We are the world

2003-05-10 5:32 p.m.

No this entry is not about the USA for Africa song back in the 1980s or about children and aid to them. Rather, it about Earth Week in NJC, or my perspectives on our 5 days of preaching the need to protect our planet.

Monday (28th of May): The very start of Earth Week saw Iris (president of green link) as Mother Earth pleading to save her from destruction. Not that I took notice of course, but the days events seem to fit in with the dominant theme for the week. I found myself along with Chih Hung and Debbie in GR 34(02A04's civic room) before their Lit S lesson. What mattered was not that there was almost silence around, but that the Air con was off. Debbie was complaining(well actually all of us were)about the heat and how sleepy she was. It later struck me that that could be the result of Global Warming. Singapore's a hot and humid country, so one would not expect any different. Still, that set me thinking...

Tuesday: It rained during the last 30 minutes of PE. Note the stark contrast from the day before: sun and now rain. Not that I was surprised of course, It had been pouring for the last two weeks or so. Two Saturdays ago, the debate society was caught in what Chih Hung called the "storm of the century". Every other alternate day the sky would unleash it anger on us. Effects of pollution? One would wonder...

Wednesday: The start of the inter CT debating competition. No relevance to Earth Week ? Think again--the motions were all to do with environmental protection. A very messy start due to the fact that some class did not see the need to represent their House. The first motion was "THBT Global warming means Global Action" or something of that sort. I had a wonderful Geography lecture that I probably could sit for the Human Geography section. The proposition gave no arguments at all, hence it was a clear cut win. For the second round, I found myself as the time keeper for the motion "THW sell Sharks Fin." It was a much better debate, with Ashwin, Clare and Pradip as the proposition and Aquilla, Krithikaa and Devlin on the opposition. The prop gave a delicious policy on selling synthetic sharks fin so much that I told Ashwin that he ought to treat us to such a dish later. All in all a wonderful debate, especially since the prop had only one "real" debater on their side(Clare).

Thursday: A public holiday, hence that equaled to roaming the streets (actually only Orchard Road). We( Chih hung and I) watched X men 2. There was some talk about going with Debbie and Wee Jian the night before but that did not fall through. What has X men got to do with saving the earth? Well, in the final scene, the dam bursts open, sending the message that flooding can also be attributed to Human actions.(Talk about too mcuh geography.) Before the show, we bought a present for Nicholas, who has been a great friend every since I met him...

Friday: Official end of Earth week in school ,but for the debating society, we still had the finals of the inter CT competition the next day. Iris(or rather Mother Earth)gave her speech on how polluted she has become.

Saturday: The most interesting day of the week. The semi finals motion was "THBT science and technology has done more harm than good" the same motion I did last year with Seng Woon and Amandae. I lost that debate, so I was curious as to how the case would develop this time. As it turned out, the opposition did not tackle the prop's case at all, and neither was the policy set by the prop strong. It was a unanimous decision to let the motion stand, although I was in disagreement with the others on the best speaker. Clara( 2nd Prop) did show strong potential...

The finals was A03 versus S21( I think) with a debate on placing the economy over the environment. I was the timekeeper and had no qualms about it as I have done this motion many times. I made a slight error with the first timing but subsequently everything ran fine. From what I remember, the cases only clashed on a small area on what is the consequence of economic growth. There were lots of flaws(style wise) but other than that, I thought the team with no actual debaters (A03) put up a good fight. Whilst waiting for the results, there was an elocution contests with one house rep reading out a poem.

The first up was Ruo Hui from Aerius House. I was waiting to see what poem on the environment she would pick when she announced, “This poem is form Sylvia Plath, the Night Dances". That's our Literature text, if you are wondering. What an apt poem, Ruo Hui. However, the other house reps did not read out any poems to deal with pollution or environmentalism, hence it was a mistake on my part. After Ruo Hui's recital, Kenneth, our dear MC, said that it was very "profound", causing a ripple of laughter from the audience.(A short digression here about Kenneth. He has the natural voice of a public speaker and a debater and is at times extremely witty). I guess profound was an exaggeration.

After her came the other recitals which included one on racism.

The debate results came back, with an unexpected win by the opposition (A03). That's the year one humanities class by the way. Unexpected because I thought their case was not consistent. Chih Hung told me afterwards that if the motion did not fall it would defeat the meaning of Earth Week. There was a slight mix up in the prize presentation, but that was a minor glitch. Mr. Whitby graced the occasion, and called Yoong Tian( the Solaris captain)"sunshine". Nothing worth noting actually.

So what was earth week to me? Those who know me ought to remember that I’m an environmentalist at heart. Still , one week of "green" activities would not make us any more conscious of why we must protect our earth.

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