2011.

Moments away from now, I may perhaps blink.

In the split second of my eyes being shut, people in Singapore will simultaneously erupt into celebrations.

My eyes open, expecting to see for the first time the world in 2011.

But I will still see 2010 around me. Clutter.

In my room. In my home. In my life.

Nothing will change.

Because a new 2011 does not magically happen. The path to a new year lies ahead for all of us.

How will you chart your path?

Happy New Year in advance, everyone.

Holidaze

One of the most redundant words in the English language we have over-relied on is “that”, in my opinion. That, and “in my opinion”.

Anyway, exams are over, holidays are here, and I’ll be doing more writing. And meeting friends, hopefully.

So you’re googling for the exams

While looking at my visitor statistics earlier, I realised I’m having a recent surge of visitors streaming to my blog post via googled terms like “nation building”, “journalists”, and “Singapore”.

I went to do the same: a google search using the above three terms puts my blog in the top three results.

Stringing the same three terms into a proper sentence puts my blog right on top.

Then it dawned upon me that these visitors must be COM203 students, researching for our exam topics.

LOL.

Well if you were routed here because of this, I have three things to say:

1. Good luck for the exams
2. Don’t bother reading the blog entry that Google brought up. It’s useless. Even worse, don’t attribute anything to thispenismine during the exams.
3. Sorry you wasted a few minutes being decoyed to blog. But hope it provided reprieve from studying for you, at least.

Hwachong is always 2nd, even in a dream

Had a weird dream earlier.

Dreamt that I was still in school, and that Hwachong and RI (Junior College) merged to become one mega-institution. Hwachong was to be known as RI, and RI (JC) was reverting to its former RJC name.

Then the teacher said that the new RJC will continue accepting the top students, while the second-tier ones will enter the new RI.

This dream, though ludicrous, holds certain truth in capping off my worst week since university started (first of many to come, I know).

It left me feeling inadequate, perhaps undeservedly so.

Does society need communication and literature students?

If everyone knows that the pen is mightier than the sword, why are masters of the pen still looked down upon?

The pen is a metaphor for words, whether verbal or written. Yet, communication and literature students – expert wielders of the pen – are still derided for having chosen a “soft choice” by detractors, who cannot see concrete and practical contributions from these fields to society.

But this is precisely why we should cheer, for it shows we have succeeded.

Unlike many fields, communication and literature work in indiscernible ways that many cannot see.

We do not build physical structures like the engineers.

But we do construction work all the same within you. Through meticulously-selected words, we seep into your minds and hearts, and then slowly chip away at your wall of beliefs, or add bricks upon this wall, and persuade you to act upon a particular cause.

Engineers construct structures; doctors construct health; businessmen construct engines of economic growth.

Communication and literature professionals construct what goes on in your mind and heart. The same mind and heart that give engineers the vision of a skyscraper, that drive doctors to save patients, that speak to the conscience of businessmen with one hand secretly dipped into company funds.

In other words, we construct you.

Stealth and invisibility are features of our work. But that does not mean we do not produce concrete or practical results for society.

With a stroke of the pens in our hands, we construct movement en masse – in feelings, thoughts and actions.

Brains will tick. Hearts will throb.

Emotions will stir. Pulses will stop.

People will sway. And then they will move – to the direction our weapons point.

Will society still need us?

What do you call a goldfish with eggs in it?

If Twitter is named so, then the first question is – what do you call a goldfish with eggs in it?

Pregnant is wrong, because no fetuses are being developed. Expecting is wrong, because it means pregnant. Mother goldfish is wrong, because we’ve only heard of mother hens. And mother f******.

The answer to the question, some argue, is a twit – the same word to describe silly people.

But silliness aside, how are goldfishes related to Twitter?

Because in Twitter, we say we tweet. But we also say we twit.

We tweet if our messages are like the chirp of a bird which wants attention. We twit if our messages are profuse as the hundreds of eggs that goldfishes lay.

So do we tweet, or do we twit?

Once answered, another question awaits – are we tweeting, or are we twitting?

But wait – when we use Facebook, we are Facebooking.

Instead of twitting, should we not be twittering? Or – gasp – tweetering?

And when birds chirp, we say they twitter. When birds are chirping, they are twittering. But a bird’s chirp is a tweet, not a twit.

Because a twit is a goldfish with eggs.

Why, why, why?

If we are not able to even resolve these fundamental issues and properly describe our actions on Twitter, how are we going to complete our COM201 Twitter assignments?

And if a goldfish with eggs is a twit, what is a frog with eggs, if there are also no pregnant or mother frogs?

Singapore’s press: A balancing act, which harmlessly tilts to one side

A discussion I’ve written in school, which incidentally is the culmination of my thoughts after my internship:

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Singapore’s press can be said to be internationally renowned. The country’s official media outlets are often singled out – by media organisations down to the man on the street – for not conforming to Western ideals of a free press.

Their stand: the government of a developed country like Singapore should not impinge on the media’s fundamental access to freedom of speech or reportage, especially in political issues. Otherwise, what else is the media for?

Many arguments revolve around one issue: the role of the media. However, what they often neglect is the role of the media in Singapore, which, when placed in context, would provide for a stronger argument.

First, the role of the media. One of the hallmarks of journalism is the “power” to keep the government in check. But many also forget that one responsibility of journalists is sensible, responsible reporting. This means reporting not just the citizens want, but need, to know, bearing in mind how the entire nation will be affected.

And how does this relate to the role of the media in Singapore?

In Singapore, the political and cultural climate is such that the role of the press is not to act as the fourth estate, or to keep a hawk’s eye over the government. This has been repeatedly pointed out by Singapore’s government. The foremost role of Singapore’s media is nation building, the government reminds. Otherwise, politically sensational news might cause widespread riots or public disorder, which the small country is not equipped to handle.

Whether we agree with the government or not, responsible reporting dictates that journalists do not have the freedom to stir trouble whenever and wherever they want. It is about putting self-righteousness on hold with a bigger interest – that of the nation – in mind. Which means unless a political scandal has taken place, reportage should generally support the government’s cause.

In other words, arguing over a “one-size-fits-all” definition about the role of the media is not enough. We should recognise the role of the media in Singapore’s context: one that has been moulded to cater to Singapore’s culture and climate.

And why should the media conform to this rule?

For the simple reason that for a publication like The Straits Times to continue, the government (MICA, if I’m not wrong?) reviews its “performance” yearly before deciding on whether to grant an extension.

So a pro-government press? It is hard to dispute that.

But for the right reasons?

Yes, as long as the government continues keeping their backyards clean, there is no reason for the press to stand on the opposite side of the court. This may not conform to the ideal of the West, but this is Singapore’s ideal which has worked. And as long as the country chugs along steadily with no political scandals in sight, why should we disagree?

Limbo

After five months of hard work, ups and downs, I never expected to sink to a new low in my last two weeks. But I did, and a round of “constructive criticism” has made me reconsider my priorities.

And for the next four years, it’s gonna be about school bags, Macbooks, late night suppers, and scrubbing hall toilets.

And proving myself, all over again.

Don’t you think we should all know this?

If one were to take a helicopter’s point of view, one would realise that neither he, nor malicious gossips about him, matter to the majority. Sometimes we all think that we matter more than we actually do.

It seems way easier for me to say that though.

You know you’ve been a journo for too long when…

Example #1

Me, on Facebook: “the shanghai maglev train can “fly” at superfast speeds of up to 450km/h. “up to” being the operative word, according to Han Bing Yuan’s experience: the train attains this peak and, after one second, decelerates.”

Bing Yuan, commenting: “Hey! I read my travel log wrongly lah. It hits a top speed of 430km/h (might have changed since) and cruises at that speed for less than a minute. NOT ONE SECOND LOL.”

Me: “technically, less than a minute can still mean one second .”

Example #2

You’re so absorbed in writing every day that by the time you get home, words can’t flow properly through your head anymore to blog.