Of dinners, debates and work.... *

2006-10-13 7:29 p.m.

Some events of the days past:

Went out with the Singsoc (Singaporean society) last Friday. The actually membership is larger than I expected. There were quite a couple of graduate students such as Jack, and PhD student and another guy doing a Masters in Engineering. I’ve always some how connected very well with those with Masters Degrees or PhD, and so I chatted much with him on a variety of topics. Then there was this bubbly girl from Hong Kong who tagged along with the gang. Her name is Tammy and she’s reading medicine but I didn’t get to talk to her much. Call it varying circumstances.

Monday, 9th October: So it was around 0740 hrs (GMT) when I settled down my breakfast tray in Shackleton dining hall when I saw the unmistakable flag of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Suddenly, the picture switched to the Korean Peninsula and concentric circles were around the Northern part. I didn’t need to here or read any more to guess that the North had done what everyone else did not want it to do. I verified my suspicions with my Father. He replied: “Nuke tested around 10:30 Singapore time”. Wow, wee. More of that in the next entry.

Tuesday: Was working but hit by a nasty cold. Which mean that I had to forgo another movie session upstairs with Rhys, Stacey and Heather. Will make that up some other day. Oh yes, attended my first Model UN stuff that day. Entered late due to classes. I say Model UN format is really more refined than that of the World School Debating; something much higher in “class”. It could be the thing for me. If only I had spoken…

Wednesday:

Attended a debate workshop at the Law side organized by the Uni Debating Society. It was more a refresher for an old debater like me. Or so I thought.

Ok, the style is British Parliamentary style debate style, two speakers per side and a summation speech. The format doesn’t seem to differ much from World Schools style and even POIs are allowed. They discussed a bit on topics like whether Poland should be kicked out of the EU and whether Turkey should join the EU immediately. All well and good. Those are lovely mind stimulating topics.

Then they asked who wanted to try a debate. Eight people raised their hands not including me. Perhaps I wanted to just observe, perhaps I wanted to see want other debaters or debaters to be were like. Anyhow, the first motion, “THW divide Iraq along sectarian lines” made everyone gasp and protest. So it was changed to a simple (as in a straight forward) motion, “THBT Euthanasia is a good thing.”

Ah, the lovely social topic, Euthanasia. I’ve tried such a topic/motion in both debate and GP, but still stayed to watch. The Opp team was next to me and I saw one or two of their arguments. Not exactly that solid, but good.

So because there were eight members, the effort was sort of split or something like that. 1st Prop came up and did the usual intro until he settled for the parameters of the motion. He stated that “euthanasia will only be carried out if the patient is fully conscious….” I couldn’t believe my ears at first. Then followed some general guidelines of euthanasia. He has just set the most unexpected, most unconventional set of parameters I had ever heard. I sincerely think that not even ACJC/RJC or even the WSDC team would have thought of that definition.

I expected the Opp to furiously hit out at that. However, that did appear only slightly. All in all, it was a pretty good debate if they were first timers. Still, never had I sat and heard such an unusual set of parameters for the motion.

Thursday:

Had only one class so I left around noon for the campus. Stacey from upstairs just so happened to be leaving at the same time, so we walked out together and chatted. Wow, she joined the Debating team too and was in a sort of debate-like society in school. The topic then drift and I told her why was I couldn’t join them on Tuesday. She remarked that I was welcomed anytime upstairs to join them for a movie.

In the evening, I witnessed another debate, THBT poverty is your own fault. BP style again but it was only like one speech per side then it was open to the floor. It was again defined in a manner that I really did not expect and the guidelines set were sort of “alien” to me. So, although I really wanted to voice my opinion and also given the fact that I remembered what my debate seniors told me to do in any conference or debate, I kept silent.

Oh yes, I must remark that my tutors and lecturers are really an international bunch. My Econs 101 Lecturer is from Denmark. The Introduction to Politics Lecturer is either Welsh or Scottish given his accent. The tutor for that topic is a lady from Bulgaria. My Statistics based course Lecturer is from Italy but doesn’t have much of an accent. I think my Econs-Maths Lecturer is Italian too. Oh yes, my Stats tutor is either from China or Hong Kong.

Work wise, I was sort of focusing on the Political Economy questions whole week in preparation for the tutorial on Friday. I had several books, but they just couldn’t define what I was looking for. So amidst much scribbling and mountains of paper, I went online to search. A little more help, but not much. Asking CH wouldn’t yield anything since he’s hardly taking subjects close to mine. So I scribbled, crossed out and re wrote, then hit the books again, pulling out some lines.

Then, for some other reason or the other, I asked Claire about that topic. Well not exactly ask, but I sort of started off with “have you studied Political Economy?” I didn’t expect her to reply actually given the fact it was 1800 where she was and she most likely at dinner. However, she did reply and gave some help hints. “No trouble,” she said when I apologized. Thanks again Claire.

Armed with some outline, I entered PE (not the physical kind) class on Friday and it turned out pretty well after all. The tutor, Chris was in the same boat as us six years ago when he took the same module and he was really good in teaching and delivering.

Now for the big (understatement) news…..

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