What am I going to tell her tonight

History was made today; not in the way the world expected.

I do not know this guy but he spoke my thoughts. https://www.facebook.com/NowThisNews/videos/1220171848072937/

Update 10/11:  Found my thoughts on my drive home.  Sweetie knew the outcome already from TV news.  I told her that for so long, we all have mocked this guy, about his big ego and shamelessness, to think of himself being qualified for the job, and that he has any chance in winning at all.  While we do not know yet if he will be up to the job, but at least he made the whole world eat humble pie with the unexpected win.  It goes to show that, as long as we believe in ourselves, with lots of perseverance and never say die attitude, we can be anything that we want to be.  This, is the only positive message that I can conjure from this bizarre turn of events.  Life goes on.   

History in the making 2016

I have taken an interest in the US presidential election because, frankly, it's very entertaining.   The US is a very interesting country.  I dare to say that the rest of the world watch in wonder and amusement, even with some disgust, that such a maverick character can become a serious contender to becoming one of the most powerful person in world politics. 

Recently, the talking points turn to DT's past sexual assaults on women.  As I lapped up one article after another, I became very interested in this topic.

I used to think that most countries and most men are respectful of women.  I thought that sexual assault only happen to some unfortunate women, who had the bad luck of having known/met some horribly sickening men.  Then, I also believe in the justice system, that each and every sexual assault case can be brought to justice in court. 

But as I read more on this topic, I began to realise that gender inequality is still extremely prevalent.  Even in our century, even in one of the most democratic and advance country in the world.  It began to dwell upon me that most women, even myself, tolerate men's behaviour day in and day out.  For example, my boss will pass comment about women leadership skills, and I will just brush it aside.  There's a very simple explanation for that(my) reaction; it's probably ingrained in me, and I will venture to say, in a lot of women, to avoid conflict. We also suffer from lower self esteem and confidence, and will always attribute some blame to ourselves.  By keeping quiet, I indirectly perpetuate this kind of  thinking and behaviour in him.

I wonder how I can teach my peace loving, good natured 老 baby (ha!, she's turning 10 in a few days' time!) the important value of  gender equality and standing up for female rights.   I also hope that my sister and sister in laws will do the right thing in educating their daughters and sons. 

My new 偶像 is Michelle Obama. 
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/13/politics/michelle-obama-donald-trump-election-2016/index.html

And I kept wanting to have a opportunity to post this again, as I really admire this young chap's respect for women and his wife:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3384822/Be-nerd-school-successful-inventor-Mark-Zuckerberg-brilliant-response-woman-said-encouraging-granddaughters-date-geeks-school.html

Update 4 - Lynn's p4 PTM

June holiday started early this year, on 28th May.  I took leave on 27th May (Friday) to attend Lynn's parent-teacher- meeting.  I missed the session last year as I was on biz trip.  This year, I got my boss to make the trip in the 3rd week of May instead, so that I can attend the meeting.

Lynn has the same form teacher for the 2 years of P3 and P4 - Ms Chua, like she did for P1 and P2 (Mdm Ong).  I know Mdm Ong well because I was much more involved in her class activities during those 2 years.  It was different with Ms Chua.  She is a young teacher, so she uses Whatsapp to communicate with us (parents) more often.  She seems friendly, and the kids seems to like her.

We waited a long time outside the classroom for our turn.  Ms Chua really took her time with each set of parents.  When I walked in, she said out loud ".. and you are...".  Then she saw WK walking behind me, and she said ".. ahh... Lynnette's parents..".  Ha!  Proves that Lynn looks like Daddy more.

It was an impressive session.  I was so surprised that the teachers, as in Ms Chua and Ms Kalpana (Lynn's English teacher) are really spot on in understanding their class of 40 children.  Ms Chua explains that Lynn's results are really ok, as we can see all are quite good, but.. hmm but...  Then she explained, that the teachers just felt that she can do better, that she is not giving her best.  We laughed, because we understand what she means.  Lynn just gives the minimum effort in most things that she does.  For example, when she writes her composition, instead of using interesting sentences and expanding the details, she would just write it plainly and quickly to just hand in the job.  I told Ms Chua that we will continue to encourage her; we don't want to be too pushy either, so it's going to be tricky to find the right balance to motivate her to do better.

And she told us that Lynn cried the day or the week before, because Ms Chua asked her to play captain ball, but she didn't want to.  Again, I will take a "watch and see" approach.  I do not want to be too demanding in this aspect too.  I do not know if Lynn's a softie by nature or not, or if she will grow out of it eventually or not.  I learn, through my own experience, that we cannot change a person's inner character.  On one hand I want her to be more resilient, on the other hand I do not want to impose my expectation (model) on her.  But I did talk to her to encourage her to speak up more to solve problem. 

Soon she will be at starting her PSLE journey, because I was told that it all starts at P5.  Every year is a blessing and a milestone :)

Finally MOE announced that the new PSLE grading system will take effect from 2021.  It had been a long wait for most of us who are already entered the Primary school journey a few years back (It was first announced by LHL in 2013, when Lynn was only P1, that there will be a new system).  It was with mixed feelings that it is finally confirmed that Lynn will not be part of the new system, as the new system will take effect only for those in P1 currently.  So it is a lengthy 8 years from first announcement to full implementation.  That gives the parents and students affected plenty of time to get to know the new system.

The reactions of parents are per expected.  All changes are greeted with suspicions by detractors.  And the media likes to blow up a negative comment to be that of the view of "many parents".  If a parent commented that now the child needs more tuition than in the past for a weak subject so that it doesn't drag down the overall grading, the media will report that parents feel more stressed out and consider more tuition under the new system.   So a Kiasu parent will still be a Kiasu one, and will try to beat the system, or cry foul about the system.  That's why the message has always been a mind set change is needed. 

Well, I will refrain from giving too much comment on the new system, since Lynn is not in the batches affected.  My next task is to start assessing the different secondary schools that she may be eligible for.  As a "not-too-extreme-but-should-be-considered-kiasu", i.e. concerned and well-informed, parent, I want to ensure that we pick the most suitable environment for her to grow and flourish.  I am quite dishearten to see friends' kids who went to top notch schools that are really pressure cookers.  They do their homework up to and past midnight.  I wonder if it's doing them good or harm.  It is better to expose them to the reality of intense competition, or to let them enjoy learning for another few more years?  Still the good schools also come with branding and prestige that is tangible; until today, I still get a lot of positive comments of me coming from the very branded Hwa Chong JC.  It was in HCJC that I first experienced doing homework up to midnight..  There's a price to pay, and a trade off for everything in life.  See, the worries of being a parent..

That Friday afternoon, we went hover-boarding!  

Hazy weekend

(This post was written and completed last Monday, 14/9, but I just didn't get it published somehow.  Today's 21/9, another weekend had gone by.  Better late then never...)


Another long weekend came and went.  Back to Monday blues and work and endless deadlines..

This long weekend,

(1) There was a joke circulating on polling day, that says "Breaking News:  PM will be changed tonight.  At midnight, PM will change to AM". 

The night (pm) on polling day turned out to be much longer than usual for a lot of people, because we stayed up to the wee hours to watch the election results.  It was super fun and exciting.  I thought I won't stay up past 12am, but I was hooked, and I tahan to 2.30am.  Then I slept with the TV on.  At slightly after 3am, WK's phone rang.  We woke up to see LTK giving half hearted thank you speech for winning Aljunied.  Finally, I can switch off the TV.

(2) I'm getting really old.  Sat, I woke up at about 9am, sent Lynn to class at 1045, and savoured my Cappuccino and the newspaper reports of a landslide win for PAP till 1pm.  By 2pm (after lunch), my body reacted violently to the late night.  I fell ill. And I was ill for the whole of Sunday

(3) The haze returned, so I stayed in and in bed for the whole of Sunday, till dinner time.  Lynn was so sweet.  She voluntarily did some house work, and gave me quite a lot of downtime on Sat and Sun. 

After thoughts about the election.  There were a lot of analysis about why the opposition lose big time.  I am happy that my prediction that the overall % for our incumbents will increase is right.  It also proves that those extremely nasty govt bashing junks on internet are indeed not from the majority of our population.  As for what is the real reason for the swing (LKY effect, or silent majority effect, etc, whatever), it is anybody's guess, cos nobody has any data to prove it.  And it is for the govt and the oppositions to figure it out.  I like LHL's saying that we vote more PAP to make the oppositions work harder.  I still like LTK and SL, so I hope they figure out that they can't be as complacency as they had been from 2011 - 2015.  They need to contribute constructively to our country too.

Finally, I like to believe that the real reason is that we, the silent majority, made the difference.  Here's an analysis that I like most, because it's what I like to believe:
https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/09/12/must-read-jg-explains-the-results/ 


 

Hopeful

2 more days.  After trolling FB for days, lapping up all kinds of postings, I am still hopeful that the results on Friday will prove that a majority of Singaporeans is good and sensible people.  I am hopeful that we are nothing like the social media population that behave like monsters and animals.

I see the passion in many friends, who make tremendous effort in correcting what they perceive as wrong views, very actively online.  Perhaps, they are worried that these lies may be taken as truth by the gullible readers?  Or they feel a strong sense of righteousness, that no unscrupulous politician should get away with sprouting lies?

There is suppose to be a fairly big group of rational swing-voters.  There is also a big group of non-active social media users who are either hard core government or hard core opposition supporters.  These people make their decisions based on their own experiences, and based on information gathered in the past 4 years.  They do not make decisions based on what's said in the past 2 weeks only. 

Politicians are unscrupulous by nature.  The good ones too.  They do what's necessary to get votes, and eliminate opponents.  Our beloved, late, first PM was fairly notorious in that aspect.  But, he is kind and selfless, to his country and his citizens.  It was not the purest form of democracy that helped get us to this prosperous state; it was pure luck, that we had him.   We should be grateful.  And we need to move on.

For the past 4 years, I see progress, made by good people in our government.  I also see a lot of shortcoming and flaws in this group of leaders.  It is very obvious to me that this group lacks the ability of the previous generation.  For example, what is the reason for the frequent breakdown in our train system, and the hardship felt by the ordinary citizens with the influx of foreign talents?  It is not because of the 6.9m population policy, not because of any incompetency of our current transport minister.  It is the failure of the various ministries and ministers to plan and build the infrastructure necessary to support the foreign worker policy.  I don't think this would happen during Mr. LKY's time.  During his time, finance, housing and all policies were perfectly coordinated. 

Luckily, we still have 60%, who are willing to work with the better team, and currently the only viable team.  I'm still hopeful, that the majority have the right attitude, to work hard, to work hand in hand in securing our own future. 

In any developed entertainment industry, critics are necessary; they help the actors and actresses to achieve higher level of performance.     But remember, critics can't act.

In a democratic, developed country, oppositions plays a crucial role.  History has proven, power corrupts.  We may only get lucky once.

So, how will I vote on Friday?
To put in social media language:  We need people who stir shit.  I will vote for people who can clear shit.

      

Where our hearts are

Exciting days ahead.   Due to the events leading up to the situation today, Singaporeans have become much more interested and in tune with politics.   There are so much discussions and views shared publicly.  So what's my?

My story must start by going back to the time when I'm in secondary 3.  Back then, I was a "green-house-flower", a naïve and protected gal, whose life was only about school and studies.  I'm those who went home straight after school.  My home back then was a spacious and windy HDB point-block unit on the 18th storey.  After finishing my homework, one of my favourite activity was to stand by window, wind in my hair, looking out and down, at the beautiful green surrounding and the clear blue sky.  Though not rich, I had never encounter any hardship.  Though I had friends from very poor families, living in rented or one room flats in the same neighbourhood, I was oblivious to their struggles. 

My only contact with politics was through my Sec 3 physics teacher.  His name is Mr. Yao.  He was, unique; caring but slightly eccentric.  He gave us his home number, and told us that we may call him if we face any (teenager) problem (not related to studies). 

That year in Sec 3, was the year of China Tiananmen 六四事件.  End of that same year, was the fall of communism in Romania.  He talked about how students fight for the ideology of democracy, and compared it to how Romania as a country suffered after the sudden downfall of communism.  It was a very different view from the rest of the world.  The foreign, western countries were all condemning the China government, that there was serious violation of human rights in PRC.   For him, he questioned the naivety students' moment. 

He also talked about Anwar.  Most Singaporeans of my age knew Anwar as a political victim and sympathize him.  And I think my Malaysia friends will wonder if the country will be in better shape than today, if Anwar succeeded premiership.  For me, because of Mr. Yao, it was different.  He questioned if Anwar was more or less race-blind compared to the then PM, and if Anwar will be beneficial or detrimental to the bilateral relationship, and to us, Singapore?

Those were heavy topics that he discussed.  For some reasons, the politically-apathetic me remembered these lessons. 

Those years, were a quarter century ago.  After 25 years, I have grown a lot.  A lot older, a lot heavier..  Jokes aside, a lot wiser and concerned.  Concerned about how politics are not someone else problem.  Concerned that, when someone holds a different opinion from you, it doesn't affect just them, but instead it affects everyone, and in a big way.  It can't be as simple as to just "agree to disagree". 

I had a discussion with my Dad last Saturday.  He said that our country is at risk of becoming like Taiwan, where democracy is almost a joke.   He said that the current leaders are too soft, doesn't have the iron fist ability like LKY's generation.   I refuted, telling him that it is precisely because LHL is not like his father, that I think that there is hope for our country.  The world will always belong to the younger generation.  If preaching, and LKY styled well-meaning-threats don't work anymore, we should use other clever means to influence the younger generation.   Going on and on about how fortunate they are is not effective in getting the message across.  LHL needs to be different from his father to lead the younger generation.

A lot had been said and analysed.  I offer my 2-cents worth to those who care to listen.  Meanwhile, let me end this by sharing this "poll".  My aunts and I were chatting, and we all bet that the overall votes for PAP will be increased (2011: 60.1%).  Our guesses are 64%, 67%, 62%.  We feel upbeat, that there is hope for this country and it's people.