A little article about Singaporeans

Straits Times Oct 31, 2004
Huang Na: Let it show

THE ordeal of Huang Na, the missing little girl from China, is uncovering for Singaporeans a side of their psyche which a people hardened by materialism and competition for space have kept repressed. This is the side which is demonstrative, spontaneous, kindly, ready to reach out to help and to comfort. Retirees, young men and women, teenagers and resident foreigners have been mobilising themselves unbidden to help in the search for the girl, who went missing some weeks ago. Mass-reach 'search-engine' devices like an Internet website and a monetary reward have been employed, alongside more conventional methods such as hand-distributed mailers and foot-pounding by searchers. The Malaysian police and media have also been drawn into this massive display of the popular will to do good. Seldom has a mass-movement motivated by compassion for a helpless person been encountered here. This is a triumph of citizen activism. If the police have subliminally felt the groundswell of concern for the child, and committed more resources to the search as a result, so much the better.

All this has happened without prompting - not by the media, not by politicians and civic leaders, not because of an appeal by the girl's despairing mother. This is the noteworthy aspect of the Huang Na phenomenon. We must wish the people will go on to exhibit their kindliness and spontaneity more. Singaporeans tend to be too hard on themselves. They could have been subconsciously conditioned, as basically economic animals, to project stoicism as a strength. Who says successful, hard-charging people have to be macho and self-absorbed and to always show self-control? It is all right to cry sometimes in joy or sadness, to show they will take the time to help people in distress. If Huang Na is returned safely to her parents, it is their fulfilment too.

Sometimes, we are so lost in our own minute problems and headeaches which are merely day to day affairs that we tend to not let ourselves be affected by such incidents, which truely speaking, are non-of-our-business. But, could you bear to do so? If you had been following this case, there is simply no way you could have shelved it aside. After reading this article, I do realise that I am not the only one who feels this way, and somehow I do feel good. There is humanity in a society that portray more resemblences to a community of zombies after all~!

I went to the Union for drinks for the first time, but somehow the alcohol didn't manage to perform what it was supposed to do. I hope things would become clearer to me over the weekend.

Skipped school for the whole day. Refused to wake up early, went to school for lunch, and the intention of attending Digital Signal Processing just wasn't there. Holed out in the library for hours till it was time to leave. It happened that some of the freshers in Evelyn are headed for the union, and somehow it seemed like a good idea to me to join in.

But like I said, somehow the alcohol didn't really work.

Sigh...

Alton Towers Trip II

Here we go again, on a merry bush trip. This is going to be the second time I will be going there, and somehow I am approaching it with a sifferent kind of mood. It was a trip filled with thrill and suspense previously, not knowing what to expect at the end point.

This time, the MO for going is totally different though. It was purely for the company and not the venue. Yup, and here we are, on the first leg of the journey up north, with me and Jeftor singing the usual array of Chinese songs. We arrived just after the park opened, and got off the coach with the sunshine cheering us into the park. Great weather!

First stop at the park was the Pinball Wizz, where the rollar coaster was not merely a normal tracker ride, but one where the car would spin on its own axis as well! The end result, a bunch of very dizzy us attempting to walk straight.

<>We headed down to the famed X-sector, where some of the crazy rides of the park were. Oblivion was up next. This is a short ride with a crazy vertical drop into a hole, but before the drop, the ride hangs you at the pinnacle of the track for a few seconds before free-falling you. We tried screaming, but we just could not find our voices.

The next ride coming up is the Enterprise. Alright... this ride spins you round and round, horizontally and vertically, and at the end of it, you feel that the main aim of the ride is just to get you so dizzy that you feel like puking. I took the ride with Eunice in the same car, and while I could feel my face greening away, she was commenting that it was FUN! Hmm.. different definition of that word I suppose =P

Black Hole. (Side note: the stupid weather decided to start crying on us. It didn't take long before we decide to defend ourselves with umbrellas... =P) This is another ride which I missed the last time I came to Alton. Well, it wasn't as exciting as the queue makes it seems to be. It was just a simple coaster ride in the dark with an occassionally strobe light lighting up parts of the track.

We rode across the park to the Forbidden Valley where the Nemesis and Air rides are... the famed heart stopping ride. Air is a ride which spells originality. You are initially seated, but just before the ride begins, you are lifted up and tilted into a 'flying' posture, and off you go. As for Nemesis, it is fast. Just pure fast. In Marvin's word, it flings you around as if you are just another piece of meat, and given that it travels at 80 miles an hour, and the maximum G it pulls stands at 4.5, it is no wonder that heart patients are not allowed on Nemesis. =P

The rain pelted down even harder after we got off this ride, so we retreated to the cafe nearby, and settled in with drinks of hot chocolate to warm ourselves up. The rain refuse to relent, but it was about time for fireworks anyway, hence we trudged (literally) through the pave, rubbles, grass and mud for the fireworks display. And it was fantastic! Took some great photographs of the fireworks, but credit to Eunice, cos I think the "mushroom" she took was by far the nicest =)

Yup, that more or less sums up the trip. Most of us were too tired to talk on the ride back, hence it was pretty condusive for sleeping.

Despite knowing guys like Changyong and Teresa for 2, 3 years, I was glad that through this trip I managed to get to know them better. Of course, it was a great opportunity to know Liangwei, Andrew, Eunice etc freshers better as well! All in all, it was worth spending the 27 pounds. Like I said, even though I am going to Alton for the second time, it was more of the company that counts, not the rides. ;)

This is it~

Started the year with a liking for communications, as it seemed to be one of my pet subjects. Turned out that the lecturer for this module this year, well genious may he be, he can't really teach well. The coursework which he set for us are pretty undoable as well, and they DO stand a huge percentage in our final score. Sigh...

Oh well, but luckily we have events going on to take our mind off stuff like that. Refusing to let that lousy piece of coursework dampen our spirits, the EE potluck was held yesterday evening. Turnout was basically just year 1s and year 3s.. Thankfully we have the year 2 gals turning up (stares at Bernard.. grrr).

Volleyball tomorrow, and Alton Towers on Saturday. It would be the second time I'll be going there, but it would be the company that matters anyway. Who cares about the rides?? Yup, looking forward to great time this weekend ;)

OSC Elections

2 hours of lessons. Then its the Oversea Students Committee Ordinary General Meeting. For those who dunno yet, I am standing as a committee member of the executive committee, and the results should be out next wednesday.

Oh right, in case you were wondering, I am standing for the position of Secretary again ;)

I realised that what I said to the members of the OSC really reflects what I hope to achieve in London. Since I am studying overseas, I really want to meet international friends and learn more about living, studying and perhaps even working with them. Till now, I have more or less been sticking to the Singaporeans. Its not really because I do not wish to play an active role in getting to know them better, but I realised that there is this comfort zone that all of us would simply want to reside in. And here, that comfort zone materialise in the form of a vibrant Singapore Society.

Perhaps that was what I really joined the Overseas Students Committee. Being engaged in participating and managing overseas societies should prove to be my motivation and incentive in getting to know my overseas counterparts better. The events organised does not matter. The kind of hard work put in does not matter as well. What really matters would be that 10 years down the road, I could still make an overseas phone call to my friends from perhaps France, and ask about their lives, their work, their children.

Well, time will tell. This simply sounds a trifle far fetched at the moment ;)

For those who are interested to know, the inevitable did happen.

School Started!!

Dear Diary~

Ha.. cliche beginning, ain't it? =P

Yah, thats besides the point. I dun really have an idea what kinda names to give to posts which describes my daily life, so the next time you see "Dear Diary", you know what that means.

Spent the morning and early afternoon at Hyde Park, freshers picnic. Did the usual (I mean, this is the third time I am going for this). Soccer, Frisbee, Volleyball, Kite flying, mingled and talked, yada yada...

The England vs Wales match followed the sojourn at Hyde Park. England basically stomped their way through the match, without much real threat from the Wales team with a very subduded Ryan Giggs not producing much. England 2 - 0 Wales.

Sunday... Rot..

I suppose I am just waiting for the inevitable to happen.

Hwa Chong Night 2004 Committee. Eewen, Marvin, Jiewen and Felicia were not able to make it. But thats the lot of us at a meeting for the event. Look out for the coming HC Night! I promise it will fantastic ;)

Back In London, Back online!

I suppose that sounds pretty cliche, but I mean, being back online is one of the most bugging stuff on all the senior's minds now. Gone were the days whereby we have the luxury of the cable network in the halls now. Its all up to us to try to get connected back to civilisation as soon as possible.

Yah, but anyway, crap aside, (in case u haven't noticed, the above para was crap), I am safely back in London, and thus the ability to be typing this. The past few days have been pretty hectic, not in the sense that I am settling down. I have been settled down since the day I landed in fact. What's keeping me busy now is the Overseas Students Committee, affectionally known as the OSC. (where some gal actually thought that we were Occasional students). There are 37 overseas societies (including Singapore Soc and Malaysian Soc) under us, so thats a lot of members. Zhichen is the chair, so I suppose there should not be much problems working with my new committee ;)

Lesson proper starts tomorrow. Timetable this year is more human, meaning that I actually get no more than 3 hours of lessons a day. Hohoho... Coursework should be keeping my time occupied though, but that is most probably not going to keep me away from blogging often. Yup, so till then, take care my friends ;)