Singapore: Work in progress

Given that there's only 10 days left til the end of the year (coincidentally, Mayans ended/reset their long count calendar today), I thought I'd give my 2 cents on the state of my country.

This post was inspired by this picture. 

I think it's simpler to list down our current problems and see if we can draw any possible links. Also, it happens to be my first train of thought seeing as I am the cynic that I am.

Good education, over-taxed teachers. No "soft skills" taught. Little creativity encouraged. 

Good roads, high COE, too many cars on the road. Public transport failing these past 2 years. Esp MRT, bus and even taxis. 

This past year, I have been deeply disappointed by our transport system. It's the first time where it has failed and to such an extent. Firstly, MRTs break down and passengers were not given any real sense that things have changed. It genuinely feels like we are doing the same things hoping that they won't go wrong again. Now I get that it could be a case of old machinery breaking down. But the least the public can expect is an improvement. I tried to come up with an apt analogy but I couldn't, because of the crucial importance of the transport infrastructure and the role it plays. 

The bus system also messed up spectacularly recently. With the recent bus "strikes", 2 things can be seen. Firstly, that the past fare hikes apparently have not made a significant dent in the high operating costs of SBS and SMRT that they actually need to raise fares again just to compensate the bus drivers properly. I was led to believe that the past hikes were SPECIFICALLY meant to reduce such issues. Secondly, our system of handling strikes is retarded. No self-respecting citizen in a developed country right now can look at the way we dealt with the PRC drivers and be impressed. It's clear that they are being taken advantage of and it's shameful that we dare to call ourselves a first world country when a public transport company (and by extension, the government which backs it) blatantly disregards the concerns of the its employees. I honestly cannot believe that they are being deported. Seriously. Right now, nobody will deny that anyone who participated in that strike are on some sort of blacklist handed among the employers right now, deemed as the troublemakers that they are. (this is conjecture and should not be taken as fact)

It is precisely this behaviour that scared citizens into voting for the PAP for the last 40 years. Singaporeans have always been too scared of what the government is capable of.

Media censorship more prominent, with the rise of social media. More people displeased with govt and starting to speak up. Voter apathy still an issue with regards to "real" change.

Issue of immigration. Locals emigrating seems to be a universal goal among the young, as opposed to choosing to stay in this country. This speaks volume about not just the economic environment of Singapore but the social aspects as well. A point to consider might be the fact that even though travelling is now significantly easier, many people have not truly considered the implications of emigrating long term or even "mid" term (i.e 5-10 years).

In terms of foreigners entering Singapore, the trend is that we have become a lot closer to Malaysians as a result of the "perceived" "threat" of PRCs. Currently, foreigners (key note people who are "visibly" foreign, e.g. Bangladeshi, PRCs, Ang Mohs, occupying the low, mid, high income and social status respectively. of course this is an over-generalization.) are starting to make up a significant portion of our society. And to put this bluntly, they are no longer a small enough population that we can hide them in our construction sites, hawker centers and super atas bungalows and housing areas. It's easy to dismiss large groups especially when they are grouped because we can avoid them and pretend they don't exist in our larger picture of the local society. I think we passed that proportion of foreigners-to-locals roughly 5 years ago or even earlier where most people could sense their "territory" and "culture" being encroached upon. The white collar workers probably sensed it much earlier because that's been on the lips of most unemployed since forever.

Currently, it doesn't "feel" like there's an employment squeeze. But from what I hear everywhere, it appears to be so. Unfortunately, I don't know any job market to comment intelligently. The only thing I know is that we appear to be outpaced in industry, outmatched in sought-after skill sets and losing out in terms of wages. Everything we can do, foreigners seem to be able to do faster, better and cheaper. So the question comes up. Can we realistically compete in such a market, or are we doomed, to put it in simple words? Putting aside the question of wages because I feel that the cause is pretty simple (cost of living combined with high expectations), what are we missing in terms of quality? I think that if we are able to make ourselves distinguishably better (broader skill set for example), it would solve both problems because we would be creating an additional value for the employer which would (hopefully) outweigh the additional cost, particularly in knowledge-based economies where value is based not on the quantity but quality. Currently, I feel that, perhaps as a human folly, we have not been able to fully quantify the value of quality and hence, there is a leverage for "quality" employees.

Then again, I'm not young enough to know everything.

PS. I'm too lazy to elaborate on half of them, so I'm leaving them as it is.

Fact: There are finite resources in this world.

... but there are infinite wants: Economics

... and we have enough for what we need: Philosophy

... but can we discover more: Science

... so how do we makes the most out of each: Engineering

... so who decides who gets what?: Politics

... how do make the most money out of that?: Business

... how sad: Art

Everyone's worrying about their CAP score

You know what's the most dangerous thing they made about the CAP score? There is no passing grade. There is only a maximum grade and when people leave that grade by only a small percentage, it looks horrifying compared to a perfect 5.

Passion

It's been a long time.

Also if you're wondering why I haven't posted a birthday post this year, it's because I actually had a pretty great time.

Anyway, to the topic.

The main reason why I haven't been updating for the last 6+ weeks was "mainly" because I was busy doing Architecture work in uni. And I don't use the word busy lightly. A brief glimpse of the busiest week of my life: I slept 3 hours plus half hours plus 5 minutes on the last day before crit and by thursday, I couldn't remember what happened on monday. Also, I spent less time outside the studio than I did sleeping, and yes that meant I slept in the studio 90% of the time.

But aside from that, it's interesting to note why people do it. Why do people put themselves through such a rigorous workload to come out only marginally richer or more respected than the average graduate? One thing I've heard pretty often when people (year 1s) try to rationalize is that at least this is more interesting than reading history texts or doing math. And I totally get that. But is simply being interesting enough to get you to stay on the ride for the next 5 years?

Passion seems to be the big thing at play here, and I want to clarify that I have no concept of what passion means. I have never really truly "felt it". I don't know what drives olympic swimmers to go through the regime that they do, or why writers become so attached to their jobs. It doesn't mean I can't feel love for an activity or a thing, I mean I love pool, video games and magic tricks but it never seems right to say I'm passionate about these.

To me, my understanding of passion simply refers to this strange human attachment to something that's so intense it pushes you to do things most people wouldn't. So most intense work regimes fall under this category, olympians, writers et cetera.

But does what I do fall into this category? It's certainly "inhumane". It's not something everyone really fully comprehends until a week later when the weekend becomes 72 hours long and you spend every single one of it in the studio, thinking it's still saturday when you're 2 hours away from the first lecture on monday. It's not easy work. And I do it. Every so often I'd ask myself why I'm here, and I can never get a real answer. I'm just here for the ride I guess. I don't love architecture. I mean it's interesting, but I love to hang out, play some pool and chill on the couch more than I love architecture. Architecture is interesting, but it's no passion. I don't think I'll ever feel as much for anything else like history or writing or engineering. Meanwhile, I'll just keep on trucking.

"True-Blue" Singaporean

Even Singaporeans don't want to be Singaporeans.

I feel sad the Feng TW's name is the one we are dragging across the mud because of the problems that we have, ones that we made ourselves, whether we like to admit it or not.

Balcony Sessions: July 12th 2012 8pm

These are the balcony sessions:

The unhappy are often the greatest poets. Nobody ever picked up a pen and paper when they are satisfied with life.
So now you know a bit of context.
I don't think this mess of words with no real direction will ever be comprehended at a later time. I think it's best for all parties involved.

I wonder when was the last time I just sat and looked. The combination of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray (as explained by John Green) along with a status update of another of my friend finding an SO messes with your head a little. That, along with some travel fatigue.

Here I am, eating the shittiest pizza of my life along with some Fanta, writing on the back of a pizza menu, in Milan of all places.

Have I ever mentioned how beautiful horizons are. I guess technically it's all one long horizon. When I first started this trip, I was in the Van Gogh museum and many artists were lamenting the vanishing of nature everywhere as everyone moved towards city life. I remember walking along those aisles thinking, what could be so great about nature. Stop being such pussies.

Today I'm watching the sky from the balcony, the soft blend from pink to green to blue.

I'm not sure if I really want to go home. I guess I want to do both just as badly.
In retrospect, I should have kept the lid close. My shitty pizza is now cold as well.
I think I just want a friend to talk to. Recently, I found out that I lost her number. I actually lost my SIM card a few weeks back and the only reason I frantically checked my contacts was to make sure I didn't lose my only way to contact her. Yesterday, I found out that of all the contacts that I saved, hers was the only one that did not have a number attached to a name.

Fahrenheit 451 reminds us of the concept of mindless entertainment. That I could forget what I just watched on the telly not 5 minutes ago. I'm genuinely afraid I have become that. To be not dead but not really alive.
When was the last time you felt alive? Asked John. I couldn't answer. Has my memory really gotten that bad or is my life really that pathetic?
Neither sounds promising.

We all look for quick escapes. Drugs, food, drinks, sex. "The little death" Le petit I can't remember. That's how the French describe the orgasm. Is life so meaningless that we see escape, many willing to risk injury or death to do so?

I don't know.

A week ago I made the realization that I was only attracted to her because she remained the only female peer I have "semi-regular" contact with.
A smart person once told me that what I feel is not so much jealousy or envy of love, but more of an envy or jealousy of time lost among friends. By all accounts that makes sense, but it doesn't make me feel better. I still feel whatever it is that I feel inside and there's no one around to get it out. When I finally do see my friends, my jaws will probably shut tight and nothing will come out. It's strange how the truth is never kind. Yet, it is the one thing I seek in life.

I wrote once that this feels like losing a race nobody knew they were participating in. I don't know why.

I think I'm tired of hearing "I'll find you" or "I'll ask you" when nobody seems to do so. When you have some quiet to yourself, you do a lot of thinking. I'm having a lot of quiet these past few days. I'm not so sure I like it.
I feel like I can no longer use my mouth. Like words stop coming out the moment they carry any depth or emotion. I need a pen or a computer to put any thoughts into the physical realm. It feels really weak.

Now the sky has turned a lighter shade of purple.

I met a person who asked me why bother living if there is no heaven.

What if there wasn't?
I could never wrap my head around his logic.

Right now my thoughts are so segmented, they are just a string of phrases that jolt in and out of my head.
I can now smell the night coming in as the sky turns ever so dimmer.

Milan is supposedly renowned for its nightlife. I always gave people the excuse that it sucks to go clubbing by your lonesome self. I have a secret to admit. I've actually rejected invitations on 2 separate occasions to party, giving some lame excuse each time. I don't know why. Maybe I'm just not secure enough to drink alcohol.

I'm really tired now. My entire face feels like it's drooping. But if I know myself well enough, I'm probably going to stay up using my laptop later.
I envy the optimists. I sit here thinking I'm going to have these sessions 10 years from now in the exact same state and I wonder how they keep going each and every day.

I'm suddenly reminded of my friend's death. Sometimes I wonder if I qualify to call him a friend when I was never that close to him. The sky is now a pretty even shade of grey, with a bit of light still coming from the right.

Streetlights are starting to come on now.

Time to time, I still think about him. How I'd rather take his place instead, or use any of the thousands upon thousands less great than him.

We never became great poets because we were happy.

Thanks for listening to me talk about myself.


P.S. 24/7/12: For clarification, there are actually 2 "hers" in this wall of text, spread over 4 pages of A4 paper. I've done as little editing as I can, just commas and fullstops here and there, to retain the scattered "style" of writing. I think enough time has passed that I'm at least somewhat detached from those emotions that day. Well, writing it down certainly helped.

Singapore and the push for a "well-rounded" education

Post Script: This was not what i planned to write initially a few weeks ago when i said i had stuff i wanted to say. That one mostly pertained to the City Harvest Church scandal and the case where some guy lost his rifle to a worker with a screwdriver.


I just wrote this after watching a video on youtube and felt some words on my brain that I wanted to get out on paper.

My single greatest fear should the government succeed in pushing for an all-rounded education is that if raffles and all the other top schools start taking it seriously, our mentality will change from seeking exam-smart students to seeking to be the best at everything from sports to music to arts to academia. We have a messed up mentality, especially at the top, of wanting to be the best or the first at anything and everything. If the criteria switches (or more likely evolves slowly over time into such a state), we will eventually start looking for "perfect" people who are good at everything and that simply doesn't exist. Our blind enthusiasm towards "being the best" will lead to people not committing suicide because they scored a C or D in major exams, but because they couldn't run fast enough, even though they've been good at everything else. It's always a pity when kids kill themselves because they think they are failures at life for failing exams. I don't want that to spread to the rest of their pursuits. I want kids to fail. I want them to screw up at painting or running or guitar because that's where they learn some  goddamn humility, not shame for trying and failing.

Think about the way we treat CIP and voluntary work and you can see a little of what might possibly happen with pushing all fronts. The environment at the top currently, is that more or less everyone will do CIP but often for less than satisfactory reasons. Many of them hate doing it, but just suck thumb and do it. This may not be a overall majority opinion but we know it happens and we can assume it's not an extreme minority. I don't want to music or arts or sports to evolve into something kids hate doing just to pull up their resume or testimonials. I want there to be something worth doing just for the sake of doing it.

The entire idea of a well-rounded education is not to produce people who are good at everything. Singaporeans and people everywhere must always remember that. It is to protect people whose interests and talents lie outside the academic sphere. It should be more of a safety net to catch those who can't perform in exams. Because those people aren't useless. They certainly aren't useless for getting F at math. They may be amazing tailors or athletes or guitarists. Education is supposed to help everyone, including people like them.

Education is not linear.

to be written. at some point provided I don't lose interest

Yes, i also have some stuff I want to write here but I don't have time to write them here.

Europe: Here and Now

Hey, I don't want to double post this but here's a quick preview. I made a blog just to chronicle the entire europe trip and I hope you support it because there's ads and stuff. Anyway, here's the link: http://glennardvstheworld.tumblr.com/

Alternate Title: I’m in London for 12 hours and I’ve only almost died twice. You can trust me mom.

I think of all the countries I’m going to be in, this will probably resemble Singapore the most. Even then, there are a lot of stark differences between these 2 places. For one thing, there are a lot more stone and brick visible to the casual observer. Everything in the background looks as if they have a brown or grey filter over it. Side note: This is how I almost got into 2 separate traffic accidents because the pavement and road looked so similar in colour that there was no visible distinction.

But don’t let the first photo trick you. It is actually a lively city and you can see a lot of contrasts between the “lively” and its backdrop. everyone always seems to be trying to get somewhere but you never feel the rush or pressure to get anywhere. you could just stand there and stare at the ever-moving crowds and enjoy the view.

Beer seems to be the drink of choice here, with overcrowding at most bars that we passed by, so much so that they actually have standing areas right outside. 

It’s been raining over these past 2 days and I’ve been caught in both of them.  Hopefully, it’s sunny out later. 

Hello world

This post should act as some kind of disclaimer. I foresee a few new students stumbling onto my facebook page and seeing that I in fact do have a blog. (I actually realized it's much harder than I expected to find this page) No matter.

If you do choose to read beyond this post into my history, do take what I say with a pinch of salt. I am an incredibly vulgar person, (which at this point I'm still debating if I want to tell that to you guys in the first place), and the views represented in my history is one of a younger kid, one much like yourself or even younger, if you choose to go that far. Some of the views I present are pretty one-sided and in terms of language, horrible.

But I'm choosing not to take it down or hide it because I think anyone, and most importantly you guys, should be able to discern what to listen to.

That said, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Cycling

Also, I did some cycling yesterday. I have literally one photo. The other one is just a generic photo of East Coast Park.

Creativity

At some point in time, I wondered to myself what drives artists to make art. I wasn't looking for some passionate answer about motivation or drive or some feel-good mumbo jumbo like that. There's a pretty obvious disconnect between those in the creative industries and those outside. And I wondered why that was. What separated those who do from those who don't.

It in interesting to note that when it comes to creativity, some people firmly believe in being "gifted" and some believe hard work overcomes all. Because creativity comes in various forms of expression, it became too overwhelming to think about how much of an effect training actually has. So I decided to use a parallel, and the only one I could come up with was humor. Being funny comes naturally to some people. And some people manage to turn that into their day job. So why then do schools for humor training still exist, like improv schools and acting schools for comedy?

My belief is that it is an innate ability, just like creativity, cultivated perhaps only when we still have permission (or perhaps freedom) to make mistakes. That time period is usually when we're still very young, still unaware of social pressures like guilt or fear. But more importantly, it comes in 2 parts, the ability to see the world differently, and the ability to translate that to a medium. Of course, such an ability is not a dichotomy between haves and have-nots but a sliding scale. That still doesn't answer the question of why formal training still exists.

Training acts as a funnel to direct part 1 to part 2. Many people go through life with the ability to see things differently, but never able to put it down onto paper or film or any other medium, which is one of the most frustrating thing in the world. You can never expect a good writer to paint well or a sketch artist to direct a film. Some people may have skills that translate well across mediums, but it's unreasonable to expect so from most people. What training does is that it simply refines your skill at putting it on a medium. That's why lessons are focused on particularly technical aspects, like shadows, or pacing or special effects. They have nothing to do with what you can envision in your mind, merely how to show it to other people more spectacularly.

And the reverse is also true. Some people have a marvellous ability to draw or paint or write, but not much of creativity per se. So they perform best imitating the work of other. A lot of them do incredible work, but they lack the originality that makes artists artists. Many times, these are the people that training cannot help.

Hole in the wall

The hole in the wall that used to be my toilet.

Now that construction work is ongoing, there is drilling every other hour and worse, I have no access to a reasonably clean toilet. There's also dust everywhere, and I do mean everywhere.

To put this into perspective, the drilling is done in a toilet, in the kitchen outside the dining hall. The dust managed to spread all the way to the doorway and even the stairs. 

The guts of my once functional bathroom.

Maslow and his stupid triangle

This is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Nobody seems to understand that this is a hierarchy.

Just to give a bit of background. More and more students are being taught this in schools around the world, but because when this comes about, it's always touch-and-go because no one is teaching psychology at a secondary school level. They are simply using this as a tool to push whatever lesson they have, like English or Social Studies or Character Development or whatever.

This is a very simple example of giving kids tools but not teaching them how to use it. 

The way students misuse this in school is that they like to cite this as an academic theory to prove that people have certain specific needs that they are trying to prove. The needs that people have (according to them) can be anything from needing food to money or even to spiritual needs. This just happens to be the convenient blanket example or theory that proves them right, simply because it's listed here in the pyramid.

Now, adults, let me have a word with you here. With the education that we have, it is simple to see that this theory is meant to prove a hierarchy, that people HAVE to fulfil the bottom (food and sleep) before we go on to the top. We GET that, because we have been bombarded with enough stimuli that we know to expect such a pattern when people show a picture of a pyramid or the word hierarchy.

The thing is, kids don't get that.

To them, they see a convenient list that someone named Maslow wrote down for them that proves that we have all these needs. It doesn't. It simply shows that we have to fulfil basic needs before we concern ourselves with higher-order ones. This is why the poor don't concern themselves with respect by others or why North Koreans don't seem to worry about creativity. 

What we see and what they see is different and even now I find it difficult to get back into the mindset of learning for the first time. I'm not sure whose fault it is and I'm not even sure that matters. Identification of misconceptions like this is important and we need to get a hold of that as soon as possible.

It's very disappointing to see students using a power drill when they don't know how to.

Movie idea from my iPhone

[From 13 Dec 2011]

A rebellion starting up is US led by charismatic person. Turns out to be bankrolled by an enemy of the US like Russia or China even though a British accent sounds better. (Idea idea: conglomerate of nations working against US) Quote/Tagline: It's just good business.

Should the Russians/ bad guys win and the rebellion successful, it will set the US back several years while the other nations overtakes the economy. US citizens will live in a state of grand delusion that they are still the best and consume as they did in the past. The scenery in the country will look like 2010 but other countries will look futuristic.

Birthday idea

[Image not available]
Inspired by this.

Birthday Idea

Set up a table and hopefully signs at a book store and let the birthday person sit there and sign books. Friends and relatives would be forming a line as long as possible (depending on how many friends show up) and take as much time to sign as possible and once it's done, the "customer" takes a walk around the shop or the mall and lines up at the back of the line again to create the illusion of a very popular queue.

Pretty cool, can do as long as you like or until security escorts you out.

Nice idea for the birthday kid.

Legal Gray Areas: Facebook and Rape, Part D'eux

Rape is universally condemned. Actually, wait no scratch that, there are some people who still think men can have sex with women whenever they want, regardless of the women's choice in the matter.

But we're not here to discuss that.

We're here to discuss about LYING about raping, and before I begin, I would like to direct you to 2 links.


1) News story, followed by the video I heard it from (it only talks about that story from after 5:15 mark)

2) "I was raped" "No, we had sex"

While rape has always been clear in definition when it comes to "violent rape", or the first kind of rapey non-consensual sex we think about where a lady walks alone in a dark alley and a man forces himself on her. That, in and of itself, is very hard to misinterpret. The fuzzy definition comes with "sexual assault between non-consenting people." Assault means that there is an element of physical violence or at least the threat of physical violence ("if you struggle, I'll stab you"). That definition however, does not encompass cases like date rape where one is not consenting but there's no violence because she's unconscious from the drugs in her drinks. So some countries broaden the definition to simply non-consensual sex. Simple enough.

Before I get to that minefield, let's tackle the issue of blatant lying in rape accusations. Currently, our system is completely tilted in the woman's favor. It has been documented that men get up to 10 times more severe punishments than woman in cases of similar severity. And it's easy to see why. Think about a man who molested 10 kids. You get pretty disgusted with that scenario, but when a woman molests 10 kids, it does not come off as revolting. So our natural instincts already fail us in this regard. (Note: this is a completely biased/unscientific poll. This is a completely fallacious conclusion stemming from a fallacious train of thought)

Personally, I'm okay with men being treated worse. Call it payback, if you will. What really rustles my jimmies is the assumption of guilt on the father. The fact that when men become accused for raping women, it takes a ridiculous amount of convincing to prove his innocence. In fact, accusing men of rape is actually a threat used by women, particularly when there are no eyewitnesses or alibis (i.e when the 2 people are in the same room or house alone.) In the first case, it wasn't well investigated and police simply took the girl's word for it.

The fact that she would not be charged for this is... I don't even know what or how to feel about this. The official reason for this is not to scare away potential victims from reporting the crime, which by the way is a real problem, particularly in Japan where as many as a quarter (completely unverified statistic) do not report such incidences out of shame or fear. That "sort of" makes sense but then again, shouldn't there be less stigma for reporting cases. This entire issue is very fuzzy and while I don't think she should be free from charges, the fact that she was only 11 should be considered as well as the fact that there will be no restitution  (compensation) for the father.

The second case shows more clearly the idea of non-consensual. When women do that, it not only "makes it hard for real rape victims to be believed, but also insults women who have really experienced rape. If one changes their mind after sex, does that mean that the sex was non-consensual. Wouldn't that be the same as failing to get a degree after studying in college for a few years and then telling people you never attended it? At least that never hurt anyone's reputation. When the woman started to regret sex that night, she cannot call it rape anymore.

Rape is a very serious issue and it cannot be used as a weapon or an excuse. I'm so messed up by this whole issue that I can't even formulate my sentence english like.

Legal Gray Areas: Facebook and Rape

I want to talk about 2 separate issues, not that I'm equating facebook privacy laws are in any way, shape or form similar to rape issues.

Let's talk about facebook first. In the recent months (on the internet), there has been a rising trend of employers asking prospective hires (unemployed people looking for jobs) to hand over their facebook information. Not just the basic profile page url or anything like that, but the account information, including username and passwords. Many companies have reasoned that this is merely "shoulder-surfing", no altering of any details already on the profile. They have also defended this policy by saying it is no different from a standard background check, one that all companies do before hiring to look out for issues such as past criminal activity or drug use, etc. 

Without even researching, we'd know the consequences of this to most of us. This reflects a incredible breach of privacy for the employees, shifting much of the power to the employer.

But what about the employers doing the snooping?

I Hereby Resign by Reginald Braithwaite

This (fictional) resignation letter highlights the possible impacts for the companies, possible conflicts of interest that may arise due to this arrangement. That was an amazing read for me and I literally gasped when I read that the woman could sue the employer while being so casual about handing over her FB information.

Without going too deep into the legal or even moral aspects of this issue, I do have some questions regarding the "background check" aspect of (almost) every hiring.

It's interesting that most people think there is such an obvious reason for background checks. "Well, I definitely don't want to hire an ex-convict". Granted that they are actual valid reasons for denying such people, due to perhaps security reasons. There's no way we could justify hiring a person with a criminal record for issues pertaining to national security, such as in Defence ministries, or even as simple as guarding important people like the President of the United States.

But how far can we stretch such a reasoning? Isn't denying jobs to ex-convicts as discriminatory as denying them to a lesbian? Anti-discrimination laws were set up to provide equality for everyone, but when companies pick their hires, they still have some kind of bias regarding these issues. The fact that handing over facebook information simply streamlines the process for them. It's not as if they don't already check out your profile page on facebook before deciding. When they do that, it's not discrimination because there's no paper trail regarding them checking you out, but in their mind, they would have had the same decision processes with or without your password. It's just a matter of admitting outright whether they do look at your profile. I'll admit that forcing employees to give up passwords imply that their posts are scrutinized no matter what, instead of being able to decide who sees what. 

Facebook also presents a new element to the background checking process. The idea that your thoughts and opinions can be ascertained through your profile. Traditionally, it was very black-and-white type of information. Male/Female, Age, Criminal Activity, Past accomplishments, etc. Now, everything you ever decided to post on public is up for grabs, that includes your political ideology, your attitude, whether you're divorced or committed adultery. There really is no one person who is at fault for such a scenario. On one hand, you could blame the company for snooping around for such information, but on the other, you could blame the user for posting his thoughts on facebook, knowing very well that it can be accessed by everyone (or at least compromised to such a degree). The company is looking at information you chose to post for everyone to see, as opposed to stealing records or hiring private investigators to get that information. Who should be responsible for this? I don't know.

So with that, I leave you with more questions that you came here with. Good night.

Oh and I'll talk about the rape thing in another post because this is becoming too long.

How societies advance and yet remain conservative

Conservative and progressive attitudes seem to be at odds with one another and when they spill over to other topics, it's easy to relate one another.

I don't know if this is a fallacious statement but progressive attitudes in a society seems to be linked to advances in technology that eventually become modern societies. I don't know if which leads to which, but they do appear linked. I mean with a progressive attitude, you'd be more inclined to know more about the world, find out, and make discoveries, which is how technology comes about.

But my question is how conservative societies become "modern" (like Singapore and Japan) and yet remain conservative. I know there are a lot of loaded words to untangle and I don't really have time for that so I'm going to just post it like this.

And like I said, maybe the initial assumption is wrong in the first place. Who knows?

Conversation trees

Every so often in life, we will encounter moments when we realize something is amiss. It can be a big dramatic revelation that changes your life entirely, or a small little thing you picked up on.

Since becoming a teacher, people like to ask me either what has teaching been like, or how are the students. Most of the time I don't have a short answer because it's too big of an experience to squeeze into 2 lines. So, I sort of say the first thing that comes to mind.

When people ask me how my students are, I don't have much of a judgement on them because they are neither good kids nor bad. So I say the one thing that as a class, they seem to have moreso than other classes or even batches. Which is that they have overwhelmingly good handwriting.

And this is the part when you realize people aren't really listening. So far, at least 2 people have said "Oh, (start leading into another topic)" I mean talking about their handwriting is definitely something people don't expect to hear. Maybe that they are naughty or nice or muggers or whatever. People who are generally interested in what your are talking about will maybe extend the conversation like saying that's unexpected, or try to guess reasons for nice handwriting (are they mostly girls?) or maybe even change direction to something that they were kind of expecting (but what about their attitude, or but are they a clever bunch of kids).

When people ask you something and they don't seem to react to that news, you know they are not interested in you (or your students) but more of a polite acknowledgement before moving on to what they really want to talk about.

It's always funny to find out that people are really listening, because they think they are putting on a good show of pretending to be interested, but the speaker can totally see through it.