Researching Politics Now

Look ! More Rag Tag Library Patrons
Oops, don't forget this sour puss who hawks my papers most of the time even if there is another one nearby. Or all the other heavily painted, gleaming eyed or China female dominatrixes who seem to abound here. And funnily it is always the school galls who make the most noises here at the library. What is wrong with you, bitch!

Political And Philosophical Reads
I read and will read again "LKY - The Man And His Ideas", JBJ's "Make It Right For Singapore" andJames Gomes' books on censorship among others. It is a balanced read, weighing one against the other.

Edmund Husserl's "Phemonology" presuposses nothing and to take things to appear as they appear. This is something we should be learning from , I thought.

Philosophical Astrays
When Dennis interviewed me, he mentioned something about "paymasters (meaning parents) looking for results, not personal philosophies on teaching". He is right, given the reality of education here. The reality of examination scores that is.

But precisely because we did not get our philosophy right that education has failed in its nobler and larger social objectives. Or other objectives even.

Pawns On A Political Chessboard, Not Even Rooks Or Knights
A small band of elites deciding and toying with the lives of a teeming population. This is exactly what personality testing, or for that matter, whatever else, is all about. All, with a few exceptions, the personae behind them were high-flying academicians or professionals.

Can you imagine we entrust the "GODS" to design, manipulate and pigeonhole our lives, our very souls even?

Ernest Hemingway Again
One chapter "Out Of Season" even has nameless characters simply addressed as "the young gentleman" and "his young wife", though there is Peduzzi, the alcoholic gardener who takes them on fishing jaunts at forbidden gaming places.

Oscar Wilde
One glimpses the snooty English deriding the Americans at one point in the story's unfolding. We also get peals of wisdom of life in general in some of the wildy witty Wildean quotable quotes like "punctuality is the thief of time" or Lord Henry's firm belief in "looking life and not reading about it" plus a taste of English culture in the way the houses are decorated, its surrounds and the English way of life (the English has no time for reading literary works but they do newspapers).

It is again not an easy read as it is set in the Victorian era where things and places are not similar to our contemporary lifescape. But its pointers in life are almost uncannily similar to life today (like how the young look to their elders for money).

What Else Will The Educational "Experts" Have You Believe
It does seem that the education landscape here like to recast certain educational dropouts or failures who have made good, as their pin-up boys for making it through sheer hard work and dogged determination. This smacks of covering up for the educational system's failings, assuming every Tom, Dick and Harry can even make it thus far, given a small percentage who do. Education has become "politicised".

Back to the issue of singling educational establishments for international recruitment. It is as obvious as the sun in the sky that these were schools in the educational realm for many years whichhave vast material, land and economic resources. All three hot contenders are also members of the establishment.

As to whether their curriculum or the system they adhere to has produced as many international accolades and acclaim in the form of the graduating students' work in any sphere of life isn't as clear-cut.

Why are other competing and alternative educational systems not allowed to strike out and perhaps flourish here? What we have here are basically two educational routes : the public schools and the commercial schools (each duplicating and replicating each other in its curriculum with the latter shadowing the former in many ways).

What are the larger objectives of education apart from a string of high examination scores or winning at every conceivable competition? What does this translate into at the end of the day?

Pricks/Weirdos At The Community Library And Everywhere
One writes down names from the obituary columns of the Chinese newspaper. Others use the tables for reading newspapers as personal PC desktops or to read their books. Dwayne's "MR STALKER" was again at the fast food joint but he wasn't smiling . In fact he had on an unsmiling face, with dark circled eyes and a tad of distress and nervousness today, I thought.

Hefty Premium
We have community libraries in almost all neighborhoods but some are really small which can only mean a small collection while other neighborhoods have yet or may not have them. This is again something I am querulous about. More libraries everywhere, a bigger collection and more space.

And oh yes, the world atlas has few hardcopies but it is available in software. You can't view it at the library itself but you have to borrow it home. To borrow it home, you need to be a "Premium Account" member at a yearly price tag of $21.00.

That means accessing the public loo 210 times with that kinda money I spent.