before today dawns

Listening to: James Blunt's You're Beautiful

grant them more clarity of mind, more confidence and less insecurities.

The above wish-list is not applicable to all...some more than others.

grant them a good night's rest. and if they've been good children, they should be asleep by now and wouldn't read this till the paper is done.

Keeping The Spirit Alive

Listening to: Jewel's Standing Still

Things you can do on Monday:

1. Read the papers
2. Read past compre papers and essays (remember the good, throw away the bad)
3. Draw a mind-map for Singapore - collate your thoughts on Singapore in various aspects.
4. Most importantly, sleep early! This, especially, is not a piece of advice, it is an ORDER! :)

Before Breakfast

Listening to: The Corrs' What Can I Do

Keeping my promise to a1b to put out a summary of what transpired during fri's "lecture". so here i go:

1. Planning is important, but picking the right question is even more impt.
after all, do you really want to spend 1 minute picking the question, and 29 mins planning for the wrong one?

For all the cliches, perhaps, remembering to "look before you leap" will do you lots of good.

2. The safest bet- my fave topic. What's there to pick if my fave is right before me?
As if. Don't follow this mantra too blindly. Other factors do matter.

Factor #1:
the keywords.
Do you understand all of them?
Have you noticed all of them?
Can they be defined easily? Or is it too subjective?

Factor #2:
the implication of the qn.
Do you really know what it wants?

Do give every question the light of the day. Make sure you evaluate every qn in your mind before you start planning.

E is for Essay

Listening to: Eels' Novocaine for the Soul

confirmed venue for friday: ava room. see you at 1010.

reminder: if you have qns, do send them to me earlier? so i can plan my time properly

thanks to calista for letting me know that the link on litespeed for the essay qns has expired. you can find the list of essay qns here.

oh yes, and ms cheryl chan, you're right. It's your prerogative! :)

the evening news

Listening to: Rooster's Staring At The Sun

please pay heed to these announcements:

1. nyjc prelim 2002 paper is quite a monster of a paper. many of the questions test on figurative language and metaphorical stuff.. if you find it intimidating, you aren't alone. here are the answers, so you can just take a look at how such qns can be answered. if you don't have the time to do the papers posted online, do at least look at the qns and the answers!

2. please check out litespeed for your seating arrangements for tuesday. do so before you go to the venue so that you wouldn't be caught off-guard yah?

3. no lecture on Friday for s1e and s3a
as mentioned, i'm supposed to have a lesson to make up for the loss of a lecture
tentatively, i intend to meet these two classes at 1010. venue should be ava rm (let me try and book the venue first)

wat's going on? will do paper 1 stuff. likely to be revision..plus perhaps analysis of a few qns.. if you have that long list of essay qns (compiled from all prelim papers last yr) and have an essay qn you'd like me to talk abt, just let me know either personally or online. if you've got qns about the papers, please come armed with these qns

a1b - you're more than welcome to attend this extra freebie if you'd like. we'll just have a huge combined lecture

4. updated consultation schedule
three more days to this week.. schedule already rather packed. apologise for loss of wed and fri afternoons (on course on these afternoons). apologise for having to shorten these consultations into half-hour slots.. cos i'm trying to see as many people as possible! :)

study leave on monday IS confirmed. so if you want, you can come by on monday if you really want to :) let me know though..don't turn up and spring a surprise on me k?

the speech of the year

Listening to: Electrico's Runaway

Pleasantly surprised to know that many spent sunday night catching what to some, may be the most important speech of the year. Well, for Singaporeans at least.

sure hope that as you listened, thoughts ran through your mind. Hopefully, it wasn't: "Oh please, when is he going to stop?"

this year, i must say, it was a speech with a difference. Yes, the content's usually the same. A round-up of the year and what lies ahead. Packages or plans to help Singaporeans... and as usual, a birthday wish. A wish for a special kind of country.

I was impressed with the way the speech was delivered. There were film clips and slideshows. Rather IT-savvy, don't you think? even my mum commented that he's a rather hands-on guy.

For those who didn't manage to catch the full speech, you can check it out here. All thanks to mr seah, who does NE in our college :)

remember, this is a good chance to get a review of our country :)

please, sir, can i have some more?

Listening to: The Growling Of My Stomach...

answers for the following compres:

a. poverty and
b. verbal culture vs visual culture

for those who have not attempted ANY of the above and would like to try out a compre, please do this one instead! This is the prelim paper for 2002.

try it out today :)

beauty is only skin deep

Listening to: Train's When I Look To The Sky

and so i said it was difficult to prove obsession. But it is definitely true that the importance placed on looks by this generation is getting increasingly higher...

read abt how a 9-year-old boy went for surgery to get double eyelids! makes you think right? what were YOU doing at the age of 9? Did you understand the concept of double eyelids back then?

so how has the world changed? we talk about superficiality.. but isn't it scary that the superficial world can start at the ripe old age of 9?

if i were the reporter, i'd go out of my way to track down this 9-year-old to take a pix of his newly-minted double eyelids :P

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More teens turn to nip and tuck for better looks

By Liaw Wy-Cin

FOR a growing number of teens, their looks just don't cut it anymore.

And so they're heading to plastic surgeons for a nip and tuck.

In the past five years, the number of teens undergoing cosmetic surgery has doubled, said 12 of the 20 plastic surgeons canvassed by The Straits Times.

Each of the 12 surgeons saw between 20 and 200 teens last year, representing an increase of about 10 to 30 per cent a year since 1999. Singapore General Hospital alone takes in about 150 teenagers for aesthetic surgery annually.

The operations are sometimes gifts from the parents, who believe it will enhance their children's chances in life. Breast augmentation is a popular 16th birthday gift, said Dr Woffles Wu, consultant aesthetic plastic surgeon with Woffles Wu Aesthetic Surgery and Laser Centre.

Support from parents is key, because surgery for patients below 21 requires their consent - and because the procedures don't come cheap.

The most popular operation - double eyelid surgery - costs between $1,600 and $5,000. Nose jobs cost $5,300 to $12,000; chin augmentation $5,000 to $6,000; breast augmentation $15,000 to $16,000; liposuction $6,000 to $15,000 per area; acne treatment $1,000 to $2,000 for oral medication and about $12,000 for more complex treatments to remove scars.

Medisave funds may not be used as these procedures are not considered 'medical'. Parents, however, are willing to fork out the cash.

However, not all are affluent and some have to save up for a long time, just as they might for a coveted designer bag, said Dr Martin Huang, consultant plastic surgeon at The Cosmetic Surgery Clinic.

Some of his patients are in their mid-teens - and one boy was just nine years old. He came in to get a pair of double eyelids, like most of the other young patients.

Some parents are even more eager than their children for such 'self-improvement' procedures, said Dr Huang. Often, these parents, usually the mothers, have had cosmetic surgery done themselves.

Most youngsters start off with double eyelid surgery and may return for other procedures when they are older, said Dr Hong Soo Wan, a plastic surgeon at Cosmetic Specialist Centre.

Doctors attribute the rising trend of teen cosmetic surgery to the Internet and media, including glamorous makeover shows. Also, advances in medical science and technology have made plastic surgery simpler and less invasive and have shortened the recovery time.

'There is a destigmatisation or even the glamorisation of cosmetic surgery. It has now even become a spectator sport,' said Dr Seah Chee Seng, a plastic surgeon in private practice.

One mother, who had double eyelid surgery done, took her 15-year-old daughter to see Dr Seah for the same procedure.

'The girl was very happy about it and told all her classmates. It is likely that her younger sister will do the same procedure when she's older,' said Dr Seah, who practises at Plastic Surgery Associates and Sinova Medical Centre.

Associate Professor Paulin Tay-Straughan, deputy head of the sociology department at the National University of Singapore, thinks popular culture and the influence of the media have fuelled the spike in cosmetic surgery among teens.

All this tends to have a psychological impact on youngsters.

Dr Brian Yeo, consultant psychiatrist at Mt Elizabeth Medical Centre, occasionally sees patients referred by plastic surgeons who suspect they may have psychological problems.

'Cosmetic surgery is becoming so common and accepted now, the fear is that a social divide may be created between those who can afford cosmetic surgery and those who can't,' said Dr Yeo.

Having cosmetic surgery done too early in life may also cause physical problems later, warns Dr Rexon Ngim, a consultant plastic surgeon with Aesthetic Plastic Reconstructive Surgery.

As the body is still growing and changing, the surgically enhanced parts may become out of sync with the rest of the face or body, he said.

It might be better to wait until the body, and the mind, has grown up.

the doctor is in

Listening to: The Click Five's Just The Girl (what a strange band name)

given how scatter-brained i can sometimes be, i've put up my consultation schedule here for this coming week. if you'd like come by and visit me too, please check the available time slots (the empty ones, of course) and double-check with me please.

siew tee and vanessa: i know we've arranged to have consultation on wed but i found out that i have cca that day. so let me check on monday if i can work something out. so hang in there.

Advanced booking for Week 9 can start now

count your blessings.. i've counted mine

Listening to: Five for Fighting's Superman (It's Not Easy)

red alert (again): check your mailboxes please. for people, who still can't get stuff frm me, let me know. may just post it up here then.

This has been a rather strange week for me. on the day of national day, a "bug" struck me. my friend calls it the "new year bug".. so what does this bug do? well, it's that kind of bug that makes you count your blessings, to ponder about your life..

woke up that morning, feeling strange but blessed. So i decided to tell some of my friends.. say thank you for being my friend. you should try that too.. makes you feel good and definitely, brightens up another person's day. Us Asians are just so shy that we feel uncomfortable just even telling our friends "thank you for being my friend"..and that's one trait we should get rid of.

This morning, read another article that reminded me of the need to count our blessings. Yes, please flip through the saturday special on the biopolis (S&T again!).. that will give you some insight about the progress of Singapore in terms of scientific advancement.

But here's the article i wanted to share specifically:
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Africa in the grip of a vast 'hunger belt'

WASHINGTON - WITH attention on food shortages in Niger, aid agencies say a vast 'hunger belt' is stretching across Africa. All across the continent - from Niger in the centre to Somalia on the Indian Ocean seaboard - people are starving.

Latest reports from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network say more than 20 million people are at risk from food shortages.

The Famine Early Warning network, made up of a variety of aid agencies including the aid arm of the US government, USAid, says no fewer than seven African states face food emergencies.

These are mostly on the fringes of the Sahara desert and stretch from Niger, through Chad and Sudan, to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.

One factor unites most of the people at risk across Africa.

They rely overwhelmingly on rain-fed or flood-plain agriculture and have little access to irrigated fields. So, when rains are erratic or fail, it is a disaster.

It is also no coincidence that most of the worst-affected countries are on the edge of the Sahara. The desert is advancing and soils are being eroded.

The only long-term answer to this situation, aid workers say, is massive investment, including the productive harnessing of rivers like the Niger and the Nile. This investment will need to be guaranteed over many years.

The picture is mixed within the countries affected.

The largest number of people at risk in a single state is in Ethiopia, where some 10 million people are said to be facing food shortages. But in some parts of Ethiopia an ambitious government plan to provide a safety net for poor people is beginning to bear fruit.

Within Sudan, the country's south is most at risk. The end of the war there has paradoxically made the situation more difficult, with refugees returning home and putting land under pressure.

The seventh country facing a food emergency, according to the Famine Early Warning network, is Zimbabwe. Aid workers say the recent clearances of urban dwellers have created pressure on rural land as townspeople are forced to settle elsewhere.

The slum clearances came on top of the problems caused by President Robert Mugabe's land reforms.

These illustrate another side of the complex agricultural problems facing Africa. Giving mechanised, irrigated farms to subsistence farmers will not necessarily improve food security because the farmers are still dependent on rainfall if they lack the money to maintain the irrigation systems. -- NEW YORK TIMES

let's see if this works

Listening to: Sugar Ray's Fly

Click here for the answer to aq and vocab (medical ethics)!

tag or comment to let me know if it's working please!

happy national day!

Listening to: Kit Chan's Home

on a day like today, it'll be good to take stock of this country that we live in. The characteristics of the country, the people who live in it.

Please don't call it a "small little red dot" anymore.. very cliche.. not original when the entire cohort in singapore calls it that!

do take a look at the supplement that came with your newspaper too.. all the stuff about singapore. Erm, yah, okay, maybe it isn't that useful for GP knowing who the prettiest hawker is in singapore, but learn to sieve and pick useful info - for example, you can read the piece about the progress of the arts here.

in other news: did anyone read ST's saturday special? Very apt for the compre we just did.
it was a feature on beauty. Do take a quick read or at least flip through that yah?
which reminds me to say that the saturday specials are turning out to be rather interesting.. i actually wonder every saturday morning what they're up to next!

bundle of joy

Listening to: Gwen Stefani's Cool

pictures to liven up this place. meet megan, my niece of a month-old..

one trick in the bag

Listening to: Sweet Sensation's If Wishes Came True (yikes, so retro)

red alert: please check litespeed or your mailboxes for the answer to vocab and aq (medical ethics).

so i said i can't imagine who in the world would run against the current candidate..and in the morning, wham! there is the picture of one fella who's actually interested..oh boy.. now i wonder about my saturday.. will i really have to go on duty? but looking at this candidate's credentials, it does seem as if he's good to go! unless of course, some deep dark secret pops by from now till then, if not, yes, we might just have our pr*sidential el*ction soon..

thought i'll share some ideas about the article some of us read during the reading programme. Oft-asked question: So how do we do well in AQ?

Here's one trick (out of many): Don't just repeat or rehash what the passage says. So for example, the main e.g used in that article was about how our entrepreneurs actually lack the entrepreneurial spirit. The usual response: "yes, yes, it's true! we do not know the true meaning of entrepreneurship. True-blue entrepreneurs do not fear risk, they do not need any safety net from the government"..etc

Instead, you could say: It's true our govt has inculcated a mentality where we do not really dare to take risks. (then you can say smthing about entrepreneurship and continue with...) This can also be seen in our education system - though we are encouraged to think critically, we prefer to go with the tried and tested..

my point is that you should try and use examples outside the passage. That's what they mean when they say they'd like original material.

yes, children have rights too

Listening to: Green Day's Wake Me Up When September Ends

Now i wonder why ed thinks i'm religious... cos i said i found corrinne may's music inspiring? lyrics are just words..they appeal to each of us differently because we all have different experiences... so one song may mean one thing to you, but another to me..

news of the day: pr*sidential ele*tions coming up soon. and as you guys know, i may have to go on duty on that day. well, i wonder who the world would actually think of running up the current candidate. oh well, we can only wait with bated breath for that day to come along.

Found this link on someone else's blog...if you're interested in children's rights, do take a read here. So far, only two countries in the world have not signed the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Guess who?

letters to the press

Listening to: Corrinne May's Everything In Its Time

have you listened to this album of hers yet? rather inspiring, i must say. everyone needs a little music in their lives.. try corrinne may's music on a quiet night. If you find that your mind races too often for your own liking, and thus, makes it difficult to sleep, close your eyes to her music. It works :)

anyway, read two letters in ST Forum Page, the first is about how "a little word can make a lot of difference" (hope you guys appreciate the humour in it) and the second is a little more serious: about religion (you may not agree with the views but you can ask if his points are valid :) enjoy!

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Letter #1: Koh Yoong Liat

THE notice at the entrance of the multi-storey carpark beside Junction 8 Shopping Centre (BE 23) and the one in the Empress Road Market and Food Centre carpark (FR3M) indicate respective ly the number of parking spaces available as 'Lots available...' and 'Vacant lots...'

In the multi-storey carpark in Farrer Road at 2 Empress Road and 4 Queen's Road (BU FR2C/FR2S), the following notice is displayed on the wall: 'Carpark lot Nos 192 to 228...'

At Deck 1B of the same carpark, the notice on the wall reads: 'Hourly parking lots located from Deck 1A to 2A and 4B to 5B'.

The word 'lot' is found not only in these carparks but also in many others in Singapore.

At the same carpark in Queen's Road, a police notice displayed on the parapet wall reads as follows: 'Park your bicycle in a lot and secure with a lock.'

The word 'lot' in these examples has been used wrongly by many Singaporeans to mean 'parking space'.

However, the word actually refers to a piece of land reserved for a particular purpose, for example, to build houses or park cars.

It does not refer to a particular space to park a vehicle. In fact, 'lot' means 'carpark' in American English.

I would be grateful if the authorities could rectify the error by substituting the word 'space' for 'lot' in all carparks where the wrong word is found.

As many Singaporeans think the word 'lot' means 'parking space', it is important to correct this misconception as soon as possible.

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Letter #2: From Nigel Hee Dewen (edited)

I feel that being born into a religious family does not necessitate the child taking after the same religion. To insist on such would be to infringe on the fundamental rights of freedom accrued to all by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which advocates: '...the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear...

'Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, this right includes the freedom to change his religion or belief...'

Why should the child take up the parents' religion? Is a child of suitable age not able to make an informed choice? By insisting on it, are the parents not violating the basic rights that are accrued to all?

Religion is not something that you are born into; it is something that you choose to be involved in.

In response to Mr Ong: Why allow yourself to be restrained by tradition? The decision towards higher education should be made of your own free will.

I agree with Mr Mohamad Ridwan that family should come before money.

But God before family? No matter what miracles that God can or has performed, he does not bring money home for your children's allowances. He does not provide in this material life - which is where we are.

In the article, 'Reaping a rich harvest of converts', it was mentioned that new churches have employed methods similar to modern marketing campaigns.

Mr Matthew Kang of New Creation Church says that 'such elements draw younger people' but insists that otherwise, 'we do nothing to recruit members'.

One can say the same thing of any marketing campaign to sell cellphones. These methods are but glamorous marketing tactics masked in religion. Why do we need to resort to these measures to draw the younger crowd?

Furthermore, why should the Government consider religious beliefs when it comes to making policies?

The usual argument would be that allowing gambling here would open the doors to other sins or crimes. There is no direct causal link between them. The existence of one does not necessarily imply the existence of the other.

Mixing religion and politics is a touchy issue - much like balancing a bottle of nitroglycerin on the tip of a sword. Why complicate things by trying to tap-dance at the same time?

My question concerning the issue of God is similar to that of Mr Esmond Chng, albeit with a twist: How much suffering is enough?

This question is not new, and it may be of interest to note that the Archbishop of Canterbury recently said he had questioned his own faith in God.

We cannot prove - nor disprove - the existence of God. It may be best to wield Occam's Razor here, and cut away the unneeded parts: There is no need for God.

tuesday's ramblings

oh great. the tag board's working again. was just going to get rid of this one when it miraculously appeared again!

anyway, please hang in there for the vocab and aq answers - will sent them out by email by friday (cross my fingers). also just a gentle reminder to all that we'll be doing one more class assignment (P2) this week.. i'll get them marked over the holiday break and we'll go through them after national day hols. know you guys are getting sick of P2, but hang in there yah? :)

weather's been really cranky these days.. just like all of our moods, i'm sure.

here's my sharing for the day: Terror in the world can take on many forms - it doesn't always have to be in the shape of a bomb.

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Another Face of Terror

• By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: July 31, 2005

Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, is supposed to be our valued ally in the war on terrorism. But terror takes many forms, not all of them hijacked airplanes or bombed subways.

For the vast majority of humans, terror comes in more mundane ways - like the violent hands that woke Dr. Shazia Khalid as she lay sleeping in her bed, and the abuse she's suffered at the hands of Mr. Musharraf's government ever since.

I mentioned Dr. Shazia briefly in June when I wrote about General Musharraf's quasi-kidnapping and house arrest of Mukhtaran Bibi - the Pakistani rape victim who used compensation money to open schools and start a women's aid group. But at that time Dr. Shazia was still too terrified to speak out.

Now, for the first time, Dr. Shazia has agreed to tell her full story, even though this will put herself and her loved ones at risk. Her tale is simultaneously an indictment of General Musharraf's duplicity, a window into the debasement that is the lot of women in much of the world - and a modern love story.

Dr. Shazia, now 32, took a job by herself two years ago as a doctor at a Pakistan Petroleum plant in the wild Pakistani region of Baluchistan, after Pakistan Petroleum also promised a job for her husband there (that job never materialized). Dr. Shazia's family worried about her safety, but her residence was in a guarded compound and she felt strongly that the women in that region needed access to a female physician.

Then on Jan. 2, Dr. Shazia woke up in the middle of the night, and at first she thought she was having a nightmare. "But this person was really pulling hard on my hair, and then he started pressing on my throat so I couldn't breathe. ... He tied the telephone cord around my throat. I resisted and struggled, and he beat me on the head with the telephone receiver. When I tried to scream, he said, 'Shut up - there's a man standing outside named Amjad, and he's got kerosene. If you scream, I'll take it and burn you alive.' ... Then he took my prayer scarf and he blindfolded me with it, and he took the telephone cord and tied my wrists, and he laid me down on the bed. I tried hard to fight but he raped me."

The man spent the night in her room, beating her, casually watching television, raping her again and boasting about his powerful connections. A 35-page confidential report by a tribunal describes Dr. Shazia tumbling into the nurse's quarters that morning: "semiconscious ... with a swelling on her forehead and bleeding from nose and ear." Officials of Pakistan Petroleum rushed over and took decisive action.

"They told me to be quiet and not to tell anybody because it would ruin my reputation," Dr. Shazia remembers. One official warned that if she reported the crime, she could be arrested.

That was a genuine risk. Under Pakistan's hudood laws, a woman who reports that she has been raped is liable to be arrested for adultery or fornication - since she admits to sex outside of marriage - unless she can provide four male eyewitnesses to the rape.

Dr. Shazia wasn't sure she dared to report the crime, but she begged for permission to contact her family. So, she says, officials drugged her into a stupor and then confined her in a psychiatric hospital in Karachi.

"They wanted to declare me crazy," Dr. Shazia said bitterly. "That's why they shifted me to a hospital for crazy people."

Dr. Shazia's husband, Khalid Aman, was working as an engineer in Libya, but he finally was notified and rushed back 11 days later. Dr. Shazia, by then freed, couldn't face him, but he comforted her, told her that she had done nothing wrong, and insisted that they report the rape to the police so that the criminal could be caught.

That was, perhaps, naïve, particularly because there were rumors that the police had identified the rapist as a senior army officer and were covering up for him.

"When I treat rape victims, I tell the girls not to go to the police," Dr. Shershah Syed, a prominent gynecologist in Karachi, told me. "Because if she goes to the police, the police will rape her."

That's the way the world works for anyone unfortunate enough to be born female in much of the world. In my next column, on Tuesday, I'll tell how our ally, General Musharraf, then inflicted a new round of terrorism on Dr. Shazia.