The Quality Of Life

When I spotted Mr Good Looking, Tanned and Hunky from the corner of my razor sharp eyes as I flit past the rows of eating benches, I mentally noted a vantage point I could plonk my horny ass down to ogle. Sadly 45 degrees afield from the epicentre of my vision, Mr Good Looking, Tanned and Hunky was obstructed by an anorexic, hip-clad bitch. I had to look over her hair to get past viewing my object of desideratum.

I was magnificently rewarded with every twist of his sinewy musculature boldy flaunting its sculpted torso from behind his pint-sized sleeveless jersey. It was flexing and contracting as he put mouthful after mouthful of food in between his luscious lips. What a splendid sight to behold!


This is Quality Living at its apical.

I stood rooted, peering at the new Sony Gallery which screened a perfect pixel of an amazingly scenic village life in Canada. It was rightly named "Dream Catcher". It had everything going for it from biking trails, cable car rides, fishing in misty-colored waters, bear lodges and a twinkling night life.

I marvelled at the child-size of a speedo swim trunk for the ladies. No wonder anorexia is rife and fecundity is down. How can you ever hope to nourish and bear a child with hips and teats so small, Dolly Parton would have to starve 52 weeks just to get there.

Deferred gratification or instant gratification. This is a term now in vogue with our educators. Our pupils are taught that the former is a glorified virtue they should whole-heartedly embrace. I was told students see no further than the focal length between his eyes and the book he holds up to read (mostly likely a Manga or some skin flick).

I concur with this but wasn't I like them too when I was their age (not the Manga or skin flick part, we never, or at least I, had a chance to view porno - but the naivete) . Not because I was a knave but because of the lack of opportunities to hear out my educators' good counsel. It must then be the obligation of educators to avail them of this?

In an economy-driven consumerist society deferring gratification is near if not virtually impossible. It would be wiser that we differentiate between necessities (needs such as food, water and shelter) and luxuries (non-needs which are desires and wants). Let us call this selective gratification or prioritised gratification.

If your child pulled your glasses down and broke it, it has to be replaced. When your television breaks down, it has to be repaired or re-bought. When your shoes wear, you have to buy a new pair.

The flip side would be to go as blind as a bat, be unentertained and treading treacherous tarmac barefooted. What else can you do in Singapore if you do not have a television or computer set? Shop, shop and more shop.

If I had chosen to drive a BMW, bought a plasma screen or show off a Tiffany watch, that would be vices. Why don't they tell that to my ex-bosses' son? A SJI, CJC and NUS alumnus, this exhortation of "deferred gratification" had fallen on his deaf ears or has the education system failed in its noble mission of promulgating frugality? He has never worked for anyone before and starts right near the top of the pyramid. Just go kiss my arse, MOE.

So it is too with permitting gay parties in the first place, wasn't it? It was a regional event which has now shifted to Phuket, calculated to be financially feasible and economically beneficial. This is the sole criterion on which every single activity is contingent upon. But not a gay-sex marriage or civil union.

This was the same official line when I put in my proposal for the Outer Ring Line linking the outermost terminals to one another from West to South to East and North.

I would love doing career counselling and jobbing prospects for schools. This should be staggered throughout the year and well before they do any graduation examinations. We could have some upon the release of the examination results but this would be shambolic in view of the many schools and our few resources, all happening on the same day. Somehow this eludes schools in their year-round planning for the welfare of their charges.

As I wrote in another blog of comments, schools are the custodians of basic and fundamental academic, arts and sports education. Anything else over and above this should be outsourced to voluntary or commercial outfits or niche schools such as our Sports School or NAFA.

But academe remains the most important function so much so that schools should engage service providers if they cannot fulfil the vital role entirely, given their various constraints. Be this remedial or enrichment. The system, as it is now and notwithstanding any future changes, still hinges upon examinations as the final determinant of a student's ultimate fate. The least the schools can do is to try to insure their fate to be as assured as the sun will rise in the east every dawn.