who has tried to learn driving before has one) I suddenly remarked that I was wearing the same t-shirt in which I passed my test.

And then Jal gasped and said that she was wearing the same top that she was wearing when she passed her driving test. And she whipped out her driving licence to prove it.

So I whipped out mine as well. And I told Kairu this was a sign that she would pass her test.

But sadly, she mounted a curb and didn’t. Tough luck I guess. Hope she passes the next time round.

We Interrupt this Programme for a Special Announcement

2007-10-22T17:29:00.000+08:00

A pimple epidemic was declared by the Health Ministry yesterday, following the spread of the disease to the Nose area of the country.

The pimple disease that has ravaged Right Cheek for some two months now threatens to overrun the entire country, with one report in Nose of the disease as well as isolated reports streaming in from Left Cheek as well.

Health Minister Qing Chun Dou said the health emergency left the ministry no choice but to take “extreme measures” to prevent the worsening of the crisis.

“This battle has already left a scar across our nation. If we do not nip the problem in the bud, the pimple disease will leave our country unrecognisable,” said Minister Qing.

Health officials from the ministry have started spraying infected areas with the Oxy anti-pimple cure, blanketing large parts of Right Cheek and Nose with the white cream.

But the ministry has stopped short of using Oxy on Left Cheek, preferring to contain the disease within other parts of the country and prevent its spread.

So far, the effects of Oxy are mediocre at best. Residents complain that it takes too long to work and by the time the infected are cured, the disease has found new breeding areas.

A 27-year old resident in Right Cheek had his house disinfected after two family members fell ill. “All of a sudden my father and brother had these angry red spots on them. I knew they had pimples immediately,” said Mr. Zit Cheung. “They tell me this Oxy thing works, but my family is recovering really slowly.”

Meanwhile, health officials are facing problems of their own. “The disease is simply spreading too fast to contain it. After one infected area subsides, another pops out,” said Health Official Boh Pim Ple. “We need to quarantine people who have the disease soon before Left Cheek comes down with pimples too.”

The government is considering a curfew to stem the spread of the disease. An emergency session of parliament debated the possibility of a 7pm curfew and a mandatory switching off of lights by 11pm. Sleep has been touted as a cure for the pimple disease and the government is considering forcing its people to turn in early.

But with the economy already under strain from the various assignments due to other countries in the region, the workforce can ill afford any rest.

Looks like the pimples are here to stay.

What it's like to feel special

2007-10-16T22:16:00.000+08:00

All right, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I wasn’t expecting anything at all today, but certainly not something on this great a scale. Maybe just singing a birthday song at the benches or something to that effect.

Well, the moment Quek asked me to stick close to her, I knew something was amiss. Then she led me to one of the tutorial rooms and I was starting to think already, wow what is this going to be?

I was seriously overwhelmed by the number of people inside the room. Most of all my year 2 friends were there, and a few year 3s as well. Even as they broke into a hearty rendition of Happy Birthday, I could feel my face turning red.

And to think the lecturer for the module straight after mine was remarking, "What's the special occasion today, I see so many people leaving," as he was walking down the stairs.

Was really at a loss for words when the video came up. Well, I’m really grateful for all the NICE things people had to say. Thanks for laughing at my not-so-funny jokes, tolerating my perverse nature, and thinking that I'm from China, if any of the video is anything to go by.

And for the compilation of cards, appreciate the general consensus that people think I'm a “crappy” person who brings craziness to their lives.

But thanks most especially to you, dear friend, for making all these happen and making this a truly unforgettable birthday for me.

When I got back to my room, in an extremely self-indulgent moment, I read all the cards and watched the video (headphones on to catch every single word, yes I was that indulgent) all over again. All 22 of you will be always in my heart. Until that DVD turns moldy of course.

Oh yes but there’s still the cards, ha ha.

Why 22 isn't so bad after all...

2007-10-16T21:56:00.001+08:00

Yes, I may have said that 22 was a bad age to be in the previous entry. But as a double repeating digit age, it’s probably the best one to be at. Consider this:

At 11, I was just a dumb little kid.

At 33, I will probably be in the process of developing a paunch.

At 44, I will be facing my mid-life crisis, and will blow my life-savings on a sports car, if I can even afford it.

At 55, I will become far-sighted, and will start putting on reading glasses to read the restaurant menus.

At 66, I start using the senior citizen concession passes because I have to sell my sports car (bought at 44) to pay for my son’s wedding.

At 77, I might not even have drawn out my CPF yet, given the way things are going now.

At 88, I might be dead and buried already.

So, I think I’ll smile while I'm 22. It just doesn’t seem that bad anymore.

Cake on My Face

2007-10-12T22:49:00.000+08:00

My aunt had bought a cake for me sometime during the week, so it was already waiting for me when I got home today. My mom told me it was in the fridge and asked me to cut it.

So I went to the fridge, took the cake out of the box, and sliced a piece for myself. I was licking up the cream when my dad called from the hall, “Are you cutting the cake?”

“I’ve already cut it.”

“What?! We haven’t even sung the birthday song yet!”

Frankly, I had been feeling under the weather the past few days. Candles and songs weren’t what the doctor ordered. And besides, 22 is a really lousy age to be, in my opinion. When you 6, you look forward to 10. When you were 12 you looked to 16. when you were 18, 21 became the magic number.

Suddenly with 22, nothing seems exciting anymore about growing older. 30? No thanks.

So I kept quiet and put the cake back in the fridge.

Just then, my mom walked into the kitchen and was absolutely outraged that I had tainted the cake without first going through the birthday song ritual.

There was a greater chance that hell would freeze over than let the song not be sung.

So she took the cake out of the fridge, opened up the box, and broke into a rendition of Happy Birthday with a cake that was missing a slice.

At that very moment, I wondered if I was selfish, having deprived them of a chance to sing that song for me.

I Have a Headache the Size of Manhattan

2007-10-08T23:54:00.000+08:00

And so I have planned… To do absolutely nothing tonight. Nothing constructive, in the strictest sense of the word of course.

I guess it’s only a natural step to take, after forgoing one lecture early in the morning today. The feeling of sleeping in was… Liberation.

There’s just a certain sense of danger, or a gut feel of the “couldn’t-care-less” syndrome that’s hanging in the air tonight.

I think I'm going crazy. Wait, I'm absolutely certain I'm already certifiably insane

Wish me luck in my quest to waste this night away.

Even More Fish...

2007-10-03T23:23:00.001+08:00

Well, turns out that minutes after venting the frustrations online, the article was approved after all.

It’s quite a huge relief, but I think that the entire process has still been bafflingly frustrating. It’s like fighting so hard for something to that I believe to be important to be approved is really weird to me. But then again, maybe the process of fighting to be published makes it all more worthwhile, especially since it’s something I believe in so deeply.

Although I must admit that part of the reason why I feel this way might be down to the fact that I’m acting like a prima donna senior writer expecting a divine right to space in the column. God, I hope that’s not the case.

Still I think I should start looking for other opportunities.

Big Fish, Small Fish

2007-10-03T23:02:00.001+08:00

Sometimes, an ideological clash is really hard to come to terms with, let alone reconcile.

I always thought that there was a space for thoughtful analysis and insightful observations, never mind if there was always lacking the practical aspirations of such thought based in “theory”. Maybe it’s because of the way I was educated, when I was taught that the need for constructive criticism was a fallacy that stifled critical thought.

Just that I don’t provide a step by step “call to arms” so to speak, doesn’t make my point any less thoughtful or criticism any less valid. Whatever happened to the value of social consciousness?

It seems that all these while, the emphasis on this need for direct relevance to the students is strange at best and myopic at worst. Much as the fact that our campus ground is only accessible by two bus services give us this feeling, we are not insulated from the outside world and spared the consequences of happenings around the globe. So I find myself dumbfounded when asked the question of “how is this relevant to students”. Sometimes, it’s the most fundamental questions that are the hardest to answer.

So yes, our students need to know about where to find the best Arab food in Singapore. Yes, our students need to know about poignant primary school memories. And hell yes, of course our students need to know about travel experiences of getting lost in Thailand!

But people being brutally repressed by their own government? “How is this relevant to students?”

When ideological clashes are this big, maybe it’s time to say goodbye. Maybe I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

A Scar

2007-10-03T17:19:00.000+08:00

More often than not, when I’m unable to fall asleep despite rolling about in bed for more than one hour, my mind inevitably wanders to my stint in the army. But I won’t be thinking about the light-hearted moments or even the stuff that I'm proud of (and those are few and far between). No, my thoughts drift towards that tumultuous 6 months.

I find myself sitting up in bed, tense from the memories of a time that’s too painful to relive in retrospect. You know the expression “I wouldn’t do that again for a million bucks”, well I wouldn’t relive that moment in my live for anything in the world that anyone can give me.

It’s at times like this, looking back at such a moment in my live, that I truly appreciate how deeply it has affected me. It’s like looking at a deep scar on my body of live, a scar that was left behind after the gaping wound has healed and the scab formed and long gone. Yes, the wound may have healed, but the scar is an ever-present reminder of the pain I once felt. I only need to look at it to feel the wound all over again.

Burma - An Asean Tragedy

2007-10-01T23:02:00.000+08:00

In a way, the ongoing crisis in Myanmar was a humanitarian tragedy 20 years in the making. Back in 1988, pro-democracy protests were violently crushed, killing an estimated 3,000 people.

Now in 2007, anti-government riots have again broken out in major cities of Myanmar, triggered by the sharp increases in fuel prices that piled on the misery for an already impoverished population. Just as before, the junta has turned to the army to quell the demonstrations spear-headed by the country’s revered monks.

But the civilian population now has an important ally they never had 20 years ago – technology. Thanks to the ubiquity of the internet, photographs and video footages of the brutal crackdown have been pouring out of Myanmar, outraging the international community and rendering them invaluable support from the outside of the insular state.

A large part of this support must come from Singapore in its capacity as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Chairman. Although Singapore has placed Asean’s full backing behind the UN envoy mission in Myanmar to seek a peaceful resolution, more can still be done by Asean independently. Myanmar is, after all, a member of Asean and part of the Asean Charter – which includes terms on humans rights – that is due to be signed in Singapore this November. The proposed setting up of a human rights commission in Asean would be too little too late at best, and an absolute laughing stock at worst, if the Burmese military junta gets away with the atrocities witnessed on the streets of Yangon.

If Asean fails to rein one of its own in, the body will lose credibility on the international stage as the world watches Myanmar slip from a crisis into a full fledged disaster. Unless Singapore wants this to happen under its watch, the country must keep up the pressure on the junta and not let the issue slip out of public consciousness.

Already there are worrying signs that this might happen. Some 20,000 troops have locked down major city areas and barricaded the monks, who represent the only institution in this Buddhist state powerful enough to challenge the military, in their temples. The streets are now mostly empty due to an extremely heavy military presence on the ground. Once the throngs of civilians are gone, the bullets stop flying, and the bloodshed is over, how long more will the world media keep its eye on the pain of the Burmese people?

The demand for a political solution to the crisis must be emphasised by Asean as the events unfold. Only with the junta making vast concessions to their power will the plight of Myanmar be alleviated. Asean must not be lulled into accepting merely an end to the rioting, something the ruling generals can easily achieve by wielding its iron fist.

If indeed Myanmar’s rulers are left to their own devices without reprisal, expect the generals to become more emboldened since even international pressure has failed to stop them. The spectacular display of people power will crash to a grinding stop under combats boots, and it might just take another 20 years before the momentum picks up again. For the people of Myanmar, that will mean another 20 years of misery and suffering.

Day Trip

2007-09-19T01:08:00.001+08:00

Went out to secure some interviews for my assignment that’s due tomorrow, or should I say today since it’s past midnight. Had to skip one lecture but seriously I didn’t mind the change of pace (away form old NTU and all the feeling of being in an academic zone) and the interviews turned out to be quite fun.
First I dropped by my uncle’s agency was glad to see my uncle, auntie as well as Judith around. Got quite a few good views from them and finally passed Judith the photos that she wanted, as well as the gifts I got for them in Vietnam. Actually I do feel quite bad that I only seem to drop by when I need help of some kind, so I’ll resolve to be a better person from now on, ha.

Then I met Judy for lunch and it was really a huge slice of luck that she’s found a job a Renault, the champions of F1 in 2005 and 2006. Waiting for her at the bus stop, I swear I could see her sauntering up towards me from about 100 meters away. She was that distinctive. Heck, I could have spotted her sashaying catwalk from half a mile away with my head stuck my ass.

Anyways, it’s always nice meeting up with old friends and she even bought me to the Renault showroom later to see the cars sopped out with F1 parts! Nice. Too bad I wouldn’t be able to squeeze what she said about the Renault sales into my article.

Well time was running short so I bid her a hasty goodbye. Feeling the clock ticking down towards Hedwig’s class, in desperation I took a cab for the short distance to RV. There, under the guise of “just in the area” I got Mr. Chng to come meet me and subsequently sneak me into the teachers’room.

That’s where the both of us worked up a riot. He was really enthusiastic getting people to speak to me and he must have asked more than 5 teachers to do so. Well in the end I got the views of 3 of them and all of them went really well except for one where I was suddenly tongue-tied. But other than that, it was really a nice experience.

Walking out of the school, who else but the once-feared Mrs. Look offered to give me a lift to the nearest train station! I readily accepted and that’s when the series of really fortunate events started.

She dropped me off after about 5 minutes and I was heading to the station when I realised I was going to be late. So I reluctantly boarded the cab that was just dropping off someone. A stroke of luck.

The second one came when the cab driver turned out to be a really chatty fellow so I thought why not, and steered the conversation towards F1. He gave some really good quotes so I asked if he could help me with my school assignment. And he readily agreed! So suddenly I had the views of a cab driver as well!

The interviews really lifted my mood from the previous day. It kind of reminded me of the last few times I went out to do interviews. A true blue lucky streak.

The Spanish Connection

2007-09-13T00:04:00.000+08:00

Finally, I see a ray of hope.

After wandering in the wilderness that is the Spanish language for the past few weeks, today’s lesson was a revelation in itself and a lot of mysteries suddenly became that much clearer.

It’s most probably the couple of lessons I missed due to other commitments, but this semester, Spanish lessons have not been as fun as last semester’s. Maybe it’s due to the lack of familiar faces that were present the last time around, or the fact that it has got that much tougher to understand, but I haven’t been breezing through the lessons like I have grown accustomed to last semester.

Well thank goodness for today’s lesson and that short exercise on imperativos as the fog of war, so to speak, lifted almost immediately. I wouldn’t say I’m now the god of Spanish, but to use a cliché of football – I think I turned the corner.

Hope that things just keep getting better in that small little class. I really don’t want to S/U it, seeing as to how I’ve five solid days to study for it before the examination.

Occupational Hazard

2007-09-08T22:19:00.000+08:00

My mom called me from my room to watch a bartender strut his stuff on stage during a Taiwanese variety programme yesterday. The bartender was really awesome – he was spinning 4 bottles at the same time – but after a while I started noticing how the camera was panning around him and the cool slow motion effects when he did a particularly gravity-defying move. Then I started watching the cuts as well and the high angle shots and wondered if they were done with a crane camera.

In my room, as I read Time magazine, I was reading the lead paragraphs particularly closely. And the honourifics, the first mentions, the straplines, and even the photo captions.

When I was watching some TV news, I was listening to the anchor lead-ins, the introduction to the packages, and the stand-up. I also looked out for the safe broadcasting time, the cutaways and the matching of the visuals and audio.

Later when I watch the England and Israel match, I’ll be following closely the individual of the players so I’ll have more to say during the radio show on Thursday. Maybe I’ll even try and figure out how those cameras work to capture the footballing action.

What has News-writing and Reporting, Broadcast Journalism, Cinema Studies, and Radio turned me into?!

Rosebud

2007-08-31T15:17:00.000+08:00

Watched Citizen Kane yesterday and I finally knew why it’s still considered the best Hollywood film of all time. My knowledge of films is not so extensive that I know conclusively no other film can beat it, but I can see why people think it’s so great.

For starters, the camerawork simply blew me away. The editing and shots looked very contemporary, considering the fact that it was made in 1941, more than 60 years ago. Its techniques have been adopted for modern day film-making. The super long takes that move from exteriors into interiors and then keeping 3 characters who enter the screen at different times in focus are really amazing. The camera moving up the building, through the billboard sign and then down into the night club itself is also a really great shot, and all the more incredible considering the kind of cameras they had at that time.

I think the fact that it looks like any other film of today, considering the story-telling technique, is a big compliment in itself. Firstly, the overarching mystery of “Rosebud”, a MacGuffin that keeps the audiences wondering what it is as the journalist goes in search of the meaning of Kane’s last words at his death bed. Then there is also the use of flashbacks to tell the story, so that a multifaceted reality formed from different opinions of each character is created instead of a one dimensional reality. This was really innovative for its time and looks fresh even today.

The timeless themes of the film intrigue the audience even now. Hubris, or the overwhelming pride of a great man that leads to his downfall, is evident in this film as Kane becomes increasingly self-absorbed in his own greatness. This is portrayed extremely well in the political rally scene and subsequent confrontation in his mistress’s apartment. He truly believes he is infallible at that point of time. There is a hint of Greek tragedy and also the tragic hero of Shakespeare a la Macbeth or Julius Caesar.

Lastly, the actor for Kane is the director himself! Without modern technology, there was no way he could have reviewed his performance until much later in the editing suite. To achieve all the cool and great camera work and then be acting at the same time, that’s almost humanly impossible to achieve. And yet Orson Welles did it.

It’s really a great film worth watching again.

The Army's Disappointment

2007-08-29T22:44:00.001+08:00

Recently finished the local series, Honour and Passion. The drama revolved around the lives of a family steeped in military tradition and was supposed to be a showcase of life in the camouflage uniform.

I must admit I was drawn to the idea of the show and a big reason why I watched all 20 episodes was the military element in the story. At the end of it all, I must say I am very much disappointed in the show overall and will proceed to say why.

The role of the military

With much of the cast involved in the military in one way or another, one would expect the armed forces to play a central part in the plot. The Bao family, central to everything that happens in the serial, is an army family. The patriach (Huang Went Yong) is a unit RSM while his eldest son (Tay Ping Hui) is a commando officer. The youngest child enlists halfway through the serial and passes out of basic military training at the end. Even the 2nd in line of 4 siblings, Bryan Wong, who holds a civilian job, is shown training and taking his IPPT.

Not to mention that the women are holding military careers. The female lead, Felicia Chin, is an artillery officer while Hong Hui Fang holds the role of a chief clerk.

All these main characters who have lives deeply entrenched in the army does not help in developing the viewer’s idea of what goes on behind the fences of army camps at all. Only short moments that appear seemingly unrelated to the main plot of the story highlights what the men in green actually do, and then only briefly.

In fact I would go so far as to argue that they are badly shot and totally unentertaining, if not unrealistic as well. The commando mission early on in the series that involved the capturing of the fortified building was not exciting even to the most undemanding of viewers. Having watched a staple of 24 style armed forces raids, I’m sure I yawned once or twice.

The insistence of the characters speaking English when giving instructions also irks me. Firstly, the Queen’s English that they speak (still with a Singapore accent though) is something I have never heard in all my lessons in the army. Secondly, to dub over some voices just show they sound grammatically correct decreases the authenticity even further. It would have been much better to stick to dramatising by speaking Mandarin.

The characters, with regards to their military life, are also badly developed. We don’t know anything about what they do in the forces, especially so for the chief clerk. As mentioned earlier, we are only offered snap shots of life in the army (commando jumping out of plane, RSM scolding errant soldier…) and even these fizzle out after the first few episodes. In fact we see the soldiers in civilian settings most of the time and they even make it home for dinner while the sun is still up. An unsuspecting viewer would easily be hoodwinked into believing that this is the life of a soldier in Singapore, being able to book out in the afternoon to ride his bike around Singapore, chasing after a girl from another camp, who incidentally, is booking out clearly before 6pm.

In the end, we are only left with the outside lives of the characters, which brings me to my next point.

Love as the centre of the world

The love lives of all characters are in fact the centerpiece of this series. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has to have a lover in the show. You are incomplete without one. Despite the promise of strong independent minded women like Felicia Chin who joins the military and braves a male dominated environment, Rui En who is portrayed as a tomboy and Hong Hui Fang who has stayed single through what people would have felt was normal marriageable age.

Even these women are shown pining for men in their lives and love seems to dominate everything they do, not their careers. Instead of focusing on say, the intricacies of life as a female army officer, we see Felicia Chin and her efforts to woo Bryan Wong. Even the strongest woman needs a man in her life in this drama.

Going further, we can even argue that their roles in the drama are all defined by the men they are in love with. Hong Hui Fang doesn’t have much to do other than taking care of the children of the man she is secretly in love with and then feeling distraught when he falls for another woman. Felicia Chin is reduced to a simple stereotype of a woman who chooses the less taken route. The focus is actually on a much more mainstream idea – a woman and her search for love. Even Rui En is redundant if not for the fact that she is the love interest of the terrorist in the show.

This essentially degrades women and reduces them to nothing but supporting characters. It is shocking to see how such plots creep into all our dramas, even those with a supposed different premise like the military.

Every Man’s duty

Most importantly, the drama lacks the daringness to portray even the slightest negativity of the armed forces. To most men in Singapore who have had a brush with the SAF in one way or another, it’s a definite slap in the face. We all know that the army is not the perfect place it’s made out to be, but this drama insists on painting it that way. Which NSman – and I mean the reservist NSman – calls his peer “sergeant” outside of a military setting? Wouldn’t it make more sense, plot wise, to have the injury to Ben happen inside the army rather over a robbery? But no, to do so would be painting the military in a bad light, and there’s no way such a thing could happen.

And so we are left with a drama that is not anything that it promises to be, giving us only an inaccurate peek into the happenings inside of a military camp. Worse still, the army premise takes a back seat to the melodrama of playing up everyone’s love live. In the end we are left with nothing more than a 20 episode soap opera, with extended army commercials cut in-between.

School of Hard Knocks

2007-08-25T21:54:00.000+08:00

Also known as the past few days of my life. In particular, Hedwig’s tutorials are proving to be a life-changing experience. The way she tears my leads into shreds makes me wonder if I even understand the English language in the first place.

Truly, her lessons are a master-class in smashing egos. Every single pre-conceived notion of what I thought I knew about writing, she has obliterated so far. Like a hapless straw house in a vast open field, there is no defence or cover from her merciless verbal bombardment raining down from above.

I have been reduced to rubble under the shock and awe of her relentless sarcasm. It is only then that she slowly rebuilds me from the ruins. Like the immolation of an ageing phoenix, the new will rise from the ashes of the old. Hedwig’s tutorials – my rebirth.

It’s like having a surrogate mother.

Also realised that there are many things that I don’t know. Been getting put down by various people around me. That I know I really deserve it most of the time only makes the hurt sting more. Oh well, like one of them said, “Don’t get screwed, how to learn?”

I guess I’m tough enough for another few hard knocks. I will survive.

Times in Saigon

2007-08-24T14:07:00.000+08:00

The earlier post got me thinking about another charmed encounter I had in Saigon during my Vietnam trip in June.

I had arranged for a meeting with journalist at the Saigon Times during my last week in Vietnam. The timing would be tight as it was to be on the last day of my time in the country.

In the morning I visited the Cu Chi tunnels (another story for another time) so by the time I got back to the city centre, it was late in the afternoon and I rushed down to the newsroom of the Saigon Times. To my horror, the receptionist told me that there was no sign of the email I had sent a few days earlier requesting an interview.

I was staring blankly at the receptionist, trying to salvage the situation when a journalist who spoke impeccable English appeared. I didn’t know this at that point of time, but because she was in Singapore attending a journalist conference just a few weeks back, hence they called her to come down when a Singaporean student turned up on the doorstep.

In desperation, I asked her if I could interview her for my project. She was fine with it, except that she had soccer practice soon. So I said I’ll go to her practice with her and wait for her to finish before talking over dinner. She readily agreed! Note that this was 5 minutes after knowing her. Hopping onto her motorbike, I realised I didn’t even know her name. The introductions started only as we pulled out into the streets. Soon, I was zipping around town, to places I’ve never even been to.

At the practice, I spent my time getting in touch with my project mate, Phuong. She was surprised to say the least. She arranged with An (the journalist) to meet us. Only later did I know that they had arranged to meet near the city centre, inconveniencing An because she stayed only 5 minutes away from the soccer practice area. Downtown was about a 25 minute ride away.

Her whole gang of friends rode together with us to the dinner place, a road side stall that sold something like chicken rice but with sticky rice. Quite a good meal I would say. Phuong met up with us at this point of time and An treated us to the meal and drinks, refusing to accept payment.

After the meal, she brought us to a café to start the interview. Her friend, who wasn’t even going to be at the interview, gave Phuong a ride. We ended up at some nice café that was considerably upper-class (I could tell by the prices). There we had coffee and talked about the press system in Vietnam for more than an hour. At the end of it all, she treated us to the drinks yet again, refusing to let us pay and saying that it would be my turn to pay when she was in Singapore.

I was really blown away by her hospitality and the length of trouble she went to jus to accommodate me, a student she had only met for a few hours. It was a really great way to spend my last night in Vietnam and I must say that it saved my impression of the country after a few nasty encounters. Isn’t it amazing how one person’s kindness can turn a seemingly hopeless situation around?

A pity she didn’t respond to my email when I came back to Singapore. I only hope that she would really contact me when she’s in Singapore sometime. I still owe her a treat over here.

Lucky Streak

2007-08-24T13:38:00.000+08:00

I lead a charmed life sometimes. Was at the Seletar Country Club to cover the inaugural NTU President's Golf Challenge for the Chronicle. On a whim, I said that I'ld take the pictures as well. So after yet another crash course from my brother and high-jacking his equipment, off I went to the country club. Now I hadn't done and prior research at all so I was pretty clueless by the time I got there. Luckily, I started talking to the people on the ground who pointed me in the right direction. Turns out that Dr. Su, the NTU president, is a pretty friendly guy, speaking to me candidly and without airs. He even took the trouble to introduce me to Patrick Daniel, the Editor-in-Chief of SPH!
When the event started proper, Dr. Su and Patrick Daniel were sharing a buggy, so I got to take quite a few pictures of them in golfing action. Halfway through the 5th or 6th hole, Daniel suddenly commented to Dr. Su, “I’m very impressed by your SCI undergrad. He’s been following us around the whole time, a hardworking fellow. Come and join us!”

Not bad for a newbie playing around with a DSLR for the first time.

After a while, a staff buggy appeared to stop me from roaming around on the fairways because people not playing weren’t allowed on for fear of stray golf balls hitting them. I thought the game was up but decided to push it and said that I was assigned to follow the president of the university. The supervisor relented and proceeded to drive me around on his buggy for the next few holes! Now I had my personal buggy with a driver to boot!

When I was done with the photo-taking, I joined the rest of the NTU staff at a café in the country club. It was a nice posh place overlooking the 18 hole course. Best of all, because the place had been booked the whole day by NTU, I had a banana split and orange juice all on the house. Would have loved to stay for the gala dinner as well but had to return to school to finish up some other work.

On the way out, I hitchhiked and a Mercedes Benz actually stopped to pick me up. Turns out the two people in the car were the chauffeurs of Dr. Su and the secretary of the university! Nice guys to have picked up a stray student on that deserted walk out of the club. Really cut my traveling time down. Fancy being driven around in the university Benz by the chauffeurs of the big shots in school.

Did I mention that I lead a charmed life sometimes?

Chicken Wing

2007-08-21T00:39:00.000+08:00

My brother told me this story last night. Quite funny and appropiate for this moment.

A few months back, he went for reservist training that lasted for about 2 weeks. So of course they had their meals at the cookhouse and breakfast, lunch and dinner were all these mass produced meals consisting of rice and a few other sides plonked onto your plate.

Now for some reason, lunch meals always had a chicken wing. By the 3rd day, there were murmurings of why chicken wings always made it into the menu. By the 5th day, loud complains could be heard. Naturally, eating the same thing everyday did not go down well (pun unintended) with everyone.

Now, one fine day (I think it was after the first week), suddenly, there was no chicken wing on the lunchtime menu! The outrage! The soldiers were shell-shocked! Why no chicken wings?! Lunch was now unimaginable without those wings. And to think they made so much noise when they had it.

We all eat chicken wings, be they deep-fried, barbequed, grilled, or simply steamed. But why do we realise that only after we stop eating them? Does the chicken taste better when it is not in our mouths?

Real Estate Agent

2007-08-20T23:54:00.000+08:00

For a moment I thought that was exactly what our Prime Minister had transformed into.

I was watching the National Day Rally Speech, listening to the PM's jokes that were falling flat, when suddenly, these fantastic 3D models started springing up detailing how our flats were going to be 21st century sci-fi movie sets, what with the constructed fresh water lakes, beautiful eco-friendly apartments and gardens thrown in. This went on for most of the 2nd half of his speech, which means almost 1 hour! Of course there was the upgrading part thrown in as well. It was like a whole sales pitch and I was half expecting the PM to take out the contract of sales any moment.

There was also this part where he was segregating the people into high income, middle income, and lower income. Then he went on to say how the government should not tax the rich too much as that would be undesirable. Instead, there should be philanthropy initiated by the rich to help the poor. Moving on the middle income earners, the challenge would be to give greater returns for CPF and also to create more jobs. I don't know if I missed something out, but to me he didn't go on to the people earning the lowest income. Seemed to have skip that part entirely. Oh well correct me if I'm wrong on this, but looking at this part of the speech alone, I am not impressed.

Of course the Straits Times report the next day gave all the details of how the new CPF scheme and re-employment programme would work. Surprisingly little was said about the new developments for housing or the upgrading programme. Those parts were buried somewhere at the end of the last story ont the rally. Maybe that's because there might be changes in it when the next elections come around ha ha...

Techno Cat

2007-08-19T01:00:00.000+08:00

Caught 881 today and I was thoroughly entertained. It was a pretty sad movie and I found myself trying to suck the tears back in on quite a few occasions. Really loved the Hokkien songs as well.

As I was watching the movie, I found myself being very thankful that I had at least a rudimentary understanding of Hokkien, otherwise many of the jokes and the meaningful lyrics would have been lost even with the subtitles. Watching such shows really renews my desire to learn the different dialects. Basically I have a vest interest to know: Cantonese - because I am one and I always feel shame about not knowing more than a few simple sentences. Hakka - because my mother is Hakka and I actually grew up listening to my grandmother speaking it before she passed away when I was 7. So now I understand Hakka quite well but am unable to speak it well. And then of course hokkien, because it's the most widely spoken dialect in Singapore.

I noticed that Royston Tan used a lot of long shots in the movie that lasted for very long. Like more than a minute kind of long. Usually a conversation would feature shot-reverse-shot or over-the shoulder shots but he preferred to do it in one long shot or medium shot, just playing with a panning of the camera. Still can't figure out why. And if it wasn't for cinema studies I wouldn't even be thinking about such stuff.

By the way, the title is a line from the movie. It's not even among the best jokes, but somehow it stuck with me. And lot's of people are putting the movie lyrics as their MSN nicks and what nots, so I guess this is a bit different.

OD

2007-08-17T14:50:00.000+08:00

It never rains but it pours.

Which was exactly what happened this morning when I woke up for the 8.30am lecture. Wanted so badly to curl up in bed under the warm blanket and just forget about school. Being the conscientious student that I am, I made it to school using an umbrella.

And then it turned out that Lay's birthday is tomorrow, so some people were dressed in orange to celebrate her birthday with a cake. To think that I was contemplating wearing my orange polo-tee. That would have been a nice moment of serendipity.

Well, if coincidence didn't do the job, delibration would have to do it. After having some of the cake, Lay made me go back to hall to change to orange as well. So here I am now in school decked out in the AnF that I spent so much time in Vietnam searching for.

Anyway the lecture was on Charles Darwin and evolution theory, which got this mini-discussion of sorts going about religion. Come to think about it, religion has been an indirect recurring theme recently. Firstly it was someone close to me who started visiting the protestant church and subsequent conversion. Just last night I was blog surfing and was surprised at the level of involvement in church of a friend. Now this evolution thing has got other people talking about the higher being watching all over us.

I don't really know where I stand on religion anymore. Back then, I probably didn't fully understand what I was doing when I said that prayer to accept Christ. And I gradually disappeared from church. I can't even remember when was the last time that I've been inside one. But most importantly, the feeling of belief in a God actually being out there is no longer in me. Secularism seems to be what is happening now. Or am I just being caught up in the material world?

I don't know. My life's priorities are indeed very worldy (to put it from a Christian, or metaphysical point of view). Thinking of what modules to take, what topic to do my assignment on, worrying about the grade, writing my Chronicle articles, trying to learn photography, and the list goes on. It's just that right now, I can't see myself doing any other stuff and these "worldy" things are really meaningful to me. Or maybe it's just another way to justify selfishness.

Nothing for 6 months, then 3 entries in 2 days. It never rains but it pours.

This Blog Sucks Big Time...

2007-08-17T00:32:00.000+08:00

...Was my first thought when I decided that it was time to visit it before the cyber cobwebs grew too thick around it. It's like a whole chapter of my life has been lost and now I won't be able to write it down ever again. No sane person would want to read any of the crap found here. And that includes myself.

A lot has happened since the last entry. Semester 2 of Year 1 fizzled to an end and holidays started. I don't remember anything that happened during May partly because I must have done nothing worth remembering during that time.

June was a whole different matter, with a month long trip to Vietnam. Made lots of new friends and had many fun and meaningful experiences. There's this whole bunch of photos lying in a Flickr site somewhere to remind me of the good times we had there. I guess I could say a lot more about it if I had written this entry 1 month earlier, but then I think I did my memories justice by regaling anyone whom I could get to listen to me for even 10 seconds about how much FUN I had. So there.

And then the madness of July came. After resting for less than a week upon the return from Vietnam, it was 5 days of the NTUWKWSCIFOC 2007. Pretty eventful too I must say, seeing as to how I was involved in Hotel California in a big way. The week after was reservist training for 5 days, during which I had to book out everyday in order to write my essay on Vietnam. The shit culminated into 3 days without sleeping (more or less) and a splitting migraine on the last night around 5am as I was trying to tie up the paper. Well the A I got in the end pretty much meant that it was worth it though.

Now that school's started, I've started hanging out with school people again, though I must say things are now quite different and it's refreshing to be with a bunch of different folks. I hope that the movies and arcade sessions keep on rolling though with our schedules it should be impossible. But there are always miracles.

Anyway I hope I really know what I'm doing and not biting off more than I can chew. 2 cores, 3 PEs, 1 UE means a total of 23 AUs along with my bid for self-improvement by trying to learn photography from my bro. Not to forget Chronicle is always there too.

Hope my next entry isn't another 6 months away.

Domesticated

2007-08-17T00:03:00.000+08:00

“I’m back,” he simply said, taking off his coat as he entered through the doorway and setting his briefcase beside the coffee table, the same way he did it all the time. With nary a raise of an eyebrow, she grunted an acknowledgement without even looking up from the newspaper that she was reading in her favourite rocking chair.

The scene seemed like the daily routine of any other family living room. In truth, it had been more than half a year since he had been back, but no one could tell that she had been sitting there everyday, patiently awaiting his return. She didn’t particularly miss him, but she knew that he would be back even as she read the news alone, just as one knew that the coming of winter was inevitable even if the sweltering heat of summer was still lingering.

Too busy. Too tired. Too uninterested. Too little to do here. These were all excuses and she knew they were just that. Eventually, he would return, only because this was the only place that he could be himself. If only this alone was enough to make him set his briefcase beside the coffee table everyday.

Glory Days Are Here Again

2007-02-06T00:03:00.000+08:00

The Singapore Lions took a roller coaster ride all the way throughout the Asean Football Championship. Initially drumming up expectations to dizzying heights with a credible 0-0 draw against Vietnam, followed by an 11-0 mauling of Laos, the Lions stuttered and limped their way to the finals. Perhaps the most mind-boggling statistic of the tournament was that despite drawing five matches and winning only two, the coveted trophy was returned to Singaporean hands again.

The tournament was also the perfect backdrop for the final hurrah of the National Stadium. The stands were quite empty during the group stages, but when Singapore was due to meet Malaysia in the semi-finals, there was no way the die-hard fans were going to let this golden opportunity of bringing the good old Malaysian Cup days back. Singaporeans flocked to the stadium dressed in red and armed with their lusty voices to put their support behind the Lions as they went in search of glory against their age-old rivals.

The aggregate result hung precariously at 1-1 as the Lions took on the Malaysian Tigers. The two teams slugged it out to yet another draw and Singapore fans must have been disappointed that we could not beat Malaysia in the length of a normal match. But 90 minutes was never going to be enough to settle a rivalry that had been the bread and butter of the National Stadium since the 1970s. This one was going right down to the wire, hitting the crescendo as Lionel Lewis saved the final Malaysian penalty kick to put Singapore into the finals.

The lions now faced one final hurdle to cup glory – Thailand. The recently strained bilateral relations between the two countries ensured that a deadly cocktail of football and politics was to be served up for the finals. Not surprisingly, the first-leg in Singapore was marred by controversy. Right before the match started, more than a few eyebrows were raised when a referee from Malaysia was appointed, the very country that Singapore had just dispatched en route to the finals.

But his nationality would not prove to be the only talking point. After almost 90 minutes of shoddy refereeing, he capped off a miserable night with a controversial penalty awarded to Singapore. Furious with the decision, Thai coach Chanvit Phalajivin instigated a walk-out of the Thai team. The full house in the National Stadium duly jeered the unsporting behaviour. That the Thais were finally persuaded to return to the pitch and Mustafic Fahrudin converted the penalty to give Singapore a 2-1 lead into the second-leg became almost a moot point. They had stolen the thunder from what was otherwise a befitting farewell gift to the National Stadium before the bulldozers moved in.

The Thai press called the Lions “Temasek”, in reference to the selling of Shin Corp to the Singaporean investment company. The penalty incident was incessantly replayed throughout Thai broadcast channels, fuelling the sentiment that they were robbed. The hostility was so intense that a number of Singaporeans were reported by a local tabloid of cancelling their plans of supporting the Singapore national team in Thailand.

The Lions were in for one wild night.
As expected, right from the starting whistle of the second-leg, Thailand went for the jugular, fielding an aggressive 4-3-3 formation. Singapore bravely met them stride for stride and succeeded in silencing the crowd when it was evident the Thais were not holding the upper hand in the match.
Then, the unthinkable happened. Singapore scored an early goal from an indirect free kick, but the perfectly legitimate goal was ruled offside and the scoreline continued to read 0-0. The debt of the wrongful penalty was erased as it was now the Lions’ turn to bemoan an awful refereeing - by the linesman, in this case - decision.

Spurred by that piece of good luck and sensing a change in their fortunes, Thailand started attacking more confidently and crafted out a goal of sheer quality. Datsakorn produced a delightful first time chip that floated over the entire Singapore backline for Pipat Thonkanya to head down and volley past Lionel Lewis.

Buoyed by their goal, the Thais went surging forward in search of a second to kill the game. Faced with homeground advantage playing against them, the Lions were on the ropes as their hopes slowly dwindled.

But this was a team that would not quietly go into the night. Twice against Malaysia they had gone one goal down. Twice they managed to pull one back. And they did it again this time. Receiving the ball down the right flank, Khairul Amri advanced on the back-pedalling Thai defence before pulling the trigger and letting loose a shot. It smashed into the net with such ferocity that all the Thai goalkeeper could do was meekly raise his arm in a feeble attempt to stop the ball.

Ten minutes later, the final whistle went. Singapore had done it. The crown of Asean champion rested on the mantle of the Lions once more. For the fans, it meant another 2 years of bragging rights until the next competition began. The icing on the cake came as Noh Alam Shah received the Player of the Tournament as well as the Golden Boot award.

Five draws and two wins may not seem like tournament winning form. But under that unimpressive statistic lies a resilience and confidence not found in past national teams. That the Lions could come from behind thrice in big games against traditional rivals Malaysia and Thailand is testament to an undying commitment to the sport.

Faced with controversy when Thailand walked out and adversity when a legitimate goal was disallowed, the Lions kept their heads up and continued on their mission, again demonstrating their mental strength.

Credit must surely go to Raddy Avramovic for guiding the national team from the doldrums of that infamous 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Malaysia to back to back Asean Championship victories. Knowing Raddy, he is probably already plotting out the strategy of the tournament that Singapore will be taking part in.

But for now, it is time for the whole country to be basking in the glory of being Asean champion once again.

2006 Reasons to Blog

2006-12-31T21:10:00.000+08:00

The last day of the year, and it feels like any other day. I guess it's really the things we do that make a day special.

2006 has been mostly kind to me. It's been a year of many highlights. The year rolled in with much fanfare as I was in Thailand at the Scouts Jamboree. Fireworks and loud music heralded in 2006. Made some great friends along the way too. I'll always remember the hosts on the stage tickling our funnybones with their mangled English expressions. "Are you funny?" She was trying to ask if we were having fun.

Then of course I had many chances to travel overseas this year. Since I was still in Thailand when the year began, I'll count that as 1. When this photo was taken, it was still technically 2005.

Hong Kong was 2. Really great to immerse myself in the Cantonese and great food.

The Ex Mother of all Soviet States, Russia was 3. If Summer was this cold, I wouldn't want to stick around when winter hits town.

Mount Kinabalu (what a climb) was 4. Freezing my ass off on top of a big mountain of rock. What a pre-school celebration. The Japanese guy you see in the foreground was someone we got to know on the way up. Astounding fitness for a guy of his age. Scrambled up the cliffs with the agility of a 20 year-old and blew us away as he bounded down.

Wrapping it up was the Shanghai love trip at number 5. Living in our own world for 5 days.

I've been rather lucky throughout the last two years. Never been on a plane before October 2004, but now I've been 8 times alotogether. Might not sound like alot to people, but it's quite a record to chalk up in a little over 2 years if you ask me! (No) thanks to the SAF for granting me my first 3 trips on a plane for overseas training ha ha.

There was also the small matter of ORDing. Wait a second, did I say small matter? It's the Event of the Year that should have been marked with a public holiday or something. Well, I did mark it with a trip to Russia. Flew off the night I collected my pink IC. Talk about travelling in style.

Time to say good bye to 2 years plus of fun and angsty times. Looking back at that military stint, I can truly say that it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I'll never forget the tough lessons of life I went through. But then, it was time to leave the soldier behind, to become the student.

School starting brought with it many joys. New friends that were all pretty cool. New usage for the brain after almost 3 years of hibernation. New found drive and goals in life.

And so here I find myself. It's been a fruitful year, all in all. Many milestones in life. As it breathes it final few hours, let me bid 2006 goodbye. Thanks for the good times, baby.

2007, here I come.

Bond Again

2006-11-19T00:50:00.000+08:00

After catching Casino Royale on opening day last Thursday, may I just say that I simply am in awe of the new Bond.

Edgier, grittier, a return to the roots of the character original perceived by Ian Fleming, the new Bond simply rocks! I just love the realism attached to the character. Gone is the romanticised version of a secret agent – this bond doesn’t bat an eyelid killing anyone as long as it gets the mission accomplished.

Of course it helps that he’s “the best player in the service” at Texas Hold ’Em as well. It’s the hottest poker game right now even Singapore just concluded their very first gambling competition.

And he’s inspired me to attain a new level of fitness. With that body rising out of the sea at the beach, he might as well have been his own sex object, never mind the Bond girls. You can bet your last chip I’ll be pumping my way to achieving that killer body.

Watching through a Pierce Brosnan’s performance now makes me almost want to laugh out loud, although to be fair I must say that was a whole different Bond he was playing. Whatever the case is, the new gadgetless, hand-to-hand combat 007, is simply put, Bond again.

2006-10-22T16:58:00.000+08:00

I was never much of a drinker. But then last night, just as we were about to head home, I was seized by an uncontrollable urge to drink and chill. Never mind that beer usually tastes like bitter bile to me. Last night, the first sip tasted like magic. Only in melancholy does a bitter drink taste so bitterly good.

A bunch of men, with a huge bunch of baggage. Brooding, heads hung low. We recount how each and every incident thus far has brought us to this very moment.

The drinks run dry, but the conversation runs deep. So much to be said, yet so few words to say it with. Wanting the power to alter our past, we lack the strength to change the present.

To enjoy a drink is to disregard time. For bitterness to taste sweet is to savour the blues. To drink so as not to forget troubles but to enhance it. Now that is a true drinker.

Birthday Boy

2006-10-22T16:39:00.000+08:00

I turned 21 on Monday. Pardon me if I don’t sound so over-the-top enthusiastic about it right now, cause it’s almost a week since and the excitement has died down.

Nevertheless, this was really a great birthday. The day started off well enough with many birthday greetings from people of different parts of my life. My wonderful friends from CS (take a bow – Amanda, Dawn, Imran, Kelvin, Raihana, Shannon and Ya Yun) had a T-shirt for me and made sure that the slice of cake with a candle on it ended up on my face. I was really touched that these bunch of people whom I’ve barely knew for 2 months put in the effort to make me feel special on my special day.

Of course, the present that took the cake (pardon the cake analogies again, probably the birthday spirit still hasn’t died off) came from her. A scrapbook of sorts containing birthday messages from various people who have been important in my life, together with pictures to boot. One can only wonder at the amount of effort she put in to contact all my friends, many of whom I’ve never even mentioned before, to put together the most meaningful gift I’ve ever received. Right now it’s sitting nicely in a corner of my room in hall. You can bet that’s the first thing I’ll grab should a fire break out. All right I must go on record to say this: After having been living for 21 years on God’s green Earth, this is by far, the best gift I’ve received. Ever.

Moving on the evening, I gave my friends a treat at Pizza Hut. The usual suspects from the gang of Scouts and Guides turned up, and the highlight must have been how someone would ask “够东西吃吗? (Is there enough food)” and I would say “不够就叫啦! (Just order more if there isn’t enough!)”

After stuffing ourselves silly with pizza and drumlets, we proceeded to Judy’s place for fun with our favourite game Taboo! Besides laughing at each other’s inability to describe many words, the night threw up quite a few gems revolving around Edwin (the man with no secrets, from a previous entry, remember?) and the things that we associated with him. Almost everything Edwin tried whenever it was his turn was met with a resounding “wank” from John. Statements like “I do this before I sleep” and “It’s the first thing I do when I wake up” became pretty vulgar.

Then when it was John’s turn to play, he said, “Edwin has this.” The only two girls present were the first to answer, one with “fantasy” and the other with “fetish”. Turned out that “fantasy” was the right word! Says a lot about our dear friend man.

In the end only John and I stayed over at Judy’s place but we managed to finished up the booze that I brought along to celebrate my newfound adulthood. Goes to show a lot about what an alcoholic John is turning out to be.

birthdays are essentially great. Everyone is nice to you, you get people coming up to give you their greetings. Plus it's a great excuse to down some liquor and a perfect reason to meet up with friends you haven't seen for some time. It's a day where you can have your cake and eat it(yeah, it's the birthday spirit all right).

And what do you know. We had so much fun in the evening and at night that I forgot to take a single photo! Nothing to remember my so-called 21st party by except memories. What a bummer. Lucky for me, I have a fantastic memory. So there.

Malaysia? Indonesia? Thailand?

2006-10-15T15:39:00.000+08:00

Guess where I went for the weekend? This picturesque setting with the calm water forming a perfect mirror. The greenery everywhere bringing me into the heart of nature itself. Must have been a great weekend getaway to a certain foreign land right?

Well I was at MacRitchie reservoir on Saturday, having hiked over from Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. It was a relief to get back into the great outdoors, especially with the haze enveloping the whole island lately. Surprising how such places can still be found in the urban jungle that is Singapore.

Blast From the Past

2006-09-29T22:44:00.000+08:00

If there's one thing I'll remember about this recess week, it'll be the great time I had meeting up with secondary school friends. Two different group of friends, both from the same era of my life. So anyway, here goes.
Tuesday evening was spent shopping in Orchard for birthday presents with Karen and Jiayin, both of whom hail from my lower secondary class. Karen and I have had this annual ritual of sorts of exchanging presents since a few years back, what with our birthdays falling so close to each other and all. This time, Jiayin somehow got into the act as well so from now on I can expect at least two presents!
Anyway, our birthdays are not due till at least the middle of October but the temptation of material possessions was overwhelming, so we decided to make use of the break to get what we wanted...
Here's a picture of us looking smug with our new purchases. What do you know, we both decided we needed a new bag. Mine's a sling bag just in case you can't tell from the picture. It's funny that I associate her with my secondary school life, but we only started to really talk when we were already in Junior College. Together with John, we would have these long bitching sessions about everyone that was remotely linked to any of the three of us. I guess it was also here that I learnt of her powess at "character assasination", though she would later go on to say that I'm not too bad at it myself. I'm just glad that we still find time to remind each other of our existence each year by unabashedly demanding a birthday gift.
And guess what? I just found out that the three of us wear our watches on our right arms! How's that for a little bit of similarity? Amazing what you can discover about your friends even after quite so many years.

Well, on to Wednesday evening, where we had a Scouts' and Guides' gathering at Settler's Cafe at Clarke Quay. For those of you who haven't been there before, you really should check it out. It's a great place for gatherings since there's the novel concept of having loads of board and card games (many of which I've never seen before) for the customers to play and basically have a ball of a time. From what I know, there's another branch at Holland Village.
The ladies, looking fine and pretty as usual. After all these years, the three of them are the girls who turn up consistently all the time whenever we have a gathering. Some of the closest female friends that I had in secondary school no doubt. As opposed to the guys, I don't see them quite so often, so it's always nice to meet up in a while and see that they're generally doing fine, no matter that life has been bumpy for them. In a way, I'm really reminded of how they'll soon be stepping into the working society and the so called "adult life". Scary that they'll be graduating sometime next year.

And then we have the lads. Undoubtedly, the closest friends I have in life and friends that will be with me all the way. We go such a long way back that we never have a silent moment amongst us. The wealth of shared experience is so great that there's always some bits of the past to savour among ourselves. It helped alot too that our Scouting days really bonded us together with all the brotherly "been through shit together" camaraderie. I guess Judy got it right when she noticed how one single word could remind us of the same song and make us sing it.

All of us looking cosy together. Great times. Looking at this picture is enough to give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Then it was off to Bukit Timah for a well deserved dinner at 11 plus! After the tumultous journey from Clarke Quay to our destination (just ask Edwin - he put on his seatbelt halfway through the ride) the food never tasted better.

And then of course the conversation was top-notch as well, what with a certain member of our group dishing out the dirt on himself. Now, he's truly the man with no secrets. We really should do this again sometime soon.

Wow! WoW in Lecture!

2006-09-21T01:43:00.000+08:00

Check this out! My lecturer playing World of Warcraft during our lecture! And she’s a Level 60 Priest to boot!

What was the lecture about? Something about communication through technology, computer mediated communication and online communities in the gaming world. So don’t get the wrong idea that she was slacking off in class entertaining herself on arguably the most popular MMORPG right now.

It’s amazing what can be done in the name of education nowadays. Oh well, nice way to end a long day, I guess.

Where the River Always Flows...

2006-09-18T18:06:00.000+08:00

Was at the Singapore Repertory Theatre on Saturday to catch a school production. Tucked away in a corner of the Robertson area, it’s one of the many shop house-like buildings in that area. I never knew that there was a theatre in that part of town. Later I got to know that it’s linked to the DBS Arts Centre. I liked the location, being in what many of us will term as an older part of Singapore. Also, the building had a certain nostalgia to it, and though the shop house had been obviously renovated before, I found myself liking the place quite a bit. I like to think that shop houses and I go back a bit - my mother’s family did own a bona fide one in Chinatown until the government took it over in its project to revamp the whole area in the mid 90s. Although my uncle managed to buy another shop in Chinatown that resembled a shop house, it was never the same as the old one and it seemed like part of my childhood went with the shop house.

Anyway, the production, named “Wonderland”, was loosely based on “Alice in Wonderland”. The real value, as with most cases in theatre, was with the interpretation of the material and the attempt to localise the context. I enjoyed the second part better, where the effort to do the above two things were much more obvious. Thought that was important as it gave the story much more shape and things just started to flow better towards the end. Overall, I enjoyed the production and at least we didn’t leave the theatre disappointed.

Took a walk down part of the Singapore River with my friends after that. There’s a certain allure to the river- steeped in the past of Singapore which it is still trying to retain (which explains those retro-looking bump boats offering tourist rides) while embracing the future (bright lights and the nightlife). Exactly how we are all caught in this awkward dance with between reminiscence and advancement. Whenever I see the neon glow of reflections in the dark waters of the river, I feel the need to pay tribute to the nostalgia it invokes: By recalling moments of my past tied to the river.

The pictures were taken by my K800i by the way. Not bad for a camera phone I say.

24 Hours in a Day

2006-09-11T00:38:00.000+08:00

Got to chill for the first time in a long time yesterday. Last weekend was busted going for the Scout Basic Camp, so I was glad, to say the least, when the last lesson on Friday ended and the weekend came rolling in.

I wouldn’t dwell too much on the camp as I didn’t really enjoy myself. It was of no fault of the organisers or the programme; I guess it was personal. Well, at least it’s over and done with.

Anyway, back to chilling out. First thing I did on Friday night was to finish up watching the fifth season of 24. All I can say is the series thoroughly deserves the Best Drama Emmy it won this year and Keifer Sutherland earned his dues with Best Actor as well. The concept of real-time television still blows me away every time I think about it. When Jack Bauer says, “I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” the scriptwriters have to make darn sure the meeting happens twenty minutes into the show. That’s how constant the action is. And the best part is the plot seems to get better and better each season. They’re just no showing any signs of letting up. The cliff-hanger of an ending just leaves you eagerly anticipating the Day Six of Jack Bauer’s life. Although I have to say, I somehow knew he was stepping into deep shit the moment he was told there was a call from his daughter and he went to take it. Shan’t give away too much here, just go watch the series if you haven’t already done so. There’s no way you’re going to regret it.

By now you, dear reader, will realise how drab my life is if all I can blog about in one week is watching television. Either absolutely nothing is happening in my life or I’m just too lazy to jot down the interesting facets. I like to think that it’s the latter, but I’m pretty sure it’s the former. Or, the routine of school is just too mind-numbing and the nagging feeling that I should be getting work done instead of writing here is preventing me from writing anything remotely readable.

Shall be back when I have something better so say.

Fighting the Good Fight

2006-09-04T23:08:00.000+08:00

I’ve provided the link to another blog that I’m involved in. It’s a blog where a few friends of mine get together and discuss various issues in Singapore that affect our lives. Policies and current affairs succinctly define it I guess. I like to avoid the term political blog because it pigeon-holes what we’re trying to do and makes it seem like we’re jumping on the band wagon and trying to become rock stars. No, I say that we are different and worth a read because –
1. The posts are all very heartfelt and we can say it’s national issue written from a personal point of view. We’re not trying to be sweeping in our engagement of issues but rather we’re talking about how certain policies have affected us.
2. Basically we feel that the things that really matter aren’t given enough coverage in the mainstream media. If we feel that there are important events not reported, or that the version of the press doesn’t adequately cover the nuances of the issue, you can bet you’ll find something about it here.

Although there are indeed quite a few blogs out there that cover the political scene in Singapore, it’s still worth our while to start our very own because –
1. The very act of thinking about an issue and writing about it already defeats the stereotype of the politically apathetic youth of Singapore. We must ourselves take the first step of taking an active interest in the path our nation is heading towards. And by that I don’t mean just knowing whatever the government thinks our nation should be. It’s about what us, as Singaporeans, think Singapore should be.
2. We hope to reach out to friends, people we already know, and hopefully get them interested in the policies that concern us. Again, we are trying to pique peoples’ interest in current affairs of Singapore. Some may question the reach of such a small movement and if it may truly make a difference but such sweeping critiques often overlook the fact that to the person whom we’ve managed to reach out to, it does make a huge difference. One politically apathetic youth taking an interest in his country is victory enough. All of our friends taking up an interest is victory many times over.
3. Only through effort from the ground will there be changes in the way our country works. Such a struggle towards a society where interest in democracy, politics and freedom is prevalent is normal and natural. It’s just that in Singapore, where peace reigns and social stability is a virtue (not that I’m saying any of these are bad), we do not see violent uprisings that often come with the liberalization of society. But that does not mean that change is not upon us. It just means that we must pursue change in other methods, a change that is natural and inevitable in a nation that has come this far.
4. If you feel that you have something to say and that it would be nice to say it on Meet the People, feel free to email me and guest write on our blog. As I said, all of us should get in the act.

Well hopefully that sales pitch worked. Even if not many people read this space, it’s worth a shot reaching out to as many people as possible. Remember, politics is too important to be left to the politicians.

Neil in the House

2006-08-30T00:13:00.001+08:00

Neil Humphreys came to my school today to give his last speech cum autograph session before leaving Singapore for Australia, having lived on our island for the last ten years. Had always wanted to pick up his books after reading a chapter of his first book in Borders by standing in a corner and pretending to flip through it. Cheapskate, I know, but I never pretended I was rich. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised that they were selling his books with a 20% discount and coupled with the fact that I could get them autographed by the man himself, it was a done deal for me. You can see me looking very pleased with my purchases after Neil had signed them. Neil was looking very pleased himself, maybe due to the long snaking line queuing up for his autograph.

In his little talk that lasted for about an hour, he covered various topics like journalism (funny how his little sharing session has restored a little faith in me about working in the Singapore media industry), his experiences in our tropical island (the man is hilarious, and the situations unbelievable), and of course he touched on issues like how his permanent residence application got rejected after the authorities took offence with a certain article that he wrote for the Today newspaper. I guess it really takes an outsider, or Ang Moh in this case, to see things in a different light and from fresh perspectives, especially when it comes to topics that have been ingrained into our stream of consciousness so much that we are unable to see anything else.

His Singlish is wicked, by the way, for an Ang Moh. I was quite impressed by his pronunciation and syntax, not to mention timing of certain Singlish phrases. He must have said, “Steady, lah!” at least two times at just the right moments.

When he took a question from the floor about whether he had received any preferential treatment as a foreigner in Singapore, he gave us the straight answer: Yes. He went on to describe how the country seems to have this post-colonial hangover which basically meant that the white man must be right, no matter how dubious his background is. He also mentioned how despite his success in writing in Singapore, there was always the doubt that he made it due to his skin colour, which was one of the reasons why he was shipping of to Australia so as to, in a manner of speaking, “make it on his own”. Ironic that a white man had to tell us in our faces that this was what he noticed about us. Maybe he was really being very clever by appearing to be sincere so we would buy more of his books, but upon reflection there is no escaping the truth in his words. Those words seem to ring ever more ominously what with the recent announcement that we are opening up our doors to welcome more foreign talent than ever.

The recent MOE initiative to attract “native speakers” of English to come to our shores to teach comes to mind. After all, being a native speaker of English is not enough, it seems like it is equally important to pick the right country. It seems to me that with the declining population being a major problem hanging over our heads, we are adopting a stance that anyone foreign will inevitably do the job better than us. I’m guessing it manifests from the fact we feel that none of what is in Singapore is original, and whatever that comes from the supposed place of origin will be better than what we can find here. So Ang Mohs will inevitably speak better English than us because they spoke it first. Apple Ipods will always be better than Creative Zen players because Creative is just trying to ride on the success of Apple. Local movies will always suck, because we’ll never be able to reach the pinnacle of excellence that is Hollywood, never mind the fact that local movies are usually about telling stories about Singapore. The list just goes on.

Anyway, back to the topic of native speakers, I guess this video says it better than I do. If you have no idea what the hell Eagle Eye just said in the above paragraph, have no fear! Just watch this extremely funny video.

Indignation 2006 - TCP - Ruby Pan

Of Books And Pens

2006-08-26T22:51:00.000+08:00

A flick of the pen, and three weeks of school has already passed. I’d say that I’m fitting into the rhythm of schooling again after more than two years of postponing my academic pursuit. At least I don’t find myself hopelessly lost during lectures (at least not yet); absorbing the information, and analysing what has been taught on the spot has come back surprisingly naturally. What has not come back so naturally (unsurprisingly) is the ability to write and speak with fluency and structure. Well, I guess that’s why I’m doing this in the first place: To find my groove back. Having said that, I’m just glad that the start of school has been manageable and the pace has been kind. I hope I’ll be saying the same things one month from now.

Still on the topic of school, one thing that has struck me was how different everything is from the old way that I was used to in terms of style. I guess the course I’m doing now is really an “arts” course, quite different from how “science” courses are taught. No more worksheets with a list of sums to be done. Formulas and axioms are a thing of the past. Critical thinking about the various readings is encouraged and expected. Ambiguity and variation of perspectives are the order of the day. The difference is just so in your face and plain for me to see, having been doing science subjects previously. The mood is just different in lectures and tutorials, and I must say I like it. Reading and writing has always been my passion, and now I’m able to say I’m doing work while doing these. Television series and movies have always been a hobby of sorts, and now I’m able to justify watching them as research. Just how cool is that?

Having made quite a few new friends over the course of the past month or so, to a large extent I can honestly say that they are people whom I can relate to. I’m glad that people in school are generally quite sociable and we’re able to talk easily. Again it’s a very subtle but fundamental difference from what I felt in my previous class. Not to diminish how our friendship, but it’s just an inescapable fact that my former classmates and I are very different people whom relating to on a certain level was quite difficult to achieve. Not that it has prevented us from keeping in touch over the years, but that’s another story for another day.

I just hope I can keep up this wave of positive energy through the semester at least, especially when it comes to the projects that I’ve already received. I’m just not too big on projects. Probably something that comes as close to an Achilles’ heel as I can think of.

Leaving... On a Jet Plane

2006-08-24T02:09:00.000+08:00

She’ll be leaving soon, and it’s been slowly sinking in. Like the inevitability of rising tides of seas, a force that my mortal strength is unable to stop or even comprehend. But at the end of every over-the-top whine and no matter how melancholy I get thinking about spending the next few months without her reassuring presence, I know at the bottom of my heart that she should go for this opportunity since she has already secured it. I don’t want to be the reason to hold her back from anything that she desires to do, even though she may feel obliged to stay or even feel a little emotional distress over leaving. I know that if she shies away from opportunities such as these because of me, eventually she will regret having not gone for them.
So it is with a heavy but willing heart that I will send her off at the airport tomorrow. But I guess it’s only at such times when I realise how I’ve gradually built a subtle dependence on her as an emotional pillar of support. Perhaps the only person whom I’m comfortable being just myself around, feeling no need to have to put up a front or try and maintain a certain persona of who I want people to see me as. It’s a comfort zone that has been slowly established over the years and it’s only when I think about it do I realise how much I’ve come to rely on the zone. But don’t worry because I’ll be fine. Being independent is just something that I’ll have to do and I don’t think I’ll have much of a problem doing that.
Please take care of yourself and enjoy everything about the trip to the fullest. I know you will and you’ll soon be telling me how wonderful the whole experience was. Until then, keep me in mind and I’ll keep you in mine.

First Step

2006-08-10T22:35:00.000+08:00

Well, well, well.

Having left the online diary community for more than 2 years, the time is finally right for my writing persona to resurface out of the depths of hibernation. I have been patiently waiting for the opportune moment and the moment is now. The glorious days of Eagle Eye's musings will slowly but surely return as if they have never been gone before.

If only all of the above were true.

My pen running dry for more than two years is about the only bit of truth to be found in that little paragraph over there. I would really like the romantic notion of "waiting for the opportune moment" to be true, but in reality, sloth was the main reason I haven't started writing again till today. And the necessity to practise my writing skills motivated me to come back, not some altruistic notion of bringing "glorious days" back to the online diary community. Nor do I assume that I have the ability to do such a thing in the first place.

I'm just here to write. For myself, I may add.

The urgency to start doing so started sinking in as the date drew nearer for school to start but what really gave me a kick up my behind to get down to business was when I picked up a pen and realised that my thoughts were all jumbled up and nothing coherent or remotely readable could come out of the ball point tip. I was taken aback, to say the least, and I made it a point to work my way back to what I know I can do with words.

So here I am.

Here to try out different styles in an informal setting so that when the time comes to call upon such skills, hopefully they'll just come naturally. An exciting new phase of my life has begun and as dive head first into this the challenge that is university, I guess it's almost symbolic to start this Blog now and allow it to grow together with my university experience. Ah, penning my very first entry here is bringing back nostalgic memories of writing online quite a few years back. I hope my old readers aren't too disappointed with the quality of the stuff that will appear here. Who knows if they'll even find out about his Blog and bother to read it in the first place?

Well, well, well.