A Singaporean War Movie

A Singaporean War Movie

You know what I would do if I had the money and the directorial capabilities of JJ Abrams? I would film a Singaporean War movie. I think it'd make pretty good money. Imagine something like...The Pacific, or Saving Private Ryan, only this time, it's people you can actually relate to. There'll be the smart-ass JC guy, the slacker mat, the smart mat, the indian dude, the weird PRC who just came from China not a few months back.

And they'll all be speaking in singlish!

Sample dialogue:

"At that side got enemy! Got grenade anot?!"

"I tell you to stay here, you stay here, understand?"

"CHEEB***! Take this, you mother-cheeb***!"

I can actually go on forever. Brilliant right? It doesn't even have to have a smart plot. Just very singlish dialogue, and it'll be a study on the Singaporean culture, as well as the dynamics within the army.

Possible titles:

-CCB

-Every Singaporean Son of A Bitch

-My Rifle, And Your Mother, And Me.

The Third Marathon

I wasn't sure what to expect going into my third marathon. The first one was to prove to myself that I can finish a marathon with a decent timing. The second one was to prove to myself that I can finish a marathon with a good timing.

But a third?

I wasn't really sure why I signed up. I sort of just did. Fresh from the euphoria of a sub-4 marathon at Standard Chartered, I thought to myself 'Why not just do it again?'. With army over and done with, I figured I'd have more time to train, and would be able to dedicate more time to running. A timing below 3hr50min didn't seem so far off.

But reality soon reared it's ugly realistic head. When you're working, there's actually little time to run. Imagine waking up at 630 in the morning, leaving at 730, and only getting home 12 hours later. During weekdays, I can only run in the evening. But I have this thing called a 'life', and 'other hobbies' to pursue.

Coming into this third marathon, I certainly didn't train as much as I did in the previous two. And it showed in the results. I ran a race of 4hr36min. That's worse than my 1st marathon by about 10min. Don't think that I'm ashamed of this result, though. 4hr36min is still a pretty good timing.

So back to reality and it's ugly head. I had little time to train, but I did train as much as I could. I ran nearly everyday still, taking only about 2 days off in a week. Distance-wise, I ran less, because I didn't have time to do the crazy mileage I did before. However, I still kept to a reasonable training schedule. And it got me an OK time, and a brutal marathon experience.

Conclusion? Marathoning isn't for me. At least, not for now, when I'm trying to pursue so many other things in life. I wanna read, write, go to the gym, go on a proper diet, go out on dates, and all that. I'm giving the upcoming Standard Chartered a miss this time around, because for the next 6 months, I want some flexibility in my life.

I get why people do marathons. It's tiring, and it's demanding, but at the end of the day, you feel so damn satisfied. If I had all the time in the world, I wouldn't mind. But I don't. I feel that I'm young, and that life is like grains of sand and if I don't take control of it, it's just going to slip through my fingers.

3 marathons later, and I'm tired. It's been a really good phase of my life, but it's time to try out other things. I'm gonna be shelfing my running shoes. I'll be hitting the gym more often, going on a strict diet, and I'll see what works out.

It's 0622am. Having crossed the finish line at about 230am, I have yet to sleep. I have turned my laptop on and off three times. Should I just give up?

You know what they say: Sleep can wait.

This is what I do, at 1 in the morning.

I always found the nursery rhyme of "Jack and Jill" to be a bit disturbing. People generally assume that both of them are kids, and that both of them are siblings. I know this because of all the illustrations I have seen as a young kid. However, the rhyme never actually spells out their identity! Their identity, to this date, remains as one of the elusive mysteries of my childhood.

The popular theory is that they are siblings. Both their names begin with 'J'. This naming schemes is prevalent in many siblings, including my own. If they are siblings, their parents have presumably ordered them to fetch water. At a time when there were no such thing as maids, menial chores such as these often fell upon the children's shoulders.

But why did Jack fall? And more importantly, why did Jill come tumbling after?

If we expand upon the 'sibling theory', then I don't think it'll be too far-fetched to assume that they are Siamese twins. They went to fetch 'a pail of water'. They didn't fetch several pails of water, just one. Jack alone would have been more than enough to carry the pail of water. He's a man for goodness sake. So let's assume that Jack can carry it by himself. Why would Jill want to follow? She may not want to, but she has to, due to the fact that they are attached to one another! Jack and Jill might be the first ever fictional Siamese twins!

Another possibility is that they are lovers. Lovers want to do everything together. I have been in love, and yes, I have been at the point whereby I accompany my other half to do even the most mundane of tasks. So the lovebirds, Jack and Jill, go on a romantic walk up a hill. For some reason, Jack trips over something and falls. He hits his head hard against something and it's bleeding profusely. Jill, in a state of shock, chooses to take her own life, rather than live without the man for whom her loins burn for. Jack and Jill is perhaps, a more tragic love story than Romeo and Juliet.

I can only construct theories, but I guess nothing solid will ever come about, due to the lack of knowledge we have, outside of those 6 lines of rhymes. Perhaps they are slaves who commit suicide due to the horrible treatment of them by their masters. Perhaps Jack is a king, as implied by his crown, and Jill is an assassin sent to kill him.

This is what I do, at 1 in the morning.

On Tuition

As a soon to be jobless pre-university student, I find myself broke. Sure, I can ask for money from my parents but after two years of earning my own pay in army, I find it hard to bring up the subject. At almost 5 in the morning, here I am considering all my options.

The most efficient way to earn money in Singapore for a person with an A-level certificate seems to be to give tuition. Now just what is tuition? When I tell my peers in Philippines about this, they always give me a blank stare. I think it's a Singapore-thing, brought about by our uniquely Singapore education system.

Tuition is extra classes a student goes for outside school. They are either held as individual sessions, or in bigger groups. A student is usually sent for tuition classes when they aren't doing very well in school. Parents pay top-dollar to ensure that their child doesn't get left behind in school. There are parents who also just send their child for tuition just for the sake of it, I'm not kidding.

In Singapore, a significant number of students actually go for tuition. It has become a lucrative industry, and it's how most pre-university, and university students earn money. A tutor with good A-level results, hailing from a brand-name Junior College, with some experience can charge anywhere from $25 to $40. More experienced tutors sometimes charge up to $100.

I'm broke, and from a broke man's point of view, this seems like a good opportunity to make some money. However, I find the whole concept of tuition very jarring. I can't agree with it's...principles, for lack of a better word.

1. A flaw in our education system.

The popularity of tutors is an indicator of a education system which is lacking. Shouldn't kids be able to learn everything in school? What is school for then? And what are teachers for? Kids should be able to learn most of the things they need to know WITHIN the classroom, during lessons. Anything extra can be handled in remedial classes, or one-on-one consultation with the teachers.

I'm sure there are schemes we can implement within the school to alleviate the need for tuition. I, for one, encourage peer tutoring, whereby students help their less-capable peers. Both parties benefit; the stronger student helps the weaker one, and as he helps, he gets better acquainted with what he's learning.

2. A culture of dependence.

Another problem with tuition is that it doesn't encourage independent learning. It encourages spoon-feeding, at it's worst. For a tutor, his or her main objective is to make sure that the student gets the best result. This takes away some of the student's responsibility to ensure that he himself doesn't lag from his peers.

From a student's point of view, he has to worry less about his results, because he knows that behind him is his tutor who will, in a sense, whip him into shape.

The tutor is expected to prepare notes, give assessment and re-explain things to the students. This are actually things that a responsible student can do himself. Like I said, teachers are there for a reason, and he only needs to seek them out to get help.

We can't have a whole generation of spoon-fed learners. What would happen when they finally do get out onto the working world?

3. A means to an end.

Ultimately, what is tuition for? From a students' point of view, it is a means to get good grades. Anything more than that? Not really. How about from the tutor? It's a means to get money. Anything more than that? Not really.

So for the students, they may take away the wrong lessons from school. School's not about getting good grades. It partly is, but it's more than that. It's about learning HOW to learn. Tuition takes away the HOW in learning. What we want are life-long learners. Parents pamper their kids way too much, when their kids should be taking responsibility of his own learning.

For the tutor, it brings about an utterly materialistic mindset. I'm not saying that all tutors are in it for the money, though most of them are. What kind of culture are we trying to cultivate here? If you really want to teach, I say, be a teacher.

4. Buying grades.

Top tutors demand the most money. Top tutors guarantee results. Therefore, having the right amount of money will get you the results you want. This is unfair to the less-fortunate ones amongst us, and it only widens the gap between the haves and have-nots. A rich parent can afford the best tutors, and his child can do well, and go for scholarships and whatnot.

Yeah, it's their money, and they can do whatever they want with it, but you got to admit that at the end of the day, it's a screwed-up system.

A conclusion?

I wrote this to basically convince myself out of ever giving tuition. Yes, it might seem like a poorly-veiled attempt at justifying my laziness, but I think I make a butt-load of sense. I have other points I'd like to make, such as how tuition is ultimately a waste of time, and all that, but I'll just leave it at here.

Feel free to disagree, and we'll work something out.

Vote Wisely

I'm lazy to write a coherent post, so I'll just take points from Xiaxue's note and point out why it's not completely right.

"It is so convenient please, to vent all that frustration of your unhappiness on your government - the PAP!"

Yes, it's convenient, but let's first look at the underlying reason why people blame the government in the first place. How much is the government paid? They're paid the highest in any country in the world. How much of our money is controlled by the government? We pay taxes for everything, and every month, we give them our CPF contribution. How much of this country is actually controlled by the government? Everything in Singapore is partly controlled by the government. Their strings will follow you no matter what. The media, transportation, education, housing, the arts...I could go on. Of course, some of these HAVE to be controlled by the government, but that's beside the point.

Also, it's the PAP who promise to deliver us from our sufferings. That's what their manifesto, posters, advertisements, everything says.

Personally, I would like for there to be less government-intervention in society. However, since it seems like they are too deeply entrenched, it is not unreasonable to expect them to do an above-average job.

Excuse me? WHY? Who is stopping you from being a hardworking student, getting a scholarship, and becoming minister yourself? Who is stopping you from setting up your own business after saving up money from doing several jobs? YOU THINK ALL THESE PEOPLE DIDN'T WORK HARD?

Hmmm! So is she implying that everybody can be a minister if they tried hard enough? Not really, honey. The playing field's not equal. Let's say my parents are richer, and they can afford to send me to a better school, and they can provide me with tuition, and shower me with books, and send me overseas to study. Of course I'll do better as compared to another guy whose parents have to scrape by just to make sure he has food in his mouth.

The reality in this life is that it is unfair. Some people will no doubt have more than the rest because of pure dumb luck. I'm not even going to go into genes, and all, because that'll be way too complicated. But bottom-line is: life's not fair. A GOOD government's duty is to make sure that as little people get left behind. We have to grow as a society TOGETHER. What do we see in Singapore instead? The rich are getting richer, and the middle-class and lower-class are stagnating.

Mike and I barely have enough to pay the downpayment for a HDB.

She's a celebrity blogger, and she herself is having difficulty paying for her HDB. I don't know how much she makes, but it can't be that little right? It's probably slightly above average, at the very least. If she barely has enough to pay for her HDB, then what of the rest of the society? When an average Singaporean cannot afford a home in his country, then that is when we know we have gone wrong somewhere.

And I trust. I believe PAP is listening. I trust that they will strive to improve our lives, and I believe they will do a good job because they have proven they can do a good job.

Are they now? The PAP of the past is very different from the present day PAP. They are out of touch with the situation on the ground. They initiate unpopular policies, stream-rolling past any opinion which is different. I'm sure some of the PAP MPs are hardworkers who are truly concerned with the running of the nation, who are sincere in their intentions. However, presently, they are not doing good job, even though they think they might. And even if they don't, they will never admit to it! By having some opposition in parliament, we get people who were speak up FOR us, and provide us with alternatives. This is in contrary with the current system, whereby PAP proposals are put through just like THAT.

but let's just say that the PAP team is more impressive.

Not necessarily true. When she made this statement, I believe that she was speaking mostly from their educational backgrounds. Most of the Opposition Candidates are from equally impressive backgrounds. However, I would argue that their motivations are more sincere. They have more to lose by standing in these elections.

On George Yeo

I won't argue against George Yeo. I too think that he is a good person. However, voting for PAP solely because of one person, is not acceptable. According to Xiaxue, we would lose someone who is "extremely humble and willing to listen". Everybody's willing to listen! That's what the opposition parties have been saying all this while! If he gets voted off, it's the GRC system, and his team which is to blame.

But I fear a bleak future for our nation should the PAP topple.

No, it won't. Singapore is more than a group of men in white shirts. The foundation of this country is us. We are tough people who are extremely capable. This is a country which runs on US. We need people who will LEAD us, and not MISUSE us. Imagine Singapore as a sail boat. We are a FUCKING STRONG WIND.

We just need someone to adjust the sails every once in awhile.

Way to get it all wrong!

The other day, a certain celebrity blogger typed a note lamenting how Nicole Seah has more 'likes' on Facebook than our Minister Mentor, and founder of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. To me, it felt like someone was making a mountain out of a molehill. It's a POPULARITY CONTEST which is ONLINE.

Justin Bieber has probably a million likes on Facebook. How many likes does Barack Obama have? Nowhere close, I bet. The number of 'likes' you have on Facebook is no indication of your influence, power, or the respect people has for you.

The users of Facebook are a fickle bunch. I have 'liked' bands after seeing just ONE music video by them. I have 'liked' bands simply because they are the ones I'm currently listening to. Nicole Seah's getting so much attention right now simply because she is standing in the middle of a General Election, fighting the good fight. LKY's already walk-over, and he hasn't been saying anything much of late anyway.

Nicole Seah's appeal and subsequently, her number of 'likes', may be directly attributed to the fact that she is close to the age of most Facebook users. How many people our age are running for elections, and running well for that matter? She is an eloquent and intelligent young woman who is willing to stand up for what she believes in.

This post was supposed to be a sort of response to Xiaxue's note entitled "Vote Wisely". I went sort of off-topic. I'll do another one.

Tat2

I feel like getting another one! The first image is an anchor, which was my original plan for my first. I went with another design in the end, but in the future, I'm sure I'll get it. The other one is the Hamsa, or Hand of Fatimah. It's a Jewish and Muslim symbol representing the Hand of God.

See how lah!