What are values?

Hi all,

        This is a real story taken from a blog. The original writer was very shocked at his own decision for the test. I want to share the story and then provide my own comments, cause  it's really shocking. It's really unexpected too. A note though: The original post was in Chinese (I don't regularly read Chinese blogs, or any blogs as a matter of fact, it was my father who introduced this post to me), so I translated it. It's taken from http://blog.omy.sg/hoeytheory/archives/27.

My friend held a newspaper in his hand, and asked if I wanted to take a simple psychological test. Curious, I agreed.

        Question 1: There is a pregnant woman.  She has had eight babies. Three of her babies are deaf, two of them are blind and one of them is mentally slow. Furthermore, she is a drug addict. Would you encourage her to abort this baby?

        Before I could answer, I was stopped by my friend, who asked me yet another question.

        Question 2: You have to choose a leader for the world. Which of these candidates will you choose?

         Candidate A: He is constantly in contact with distrustful politicians, and consults astrologers. He has a wedding affair, and smokes regularly. He also drinks 8-10 cups of martinis daily. 

        Candidate B: He has a record of being fired twice, and sleeps till noon everyday. He tried opium in his university days, and drinks a large amount of whiskey every evening.

        Candidate C: He is a decorated war hero and a vegetarian. He never smokes, and seldom drinks beer, and when he does, it is only a little. He has also never had an affair.

        After my friend let me write my answer down on a piece of paper, he told me the real profiles of these candidates:

        Candidate A: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States. 

        Candidate B: Winston Churchill, once Prime Minister of Britain. 

        Candidate C: Adolf Hitler, German Chancellor from 1933. 

         My friend stared at me sombrely. "Did you just choose Hitler for the world? So would you still advice the woman to abort her child?"

         I said of course, we have been aiming to search for safe births, safe education, safe lives, we don't want any babies to suffer because of their family and any highly likely diseases. Of course I would encourage her to abort.  

        My friend declared, "Then, you just killed Beethoven, that lady was Beethoven's mother."

        My friend asked, "Are you shocked? What you thought was the most humane, most obvious answer, was actually to create a Hitler and to kill Beethoven?"

        His conclusion: Don't act according to values.

        Ultimately, what are values? In my opinion, values are not something that everyone can have. They aren't materialistic, neither are they tangible. I think the friend's conclusion wasn't that correct, for ultimately, what he thought was that values are characteristics and physical conditions. However, I beg to differ, as I have mentioned above. Ultimately, the Beethoven question would have been difficult to avoid getting wrong, for the most normal and rational decision would have been to abort, to reduce the child's pain and the mother's burden. But really, what is normal? Do we really have the moral authority to decide? Ultimately, do we not witness the famous disabled with respect, for they are crippled birds who soar higher than those who aren't?

         For the leader question, in hindsight, it might have been better to have asked for an analysis of these candidates' psyches, to really understand their values. 

         What was your decision? Did you create a Hitler and kill Beethoven?

Cheers,

Darrel 

Memory...all alone in the sunlight...

Hi all,

Due to the very important fact that I didn't get a closer to perfect full marks (no offence, han Wei), from now on, I shall be labelling each blog post I want to be considered as ACE as, erm, ACE. And maybe something else too, an example being this post. Furthermore, in the words of my P6 Science teacher, to make it idiot-proof and moron-proof, the only posts from now on are, well, ACE posts. 

Anyway, as I was saying, memory. It's sort of lucky I don't have to force myself to think about how I should go about doing this blog topic, as I trust many are doing now. Instead, I can just start typing, cause my memory was very strongly triggered as I walked past the B block and looked up.

Day 1:

He stepped out of the car. Being only 6.40, the whole school was shrouded in darkness.Nearly, the whole school, that is. As he stepped out, the first thing that greeted him was the amazing clock tower. During the Open House talks, he had heard so much about how this tall, majestic tower would light up with an amazing glow. And here it was! 

Soon, however, he found stares shooting towards him for standing there and staring at the clock tower like Romeo would Juliet. Blushing and hastily crossing the road, he quickly sat down at the row for his class in his position, or where he thought was his position at any rate. 

A great number of unfamiliar faces sat down next to him. Searching for familiar ones, he soon found Ernest and the two of them sat together, coming to this large, untrodden territory as part of it for the first time. Apart from the fact that they were from the same primry school, they also had another similarity - they knew one person each who were very close to them. Ernest had a Sec 2 brother here, while he had a Sec 3 friend who had been as close as brothers. Whatever it was, the two of them huddled together, one of the many twin-pillars who had formed to withstand the winds of change and unfamilarity.

The school song and the national anthem were sung with great pride as the school band played, and as the Sec 1s' tongues hesitantly rolled over the lyrics of this melodious song, it was due to respect for the school rules and tradition, and that was all. Few understood the meaning, to everyone, it was just another song to be sung. Everyone then was feeling sad from leaving, nervous from the unfamilarity and the sheer size of the school, awkward from the large number of unfamiliar people they were with.

Day 119:

He stood in front of the clock tower now, pondering. He had just finished the soccer match between his class and the Sec 2's and though the scoreline was a fascinating 11-2 to the Sec 2's, his mind was off. He remembered himself staring at the clock tower 118 days ago, then shocked, stunned, amazed, awkward. Now, here he was, winner of one prize, participant of quite some competitions, and already settling to the busy pace of the typical student. 

What surrounded him now, usually, was a set of familiar faces, either as friends or as routine. He knew now that every Friday, the Library would be especially busy with Library club members, he knew now that NPCC and NCC would be tucked in at the multi-storey carpark or the area near it, he now knew that the Clock Tower, though a National Monument, was still commonly used, with him becoming one of the common users, he now knew that because of the fact that the land his school was on was hill-like, therefore the flooring system was a little weird, where the third floor seemed like the first floor. 

"Hey, what you doing! You don't want go back and eat lunch is it! Not hungry ah?" His friend's calls dragged him out of memory lane. Striding towards his friends, he glanced back. No more did the nervousness, the shock, the awkwardness exist. What did exist, was the shock and admiration for the school's strength, and a strong, deep, true love for the school.

Yeah, that's all. I know it's very flashback-ish, but to prevent any misunderstandings (no offence once again, Han Wei). I hope it's OK.

Cheers,

Darrel

Digression from serious work

Hi all,

I have absolutely no idea why I am posting this, cause I'm supposed to be doing my worksheets to allocate time for revision tomorrow. But anyway, I'm just posting this cause I most likely want to have a quick break before I set off to this mysterious restaurant to celebrate my mother's upcoming birthday:).

But anyway, speaking of digression from serious work, how do you digress from a topic in conversation? (Why am I saying this? Personally, I have no idea, but that's no the point.) In a conversation, let's use me and Timothy (no offence to him, it's just that its a good real life example.) The conversation basically goes like this.

Tim: How much is Lea (a very good friend of mine who is a girl and unfortunately mistaken to be my crush) worth to you?

Me: She's worth a lot to me as a friend.

Tim: What about a GIRLFRIEND?

Me: Er...she's not my girlfriend, so no worth there. 

This will go on till the end of lessons, so this is bad. To digress, this is how it should go.

Tim: How much is Lea worth to you?

Me: She's worth a lot to me as a friend. By the way, how is doing in ? Do you still call her commonly?

Tim: NO!!! She's not my crush!

Me: Are you sure?

Tim: YES!!!

Me: I don't believe you. Anyway, we should pay more attention.

Tim: OK.

Digression successful!:)

Cheers,

Darrel

Susan Boyle - the sensation shocking the world

Hi all,

I'm here to talk about the sensation rocking the world right now - "Britain's Got Talent" Susan Boyle. Highly praised by the judges, ther youtube video of her singing has garnered 18 million views - and counting.

What was it that made her win so astonishing? As one blogger pointed out, she was not exactly the best looking lady. As she made her way onto the stage and answered the question, "Which singer would like to resemble most" with "Elaine Page". Everyone laughed then, for the beauty of her voice is just too great. 

In fact, I would like to do some soul searching, as many bloggers are. Was what made her win espsically stunning her innocent smile and her wondeful voice? Was the world surprised that a woman who is not exactly Miss World can stun the world with one song? Is this a sign of society that outer beauty has started to reign supreme over the simpler, yet morally more hauntingly beautiful and everlasting inner beauty?

This is just some food for thought. Here is the video of her singing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

I have to do this, because the embeding of her video has been disabled by request. But it's worth a listen. Furthermore, the song itself is beautiful as well. 

Cheers,

Darrel

Photo Montage

Hi all,

This is my photo montage. Quite a few people appeared here, if you have any objections to your face appearing here, do tell me. The song is "We are the world", a relatively old song which includes Michael Jackson and quite a number of other singers. Just in case you were wondering, this is the first chorus, with mainly Michael Jackson singing, though I can't identify the other person singing. The lyrics are "We are the world, we are the children\We are the ones who make a brighter day\so let's start giving\There's a choice we're making\We're saving out own lives\It's true, we make a better day\Just you and me". 

What is my reason for choosing the song? It's not only the fact that the opening scene portrays the world, and that the ending is me and CY, but the point is this song was created by Michael Jackson to tell the world that there was a country out there whose citizens are dying and they needed help. To help others, the whole point about being a compassionate leader and a leader who can care about others, isn't that exactly what we are supposed to be? Aren't those the basic marking of a good leader? Since with the theme of identity, this point is so important, that we should strive for this point to define us, I used this song. This is just to let you know, just in case you were interested why didn't I choose more modern day songs.

Cheers,

Darrel

NUS Geography

Hi all,

This is SO long due, cause the competition was last Saturday, but I'm really sorry for not updating. 

So anyway, I was making my way to NUS and was staring at the Singapore Flyer when suddenly my phone rang. i glanced at the screen. An unknown number was displayed.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Darrel? This is Li Ki. Are you in school uniform?"

"Er...no. Ms Gwee said it was OK to be in PE shirt and khaki shorts."

"Where do you live?"

""

"Where are you now?"

"Er, I'm looking at the Singapore Flyer." By this time, I sensed that it might be better for me to turn back and was frantically whispering to my parents if they could turn back, maybe get off the highway or something like that. 

"Then, never mind. Thanks anyway. Bye" Murmurs in the background. "He lives in , can't expect him to go back..."

"Dad, can you go back?"

"OK, I'll try. Call him and ask him what time we need to be there."

I called the unknown number. "Hello? This is Darrel. I think I can make it back. What time to I have to be there?"

"Check the schedule Wen Kang." Indistinguishable murmuring. "5.15, Darrel."

"5.15" I whispered to my Dad. He nodded. "OK, Li Ki."

"You can make it? Oh my God, thanks so much!"

When I finally did arrive there, quite some time later, I realised that a few things were amiss. For one, Li Ki was in Sec 3 uniform. For 2, all but 2 (including Li Ki) of them were not (they were supposed to be) in school uniform.

"Hello Darrel. Change your uniform with Wen Kang. It fits, doesn't it?"

So of course, I changed. By the way, Wen Kang was Sec 3. 

The latest update I got from Ms Gwee was that they had just completed the Geo-trail and was now wondering if they could get into the finals. They apparently spent 30min looking for Asian Civillisations Museum, but yeah. Then, we entered the Auditorium. I sat in between Benny and Ms Gwee. 

To cut the long story, we didn't make it into the finals and we had to be content watching VJC, NUS(H) and RI compete for top spot. To skip the boring details, they had questions, with one of the answers showed wrongly and one of the answers apparently set wrongly, though for the latter they believed they were right.

Then came the presentation of the videos. Now THIS was very interesting. The theme was "Forgotten heritage" and NUS(H) had to present first. They did on how Singapore's money was being gradually forgotten. During their presentation, they mentioned something about how the notes in their video were NOT real. That was not their real flaw. Then they said something about Singapore's education is very cheap, and research is more expensive...basically, they screwed up.During the question round, when the judges asked them which 3 icons did they think should be included in new notes, one of them said the Singapore Flyer. Perfectly fine, was it not for the general comment being whispered around that said, "It's just a Ferris Wheel, London has the London Eye too."Then came VJC. They did on the trade of unsung heroes (garbage men, etc). They weren't too bad. Then came RI and they did on dialects ("die-lects"). They weren't too bad, but the judges evidently left the hardest questions for them. 

After that, there was an audience round, where the audience had to call and the person who manages to get through the MC would answer the question. I hate myself for getting through and giving the wrong answer. HOW could I have forgotten that the El Nino Southern Oscilliation was nowhere near Europe? It's in the South-east corner of the Pacific Ocean, near Peru! I hate myself. But never mind, I opened up a chance for my senior to answer it correctly.

After the whole thing was over, they had FOOD. It ended at 7.30, so I don't think elaboration on how much we ate is necessary. However, after the competiton, I realised that my senior had went to watch Tan Kah Kee - wearing my uniform. My dad was sort of angry at me, but he soon calmed down when I assured him that my senior would return me the attire on Monday. 

My target now is to make GAIA (It's capitalised cause its an acronym, I'm not emphasising the fact that it's the Greek goddess of the Earth) my best friend and to go for NUS Geography next year. Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Darrel

Finger Lickin' Good Friday

Hi all,

Here I am now, typing while my dad, uncle and cousin are displaying their mahjong prowess and discussing a Mediacorp online memory games that can win you a $50 voucher. I mean, hello, $50? But that's them. Another elder cousin of mine is listening to music. Two younger cousins of mine are playing "Settlers", a board game about strategy and tactics. My mum and aunt are watching a Channel 8 variety show about local food. They're switching to Korean drama soon. The poor me, on the other hand, is still attempting to figure out how to refine the tweaking of my project. I'm not saying that everyone out there is more free than me, though. 

Previously, I went to swim. Is it surprising that I went to swim? Don't be surprised, cause even though I have a Gold in it, I swam to teach my P3 cousin how to swim (it's part of its school curriculum. I think people in NPCC have to learn too for LEAPS.) Following that, I had a substantial KFC dinner. My aunt was like, "Are you full?, when I had eaten:

• 3 spicy chicken
• 1 coleslaw
• 1 shipped potatos
• 15 french fries

But still, she's a nice person. Now, my target is to

1. Complete my Science revision
2. Complete my Chinese worksheet
3. Do my Debate blog
4. Prepare ppt for most likely Prelim 2

All before my cousin leaves at 11.30. That should be manageable.

Cheers,

Darrel 

Coke: The Dominance of a Beverage

Hi all,
I believe everyone has drank a coke before. In fact, Coke, or Coca Cola, its more commonly use name, has practically become a household brand all over the world. While everyone drinks it, has anyone wondered, why has Coke become so widely recognised? Sure, food and drinks transcends any boundaries there might be in language, but why the great craze over it? I think I have the answer: Its advertisment. More specifically, its music. This particular song was a great hit in the past, if I'm not wrong, in the 1970's. This is not the original version, but I think Coke adapted it and instantly made Coke a worldwide hit. I'm posting both the Coke version and the original version. For those who listen to Chinese radio channels, you'll know that Radio 1003 once used it as its morning theme song. But so much for my talking. The Coke song is only 1 minute long, while the original is 3. Still, I hope you can enjoy this song.

Sorry, just a note before I leave you to enjoy this song. If you listen carefully to the lyrics, you'll notice that they are actually advocating for world peace. So yeah, that's all. Enjoy the music!





Cheers,
Darrel

New sub-blog!

Hi all,

This particular fact is strongly influenced by a friend of mine's own sub-plot. This message is basically to inform you that I will be creating a sub-blog soon. This blog will focus on debate...and debate. I shall be flinging random rebuttals and I would just like to see if they're good. You can post there to comment on the (bad) quality of the rebuttals I give, but don't be too harsh on me. Yup, that's all, everyone.

Cheers,

Darrel

P.S. I shall be posting soon about the NUS Geography competition. Expect it soon!

Project's Day

Hi all,

I'm still in denial. 

Well, to make things clearer, maybe a description of the judging process might be helpful There were three judges, a Canadian male teacher, a Chinese male teacher, and a female English teacher. After the presentation, the Chinese judge just posted a few general comments, and we thoughy we would live, till the Canadian judge told us that he didn't understand what was the essential focus of our project. As I was explaining to him, he threw up his hands in utter despair.

"No, you don't see! First, you're talking about the zenith of society, then you go to the masses, then you want to reach to the children...that would take a minimum of a year, it could be a whole school syllabus! I like your idea, it is commendable...but imposible. " He nodded his head sadly, and the other judges followed suit.

The female teacher leaned forward. "Now, let me give you a few suggestions, so that you can maybe think about it. Actually, when I say suggestions, you should really put your heart and soul into it. But anyway, you could tweak your end product a little..."

I'm not saying that these judges are wrong.  However, my team members were still sort of in the denial mode. I'm nearly going to snap out of it, but before I bear the brunt of it, I shall settle the details of my project. Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Darrel

GEBPSDCs 2nd round

Hi all,

(Word of warning: This post will most likely not be counted in my blog post count, because of its obvious length problem. So don't say I didn't warn you.)

You must all be wondering why I left early on April's Fool. The reason is actually quite simple: To watch, once again, the GEBPSDCs, but this time, it was the round of 16 and the quarter finals. So, I left early to prepare 8 classrooms within 1 hour. Well, this would have been easy, assuming that current conditions were perfect, but as you know, there's no such thing as utopia. Some problems we faced were uncooperative seniors (no offence) who didn't want to clear out of their air-conditioned classrooms and had to make every Sec 3 debate senior positively furious at them before clearing out of their classrooms. Then, there was also the problems of seniors who wanted to return to their classrooms during the debate. We also had a very hard time persuading them to clear out. After these problems were resolved and after the debates themselves, we had to put back the table, and as fate would have it, the table arrangement was wrong, and which table belonged to who wasn't the priority. Who said that fate didn't want us to have our revenge? :)

More into the rearrangement process. We had to move arrange the tables in a fixed format and we had to place bottles on every speaker's /adjudicator's table. To do this, the Sec 1s formed the organisation called "Saikang" Warriors. "Saikang" means, well, doing dirty work and its a hokkien word. In fact, if I were to break the word up, "Sai" means human waste(euphemism :)), and "kang" means work, so well. Anyway, we carried the bottles up three stories (oops, am I giving you too many clues which classes these seniors were from? Haha) And we managed to finish the classrooms just before the inquisitive Primary School students rushed into the classrooms to enjoy the aircon.

Now, into the more interesting portions: the debates! Well, basically, the two debate motions read, "THB in a 4-day work week" and "THBT child sportsmen should not be allowed to turn professional". The 4-day work week motion was a little screwed up, because Prop and Opp define it the same way and both them stuck to their definitions. The Prop says that a 4-day work week refers to the 40hr work week being shortened to 32 hr, while the Opp says that its compressing 4ohr into 4 days. Seriously, what was lacking was to attack each side on their own ground, example being, "Even if we go along their definitions of 4-day work week, their case still holds no water, because..." That would make things easier a BILLION times. I was shadow-adju-ing (an unofficial adjudicator) Clementi and Casuarina for the 4-day work week motion. Apparently Casuarina's first speaker was a MediaCorp child actor, he looked vaguely familiar at any rate, but yeah. The Casuarina team was so cute! They were ending off their speech with (They were Opp), "now, my dear Proposition, let me ask you a question: Do you still believe in a 4-day work week?" and the Prop 1st speaker was like smirking and vigourously shaking his head. However, Clementi won in the end, even though both had really good style. I had the feeling it was the reply speaker of Casuarina (the child actor) who lost it. He was basically saying the Prop hasn't actually showed anything and that's all. It's like, I can immediately assume that, because he didn't say it, Opp hasn't shown anything as well!

So anyway, after this, we had the second debate. This time, the quality was obviously higher, because this was St Hilda's vs RGPS. Do you know that I could have gone to St. Hilda's, but didn't? But that's a story for another time. Anyway, i was a little biased towards St. Hilda's, cause I know their speakers casually, and I have two good P5 friends who are boys, just in case you were wondering, there. Anyway, this particular debate went on OK, and I felt that the debate should have gone to St. Hilda's not because of the fact that I was biased, but the JC judges felt that St. Hilda's was too stiff and inflexible. 

After the debates, the "Saikang" Warriors had to help carry boxloads of water and stuff to a Humanities Programme classroom (I'm not stating where this classroom is and the classrooms that we used for the debate were not HP classrooms) .

Yup, so that's all. It was an interesting experience, but I am none the wiser about how to be a good adjudicator. However, I don't think I'll die.  

Cheers,

Darrel