The hunger controversy

While Lee Shulin isn't getting cancelled when she remarked how employers prefer to let go Singaporeans over foreign hires because the latter are 'hungrier', it was the trigger for a much needed conversation about the job market and matching talent with needs.

A lot of the vitriol came from the misunderstanding of what Lee meant by 'hunger', and to be fair, she did not define it either. Possible, she made an off-the-cuff utterance, but it was enough to become the focal point of the larger discussion that was on CNA.

'Not hungry enough' is a triggering phrase. Especially for young job hunters looking for first time employment, they see themselves as being at the bottom of a grand hierarchy, being paid the minimum of wages to do the maximum amount of labour. After all, that's what starting at the bottom means. To suggest that they aren't hungry enough sparks the response: 'I'm already doing so much--what more do you expect me to do? And you're not paying me enough to boot!'

I appreciate the Singaporean work ethic. I see it in the classroom all the time. They will work their butts off on a graded assignment. Full concentration, busy, and most tellingly, silent. But it's an entirely transactional kind of engagement. Non-graded assignments are f-all, minimum effort, distracted and lower quality than they can actually deliver.

What we have here is an employee mindset. Will do whatever you tell them to, but only if it is directly paired with commensurate reward. I suppose it's realistic. Young workers have expenses and if they spend too much time at the office and being paid scraps for the effort, and barely paying off their personal bills, it's hard to think of a future when they'll need to pay for dates, a wedding and support a family later in life.

Thinking this way, Singaporeans are always going to be hungry, always subsisting on not enough. So, when a job recruiter says they're not hungry enough, wow. Cue torches and pitchforks.

But that's not the hunger Lee is talking about. It's not about the work. The employee only does what they're told, however unreasonable, as long as the reward follows. Finish the job, get paid, go home, enjoy what little work-life balance there is left to enjoy. But ask them what the work meant, and most would not be able to say. The paycheck was the objective, nothing more.

If the money is all they are working for, then they are completely replaceable.  Not to mention foreigners, AI already is a hugely viable substitute. Like the Singaporean employee, AI does what it's told, but does it faster, mostly accurately, doesn't complain, and doesn't even need to be paid. And most like the Singaporean employee, AI doesn't really know what it's doing other than executing a set of instructions, and doesn't care what effect or impact the work has on the business as a whole. At the end of the string of instructions is the end of the day and the only difference is that the Singaporean employee has to go home for a few hours before they're ready to start the next day all over again. That's not hunger, that's routine with a trigger-warning.

Perhaps Lee used the wrong vocabulary when she said 'hunger'. I believe she meant 'ownership'. Like you understand the business well enough, and own the job to the extent that you don't require instructions from a supervisor to perform what is needed. You're observant, constantly thinking of the processes that keep the business flowing, and you're already there where things have slowed down before a bottleneck occurs. You're constantly thinking of new and better ways to keep the flow going. Most importantly, the objective isn't the paycheck, but the person at the end of the line who is delighted with the product or service they received that you, in your own little way, helped to deliver.

Singaporean employees seek work, but start at the wrong end. If the money is the most important thing, then they're prepared to suck it up, get the job done for the paycheck--and complain later over coffee and Reddit. Their work ethic is admirable, but since so many are like that, their employers will be searching for viable replacements at the earliest opportunity.

What's the right end, then? It's fit. To know yourself well enough to develop your own weird and wonderful way rather than blindly follow the crowd. Create a niche for yourself with definable, yet flexible borders so that you can offer more than just 'I'll do whatever you tell me'. Rather, offer a role that will both meet the business objectives by performing your particular set of skills, while simultaneously learning the business by practicing its routines. And care about the end-user. You and the organisation you work for exist only because someone needs you to.

Hunger isn't about personal survival. The hunger is for organisational survival. When you have this hunger, you are no longer a rogue cell easily sloughed off when you've outlived your usefulness. Instead, you've become an integral part of the overall structure. Who knows, mitosis could possibly happen, when you've outgrown the business and are ready to branch out on your own.

A day at the races

Returned exhausted from the Singapore GP F1 Night Circuit qualifying round. Not there for the cars, I was there for the music. Made the rookie mistake of paying for a grandstand seat when all I really needed was a walkabout pass which would allow me access to the food and concert areas but not a view of the track.

Made good on my seat watching all 12 laps of the Porsche Carrera Cup -- one of the warm up races before the evening's main event. Some guy called Pereira won. Congrats! Abandoned my seat after that to explore the grounds.

Arriving early was an advantage. Short queues for food and toilets. For dinner, I got a $25 hamburger sando from Arigato. Medium rare burger patty topped with a cheese slice between two thick slices of white bread. It was delicious and generally kept its integrity throughout even though I was eating standing up and holding it in one hand, while being distracted by the commentary on the Jumbotron.

Wandered over to the Downtown stage to wait for the performance I paid for. It's a smaller stage, an offshoot from the main Padang stage where the big acts were performing. More on that later. I arrived at the end of a set by The Lathums (pic above). Don't know who they are but their music I could groove to. DJ Questionmark from Taiwan took over for the next hour. I went for dinner at this time.

When I returned, the peanut gallery was full of American looking and sounding people excited to party with Tom Grennan, another act I'm not familiar with. Still, his basic rock vibe was cool and had me bopping the whole time.

Tom Grennan took most of the crowd with him. I immediately advanced to about just five rows back from the stage apron, determined to hold my ground for an hour until the final performance of the night commenced. Meanwhile, the grand Padang stage lit up and sent powerful beats right across to us who were at the old Esplanade. Someone thoughtfully put on the Jumbotron in front of us so we could watch DJ Alan Walker do his thing. Surprisingly, watching a DJ do his thing is as interesting as watching a conductor wave his baton at prerecorded classical music. No disrespect, but Mr Walker twiddled knobs and waved his free hand theatrically, and that's it. At least we had something to entertain us while we waited. No complaints.

And finally, the moment I and the One have all been waiting for: BABYMETAL! Making a stop in Singapore on their current world tour via the F1, performing on a small, intimate stage, and me even closer than when I was at Zepp KL three years ago! It was a short but intense session featuring their most fun, upbeat concert favourites that had us all jumping, chanting, and chorusing along (badly) the whole 50 minutes. Mandatory pix taken from between raised arms holding phones and serious-looking cameras follow:

Sorry I couldn't get a decent pix of SU. The corner where MOA and MOMO stood to engage the crowd was the least blocked.

I'm actually amazed that the pix came out this well. Must be the optical zoom and low-light AI magic of the Pixel 10.

And to make the post longer, the mandatory setlist follows:

1. BM Death
2. Pa Pa Ya
3. Metali
4. Ratatata
5. Gimme Chocolate
6. From Me To U
7. Karate
8. Road of Resistance to close out. How the crowd was able to actually make a decent circle pit on SU's command also amazes me.

A day at the races, indeed.

Be an informed voter

Today is Nomination Day for the General Elections on 3 May. Gen Sec Wong is right about this one being a much closer contest than before. Mr Wong represents a new leadership, and though I wouldn't say is untested, it is a moment of passing the torch to leading a people who are much better educated, more vocal, and more aware of their rights. We have more diverse opinions and are willing to stick to our guns fighting for what we believe is right, even if it is over values that we once held dear but are now more open for debate.

These are troubled times for the world, and we Singaporeans used to take strength in uniting as a voter base to elect a decisive and nimble government that could move fast in adapting to rapidly changing circumstances, without being bogged down by opposition voices seeking more debate before action. The will of the collective served us well in the past and got us to where we are today.

But by today, we have also seen how a house dominated by a single party that runs unchallenged can be self-serving, cowed into submission to a self-styled despot, lose friends and allies, and squander a whole lot of goodwill and trust built up over two centuries of previously solid, dependable global leadership. Just like that.

What lessons the electorate has learned from recent events and will learn from the upcoming campaign rallies will play a significant role in the outcome of GE 2025. Eyes and ears open, people! Be an informed voter: vote for the party, the values, and the platform you actually support, not against those you don't.

Music box

A little souvenir from our staff bonding exercise today. We crafted our own music box diorama from a selection of figurines brought over by the vendor, Okdodoo, a local startup. My first attempt is messy with the use of too much glue. The residue is obvious in the shiny flecks on the display surface. I had my eye on a larger, more realistic looking tree, but was seconds too slow to grab it off the parts table. Hence this more stylized tree which I'll take as a metaphor for why we can't have nice things. Regardless, I'm pleased with the overall composition which avoids excessive symmetry, and things arranged along a straight line. The music is, of course, a couple of bars from the "My Neighbor Totoro" theme. The tone is pleasant, soothing even, and worth the wind-up, at least while the novelty still lasts.

A shout-out to the two partners of Okdodoo who are 'live' demonstrations of taking the path less traveled by foregoing their corporate careers to pursue a creative passion. Each item is hand-crafted by the two of them. They didn't detail their process, but it's clear they're fully committed to their craft and motivated by a love for what they do. Given today's activity theme of the future of work, these two gentlemen clearly embody some of the many traits that we would like to see in our kids as we prepare them for their futures.

Headbanging (the night of gojuukyuu)

Earlier this year, I was faithfully checking the Babymetal tour schedule to see if the ladies were coming my way. The moment I took a break, I found out their concert at Capitol Theatre had already been sold out 2 weeks ago! The date was so perfect for me: 20 August, the night of gojuukyuu! I had no doubt I would be there regardless. It was written.

And here I am. I've been on my feet for a few hours, waiting in the queue with everybody else, waiting for the show to start, enjoying the rockout session with local metalcore band, Reserate, who had the honour of opening for Babymetal. For my ticket, I put my faith in Viagogo, a second-hand ticket online vendor that constantly indicated 'sold out' until just last weekend when a single ticket appeared -- at double the list price. It was clearly selling for a profit on top of the $50 vendor service charge. I grabbed it with no hesitation. They offer a refund if somehow the ticket doesn't work, so I was pretty sure my purchase would be legit.

This non-priority ticket put me in the midst of the standing only stalls -- the best place to enjoy Babymetal's high-energy performance, though the view, as you see, was blocked by arms raised to waggle kitsune handsigns, or cellphones for a video or still grab. Other than occasional glimpses of the performers emerging between heads and raised arms, and the distance from the stage, it was difficult to see any coherent form of performance. It didn't matter. I had a ticket, I was there, I know how the choreography works from repeatedly watching music videos and official 'live' footage. It was such chaos and noise and wonderment just jumping along with the ladies, yelling myself hoarse, badly singing along to the parts of crowd participation baked into every single song.

Here's an example of glimpses of the performance from where I was standing. This is a familiar pose from the iconic Megitsune.

And here's SU telling us to turn on our lights at the break in Monochrome.

The setlist was a compilation of Babymetal's most energetic songs, with loads of crowd participation throughout. I've reviewed them all before, including their latest offerings, both Metali and Ratatata. It was precisely these two songs that I was so looking forward to. They're such a vibe, and to wasshoi with them, and blow the roof off yelling 'Ratatata' (and 'fu fu') at the top of our lungs was so much fun, it had to be done 'live'.

The cherry on top was the first encore song, 'Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!' which is kind of like Babymetal's version of 'Happy Birthday'. I couldn't believe it when I heard the opening bars of a disturbing 'Ave Maria' as it was the perfect capstone to the night of my 59th. Ok, settle down, boomer.

As usual, what follows is the complete setlist. This one raised my BPM to 118. I know cos I checked my smartwatch. The whole thing was only about an hour long, but that hour was one of the best I'll be spending this week. Worth it!

Babymetal World Tour 2024, Singapore, Capitol Theatre, 20 August Setlist:

(Opening band: Reserate)

Death

Distortion

Pa Pa Ya

Megitsune

BxMxC

Metali

Monochrome

Ratatata

Gimme Chocolate

Encore:

Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!

Road of Resistance

Horiginal Beef Noodles

Serendipitous discovery of this amazingly generous serving of beef noodles in gravy. This is from the amusingly named 'Horiginal Beef Noodles' located in the Koufu food court of Vista Point, Woodlands. Not a place I generally frequent, but there I was.

For just $6 you get beef slices, tripe, tendon, a beef ball, a beef hand roll that had an underlying ngoh hiang flavour, and probably one other thing that has slipped my memory. A rich, hearty beef broth on the side, and you can help yourself to the honest to goodness genuine chinchalok dipping sauce (with bits of raw onion thrown in) which you can see in the saucer just peeking over the bowl on the left. There's a choice of noodle, but the best option is kway teow, a broad, flat rice noodle, which provides just the right texture that brings out the best mouthfeel for the beef.

Maybe I went at the right time because although the place was packed with lunchtime diners, the turnover was fairly rapid. I very quickly found a table for four all to myself for the duration of the meal. Luxurious.

If I ever go back there, I have my sights fixed on the ox-tail soup and rice combo. It's been so long since I've had any.

Ooh, shiny!

 

Not often I get decked out all formal-like, but today's ceremony required it. I was among hundreds of my industry peers receiving a state award, many of whom were recognized for their meritorious service during the pandemic years. For me, my award was for sticking around at my job, and not racking up too many complaints over two decades and a half.

Held at Resorts World Convention Centre Ballroom, the ceremony was dignified, and by-the-numbers efficient. No flowery speeches, we immediately launched in with calling each recipient's name to step up on stage, shake a hand, receive their award, and pose for a shot for posterity. Next, and so on. Simple, perfunctory, and really no time wasted. Extremely appreciative of that as there's still much work to be done, and not enough time to do it all in. Still, it's nice to take some time off to feel appreciated.

When I got back, the sky was overcast. Dark, grey clouds overhead wringing out a moderate shower. But for a few minutes, they whole sky was lit in a pleasant pastel shade of gold I've not seen before. The camera couldn't capture the exact atmosphere, and I don't have the photographic skill to show you what I saw. Something like that, but way more breathtaking. It didn't last, fading as the sun set, but it left an impression. From where I am now, a quarter-century has felt as brief.

GTA IRL: Singapore style

Got my first ever speeding ticket, but as is most police procedure around here, in the least dramatic fashion. There aren't a lot of cops to spare, and collateral is expensive to damage, so no high-speed car chases, no sirens wailing, no angry amplified voices yelling at me to 'pull over!' No. I get a polite letter in the mail informing me that the car (plate no. XXXX) registered to me was involved in a speeding incident on this date and time, along this road. Could I please 'furnish' traffic police with the name and licence of the driver of the car at that date/time/location by (deadline). They didn't say, 'or else'. No need.

They have me dead to rights. They have video evidence since traffic cameras are everywhere on the roads these days, but they won't assume who the driver was. They give me a chance to self-incriminate, and I have to because there's no one else I can defensibly blame for the infraction.  They give me a QR code to a secure site on which I can sheepishly admit my guilt, and it's done. Then I just sit back and check my mailbox for few days to see what my punishment will be.

Today, the dreaded letter arrives. I could have been fined $150 and received 4 demerit points. Instead, I am let off with an admonishment, a warning, and an exhortation to please maintain road safety when driving. I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing full well that I must keep my nose clean for at least a year to avoid getting the book thrown at me for a second violation too close to the first one.

But what caused me to exceed the speed limit that day? I cannot say for sure, but I remember another car in front of me straddling 2 lanes and going really slowly for quite some distance. I tolerated this speed bump of a driver for as long as I could before I went a little nuts. When a window opened up to overtake him (or her) I took it, but my emotionally charged state probably kept my foot on the accelerator for longer than it should have been. BUSTED.

If it wasn't this situation, I can't imagine how else I could possibly have been driving at 80 km/h on a 70 km/h road.

Long Service

Amy gave me the scoop on being put on the list of recipients of The Long Service Medal (Pingat Bakti Setia) from among this year's National Day Awardees. She has good eyes, being that in this category alone, there are already over a thousand folks listed from just my industry.

Long service counts 25 years of employment in the Civil Service, including the 2 years I spent in full-time National Service. Funny that when I signed on in this industry, I thought I would only serve out my contract of three years before I would lose my mind, or get kicked out, whichever came first. Where I am currently serving, I will say that while there are inevitable push factors, there have been no pull factors at all strong enough to overcome more than two decades of job inertia.

The criterion is really about time served. If it had been any more stringent, well, let's just say that my service hasn't exactly been exemplary. Too much rebellion, too many mistakes, and probably a lot of upset people to take the shine off the silver, I reckon. But I have always striven to be civil, so there's that.

A quarter century. It still doesn't feel like it was that long ago that I felt the need to do some responsible adulting. Somebody has to keep this and the other furballs in kibble.

Ahem, the least you could do is look grateful.

Bouncing in the Heartland

My little kingdom for today. Chaperoned my kids as they volunteered with Team Nila as human resources for a day at the Heartland Festival here in Woodlands Sports Centre. It's a sports-based carnival for the residents of the surrounding public housing neighbourhood, with lots of games, and an on-going performance within the white tentage in the upper middle of the photo. As I signed as a volunteer myself, I opted to run this trampoline fitness section, and play by ear from there. I initially thought I would be a carnival barker and draw in the crowd, but the job entailed crowd control instead with a never-ending line of eager children and their parents all waiting for their turn at bouncing along to the instructor's directions.

I really take my hat off to the instructor (I never asked her name) who bounced almost non-stop, leading batch after batch of mostly kids, although some adults also gamely bounced along to her improvised 5-minute set. Initially she was told that her set would be 15 minutes each, with breaks in between sets, but the young oysters came "thick and fast... and more, and more, and more". So she bounced from about 1630-2000 with only one short bio and hydration break. I had the comparatively easier job of keeping the lines orderly, ushering people to vacant trampolines, and adjusting handle-bar heights as appropriate. And I had 3 little girls (Alicia, Clarice and Yuki) helping me with crowd control and stamping of the participants' redemption coupons. Totally grateful for everyone helping out at my station.

The people were patient and cooperative as well, with not a Karen among them. The kids were kids, but they listened to safety instructions, and most did their best to follow the instructor. Some repeat customers even remembered the moves on their second and subsequent mini-sessions. No one protested the brevity of each session, and everyone seemed to understand that other people needed a turn too. I've done some other kinds of volunteer work that have caused me silent freak outs and panic attacks, but today's session was pleasant and even fun. 

Shut down, go home -- or "current affairs" in Singapore politics

 

Bonus! 2 YouTube videos featuring the current talk of the town. The popcorn buckets are out in full force as the nation observes slack-jawed as our once-incorruptible policy-makers on both sides of the House fall from grace. Let's call it 'looking for love in all the wrong places' (Johnny Lee).

The question of whom we can trust, if our leadership cannot set the example of propriety and adherence to a strong moral code that upholds the integrity of the family unit, now often comes up in local conversation. How will these scandals affect how in upcoming elections, voters evaluate the incumbents, and the party that we have given our collective Opposition trust to? But these questions are not my topic today. To me, it doesn't matter which party is being represented. The common factor in both cases is the human factor, nothing more.

If anything, these incidents are more of an indictment against the work culture we have here. Both illicit couples comprised pairs of people who worked closely together, probably spending long hours solving problems that really helped their constituents, and feeling elation at the completion of several jobs well done day after day. Many times, those days would have grown into nights, and this is true for most jobs here too, not just those of professional politicians. There's nothing more attractive than a strong, capable person, dedicated to their mission, who is obviously being thanked over and over again by grateful, otherwise helpless people. And if they go celebrating mutual successes together often enough, there's a trigger for biology to kick in.

The people we spend the most time with are the people we grow the strongest bonds with. So what is keeping us at the office, when the people we are meant to be closest to are at home? Perhaps we have a strong sense of mission, that the job always comes first. This idea could become an obsession when the job comes with an equally strong sense of accomplishment. You make people happy: you've saved their lives, their livelihoods, their children, their homes, their parents, their health, their sense of personal safety, whatever. It's these triumphs that keep us feeling like we're really making something of our lives, that keep us taking case after case, and we don't want to let anybody down. One last person in the queue? Let's not disappoint them. They need my help, and I've got nothing else to do. But you do. At home.

Work at home is a very different ball game. The tasks are menial and manual. They are recurring in that the same problem arises not long after you've dealt with it already. Nobody is grateful. They are jobs that simply need to be done. There are no awards, no recognition to be earned, and everyone just looks tired, sweaty and at their most unattractive when that last checkbox is finally ticked. Meantime, the children haven't stopped screaming. And sex is far from the mind, given that the risk of yet another banshee inadvertently popping out is still fairly high despite multiple layers of material or chemical prevention, like the last time.

Like it or not, we need to be with the ones we love at home if we want to avoid opportunities for scandals to evolve. It's not a failure of morals or values, but simply a matter of time, and whom we choose to spend it with. When I refer to 'work culture' I don't necessarily mean that our office requires our presence, but rather our sense of self-importance that keeps us there. The common mantra here is that we should never do tomorrow what we can do today. Our problem is that we do today what we could instead be doing tomorrow. No. When the clock reaches 5-5:30 p.m., shut down, go home. Superman/woman/person is needed there too.

One in a million

This is the tree I planted with colleague Win. Some of us staff joined the Outdoor Activities kids in this tree-planting exercise, organised by NParks under the OneMillionTrees movement.

It was a good day for planting trees. Overcast with a distant possibility of thunderstorm, but the weather remained dry and cool throughout. Still, wielding a changkul and fully putting our backs into digging a hole deep and wide enough to support a sapling taller than myself got us in a sweat real quick.

Since the nation started this project in 2020, we're by now just over the halfway mark with the number of new trees planted islandwide. And this one is mine. And Win's. It's location is directly in front of the letter 'Q' of the name of the building in the background, TechQuest.

The tree itself is of the genus Lagerstromia floribunda Jack, and though it's listed as a myrtle, the flowers are reminiscent of the Japanese cherry blossom. So, according to the NParks lady, it's a local version of the sakura. Ok, that makes me happy since I've temporarily gone Japanophile, digging deeper and deeper into the BM foxhole.

377A, the potential political hot potato nobody wants

So in the National Day Rally 2022, PM announced that Section 377A is finally being repealed. It's been a slow, gradual process laying the groundwork for the dissolution of a legacy law that we inherited from the Brits, made in times long past from which society has grown and changed. To put it simply, 377A criminalises the act of sex between men, and in these more open times is seen as an oppression of homosexuality, although the same law makes no provision for lesbian sex.

Despite times being more inclusive, there are still strongly vocal components of our society who believe same-sex sex is unacceptable, hence the need for years of groundwork: discussions, consultations and reassurances that all interested parties on both sides of the divide will get a fair hearing. For a time, the status quo held that although the law exists, it would not be enforced. But now, this archaic law is about to become moribund, with the compromise that only heterosexual marriages will be recognised and protected by our Constitution. One step forward, and one step back.

But is it, though? Because what I see is a mistaken conflation between the repeal of a defunct law and the implied support for the group the law penalised. The next step on this slippery slope would be that if this once-penalised group has gained even implicit support from the authorities, then the upholding of its asserted rights (in this case to marriage) should follow. That is not what's happening here.

Repealing 377A has nothing to do with supporting homosexuality. Rather, it simply gets rid of a potential political hot potato that creates unnecessary division between people who feel they must draw a line in the sand over the issue. As long as the law exists, no matter how much it is promised to be 'unenforceable', at any time, any zealot from either side wanting badly enough to make a statement could make a big enough fuss over an incident, and demand prosecution. Given how divisive the issue is, and that there are respectable, contributing members of society on both sides of the fence, any decision the courts are forced to make is bound to favour one side over the other, splitting society over a rift of no return.

To repeal 377A is nothing more than a pragmatic decision. It is a recognition that whatever goes on sexually between consenting adults in private is their own business, and not the government's. If someone gets injured, or dies during the act of whatever variety of sex, there are laws that deal with assault or murder. If a sexual act is done in public and is complained about, there are laws governing public nuisance. With 377A gone, anyone charged with such crimes makes for a clearly criminal case, instead of being charged with a law designed to target a specific group of people, raising accusations of unfairness, repression and the violation of human rights. For a Democratic society, such repercussions can be severe and difficult to recover from.

The LGBTQ+ community are disappointed that their right to marriage remains denied to them for now. But this discussion is for another time and cannot be a logical follow-through from the decision to repeal 377A.

Hurry up and wait

A pair of Karens behind me in line for COVID-19 shot. They are berating the poor employee who's just managing queue order about how they made the effort to "rush" down to their 9am appointment only to find that they'd have to wait in line with the rest of us plebes to get poked. They appear horrified that all of us seem to also have a 9am appointment. And now they are lamenting the inefficiencies of a system that cannot precisely tell them exactly when the doctor will see them. All this while, the employee is resignedly letting them rant in his face. And now, in a huff, they've cancelled their appointment saying they have other appointments to attend to today.

Has this precious duo never been to a clinic before? The appointment time indicates the time you are eligible to queue with everybody else. You queue to get a get a queue number, then queue some more while waiting for it to be called. When you hear your number, then it's your turn to see the medical professional for the jab. Then, as a precaution against adverse reactions to the vaccine, there's another wait for 30 mins in an observation area before being discharged. The whole process takes slightly more than an hour and a half.

So now we have a pair of loose Karens who have given up their shot at immunity from a global pandemic. There's always gotta be a few.

Are you normal?

No one wants to be normal in Singapore. A 'normal' person takes 5 years to complete secondary education. That's too slow. Not when 'express' only takes 4 years. If a person has to take an extra year to be schooled, they must be stupid and are an embarrassment to their parents who will never be able to hold their heads up again among their contemporaries, all of whom have 'express' children.

Faith Ng's play, Normal, directed by Claire Wong, focuses on two students in their 5th and final year of secondary education. Daphne blanked out after studying too hard at her Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE), while Ashley obtained less-than-outstanding results at the same exam -- which they took when they were 12 -- thus qualifying them both as 'normal', and nothing more.

Like every other normal student, they bear the label as a stigma. They have little confidence in their own abilities. Their well-meaning teachers' insistence on upbraiding them on their attire, punctuality and decorum at every slight infraction is simply focused on making the normals conform in outward appearance, but does little to challenge them intellectually where academic learning really counts. As such, with every school day feeling like prison, the normals feel increasingly convinced that they will end up not graduating and their lives will be over.

Unlike the other teachers they have encountered, the new literature teacher who runs the Drama Club takes a different approach with the normals. She believes in them and helps them work out their fears, anxieties and frustrations through theatre and convinces them that they can succeed in the end. But in a plot reminiscent of Dead Poets Society (1989), Ms Hue is alone in her efforts and the system beats down on everyone eventually.

The play is beautifully set. There is the main playing area in which all the action takes place, while a corridor runs behind it framed to look like school chalkboards when lit in front, but becomes transparent when lit from the back (the magic of sharkstooth scrim), revealing the ensemble engaged in a variety of school activities. In a genius piece of lighting design, this corridor-frame is uplit at both ends, casting a shadow that creates the illusion of an old school tower on the upper back wall of the stage.

A snappy script keeps moments of tension, bleak humour, and awkward tenderness flowing at a brisk pace. Scene transitions are done by the cast in low light while singing familiar girls' school songs -- efficient, entertaining and relevant. The dialogue is liberally peppered with colloquial vulgarities, which could be shocking -- if we didn't already know that schoolgirls actually do speak like that. However, in performance, because the dialogue is delivered in perfect English, the colloquialisms feel a little forced and incongruous to the lines. 'Natural' speech is still a paradox local theatre here has yet to figure out. Nevertheless, the few soliloquies at the end are vivid in their revelations of past history leading up to the decision the normals make when events that have transpired cause them believe that kindness has turned to betrayal.

For a play that turns a critical eye on the rigidity of the education system and how it adversely pigeonholes people seemingly for life, it is disappointing that the normals make the decision that they do. The characters of Daphne and Ashley are built strongly and sympathetically. As such, it seems a bit of a stretch that they would succumb to their circumstance rather than rise above it. Perhaps that is the point: that the system wastes much human potential. Like the Alpha, Beta castes of Huxley's A Brave New World (1932), the system gives few opportunities for 'late-bloomers' to excel, or even bloom at all.

But it isn't so much the system that finally drives Ashley's decision as much as her own persecution complex which locks her in a vicious cycle, causing her to interpret every interaction with her teachers as hostile, and escalating that hostility with her own defensive reactions. If Ashley is the architect of her own fate while 22 of her classmates are able to move on from where they are, then the character of Ashley is only there to play the stereotype, pander to audience expectations, and raise sympathy rather than deal with the real flaws of inequality and injustice inherent in a system that is ironically supposed to support meritocracy.

Otherwise, Normal is an excellent and realistic view of school from both student and teacher perspectives. While teachers are well-meaning at heart, their personal biases and choices in responding to their students can be very cruel, indeed.

Review originally published on https://tsupp.wordpress.com (26 March 2017)

Arguing the extreme

Model essay time!

I detest 'balanced' arguments the way they are commonly taught. What usually results is something of a bipolar nature with little basis for resolution. Instead of arguments, what the kids generally produce are almost verbatim reports of 'he said' vs 'somebody else said', which is a neutral approach, but two arguments for the price of one is NOT an argument -- particularly if they are self-negating and hence, inconclusive.

Instead, I prefer turning the essay question back on myself. I don't care what the eternally conflicting straw-men have to say about the issue. What's important is what I think of the unvarnished truth of the matter. While I rail at the world, I am still able to 'balance' my argument by identifying the imperfections that make up the world and our experience of it, rather than shoehorning in balance via the polar antithesis of the question.

Anyway, here's what I think of the 'pursuit of excellence' and whether is is ALWAYS beneficial to [my] country: absolutely, unequivocally yes!

Edit 01:
Coincidentally, I just read this article about the intentional propagation of ignorance by the BBC, making me wonder if we were actively teaching kids to stay ignorant by teaching them to argue through polar opposites.

Don't wanna go back to school!

To Liu who wrote:

Globalisation could negate efforts in skills upgrading

From Liu Rijing -

October 6

I refer to The Big Read article “Despite being vulnerable, few PMETs heed call to learn new skills” (Oct 1) and wish to raise a few points.

First, threats to jobs come not only from technological change but also globalisation.

So how can we be sure that learning new skills will ensure we do not lose out to global competition when companies relocate owing to cost considerations?

Second is whether a new skill one picks up would still be in demand after one has spent time and money to complete the training.

Third, when companies can choose to outsource professional work to a worker based in a foreign country with a lower salary, how can skills upgrading help then? (Today Online)

If you are looking for assurances, there are none. Sorry. But if you don't want to undergo skills upgrading, that's fine. When enough of us refuse to do so, there will be more opportunities for overseas companies to outsource their crappy, low-skilled, underpaid, exploitative, dangerous jobs to us. That should put your overarching fear of unemployment to rest.

10 cents for career counselling, thanks!

Wanna bet?

People are understandably concerned about the legalization of online betting in S'pore within the next month or two. Going online makes it more convenient to place bets via mobile app than having to trudge down and queue up at the corner betting store. But will convenience alone cause a spike in gambling as our concerned citizens fear? I doubt it.

This convenience comes with a price: the ability for the authorities to identify individual bettors, track how much each is wagering per transaction and establish their betting patterns over time. Cross-referenced against personal incomes, disproportionate or suspicious spending on bets can be flagged out for intervention if necessary.

If I were a betting man, I'd still go to the corner shop and place an anonymous bet with less-traceable cash. Only if I win big will the world know who I am. Until then, how I bet and what I bet on is nobody else's business. And as a non-betting man, I see more disincentive than incentive to start.

Who's an unhappy camper?

S'poreans show their unhappy side again, this time with their employment situation. That is, compared across the board against our South-East Asian counterparts, our employees are the most unhappy.

I wonder what we would see if we cross-reference our job happiness index against a corresponding survey on general income levels? My guess would be that S'poreans are educated, and have expectations of higher income and better job prospects that are set somewhat above realistic; whereas our neighbours are happy to have a job that puts food on the table for their families.

This observation is intended to be neither snarky nor mean. It's probably a human trait that when we have more we make ourselves unhappy by wanting even more; conversely when we have but a little, we are happy being grateful for that little.

We also seem to be looking at the wrong things to be happy about:

Singapore respondents felt that getting a new job (30 per cent), a higher salary (19 per cent), or receiving recognition from the company (9 per cent) would help increase their job happiness.

These perks offer immediate gratification. But they don't come around too often, and when they do, they usually also come with more work, more responsibilities, and more time spent in the office -- side-effects that make us more unhappy in the long run. We accept them anyway, in order to justify the happiness we feel from achieving these very temporary rewards.

We actually have a good problem. To be able to have and want more is a good thing. But it means that if we also want to be happy, all we need to do is realise that happiness is a choice we make for ourselves. Choose wisely!

An afterthought: perhaps the jobs of Management and Middle-management are inherently unhappy? Managers neither own the company nor do much of the actual production work, so they are sort of in-between, easily replaceable and sometimes even an obstacle to getting real work done. Who'd be happy in a job like that?

Last show of the season

[NYeDC in rehearsal at The Arts House]

Just when we thought we were done for the 2016 season, Sirius engineered an invite for NYeDC to perform at Celebrate Drama! 2016. The theme was "Celebrating Diversity", and it so happened that one of the items at Drama Night suited the bill. Not sure how the item entitled, "The Outsiders", fit the definition of "celebrate" but it was about the exclusion of foreign workers from the society they work in and for.

Our biggest problem was that in its original form, the script was very harsh in tone. While we tried to play it for laughs, our in-house audience saw little humour in it as the behaviour depicted was critical and accusatory of our local population. In rebooting the script, we initially struggled with feelings of being censored by our audience feedback. It was hurtful that this item, featuring one of our stronger scripts, was not as well-received as we hoped, and that to be allowed to perform it in public, we had to "balance" the treatment ad make it less insulting to to the people we meant to insult -- or at least to make them reflect on their treatment of foreign workers.

So, how to make the narrative more audience-friendly without watering down our authorial intent? First, we took out all specific location references and kept them to "foreign" and "local", suggesting the same situations could occur anywhere in the world. Then we gave the characters some psychological and emotional depth so that they no longer were playing out stereotypical scenarios to amuse one another (as in the original script), but rather to depict personal experiences and explore how the discriminated feel about being discriminated against. We kept the Singlish delivery because it sounded more real to the narrative.

Having taken audience feedback and reworking the parts that didn't work, we eventually devised a much stronger script than before. The item carried more weight and more authenticity. The situations were still absurd, but the intentions and emotional linkages were much clearer for both the performers and the audience.

And at the end, the one performing the closing monologue delivered with real emotion: the tears; the cracking voice; the breath pattern; the pauses; all real and nothing like we had ever seen her rehearse before. We couldn't have asked for a more powerful closure. Later, we asked her if the script really meant that much to her. And she said she was really feeling the weight of this performance... being the last one of the season! #oscarmoment

Anyway, such an exciting run for the 2015-6 batch of NYeDC members. The 2016-7 lot have big boots to fill.