YWednesday, August 15, 2007

National Education

We had a National Education talk this morning.

It was great that the teachers scolded us for misbehaving even before the thingy began. If I remember correctly, we were told to be on our best behaviour. We were to appreciate everything that was being done for our sake.

However, if I remember correctly, none of the students ever requested for such... an act of kindness.

What I found hilarious (though unfortunate) was the girl who had to introduce the guest speaker, whose name I cannot recall. She had to wear the school No.1 uniform, which is, the blazer and tie and shoes and everything else. The girl had to put on all that crap just to stand behind a podium, which left only her head exposed, to talk for about 30 seconds.

Implementation of absolutely unnecessary formalities. There's nothing quite like it.

The guest speaker was some government representative, MP of someplace and he worked as the Secretary in some branch of our government. Pretty admirable stuff. He looked smart.

The topic for the day was Religion in Singapore. I found it quite surprising that they were willing to have an open dialogue regarding such a sensitive topic. As far as I can recall, the government doesn't really like to touch on this subject. However, it ended up being pretty much the same old stuff. Still, it's quite something, considering we're in Singapore.

Strange how someone can make terrorists and war and violence sound as dull as an instruction manual. That takes talent.

As usual, after the guy finished talking, we were allowed to ask have our say. There was something this one girl said that struck me as being quite blunt. This girl stated that some religions have the belief that "I'm right, everyone else is wrong", and that it was quite contradictory to Singapore's policy of accepting all the major religions.

Now, who said Singaporean students can't think?

But of course, the rest of us didn't understand what she was saying, and decided to laugh at her for a few moments, so as to hide our embarrassment and ignorance.

After the thing was over, the intro-girl was allowed to recite some standard message of thanks lasting about 30 seconds short to the guest, and we were allowed to leave.

At least intro-conclusion-girl was able to make good use of her formal attire.

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Blogged @ 9:43 PM