I came from NUS and when I read the article in the Straits Times stating that "NUS has beaten Princeton and Cornell" in social sciences I couldn't help but read it with disbelief. Now at least I'm not the only one who doesn't agree. The following rebuttal (taken from Scroobal from Sammyboy forum) really takes the cake and I totally agree with it.
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I think it is a sparkling testament to NUS and the country.
It is no surprise as we have repeatedly achieved high accolades in the various disciplines that have been unanimously identified as Singaporean in nature and in form.
Singapore remarkable credits include the nobel prize in a number of fields. Our Patent applications flood the Patent office around the world. We discovered the cure for aids, sent women to the moon, changed iron to gold and found the holy grail. We invented the tissue paper, the condom and the printing press. Our latest invention is Newater and the product name won the award for most innovative branding name in the history of marketing.
Our automobiles ply the O'Bahns, the expressways and the turnpikes of the every city in the developed world. Our trademark highrise apartments caricatured by lift lendings on every 5th floor is the bedrock of modern town planning and found in many parts of the world.
We taught the Chinese in PRC how to develop their econmomy, their townships and their superannuation for their old age. Our deeds are now adopted as part of the English Language by the entry of the word "Suzhoued" in the Oxford Dictionary meaning "screwed by peasants"
We changed the face of aviation by developing the the world's first Vertical Takeoff aircraft called the Harry Jet. We sell submarines to Sweden, we teach US pilots to fly supersonic jets at Luke Air force base. Our Shipyards launch the largest ocean going passenger vessels and our naval architects designed the hovercraft.
Our world class universities receive scholars all over the world that for the lack of space we send ours to Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Oxford and Cambridge. Works of our academics are published in distinguished journals like the New England journal of medicine, the New York Law Review and the Oxford Journal of Nuclear Physics. We wrote the book about Plate Tectonics, assembled the human genome and pioneered foot reflexology. We discovered the most elements in the periodic table and predicted that the world was round.
Our alumni include the secretary general of the United Nations, the Prime Ministers of many countries, the Pope, the Ayatollah of Iran, astronaut Neil Armstrong, Steve Jobs and at least half a dozen CEOs of Asia Fortune 500 companies.
Yep, we are indeed better than Princeton.
ps. we unfortunately are still trying to pick out a national dress.
22 February 2005
20 February 2005
Tolerance
It seems in this world the more we progress the more we become intolerant of other people. I'm not only talking about sexual diversity but also of language, race and creed. This is happening everyone, even in the places where all people are considered equal. I’m talking about the Church here. Every time the Christian church makes a notice about gay rights and so on, I get worked up about it and then get sad, realising that the one place that I was suppose to feel safe in not there for me at all. I wonder if this is the church the Christ founded.
I’m a cradle Catholic and from the time I realised that I’m gay, I’ve felt nothing but God’s love for me. I became very spiritual and really love the church. The church, not the hierarchy. I couldn’t care less about the hierarchy, which is the Vatican, the people who can never seen beyond their own noses. I personally feel the hierarchy of the church is like the Pharisees of the Jesus’ time. I know a lot of religious rights people who would crucify me because of this but to say the least, I don’t really care. I believe that if my God is as petty and narrow-minded as they are, then I don’t think heaven would be a place for me. We can actually throw away the hymns that say “God is love” and etc. as apparently these churches believe that God actually hates some people.
Can you believe a church that doesn’t learn from its own mistakes? The chuch believed that the Africans who they believed were the spawn of the devil (this is recorded in the Catholic church achieves) on account of their skin colour, the burnt women on the stack because they believe that they were witches, they the protestants were cults of the devil because they broke off from the ‘true’ church, places Galileo under house arrest because he said the earth revolved around the sun, etc. Up till today, the ‘Pharisees’ in the Vatican and its hierarchy still think they are infallible.
I have a feeling that people are not happy until they can discriminate against some people or another. It was the Africans before then the Jews, the feminist and now the GLTB community. Well, all I can say it is a privilege to be able to know the ‘evils’ of discrimination. If I’m not gay, I wouldn’t be able to see the world as I see it now. A place that is beautiful but ……
People have to start realising that being spiritual and being religious are 2 different things. A country that is ruled by religion is a country that is doomed to fail. Europe is the best example, a continent that allowed the Church to rule. Where the rich were exalted and the poor stepped upon. It is only when they separated church and state, i.e. became a secular government, that we see society progressing as it should. We all know that the darkest periods in the history of Europe was when the Church ruled it.
I believe the site www.tolerance.org really is a wonderful site. Also this www.soulforce.org which believes in educating people and that the enemy is not the homophobes/heterosexist but untruths, really wonderful site. Really have to be a saint to love the people who hate you.
There is a book by Philip Yancey, "What's So Amazing About Grace?" (ISBN: 0310245656) It is a book that lots of churches hate (the truth hurts I always say). It is not even sold in the Catholic bookshops in Singapore! It takes about the church being not being the grace giver that Christ was. Churches tend to pick and choose the ‘members’ that they want. It is really a wonderful book, I would ask all who are interested to read it, it would really open your eyes about the state of Churches in the world and the hypocrisy involved.
I’m a cradle Catholic and from the time I realised that I’m gay, I’ve felt nothing but God’s love for me. I became very spiritual and really love the church. The church, not the hierarchy. I couldn’t care less about the hierarchy, which is the Vatican, the people who can never seen beyond their own noses. I personally feel the hierarchy of the church is like the Pharisees of the Jesus’ time. I know a lot of religious rights people who would crucify me because of this but to say the least, I don’t really care. I believe that if my God is as petty and narrow-minded as they are, then I don’t think heaven would be a place for me. We can actually throw away the hymns that say “God is love” and etc. as apparently these churches believe that God actually hates some people.
Can you believe a church that doesn’t learn from its own mistakes? The chuch believed that the Africans who they believed were the spawn of the devil (this is recorded in the Catholic church achieves) on account of their skin colour, the burnt women on the stack because they believe that they were witches, they the protestants were cults of the devil because they broke off from the ‘true’ church, places Galileo under house arrest because he said the earth revolved around the sun, etc. Up till today, the ‘Pharisees’ in the Vatican and its hierarchy still think they are infallible.
I have a feeling that people are not happy until they can discriminate against some people or another. It was the Africans before then the Jews, the feminist and now the GLTB community. Well, all I can say it is a privilege to be able to know the ‘evils’ of discrimination. If I’m not gay, I wouldn’t be able to see the world as I see it now. A place that is beautiful but ……
People have to start realising that being spiritual and being religious are 2 different things. A country that is ruled by religion is a country that is doomed to fail. Europe is the best example, a continent that allowed the Church to rule. Where the rich were exalted and the poor stepped upon. It is only when they separated church and state, i.e. became a secular government, that we see society progressing as it should. We all know that the darkest periods in the history of Europe was when the Church ruled it.
I believe the site www.tolerance.org really is a wonderful site. Also this www.soulforce.org which believes in educating people and that the enemy is not the homophobes/heterosexist but untruths, really wonderful site. Really have to be a saint to love the people who hate you.
There is a book by Philip Yancey, "What's So Amazing About Grace?" (ISBN: 0310245656) It is a book that lots of churches hate (the truth hurts I always say). It is not even sold in the Catholic bookshops in Singapore! It takes about the church being not being the grace giver that Christ was. Churches tend to pick and choose the ‘members’ that they want. It is really a wonderful book, I would ask all who are interested to read it, it would really open your eyes about the state of Churches in the world and the hypocrisy involved.
11 February 2005
The next day
Another holiday and today I really love it. It is my own day, unlike yesterday.
Went to gym to spin today. It was really great. I do think that this spinning instructor is cute, though a lot of people would disagree with me. It really makes me realise that there is a ‘type’ of person for everyone. T and I have so different taste in men that it doesn’t seem so amazing that we find each other attractive. Of course there will be some people that we agree is cute but most of the time we don’t. I love diversity and celebrate it. Okay, digressing again, well, I teased him a lot today (the spinning instructor not T). Hehehe… most of us would agree it is flirting actually. It was really fun.
After a long break, spinning today was really wonderful. It got my body moving again. Even though this morning I wanted to skip it. :P
What happened to T? Well, the first day of the Lunar New Year is always a time for family to get together and his is no exception, hmmm… I would how many ‘marriage’ questions he had.
Meeting him later today to watch ‘Constantine’.
......
Not a bad show but there were so many ‘teachings’ that were Catholic in nature that I wonder how many non-Catholics really understand it. I was translating the Latin parts to T, it was fun, hmmm… at least I can still remember some of my Latin. He was actually surprised that I knew Latin. It is not a movie in the ledge of ‘Spiderman’ but it has its merits.
Went to gym to spin today. It was really great. I do think that this spinning instructor is cute, though a lot of people would disagree with me. It really makes me realise that there is a ‘type’ of person for everyone. T and I have so different taste in men that it doesn’t seem so amazing that we find each other attractive. Of course there will be some people that we agree is cute but most of the time we don’t. I love diversity and celebrate it. Okay, digressing again, well, I teased him a lot today (the spinning instructor not T). Hehehe… most of us would agree it is flirting actually. It was really fun.
After a long break, spinning today was really wonderful. It got my body moving again. Even though this morning I wanted to skip it. :P
What happened to T? Well, the first day of the Lunar New Year is always a time for family to get together and his is no exception, hmmm… I would how many ‘marriage’ questions he had.
Meeting him later today to watch ‘Constantine’.
......
Not a bad show but there were so many ‘teachings’ that were Catholic in nature that I wonder how many non-Catholics really understand it. I was translating the Latin parts to T, it was fun, hmmm… at least I can still remember some of my Latin. He was actually surprised that I knew Latin. It is not a movie in the ledge of ‘Spiderman’ but it has its merits.
10 February 2005
Happy Lunar New Year... sort of
The first day of the Lunar New Year.
I never really enjoyed the Lunar New Year pass the age of 12, to many people and too much hob-nobbing around with family. Family, I will add who don't like me. Family politics. But then again that is my paternal side. My maternal side loves me. ;)
We had only 1 person to visit and that is my maternal aunt. It is rather fun to be there but I always wait for the dreaded question, which all GLBT people hate, “when are you getting married” ahhhhhhhhhhh…
Living in a society like Singapore, where the older generation doesn’t seem to understand that being single is okay, is really frustrating sometimes. Especially, it seems that they seem to want to marry everyone off. Of course I know that they have my interest at heart, but they just don’t get the fact that I can still live without someone in my life, who would I need a woman to take care of me? Or why would a single girl need a man to take care of her?
But then again, they have no idea I'm gay and that I'm already spoken for. Which actually is the sad part of any GLBT's life. We can never share the job of finding a boyfriend or girlfriend with our family. Most of us in this 'asian' society would never want to tell.
I do know of people who believe that being single in okay. A lot of my friends (straight, GLBT) who said that they would like to find someone to just grow old together, be it a lover, husband, wife or even a very close friend. I think that is the basic things that we look for when we want to find a partner in life, just someone who will grow old with us. That is the thing the world doesn't understand, it has nothing to do with sex but intimacy, the fact that we want to love and be loved in return by someone. We are no different from our straight counterparts, only difference is that we fall in love with the people of the same sex. Of course the religious people would have lots of things to say against this but that is for another time.
Well the day ended and I’ll still alive. Thank goodness tomorrow is my own day.
I never really enjoyed the Lunar New Year pass the age of 12, to many people and too much hob-nobbing around with family. Family, I will add who don't like me. Family politics. But then again that is my paternal side. My maternal side loves me. ;)
We had only 1 person to visit and that is my maternal aunt. It is rather fun to be there but I always wait for the dreaded question, which all GLBT people hate, “when are you getting married” ahhhhhhhhhhh…
Living in a society like Singapore, where the older generation doesn’t seem to understand that being single is okay, is really frustrating sometimes. Especially, it seems that they seem to want to marry everyone off. Of course I know that they have my interest at heart, but they just don’t get the fact that I can still live without someone in my life, who would I need a woman to take care of me? Or why would a single girl need a man to take care of her?
But then again, they have no idea I'm gay and that I'm already spoken for. Which actually is the sad part of any GLBT's life. We can never share the job of finding a boyfriend or girlfriend with our family. Most of us in this 'asian' society would never want to tell.
I do know of people who believe that being single in okay. A lot of my friends (straight, GLBT) who said that they would like to find someone to just grow old together, be it a lover, husband, wife or even a very close friend. I think that is the basic things that we look for when we want to find a partner in life, just someone who will grow old with us. That is the thing the world doesn't understand, it has nothing to do with sex but intimacy, the fact that we want to love and be loved in return by someone. We are no different from our straight counterparts, only difference is that we fall in love with the people of the same sex. Of course the religious people would have lots of things to say against this but that is for another time.
Well the day ended and I’ll still alive. Thank goodness tomorrow is my own day.
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