Kid Nation

Channel 5 is much better after midnight on weekdays.

If you ever get a chance to stay up and/or can bother to record it, do try to catch Kid Nation (Channel 5 on weekdays, 2am - 3am).

I thought it was a kid's show, but I was so wrong. This is a reality show with kids, but what the audience sees is far from being childish.

Throw 40 kids, aged 8 to 15, in an abandoned ranch in the middle of nowhere without adult supervision for 40 days, and call them 'Pioneers'. Divide them into 4 colour groups. Make them compete in challenges.

The winning team will get to be the 'Upper Class', i.e. no chores, just get money each for doing nothing. The 1st runner up will be the 'Merchant Class', where their responsibility was to man a shop in the ranch.

The 2nd runner-up will be the 'Cooks', having to cook for the entire camp. The last group gets the sucky title of 'Labourers' and equally sucky menial tasks of cleaning the toilets and fetching water, while making only a couple of cents. YES. It is like real life.

Meanwhile, encourage the kids to make decisions such as whether they should kill the chickens in the barn for food. Watch their reactions. Some kids get really emotional about something like that.

Wait... We are not done with the structure of this little society. Each colour group nominates a leader which represents the group in the Town Council. The Town Council has the power to make decisions on behalf of the Pioneers.

Once all 4 groups complete a challenge within the time limit, the Pioneers are presented with 2 options for a reward. By default, the Town Council gets to make the decision on behalf of the Pioneers. In one instant, after a wet and tiring challenge, the kids were dirty and shivering in the cold, and presented with 2 options. (A) An microwave with cocoa powder to make hot chocolate, or (B) 40 steaming hot pizzas. The kids went nutz and started chanting Pizza! Pizza! One of them was even wondering about the toppings.

But the Town Council chose the microwave, because 'the pizzas will only last 1 day' but the microwave would be very useful for the rest of the stay at the ranch. Surprisingly rational.

Ahhh... But here's the lovely bit of this programme, you witness the ramifications of such decisions... Afterwards, the Town Council, especially the kid who fought for the microwave, became rather unpopular... Just like how politicians become unpopular when they try to do the 'right' thing.

When the Town Council tried to put together a compulsory prayer session to calm the camp's nerves, no one turned up. =))
 ....................................

Because of the participation of children in the series, some thought it's unethical, e.g. child labour issues. The concept of ' forcing adult issues onto children/childhood' became a point of contention too. What a waste!

See details in its wikipedia entry as highlighted at the start of the entry.

Pinkdot 2010

Pinkdot 2010 was a mega success!

It was clear even before we got there. We saw groups of people in pink making their way to Hong Lim Park.

The vibes were so different from the week before. It's a carnival!

I saw families, couples, people from different races and religions participating in this event. It is heart-warming.

I took a vid from the same spot as I did last week.

And of course, the turnout was double of that of last year's Pinkdot! Hong Lim Park may not be big enough for Pinkdot next year.

I saw volunteers picking up rubbish once the event was officially over. A very well-organised event. Kudos to the organisers.

Rest in Peace, Dr Goh

"For us in Singapore, the road to greater wealth is through thrift, enterprise and hard work. The road to stability lies in prudence and foresight in prosperity, and patience and fortitude in adversity."

~ Goh Keng Swee (1918 - 2010)

They don't make them like that anymore.
Thrift? The system is so wasteful these days.

Read about Dr Goh here and here.

Away We Go

Sam Mendes (of American Beauty and Revolutionary Road) has done it again. This time, he made 'Away We Go'.

A couple in their 30s searching for a place they can call home. Aren't we all trying to do this? Some of us, doing it with our partners... some doing it on their own... Others doing it, thinking that their partners are onboard.

A rare romantic comedy which I feel good watching. I wish 'Good Fren' was there to watch it with me.

Tortoise Shell & Zapping

Somehow I chanced upon pictures of tortoise shell spectacles frames while surfing online.

I used to have a similar pair... during my uni days, I think. Back then, there was a tortoise-shell wave... I dun understand it either. Such things aren't meant to be analysed. Did you have a pair in the 90s too?

I also remember breaking that frame and attempting to tape it back together.

In a weird way, I miss wearing glasses. I remember the specs guy would heat up the frame a little before bending it to fit my face. My last pair was translucent green. I love plastic frames. They are like useful toys.

Has it been 5 years since my lasik op?

Been trying to get 'Good Fren's eyes zapped. But first, we shall get his air passage zapped.

Modern life is so convenient. Many problems can be resolved by zapping them with lasers and waves and whatever else they come up with.

I wanna zap my face too! They claim that if you use the right wave to zap your face, it can reverse part of the sagging! I imagine the contraction to be similar to what you'll get if you attempt to heat up some plastic sheets. O_O

DiSCiP is coming alive!

Well... At least a small part of it...

Remember my idea of DiSCiP, put forth on this blog in 2007 and subsequently passed onto a friend in IDA, to streamline interaction/transactions between SINGOV and citizens/businesses through a dedicated online platform?

IDA is finally calling tender for something along those lines...

Not as comprehensive as what I have envisaged. Neither does it sound as comprehensive as what the UK is attempting to build (announced in Mar 2010). It sounds like a government matters only email account for citizens and businesses. Nonetheless, it is a start.

"As part of a revamp of its eCitizen portal, the agency (IDA) is also to build in a secure inbox for consumers and businesses to access all Government-related correspondence."

We are back at Square 1

PM Lee has announced that the Mother Tongue Weighting will NOT change. MOE will attempt to review how Mother Tongue is taught in school.

So, after all that hooha about We love Mother Tongue and the PSLE Weighting cha-cha... It seems everyone is back at Square 1.

Huh? Same spot? How come? Surely all those emotions/energy/ love of mother tongue must translate to something?

I think it's a most ridiculous situation, where people get caught up in an unnecessary whirlpool of emotions, totally missing the point.

The Mother Tongue Environment Triangle
The necessary ingredients to make or break the adoption of the Mother Tongue and its all-encompassing culture are Family, Community & Government. You need 3 core stakeholders to be working together, and not just the Government doing the work alone, dragging along unwilling participants who resist and dig their nails into the ground whenever they have to learn 听写.

In fact, Family and Community play more important roles than the Government. Each group has to work with the other to reinforce the environment conducive for learning and using the Mother Tongue.

And if you look at the diagram which summarises the bigger picture, you'd realise that the MT PSLE Weighting is really a very very small piece of this huge puzzle.

FAMILY

Those who are fighting for status quo are those who are better at MT (Chinese). They want to maintain their edge in the current PSLE system. But some of the petitioners are unmarried/gay and do not have children or offsprings who will be affected by any changes in PSLE. So, they will argue that PSLE is not the only bone of contention. These activists, along with many grey-haired petitioners, claim that the maintaining MT PSLE Weighting helps to incubate and preserve the love for the Chinese culture.

How much does MT PSLE Weighting have to do with improving the adoption/absorption of Chinese language/culture at the family level?

Even if this 'Keep MT PSLE Weighting = Incubate/preserve love for Chinese Culture' assumption holds true, are we really expecting that this heated episode and its status quo outcome will result in say a bunch of kids will sit up tomorrow and become really interested in the Chinese language?

Or that parents who have not been speaking Mandarin to their children because their Mandarin suck will get off their arses to go learn Mandarin properly so that they can create a Mandarin-speaking environment for their kids?

Rather, even at the more realistic level, that Chinese language tuition centres would see a spike in enrolment?

Let's not kid ourselves. If the parents have no self-discipline when it comes to learning the Chinese language, it is a huge discount off the probability that the kids will learn the language well.

Nothing has changed at the family level. Nothing.

COMMUNITY
If the family is not helping the situation, what about the community in which the kid is immersed in?

The point is, despite a small percentage of people making a lot of noise, there is no material change to way Chinese is promoted and used in Singapore. Should the responsibility of promoting the MTs only rest on the shoulders of the Government?

If a community really loves its culture and is intellectually-honest, it will examine how much/little effort it has put into helping create a Chinese culture-friendly environment. (I can feel the defensiveness even as I write this. 做么? 做么? 你算哪根葱? 敢批评我?!)

For example, how much have the Chinese clan associations done to pass down and preserve the traditions? I think the efforts are fragmented. Some clan associations have highly rationalised programmes and function like extra curricula enrichment centres, while others have not done much beyond its membership.

And what about the Chinese Teachers' Union?
Yes, they made noise this time round. But is it gonna change how Chinese language will henceforth be taught in schools? Will it be in the same moralistic and rote learning fashion? Does including more 'fun' ways to learn Chinese really lead to a higher level of proficiency?

Or perhaps, the real problem is with the image of the Chinese teacher, i.e. less accessible to the average student than other teachers? Afterall, these Chinese teachers/ 'community leaders' are the spokesperson of the Chinese Language. If the problem is with them, it has to be fixed pronto. And yes, in my opinion, this is the toughest group to reshape.

Lastly, those in the Chinese media. These are the bunch of people with the potentially largest influence on the Chinese community. They have significant influence over the production of Chinese popular culture, ranging from TV drama, films, plays, music, visual arts, classical arts, new media, mainstream media/news, Speak Mandarin campaigns etc.

Polarised in terms of 'quality', the Chinese media's creations are mainly either overly intellectually-purist or of intellectually-insulting quality. What then is filling up that huge in-between gap? The highly-accessible English popular culture. To cement 'Chinese culture' in the hearts and minds of the Chinese audience, the Community needs to regain this huge in-between space.

There has been some efforts such as mypaper, omy.sg... but I see major areas in critical need for improvement, e.g. TV drama production. It's all about being accessible. It's not about lowering standard of Chinese language used so that people will read your papers/websites... It's about the content and how you market your content. Case in point: If many Singaporeans are voluntarily taking up Korean language classes because of the Korean Wave, it speaks volume of how powerful popular culture is.

BE CONSTRUCTIVE
I see the recent interaction between Community and Government as a great opportunity for these 2 groups to work together, and not just a talk, complain, petition session. This is the best time to ask the government for resources/support to develop efforts for promotion of the Mother Tongue. The Community has to take ownership of its Mother Tongue/Culture. I hope those who have made a lot of noise this time round will prove their worth by doing more than just a petition.

What's the objective and how do we know that we have arrived?
In the modern world, we have arrived when majority of the Chinese community smses and/or instant messages one another in Chinese.