urgh, headaches suck.

it's ironic that singapore has a national heritage board that aims to preserve certain iconic structures that represent the national spirit, as well as those which showcase the history of this small republic, AND still allow some of these known buildings to be demolished Just Like That to pave the way for the new up-and-coming mrt track.

does this mean that history, regardless of its richness and antiquity, can and should be erased off the face of the earth if and when it collides with the plans of the future? do we restore only those historical structures which somehow, miraculously, do not fall into the Grand masterplan for the future?

i'm sure, give us just 5 years from the demolition of the 7th Storey Hotel, and we would CLEANLY forget our roots and the history that piece of land once had there. because in the name of making singapore a better place for the Future, we seem to somehow forget our Past.

okay so here are my few cents worth, after reading some local news online:

first. the fourth university. okay, rather education in singapore in general. honestly i think there is definitely space for a fourth university in singapore, now in present terms. i mean it took just a Fraction of the cohort of the '88 dragon babies to make a statement that there is just no space for our children. this still happened despite the fact that there was already an increase in the total number of spaces by the three universities. that's short term. in the long term however, judging from the low birth rates would the birth of a fourth tertiary instituition be justified? well, i may be myopic and don't enjoy having much numerical data at hand, but would and could this pose as a problem? could the fourth university in the long run, prove to be an extra educational instituition.

singapore can take pride in her educational standards. we have topped or at least nearly topped some educational research/ surveys/ studies done at a global scale, and our education models are widely followed in many countries. in the country that i am in right now, there are hundreds of tertiary institutions that even the locals claim them to be just degree mills. amongst them, i have only so far noticed only two universities in the ranking list of some forgotten year. as compared to singapore's two out of three universities making it into the top 100, one even to the top 50, i think it speaks a lot of our standards. so that brought me to my abovementioned point? would the fourth university, on top of the private instituitions And overseas universities- that some organisation has been desperately bidding for them to come and set up campus here- be ultimately just an ordinary top 500 degree mill?

--

that leads me to the article about local employers being concerned about local talent leaving to work abroad. first question: of what proportion are our local graduates intending to work abroad? and secondly: of what proportion are our singaporean graduates studying overseas, leaving the country to work? i think when we break those numbers down, we would get a clearer picture wouldn't we, of not just the reasons but the solutions, if there are any, as well. if the graduates who study overseas stay overseas then it's really not surprising to me that those who majored in finance, business and real estate do just so.

okay, why finance/ business? despite the fact that both the business schools of NTU and NUS are globally reknowned and the up-and-coming one at SMU, the academic requirement for entry into these schools are roughly the same. well at least on paper, or website, it is. 4As and at least a merit in your GP is the BASIC requirement. so one may then argue that it is only necessary to set such high standards for entry to ensure that we attract the top students not just locally but internationally too. but what about the general population? those who didn't get those pristine grades? those who marginally did not make the fianl cut, be it at the interview or the grades? uhhuh, real estate then? from what i know, only NUS offers a degree in real estate and it's a rather small crowd actually. so those who have the interest but don't make it, where do they go? for all three disciplines, you guessed it. they go overseas. why would they not come back to work? question we should be asking is why should they? maybe the jobs there pay more, maybe they completely forgotten what being singaporean is all about (although i hope not, if not there would most definitely be a revision to the social studies subject at secondary school)

--

which leads to me back to the question of education. we definitely don't want a degree mill that compromises on eduational standards. i wonder. it would also be senseless if every child of singapore ends up getting a degree, it would just fuel the sick lust for that coveted paper qualification, but where and when does it end? in my course of choosing a university i've considered some australian universities and what caught my eye was the fact that despite the lower entry requirements, as compared to singapore, these australian universities fared better than our local unis on almost all of the global rankings. of course, some may argue that the rankings are not all that important, they could be flawed as well. but they do give us an indication of some comparison, at least.

so bottomline is, are we flawed in giving our general population an education?

(heyhey, don't get me wrong. i still believe in the education standards of my homeland and what it has done and will continue to provide for this country. and it is only because i believe so much in it, that is why i question what else more can we do, so that others can benefit from it)

a bottle which has drifted far out into the sea

never returns back to his roots with the waves.

no, he leaves behind a legacy; a memory, if ever, remains.

and if that bottle would one day return to that sandy beach,

let him be filled with the salty water he has been in before.

for it would be futile if the owner

picked him up,

found him empty

and then throw him back into the salty waters again.

--

i've looked at life from both sides now

and i realised i've never known life at all.

i've looked at love from some sides now

and i realised i've never known love at all.

nowadays i just think of life, not you.

these days, i don't even bother thinking about love.

they say that when you find love, love doesn't come to you.

when you're desperate, love also doesn't come to you, either.

i guess there are those times when you dream of falling in love and wanting to get attached and all that nonsense, but truth be told i don't want to commit all of that. or at least, if i can help it. there is so much nonsense involved that at the end of it all, are we just acting according to what society wants us to be? and if not, does the society that we leave in today permit singles, or worse, those who havent had a relationship by the age of twenty, to fully participate in societal activities? housing becomes a problem, and i;m sure there are many other problems that accompany the housing one.

falling in love, surprisingly is a modern concept. think about the old times when marriages were arranged and the couple involved don't even know one another till the day of marriage. falling in love before marriage would be an obscure thought, if not an impossible one. and for that matter, if the couple were to fall in love after marriage, that might even be an unlikelihood. so what's with the whole deal about falling in love.

ah. love.

it makes us say the dumbest things.

who knows? i may say all these opposing words today

and be full of praise of it tomorrow.

the funny things of love.

love, the funny thing.

my heartfelt condolences.

"kor kor...."

"什么事？”

- he plays with the child.

"kor kor...."
"什么事？”
- he plays with the child again.

"kor kor...."
"什么事？”
- he plays with the child yet again.

finally,

"kor kor...."

"kor kor 要睡觉啦。"

"kor kor...."

"kor kor 头痛了，不要吵。"

"kor kor...."

"哎哟，都跟你说了不要吵 kor kor 了。”

"kor kor...." .....

"kor kor...." .....

"kor kor...." .....

--

such is the joy of being innocently a child.

what happens in vegas, stays in vegas.

what happened in singapore, stays in singapore;

and more.

it's aptly forgotten.