i really don't know the outcome of today's scholarship interview, but me think chances are really slim...but anyways...will be throwing everything behind now...and once again blogging from Changi...departing for North Korea in about an hour's time...so ciao!
Finally got another chance...hmmm...really nervous...and it is on the day of my departure!
Anyway, after coming down with a throat infection and fever for the whole of last week, things are beginning to look up, thanks to the laughter relief session yesterday at Seoul Gardens - DON"T EVER VISIT ONE IN UR THE REST OF UR LIFE! Hilarious as it was, the food really wasn't worth it and my stomach is still upset now...damn...hahahahaa
When I was young, I lived in a deserted kampong deep in the jungle. Every night, my mother would ask me not to go home too late as there won't be any transportation after a certain time.
One night, before going home, I ta pao a kueh teow soup for supper. I was late and I waited for the taxi/bus but there was none. I was getting worried as the night was getting darker and darker. So I tried to flag down private vehicles to take me home.
There was no one stopping for me, till one motorcyclist took compensation on me and stopped to give me a lift. He was a man with a kind face. I accepted his offer and got onto his motorbike.
On the way home, we would pass by a temple. At night, the temple would look eerily spooky with the dim lights from the candles. At first,the motorcyclist was warm and friendly.
When the temple was approaching, the motorcyclist eyes grown bigger and bigger.His kind face turned to a face of anger. He was muttering something loud but was not audible to me. I was so scared that I closed my eyes in order not to see his angry face.
Then, the motorcylist stopped in front of the temple and then yelled at me.
"Your kueh teow soup is so hot!! It is burning my thigh! Can you please move it away???"
Ghost Story #2
When I was young, I have two friends who were very close to each other. They played with each other everyday. It was like, if you see A, you would see B next to him. They were always together. A loved fried eggs. Whenever he went out for lunch or dinner, without fail, he would ask for fried egg on top of his noodles, fried rice, etc.
One day, A involved in an accident and died. B was devastated. B went to the cemetery to pray everyday. He would go to the nearest restaurant and ta pao a box of fried rice with an egg on top to be offered to A when he went to pray to him. The next day, he opened the box and there was no egg inside!
B was petrified. He thought, must be A who came and took the fried egg away.The same thing happened the next day and the day after that.
B was confused. So, one day, he asked the chef to make the same fried rice with a fried egg again. Then, he went to the cemetery to offer it to A. Curious, he opened the box to check for the egg. He was angry to find that, there was no fried egg in the box after all.
Feeling that he had been cheated, he went back to the restaurant and demanded to see the Chef. "Where is the fried egg?? I told you there must be a fried egg inside!! You have cheated me for a few days now! Gimme back my money!!"
Then, the Chef got really angry and opened the box - the fried egg was inside the box. The Chef said, "Stupid! You open the box upside down. No wonder you cannot see the egg!!"
Ghost Story #3
When I was young, I went to town to work with a group of friends during our summer holidays of two months. Being young and away from home for the first time, we drank and smoke like nobody's business. One night, we were pissed drunk and flagged the last bus down to go home.Being tired, we slept in the bus.
It had been awhile that I fell asleep. I was awake by the chilly wind. I was shocked to find that there was no one in the bus, and I was the last passenger. I looked in front to check out for the driver. But the driver was no where in sight. Yet, the bus was moving.
I panicked shitless. I rubbed my eyes to make sure that I was not dreaming. The night was dark and cold. I hysterically jumped out from the bus and tried to run as hard as I could to get away.
Then I heard someone yelled at me from behind the bus."Hey! Don't run away! Come over here and help to push the bus!" yelled the bus driver.
I saw my other friends helping to push the bus, which broke down while I was asleep.
THE END; Lesson to learn: Hehehe...ya. It is not scary at all But I hope it was a nice read...
3) YES YES YES YES!!!! MoJo is OUT of AR9!!! WOOHOO!! Now I just can;t wait for Jade to be OUT of ANTM 6 and for Lee to be OUT of Apprentice 5...
After an acrimonious campaign fought in above-average rain and thunder, I’m inclined to look for rays of sunshine peeking through the parting clouds. I found at least a couple.
The first was the sheer class with which the Workers’ Party wrapped up its campaign. Reciting the national Pledge in closing its final rally. Sticking calmly and resolutely to its message that the WP would be judged by voters, not the PAP. Sylvia Lim warmly congratulating the winning PAP team in Aljunied. This is a party that has understood that Singapore’s swing voters don’t want a hysterical Opposition, but one that reflects voters’ image of themselves: rational and reasonable. This is also party with a long-term plan. It has introduced new candidates so young that the WP can count on a slate of seasoned campaigners not just in the next GE, but in the one after that. We are looking at the real possibility of a WP breakthrough at around the same time that Mr Lee Kuan Yew leaves the stage. It’s the prospect of a new era that even the PAP should welcome: a more competitive political scene that, if the PAP’s own party line is to be believed, will keep the ruling party responsive, honest and generally on its toes.
The second ray of sunshine, which came at 2am after the election results, is possibly even more significant. Singaporeans have learnt to dread the PAP post-results press conferences. PAP leaders have earned a reputation for being sore winners. Results that would send other countries’ politicians over the moon are met with black faces. Voters are scolded and lectured for being ungrateful. Veiled threats are issued against segments of the population suspected of denying the PAP the 100% vote that it thinks it is entitled to. When PM Lee appeared on TV, I expected him to honour to this classic PAP tradition. To say that I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. The PM threw out the old PAP script and did exactly what he should do. He acted Prime Ministerial. Everything he said, and the way he said it, had this sub-text: the time to be partisan is over; from this moment, I act as the PM of this nation, not as the leader of a party.
Thus, he had only good things to say about the Workers Party and the two Opposition MPs Chiam See Tong and Low Thia Khiang. He empathised with voters who stuck with the Opposition incumbents, choosing to see their decision as emanating from something virtuous – voter loyalty – rather than any irrational or irresponsible impulse. Sure, he couldn’t resist a jibe at former WP leader JB Jeyaretnam and the SDP, but these did not detract from a generally gracious victory speech. Old style PAP politicians might see this as softness on the PM’s part. Wasn’t he basically legitimising the Opposition? I think, however, that the PM’s post-election message is the smartest tack for the PAP. First, it acknowledges that the appetite for Parliamentary opposition cannot be wished away. The ruling party has to respect that desire. Second, however, the challenge is to channel that appetite towards what the PAP has called “First World” Opposition. To achieve this, it is worth anointing some types of Opposition in order to draw a contrast with other types regarded as illegitimate.
Third, and most importantly, the PM’s message has the effect of setting the PAP apart from the hoi polloi of political parties. If Opposition MPs are inevitable and perhaps even a growing force, the battleground for the PAP must shift. It is no longer about monopolising Parliamentary seats. Instead, it is about establishing in Singaporeans’ minds that the PAP remains the natural party of government, and the only party of national unity – regardless of whether the Opposition has two or 10 seats. To sell this idea, the PM must act accordingly. He must be above the fray. As much as possible, he must act as if it is beneath him to engage in street fights with political parties that are nowhere close to challenging the PAP’s status as the party of government.
Unfortunately, old habits die hard. We’ve seen too many of those old habits over the past month. We can only hope that PAP leaders do an honest post-mortem of their campaign. Clearly, voters were not impressed by the PAP’s heavy artillery directed at James Gomez and the two incumbent Opposition MPs. It appears to have backfired. It earned neither respect, nor votes – a lose-lose proposition. It was seen as divisive, and at odds with Mr Lee’s agenda outside of elections, which is increasingly about inclusiveness and respect for diversity. In fact, it may be precisely because Singaporeans bought into the new PM’s vision that they found it hard to swallow the PAP’s hardline election rhetoric and tactics. Mr Lee had built up a considerable stock of goodwill since becoming PM, but the PAP drew down on those reserves in its campaign. As the party of national unity, the PAP should now put the polls behind it and get back on message. The PM’s conduct of his post-election press conference was a superb start.
Let’s see where the PAP goes from here. There are three bits of unfinished business:
1. The lawsuit against Chee and the SDP. One can assume that this will proceed full steam ahead, and that this will not upset too many Singaporeans, as most seem to have understood that Chee is deliberately courting trouble in order to grab attention.
2. The James Gomez affair. The Aljunied results show that people are not persuaded that it's a big deal, even if they agree that his conduct was suspicious. Will the government dig itself even deeper to "win" the argument? This is a high risk gambit, the risk being that the government looks ridiculous at the precise moment that it should be focusing attention on its victory. No doubt, action won't be pursued if there isn't a watertight legal case, but there is also the court of public opinion to consider. (Update: the police have stepped in to investigate a complaint of "criminal intimidation" of the elections department by Gomez.)
3. Upgrading and estate improvement for Hougang and Potong Pasir. This is not an immediate issue, but the government will need to confront it eventually. The fact of the matter is that it is untenable for the PAP government to preside over a Singapore that includes any urban slum. Whoever the MP is, the government will have to intervene before any HDB estate becomes decrepit. Not to do so is to undermine its performance legitimacy. Imagine news pictures of a rundown estate in the world's press. The cost to Singapore's reputation would be just too high. posted by Cherian at 1:43 AM 2 comments
SINGAPORE ELECTIONS: SDP’S FUTURE Here’s what the SDP contributed to GE2006: 2.2 points to the PAP’s vote share. If it had not contested at all, the PAP’s share would have been 64.4 percent, not 66.6. Voters have rejected the Singapore Democratic Party once again, but this is unlikely to be the end of the story. It is inevitable that the party will split, if not entirely disintegrate.
Really, the only surprise is that the SDP has cohered as long as it has. For several years, there’s been an irreconcilable contradiction at the heart of the SDP leadership. The old SDP, represented by chairman Ling How Doong and other stalwarts, wants to win Parliamentary seats and knows from experience that the way to do this is by painstakingly cultivating the grassroots (even if in practice they lack the energy or resources to do it). The new SDP, led by Chee Soon Juan, is less interested in electoral politics. It is instead engaging in a long term struggle to transform political culture in Singapore.
Although these two missions sound complementary in theory, that’s only the case if there’s a conscious effort to balance them. Chee has made no such effort. It’s easy to understand why. Having been roundly rebuffed by voters in past polls, and now disqualified from contesting, he knows that his personal future lies with getting the attention and approval of foreign pro-democracy groups. Since these groups deal routinely with far larger and more brutal regimes than Singapore, Chee can only sustain their interest in him if he remains in the news as a victim of PAP authoritarianism. His repeated attempts to provoke the authorities – inviting fines, suits and even jail terms – seem crazy in the eyes of many Singaporeans, but are entirely rational when one realises who his real audience is.
Whether or not you agree with his strategy, the point is that it is at odds with the interests of the rest of the Opposition, including most of his SDP colleagues. I suspect that Chee was only tolerated by the likes of Ling because he was willing to do the work. At best, it was a live and let live relationship. It was a relationship that always looked vulnerable to pressure – and that pressure was provided by the PAP’s lawsuit, which forced SDP leaders to decide where their interests really lay.
Well, the hols are here again, this time for a full 3 months for all uni students. Time to get a job? Maybe...'cos with my upcoming trip to DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea aka North Korea) from 25 May to 6 June, I don't think I find a job that will allow me to take leave for 2 weeks in between and if I start after that, it might be too short a duration...so if anyone got lobang can tell me? =)
Anyway, exams officially finished for me on 3 May 06. Marketing. It was a disaster, and despite spending like 4 days worth of revision on it, it didn't really help, nor the fact that it was open-book helped either. My mind blanked out and I spent more than an hour answering the 1st 30m question which I know my answers are really cocked up (I didn't draw any framwork..damn) So yeah... I regretted my choice this sem, and maybe I am not cut for business minor either...sigh
Info Lit was well, overprepared; pure regurgitation, with some time to spare...CS103...wrong guess, wrong focus, crapped my way through but pretty confident 'cos everyone did quite badly too, so average should be okay lar...CS105, cocked up the sampling plan but lots did too, so no worries as well, CS108 prepared but sort of blanked out too, despite knowing the topics to be tested but the ones I had many points to write about turned out to have the least mark weightage and vice versa, oh well...and CS106, best that I had only one afternoon to prepare for it. The exam schedule was really jammed up, with 108,105, and 106 consecutively on 3 days. Ended up studying till 1am, before waking up at 5am to continue...
And right after submitting the paper, I felt sick. The flu, sore throat set it by that very evening. And of course, I was in a holiday mood oredi..after heading to Orchard with the Sci Ctr gang after exams, ate lunch + ice cream, browsed Borders (yes, a new record for me for spending more than 30mins in a bookstore), talked cock at Burger King and laughing like nobody's business.
And then it was the 111 after-sem meet-up. Supper at Bedok 85, headed to Gelare at Siglap only to find it closed for renovation, then Coffee Club decided to take the bunch of laughing mess in. The fondue and mud-pie was really good...pics will be up soon (after I edit them) and it was crapping, bringing up old memories, laughing, laughing and more laughing..hahahaahhah
Point to add..zoo outing was fouled up once again...=(
Then went out to browse and shop with Sara and Kerin..interesting trip I would say 'cos I never thought I would step foot into ICON or Bugis Street...lolz...and not to forget the surprise I got...thanks Sara.
And with all that, I just couldn't "shou1 shi2 xing1 qing2" to actually get down to studying MB103, so I guess I deserved it..but I seriously hope the worse I get is a B even though that would already more or less ruin my GPA...
I have done quite okay for this sem, I guess. A to B+ for term papers and projects, doing either slight above or above average for quizzes and mid-terms, so I hope things will turn out really well for this sem, cos my aim is to get into that Dean's List for at least once and it will not be easy from year 2 onwards...
Yah...it's been a year in school. I have made more friends that I though I would, true friends to stand by with. I guess I made the right choice. This environment sort of suit me to a T, but I only hope that this does not separate me from my old friends (the small numbers of them which I won't want to lose). My yingxiang seniors once told me that from J1 to J2, I have opened up, became more cheerful and that changed after enlistment. I guess I have came full circle, more than a year after ORD; a year since my brother got married, and almost a year since I fractured my spine. And it's time to move on to a brighter future. (Mom just celebrated her birthday on Friday =p)
Thank you to all those who have been there for me all these while...
So, after an intensive week of campaigning which saw no major issues that one would imagine a democratic and developed nation would debate about, the Singapore GE 2006 has drawn to a close with the opposition gaining grounds but the PAP retains is rule over Singapore.
The heavens are weeping for Singapore..definitely, for it poured right when the results were streaming out from Mediacorp. But it is of relief that Mr Peanuts did not succeed in the opposition wards, that the opposition voice shall remain strong, that Singaporeans are still thinking.
I did not get to vote and damn it. I just could not stand the high-hand methods used: through packages which arrived early (1 day after nomination day in fact), through using lifts and estate upgrading and other carrots, through personal attack on their strongest opponent and the slate of newbies that use big words without considering their apperances and image on TV.
Damn it that the rallies turnout did not translate into actual votes.And a big DAMMNIT to Mediacorp for the f***-up coverage during the entire election campaign period that was totally lobe-sided and helped to drum up and stage the entire JG incident. Who started it, who pressed on nonsensically, who changed tune halfway through when they realised some words used may not be correct, and who knew that they screwed up the whole wayang show and decides to help the voters "refocus" their attention? This whole saga went like a porrly-scripted drama right out of Caldecott Hill...
The newspaper were slightly better in that if you read the entire article, it seems a little more balanced towards the end, but the headlines, leads and initial paragraphs simply puts the Tony-overseeing publisher's papers to shame for their credibility and objecivity.
Another reason to reject journalism as my specialisation for I will never be able to tolerate myself reporting in that manner.
Some party keeps campaigning on their track records which shoudl not be valid in a GE for it is not a fair comparison; the same party keeps using their ministerial jobs as reasoning, not as an MP for that constituency; and the same party keeps sueing another party that Singaporeans don't really care about already; the same party claimed that Chiam is 71 and it is time to rest, but they forgot about their oldest candidate who will jump out of his grave if he needs to; the same party threw out massive funds to contest, and the uncontested wards are just supposed to regret that they don't get a chance to be enticed?
I am sick. Truly sick of this country covered in white cloth, struck by lightning.
BTW, pq and jas, james wants to kiss you: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
