Continuation of Socratic Seminar

Hello again.

Today I will be discussing (with myself) about whether the Singapore government had been successful in establishing a national identity. Firstly, we know that Singapore has not been very successful in pushing Singaporeans to be more responsible for the cleanliness of Singapore. Compare us to Japan for example. For them, cleanliness has become a habit and this has also turned into part of their identity as Japanese which is globally recognised (or at least I recognise it). For us, however, we continue letting the cleaners to do their job and has thrown this responsible quality for the cleaners to uphold. Therefore we cannot say that a clean garden city is our identity.

Another issue is the Speak Good English and Huayu Cool campaigns, which seek to increase the standard of our speaking. This seems to be an act suppressing the Singlish of Singaporeans, which many take pride in and perceive as our national identity. However, these are some of the government's efforts to raise us to a world-class standard. This is what I recognise as the underlying problem. By trying too hard to gain the acceptance of the world as a well-developed model nation, Singapore has put too much importance on being a world-class nation. This has led to our country lacking a unique quality which we can see as our national identity. We have emulated many other great countries worthy of our appreciation and shaped ourselves like them. We have exchanged our individuality for a globalised nation. We have left ourselves orchids, merlions and language to base our national identity upon. This, as I believe, is a reason for the difficulty we have encountered in trying to seek a national identity for ourselves.

Lastly, I would like to comment on whether Singaporeans can ever have a national identity. The answer is quite obvious and it is a yes. Any country who puts effort in creating an individualised image for herself and with her citizens working hand-in-hand will always achieve what they aim for. Given some period of time, i believe we will be able to create a national identity which will further outshine any Singlish or Merlion.

Regards, Yi Pin.

a New Year for new posts or the other way round.

a New Year for new posts or the other way round.

This is my very first post in this year and it will signal a new revolutionary change for the style of my blog-writing. I will turn from the so-called childish typer into the seasoned matured thinker who will analyse so critically that even I will be astounded by my acridness. I will...

Enough of all the New Year aspirations. Today I will blog about our successful (or should we say impromptu) Socratic Seminar which only blossomed into delightful food for thought after 40 minutes into the Socratic circle. This will be revolving around questions concerning national identity, which will form the basis of my discussion.

Firstly, I will need to define national identity. As it is named, national identity is what us as a nation can identify upon and thus unite upon this common belief or rallying point. For Singapore, as a "young" republic of 40 years, we are still hovering around the question of whether we actually have a national identity. Some argue that Singapore is too young to have one, while others retaliate that our language (Singlish) is a valid. Thus my question is whether Singapore has already established one?

Many of us will say yes, stating our multiracialism as part of our national identity. This is true to some extent but if you look at it critically, this may just be a side effect of our government's campaigning for a multiracial Singapore. It has caused us to take our multi-racialism for granted and treat it as one of our unique qualities. The fact is, Singapore's Chinese take up about 75%, Malays 13%, and Indians 8%, with other ethnic groups 4% (statistics provided by http://www.singstat.gov.sg/pubn/reference/yos09/yos2009.pdf). We can see that there is no way a racial riot could break out because it would be a completely unfair battle. Contrary to America(before USA) or Malaysia, the ethnic groups often have a smaller difference and this leads to more than small scuffles. In TKAM, the racial discrimination is also evident with the growing number of blacks. During the merger, Malaysia had also been apprehensive about Singapore merging with her because that would result in having more Chinese than Malays and this was a bone of contention which finally led to our split and hard-fought independence. Anyway, we can conclude that our racial tolerance may not be so significant after all because the Chinese was the main majority after all.

The next question is whether Singlish could be counted as our national identity. Yes, it is a unique language which only Singaporeans that have been living in Singapore for a period of five or more years could make sense of the extra colloquial tags. However, languages which are mish-mashed have been around for a long time in countries with more than one language spoken. Singlish is our language made of English, Chinese, Hokkien, Malay and peppered with other dialects. It may be something that Singaporeans can find themselves using to identify whether one was a Singaporean or not, but it is merely a distinct characteristic found outwardly in Singaporeans. We have to go deeper than that.

Another question which popped out was the issue of whether the government had played a part in establishing our national identity. The government had been rolling out many programmes/campaigns such as the clean and green campaign or the speak good English campaign. These are some of the efforts the government had put in to improve our quality of life and it has also in the process shaped our thoughts about national identity. The fines imposed are one good example but this leads to the question whether Singapore has been successful in creating this unique identity for Singaporeans.

I will cover that in the next post.

Regards,
Ng Yi Pin

 My Favourite Poet

My favourite poet is William Wordsworth, a poet who discovered his calling  as a poet with a theme of a common man close to nature. The funny /intriguing part of this is that he dicovered his calling when he was returning to England as war broke out. It was reported that he had been taking a walking tour around France and Switzerland, and only when war broke out did he return to England. 

Thus we can see that he was more of a nature person, and he expressed his deep connection with nature through some of his poems, such as "Daffodils" or "I wandered lonely as a cloud" while he tended to describe his life as a very pleasant, peaceful life. In fact, he was born in a scenic part of a countryside in England and that may have led to his (should we call) obsession with the beauty of nature. 

It has been said that William Wordsworth was one of the first Romantic Poets, and together with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a close friend which hehelped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads. Besides, the piece "lyrical ballads" had neither his name nor Samuel's name in it, showing how he was selfless in presenting his work without needing any recognition. This, in a way, is like nature--it gives without receiving, except perhaps sunlight and other things. Besides, think of how William Wordsworth pioneered this new age. It could have been influenced by the walking tours he took of France and Switzerland. He was also known to have toured the Alps, and i believe he may have gotten most of his inspiration fom there. 

William even fell into a depression for a period in his life, and at that time, he feltextreme loneliness and stress. This was because he, his sister and Coleridge traveled to Germany in the autumn of 1798, which somehow evoked a sense of loneliness. Despite this, he started on his magnum opus- an autobiographical poem of his life, and a work he is well known for. Though he died before it was published, his wife did it for him, fulfilling his wishes.

Here are three of his poems, one which is "I wandered lonely as a cloud".

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

This gives an impression how nature mattered to him, and how he perceived thenm to be real and personified them to express his joy at the wealth that looking upon the daffodils brought to im which eased his loneliness.

Lines Written In Early Spring by William Wordsworth
I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:--
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

Again, here is a poem which expresses his joy at nature but sadness at what has become of men.

Written In March by William Wordsworth
The cock is crowing,
The stream is flowing,
The small birds twitter,
The lake doth glitter
The green field sleeps in the sun;
The oldest and youngest
Are at work with the strongest;
The cattle are grazing,
Their heads never raising;
There are forty feeding like one!

Like an army defeated
The snow hath retreated,
And now doth fare ill
On the top of the bare hill;
The plowboy is whooping—anon-anon:
There's joy in the mountains;
There's life in the fountains;
Small clouds are sailing,
Blue sky prevailing;
The rain is over and gone!

This ends my three poems, and it is clearly evident how this poems contain joy towards the natural environment, and how life pleases him. William wordsworth encompasses romanticism in nature, and as both can be found in nature easily.

My Favourite poem is the "A Dream Within A Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow--

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand--

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep--while I weep!

O God! can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?

I like this poem because it illustrates how our life seems so dreamy and so faraway as days go by, how one could not hold the days in his hand for too long just like how a dream slips from your mind after you wake up. The absence of somebody has made the narrator's life meaningless, and thus one which numbs the emotions and gives this a dreamy feeling.

I think some of the figurative language used here wil be listed below.

Hyperbole: I am not sure about this but I think that by describing the shore as surf-tormented the narrator is exaggerating the damage dealt to the shore and maybe symbolising the damage on his heart.

Personification: The poet has given hope life, by letting it fly away. But this brings a darker prospect of life. Sand has also creeped past his hands, giving them a person's abilities.

Symbolism: The symbolism here is very obvious, with the dream symbolising the days which pass by in the absence of someone the narrator misses. In another way, it symbolises how time flies so quick and stealthily that not one can remember it flitting by.

Metaphor: NIL

Simile:NIL

Sorry, Mdm Lim that I could not finish this by the allotted time as I was rushing my history.

After the inspiring words of Darrel saying that by skipping half of the story one will still be able to understand it, I have decided to try it. The result? Entirely untrue, unless you have an analytical mind comparable to mine, but since I don't understand it you can not, will not and should not. 

So there!

Enchanted Profile, The: the twist is at the back but I don't know what the last sentence means. "By jingo!" said he. "Isn't Ida a dead ringer for the lady's head on the silver dollar?" Do you understand this?

Ethics Of Pig, The: The person in this story is forever cheated of his money when he thinks he is going to strike it big.

More titles.

Call Loan, A : A man's word is more secured than government security, and as the man tries to get 10 000 dollars back somehow, his brother returns with 29 000 dollars.

Call Of The Tame, The : The countryman was sad for his friend succumbing to city life until something happened and he had the same reaction as his friend.

Calloway's Code:This story is nice in which a person breaks the code which seems to have no key.

Caught: The country is the banana kingdom( Anchuria) as it is in the story Two recalls, and a capture of a president who stole country treasure takes place. however, there seem to be no mistake in this story.

Chair of Philanthromathematics, The : Philanthropy gives and returns, sometimes more.

Champion Of The Weather, The :Don't ever speak about the weather unless you are good at it, or in other words make it seem like you want to strike up a conversation.

Chaparral Christmas Gift, A : An outlaw gives up his life as a Christmas Present to the woman he could not marry.

Chaparral Prince, A : Dream become reality/ the escapist form of literature par excellence turns into reality and saves a little girl from drowning. A refreshing change from cowboy and women tales.

Cherchez la Femme :- I dont understand.

Christmas by Injunction:-The person coaxes a boy to somewhere.

Church With An Overshot-Wheel, The: A Nice story where father and daughter reunites.

City Of Dreadful Night, The: The sleeping in the park is just a chance for the rent to be raised.

Clarion Call, The: A twist in the end when no money is owed and the criminal is caught.

Comedy In Rubber, A: This is a nonsensical story with people who enjoys pessimism.

Coming-Out Of Maggie, The: maggie, the girl wanted to have a mate so she arranged for a man to come and act as her boyfriend and got another man.

Complete Life Of John Hopkins, The: Just A funny story ( i think) , about a man with a fst but near meaningless life.

Compliments Of The Season: Twisties are present in this story, usually at the end as goodies. Men who are hit by astroke of good luck are usually hit full force.

Confessions of a Humorist: Humour to make others happy takes away happiness in this story.

Conscience In Art: Swindery offers little conscience when one realises he swindled it. ( and read this )

Cop And The Anthem, The: This humorous story tells of a man who tries to land himself in jail for free lodging and other stuff but unsuccessfully fails many times. In the end he succeeds but that happens when he was not doing anything.

Cosmopolite In A Cafe, A: Don't believe a cosmsopolite when you meet one (if you know what a cosmopolite is).

Count And The Wedding Guest, The: Lies can be proven wrong when they are proven wrong for the sake of proving something bad wrong. Read to find out what I have just typed.

Country Of Elusion, The : Bohemia is described in this story. As stated by the above title, its plot still eludes me.

Cupid a la Carte: Food is finally accepted by the woman who hated man eating food after a flood which starves here.

Cupid's Exile Number Two : ?

Day Resurgent, The:? Somehow a person is not gentlemanly at home.

Day We Celebrate, The:?-?

Defeat Of The City, The: City person goes wild in the countryside and instead of condemning him his wife likes him even more for it. 

Departmental Case, A: This is a great story whereas insurance works to kill.

Detective Detector, The: A great story in which a murdere/burglar tracks down a detective without difficulty.

Diamond Of Kali: This story talks about a diamond which is believed to belong to the god kali's statue and a group of bandits come to reclaim it but is scared by a cow and a pump?

Dickey: Money rules here bailing out a person from jail. You can also find one saying from this: Money can buy friends ( or something like this. Instruct me on the correct one)

Dinner At -------, A: This is a story I don't understand. Don't read.

Discounters of Money, The: story with a happy ending. A man gets to help a couple and becomes a couple in the process (or is going to be married soon).

Dog and the Playlet, The : The twist is hardly understandable-Why had the Loris ran away with Tom?

Door Of Unrest, The: A person claims to be the Wandering Jew who had lived for a thousand years. The narrator nearly gets taken in until he was told the man was just under the effects of alcohol.

Double-Dyed Deceiver, A : The man kills the boy who could be inheritance to a great fortune and takes his place as the rich couples' son.

Dougherty's Eye-Opener : A amn who thinks himself very good at speaking is shocked when his wife goes out to the inn which she had not frequented for three years to dazzle his friends with great conversations, leaving the man very jealous.

Dream: Funny dream which turns out wrong when he is sent up the electric chair.

Duel: I am not sure what kind of duel this person fights with the city.

Duplicity Of Hargraves, The: An act/imitation of a person infuriates him and the Hargraves is chased away. Sorry for him, Hargraves pays him back 300 dollars with a wonderful impersonation of the person's friend. Read it!

Early Parable, An: This story is full of unfathomable letters.

Elsie In New York: Funny story whereas Elsie in the story cannot seem to find a job without being persuaded not to.

Emancipation of Billy, The: Ermm, a man doesnt want a worthy (job, not blog)post because he needs to take care of his father?

Enchanted Kiss, The: This is a strange fairy tale which I don't understand, which involves many kisses in crazy situations.

After so much boring posts on O Henry's stories, I have decided to post something about my trip yesterday to Bukit Chandu for my History ACE project with Ernest and Ming En. Since I had a dental appointment at ten o'clock, which was quite hard for me to reach unless I had my father's help to fetch me there, I reaed school at 8.35, which was a total of 1 hour and 25 minutes early for my dental appointment. Nonetheless, I went straight for the van and surprise! saw rayson heading towards the van. Though he was not as kiasu as me and was just punctual for his 8.40 appointment. 

For some reason, rayson and the dentists let me get my teeth drilled first. So I was lying on this chair and then the dentist pressed a button and one of the funniest sensations came about. Try sittig on a chair then having the back of the chair to lower to 180 degrees, then you will understand what I mean. Oh yeah. All who have read this post would have gone to the dental appointment themselves, so I guess I am mainly talking crap here. Anyway, everything went alright except the thing which the dentist used seemed to srape my tongue a little and for a moment I thought it was like a drller and when he told me to like open the left part of my mouth a little, my tongue followed the direction involuntarily, in the end receiving an unexpected present-a bite on it, leaving it momentarily thinking it was April Fools Day. Anyway, I had this ulcer on my lower lip so as the dentist's instruments groped around (okay maybe the verb here has some unnatural connotations which may lead to some mistakes) my mouth it gave me some electrifying contact to my poor ulcer. This left me with some tears in my eyes.

How touching.

So I finished the dental appointment, rushed away to the Tech centre and was a little surprised when I saw that the lab was open so I went in and read some O Henry stories (since we have 200 stories to cover) then went to the library and blah blah blah. I actually felt very disoriented because SMO was over and I had no excuse to pick up a math olympiad book and start practicing its questions. (PS. Yesterday night I had some funny dream in which I was told I got 50 1/2 out of 85 for SMO. Weird.) So I tried to do my homework (sun wu kong essay) but did not have the initiative to, so i left the library and started plodding through college to its gate.

As I was going to bukit chandu later with Ming en from hwa chong bus stop, and had planned to take my bus from NJC while ming en might take the same bus from opposite Coronation Plaza(which incidentally was Ming En's- wait I don't think I should say anything), my parents decided that since I was muddle-headed and was a confused existence (i was?!?!)(okay I added those flowery language, they only doubted I could take the bus there myself), I should take it with Ming En. So when I reached that bus-stop (mind you I walked there)I was earlier than ming En for 5 minutes and luckily 961 came in one minute's time. So it ended up with ming en reading xiyouji (吸油机）and me looking up the bus guide and street directory which my mother forced me to pack in case I got lost.

After changing bus we reached pasir panjang food centre and for some reason I was already hungry ( there would be five more episodes when I had the same hunger pangs) and we went straight to eat. Me and ming en bought some food from a malay stall and the stall owner ecognised we were from Hwa Chong and told us that their cousin( or was it sister's cousin?)/ relative worked as security guard there. So I got 50 cents off my fried rice which was a rip-off in the first place: $2.00!! Then I finished about half till I felt satisfied and started walking towards pepys road. 

As we climbed up Opium hill (or to me it looked like Opium Mountain (that would be Gunung Chandu in malay), I started getting hungry again and ate while walking up finally, we turned two arches and then we saw Ernest's mother's car. Exhausted as we were, we politely requested for a ride to go up to the top. It happened that we just needed to climb up one more flight of stairs to reach our destination. Pity the oil! That might be the cause of the oil prices rising again.

So after nearly finishing what was in my packet (note nearly) of fried rice, we entered the museum, paying one dollar each. Although there was alike a crowd of malays outside, we were astonished to find the whole museum empty except for the three of us. Quite creepy. Then we did what we did best. We slacked.

or more of we explored the museum for ourselves first.

Then we took pictures of every signboard, took videos of the place and took down notes. The only thing we did not take down was its artefacts. Yup, and we watched it show (Sounds of Battle) Only three of us were present inside. 

So finally, ernest's kind mother ferried us to Labrador Park, which only had a map at the entrance. We resorted to taking aphoto of the map and referring to it when we got lost. then we saw a sun skink (based on ernest) , a carpenter bee, a kingfisher, many lizards and more mosquito bites. Yet we could not see the war memorial we had gone to seek, and had to settle on the 6-inch gun at Labrador battery. But it was very informative for us. 

And at there, Ming En and myself finally finished the packet of fried rice and threw it away on top of the casemate (a kind of fortress where the soldiers revealed their guns and shot recklessly. okay the last part is not true). And for some reason we could not see its secret tunnels. The attendent is alleged to be not present at that time being.

So after loitering in the natural reserve, for about 1 and a half hours, and at the same time tiring out our legs, we decidedto give up and ernest's helpful mother came to pick us and sent me and ming en to coronation plaza bus stop. I became hungry yet again and started munching on my bread which I had brought and took bus back home. 

So that was my day, pretty straining on both of my limbs. Can you think of better days than this? Tell us!

OH my god, what an awful experience! I just got posessed by Cheryl Fox! Did she leave anything bad on this post? No? Luckily.

Bye, says yi pin.