Excepts from the NUS-USP saga

Concluding Thoughts-by KRC writer Koh Choon Hwee

I would like to preface my concluding thoughts by first saying that some of these uncomfortable comments were made, really, by kind, genuine staff members who were just trying to rationalize the whole backlash for themselves, trying to offer me some comfort (by showing how I wasn’t at fault but Keira was) and who were also responding to immense work pressures of their own. They are dedicated staff members who have painstakingly built up a wonderful academic program over the past decade, a program many, including myself, have benefited from.

At least this is how I rationalize their actions to myself. I sincerely think that they were caught off-guard and did not know how to deal; further, the administration has put much faith in the USP students because there is this deep-seated belief that the USP students are intelligent enough and don’t need supervision. I sincerely think that their reactions have to be understood in a larger social context that is transforming the way Singapore and Singaporeans treat and view education.

As clichéd as it may sound, we have to reintroduce, or at least placed renewed emphasis on, the aspect of affective education and values inculcation. A residential college should not be purely about academic achievements, and I have learned from my semester-long stay at Tembusu College that it doesn’t have to be. My limited encounters with Professor Connor Graham encapsulated for me what a wholesome and holistic residential college experience should be like, and he has unconsciously provided me with guidance on so many occasions, mostly through example and his own actions.

Yet, professors like Prof Graham who are genuinely invested in their students and their holistic development are a rarity. As education becomes increasingly commodified, student performance becomes the standard by which an educational program is measured by. These academic programs behave like mini-corporations, engaging in aggressive publicity campaigns, vying with other programs for a “better” crop of incoming students. Students are seen less as humans but as products, to be showcased on pamphlets alongside a list of their achievements. They are to be featured in newspapers, serving as advertisement for a particular academic program.

A lot of energies are spent in building up not only a brand name, a community, but also a strong identity – all as a way to better position and ‘sell’ one’s academic program. However, the fostering of a strong identity has its drawbacks too, when students unthinkingly internalize the exclusivity of that identity and become intolerant to those who question its boundaries – as we saw in this case.

Nevertheless, we have to view this case and the actions of the USP administration (or even the Yale-NUS College or the SUTD, as a fellow KRC writer pointed out) in the larger societal context — after all, they are only responding to what our society values, and so far our society seems to value only measurable achievements. This USP backlash is, I sincerely feel, indicative of a larger malaise that afflicts our society and one that has to be taken seriously by educators and policy makers.

So much of this country’s resources are being invested in nurturing the brightest, most intelligent and high-achieving students. Academic programs like the USP is catered precisely for this demography. Yet, as the cost of living in Singapore increases, accessibility to such educational resources comes inevitably with a price tag. At such a juncture then, can we count on those who have benefitted most from the system to speak up for those who are struggling within the system? Can we count on those who are running the system, who were promoted to positions of administrative leadership, to make hard decisions?

In rapidly building the strong foundations and hardware for our education industry, have we, as a society, forgotten crucial aspects about character-building and values inculcation?

I would like to remind readers here, however, that it was only a minority of USP students who had engaged in making vicious comments, and there remain wonderful aspects of the USP, from which I have immensely benefited. I have since left the program, but I have and will continue to give back to the community.

I have confidence that the USP will be able to reinvent itself to remain relevant in tertiary education. I know that they are beginning to look into these areas that I have raised in this article, as a USP professor had requested to have lunch earlier this month with me, in order to seek my perspective on what should be done regarding the USP Facebook group and the USP house system. I believe that the USP can aspire to greater heights and that the residential colleges will become a truly safe space for learning and living.

*I would like to thank those few who had spoken up on behalf of Keira, or who had tried in their own ways to calm the furore on the USP Facebook group. There were some whom I knew personally, but many others whom I don’t.   

A note to the USP staff – I understand that much goodwill may not be left after the publication of these articles, and you may not be able to understand how I can simultaneously hold all the views expressed in these articles and yet still respect the work that you do/ have done over the past decade. As I had written in a testimonial for one of the USP directors, at his/her request, “We have had our disagreements, and will most probably continue to have them – yet it is a testimony to [his/her] maturity and magnanimity that despite my various hot-headed replies, angsty reactions and fiery ripostes, [he/she] has persevered in maintaining open lines of communication between us.”

I dare not ask for your magnanimity again, at least not towards my lone self. What I do ask for is that you take this feedback seriously — I have said all this and more in private, through what they call “appropriate internal channels”. Nothing was done.

I hope that one day we can muse at all this over tea or something, but till then let the struggles of daos and dharmas play themselves out. 

Greek problem

Law and enforcement: wasting of government resources, government expenditure burgeons on a large parasite of public sector who employs far more people than necessary, creative accounting methods that literally suck the money from the government finance. Corruption and bribery, while revenue is jeopardized by  cheating people who avoid getting taxed.

Not punishable because the judiciary, the courts take 15 years to resolve a tax evasion case

1.       The tax system: rigged to enable the entire society to cheat on their taxes

e. And this total absence of faith in one another is self-reinforcing. The epidemic of lying and cheating and stealing makes any sort of civic life impossible; the collapse of civic life only encourages more lying, cheating, and stealing. Lacking faith in one another, they fall back on themselves and their families.

2.       Masking their low credibility by manipulating the systems

As a requirement to enter the Euro-zone, the Greeks had to meet national targets, to prove that they were capable of good European citizenship—that they would not, in the end, run up debts that other countries in the euro area would be forced to repay. In particular they needed to show budget deficits under 3 percent of their gross domestic product, and inflation running at roughly German levels. In 2000, after a flurry of statistical manipulation, Greece hit the targets. To lower the budget deficit the Greek government moved all sorts of expenses (pensions, defense expenditures) off the books. To lower Greek inflation the government did things like freeze prices for electricity and water and other government-supplied goods, and cut taxes on gas, alcohol, and tobacco. Greek-government statisticians did things like remove (high-priced) tomatoes from the consumer price index on the day inflation was measured.

3.       Deficits bound by artificially strong currency

Greeks may have the slightest intention to bring about a change, but they are too hand-tied to do so anyway: their artificially strong currency deprives them of a corrective mechanism to help reduce the deficit.

The exchange rate system is not free floating; therefore currency will not depreciate against foreign currencies, making the export just as expensive as before. There wouldn’t trade surplus or increased foreign direct investment.

The root of all evil: People and their characteristics

the problems that arose because different economies responded differently to the zone’s common monetary policy were underestimated. The sudden drop in real interest rates on joining the euro in Greece, Ireland and Spain fuelled huge spending booms. (Portugal had enjoyed its growth spurt in the late 1990s in anticipation of euro membership.) Rampant domestic demand pushed up unit-wage costs relative to those in the rest of the euro area, notably in Germany, hurting export competitiveness (see chart 2) and producing big current-account deficits.

the sceptics, the economies of the euro area are too diverse to live with the same money and too inflexible to adjust to imbalances when they arise.

Difference between US’s financial crisis and Europe’s government defaults.both are a result of indiscriminant and reckless borrowing. However, in the case of US, the indebted were the people, whereas in Europe, it was a number of countries: Greece and later Italy and Spain.

The US financial meltdown involves the issue of ethics because bankers knowingly lend out the money to people with low credibility and high risk of not being able to pay up. It is more of a deliberate pursuit of money than a careless calculation. In the case of Europe however, the default was a result of confidence: people having enough confidence about government bonds sold by the banks. The government finance themselves by borrowing from the people, with banks serving as the middle man who repackage government’s bonds and sold them off to the people. Confidence motivated the people to keep buying until suddenly, the confidence vanished and not being able to pay up the loans, both governments and banks are in danger of default.

However, the US case has no question about whether to bail out the bank or not, because it is in the interest of the government and nation to do so. However, in the case of the Euro-zone, more countries were involved and the case was more complicated: people in affluent countries have bought the bonds of less well-to-do governments through their own local banks, due to the inclusion of all euro-zone countries into a single market and financial services are made available to all regardless of boundaries. Even though rich countries such as Germany would want to protect its banks and the interest of its people, it is reluctant to bail out the indebted governments with its tax payers’ money. Therefore, the dilemma.

The Dilemma: German’s role

Germans may have economic interest to help the Greeks but such as move will not be politically justified; as the Germans were promised they would never need to bail out their fellow Europeans before entering the Euro-zone.

Will the Greek banks go

European central banks have bought any government bonds from banks that originated from Greek. 450billion worth of bonds. However,they do have their bottom line and that is not to buy any bonds rated as default by US agencies. If that were to happen the indebted governments and banks would have to repay the debts to E.C.B which will probably end up insolvent itself.

Germany: bring up the Credit rating of all Europeans countries since it sort of ruled the Euro-zone, allowing countries such as Greece, its people to enjoy cheap money to buy things they cannot afford. In a way, the Germans, through their bankers, used their own money to enable foreigners to behave insanely.

When there’s crisis, positive changes may well be resulted

Countries from troubled Portugal to well-off Germany have set out plans for cutting their budget deficits. Spain has embarked on reforms to free its notoriously rigid jobs market that would have seemed unthinkable a year earlier.

The solution

New rules to encourage fiscal discipline should help the euro area. They will reassure the bond-market vigilantes—and should come in handy if the vigilantes drop off again. Now would be a good time for national governments to adopt home-grown fiscal rules, as Germany already has

Broadly, there are three ways for a country to restore competitiveness: devaluation (which reduces wages relative to those in other exporting countries), wage cuts or higher productivity.

In the euro area, the first option is out. The other two rely on easing job-market rules so that pay matches workers’ efficiency more closely, and workers can move freely from dying industries and firms to growing ones. Governments also have to tackle the lack of competition in markets for goods and services, notably in non-tradables (eg, utilities), whose prices affect the costs of other firms, including exporters. A bigger push from Brussels to open services to greater cross-border competition might do far more good than more prescriptions about debts and deficits.

Adjustment by cutting wages is quite brutal, especially without the support of an expansionary fiscal policy. An alternative would be for competitive, trade-surplus countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, to spend more: the combined deficits of the euro zone’s “periphery” are more or less offset by surpluses at the zone’s “core” .John Maynard Keynes believed that in a fixed exchange-rate system, the burden of adjustment to trade imbalances should fall equally on deficit and surplus countries. So he proposed that excess trade surpluses should be taxed.A scheme such as this would not be easy to implement: it would be hard to gauge the point at which the saving surpluses of an ageing country like Germany become harmful. But such a proposal would at least put “creditor adjustment” on the agenda.

Teaching Chinese Language: An Uphill Task

In my last entry, I highlighted the various changes and revisions that the MOE has made and put in place to facilitate the learning of Chinese Language. Looking at these, one is justified to feel optimistic about the future of Chinese Language in our schools and among our students. Then again, if one acquaint oneself with the challenges faced by our teachers in executing these changes proposed, one will be hesitant to do so.

The Pressure to Cover the Syllabus 
Teachers are bogged down by the pressure to finish the syllabus.
Classroom teaching tend to be dictated by syllabus, but not student-centric as proposed by the Curriculum Committee.I remember my mentor who was a mother tongue teacher telling me that the teachers feel obigatory the finish the syllabus before exams, because if they do not, parents will complain when their children score unsatisfactory marks.

Essentially, it is disturbing to realise that they are covering the syllabus to silence the parents' complaints. But it lessons are conducted merely for this purpose then it has deviated from the purpose of education ,which is to instill interest and motivation to learn.Rushing through the syllabus is not only dry and boring, but emotionally stressful and distracting to teachers-they are so overwhelmed with the supposed need that they have no energy to plan for something extra or interesting.

The lesson plan is too packed for that.

The Two Problems
1. Schools at times might not be able to execute what the MOE has planned, they are too hand-tied to.

In this case, that is having to juggle between the various activities held in Mother Tongue Week, which are already eating into their lesson times and covering the syllabus with the limited time that they have. Teachers end up not being able to orientate their lessons such that they are student centric, or make them interesting to arouse students' interest.

2. MOE policies might be counter-effective when the stakeholders are not giving their individual support.

The result: school resources are strained, teachers are left feeling exhausted, and students still have to sit through not-so-interesting lessons.

Recognising the Stakeholders and Proposed Solutions 
Stakeholders:
Schools, teachers, students even external vendors/educational agencies and most importantly Parents.

Solutions

(A)Better "instruction and feedback" system.
When instructions and goals are cascading down to individual departments and teachers, it is necessary to give their feedback which should be taken seriously, into consideration for further changes in the prorgamme.

(B) Involving All Stakeholders
All stakeholders should be involved in the execution of any programme
I still think that parents are not made aware of the importance of learning Chinese, in this case in an interesting and stimulating way, should override the chore of covering the syllabus.

Because by nature, language is not like science that can be taught. And there should always be flexibility such as not avoid setting questions that do not cover the syllabus without compromising on the standard of the accessment. Parents should be involved so that they understand both the importance of such programme and tolerate/applaud such flexibility to faciliate learning.


(C)Developing a Mature Sector of Private Educational Agencies
The MOE might want to invest on external vendors to share the administrative work
I think certain policies can be more successful if they are supported by adequate resources, the most important of which being the human resources.


I have first hand experience of how a teacher can be so bogged down by administrative work which they can neither do professionally nor willingly without making sacrifices, resulting in inefficiencies. For example, having to play the role of an art director/choreographer and stage manager all at the same time, for a particular class during MTL week, not forgetting she has to be accountable and responsible for other classes.

I suggest the MOE can develop a mature sector of private educational agencies which can do the job more professionally.Schools can engage them effortlessly to execute a series of activities. Currently the schools can engage certain outside vendors,but they are limited in choice and some programmes are out of sync with the MOE's over-arching aim of the programme. But I believe if they are treated as stake holders and are kept well informed and well-paced with the latest developmental goals from the MOE, they will be able to contribute more.

Learning and Teaching Chinese Language---An Uphill Task.

The MOE has employed various methods to facilitate the learning and teaching of Chinese Language in recent years. In addition to the launching of Chinese Langauge "B" syllabus, the MOE has also reviewed the Mother Tongue curriculum and 

made some changes which I think would be beneficial to the students. I have always believed that a more interesting and engaging learning environment would help teachers tremendously in delivering their lessons, and students in learning Chinese Language. 

I have expressed earlier that the move to introduce alternative syllabus dubbed as "CLB" was unfavourably viewed since it was first introduced in 2001. Now that it has been around for 10 years, many had doubt whether the move had served more to arouse new zeal in learning the language, or instead, erode the standard of the language among students. 

With the limited scope of this curriculum, would these students 'seriously be able to retain the language after they leave school and continue to be able to learn through reading or speaking', Mr Low once asked.

Replying, Ms Grace Fu said this syllabus is not representative of how the majority of students are taught, as CL 'B' students comprise at most 4 per cent of each cohort. It aims to equip the students with mastering some functional Chinese, as well as offer an alternative route for those students who are keen to learn but struggle with the original syllabus. 

I think 4 percent is really a minority of the students population- it demostrates how majority of our students orientate themselves towards higher standards. In fact, there has been a larger proportion of O–Level students offering Higher Chinese Language. The figure increased from 19% in 2004 to 28% in 2010. Undeniably, our students increasingly see the importance of the Chinese Language and are developing a deeper interest in it.

Adopting a student-centric approach

The MTL Review Committee recognised that students have different starting points because of different home language environments. As such, a more customized, student–centric approach in the teaching of MTL will be taken. Teachers will be 

equipped with a range of appropriate pedagogies to cater to different learner profiles. these include motivational strategies to build a positive affirmative learning environment and adopting a more systematic approach to build oracy foundation through contextual learning. 

The Review Committee recommended that the goals for MTL learning be centred on 3 ‘Cs’– Communication, Culture and Connection. It further recognised that language is best learnt when students are taught to use the language in an active and interactive manner in real–life settings. The teachers would be equipped with classroom strategies, such as the use of group work to encourage interaction, and the use of songs, rhymes and videos as well as role–play to strengthen oral interaction and make learning more engaging

Infusing Information and Communicatino Technology

Information and communication technology or ICT will also come into play. Back in Bartley where I interned, teachers underwent regular training in the relevant IT skills that will help them better deliver a lesson and assessment. This includes multimedia resources such as videos, flash animations and interactive games. In addition, a web–based interactive portal will be provided to all schools to facilitate students’ learning. I have visited the website but found it largely inactive, possibly due to the fact that teachers continue to be grade-driven and allocates little or no time to create such interactive learning environment.

A boost in Huamn Resources in teaching MTL.

To effectively implement these changes, teachers will play an instrumental role. In 2008, the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language (SCCL) surveyed 2,200 Chinese Language teachers to identify their training needs and develop courses according to the level that they are teaching (e.g. lower primary, secondary), language skills needed (e.g. composition or comprehension) and teaching pedagogies (e.g. use of ICT or story book). 

Going forward, to guide training, a teacher–competency framework will be developed. MOE will work with the National Institute of Education and SCCL to provide training and support to Chinese Language teachers. MOE will also deploy an additional 500 MTL teachers by 2015 to join the profession which witnesses many teachers leaving the scene.

Developing Chinese Language in Schools 

The Education Ministry (MOE) will set aside up to S$12 million to develop the use of Chinese language in schools - from pre-primary, all the way to Junior College. I think this move serves well in supporting MOE's re-calibration of the teaching of Chinese Language to focus on creating an engaging and interesting learning environment.

Since then, schools have more activities related to learning Chinese. I have first hand experience of this: Bartley held a two-week long Chinese Language Week in which students participated in tournament, calligraphy classes and writing competition during or after lessons. A well balanced mix of cultural appreciation  and interest-arousing activities, in my opinion.

The grant is part of the S$45 million provided by the government, to be spent on the education of the Mother Tongue Language, over the next five years.

Dr Lim's Economic Restructuring

Global inclination towards a skill-based and knowledge-economy has rewarded the educated rich more resources handsomely, raising their income. On the other hand, lowly skilled workers who are at the opposite end of the salary spectrum take the blow with the influx of foreign laborers that come with our government's pro-foreign labor policies.

The pull and push in wages at different end of the salary spectrum inevitably widens the income gap, as captured by last year's Gini Coefficient, at 4.73, it is dangerously close to the international danger mark of 5.

The Background Information

Prof Lim Chong Yah first presented his ideas for restructuring Singapore wages at a lecture organized by the Economic Society of Singapore on 09 Apr 2012. He said that Singapore now needs a “shock therapy to wake up its economy”

Prof Lim said that the key solution was to overhaul wages at the lower end of the spectrum, and that this would not have much inflationary impact because the bulk of the extra earnings would be consumed by retraining as well as retirement purposes.This will hopefully then force companies to raise their productivity levels in order to preserve profitability.

The malaise plagueing the lower income group has always been their meagrely low wages that have been kept low by an overly liberal foreign labour policy, as well as the government’s fear that Singapore would be uncompetitive without cheap labour.

As a result of the government’s foreign labour policy, the non-resident work force has increased from 300,800 in 1991 to 1.157 million last year, out of which only 1.7 percent earned wages high enough to pay income tax. As a proof of our increasing income gap, Singapore’s Gini coefficient, was at 0.473 last year, perilously close to the 0.5 mark, which according to Prof Lim is “normally considered a dangerous line to reach, far less to cross”.

In response to Prof Lim's proposal, there have been several opposing voices: 
Labour Chief and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Mr Lim Swee Say is concerned about a premature increase in human capital costs without a corresponding increase in productivity will have dismal consequences. In my opinion, concerns over increase human capital costs which will make SIngapore an unattractive place is justified.But it is mitigated by the fact that high earners's salaries are not rising but instead set to stagnate for a period of 3 years.

This goes to show that the economic restructuring proposed by Dr Lim aimes to tackle rising income gap more than just a over simplified wage overhaul.

Minister of State for Trade and Industry Mr Teo Ser Luck thinks that economy should prosper first to create a conducive precondition for the wages to rise- that wage increase is only feasible if backed by increase in revenue. If not, he said, businesses would be hurt,especially the SMEs who can have their profit margin wiped off entirely. But I think being forced out of their comfort zone, SMEs will be more motivate to strive to achieve higher productivity.

Minister of State for Manpower (MOM) and National Development (MND) Tan Chuan-Jin admits that Singapore must have the strong will to tackle the low wage issue, but concedes that this needs to be supported by a collatory set of reforms, if not counter effective consequences may result.

MP Inderjit Singh felt the proposal is infeasible and too complex to implement. But if we don't try, we would never know.

DBS economist Irvin Seah said that industries that are relatively dependent on foreign workers will be forced to relocate, leading to structural unemployment for low-wage local workers. We need not worry about this, since singapore is not a low value-added manufacturing hub. Besides, the foreign workers that would suffer from structural unemployment would just have to go back to where they have come from.

My Stand
I believe Dr Lim is more concerned about the impact on social fabric and integration which are at threat now due to the widening income gap.

The wage increase is justified because it prevents our private sector to rely heavily on cheap foreign labour to achieve growth. Instead, it aims to push local businesses to move out of their "comfort zone" and focus more on innovation and efficiency to increase productivity.

Companies are not doing so mainly because they can afford to, given the abundant supply of cheap labour. However, it dampan the slightest motivation to increase productivity and this mindset should be arrested. Ecnonomic restructuring can be considered as a prudent approach,in this aspect.

How the wage increase is being put into practice? 
Wage increase is picking up in the public sector or civil service sector where the increase will have minimal impact on the private businesses.
-NTUC increases the salaries of its staff by a general 15-20 % following an advice by the National Wage Council.
-SBS Transit has announced a wage increase for both Singaporean as well as foreign drivers

读记：三重门

三重门就不知不觉地看完了。
韩寒写的东西，看着不痛不痒，但是却一针见血，不拐弯抹角的。
他不善于也不屑于利用修辞，堆砌辞藻这种行为也是绝迹于韩寒的作品中的。
但是他的利器是，用最浅显的文字，让你看着忍不住点头同意，因为那是赤裸裸的现实。

真相和现实往往很简单。
无奈人们的双眼却不愿意睁开。

所以作者喜欢打比方，给读者阐述这些被复杂化了的东西。
把它们比成生活中人人都会遇到的狗血的事情。那么读者就算没有那样的经历，但是通过这个比方，感觉马上就出来了。
书是我下载到手机里一个拇指划一页这么读完的。直到那天想翻到下一页却被软件屡屡提示“这是最后一页了！”，才惊觉书已经读完了。

意犹未尽啊。
林雨翔的市南三中仿佛是02年青浦的锦绣园化身，它在召唤我，向我展示身子，勾起无限回忆。
里面描写的寄宿生活、打热水、打饭和游周庄的情节我都有现成的真实的记忆可以对比。
那段与Susan的从暗恋到涩恋到因为距离不了了之的青涩恋爱，是多少人的青春缩影。

人不可能永远青春，却永远有人青春着。
我想不论什么时候来看《三重门》，有的体会都是不一样的。
21岁的时候读它，感觉我还坠在青春的尾巴上，但是故事的主角已经不是我了。


但是冷眼相看的，不仅仅是别人的曾经也是自己的青春故事，也是穿插于这些故事的真相。是什么让韩寒如此独具慧眼，在污浊中看到真相？
我想必定是他从小痴读的古今书籍，奠定了他坚不能摧的价值观和原则。

这让我想起红楼梦里的宝黛两人。
可是韩寒活在这个时代比他们幸福得多了。
他在人们开始有一点自我的个人意识、开始学会质疑的时候发声，一下子就揭露了那些人们觉得有点不对劲儿却也磨平了了几代人的东西。
这东西涵盖天朝政府倡导的一切的一位，虽然书中批了教育，但是这般教育下的产物，祸害到政治、环境、经济和人们的意识形态是可想而知的。

感谢有韩寒这样一个特立独行的人。
感谢处女座的天性又让他坚持己见，拒绝被同化被洗脑。感谢他坚持自己相信的，一意孤行保全了灵魂的原貌。

个人认为韩寒没有伟大到在那样的国情下提倡民主，可是他可贵在他的真实，坚持自己的内心，把违反人理常规的现实摆在大家面前。
说他真实，因为他毫不掩饰，毫不做作，不假正经。
他没有提倡任何东西，只是希望用最浅显的文字让最多人看到这其实最简单的事实。

Make some and Break some

A few things have happened recently and in my opinion, each and every single one of them is worth penning down. For the exact reason that so many wonderful things took place, I had been waiting for the chance to pour them out and share the joy. 
1. I overcome my impulse and my false sense of incapability with the help of S, my best friend and advisor so far. For a few days I had been feeling uneasy about the presence and suspected supervision of an assistant editor. She seemed to derive personal enjoyment from finding faults in me. After a few incidents I was at the verge of quitting and calling off the 
internship altogether, but S's words kept me going and trying. Now I don't complain neither do I feel unfairly treated. I adopted a healthy mentality and work thinking that it is for my own good. 


Standing back from the whole saga now, I feel all the more enlightened that everyone has his or her own personalities and attitudes towards others. It just happens that I don't particularly agree with that of the assistant editor. Besides that, there is no further complication and I am just happy that things have been working smoothly ever since. 


2. I managed to pull through a hectic day with uncompleted write-ups,submission, scholarship interview and accessment, work-related interview and tuition assignment. 
I would never be able to imagine myself doing all these and afterwards still can manage a smile but that was exactly what I did. Was critically nervous the night before, with a write-up to rush and submitted the next morning, with an interview with lawyer to be conducted early in the morning, his quotation added into the article, which was to be submitted with photos. I used every single way to make sure things will work out smoothly, including 


S's encouragement, once again, helps tremendously and helped me ease my freaking nerves. These two incidents helped me see the value of S in my life and how he mattered more than I have imagined. A person's value is only shown in times of crisis, I guess it is the same for friends. 


3. Johnny scored a 25 out of 30 for his chemistry, and the marks lost was due to his carelessness and not his inability to understand the question or apply the concept. I was so happy when he showed me the marks. The fact that he showed me the paper meant he took the exam seriously and he knew I would be happy to see it, so in a way, I am his motivation and that just makes me feel so blissful. Apparently Johnny is smart and it eases my mind knowing that as long as he work hard, he is right on track for the big challenge next year.


4. I was rejected by the University of Warwick, that has helped to define myself both to my own understanding and those around me. I felt the urge of penning this down even though it still upsets me, because by that I am coming to terms with failures and getting closer to self-improvement by drawing lessons from such failures. Admittedly, applying as an independent person not affiliated to any institution has disadvantaged me, ultimately I have no one to blame as I myself had let the chance flow through my fingers. What do I have to gain from such a realization? 


(a) Chance and opportunity, once they are missed, are hardly coming by again. So seize the moment and do what you need to do fast, now. No excuse. 


(b) One can never be too good for something and there is always something to learn. My failure has motivated me and sparked the desire to learn new things and make myself more competitive. 


5. I had a long and inspiring discussion with our editor that I have always liked personally. She is so inspiring and motivating, and it was a joy working with her. She stimulated me to constantly search for better and more innovative ideas, she exposed me to the many skills and expectations of a journalist. I can tell from her sparking eyes when she talked about her work as a journalist that she loved the job and loved her life. That was rejuvenating and work was no longer mundane. I felt refreshed and energised after we exchanged our thoughts and ideas and I realised she was the editor for a reason. She has the cut for a newsroom editor, as well as the new-sensitiveness and passion essential to the job. Simply love her <3<3<3


6. Got my own story from a street interview! His story of working three jobs to support his children through college really inspired me. I'm glad that the editor showed interest and I could now pen the story down as my first ever self-discovered story (well technically, since my last article about transexuals was not done out of my naturally born initiative and the previous article about rare notes-collector was developed from an original piece handed to me) The editor approved of my other potential story as well, saying that it is really interesting and worth going after for. Great! gonna keep myself busy with both then! 


Looking back at the past, I have made some and break some. Looking forward to the future, I have yet so much to experience. The most immediate one being the welcome party for Burhan's friends coming all the way from Germany. Really looking forward to the weekend!