The Joys of Skipping School

Once upon a time, the blogger known as Stressed Teacher wrote a post entitled The Parent's Letter. There he commented disapprovingly about students who skip school events, and parents who write letters to excuse their children from school events.

Stressed Teacher felt that such students are either lazy, or cowardly and kiasu. He also felt that the parents of these students are failing to instil proper values in the kids.

I left a comment on Stressed Teacher's blog to say that I disagreed. My main point was that like most other people in the world, students simply don't like to waste their time on unproductive, useless activities. Only a few students, however, are bold enough to defy the school's rules and expectations. These are the few who will skip unproductive, useless activities, and subsequently produce a parent's letter.

I suppose you can guess that during school days I was a chronic absentee myself. Anyway, the Straits Times had an article today which reminded me of my discussion with Stressed Teacher.

ST July 30, 2007
Ethnic costumes are not racism level indicators
Students more inclined to learn racial sensitivity from example
By Tessa Wong

HARMONISE, or else.

That was the underlying message of a secondary school's authoritarian decision to discipline more than 30 students two weeks ago during its Racial Harmony Day celebrations.

When students there failed to turn up in ethnic costumes, they said they were forced to stand outside the school office for 11/2 hours, missing out on some festivities.

After that, they had to fill out a feedback form on racial harmony.

It's an approach that's heavily ironic. The principal had said the school didn't think it had excluded a lot of people, only 'a minority' of the student population - this, on a day meant to celebrate tolerance and inclusiveness in Singapore.

Such an approach inadvertently sends mixed signals. How could a student learn anything from such a rigid attitude so lacking in the good will inherent in the message of racial harmony?

While promoting the message of racial harmony is indisputably a good thing, I don't see the point in strictly enforcing a practice meant as a bit of fun for students and taking it way too seriously.

When one becomes too by-the-book in a bid to remain politically correct, one also ends up coming across as overtly preachy and puritanical - a big turn-off for any student, if you ask me.

In any case, I'm not quite sure how wearing an ethnic costume is supposed to show you are a racially harmonious individual in the first place.

The school's logic - that not turning up in ethnic costume warrants suspicion of racist sentiments - seems awkward, at best.

............... increasingly, I find such superficial expressions of racial harmony are becoming irrelevant to the younger generation, who have long been taught to embrace our national identity and respect one another as fellow Singaporeans.

In the end, there is no point sledgehammering home the idea of harmonious multi-culturalism. What will work is practising what one preaches.

I am sure schools work hard to educate their young charges on racial sensitivity via the curriculum and activities such as educational games or plays.

It would be even better if educators, instead of being too rigid in enforcing political correctness, could be more sensitive to the messages underlying their actions.

After all, aren't the young most inclined to learn from example, rather than a lecture?

Dressing up in ethnic costumes is ....... exactly the kind of school event that I would skip, as a student. It might be fun, but if I had better things to do, then yes, I would skip such an event. And no, I'm not a racist. I just don't like to participate in unproductive, useless activities.

Scholarships For The New Singapore

Singapore Angle has a post about bonded scholarships. It discusses the factors that one should consider, before accepting such a scholarship. I have one point to add.

In the past, one good reason to accept a scholarship was that it would add strong value to your resume. In other words, the "ex-PSC scholar" stamp would help to open doors in future. However, in my opinion, the value of the "ex-PSC scholar" stamp has somewhat eroded. I believe that it will continue to erode steadily over the years.

The reason is simply Singapore's foreign talent policy.

Fifteen years ago, most job candidates in Singapore came from a well-standardised and easily recognisable system. They were Singaporeans; went through the same education system; studied the same textbooks; sat for the same exams; and were graded and streamed according to the same rules administered by the same government.

Accordingly, comparing the relative "quality" of job candidates was a straightforward process. Within this system, PSC scholars represented the highest achievers. Hence the "ex-PSC scholar" label was valuable in the skilled job market. It clearly marked you out as much superior to the average job candidate (the one who was posted to East Toa Payoh Junior College, took only three A-level subjects and didn't even qualify to pick up an application form from PSC).

Things are different now. A much higher percentage of job candidates in Singapore do not come from that same old recognisable system. Instead they come from education systems in diverse countries such as China, India, Hong Kong, the UK, the US, Malaysia, Australia, the Philippines and elsewhere.

In other words, the common ground for easy comparison has shrunk drastically. The "ex-PSC scholar" label has become much less obvious as a stamp of excellence.

In addition, nowadays many prospective employers in Singapore are not native Singaporeans themselves. They are "foreign talent" and grew up in some other country. So they are quite unfamiliar with the local education system. Even if they have settled here with their families for some time, their children are likely to be attending the international schools here.

Thus it does not necessarily mean anything to your job interviewer if you say that you were an RJC boy who scored straight A's in your Cambridge A-levels; Distinctions in your S-Papers; and were a PSC scholar. His response may simply be: "Oh ... What is RJC? What is S-Paper? What is PSC?".

He may not even know what the Cambridge A-levels are. Depending on where he came from, he would be more familiar with "Advanced Placement", "Senior High School", "International Baccalaureate", the "STPM", the "HKALE", or the "National College Entrance Exam". If you show him your string of beautiful straight A's for your A-levels, he may simply form the impression that the Cambridge A-levels must be very substandard examinations, where many people easily score good grades.

Recently, I was telling a foreign colleague of mine about PSC scholarships. Halfway through our conversation, he said, "Oh, I guess these scholarships must be for poor people."

I said: "Why do you say that?"

He said: "Well, otherwise they surely wouldn't accept the bond. It's a kind of slavery, isn't it? In exchange for financial aid?"

So in time, you see, the things we traditionally associate with the "ex-PSC Scholar" label may change significantly. Some foreigners in Singapore already associate it with a financially disadvantaged family background, LOL.

Credit Cards For the Zero Income Earners

ST July 29, 2007
Have card, no income, know the risks
Be aware of legal issues facing those under 21 such as the penalty for missing payments
By Lorna Tan

EASY credit has long been a fact of life for many Singaporeans. But now the floodgates are being opened to vast numbers of people who would normally never manage to get their hands on plastic.

Eighteen-year-old youth and those with no or low income can now apply for a ground-breaking card that does away with the standard $30,000 minimum annual income requirement.

Regulatory changes have allowed Citibank to launch the card, which offers a maximum credit of $500, a fraction of the typical limit of two months' pay.

In my opinion, this new Citibank initiative is at least partly due to the recent decision by NETS to approximately triple its administrative fees for retailers.

In order to allow their customers to make payment by NETS or credit card, retailers have to pay fees to NETS and credit card issuers. Traditionally, credit card issuers charge higher fees than NETS. That's why lower-end retailers accept payment by NETS, not credit card.

Now, by raising its fees, NETS has made it possible for the likes of Citibank to compete in the space of facilitating low-cost cashless transactions. If NETS facilities are not any cheaper than credit card facilities, your average HDB shop owner who allows you to pay by NETS might as well also allow you to pay by Visa or Mastercard.

The first step by Citibank, of course, is to ensure that the average customer of the average HDB shop can have a credit card, and not merely a NETS card. Since the MAS regulations have changed such that there is zero income requirement to get a credit card, your average HDB customer WILL be able to get a credit card.

Applicants under 21 need the consent of their parents, but the bank will not require parental income information. However, the bank is playing it safe: If the minimum monthly payment is not made, the card will be blocked.

The Citibank move - which could admit more than 900,000 people to the ranks of new credit card users - has sparked debate over whether Singaporeans, particularly teenagers, can be trained to use credit responsibly.

It is a pressing issue as more of such products are in the pipeline, with OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank saying they will introduce similar cards soon.

Some people are concerned about the danger of raising a generation of young adults who chalk up debts even before they leave school.

I think the attention got a bit misdirected. They forgot about the adult uncles and aunties in the heartland - the ones who queue up at the 4D and Toto outlets, and/or who are genuinely struggling to make ends meet.

"My income close to zero, what. I also over 21.
Maybe can use credit card to buy 4D."

How much will one be able to borrow via credit card, if one has no income? According to the ST article, it's $500. Of course, this is on a per bank basis, and we also learn from the article that apart from Citibank, two other banks - OCBC and UOB - will be introducing similar cards.

If you have zero income, but apply simultaneously and successfully to all three banks, you'll be able to borrow $1,500. If you wait and see if HSBC, Maybank, ABN AMRO and Standard Chartered come up with similar cards, who knows, you may be able to get 7 cards x $500 = $3,500.

Not bad for someone with zero income. A pretty good recipe for financial disaster too.

One interesting thing to watch is how the nature of credit card advertising will change as a result of the new rules. In the past, credit cards were often marketed as a symbol of the customer having "arrived", being successful etc. In fact, a credit card is one of the five C's that commonly represent material achievement in the Singapore lifestyle. But now that kids and poor people can also get credit cards, I think that the usual advertising/marketing themes will have to change.

Into what? That's the interesting question.

The Carnegie Secret

This man is Andrew Carnegie. If you draw up a list of the 50 most successful people who have lived anytime in the past 100 years, there is a very good chance that his name would be on that list.

Carnegie grew up in a poor family. His father was a hand loom weaver. His mother was the daughter of a shoemaker. One of Carnegie's first jobs was as a messenger boy in a telegraph company , earning $2.50 per week.

Despite these humble beginnings, Carnegie ended up building one of the most powerful and influential corporations in the history of the United States. By the 1860s, he had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, as well as bridges and oil derricks. In the 1870s, he founded the Carnegie Steel Company, which eventually became the largest and most profitable industrial enterprise in the world.

Carnegie wasn't just a business tycoon. Among other things, he was also a scholar and a social activist. He became one of the best-known philanthropists in the world, and had a special interest in funding local libraries, world peace, and scientific research. By the time he died in 1919, he had given away USD $350,695,653 (approximately US$4.3 billion, adjusted to 2005 figures). After his death, his estate continued to donate millions of dollars to charitable causes.

Carnegie, as social activist, also had several interesting theories. One of his key ideas was that wealthy people had a responsibility to redistribute their wealth back to the poor in society, for the greater good of mankind. He called this idea the Gospel of Wealth.

Anyway, Carnegie had a secret. It was later known as the Carnegie Secret. Apparently Carnegie discovered this secret all by himself. He felt that it was very, very important. It was basically the secret to achieving just about any goal a person might have. Carnegie felt that he should teach this secret to everybody, to share it with the rest of the world. How did he try to do this?

He met a young journalist. He explained the Carnegie Secret to the journalist. He wanted the journalist to write about the Carnegie Secret. However, Carnegie didn't want the journalist to simply take Carnegie's word for it, that the Carnegie Secret was true and really worked. Carnegie wanted the journalist to vigorously investigate and test the Carnegie Secret and be personally convinced of it . How? By researching the most successful people in the United States, and meeting them personally wherever this was possible, and asking them if they too, knew the Carnegie Secret.

It was a project that lasted 20 years. During this time, the journalist personally met with, or did research on, people like Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, John Rockefeller and many others. In total, the journalist did his research on more than 500 extremely affluent, powerful and/or successful people. And eventually, that journalist, Napoleon Hill, did write a book about the Carnegie Secret. First published in 1937, the book continues to be sold today, 70 years later. It is one of the bestselling books of all time.

The book, of course, is about TAR.

It is not one of my favourite books. One reason is that I find it rather dated - the examples and illustrations it uses are drawn from the world as it was in the 1920s and 1930s. The book also presents conventional, non-TAR wisdom such as the importance of persistence and good planning, which is rather obvious and self-explanatory to me. However, a good chunk of the book does revolve around key words like "thought", "faith", "visualisation", "imagination" , "subconscious mind", "reality", "the sixth sense", "autosuggestion", "positive affirmation", "the transmutation of sex energy", "the science of prayer", "Infinite Intelligence" etc. In other words, hardcore TAR.

As I said - it's not one of my favourite books. But it is one of the pioneering works, and it would be unfair to regard it as anythng less than a true modern classic. It is Mr Andrew Carnegie's secret. In case you're interested, this is the book - Think and Grow Rich.

Hilarious

Walking on the street, I bump into an old friend, from university days, whom I haven't seen for years.

We start catching up, talking about what we've respectively done since the last time we met - career, marriage, kids, hobbies and so on.

I mention that I had been blogging a lot. "Oh really?" he says. "What about?"

"Oh, until recently, it was mostly about social and political issues in Singapore," I said. "The blog is very popular! Lots of people read it."

His eyes widen. "Heeeey, don't tell me ... YOU are Mr Wang!?!"