Oc⋅to⋅ber

I can't believe that I missed a whole month without blogging..

=(

ac⋅a⋅de⋅mi⋅a

Finally my work stint is over (fingers crossed).

I've already missed 2 weeks of school.. hopefully the lecturers started slow and i will be able to catch up by next week. Sad thing is 3 hours of prime saturday time is taken up by lecture now.. sad face =(

One more year people, I don't think I am going to go on straight to my Masters or any other further studies tho that seems to be the flavour of the week at the moment.. further studies and getting married..

This entire holiday, cept for a few out of country jaunts, has been pretty much all about work and taking up professional competency courses.. Not really a holiday well spent in the usual sense of the word.. But its a like a very important step in the crossover from student to working adult. Alot of my peers will be heading into the rat race with pretty much no experience whatsoever. I've never been fond of the rat race.. working hard for someone so that they get a monster bonus package just rubs me the wrong way. But thats the capitalist market system and jobs in the financial sector is still looked upon the as crème de la crème when it comes to remuneration packages and career progression..

And i here i am seriously contemplating a career in the security industry. Its an interesting one, pretty hard work, pays well and never boring. For the most part Dad has done the job by getting himself ridiculously decorated while he was in the Force.. All i got to do is run the day to day stuff...

Anyway.. will be back with more stuff from school.. the good thing about school is there is tons to blog about.. There will definitely be some source of amusement.. most prolly be an international student.. sometimes they just are too damn clueless..

cheers..

Comfort·Food

What do you do when the work piles up like nuts, school starts and you are noway near the frame of mind for it..

cook.. lol.. swung by swiss butchery for that mean piece of meat.. medium rare goodness..

Here come the weekend where i will have no time for fun whatsoever and i've got to spend all my time in front of this pc churning out a 300page report.. My life..

No time for angsty outbursts.. no time for reading social commentary..

i need my life back =(

Denny·Crane

Wow.. its been awhile since i've blogged.. No kidding..

The end of my holidays are near.. School starts coming Tuesday and here I am working my ass of churning out a 300 page report for Dad's firm. Couple that with the fact that i'm hooked on Boston Legal.. i've gone cuckoo for cocoa puffs..

Holidays is ending.. work is piling up.. and i'm taking 5 subjects for my final year.. one of which i will be going to be self studying.. hope that doesn't go down the drain..

not enough hours in a day for me..

Sawadee·Kwa

Upon landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport everything changed. Even tho the whole place was sorta on alert cos of the Swine Flu and everytime someone coughed or sneezed you did get some wary looks, it was still a land of smiles.. It was almost 11pm.. Stayed at a transit hotel for the night and headed to Bangkok Central to check it at the hotel we were going to stay at for the entire trip.

Next morning we checked into our snazzy suite.. It pretty interesting, Tenface Suites which is named after this mythical person in Thai Mythology Tosakan which happens to be an intepretation of this Hindu legend Ravana.. That explains the dark themes and intricate sculptures.. Going to put a few more photos of the room..

The hotel even gave me like a complimentary sim card to use, a BTS (their version of MRT) card, and even this very useful cards to flash at taxi drivers to get you to the popular spots in central bangkok..

And it came in this very neat box which the called Tosakan's heart.

Now what is Thailand without a Tuk Tuk ride.. thing is, M would rather die then voluntarily sit in one of those here.. Lucky for me the hotel had one of their own and they gladly took us for as many rides as we wanted..

The hotel also had this old school merc which was our limo for a day.. Quite a head turner.. Best paint scheme i've seen in ages.. lol..

These guys are so awesome.. were more then happy to accomodate anything we asked them.. and didn't even expect to be tipped.. Tho on the last day i gave them all the remaining baht i had.. together with the booze and cigs.. Note to self.. don't over buy at Duty Free..

Lunch the next day was at Noble House at Swissotel Bangkok.. We messed up the time zones and arrived there an hour late and the place was already closed, but they actually still served us! we had the entire place to ourselves.. And the food.. omg... best dim sum ever.. Lotsa really unique concoctions as well..

After that amazing lunch we headed to the famed Jatujak Market.. It was a MASSIVE place with like sections for antiques, clothes, acessories, food even pets!! M got a little teary eyed after seeing all the pooches on sale.. But cheered up pretty soon after entering this shop..

Every chance we had we went for a massage.. Bone breaking goodness.. Tiny little thai auntie folded me like a pancake.. wasn't really a PG sight..

Sunday Brunch was at the Four Seasons.. Best Sunday Brunch EVER.. Steak, lamb, lobster and prawns were grilled on the spot to your required doneness.. Instead of just a choice of beer/champagne/wine, we could have everything! including cocktails.. I stuck to the Kir Royale.. M went nuts on cosmo's, appletinis, Mimosa's and Bellinis.. And this place had the best foie gras steaks EVER.. never ate that many pieces of liver.. Heart clogging stuff..

Omg talking about all of this just makes me want to go back there.. honestly one of the best holidays ever..

hol⋅i⋅day

Bangkok here i come.. Massive post after that confirmed =)

ex·ac·er·bate

Since i have chosen to break my exam-imposed-silence i might as well compound it. Been mugging non stop the past 2 days. Sorta regretting my uber long posts regarding the whole AWARE saga.. What was i thinking trying to get involved in a women's mud fight?.. (never thought i would say that without innuendo rofl)

Anyway i guess the main you know "whats-in-it-for-me" is basically the whole thing about how people actually believe in their votes and actually want to make a difference in something. I guess the word "political apathy" will apply less to whole lot of women now.

I mean.. try and like"supersize" it to a General Election. I don't see the PAP being overthrown or anything, that's just unrealistic and a little dangerous if you ask me. We need the PAP and any transition of power will be a slow and probably painful one. What i want to see however is enough opposition seats in Parliament so that constitutional amendments won't be a farce anymore. Is that really too much to ask? For the PAP to be satisfied with a slightly less then 75% Majority so that the democratic mechanism can actually be practised rather then just put for show.

In a free market (the corporate parallel of a democratic gov?) Young monopolies are tolerated because the market at large will be worse off without them even though they are inefficient and make self serving decisions over the greater good of the economy. That parallel could be drawn to the PAP as they dominated election after election. Yes early on granted they were critical to the growth of SG and all that stuff they teach us in propaganda social studies. But now its 82 out of 84 seats. Thats 97% of 'market share".. Anti-trust Legislation is there for a reason you know. And please don't tell me that SinGov isn't a profit making "company". That flew out the window when LHL promoted Singapore INC and gave themselves salaries only fundies could be proud of. 82 out of 84 is obscene (i am disregarding those bullshit NMP and NCMP "for-show" seats" Exacerbating the whole thing is the facts that have been popping out that the Govites (Government Elites) have been pretty much screwing the populace over and throwing a whole lot of cash down the drain and not taking any responsibilities at all. So when things are good (because the US Global Economy is doing well) they pat themselves on the back for increasing the divide between the rich and poor fiscal awesomeness in growing SG's economy and give themselves a monster pay rise. But when SG's economy goes south, they blame it on the world.

Pay Cut? You Wish.

Back to mugging..

rea⋅son

The author replied. Same link as my previous post. This is mine, prolly the last one not much point arguing once I have stated all my points.

Maam / Sir

Firstly, the programs were conducted in Secondary School. Which mean that the target group of students are in the 13 to around 18 years old. The statistics show that that the average age for teenage pregnancies and STD's are falling in this group. The quantum incidence is rising each year while the age group is falling each year. I will substantiate my claims with the following facts.

1. Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 07 October 2007

"Associate Professor P C Wong, chief of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department at the National University Hospital, said: "The statistics speak for themselves. Every year, as I said, 1,300 to 1,500 teenage abortions occur. The numbers have not dropped. And STDs (sexually-transmitted diseases) have gone up, more than double. So we have to sit up and pay attention to the statistics." 

"And in 2005, 678 teens aged between 10 and 19 years sought help for sexually-transmitted diseases, compared to 256 in 2001."

There are actually more facts and figures but a quick search on google will prove the point i am making, which is that this target group of people NEED guidance. Even if you believe your daughters don't need them, their classmates, their schoolmates maybe their CCA group mates might. (I might add that these selfsame schoolmates play an important role in the devepment of your child morally or otherwise.)

These statistics show that simply preaching “Singapore home values”, IS NOT WORKING. Going up to a kid and saying. “Don’t do this, Don’t do that” is not working anymore!. Kids respond to this kind of approach by simply “tuning out” or “zoning out”. Its sorta like Civics and Moral Education back when i was in secondary school. Majority simply wrote what the teacher wanted to hear and none of it actually sunk in.

AWARE and MOE are trying to reach this target group by accepting them for who they are, specifically people who deviate from social norms, and give them facts and figures and scientific advice on how to modify their behaviour to their own good. If you have a foolproof method of picking them out from a general secondary school population then please contact MOE and let them know, because the only way they can safely cover this target group is to make it the average and provide the information for all. For parents like yourself, there is a exclusion form yes?

Instead of simply telling MOE to take away the program, maybe you can come up with an alternative how you can adress the problem as delineated in the figures? Figure out how to give a kid advice without rejecting who they are first (ie; homosexuals, kids who practise anal sex, kids who practise premaritial sex, kids with STD’s, kids who have unprotected sex). You must understand that when you reject this kids actions and give them the impression that they are ALREADY committing sin.. they are NOT going to open up to you and NOT going to listen to good advice. 

The whole excercise of naming stuff as “Neutral” is not to promote the act or behaviour but to prevent kids who are ALREADY involved in those act (refer to statistics) to NOT zone out and actually listen to good advice. Not as you put it “MOE capturing young, immature minds and filling them with subversive rot.”

You are assuming, wrongly, that all kids in the public school system are as fine examples of teenage girls as your daughters. Sadly that is not the case. Many social factors for example, poverty, lack of parental guidance or where bread and butter issues at home take precedence over moral development contribute to this. This program attempts to coax this group of people out of hiding and actually give a listening year to some good advice.

I am making an assuption here.. but kindly consider it. Assuming that all girls are split into 2 groups. One where they are like your daughters, the other where they participate privately in socially deviant behaviour. When MOE and AWARE place their stance as “Neutral” they are in fact trusting parents like you (refer to your opening sentence ”Together with the home, our schools have to work carefully and painstakingly to shape the morals of our children”) to tell your kids “School says its neutral, but here under my house and in our culture its not”, and being the fine examples they are, these group of children will listen. On the flipside, now the entire deviant group is now open to discussion and advice rather then simply zoning out!

In essence they are now able to to address the problem as shown in the statistics above!

@your second comment.

I agree that anal sex being healthy is quite contentious. I was simply replying to Anony commenter @ May 1, 2009 5:40 PM that it is not illegal. Once again the point of this exercise is not to promote or okay homosexuality and its acts. Rather to not exclude kids who already participate in these acts and to give them sound facts and advice. The point is not saying homosexuality is okay.. but the point is to adress this group of homosexuals and advice them.

I also disagree that AWARE old guard is “a rabid feminist organisation pushing a homosexual agenda”. The EOGM will settle this matter of contention.

Respectfully

R Selvaraja

Age: 25

Current Undergrad at SIM

Operations Manager @ an Established Security Firm

Well Wisher =)

oh god i'v got to spend more time mugging =(

os⋅trich

Came across this persons blog.. Terrible the way he/she argues. So one sided. I just had to play the devils advocate. lol =P Not sure if my comment will be put up.. So putting it up here..

I think its because of clueless parents like these who simply pretend to ignore a problem like this that the MOE and AWARE programs are needed.

"

such a one sided argument.

Neutral means NEITHER good NOR bad.

It is your job as a parent to inculcate values.

If your child goes and hears that being homosexual is NEUTRAL and somehow decides to join the other team is simply shows that you've been doing a terrible job inculcating values.

12+ years at homewith YOU and 10 minutes spend on the topic in a sex ed class turns ur kid LGBT... Not really rocket science to see who holds more blame.

The facts and figures speak for themselves, No parent wants their kid to engage in premarital sex or to become LBGT, BUT STILL there are a significant number of kids that do that.

Why are there so many teenage pregnancies and kids having unprotected sex or turning LBGT?

I have 2 theories..

1. Bad Parents

2. Parents who go the Ostrich way and pretend the problem does not exist and simply thinks that their children are angels who happen to not watch ANY TV or any non local news on the internet where LBGT-ism and premaritial sex is espoused? Whereby the kids are unable to turn to parents(like you) cos they know they will be treated with holy fury and treated like a sinner for even THINKING about it.. and then simply go ahead andexperiment anyway.

AWARE + MOE fills this void with cold hard SECULAR FACTS so that informed choice can be made. If you think your child is to stupid to make decisions then go ahead and sign the exclusion forms, its there for Ostriches like you who rather ignore the problem. But i think there are kids out there with more sense and intelligence to make the right choice when faced with facts and are in the position where they are unable to speak to their parents cos their parents like you are simply too one track minded to offer the right kind of guidance they need.

Wake up and smell the coffee, go look at the numbers of teenage pregnancies and abortions. It is scary! Even if you think your child is perfect and needs no further guidance from you, her classmate could be one who is engaging in premaritial sex and maybe experimenting in lesbianism.. and maybe SHE could influence your daughter. How are you going to handle that? Homeschool your kid?

If you want to send your kid through the public education system you mustunderstand that selfsame public includes children from different home with different values. MOE cant come up with a system for only your kid, but a general one.

Its common sense that MOE has seen the numbers of teenage pregs and abortions and feedback from teachers where kids come up to them for advice and realised that parents arent doing enough.

So have a heart for all those kids (maybe yours) who need the guidance and the provision of facts and good secular advice to make a decision cos they are in a position where they cant turn to parents cos they need more reason to change rather then "Cos God Said So"

"

Dammit.. with hindsight.. i should have added something about children who do not have the guidance of parents either cos they are absent or orphanes... anyway.. my point is there.. Don't blame MOE or AWARE to try and help solve a problem that won't be there if all parents were perfect.

be⋅ware

I subscribe to the belief that for every one lie you find out about... There is like ten you didn't... the covert nature of the coup and the many inconsistencies springing up daily is simply unbecoming of leadership of such an organisation especially since there is strong behind-the-scenes puppeteering from a closet feminist with a LKY complex who deems AWARE unworthy of her presence on the EXCO.

The cavalier attitude in the many dismissals, a very dramatic lock change and a press conference where they asked more questions then answered simply show that these people have a hidden agenda and since they have not deemed it necessary to let it be known, speculation has gone amok.

At the very bottom line, even before ANYONE comes to the door to get some help from AWARE, the new guard seems to be putting up notice that LBGT will be exempt from any help whatsoever. What happened to helping "all"?

About the sexual education angle, I find it stupid to think that a hour long workshop where one of the many points covered include setting the tone that LBGT tendencies and actions are "neutral" will suddenly PUSH young impressionable minds into invoking LBGT-ism. I mean, if any parent comes up and blames this program for turning their kids into a LBGT, he/she is going to turn into a laughing stock. Here is someone who is SO clueless about their kids actions and behaviour when they spend their entire childhood at home and completely miss the signs that the kids are exhibiting LBGT tendencies. Yes I am saying it, if your child turns LBGT cos AWARE says it’s neutral to be it, then its your fault... You should have seen it coming and handled it. Not blame the school sheesh... (Disclaimer: am not saying any LBGT come from bad parents, just that they are painting themselves as bad parents for blaming it on a sexual ed workshop). Anyway, if you feel so strongly about it, there is an option to not send your kids for the workshop?

So instead of educating parents on the program and highlighting the exclusion form, "Mentor" took over AWARE and change sex ed to say LBGT = BAD? Old-AWARE should be applauded for having trust in our intelligence to make the right decisions, the new guard on the other hand seems to want to rather insult our intelligence it and use its position to spoonfeed some prejudged and slanted information.

Someone should put Josie in the same situation as Constance was put in, where she faced a hostile group of lesbian and bi women who felt that AWARE had virtually ignored that group of women and see how she fares or rather flounders.

Oh wait, actually I can imagine it, she will start with something like “It’s a very complex and controversial situation we are in now…” then pass the mike to Maureen...

ROFL