SLC Introduction

Hi all

Somehow its seems as if everyone has dedicated at least 1 paragraph to the new future school pilot programme. A little boring isn't it? I mean like, most of our blogs will be read by either

1)people from 2O1 or

2)people from Hwa Chong or

3) some random guy who happens to fall into our boring blogs by clicking "next blog" and leaves after finding out we are NOT celebrity bloggers though we want to be one.

(the sad truth huh?)

Who wouldn't know about it? Bad analysis of target audience or possible audience, I would say.

Today I am going to write about a topic none of you guys in the class will write for this year: My experience in the Student Leader's Convention OT. (SLCOT for short) Yesterday marked the official starting day of the SLCOT marathon, according to The teacher-in-charge of SLC. I was told that being a member of the SLCOT would be really tough (so don't expect me to be posting that much) but the fruits of our labour would change our lives forever.

Yesterday's meeting started at 7pm. No, that's not a typo-error. Its ended around 9.30p.m. Yeah! What's more, I was told that this first meeting was considered very early!!! (I bet you have those three letters Mr Dennis Ong mentioned)

First we went through some Icebreakers and the Organizing Secretary, Daniel, randomly forced me to do a forfeit even though no one called my name in 'Whacko'. Sort of unfair, I would say. So I stood behind him and shouted, " Daniel, forfeit!" Everyone likes to tease Daniel so they too wanted him to do a forfeit. Sadly, in the end I still did the forfeit.

Did I forget to mention that SLC was a collaboration between NYGH and HCI? Never mind it is not that important is it? It is? (I can see you wishing you were there) In my committee (logistics) there are 5 boys and 5 girls. Thus there is this school rule that we cannot meet in school (you know why but I don't, really!) so we have to meet at someone's house. (isn't that worse???)

Enough about them. Our seniors told us that the workload will be very heavy for SLC. there are meetings about 2 times a week at night because it is hard to find an afternoon where everyone is available. Meetings can easily last until 11pm. Plus there is a general meeting once every fortnight. Sounds pretty demanding!

I hope that SLC will not affect my school performance. I also hope that this event will change me into a better person and I will benefit greatly from it.

I cross my heart and hope for the best.

Samuel

PS. I did NOT join SLCOT to be with THEM.

Which is more Prominent in Singapore: Racism or Xenophobia

Hi all,

Welcome once again to my blog. Its the beginning of a new year (sorry actually its been more than half a month already) and I am very very very glad to say we have new literature books! (sorry for the propaganda too)

I have started to read To Kill A Mockingbird, a story about racism and racial inequality in America. The first time I read it it was boring boring and even more boring. To be honest, I could not even get past the first chapter. Now that I think of it, Animal Farm was much better. The story was quite easy to understand as a whole. The dynamic characters made it easy for the reader to sympathize with the mistreated animals. The relation to real life was very eminent throughout the entire story.

Now back to the point. I was like trying to remember all those projects that I saw last year to try to improve my own project. I randomly recalled one that had a twenty word title! Mind-blowing? It was something like: examining the extent of the xenophobic tendencies in Singaporeans; case study of the Serangoon Gardens incident... This surprisingly random topic caused me to think about whether racism or Xenophobia is more prominent in Singapore.

For those of you who do not know what is Xenophobia, it actually means "intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries". For example, many Singaporeans dislike Chinese nationals etc.

Note: This blog post is based on my own opinion, not on any statistics.

Racism

In Singapore, there is no laws to enforce racial segregation. However, racism is still prevalent, whether we want to admit it or not. Studies show that racism exists in the subconscious (surprise!). Some employers only want to hire people of certain races, for example. Even so, racism is less in Singapore than in other countries. This is because almost all Singaporeans were brought up in a multi-racial community, with government imposing national education to teach children about the importance of Racial Harmony. We are taught and conditioned to accept everyone as Singaporeans, not Indians or Chinese or Malay.

Xenophobia

Have you forgotten the meaning of this word yet? If you have not, then try saying "Carl's Junior Portebello Mushroom Burger" 10 times very quickly and you will forget. If you happen to still be able to remember then say it another 100 times.

Finished? Ok, let us continue. Xenophobia is a very pressing issue here in Singapore. Since we can't be prejudiced against other races (who are born in Singapore, of course) we sort of turn our racism into Xenophobia. Foreigners are often made fun of in school. Most of us in school hate International school children. We think of them as rich BRATS, who cut the queues in the canteen or even if they do not cut the queues, we blame them for making the queues so much longer.

This scene can also be represented in the Jobs scene. Foreigners are blamed for taking up jobs which the local Singaporeans desperately need. Foreigners are also associated with crimes committed in Singapore. For example: theft, rape, burglary etc. are thought to be common around foreign worker dormitories. Once some Singaporeans signed a petition to move a foreign worker dormitory away from their houses as they thought that having it nearby would cause their houses to depreciate in value.

Final Verdict

Xenophobia is seen more in Singapore than racism. But racism still exists, as part of human nature.

Amazing....

My Blog Slogan

Hi all,

I am posting two posts in a single day because today is the only day in the week that I actually have time to blog. I have two EP3s, Robotics and Fencing, Science Olympiad, Council Duties (Student Leader's Convention OT).

What's more, I am in the Future School Class, where the Just-In-Time Teaching Pedagogy is adopted. We have to read up on the topics BEFORE going to school. This means double workload!

An Acknowledged Alive Addicted Amazing Awesome Blogger

Coming back to the point, I will now be explaining my blog slogan. As most of you should be able to see, my blog slogan is actually an awesome alliteration. The slogan is actually the goal I set for myself as well as my blog. Now I will explain each and every word in the slogan:

Acknowledged

I want my blog to receive recognition as a celebrity blog. (or at least an effort to create one)

Alive

My blog will be alive with content and new viewpoints on current affairs.

Addicted

Now this is just a follow-up on my previous blog, in which the url is "iamnotablogaddict.blogspot.com" (the blog is not available now). Now I am addicted to blogging! I also want my readers to be addicted to reading my blog.

Amazing

I want to amaze people with my unique viewpoints.

Awesome

This word was our random tagline for all the buddies during Sec 1 Orientation 2010. When my readers leave this blog, I want them to shout the word "AWESOME!". If you cannot remember my entire blog slogan, just remember this one word: AWESOME!

Hope you find this awesome blog AWESOME!