I attended a closed-door dialogue with Minister Chan Chun Sing today, and it was truly a beneficial 3 full solid hours of discussion on a broad range of issues. The 3 hours made me think alot on the issues and had me taking stands in my heart.
The variety of questions was exciting: social media & censorship; defamation suits; MOE cash incentives for character values; defence spendings; minority rights and issues; xenophobia and immigration policies; building an inclusive society; social entrepreneurship; lowering of voting age; $1.1b subsidy for privatised transport companies; political education for students; capital punishment, etc. A total of 13 controversial and sensitive issues were raised.
It was really engaging and I admired how he took in all the arrows at one shot, and then targetted the issues one by one. I was convinced by some arguments, but not for others. But it really made me think. The session did send a strong message: to be practical and not live in an ideological world. And one inspiration that I gained from the session, is that I need to get to know my own community better, if I were really going to contribute back to the society in future.
Though the 3 hours were way longer than was intended, it was nevertheless insufficient if a fully expanded in-depth discussion was to develop on each topic. But I admit I gained alot from it, and will continue to pay attention to issues that relate to our nation-building.
He posed some rhetorical questions that I couldn't give an answer immediately. Probably one day I will.
人生是黑白的.
12:07 AM <3
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I survived hell week! Certainly one of the worst weeks over the past 4 years -- of stress, panic, exhaustion and determination. The thought of a 35-page Design Project report may not sound like a big deal, but hey, things may be different if you have barely any idea of how to go about writing it, when it's as late as 42 hours before deadline.
But conquer it, I did, although I've got huge reservations about how it turned out. After all, I churned out everything in 42 hours, from zero to submission, with close to no-sleep and minimal food. Four words can best describe the ordeal: 废寝忘食.
But I did find comfort to know that the whole cohort was 'suffering' with me. I think 60% of the people didn't catch a wink at all last night, trying their best to craft their individual design reports throughout the night (some even stayed in school). What I saw when I submitted the report just half an hour before the deadline, were other 'walking zombies', whose faces and expressions gave a clue to how long they hadn't sleep.
I always seem to be most productive and efficient on the eve of deadlines. Ok, that's probably a fallacy, because all that productivity and efficiency are forced. But heck, at least the pain is temporarily over.
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Attending "怀念凤飞飞" night at 爱琴海 straight after the project submission, I found myself to be a little out of place with the hundred other Uncle and Auntie audiences who were there. At least there were wenjian, quanrui and jinhui too.
凤飞飞 was never a foreign name to me, because I know quite a few tunes in her thousand-strong singles under her name. I found myself hymning to the tunes of at least 60% of the songs that were sung at the event. It helped that I had caught a number of 凤飞飞's tribute TV and Radio programmes over the past month, and suddenly got exposed to more of her hits.
And I might probably do some of them when I next go Karaoke.
人生是黑白的.
1:24 AM <3
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