By Jeremy Khoo, Lee Chin Wee and Angelica Chong (14A01B)

“There was once where we wanted to surprise Anty for his birthday, but we didn’t know he had a class camp briefing in the Hodge Lodge. The whole council ended up standing outside really awkwardly holding the cake, so we eventually sang the birthday song extra loud and just ran off!” Ashlynna Ng sheepishly admits that the incident earned her a reprimand from her teacher-in-charge. “But I think it was worth it because Anty was so touched.”

It may be the end of her tenure as President of the Students’ Council, but Ashylnna is not the kind to look back wistfully on anything. She may no longer be the President, but the distinctly Ashlynna look and style contained in her close-cropped hair, affable manner and down-to-earth personality that was at the forefront of her public persona as President has not gone anywhere.

Ashlynna at the 33rd Students’ Council Investiture, looking cheerful as always

She tells us that she wanted to be the Prime Minister when she was ten. Arms crossed, she gazes into the distance when reflecting on her childhood, talking animatedly. She doesn’t just talk, either; memorably, Ashlynna was one of the few girls to shave during Hair for Hope last year [http://rafflespress.com/2012/07/22/your-son-ah/]. Her short hair is a lingering mark of her decision —  before she shaved, she used to wear her hair in a ponytail with a hairband.

“It was to get rid of the notion that for girls, appearances are very important.” she says. “Even for the women leaders in our world today, like Hillary Clinton – even when the media talks about her, the first thing they say is that she’s wearing a very nice pantsuit and I’m like, what has that got to do with anything?”

Ashlynna at last year’s 32nd Students’ Council Investiture, with her hair tied back in a ponytail

It is this sincerity that has marked her term in office, leading her to launch initiatives like the Smile Challenge, an attempt to get people in school to smile more at each other. To Ashlynna, school should be much more than just a glorified gateway to university. In her words, the school culture needs warmth — it can’t just be a place where people only focus on getting their own stuff done.

“The smile is a symbol of people connecting with each other in school …it’s important for us to look outside our own little bubbles and try to connect with people.”

She acknowledges that people may not actively be thinking about the Smile Challenge anymore but she still holds out hope regardless. “If we can get the councillors to continue doing it, it may over time become a more natural part of school life,” she comments optimistically. “Just because (the RI Year 5-6 side) is a bigger place doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make that effort to connect with the people around us.”

It was this personal touch and focus on building a school community which Ashlynna feels distinguished her time in charge from her predecessors’. “Our vision was ‘Family, Connection’. ‘Family’ was to do with things internally — because our batch is relatively large with 79 people, it is a big group of people to get to know and be comfortable working with,” she shares. “Externally it’s also about the personal touch, reaching out and being service-orientated, really trying to think of the people.”

Despite her earnest belief that the Students’ Council plays an integral role in enriching school life in RI, Ashlynna is acutely aware of how the Council may be perceived by some segments of the school population. “We’re not like the Discipline Board, where the first and foremost priority is to be a role model for their peers,” she argues. Ashlynna goes on to explain, “For our batch especially, we focused on a lot of leadership training, in the sense that we highlighted how their actions have larger repercussions on the school and how they themselves are role models.”

The fact that Council is an elected body does give them a popular mandate, but it is easy to overlook Council’s administrative responsibilities. “We strive as much as possible to hit that pinnacle of leadership but the thing is, the nature of the job scope we’re already given is very organizational,” she admits. “I would like to say that we try to make sure that all councillors are role models, but leadership is quite ambiguous, and we all have different notions of what leadership is.”

Her idealist credentials are certainly burnished: she is buoyed by Barack Obama’s charismatic leadership and cites Hillary Clinton as an inspiration for her personable leadership. Thus far, it seems that leadership has treated her well: her experience has only reinforced her convictions. She is no Quixote — she is aware that at some point, the knife blade of the Here and Now will puncture the garment of her Reality – but she holds cynicism at bay. The success or futility of her effort will remain to be seen.

“I think people should participate more. I feel everyone has a stake in what’s going on, and no one should give up that ownership. Everyone can make a difference. This is my idealism, which has yet to be crushed by the cruel world.”

Still, all things must come to an end. With Ashlynna, Antariksh and Arjun’s farewell speech at assembly last Tuesday, the tenure of the 32nd Student’s Council, and its President, has officially ended. (Ashlynna marches onward, looking to the A-Levels and hoping to conquer Math for the last time.)

If she’s not a Councillor anymore, we ask, will she choose to take off the Councillor’s badge? “Some people choose to take it off, to move on,” she says, “but I plan to continue wearing the badge — even though our term may be over. I still think that we have a duty to continue striving to be a positive influence on the school culture even after we step down. I think the journey of leadership never ends.”

by: Bryan Chua (14A01A)
Photos by: Aidan Mock and Mr Harold Tan

In our previous article on “Sense of a Beginning”, we featured a book written by 5 Rafflesians as a means of spreading awareness for the dangers of drug abuse. The team conducted interviews with those whom have suffered from and are recovering from drug abuse, creating original stories based on these transcripts.

During the launch last Wednesday, Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association (SANA) President Mr. Poh Geok Ek invited, Mr. Harold Tan, a former drug addict, to share his experiences with the audience. Mr Tan shocked and moved the audience with his honesty.

With his permission, Raffles Press has the privilege of sharing the tale of his descent into drug abuse, serving as a stark reminder of how vulnerable we are to this danger. In the first of this two part series, we will examine his descent into the world of drug addiction, and the lead-up to Mr. Harold Tan’s arrest.

———————

Many think of drug addicts as gangsters or low-lifers, people at the bottom of the social structure scouring the dark alleys for a quick hit, people who spend beyond their means and people who are generally labeled as failures in life. We read about drug addicts and drug traffickers in the papers everyday, and we dismiss what happens to them quickly. “It won’t happen to us”, we tell ourselves. “I won’t ever do drugs.”

Yet as Mr Tan recounts, you never know. Sometimes you think, maybe once is okay; “I’ll just try it once, I’ll stop after”. He continued, “I told myself, just once would not hurt. I will try it just once for the fun of it. After that, I will not touch it again.”

He was wrong.

“Not even once!” warns Mr Tan, on hindsight.  “I now know for sure that all drugs are extremely strong chemicals that can get a person hooked without him even knowing that addiction has set in,” he said.

Mr Tan (above) hardly looks the picture of a man who suffered from drug addiction and was incarcerated. You might be tempted to think – “oh, prison probably changed him, he constructed a new identity and became this person.”

You would be mistaken.

Mr Tan is a former Rafflesian.  In his years at Raffles from 1971 to 1976, he was a scout, a debater, a member of Raffles Players, a prefect and was even teased by his classmates for being a ‘‘teacher’s pet”.

He graduated with a PSC Local Merit scholarship and a Jurong Town Corporation Overseas Merit scholarship, and went on to build a reputation for himself as an Associate Professor in Real Estate at NUS, after spending more than 25 years in senior management positions in top organizations.  Beyond his qualifications on paper, his friends saw him as a loyal friend, always willing to help them when they were in need; his family saw him as a caring brother, being the sole breadwinner to support his sister’s university education and a filial son, caring for his mother when she slipped into senile dementia.

Hardly the image of a drug addict.

Yet this is the reality of his situation – behind his successful career and teaching excellence, Mr Tan was tempted to try recreational drugs around 2008.  He was immediately “hooked”.  He then began a “Jekyll and Hyde” existence, leading a secret double life as a drug addict while still performing his role as a professor.

Even more surprising was how he got into drugs in the first place.

“No, not in a back alley like you might see in movies,” he says, but rather via mixing around within his social circle of professional acquaintances.  At parties or clubs, these people who would bring with them recreational drugs – drugs that he believes many of them still use today to lead double lives.  He says he has met corporate executives, engineers, accountants, doctors, lawyers and teachers at these parties and clubs.

Mr Tan first came into contact with drugs at an elegant wine and cheese party. It was a banker who passed a bong around, rather than some shady drug dealer in a dark alley.  The banker said “hey, try this.” Mr Tan thought, “it’s a nice elegant setting with friendly people, so why not?”

Once he started, he couldn’t stop. He was in love with the ‘high’ he got from the drugs, the chemicals providing what he described as euphoria and a sense of extreme alertness or “aliveness”.  The drugs allowed him to hallucinate and experience an “alternate reality” akin to the incredible visual images and sounds that can be see in the movie “Inception” where people can float or fly, and buildings and furniture can morph into different shapes, colours and objects.

“I experienced floating out of my body while lying on a sofa.  Music that I was listening to seemed to burst into a galaxy of colours and patterns floating with me in space like a colourful computer screen saver.  I can imagine and dream whatever I wanted, even though I knew I was semi-awake,” he said.  He remembers entering a fantasy world in hues of blue and green, as if he was in the movie “Avatar”. On another occasion, he recalls floating on a cloud of pastel flowers, or flying like an eagle into a night filled with stars, while he was actually lying motionless in bed.  “The images and feelings were so fantastic and vivid that it was hard to distinguish between what was real and what was not.  Am I dreaming or am I in reality?  I couldn’t tell when I was intoxicated with a cocktail of drugs,” he revealed.

He told us of how various professional people continue to engage in drugs as a method of coping with stress, or situations they find painful.  The drugs quickly became a means of escape, of forgetting or coping with emotional pain or disappointments. He goes on to add, “At every party, I would love to have some (drugs).

“That’s how it starts.  It seemed so harmless.  I thought I was smart enough to be in control of my drug usage. I totally misjudged how potent and addictive they are.”

Mr Tan revealed that he was highly organized in maintaining his professional image while dabbling with enjoying recreational drugs; treating the latter as a “pastime” and an escapade.  When the drugs wore off, he would return to work and could function normally, so no one – not even his family or closest friends – had any inkling that he was abusing drugs. He was truly leading a double-life.

A photograph of Mr. Harold Tan working out in the gym; this was taken prior to his arrest

****

His life crashed when he was arrested in a drug dragnet by CNB (Central Narcotics Bureau) on 16th Dec 2010 for consumption and possession of drugs, including crystal meth (otherwise known as “ice”), and sentenced to rehabilitation in the DRC (Drug Rehabilitation Centre). The moment the news broke, the shock his friends and relatives received was beyond measure. To make matters worse, he was vilified by the press and was lambasted as a “Black Sheep” in articles and blogs.

An article published online, labelling Mr Tan as a ‘black sheep’.

“Don’t be naive and think of the DRC as those comfortable-looking centres celebrities like Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan would go to”, he says. His drug rehabilitation centre turned out to be Singapore Changi Prison.

“When I was arrested, I didn’t think I was addicted.”

****

When the news broke in February 2011, Mr Tan had already been imprisoned for a month. As he was being transferred to prison, he was bound at the ankles and at his wrists – as if he was a hardened criminal. Yet only when the prison gates opened did the enormity of his actions hit him.

“A very rough wake-up call,” he called it.

He wasn’t the only one nabbed in the drug bust – yet his story dominated the headlines. He believes that he was singled out by the authorities to serve as a warning to other other professional people to lay off drugs because of Singapore’s “zero tolerance” policy towards drug abuse.

When the arresting officers took his details, he remembers their reaction when they discovered that he was a professor -

“What the hell are you doing using drugs?”

They had never arrested anyone with such high educational qualifications before.

****

He looks back on the experience of being labelled as “Singapore education’s black sheep” as a very hurtful time. It dawned on him then, as a former Rafflesian, he used to make judgments on other people, reading the news of other drug addicts saying, “that will never be me.”

“I was wrong.”

“In fact, sharing the same prison cell with former gangsters, repeat drug addicts and drug traffickers made me realise that I am no better than they are. Many of them led a hard life of poverty, or lacked education.” The drugs provided escape from an intolerably difficult and impoverished life, many suffering from broken families, violence and a sheer need to survive on the streets.

“When I was sharing the same cell with them, they took care of me when I was sick, showed me kindness and encouraged me to serve out my sentence.  I learned that no matter what our education, status or position in life, we all essentially long for love, friendship, comfort, security and shelter.  It was so very wrong of me to look down on drug addicts … I had become one of them.”

He’s walked away from the negative publicity now knowing what it’s like to be under the glare of the media spotlight.  He tells us, “It [the whole experience] humbles you – it makes you realise that you’re no better than anyone else, that you’re wrong when you think can control it (using drugs).”

Mr Tan tells us how all addictions are the same – cigarettes, computer games, saying that you’re only smoking 5 cigarettes a day, or playing video games for 2 hours every day, or taking just one more drink. Yet it grows: 5 becomes 10, 2 hours becomes 4, one drink soon becomes 10. He says many smoking addicts he has met look at the pictures of cancer on the cigarette packs and say – “that’s them, not me. I go the gym, I exercise.” Yet at the end, Mr Tan reflects, you will face the truth of what addiction does to you – it ruins your life.  Your life becomes “out of control”.

****

Mr Tan remembers that his prison cell was roughly 400 square feet cell (about the size of an average hotel room) – a room which he had to share with 7 other people, and was forced to learn to sleep, eat and use the toilet in the same enclosed space. There were no windows, apart from a small hole in the wall covered over with a perforated grill (to prevent inmates from hanging themselves), covered to the point that very little sunlight – if any at all – would enter the cell.  When the ceiling lights were switched off to conserve electricity in the daytime, it was just dark. Mr Tan calls living in the cell the equivalent of being trapped in a cage; all the heavy steel doors are computerised, and every time the cell door closed, it slammed shut like a heavy vault door closing.

After being incarcerated in prison for 6 months, he was released for good behaviour, but was put on home arrest for another six months.  While at home, he had recurrent nightmares of being trapped in prison, unable to get out and whenever he heard a door slamming, it reminded him of the steel doors in prison. When he consulted a psychiatrist, he was diagnosed as suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).

****

Mr Tan regrets taking drugs beyond just the personal trauma he suffered. He regrets the grief and pain caused to his family, and the shock to his friends and associates as he witnessed the career he built up over the years come crashing down. Despite being released, he found himself being avoided by some people whom he had worked with.  The prison experience left him broken, lacking severely in confidence, which caused him to spiral into a depression. He recalls becoming reclusive, feeling utterly ashamed and humiliated.

He remembers the days in prison where he would think, “After all my achievements as a scholar and a Rafflesian, has my life come to this, spending my senior years in prison? I accept that I have done wrong and should be punished; all I ask is please do not punish me so hard till you break me. For if I am broken, how can I restart my life and be a useful member of society again?”

“Isn’t rehabilitation supposed to help us reintegrate back into society?”

 ****

Mr Tan’s story doesn’t end here – we continue this with Mr Tan recounting more of his prison experiences, and the lessons he learnt from the harrowing ordeal. Do check back for part 2!

by Bryan Chua (14A01A)
Photos by: Aidan Mock and Mr Harold Tan

Yesterday, we shared with you the story of Mr Harold Tan, a former Rafflesian who fell victim to drug addiction. Today, we continue with Part 2, featuring Mr Tan’s recount of his prison experience, and the things he wants Rafflesians to know, understand and learn from.

If you missed part 1, you can view it here: wp.me/p2mmzG-VH 

****

Mr Tan remembered many sleepless nights in prison.  Some inmates had been there a long time and suffered from mental conditions such as suicidal tendencies and depression. They were given anti-depressants in the day but the medication usually would wear out by 3am or 4 am in the morning. Some would then wail, scream or chant loudly and incessantly like mad men. They disturbed the sleep of inmates in neighbouring cells who would yell back at these men with a stream of obscenities, turning the place into a dog pound. It left him wondering – “Where’s the humanity in all of this?” Stuck in the corner of his cell, he awoke to a rough world every morning, a world with people behaving like dogs “barking”; not thinking anymore, just reacting like animals out of the frustration of being caged up.

He presented to us the grim reality of the drug life – how it all begins, how it all grows, how it all ends. Yet he uses his experience to remind us of these realities – and how we can avoid them. Mr Tan tells us how he now avoids people using drugs at parties for recreation, and how we will become the most at risk, the growing trend of major recreational drug users being among the young and professional class (the PMETs: Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians). He reminds us of things we’ve already read about, but tend to gloss over and forget about – dismissing it as irrelevant to us. “Drugs bring about only 3 outcomes,” he says.

The first is death. Mr Tan cited examples of Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, just to name a few. He tells us of rubber plantations in Malaysia with makeshift factories producing drugs, and how many more drug labs are creating dangerous drugs targeted at us (young people), synthetic drugs that put us at a greater risk of addiction, and its most grievous side effect – death.

The second outcome being prison – the path Mr Tan went down.

Finally, the third outcome Mr Tan mentioned is being admitted to mental institutions. He cites Britney Spears’ major drug breakdown (when she shaved her head bald in front of paparazzi) as a popular example of how drugs can drive you insane.

Mr Tan is still grateful for the entire experience, despite all the suffering he had to endure. He met far less privileged people, some without any formal education. He met people who dealt in drugs because they had no other reason to survive – and these are the people you don’t normally meet, he says.

****

He recalls his cell-mate John (whose name has been changed to protect his identity).

John was 34-years old when he shared the same prison cell with Mr Tan. He was an A-star scholar, and made it as a top-grade microbiologist doing cutting edge stem cell research – and evidently knew every effect of every drug on the market. Yet he was suffering from drug addiction to the point he could smoke up to 1g of crystal meth – or S$400 worth – everyday. John was using so much crystal meth, he couldn’t stop – because the more your body gets used to it, the more you need to get high. And he could not sleep for days.

One night as John was playing games on his computer he noticed his computer speed go down. Most of us would think, maybe it’s time to stop, and to check it out tomorrow instead. Mr Tan recalls the story John told, of feeling so high he became paranoid – he started hearing voices in his head. He was 100% convinced that his neighbour was hacking into his computer, despite the fact that his neighbour was a 72-year old retiree. Clearly, the likelihood of a 72-year old man knowing how to break into your Internet system past midnight is incredibly slim – yet John didn’t realise that. This led to John going over to his neighbour’s house, smashing a window and screaming profanities at the neighbour until the surrounding residents called the police. Even his mother couldn’t calm him down; in fact, in her efforts to restrain him, he slapped her. The police brought him to IMH (Institute of Mental Health), where he was given injections to calm him down. After 2 weeks, John was transferred into Mr Tan’s prison cell – yet even after entering the cell, John did not appear normal – his reactions were slow, his hands were trembling and his face was twitching – the after-effects of using too much crystal meth (“ice”).

6 weeks later, Mr Tan recalls John starting to pick a fight with one of his cellmates.

John had suffered a mental breakdown.

****

Mr Tan reflects on his former cellmate as someone who was academically brilliant, but whose personality and mental state was “damaged”.  John was never totally normal even though he had stopped taking the drugs.  John would say repeatedly that he heard voices, an idea Mr Tan finds scary – how would one be able to work when he keeps hearing these voices in his head? How would one be able to maintain relationships?

Having lived with and observed someone like John, Mr Tan is thankful that he did not suffer any brain damage or chemical psychosis.  He is grateful that although he was caught, he was stopped from using drugs before it was too late to turn back or permanent brain damage had set in. Recalling John’s story, Mr Tan realised it could easily have been him suffering from the paranoia, the voices, the mental breakdowns. After all, he says, “I was leading a secret life that nobody knew or could stop.  I shudder to think what might have happened if I was not caught and continued using for years.”

“Would I have become like John?”

****

Despite his past, Mr Tan is now confident of getting back on his feet again. He attends regular Narcotics Anonymous support groups styled like those of Alcoholics Anonymous, and regularly seeks help from counsellors when he needs assistance. He knows this part of his life will remain with him and may leave a mark – but he refuses to let it stop him from moving on and becoming a better man.

“I am not defined by the past or what has happened to me. I am defined by how I live my life now, and how I treat other people. Each of us has a past, some good, some bad… what is important is when you know better, you do better.”
 - Oprah Winfrey

This quote is Mr Tan’s motivation. He looks to stories of people who’ve suffered from drug addictions, or mistakes in their past that could have haunted them for the rest of their lives – but never did. He strives to make amends for his mistakes and wishes to grow stronger for them, to become a better person. He believes standing up and being able to talk about it is the first step to help him move forward with his life.

He acknowledges that because of his actions, he will face many struggles and challenges. Mr Tan recalls his prison counsellor telling him, “Once an addict, always an addict.” Perhaps a pessimistic view – but also a realistic one. Mr Tan tells us he occasionally still has cravings, but is engaged in a 12-step program to help him deal with it, and sees a counsellor to cope. Mr Tan now stays focused on his work, which helps him avoid thoughts of using drugs.

Each time he suffers from these cravings, he reminds himself of how tough life was in prison, and all the people he had hurt and caused severe inconveniences to, as a reminder of the consequences of his actions. “Drug addiction is like a vampire movie,” Mr Tan says. “Once you’ve been bitten, you’re no longer the same.” When you think of the drugs, you can’t resist it because the craving for the drug (like vampires drawn to blood) never leaves you. All we can do then, he says, is learn how to control it and manage our behaviors and choices.

Beyond that, he also acknowledges there will forever be a social stigma attached to him, of being a former addict. Initially, he admits he was totally ashamed and humiliated of the mistakes he had made – and despite being released in 2011, he still couldn’t work, write or even speak with any confidence through most of 2012.

Mr Tan eventually realised that he had to accept the mistake he made, and move on.  He knows he cannot change what has happened, but he cannot continue to be addicted to sadness and failure. It is this realisation, he says, that helped him to move on and save him from himself. “It’s not easy though,” he adds, commenting that it took him awhile to acquire this wisdom so that he can put his life back on track again.

Relationships were a key part of his talk – when asked about the differences in his relationships before and after his incarceration, Mr Tan noted that in the process of trying to get back on his feet again, he discovered his true relationships – the real friends who reached out to him and contacted him after he was released, and continued to care for him and help him through his recovery process. Today, he hopes to continue to be there for his family through the good times and the bad.  He makes time for the people he knows who really love him. He adds, “I will never forget the kindness of my friends who gave me a chance to restart my life. My real friends stand by me. My false friends have abandoned me – but that’s okay. My life is happier and lighter without the users who only hang around me when times are good.”

“I’m better off without them.”

Mr Tan reminded us the importance of keeping such loved ones close, remarking that “as we climb the corporate ladder, it is easy to forget (our relationships).” Looking back, he tells us, “I am no longer just a go-getter, an over-achiever because that didn’t get me anywhere.” He adds, “I’ve never met somebody who said ‘Darn, I wish I spent more time at work.’” He admits, however, this is not easy in our achievement-oriented Singaporean society. Yet he holds true to his belief that we need to place a priority on our relationships, adding:

“When you die, all the images you see will be the people you’ve loved and people you’ve spent meaningful moments with.” He asks the question, “on your deathbed, do you want to regret not spending enough time with the people who’ve cared about you through thick and thin?”

The experience, Mr Tan believes, has humbled him as well.  He is no longer as quick to judge the uneducated gangsters he sees or reads about. He hopes we will discover this virtue for ourselves, this realisation that ex-addicts like himself are still human, that they have feelings and have a heart, the realisation that criticising them merely brings them down further.

“If society continues to be judgmental and unforgiving, what chance do they have to improve their lives?  If we condemn and ostracize them, they may give up trying to do good and revert back to taking drugs because of all the rejections and doors closed on them,” he commented.

He sums up his view in that while it is good to achieve, to work hard, to get the “A”s, we must never lose our hearts because this is what makes us human. He believes it is our heart and the relationships we forge that will help us to recover when we fall down.  Without it the likelihood of us slipping again, and perhaps falling further down, is even greater – and it is hard to disagree with him.

“Life is meaningless without love.”

****

Mr Tan hopes that his words and his story will encourage us to think about the things we take for granted.  To think about the things we say we will never do. His experience tells us that we are all vulnerable – and he hopes what he has shared will open our eyes to the world around us, and the dangers we may face; that we should now begin to be aware of the company we mix with, and the things we do – because no matter what we say, nobody is safe. He also reminds us that we should never be afraid to seek help, that there’s no shame in admitting you have a problem and wanting to fix it.

“Don’t let your own ego hamper yourself.”

His final words to the members of the audience last Wednesday, and his message to all who may read this article: “Do your best, work hard, never give up. When you fall, pick yourself up – and finish the race well.”

“I hold dear to our school motto: Auspicium Melioris Aevi – The Hope for a Better Age, therefore, I look forward to better days ahead,” Mr Tan says, before triumphantly declaring,

“My life has not ended.”

****

Mr Tan has been taking the steps to put his life back on track – he was recently in Manila to teach managers in an Executive Program in Real Estate, and in Kuala Lumpur to make a presentation on other projects he is currently working on. We wish him the best of luck in his endeavours – and fully believe that he will return better and stronger than ever, having put this harrowing experience behind him.

He recognises that there may be more you wish to find out from him about his experiences, and invites all readers to send in your questions. For the next 2 weeks, Raffles Press will be collating such queries for Mr Tan, following which we will put up an article with the various questions and responses.

If you do have any queries, send your questions to press.raffles@gmail.com, and kindly title your email “Questions for Mr Tan”. Mr Tan looks forward to hearing from you!

By Lim Shaomin (14S03K)
Additional reporting by Jayne Chan (14S03D)

Raffles Press is back with the second portion of the two-part feature, R-Rated! Previously, we explored and analysed the popularity of Pop and Rock, the predominant genres of music many Rafflesians enjoy. This time round, we explore the popularity of two genres that have received recognition only in recent years, namely Indie and Acoustic. The two genres performed exceedingly well in the polls conducted, tying for third place. Here’s what we think about the acclaim of the two genres. We’ve continued with the creation of genre-specific playlists for your enjoyment as well.

Indie Music

Tying for third place with acoustic music, the popularity of indie music among Rafflesians is indeed growing. However, it is admittedly hard to define Indie music. On one hand, you have a “sound”: an eclectic mix of synthesizers, guitar strings, and out-of-the-box lyrics sung in an unconventional fashion. On the other hand, you have a “style”: a combination of various styles that are too lyrically intimate, too soft, too dreamy, too angular.

One or two years ago, if you picked out a random stranger on the streets and asked him or her ‘What is your favourite Indie band of all time?’ or something along those lines, you would probably be met with a furrowing of brows and a flurry of ‘Umm…’s and ‘Uhhhh…’s. Fast forward to 2013 – Indie has almost become a norm in today’s music scene. You see indie bands such as fun. holding full-house showcases here in Singapore, while in August, the much-anticipated indie band The xx will be making their way to our sunny shores for a concert. The popularity of indie music could also be largely credited to the Internet, where websites like Spotify allow singers and bands from independent and major record labels alike to share their music with millions of account users.

Back in the day, indie music merely meant music produced independently, that is, not released by big-name record labels like Sony. Through the years, Indie music has evolved into a philosophy advocating the ‘importance’ of retaining musical integrity, leading ardent fans to term indie music as “true music”. Today, it is a foil to mainstream music (and naturally, pop music comes to mind). More and more young upstarts are dipping their toes into indie waters, hoping to immerse themselves in a world where freedom of creativity is celebrated. So much so, that sometimes, it might seem that the weirder the music, the better it is. An anonymous respondent on our survey commented, “Indie artists are more experimental with their songs, which makes listening to them more interesting.” Another respondent also added, “ Florence and the Machine, Iron and Wine, Turning Page, The Smiths’ song lyrics are more literature-based; their songs are unconventional and beautiful compared to mainstream songs on radio.”

However, indie music is not without its critics. Loyal followers of indie music websites such as Pitchfork believe in obscurity. This goes back to the rising trend of ‘hipsterism’ among youths nowadays: in order to level up against other hipsters, you have to discover new indie artists (albeit, extremely obscure ones) before they become popular. This, of course, raises questions about whether ‘fans’ of indie music are merely trying to outdo each other by listening to bands which are more and more obscure, or are actually enjoying the music they are listening to. To take it a step further, obscure bands are termed ‘obscure’ for a reason.

Another major piece of criticism would be the “mainstream vs. indie” comparison. Indie fans argue that not belonging to a major label makes the music more genuine and sincere. Is that really the case? Sure, pop music is veering towards superficiality and not making much sense, but does that mean there aren’t any good pop songs being produced? Go-to artists for meaningful songs include Michael Jackson (R.I.P.), The Script, and Linkin Park (pre-Living Things).

Lastly, indie music has also been slammed for laziness, resulting in the passing off of ‘boring’ music as ‘credible’ music. You know the kind of song: the one where it all ends strangely, almost as if it were unfinished? Well, the artist would probably argue that finishing a song is ‘just too mainstream’.

Indie music does have a unique blend of melodies and rhythms, and should ultimately be considered an acquired taste. Personally, I started out hating indie music, having been accustomed to cheerful, up-tempo pop beats for far too long. However, it was The Weeknd that first got me hooked. Its sensual melodies and blatant discussion of controversial topics made it a fascinating listen. However, if you’re a little more reserved, a good place to start would be by giving bands such as Angus & Julia Stone (e.g. “The Devil’s Tears) or Passion Pit (e.g. “Take A Walk”) a listen. Who knows, you might just learn to appreciate it!

Acoustic Music

It may be strange to some – how this particular genre of music has seemingly captured the hearts of so many of the Rafflesians who participated in the polls. Though, if you think about it, the expeditious rate at which acoustic music has become one of the most popular music genres among us is hardly surprising. With the inception of YouTube in 2005, many budding singers and music producers took to the video-sharing website to showcase their vocal and instrumental prowess, increasing the exposure of today’s teenagers to acoustic music.

Acoustic and indie music might overlap, but acoustic music is more narrowly defined. It involves the use of non-electronic instruments such as guitars and pianos, as opposed to electric guitars and synthesizers. It is conventionally produced in two forms: through acoustic artists, or oftentimes, through cover artists on YouTube.

The term ‘acoustic artists’ is contestable, since artists with popular ‘electronic’ songs do make acoustic versions of them. However, there are strictly acoustic artists, such as Ben Howard. His more popular songs include “Only Love” and “The Fear”. The other form of acoustic music is through popular Youtube artists such as Kurt Hugo Schneider, Tyler Ward, Boyce Avenue and Conor Maynard (before he was signed to a record label). They rose to fame primarily because people enjoyed their version of popular songs. In fact, Conor Maynard’s cover of Chris Brown’s “Next To You” has received more than 11 million views to date.

However, acoustic music without vocal input also enjoys its fair share of popularity. The Piano Guys, a five-member American musical group, perform and produce their own instrumental arrangements from popular songs, ranging from One Direction’s What Makes You Beautiful to The Hobbit theme song. The millions of views generated on YouTube show that viewers are becoming increasingly receptive to classical instrumental music. It also helps that The Piano Guys are constantly coming up with quirky and innovative ways to bring acoustic music to life, proving that acoustic music can be flexible and fun.

The only downside to acoustic music that we could imagine would be if the cover sounds worse than the original song (the horror!), or if it is dull. For the former, the outrage is understandable. For the latter, it really depends on the artistic direction of the artist.

Overall, acoustic music is a good option as ‘study music’ as it does not include the thumping (and oftentimes, distracting) beats of the original songs, and it has a pleasing, soothing quality to it. This view is reinforced by an anonymous respondent who said, “Acoustic. Perfect study songs and soothes the mind”, when asked to name a favourite genre.

By Lee Chin Wee (14A01B) 

Cover photo taken by Chung Kityin of the Photographic Society

Sometimes it seems rather pointless to take part in sport. Why cheer when a ball dotted with hexagonal patterns trickles over a white line painted hastily on grass? Why celebrate when the thin strip of fibreglass you threw happened to fly the furthest? Why indulge, anyway, in an entirely arbitrary activity where arbitrary actions garner absolutely arbitrary reward? To some, that encapsulates the entirety of what school sports are – events which may be nice to have, but really have no relevance to their student lives altogether. Sport, as it seems from the limp and half-hearted cheers from legions of students conscripted down for match support, is “someone else’s game”.

While it may be convenient to think so, this could hardly be further from the truth. At the risk of romanticizing or waxing lyrical about it, there is a certain transformative quality to school sports. The very same guy whom you just saw flying down the flanks of the rugby pitch, taking on three defenders at once, could be sitting next to you in class, using your math assignments for ‘reference’. The girl who scored the winning goal with a scorcher deep in extra time could be your OG mate, someone who witnessed you in your full awkward glory during Orientation. The stony-faced team captain bellowing out orders to his team could be the most humorous, soft-spoken guy you’ve ever known. Therein lies the beauty of school sports – that it takes everyday, otherwise ordinary Rafflesians and moulds them into giants on the sporting pitch. Cheer not just for the generic “Hockey Boys’ Team”, but rather for your friends and batchmates who are playing with the kind of dogged intensity you’ve never seen before.

In the same way a musician thrives on performing to a packed concert hall or an actor flourishes in front of a full house, a sportsman relies on the throaty exhortations from the crowd in order to push on. There is nothing more energy-sapping than playing out a drab 0-0 draw on a football pitch tucked away somewhere in Punggol, or sprinting to the foreign beat of another school’s cheers. For those of us who believe that RI is much more than a transitional period of our lives where we flit through countless lectures and tutorials before entering university, there is every reason to cheer our hearts out for the teams which represent us. This is what holds the fabric of the Rafflesian identity together; because we share in the collective achievement of not only our peers but generations of seniors past whenever we tell someone what school we are from. When we sing the Institutional Anthem alongside a hundred other Rafflesians after a sports final, or simply offer our bitterly disappointed friend a comforting hug, we are forging a community which transcends the mundane academic details of regular school life. (Of course, whether or not one chooses to buy into the fictitious construct of “being a Rafflesian situated in the wider school community” is an editorial for another day.)

Little wonder then, that it is usually a fellow sportsman who shouts him or herself hoarse when supporting another team. It takes an athlete who has endured the rigorous exertions demanded in training to fully understand the hard work on display. A deft flick of the wrist to return a shuttlecock belies months of training; an elegant tennis drop shot disguises the daily toil exerted on the treadmill. Our athletes put themselves through gruelling training sessions and countless hours in the gym even in the off-season, just so they can gain that precious half-stride over their opponents. This year’s inter-school sports season was no different, with sports teams training from the moment school ended till dusk had fallen. Walk past the amphitheatre and you would see the floorball team practising shooting drills ad nauseum. Head over to the stadium steps, and you would see the soccer team perfecting their latest routines. Tucked away next to the Humanities Block, the basketball team shoots hoops with metronomic efficiency. Such is the long road to becoming a sporting hero.

Sometimes, however, it could almost be said that RI has too many heroes. One victory in a sports final may rally the school; ten of these very same victories only serves a numbing effect. We have been witness to Strapping Captain X of the Y Boys’/Girls’ Team presenting the Championship Trophy to Principal Mrs. Lim so many times that our applause has merely become routine, one more step towards the end of morning assembly. Yet sometimes it would pay to pause and reflect, just for a moment. Because behind every shining gold trophy hides a story of a year-long slog toward the proverbial finishing line of victory, of hopes, of injuries and of worries. Behind every silver or bronze medal hides that very same story of hard work and determination, of battling for every single square inch of turf, of falling short when it mattered. Every single medal which our teams earn is not only a representation of their accomplishments, but also a representation of the superhuman effort required to get that victory in the first place. Some of us think that running 2.4 kilometres is hard enough – try telling that to the cross-country team.

Here at Raffles Press, we have had the privilege of being privy to all the latest sporting results, in our attempt to cover as many sports finals and 3rd/4th playoffs as possible. Amidst the flood of 1st and 2nd place finishes, it suddenly occurred to me that finishing outside one of the coveted Top 3 spots meant dropping off the news radar entirely. Why do we fetishize quantifiable achievement over the acknowledgement of intangible effort? It’s simply because that’s the expedient thing to do, since the team which took the championship title has to be better and trained harder than the team which battled to a loss in the quarter-finals, right? On the contrary, results are but an inaccurate approximation of the arduous journey every sports team goes through in a season. A bad refereeing decision, tough on-pitch conditions or season-ending injuries to a team’s best players could easily derail a team’s charge to the top. We salute the efforts of all our sportsmen and sportswomen, because we firmly believe that you don’t have to stand atop a podium in order to stand out.

Officially, this year’s sports season has been no different from the numerous seasons preceding it. A decent haul of medals, mostly of the shiny golden variety, adding yet another feather to our Rafflesian caps. Statistics, however, are but a numerical condensation of the real stories and real experiences of our fellow schoolmates. It’s irrelevant if green, black and white are the colours of gold, because the blood, sweat and tears behind a medal are what matter the most.

By Law May Ning (14SO3O)
Additional Reporting by Nguyen Trung Huan (14S05A), Esabella Koh (14S03M) and Lu Jinyao (14AO1D)
Photos by Teo Si Yan (Photographic Society)

Managed to get a ticket for ABCD 2013?

“If there is one concert you need to go for in this school, it is the street dance show.”

- Simon Ang, 14SO3S

30 minutes.

That was approximately how long it took for the highly popular “Anybody Can Dance” tickets to be sold out.

Named with the initials ABCD, 25th May marked the culmination of two sold out concert sales that reached the front of the canteen, lots of talk amongst students, and frantic last minutes squabbling for tickets on the school’s local “black market” – many students, CCA Facebook groups, and even RJ Confessions were flooded with posters possessing the prized tickets who couldn’t make it on the day itself.

The queue for ABCD 2013

One curiously wonders if any aspiring businessmen managed to make a tiny profit off all the hype.

Even the lack of tickets couldn’t stop some determined fans, as many last minute gate crashers managed to sneak themselves in and place themselves strategically on the steps of the production.

Anybody Can Dance: One Step Closer

Ernest Yee, a Year 6 dancer, claims, “We hadn’t expected the tickets to be sold out in a day.” Yet, given Street Dance’s reputation and concerts to fully packed audiences the year before, a little foresight went a long way for the strategic Rafflesians who rushed down early to lunch break to join the quest for treasured commodities, so valued that each individual was limited to buying a maximum of four. In a true testament to the reputation of the Street Dancers, the sheer buzz of the concert was in spite of the Year 6s exams being in the week prior to the concert, which meant that little publicity efforts could be made.

But for the lucky few that did get manage to get golden passes, was it worth the effort?

The Show

The show was split into three stories: System Glitch, Dare To Be and Daddy’s Girl. Featuring three individuals in their personal struggles, the completely different stories were intertwined by one common theme: the three protagonists’ passion for dance.

And it was a passion much-reflected in the enthusiasm and practiced, well-choreographed movements of not just the leads, but all the different street dancers.

The First Story

System Glitch

The audience was introduced to the first story, System Glitch, about a girl tired of the invariable humdrum of daily life. The story dealt with the protagonist Jermaine’s (played by Jermaine Yee) mechanical preparations for work, coupled with her insightful musings on life under expectations, conventions and pressures. Sombre, blank-faced dancers of the System kicked off with the first piece, ‘Status Quo’, an impressively synchronised and almost robotic sequence. Like most of the pieces in this story, the Street Dancers made heavy use of dance formations, synchronisation and such, so the dances were more of robotic-like mass dances than giving individuals chances to shine, adding to the theme of losing one’s individuality.

Dancers all dressed identically contributed to the mechanical feel of System Glitch.

‘Trapped’, the second piece in System Glitch was also performed by the black-suit-and-hat System dancers, an imposing and menacing piece symbolising the s the System imposes on its members. The black and white, slow, atmosphere was one both captivating and different from the conventional fast-paced dance pieces, and the audience was enthralled by the grey, monochromatic piece. Symbolically, the piece spoke of how to add colours to one’s life. The story ended on a more cheerful note though: ‘By My Side’, the last dance of the story was a beautiful contrast to the previous pieces, upbeat and full of hope as protagonist Jermaine finally breaks free of the System and fulfils her passion for dance with her new friends.

The black and white imagery in System Glitch

System Glitch featured a truly relatable story of repression by a suffocating bureaucracy, illustrating one way burn out and disillusion can be countered – by something one is passionate about, in this case, dance. The use of dark colours truly conveyed the mood of the piece and succeeded in allowing the audience to feel Jermaine’s constraining environment. Most impressive were the professional sets and props at the scene when there were a lot of dancers walking up and down the stage – together with the heavily thought-out dance formations, it certainly made a huge impact on the audience.

Jermaine “breaking free” of the System.

The Second Story

Dare To Be

The second story of the night, Dare To Be, was an extravaganza of colours, featuring bright sets that certainly elicited from viewers the upbeat mood that the energy of the dancers. In the second story, the protagonist Joseph (played by Joseph Gan, who some might remember as the star and solo male performer of the MR Dancefest performance earlier this year) struggled with his demons, both internal and external, as an arrogant dance group tease him and insist he would be unable to succeed in dance.

A play of words on this story’s main soundtrack, a song by boy band ‘N Sync, the group of antagonists in the story who torment Joseph for being different was named the “Insync boys”, so named based on their self-declaration of being “in sync” with the trends. The hooligan, “ah-beng” like personas of the antagonists made for good comic relief, as this story, like the rest of the dance, was intermittent with pre-recorded narrative tracks. The Singlish colloquial speech certainly made for interesting characters. In a hilarious display of bluster and braggadocio, they brush Joseph off as ‘not good enough’, yet Joseph triumphs over them in the dance finals, after joining the fictional dance crew “Smexybeatz”.

Dare To Be had a greater focus on showmanship and individual techniques to highlight the arrogance of the Insync boys. Certainly one of highlights of the story was when one of the dancers ripped off his shirt to the squeals of amusement from the audience. Yet, even that failed to take off the focus from the difficult techniques and extremely precise timing of each dance move from the Street Dancers. The story featured various solos from the Insync boys, as well as Joseph himself, a great treat for the eyes as both Joseph and the Insync boys definitely displayed high levels of individual prowess.

The story also introduced a “dance battle”, bringing up feelings of street rivalry, complete with cheering “fans”in the form of the other street dancers. It certainly evoked sentimental feelings for fans of the “Step Up” movies. Most of all, Dare To Be definitely played with and ultimately debunked the stereotype that street jazz is only for female dancers.

The “dance battle”

The Third Story

Daddy’s Girl

All the verve and vigour softened as the third story, Daddy’s Girl, began. As the title implies, the story centered around Suyu (played by Yao Suyu) searching for the approval of her father. Her story was one that struck a chord with many in the audience. The moving resilience the protagonist displayed to make her father proud of her and win over his attention set the tone for the piece, with many emotional pieces making up majority of this story. ‘Hope For a Better Day’ was but one of the heartwarming dances in this story, and the plethora of emotion came to a head in a heart-wrenching climax in the final dance, ‘In My Daughter’s Eyes’, which brought many in the audience close to tears, as a tragic accident causes Suyu’s father to finally value and support his daughter’s dream.

Daddy’s Girl was definitely the emotional heart and anchor of the whole ABCD concert, a poignant commentary about support from one’s loved ones. The piece was extremely lyrical with moving, contemporary pieces, and a lot of the dances played on the lyrics of the various songs. In fact, the emotional connection with the audience caused it to be arguably the best story out of the three. The first piece in the story showcased Suyu’s longing for love and care from her father, and the second piece, a more light-hearted one, explored the relationship between school children and their parents. Yet, even beneath the light-hearted exterior of the song, there was definitely a disquieting sense to the piece as the audience felt Suyu’s moving need for love from her father, and it set many thinking about their own relationships with their family.

“Father” and “daughter” in Daddy’s Girl

“It was one of the most beautiful and touching performances. A lot of feelings were put into that performance and from how [the father] danced, I could actually feel what he felt,” said Irfan Setyadji Aditya from 14SO3T. “The story was just really emotional.”

An emotional piece: Daddy’s Girl tugged at heartstrings

Towards the end of the story, there were a lot of dances featuring the father and daughter duo, in fact, Deo Quek, who played the father, in many portions seemed to steal the limelight, and he shined even brighter than Suyu as he showcased his own skill.

Deo Quek (left) stole the limelight in portions of the show

It most definitely was a tear-jerking component to the ABCD concert that warmed the hearts of audience members all round.

The Finale

The Finale

The concert then reached its finale which linked the three stories. Scripted as a concert within a concert, the Finale served as a conclusion to all three stories as the three different protagonists -and the Street Dancers- saw the fruits of their labour come to life. The first protagonist, Jermaine, breaks out of her dreary, monotonous life to follow her passions and becomes a concert director, while both Joseph and Suyu end up performing in the dance fiesta directed by Jermaine, with Suyu finally gaining her father’s approval in pursuing her dreams. It was an attempt to fuse the contrasting genres of the different stories together in many of the latest contemporary songs fresh off the charts that the audience could groove to.

The Finale showcased many contemporary hit songs.

The finale featured a medley of several dances joined together, the first of which was ‘Try’ , the only dance which featured the whole of the Year 5 batch. It was a highly lyrical piece, allowing the audience to feel the music, and the dance largely was in accordance with the lyrics of the song. They also grooved to well known hits like ‘Only Girl’, ‘Can You Feel It’ and ‘Beautiful People’. The show ended with something not in the style of the rest of the dances – a lively broadway piece, really showing just how varied the dances of the night were. The exuberant ‘Do It’ after the curtain call closed off the show with a bang, with all Streeters dancing their hearts out on stage and right in front of the audience.

Strutting it on stage – The Street Dancers grooving in the finale

One of the interesting pieces of the dance was ‘Heart Attack’, the second dance of the finals. The piece was different in that it had a unique dance style involving a lot of formations and hurried movements on staged – ‘Wei Hing’ style as some of the Streeters coined it, after the choreographer of that particular piece.

Click to view slideshow.

The Finale was also special in that it featured dances choreographed by alumni Street Dancers, as well as one by guest choreographer Jordan Tin. Hailing from Thailand, the professional choreographer from the Urban Terrain Groovers crew contributed his genius to the concert in the Finale in the dance ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’. Alas it was a true compliment to the ability of the student choreographers that the standard, complexity and synchronisation of dances was something consistent throughout the whole concert across the board, not just the ones choreographed by guest choreographers. The Finale reflected the coordinated talents of the different batches and alumni members as the production culminated in the vivacious performance.

The Finale was a coordinated effort by all the dancers.

The high spirits of the night refused to be dampened even by the end of the concert – after, many of the Street Dancers proceeded to break into spontaneous solos which really reflected the theme of passion, as some delighted audience members stayed to watch.

The show must go on: Street Dancers had fun on stage showing off their skills even after the final bows.

Background

The concert was the first-ever collaboration between Year 5, 6 and alumni batches for Street Dance, and it is hard to imagine that the talented bunch are a relatively new CCA only just recognised a few years back. The extended family the concert involved showed that Street Dance is evolving and still-growing. With the concert held just two days before the dreaded GP Common Tests for Year 5 and 6 students alike, there was not the slightest question as to each and every dancer’s commitment, as the Streeters attended rehearsal after rehearsal, night after night. Each dancer on average had to learn two full pieces, including the encore piece “Do It” in the finale. In fact, as Aye Aye Mon, a Year 5 Streeter (class) shared with Raffles Press, ABCD was the brain child and hard work of Year 6 Street Dancers who had even been “planning it from last year”, and the Year 5 dancers had been preparing for this concert since the third session of joining the CCA.

ABCD focused a lot on following one’s dreams.

Dancer Ernest Yee explained, “We drew inspiration for the plot from our daily lives, and all the problems we face. The show is to encourage the audience to have the courage to follow their passions and chase their dreams. That’s why we called it [Anybody Can Dance:] ‘One Step Closer’.”

The Good

1. Synchronisation: To a large extent, generally all dance pieces were extremely synchronised and were pulled off with ease, giving a great air of professionalism to the performance.

The dances showcased the dancers effort practicing their routines and were very synchronised.

2. Dance styles: Dancers each showcased their own individual styles of dance, for example amongst the three stories, adding a lot of interesting flavours to the concert as a whole. The variety of genres tackled from street jazz to broadway added variety and life to the concert.

ABCD toyed with many different dance genres, adding to the variety and color of the performances.

3. The Storyline: A lot of the story was relatable and flowed throughout the concert, with a greatly moving plot at times.

The storyline helped to move the audience with its relatable plot.

4. The Sets: Props and sets were prepared to meticulous perfection, creating a whole different atmosphere to the concert and adding to the concert.

Lighting had a huge effect on the mood of the different dances

The Bad

1. Predictable storyline: We’ve all heard the good-versus-evil, pride comes before a fall plot a million times, and the cliche was almost painfully evident in Dare To Be as the modest Joseph (inevitably) triumphs over the arrogant Insync boys. Nonetheless, cliches work right? The father-daughter approval plot has been one done dry by most Hollywood movies, but it definitely still worked in wringing a few tears from the audience.

The antagonists from Dare To Be, the “Insync Boys”. As funny as they were, the cliched plot meant the conceited bunch were always doomed to defeat.

2. Plot Development: For a dance concert, little focus, understandably, would be on the plot of the concert. Alas ABCD ostensibly put in a lot of emphasis on having a strong, flowing storyline, and, unfortunately, did not always succeed in developing it. At times the story came across as hastily rushed through, not allowing the audience to truly get into feeling individual scenes, making for a few anti-climactic moments in the concert as the audience did not react as expected.

A scene from Daddy’s Girl, the most developed and moving of the three plots. Unfortunately the emotional connection from the piece could not hold true for the whole concert.

3. Disjointed flow at times: While the variety of genres in ABCD was definitely a plus point, the way these elements were fused was not. At times, ABCD came across as disjointed as the different parts of the concert were simply too different in terms of dance genres with little done for smooth transitions, causing the concert to come across somewhat disjointed as if they were each segregated parts. This seemed particularly obvious during the transitions between stories, at times making ABCD feel like 3 concerts in one.

The Verdict

ABCD marked Street Dance’s only second-ever concert in its short history, and as far as standards go for second concerts, ABCD definitely blew our minds. It was most certainly a ticket worth paying, as far as school concerts go, and the Street dancers certainly had measurable standards are only set to get better next year as they go into their third concert. If you were not amongst the lucky few to get entrance tickets, well, the third time is supposed to be a charm.

Street Dance put up a colorful and entertaining performance in ABCD.

So can anyone really dance? Well, despite what Street Dance will have us believe, that might not be the case. Yet, even if you aren’t one of the gifted ones who burst into slick moves on stage though, watching ABCD would have indeed been a treat, and would have inspired one to believe that anybody can, dance ability notwithstanding, certainly follow their dreams.

ABCD gets our thumbs up!

by Tyronne Toh (14A01A) and Angelica Chong (14A01B)

Sometimes prowling the Level One locker area, at other times melting the hearts of students ‘mugging’ in the canteen (and thereby taking their food), the RJ Cats have become an iconic part of every RI student’s life. These furry little critters’ prolificacy and tendency to wander make them almost impossible to miss on a typical day in school. Raffles Press approached a group of our resident cat-enthusiasts, including a self-titled ‘Cat Daddy’, to find out more.

Boo.

 If you, in the midst of opening your locker in the Level One locker area, feel a whisper of fur rubbing against your bare leg, there is no need for alarm. It’s probably just Snuffles or Gingy. Never heard of those names? Well, now’s just the time to find out just who those enigmatic characters are!        

ROGUE’S GALLERY.

It all began with the original RJ Cat, Jiggles. She’s easily identified by her tail, which looks a tad deformed. While there are many theories and rumours regarding her tail’s tale, nobody knows for sure what happened to it. What we do know for sure, is that she’s a really old cat. According to the friendly uncle running the Western stall, Jiggles has been around for about 10 years. Jiggles is also one of the more friendly cats, as she is very accustomed to human company which kind of explains her relatively bulkier frame; more human interaction means more food. Jiggles is also rather lazy, with her favourite napping spots being the top of canteen tables and beneath canteen benches.

Then there’s the handsome one, Snuffles. This cat has a sleek, black coat which resembles a tuxedo. He had a bad ear infection about a year ago, only managing to recover completely with a little help from the school’s  informal Cat Club. But that’s a story for later on.

Meet Teddy, the gray cat with tiger stripes and distinctive yellow eyes.

Teddy’s generally a very sleepy cat, and can be spotted napping all over the school canteen and locker area from the tables all the way down to the floor. When we stumbled across Teddy, she was sleeping beneath one of the canteen benches. A light tickle behind her ears woke her up, and she stared just long enough for us to take a photo of her half-asleep state. According to one of the cat-enthusiasts, right after Teddy wakes up is high time to stroke or pat her, as this is the time she’s most receptive to touch.

Finally, there’s the beautiful ginger one.

This ginger ball of fur and fun is aptly named Gingy. He’s the son of Teddy, born a mere two years ago. He’s also the most active and receptive out of the four cats. Apparently, cat-lovers in RJ particularly love playing with Gingy due to his playful nature and activeness. According to Bradley, Gingy loves chasing after students’ dongles and swatting at them. However, Gingy has a little flaw; he’s a tad too liberal with the use of his claws. Although his mother, Teddy and adopted ‘father’ Snuffles are fairly docile, Gingy has no qualms about using his claws. Bradley advised us not to try anything silly with Gingy; although he might not mean to hurt you, he might scratch you unwittingly. Gingy was also the most receptive to photographs; while the other cats lost interest in our camera quickly, Gingy appeared to be curious about it and often stared directly into the lens, allowing us to easily take photos of him. Gingy’s no longer with us today, though -  a kind student has put him up for adoption. We sure hope he has found a warm, loving family!

Apart from the RJ cats, there are also three more tortoiseshell cats, two kittens and one cat, over at the RI Y1-4 side. We don’t see them over here much, though. Enthusiasts can head over sometime to try to spot them!

Downside

Yet, there are those who simply cannot stand the cats. There are a multitude of reasons for this, most not due to active dislike but rather fear. Just observe the overreaction of some students when the cats pad by or jump up onto tables – shrieking, hands thrown up in the air, general chaos – and one would think that, rather than the everyday occurrence of a cat going about its business, a catastrophe was imminent. Of course, there are valid concerns: the cats perhaps being a bit too liberal with their claws or eating directly from students’ bowls of food. Most students who are less than enthusiastic about our furry friends, however, can’t pinpoint the reason behind their ambivalence; some of them explain that they are scared that the cats might scratch or bite them – which is unlikely, unless with due provocation – while others simply don’t like animals. A Year 5 student, who declined to be named, mentioned that “while I get that many people like cats, I just don’t. I don’t really like animals in general, but the cats are pretty annoying, and sometimes it gets frustrating when all my friends, who like cats, just brush off my concerns.”

So it’s not entirely hugs and kisses all around for cats. However, it must be said that the percentage of the student population that dislikes the cats is small; many are simply indifferent. As Neo Weibin from 14S07A explains, “I don’t think the cats are a nuisance, and I don’t mind if they come over, but I won’t seek them out if I see them around, either.” It’s a very matter-of-fact, practical mindset that is prevalent in RI, where the cats are simply accepted as a part of the school community, neither venerated (unduly, anyway) nor spurned. Perhaps this peaceful coexistence is for the best, but there are those who are true cat lovers that encourage more interaction.

Bradley Yam from 14A01C says, “If you like cats, the cats in RI are extremely friendly and they’ll more than enjoy it if you just take some time to pet them, and show them love and affection. The more time you spend with them – or, technically the more food you give them – the better you’ll be able to develop your relationship with them. After awhile, they start to recognize you and become rather attached.” If cats love human affection, RI students sure enjoy showering them with it: pop by the canteen or the lockers and invariably there will be at least one person cooing over a cat while his/her friend snaps photos to upload to Instagram later.

There is a group of students who are devoted to the cats, though: be it simply spending afternoons with them or providing them with proper cat food, they know these creatures, their quirks and their histories intimately. Informally known simply as the Cat Club, it was formed by a group of like-minded friends who shared a similar passion; cats! They keep a relatively low profile, and some declined to be specifically named. However, their love for the RJ cats is undeniable. For instance, they managed to raise $400 for Snuffles (the tuxedo-wearing feline) when he had a serious ear infection. “We actually came up short because the vet’s fee was $700, but the doctor decided to waive the rest of it because we were students, and that was very nice of him,” said one of them. It just goes to show how a love for animals can transcend the confines of the school – RJ’s Cat Club doesn’t just treat the cats as adorable distractions; for them, these cats are definitely worth the extra time and care lavished upon them.

Love them or hate them, these cats are here to stay; in our hearts, on our minds, around our food.

By Allison Choong (14S05B), Law May Ning (14S03O), Tan Jun Xiang (14S06C), Bryan Chua (14A01A)

We’re just a few weeks away from our CTs, but students are reportedly spending more time staring out the window than at their textbooks. It’s not just the usual procrastination at play here either; what started as a few paltry smoke particles has now progressed into a full blown haze at 371 401 PSI. While some Singaporeans have taken to social media to do what Singaporeans do best (complain), others have quietly boarded themselves up at home, waiting for this whole mess to (literally) blow over. Here at Raffles Press, we share some tips for those of you looking for ways to stay unfazed by the haze.

(Source: SGAG)

What To Do When The PSI Is Higher Than My PSLE Score

Option 1: Upgrade Your Wardrobe

Most ladies love a good wardrobe revamp, and what better excuse than a nationwide crisis to do a little shopping to make you a little easier on the (already red) eyes? This statement, though, might be in a grey area for even the biggest fashionistas.

(Source: Temasek Review and Fake Leticia Bongnino)

Though normally reserved for the likes of Chernobyl and Fukushima, the gasmask is a fashionable accessory which doubles up as protection against any airborne assault. Coupled with a smoking dress and a pair of killer heels, you’d be sure to take anyone’s breath away (if they aren’t already having trouble breathing). For the more paranoid among us, this will no doubt be a useful tool in your arsenal.

Option 2: Camp out in school

Edit, 21/06: Classrooms A23 and A24, as well as the school library, will be closed next week due to the haze.

Can’t concentrate at home? The school facilities are open from around 8am till 7pm for all your mugging purposes. At the thoughtful request of the 33rd Students Council, two classrooms, A23 and A24, have been booked every weekday for students to study in.

Alternatively, there’s also the school library – a large, airy and generally more quiet environment for you to study (provided you don’t owe the library any money or books). So head on down to enjoy the free air conditioning and a distraction free (or not) environment! But be sure to be dressed in proper school attire, lest you incur the wrath of our friendly discipline master.

Edit: Stamford, 21/06:

Due to the haze situation, all physical activities in school are suspended. Students are strongly advised to stay at indoors at home and not come to school unless absolutely necessary. Do check Stamford for further updates.

Option 3: Create Your Own Air Filter!

For those of you who have smoke already firmly ensconced in your room, here’s a simple home remedy to help you out (results not guaranteed). Simply wet a towel, wring out the excess water and wave it around in your room. We’ve experimented with various dances, but have consistently found the cha-cha to be the most effective for covering the largest area in the shortest amount of time. Of course you could always add in a repeating chant as you recite that long chemistry molecule (we hear reciting mathematics formulae works too), but we leave that up to you.

Option 4: Lock yourself at home

For the typical hermit Rafflesian, the haze is just another excuse for you to stay at home and study instead of going out with those pesky friends. Air-conditioned rooms, comfy beds, snacks at your disposal – what more could you ask for? Here we present our six step plan to surviving the apocalypse (no, we aren’t referring to the common tests).

(Source: halloweenforum.com)

Step 1: Carry your huge stack of books and lay them nicely on the table as you plan your self-induced quarantine/mugging fest.

Step 2: Attempt one Math question from the revision pack that’s been sitting on your table.

Step 3: Pause as you ponder the implications of life outside your window, and how the haze has deprived you of the bright sunny outdoors and healthy lifestyle you so normally adore.

Step 4: Think more about what the haze and wonder what your friends think. Open your window in an attempt to figure out if the haze is really only at a PSI of 126. (Edit: turns out it’s 371 401 now)

Step 5: Go on Facebook. Like all the haze-related statuses and photos.

Step 6: Oh look, it’s already past midnight. Time to go to sleep so you have enough energy to study tomorrow!

Option 5: Create your own air freshener!

Raffles Press has cooked up a unique concoction of chemicals, designed to keep your study-area haze-free. (results not 100% guaranteed)

(Source: prevention.com)

WHAT YOU’LL NEED (adapted from various online sources)

• An empty spray bottle
• A mixing bowl (preferably one you’d never consume food out of ever again)
• ¼ cup of hot water (~100-125ml)
• ¼ teaspoon of lemon juice (fresh or bottled) or lemon essential oil
• ¼ teaspoon of baking soda
• 2-3 drops of essential oils (we recommend lemon, eucalyptus, or geranium)

1. Combine baking soda, lemon juice, and essential oil in a mixing bowl.
2. Add hot water; stir and dissolve.
3. Allow mixture to cool for about 15 minutes till room temperature.
4. Pour the mixture into the spray bottle, shaking well before use. Additionally, you may choose to include thinly-sliced rinds of citrus fruits, such as lemons, oranges, and limes.

Even as we wait with bated breath for Indonesia to take firm action on this issue, let us not forget that there are always those out there who have it worse than us. While we bemoan the relentless rise of the PSI rating from the comfort of our own homes, there are still many out there who toil on despite the haze.

(Source: SGAG)

Jokes and humour aside, do remember to take care of your own health in the tumultuous days ahead!

Disclaimer: Raffles Press would like to emphasise that we are in no way liable for any harm to one’s health, property or grades that might arise from attempting any of the above solutions.

By Lea Tan (14S06B) and Mathew Gan (14A01C)

Just over a month ago on the night of the first of June, a small corner of Bishan Park was abuzz with activity. Nearly a hundred blue bicycles were arranged on top of a small hill, with several canvas bags full of cycling helmets placed nearby. The sky was pitch-dark but we couldn’t have been more awake. Hype Up, Stay Up, Gear Up; that was exactly what we were about to do.

Participants had been split into groups of eight, each led by three student members of Raffles Outdoor Adventure and Activities Club (ODAC) who acted as the guides and facilitators of our night adventure. They had already traveled the route once as a CCA, and were well-prepared to help us along. Starting times were staggered to avoid clutter along the route we took, which led us through exactly 54.77km of park connectors and cycling tracks. We kicked off at Bishan Park and planned to travel through Serangoon and Punggol Waterway Park, then cycle along the north-eastern border of Singapore, a route that would take us right to Changi Airport and finally on to the familiar southern beaches of East Coast Park.

The route map

In short, it was going to be a long night.

ODAC had taken great pains to ensure our safety, as participants had to be screened for cycling proficiency and were thoroughly briefed before the event. Bicycle lights were also installed on every bicycle (white in front and red at the rear), while helmets were made mandatory when cycling.

In any case, we put on our helmets, and hopped on the bikes, which were all loaned from bicycle rental shop Cycle Max at East Coast. Very soon, we were off.

All geared up!

Those who were with us for the night cycling event would probably agree that the circuitous route we cycled was not to be scoffed at. Riding in the dead of night was not exactly a walk in the park. We had to traverse the East side of Singapore in its entirety, with the route winding through Singapore’s urban hills and patches of secondary forest. By the end of it all, most groups had totalled a full six hours of cycling. As we traveled in two different biking groups, we would like to share our individual experiences below:

LEA

“6 hours non-stop on a bike, butt sure concave la.” That was a sentiment voiced ad nauseam during our pre-event hype, and we were about to realise just how true it was. Bike seats are only pleasant to bounce along on, best appreciated in short rides of fifteen to thirty minutes –  cross that half-hour mark and they turn to veritable rocks. Road islands and traffic lights provided much-needed rest for our poor unadjusted behinds during the first hour, when most of our journey was made through park connectors winding alongside main roads. Kudos to the guys – we have no idea how you did it.

(Mathew: Don’t ask me, I’ve got no idea too.)

The punishing route we had to endure was a test of physical endurance, brute strength, and sheer mental willpower. We cycled for periods of thirty minutes to an hour, with a few rest-stops along the way. We watched the kilometres fall away beneath our wheels, and even when our bodies longed for rest we focused on pedaling one foot after the next.

Encouragement from guides and teammates, our combined determination and plenty of endorphins kept us going even when the trail went from flat road to more challenging terrain. Our route took us through big puddles in Serangoon and mud in Punggol, and a monotonous 7-kilometre long straight road which ran alongside the Changi Airport runways. At about three a.m we rode through a stretch in Pasir Ris where we spent nearly fifteen minutes cycling steadily on an uphill incline, our thighs burning but having to pedal on for metre after metre because we couldn’t stop without backsliding. But with the uphill struggles also came the exhilarating downhill slides, the most memorable of which let us cruise for a good few kilometres, sometimes at hurtling speeds where we had to muster all our concentration and skill in order to maneuver around poles, grass patches and puddles on the path.

Punggol in a new light

MATHEW

In all battles fought and won, as we have, there is always a price to pay. In our haste to conquer the route, and overcome the night, we witnessed injuries, crashes, and morose groups waiting by the roadsides for spoilt bikes to be fixed. Lea’s group sustained no casualties, but my group was not so fortunate. As clichéd as this may sound, one of my group’s riders fell just before we reached our resting point, the Punggol Jetty. The wheel of fate must have been spun for the injury, as the fall was simply the result of numerous unfortunate factors.

First was the light. For some reason, the street lamps were turned off on the day we rode, even though they had been on a couple of days ago when the recon team from ODAC checked the route. The waning moon offered little moonlight, while the trees and clouds filtered out the remaining light, forcing us to ride through the opaque darkness. Our leading ODAC guide held a torch in front, and our accompanying teacher held up another from behind us. Normally we could have trusted the red, flashing light on the bike in front of us to lead the way, but the problem was that the trailing half of my group got cut off from the leading half by a faster group zipping past us. We were forced to slow down to let them pass, and my friend lost the light trail in front.

While I still benefited from the light my group’s teacher was shining from behind, it did not reach my friend, who was a few paces ahead, lost in the dark. With his obscured, my friend, was unable to make the sharp turn, and his flashing red light dropped suddenly before disappearing  into the ditch.

“Holymama!” was how one of my friends aptly described the situation.

The aftermath was a bicycle full into the drain and one shocked friend plus a few scrapes.

Of course, our teacher did not hesitate to apply first-aid. We made it to the checkpoint, and it was there that our teacher had to make the sad decision to send him to a clinic to get patched up. (Eventually, he required three stitches on his chin.) Even though we were saddened to leave our friend behind, we waved goodbye as we surged forward yet again.

Rest, at long last

Cycling 54.77km in a single stretch was a rare opportunity, and the night time setting made the experience even more memorable. The dark, the quiet, and the subconscious awareness that the rest of the island was sound asleep gave us all a thrill of adventure. Cycling in the dark was a new experience in our brightly-lit city. We hardly do see Singapore during the silent pre-dawn hours, and Gear Up let us appreciate it all. The usually crowded parks were empty save for us, a couple of lovers, some avid fishers and camping families. We saw sights seldom seen – a group of ‘trannies’, lingering prostitutes, the homeless curled on mattresses by the road. Gear Up was also held on same night as the Sundown Marathon. We turned into East Coast Park as the race had just concluded and passed by heaps of used 100plus cups, exhausted volunteers and the one or two stragglers in the race. Most beautiful of all, the scarcely-seen stars came out at two in the morning and were indeed breath-taking.

A view from the bridge, Changi Point Ferry Terminal edition

The last leg of our journey brought us to East Coast Park, where we parked by the still-closed rental shop. But it was not the end of our journeys just yet. Public transport was yet to open and we were all exhausted and more urgently, we were hungry. Thankfully there was a McDonald’s about 400 metres from our end-point. Boy, were we happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel – never have the shining brilliance of the golden arches been more inviting.

Happily (and extremely gratefully), we plonked ourselves onto the plastic chairs. All we had left to do was wait till sunrise. A few groups wandered off to the nearby beach, some cyclists had put their heads on the tables and were dead to the world. We were laughing, taking photos, and exchanging cycling stories, all of us immensely proud of ourselves and each other.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to the organisers of Gear Up 2013: Raffles ODAC and the teachers-in-charge, as well as the alumni and teachers who volunteered to accompany teams on our night time adventure. We will never forget those six hours biking alongside friends through a Singapore transformed by night, while the orange moon rose and disappeared into the dawn.

Article and pictures contributed by Jasmine Liu

Making a comeback after an extended layoff, we bring you this week’s Diary of an RI Intern, where we invite ex-Rafflesians to share their interning experiences. In this edition, Jasmine Liu shares her experience working under local children’s writer Adeline Foo.

__________________________________________________________________

When people ask me the standard “what’s your job?” question (after “what JC are you from”, of course), I find myself unable to give a definite answer. Am I an intern? A mentee? Or a marketing and research assistant? I’ve used various job titles at various introduction opportunities and yet none really encapsulates what I’ve been doing for the past five months. My boss, Adeline Foo of The Diary of Amos Lee fame, likes to tell people that I’m a friend helping her out day to day. I suppose that’s a pretty safe way of putting it. Here’s a little bit about the stuff I got to do, the ways I got to grow, and the things I got to witness.

All in a Day’s Work

Many of us have this idea of writers as people who sit in front of the word processor 50 weeks a year, churning out manuscript after manuscript. This is a myth perpetuated by the story of how J.K. Rowling toiled tirelessly in cafes to write her first Harry Potter book. Sure, there is the hardcore writing stage, but the amount of time spent there is dwarfed by the amount of time spent marketing, maintaining a fan base, sussing out opportunities for partnerships adaptations, doing talks at schools, running workshops, and the list goes on. Adeline may be a writer, but she’s also a skilled marketer, and she has an extensive background in public relations to prove it.
So what do I do? Pretty much everything Adeline’s involved in, I’m involved in too.  A typical day involves waking up next to my laptop and responding to a few emails from Adeline, clients and Amos Lee fans. The rest of the morning and afternoon involves tackling a list of outstanding tasks. On a quiet day, this could be reading up online for people we could collaborate with, publicising Facebook contests, and writing pitches for the press. About once a week, Adeline and I meet to get updates from clients or attend cold calls with people who are interested in doing collaborations. Those meetings typically end with the two of us discussing what we’ve done over the past week over tea and cake, Adeline talking me through some ideas she’s having, and me trying to keep up with her train of thought.

On more exciting days, we could be holding workshops, attending launches, or meeting other authors! Peter Lerangis, an American author who has over 160 books under his belt (including some Hardy Boys and Babysitters Club titles), was in Singapore recently to launch his Seven Wonders series. After moderating a dialogue session where we learned of his exciting adventures in biochemistry at Harvard, singing on Broadway, and interviewing people in a toga at Comic Con, we brought our new New Yorker friend for some nice Ice Kachang and a fish spa session.

Through all my field trips and sitting in meetings, Adeline’s also brought me around to meet publishers, distributors, schools, bookstores, and the team behind the Asian Festival of Children’s Content. I am urged to think about how the promotion of Singaporean works is doing, and why we might not be doing some things that could propel Singaporean works into greater prominence.

Marketing: a Cross-Platform Feat

With marketing children’s books, our challenge is giving parents a reason to get their kids to meet the author. We had to publicise a month-long crossword puzzle contest cumulating in a game session and prize collection at one of our book launches to guarantee a good turn-out. It’s not enough to just trust the fans’ loyalty, when they aren’t the ones doing the driving!

Even then, book launches are only the first step. Marketing actually begins with a ‘B’ for Branding, and authors are the brand for their books. John Green and Maureen Johnson are among authors who display their prominent personalities on Youtube, and Russell Lee of True Singapore Ghost Stories keeps his mysterious appearance (literally!) under wraps. To keep the brand of Amos Lee/Adeline Foo alive, we stay on the lookout for fun things to engage fans in. In 2010, Amos Lee himself became an inSing blogger for fun things to do around Singapore.  In the spirit of the recent launch of Whoopie Lee: The Big Spell Off, this year’s March holidays saw us holding a spelling workshop at art-themed gelato parlour Scoop Of Art, where we collaborated with Monsters Under The Bed, a creative writing school. SOA created a whoopie pie gelato for us, and MUTB was simply brilliant at entertaining children.

Aside from the obvious benefits of having specialists contribute to your brand, collaborations are also a form of cross marketing where you get the benefit of reaching out to the fan bases of your partners. Furthermore, we’ve explored developing merchandise with the National Heritage Board, theatre adaptations with The Learning Connection and The Esplanade, and soon we’re launching an iPhone game app with local-gaming house Lambdamu Games!

Are You A Dodo? is scheduled for release late June or July. This little project combines game storytelling, social media, and IQ exercises. It is also a prime example of promoting one product from various marketing angles. I’ve helped plan a kid’s workshop for the art of game storytelling, written press briefs for magazines and alumni newsletters, and hosted a public sharing session at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content. Next up, Adeline is looking to talk to schools about cyber wellness (which is a major theme of Amos Lee Book 3 and Adeline’s other job of raising 3 kids, so she’s a bit of an expert on that), and bringing what we learned about educational games into polytechnics. Truly, there is no single way to approach one project. I guess if there is one creativity motto I’ve picked up from my job, it is this: there are always many people and processes that go behind the making of every product, and there are opportunities to share these fascinating stories with the world if you keep your ears perked up.

The slightly unexpected thing is many of these activities we spend our time on don’t even involve showing Adeline’s books off. It’s just part of branding, keeping active as an educator, and for some part, fun!

Bringing Local Works Overseas

Singapore’s had a few names reach international prominence, including Catherine Lim, Wena Poon and Shamini Flint, but bringing works overseas is not easy! We could make it easier, however, by reaching out to platforms to cross-publicise local writing that will bring readers in larger droves while keeping under logistical and financial constraints. These possibly include partnerships with embassies, libraries, and even festivals, both local and overseas, where perhaps large volumes of a publication could be disseminated for educational purposes. We could even bring offer local literature to delegates heading to international events. A book on Singaporean food might have a shot at an international audience at the World Street Food Congress, and Singaporean picture books could do well as dramatised story telling at the Georgetown Festival, a series of art and creative events held in Malaysia.

At my first visit to the office of Adeline’s picture book publisher Ethos Books, affable publishing manager Chan Wai Han handed me a book fresh off the press, and told me to help myself to any books I’d like to bring to the States to share with my university classmates. That, she quipped, was a way to spread local literature. There are other means, if we dare to search for them. Adeline has called to my attention ways I can keep in touch with the country as a soon-to-be overseas Singaporean. The Overseas Singapore website (singaporeday.sg), Singapore.sg, and even the public service division magazine (challenge.gov.sg) are all online portals frequented by people moving into Singapore, or living abroad. Why not orientate new citizens with local anthologies, folk tales, or (for the kids) even local picture books? Why not make local works (that are often not easily available on Amazon) available to overseas Singaporean students or international schools with large Singaporean populations? I had studied at Suzhou Singapore International School at one point, and I’d have liked to have an idea of what my country was like, having been away from it for most of my childhood.

Of course, this is just part of my fairly limited (position-wise! Since I’m not an actual industry expert, but a witness) perspective and I’m sure there are many other ways of looking at the local publishing scene; it’s just not quite the main point of my article. The point I’m trying to demonstrate is that if people take on internships to gain insight to the workings of an industry, I think I’ve gained quite a bit of exposure in my half a year here, enough so that I actually kind of feel a compulsion to be a part of bringing it forward when I return from university. I hear some people get jaded after entering the working world, but I think I’m okay so far; not much faith lost in humanity or local publishing, and I’m still as eager a beaver as I was before I dived into this world.

Personal Development

One huge perk of being in a non-organisation is a lot of undivided attention from your mentor and free career advice! Adeline’s favourite piece of career advice is undoubtedly to “learn to think like your boss”, the skill of viewing situations from a more experienced person’s point of view. Throughout these 5 months, I’ve struggled to mentally keep abreast of things in my job. Being a writer, or even a writer’s little apprentice, involves having an acute sixth sense for new opportunities. Some days I wake up at 7am and already see an excited email because at 6am, Adeline was already up and had spotted a new bakery or writing club in the newspaper we could rope in to collaborate with.

I suppose I’ve had the chance to learn from a number of other people as well! Attending a meeting with a client without Adeline would have been a lot worse if I didn’t have the merchandise and cover designer for our new book, my talented friend Sean Cham (RJ’12), to nudge me every time I made a faux pas and talk/scold me through the yes and no’s of sales pitching. Emceeing at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content allowed me to meet a seasoned emcee from Malaysia, Ashvina, who was a part in curing my phobia of microphones in just a few announcements. At the AFCC, I’ve also been privileged to attend dialogues with plenty of industry experts who generously shared experiences on multi platform content creation, social media marketing, e-books, and a myriad of other topics. One thing is for sure, being a writer or any content creator goes beyond the creation stage, and it’s all about making an effort to orchestrate your works across different platforms and media if you want to make waves.

Final Words

People sometimes tell me I miss out by not working for a formal establishment, but I think working for a non-organisation gives you a rare glimpse into the world you might otherwise not be exposed to within the confines of a specific department or position. How often can one say that in six short months of an internship, one has been able to work with an eclectic mix of publishers, government boards, game studios, parent bloggers, and writers? Writer’s assistant, researcher, marketer, or whatever position this is, I just know it’s a position I’ve been very lucky to end up in. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Adeline!

For anyone who’s keen to work with Adeline, drop her an email at contact@amoslee.com.sg.  She’s on the look-out for a research and marketing intern for the period Dec 2013 to May/June 2014.

By Sushma Pai (14S03R) and Divya Muthiah (14S06C)

The canteen may be many things – a place to socialize, relax, and eat, but it is rarely, if ever, a cause for controversy. As of late, though, an interesting phenomenon has come to light. As those of us who frequent RJ Confessions may know, it is a widely held opinion among many students that some stalls charge arbitrary prices or dole out different amounts of food to different people.

While RJ Confessions is certainly not the most authoritative of sources, it is important for us to examine the veracity of these claims. Raffles Press decided to set up an experiment to find out, revealing the truth of the matter once and for all.

Raffles Press carried out an experiment on two stalls – Lum and Chan Chicken Rice and Yuan’s Western Food. Over a time span of 40 minutes, four pairs were sent to buy food from the canteen. Two pairs went to Lum and Chan Chicken Rice, while the other two headed towards Yuan’s Western Food. Each pair was to buy the same dish or the same combination of add-ons. Finally, the prices charged, and the portion sizes provided were then recorded and compared.

From the experiment, it appeared that prices were inconsistent with the amount of food provided in these two stalls but not always so. There was inconsistency in the first three cases, but not the last one. Therefore, it is not possible to generalise that prices in these two stalls are always random. Despite this, it is evident that the prices and portions in these two stalls are not always consistent and is an issue worth looking into.

Of course, no such article would be complete without giving the parties involved a chance to defend themselves. We spoke with Mr. Ricky Seow (the owner of the Yuan Western Food stall), who asserted that his prices were fixed and did not vary for different students. Gesturing towards the menu list on the counter, he pointed out that “what is there is what we charge.” When probed further about rumoured price variations, he said, “The school wants me to sell noodles and rice for $2 and for the past ten years, I’ve kept it at that.”

Interestingly though, Mr. Seow also remarked that for noodles, he charges $1 sometimes and $1.20 at others. Mr Seow claimed the variations in price were deliberate, as he varied the quantity of noodles served. From what we gather, most students do not know about this. This may be a reason for price variations – stall owners changing rates depending on quantity served.

We also spoke with Mr. Lum, the stall owner of Lum and Chan Chicken Rice. He too maintained that his prices were always fixed. As seen from our findings, prices were indeed constant at times. If what the stall owners claimed was indeed true to a certain extent, what could the reasons for fluctuations in prices be?

Perhaps, stall owners vary the prices charged unknowingly. For all we know, the stall owners are simply too busy to calculate the price accurately all the time or to remember the prices of certain dishes, thus ending up estimating prices instead. For instance, stalls like Yuan Western food have a lot of different dishes which they vary from day to day; hence it is easy to make mistakes when quoting the price of a dish especially during rush hours. Combinations of add-ons and quantities also differ from plate to plate, so it is difficult to standardize the price as well.   It is also possible that they occasionally run out of certain add ons, like baked beans and onion rings, so you might still have to pay the same price for the set meal even if one add-on is missing.

One prevailing opinion is that the portion served and price charged might depend on the customer’s appearance. For instance, a well-built student might be served more food as compared to his scrawnier looking companion. We put this hypothesis to the test as well, gathering different groups of people for a repeat of our experiment. Comparing the portion of servings and prices with their physique, we found no clear relationship between appearance and price or quantity of food.

Why would people be offered free soup from the Lum & Chan Chicken Rice stall? As Tessa Lim from 14SO3D suggested, “Maybe it’s because the uncle is in a good mood!”

From our observations, we also found that price and quantity variations are less frequent in the chicken rice stall than the western food stall. The majority of our respondents told us they had never experienced such discrepancies when patronizing the chicken rice stall.

So is there anything that could be done about these variations? Is the school management expected to look into this matter and try to standardize prices? This likely depends on how strongly students feel about this issue. Some students may boycott these stalls due to their food rates, whereas those who frequent these stalls argue that this issue barely bothers them. A student from 14S03R remarked, “I don’t really mind the fact that the prices there (at Lum & Chan Chicken Rice stall) fluctuate a bit because the food there tastes good and how much of a difference does 50 cents make anyway?”

Nevertheless, for those who are still uneasy about the price deviation, here are some tips from your correspondents:

1. If the price quoted seems unreasonably high, appear shocked and ask if you heard it right the first time. The stall owner might then reconsider the price.
2. For the Western Stall, try to get meals like spaghetti bolognese and stewed beef since the prices are already fixed.
3. If you are friends with the stall owner (they are very nice people) then they might treat you well and even give you a discount!
4. If you are ordering a set meal, confirm that all the add-ons are still available so that you will get your due portions. The stall owner can’t help it if there are no mashed potatoes left.
5. Since the stall owners sometimes seem to offer the first price that comes to their mind, it might be good to calculate the price charged based off the printed menu before they can. For instance, asking “So would that be $2, uncle?” might help.

Having said all this, Raffles Press would like to conclude by advising students to not boycott a particular stall based on these small price fluctuations. After all, it is easy to forget that what’s on offer here is still considerably cheaper than anything else available elsewhere. As one student remarked, “some days I pay more, while other days I pay less, so it kind of balances out anyway!”

By Lee Chin Wee (14A01B), Allison Choong (14S05B), Law May Ning (14S03O), Tan Jun Xiang (14S06C), Bryan Chua (14A01A); Image retrieved from Dailymail

Remember the time when getting less than 90% for your Math exam was a disaster, and when you could actually understand the Science syllabus? Relax, neither can we. Academic complexity intensifies the higher up you climb the educational stepladder, and grades inevitably start falling.

Depressing, yet darkly humourous anecdotes about the aftermath of the Year 5 CT1 exams have already began to emerge – SEAhist essays which barely filled up a single page of writing paper; distressed students who didn’t even answer enough questions during the Math exams to theoretically be able to pass; brave souls who elected not to draw any graphs for their Economics paper. Little wonder, then, that avoiding the dreaded ‘U’ or its nasty cousin the ‘S’ has quickly become a cause for celebration in and of itself. Come next week, we entirely expect to see adrenaline-filled guys with goggly eyes running up and down the corridors of Block A, holding their ‘E’s and ‘D’s aloft as if they were acceptance letters to Hogwarts.

In an unabashed attempt to ramp up the stress before the CT1 results are fully released, student journalists from Raffles Press have actually been compiling exam-related rumours from teachers and peers over the past week, trying to figure out the amount of damage inflicted. This may be the first in a short series of articles published – depending on the quantity and quality of rumours which reach our ears, we will consider putting up updated rumours every few days.

We considered sorting the subjects in order of the intensity of the horror story, but since they all scare us out of our wits, the subjects have been sorted in order of convenience according to how many people study them. If you do not see a particular subject listed below, it is because we have not heard any substantial rumours about the results. At this juncture, it is important to point out that these are simply rumours, a heady mixture of fact, fiction and romance which should never be taken as gospel truth. Continue reading at your own peril.

1. Mathematics

The subject taken by (almost) every single Rafflesian, Mathematics is the greatest nightmare for the average Arts student. Yet, it seems the subject has claimed more victims than just them: rumour has it that even the Math RA class has fallen short of expectations!

Yes, as our sources inform us, it seems that instead of getting the grades in the range of 80-85% as expected, the maths whizzes have just barely scraped ‘A’s with a miserable 70% on average. So much for the stories of prodigies finishing half an hour before time was up – and without the magic math wand, also known as the graphic calculator. But then again, the aforementioned mastermind probably remains unafraid: averages presumably don’t apply to wizards.

(Here’s the part where we begin to fear for our fate. If the Math RA classes performed below expectations…)

2. General Paper

What’s that saying again? Writing is as easy as ABC? Well, apparently not.

“Out of sight, out of mind”, but the paper which we’ve pushed out of our heads for a month will come back to haunt us precisely next Thursday (if you take our word for it). Even the standard technology question which most students take refuge in did not guarantee a decent grade – students were labelled as slightly “complacent” and may not have done as they expected.

Here are some of the other rumors we’ve heard about the dreaded subject:

• 75% of the cohort failed
• The lowest score in the cohort is 16/50 (the student wrote about the importance of conservation instead of the importance of conversation)
• Students who did the ‘technology/social media is a platform for change’ question did not do well. Apparently, they did not address how social media served as a platform for change, and only launched into a discussion about social media in general. It is rumoured that essays tended to be example driven and grouped by examples rather than argument points.
• A very high proportion of HP students attempted the ‘religion is a force for good’ question, to dramatically different results. One teacher commented that this question, in general, was “very hit and miss”. Some students tended to give superficial answers like “religion is good because gives people hope”.
• The comprehension paper was not much better: one entire class was rumored to have two ‘C’s as the highest grades and plenty of ‘U’s. “It was tragic,” as one teacher dramatically announced.
• In the words of a teacher with a slightly more acerbic tongue, “the whole level was pathetic”.

3. Chemistry

One of the few papers that have actually started getting round to the students, even the supposedly foolproof “put all ‘C’s for MCQ” doesn’t seem to have worked this time round, as some people reportedly scored zeros on MCQs.

Thanks to the remarkable marking speed of the Chemistry department, we bring you these bite-sized nibbles for those who have yet to see their papers.

The Bad:

• 47% of the cohort failed
• One chemistry teacher says that the average level score is a ‘D’ – but hey, at least ‘D’ is a subpass!
• One of the S07 classes only managed 1 ‘A’, and a number of failures, and 4 ‘U’s
• Even one Chem genius “didn’t finish the paper” – though how much he didn’t finish is left to the reader’s imagination

The Good:

• On the contrary, not all hope is lost: there have been reports of some of the S03 classes getting 10-12 ‘A’s per class! In the Biology RA class, most people got at least a ‘B’, with the top in class being 83%.
• Contrary to popular belief, chem RA classes did not flunk the paper – one chem RA’s class average for MCQ is rumored to be 12/15, a whopping 80%

4. Economics

For the large majority of the 1200 over students taking the subject, things are not looking good. As one teacher put it, “The prognosis is that your class has terminal cancer.”

The supposed facts:

• The average student scored 40%
• The average for case study question is 13/30, and “the essay question was even worse”
• Even HP students were not spared – “[A particular HP Econs teacher] walks around with the look of a condemned man, so don’t expect much in term of marks”
• Students reportedly scored on extreme ends of the grade spectrum – some students received 0/25

Alas, all good bad things come to those who wait. Given the sheer volume of essays for the teachers to mark, it will probably be a couple more weeks before the papers come streaming back (we hear it is Week 5). Till then, happy panicking!

5. Geography

One of the few other subjects where papers have started to come back, the teachers of the Geography department (who’ve been marking at the speed of light) bring us these facts:

• The median score for the Physical Geog paper is 10/25
• Human Geog teachers were supposedly more lenient; some students reportedly scored 8 marks higher for Human Geog than Physical Geog
• Some students wrote about limestone features in the temperate region though the question specified landforms in the tropics – hence failing

6. Physics

• According to an unnamed Physics teacher, “less than half the batch passed”.
• One student apparently left the entire Section A MCQ blank, scoring 0/15.

Unfortunately, for all the Newtons out there, given how teachers are rumored to still be in the process of marking, that’s just about all we have for your eager ears.

7. Biology

Rumored to be coming back late next week at the earliest, the open ended questions seem to be way more daunting than the MCQ section which students have gotten the answers for in class already. Some classes have reported an average of 18-20/30. Don’t rejoice too early! Even though more than one student seems to have gotten full marks for the MCQ section, the open ended section is said to be so poor that, perhaps mercifully, teachers are rumored to be considering increasing the MCQ weightage. Not so lucky for those who didn’t even do well to do that…

8. History

SEA History essays have started coming back! The IHist essay question on the outbreak of the Cold War was apparently much better done than the other question requiring students to compare the Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Almost everyone attempted Question 3, but to mixed and scattered results. For the brave souls that ventured onto Question 4, it was supposedly the more difficult choice. Well no risk, no returns? Right?

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Once again, your friendly journalists from Raffles Press would like to remind everyone that these rumours have been sourced from off-the-cuff remarks by teachers, as well as distilled from popular stories which are currently circulating. As we all sally forth next Monday to collect the bulk of our results, we would like to wish all Rafflesians the best of luck. If you did not perform to your expectations, do try to pick up the pieces and move on. After all, promos are only 9 weeks away!

Have you heard anything else? Share it in the comments below!

By Lee Chin Wee (14A01B) 

“Hey bro, could I take just 5 minutes of your time?”

Ordinarily, I would stop for at least a split second – after all, it’s only polite to acknowledge the fact that someone is actively trying to make contact with you.

This, however, was no ordinary situation. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I actually tracked down how many times I had been accosted by a random stranger at the entrance of Junction 8 for “only 5 minutes”, I would have enough time to write a whole Word of Mouth editorial. What’s worse, I know that this guy won’t just ask me to part with some of my spare time.

“Wait, wait. You’re from RI, right? Can I talk to you for one second?”

Classic sleazy salesperson tactic. He stops right in front of me, forcing me to make eye contact so he can feign an air of familiarity more effectively. I find myself pausing almost involuntarily, giving him the perfect opening to begin his rapid-fire spiel.

“Alright, thanks for listening. I’m Alvin, and I’m representing <insert organization here>, in an effort to help <insert gratuitous example of needy group here>. What we’re doing is selling these Chicken Heaven vouchers for $10 each, which would go a long way in helping them <insert benefits which are patently unobtainable for only $10, and provide a painfully unrealistic time frame here>. If you’re still doubtful, you can see my documentation here.”

The guy shoves a dirty-looking clipboard in my face. I barely manage to catch a glimpse of the official-looking documents clipped onto it before he awkwardly jerks the clipboard away. Now, I’m fully aware that the only thing I know is that I have completely no idea where my money will go, or if the person standing in front of me is even a volunteer charity worker. Despite all these warning bells, the irritatingly irrational side of me feels compelled to just hand over the ten bucks and end this awkward confrontation as soon as possible. Before I know it, my wallet is $10 lighter and one Chicken Heaven voucher heavier.

The voucher I was talked into buying

Feeling slightly miffed about the whole affair, I decided to do some research on the train ride home. The first link I discovered was an AsiaOne article, which confirmed my initial suspicions. A lady, who was approached by a similar ‘donation solicitor’, had actually taken photographs of the man’s supposed documentation, and claims that “The documents indicated that the man was a sales promoter who was engaged in the direct selling of food vouchers.” According to the article, these promoters were hired by an events company, which in turn was advertising on behalf of an organization called the Hope and Aspiration Association (HAA). The HAA claims to “promote the emergence and growth of social enterprises”, a far cry from the charity which Alvin insisted they were when trying to sell me the vouchers.

A second article, also on AsiaOne, along with a Stomp! post, revealed that this was not merely a one-off occurrence.  Quoting the Stomp! post, “I realized on the MRT that I was scammed because on the voucher itself, it states that I have bought the voucher for the money.” Say what you may about citizen journalism in Singapore, but a quick check of the voucher I bought revealed that it was indeed true. In bold, grey capital letters, it was stated on the voucher that “THIS IS NOT A CHARITY OR A DONATION PROJECT”.

I was beginning to suspect that my ten dollars could have been put to better use.

It seems to me that instead of being an honest mistake, this was an intentional, systematic attempt at targeting people who were likely to shell out $10 for these vouchers, with few questions asked. It would certainly explain why many of such promoters congregate at hotspots like Junction 8, where there are numerous schools in the area. By buying the vouchers out of a noble desire to help the less fortunate in society or simply to get ourselves back home faster, we unwittingly incentivize even more direct sellers to flock to these locations. At the end of the day, word travels – if there is profit to be reaped in the Bishan area, there will obviously be more unscrupulous salesmen trying to aggressively market these products.

In asking you to stop purchasing these vouchers and promotional items from street vendors who lack proper accreditation, Raffles Press is in no way discouraging you from donating to charity. We think it’s great that you are willing to set aside ten dollars for a good cause, but those ten dollars could have gone to a responsible and transparent organization instead, like the Straits Times Pocket Money Fund or the Red Cross. As for elderly individuals who may be peddling small items like tissue paper or pens for a profit, that is ultimately your decision to make. In any case, it would be a far better choice than deciding to buy a voucher from someone who claims to represent a charity without showing any proper documentation.

Little surprise then, that only a few weeks later, I happened to bump into Alvin at the exact same spot. This time, however, he was wearing a green shirt and trying to sell me another set of vouchers from a different company.

“Hey bro, could I take just 5 minutes of your time?”

By Tan Jun Xiang (14S06C)

So you’ve just finished your first round of CTs, and you’re probably looking forward to enjoying whatever modicum of free time you have left before the next big stressful event comes along. But even as the inevitable deluge of post-exam celebrations die down, even as we settle back into the vapid routine of everyday life, many of us will have already turned our attention (and worries) to the alphabets on our results sheets.

Some of us are indeed satisfied with our results, but being characteristically Rafflesian, it is likely that the vast majority of us are not.  For those of us with less than ideal results, foremost in our minds will no doubt be how to improve for the promotional exams, and with it – should I take tuition?

Ever felt like making a similar confession?

Tuition has, in recent years, become a mainstay of the Singaporean education system, with households sinking upwards of $820 million a year on this pricey pastime. Through this article, Raffles Press hopes to address some queries, views and common misconceptions about this all too common phenomenon.

Really, how effective is tuition?

Ask any Rafflesian to sum up his JC life in two words and the most likely reply will be “A Levels” (a patent stereotype, but a pretty accurate one all the same). From the moment we take our first steps into an unfamiliar world of lectures and tutorials, we are told that the A Levels are of paramount importance, an attitude that is relentlessly hammered into our minds and deeply entrenched in our school culture.

Little wonder then, that students turn to tuition as a means of improving their grades. The general perception of tuition as a quick, convenient panacea for all grade related ailments likely entices many students to jump on the bandwagon. For some, this is borne out of a deep-seated fear that they are somehow losing out if their friends take tuition and they don’t. For others, it is a cultural force of habit – the notion that a student who doesn’t do well in xx subject should henceforth take tuition in that subject.

Yet, how effective is tuition, really? For now at least, the jury is still out. Among the students and tutors that Raffles Press corresponded with, there appeared to be firm supporters and detractors in almost equal measure.

For some students such as Samuel Teo (14A01A), tuition is unnecessary because “it takes time away from self-revision which is more important when trying to remember and recall the lessons taught in lectures/tutorials”.

Practically speaking though, many students who take tuition may not even need it in the first place. Mr. Tay Meng Kiat, a Y5 Maths tutor who happens to be a former tuition teacher himself, remarks that “Most of the people who go to tuition really don’t need it. There used to be a sense of independence where students would keep trying to solve a problem, but now students just use tuition as a crutch to help them”.

Another student, Ameya Subodh (14S06C) related an amusing tale of how he actually ended up scoring lower for his subjects after taking tuition. “Taking tuition actually made me complacent, feeling that I could ace my subjects without even studying at home. I ended up failing my subjects for the first time in my life”.

Extreme cases aside, though, it should be noted that tuition can be useful in certain situations. For those who have trouble focusing at home or simply require a guiding hand to walk them through their revision process, tuition might be money well spent. Many of those who take tuition also appreciate the smaller class sizes. Indeed, the more introverted ones among us are often hesitant to ask questions in class, but less inhibited about doing so in tuition with a smaller group of people.

Another major selling point for tuition is the extra revision and practice it offers to students. Devoting one or two hours to a single subject allows concepts to be explained at a more manageable pace. The extra worksheets and constant drilling from the centre also help to build up your self-confidence when dealing with challenging exam questions.

Regina Marie Lee (13A01B) is one of many students who’ve benefitted from taking tuition.  Just last year, she elected to take Maths tuition after doing badly in CT1, and subsequently improved by 5 alphabetical grades during the Promotional Exams. “It helped me to gain confidence in my Math abilities,” she admitted. “I grew less afraid of doing my tutorials and revision after.”

The issue then, is not how effective tuition is – but rather, how effective tuition is for you. What do you hope to achieve from taking tuition? What does tuition offer you that you cannot achieve on your own? There are all pertinent questions to ask yourself before you make your foray into tuition. And of course, if you can comfortably answer these questions, you should probably move on to the next important one:

Which tuition centre should I go to for <insert subject here>?

Sometimes, choosing a tuition centre can be harder than the tuition itself.

This is perhaps one of the most common tuition-related questions asked by anxious students, yet one of the hardest to answer definitively. There is no agreed upon “best” tuition centre to go to, yet some tuition centres are undeniably more popular than others. Here we offer some relatively prominent tuition centres we have heard about. Although the list is by no means exhaustive or authoritative, we do hope that it will provide some options for those looking for ideas on where to start.

Photo credit: http://www.aspen.com.sg

Tuition Centre: Aspen Learning Centre

Subjects Offered: H2 Physics, H2 Chemistry, H2 Maths, H2 Economics

Locations: Bugis Village (near Bugis MRT), Parkway Parade (can be reached by bus from either Seng Kang or Bedok MRT)

Typical Class Size: 12 students

Website: http://www.aspen.com.sg

Comments/Testimonial:

• Teachers focus on teaching you how to be exam-smart
• Concepts are gone through in detail, for example spending 1 hour explaining concepts that a RI lecturer may spend only 20 minutes on
• Teachers provide “shortcut” methods that are  really helpful

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Photo credit: http://www.indigo.com.sg

Tuition Centre: Indigo Centre

Subjects Offered: H2 Economics, General Paper

Locations: City Square Mall (near Farrer Park MRT), Goldhill Plaza (near Novena MRT)

Typical Class Size: 8 students

Website: http://www.indigo.com.sg

Comments/Testimonial:

• Small class sizes allow students to learn effectively
• Well-structured and comprehensive notes/materials
• Teachers are dedicated and spend time going through important concepts

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Photo credit: http://www.thephysicscafe.com

Tuition Centre: Physics Café

Subjects Offered: H2 Physics

Locations: Marymount (opposite RI Y5-6), Clementi (near Clementi MRT)

Typical Class Size: 10

Website: http://www.thephysicscafe.com

Comments/Testimonial:

• Recommended by many RI Y5-6 students
• Teacher is a former RI Y5-6 lecturer; described as patient with students
• Concise and well-written notes

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Photo credit: http://www.learnerslodge.com.sg

Tuition Centre: Learner’s Lodge

Subjects Offered: H2 Economics, H2 Maths, H2 Physics, H2 Chemistry, H2 Biology, General Paper

Typical Class Size: 10 – 12

Locations: Bukit Timah, Kembangan, Bishan, Jurong East, Hougang

Website: http://www.learnerslodge.com.sg

Comments/Testimonial:

• Plenty of other Rafflesians take tuition here (if you’re looking for familiar faces)
• Teachers provide many exam tips along with questions that commonly come out for papers
• Small class sizes; easy to clarify doubts and queries

In general, it’s important to prioritize what you’re looking for in your tuition centre. If you’re already hard pressed for time, it’s probably worthwhile to look for a tuition centre closer to your home rather than one halfway across the island. Many tuition centres also offer trial lessons; it’s a good idea to go for these to get an idea of what their teaching style is like before you actually commit to signing up for lessons. Other important factors such as class size and pricing also come into play when making your final decision. Really, it all comes down to what you’re looking for as a student.

For the rest of us less willing to fork up additional money for tuition, it is worth noting that some of the best tuition in Singapore can be found – free of charge – right here in RI. As Mr. Se Kuan Pin, a Y5 Physics tutor puts it, “your tutors are always available to clarify your doubts”. Many of your tutors are more than happy to answer your queries or go through questions with you if you schedule a consultation.

So, before you rush off to sign up for tuition immediately after the shock of receiving your CT results, take a moment to consider if tuition is truly for you. In a diverse environment like RI, there are many avenues for a student looking to catch up in studies, ranging from your friends to your tutors, and tuition is but one small, small part of it.

Any further queries or opinions? Feel free to drop a reply in the Comments section below!

Ever wanted to rant about that someone you just can’t stand? Not getting any help from RJ Confessions? Try out Raffles Press’ new column, Ask Uncle Stamford, and our resident agony aunt (and uncle) Aunt Sophia and Uncle Stamford will be glad to help you in your Rafflesian troubles! Submit your questions to tinyurl.com/UncleStamford and we’ll give them our best shot.

For this series, the Raffles Art Club has kindly contributed illustrations created by their talented members. The illustrations used in this article were done by Rachel Tay Xi Boon (14A01E) and Sean Chua (14S06O).

“In Year 4 now and terribly afraid of going to JC. First time meeting girls and stuff. Advice?” – Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Well for starters, there’s absolutely nothing to be afraid of. I mean, it’s just Junior College – exams, lots of exams, A levels, relationships, friendships, your entire future hanging in the balance – no pressure right? Nah, didn’t think so.

Of course I’m just kidding. You aren’t alone, anonymous (oh how I wish you sent your actual name with this). If I had 10 cents for every boy who came to me because they were afraid of girls in JC, I wouldn’t be sitting behind this desk responding to your letter right now – I mean, I’d be very rich. So don’t you worry, I’ve got you covered. All you need to do is listen to me!

1. Be a man, for crying out loud.

Come on, you have got to be kidding me. The girls who you’ll meet in JC aren’t going to suddenly pop out of nowhere and eat you alive (although I’ve met my fair share of those, but that’s not relevant right now). Just man up, go up to a girl and talk to her. It’s perfectly fine. Remember that as much as you may dread meeting the opposite gender after 4 years in a male-only school environment, most of the girls you’ll meet feel the exact same way!

For some of you out there who will read this, however, this may be all too much pressure. Even more pressure than those 80% weightage promos that are coming. Yes, I’m talking about you, the one who stands in a corner, hiding behind a pillar smiling awkwardly, hyperventilating, with sweaty palms and the moment you get the courage to say hi to a girl in the canteen you clatter into her and knock her food all over her. Yes, I mean you. Don’t worry though, I can still help you (although part of me doesn’t want to – but since I’m an advice columnist, I’m contractually obligated to do so. You lucky buggers.).

2. Pause, and Breathe.

Sounds simple? I assure you, so many boys I’ve met with fail to remember the basic first rule of talking to girls – you forget to breathe. You get so caught up in envisioning all the different ways in which you can embarrass yourself in front of a girl that you end up doing just that. That’s perfectly understandable, it happens to the best of us whenever we get nervous. (except me of course, I’m too good for that kind of stuff).

So please, breathe. See a girl you would like to know better? Great! Take a deep breath. Take another. And another. Take more deep breaths until you calm your heart rate down (and hopefully she hasn’t walked away yet), and once you’re calm then go over and say hi. Remember to keep breathing, or else you’ll probably just die – figuratively and literally.

3. Don’t be conscious, but still be conscious of what you say.

Confusing? Yeah, that’s the point. But before you start firing off angry complaints to my 6 bosses about how lousy I am at my job (“his advice is confusing!” “I didn’t get anything he said!!”) let me explain.

You don’t want to be thinking too hard about every.single.word.that.comes.out.of.your.mouth. It’s painfully obvious to anyone (not just the girls). Your desperate efforts to hide your nervousness and make sure you don’t colossally mess-up this conversation end up making the girl in front of you want to leave as soon as she can. So don’t over-think what you want to say, carry out the conversation as you normally would with anyone else! Even the topic – don’t labour yourself to understand the inner workings of a female mind and say, her shopping habits, especially if you can’t tell high heels from flats (they’re shoes, if you actually didn’t). It’ll most likely make you look even more dumb anyway. By the same token, some girls may have non-stereotypical interests like sports – so by all means just relax, and go crazy over how Manchester United are dead now that Sir Alex Ferguson has left. In fact, it’s probably great.

That said, that doesn’t mean you go all-out, start pretending she’s a guy. For obvious reasons, she’s A GIRL. Now that doesn’t make her different – she’s still a person – but in the same way that you wouldn’t insist on talking to your best friend right after a traumatic break-up or barge into a -private- conversation between (certain) classmates, be tactful, for crying out loud. Common sense dictates that there are a few things you should NEVER mention in front of her.

A. Her weight – “You look like you need to lose a bit of weight?”

How dumb must you possibly be to say something like that?! (For those of you who have, I’m sorry, I’m judging you already.) One of the cardinal sins of talking to girls is clearly bringing up anything to do with her body fat – never, and I mean never, go anywhere near discussing that she might need to lose a bit of weight (even if she brings it up herself).

Bottom line – unless you want a slap in the face, a kick in the unmentionables or just in general receiving the hatred of a girl, stay well away from this topic.

Some of you might, however, reach the point in your life where you’re close enough to a girl that she asks you for fashion advice (don’t ask me why, especially if you can’t even match your socks in the morning). She asks you, “Do I look fat in this dress?” This might, perhaps, be the best time to tell a little white lie. Honesty isn’t always the best policy, especially if you have no idea how to deal with a girl who may be emotionally scarred upon finding out she’s put on a bit of weight.

Here’s what you could consider as a possible response tactic:
Her: “Do I look fat?”
You: “Hmmm… Why do you ask that?” (this buys you some time to think about what you actually want to say in reply)
Her: “Because I’ve been eating a lot, so I think I put on a bit of weight…”
You: “Is that so?” (still buying you more time.)
Her: “Yea I think so leh…. so how, do I look different?”
You: “No la! I think you still look just as good now.” (and then you’re free to change the topic)

B. That time of the month.

How much of a social outcast must you be to know the most awkward topic you could ever bring up in a conversation with a girl is that time of the month? (Admit it – some of you are out there.) You might overhear conversations between girls discussing this but there is NO reason on this planet Earth – and any of the other 7 planets in the solar system or the billions of other mini-planets – for you to go over and ‘make your presence known’. No, just no.

That said, there are some girls who do feel comfortable enough to openly bring it up around you. Then that’s fine – but tread carefully.

C. Anything that clearly affects her.

Don’t be a blind fool and continue talking when the girl right in front of your face has shown clear discomfort in talking about a subject. Even worse, if she’s said “I don’t wanna talk about it.” You want to continue this conversation and, potentially, friendship (provided she’s not talking to you just out of compassion)? Then make sure you recognise when to change the subject or just stop talking in general.

This also includes insults. I know, we guys have a habit of launching into insult wars on occasion, knowing full well none of us mean it (but actually we do), walking away friends and laughing at how stupid the other guy is. That doesn’t mean girls function the same way! They might, but it’s going to take so much more than a first conversation to reach that level of closeness. So tread lightly – she might laugh off a “omg why are you so stupid” but she could be torn apart on the inside.

4. Physical contact.

Yes, most of you guys out there, we know you usually resolve arguments or joke around by punching another guy in the arm, leg – or other places – and it usually gets the job done. It might hurt, but hey, we’re bros, what’s the big deal? Then you go back to laughing.

People may tell you to see girls as your guy friends too. Yeah sure, takes the pressure off sometimes, but please for the sake of all things good and holy, do not (and I repeat, DO NOT) attempt to punch a girl on the arm – especially if you’re 180cm tall and a member of, say, the rugby team. It’s not a good idea.

In fact, it’s probably still not a good idea even if she (viciously) attacked you first. If she thinks it’s funny, then tell her to stop (and reconsider why you’re even talking to her in the first place). If she doesn’t, she’s either definitely psycho or you might want to wear padded shoulder guards to school. Especially with girls, try not to solve problems with your fists.

However, I do know that not all of you out there are huge and buff, you’re probably more like this:

Even if you aren’t the type to resort to violence in order to build bonds of friendship, it’s important to respect someone else’s personal space. You may have grown used to friendly hugs or casual pats on the back, but that was because you were studying in a single-sex school. Again, unless you’re completely devoid of any social awareness, you should realise she’s a girl and common sense should tell you that putting your arm around a girl (who isn’t your girlfriend) is probably not acceptable. I know some of you out there are desperate and hormonal and touchy but please, keep that to when you know the girl well enough – and she’s comfortable with it – or risk a) hand imprints on your face from getting slapped, b) ostracisation for being creepy and/or c) getting accused of inappropriate touching. Any combination of the 3 is bound to leave you further from where you started. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

What’s worse, this might even send the wrong idea to the girl in question. You don’t want that – unless you’re interested in her – and it doesn’t do anybody much good other than making everything extremely awkward. If you’re interested in her… wait, that wasn’t the question you asked. You really want to know? Send in a question or forever hold your peace. (You’re welcome.)

5. Be natural – just go with the flow.

In case you’ve picked up on nothing I’ve already written here, then all I can say is, just be natural. You’re not meeting or talking to an alien species – girls are but just human beings who are just slightly different biologically. Just let the words fall out of your mouth and eventually you’ll realise how unbelievably easy it is to just strike up a conversation with a girl. Just let it happen. You don’t need to put on a show, be some pompous -censored- or pretentious freak, or anything else for that matter that isn’t you. Smile warmly, relax, and things should be fine.

So yes, Anonymous, don’t fret. I think I’ve helped you plenty, but remember this list of tips is non-exhaustive and most definitely subjective. Those of you with more natural charm may find this easier, others might find everything goes horribly wrong. Don’t blame me or I will hunt you down and k- I mean, it’s normal for things to go wrong and don’t worry about it. Mistakes happen, apologise and get on with life.

On a side note, “and stuff” wasn’t specific enough for me to respond to. What on earth do you mean?! I’m ending this here, anything else, you’re going to have to send in another question for me to respond to.

Bye for now (good riddance),

(not so) Sincerely,

Uncle Stamford

By Gao Wenxin (14A03A)
Photos by Carol Yuen (14A01A)

“At first when I joined Hair for Hope, somebody told me that shaving was just a publicity stunt, and all it meant was just to get money.”

It was a powerful statement to hear from JuneSu Tan, the head of the organising team for this year’s RI (Y5-6) Hair for Hope satellite event. This annual head shaving event is organised by Community Advocates (CA) and is part of a larger event in support of the Children’s Cancer Foundation, a non-profit for children with cancer and their families. For me at least, the line really struck a chord as it encapsulated so many of my initial feelings upon stepping into the Indoor Sports Hall last Friday.

 The buzz of razors melded with the the buzz of chatter. Busy spectators reveled in the moment, snapping away at ‘before/after’ Instagram shots and rubbing the heads of their hairless friends. A short walkaround was conducted to gather the opinions of those present. Surprisingly, the simple question “Why are you here today?” seemed to stump most participants. The flat, recycled answers that came through ranged from the politically correct (‘it’s the least I can do’) to the bandwagon-jumpers (‘it was a #YOLO kinda thing’). I had never heard the word ‘Brave’ uttered so many times in my life since the eponymous Pixar movie. The jovial atmosphere seemed so incongruous with the solemnity of the occasion, and for a brief moment I genuinely wondered if the spotlight was on raising awareness for childhood cancer, or the perceived chivalry of those willing to lop their locks off. It was for a good cause after all, but it did feel a touch too self-congratulatory.

Was it all just a publicity stunt, then? I wished desperately to be proved wrong.

But I wasn’t entirely sold by the time I sat down for the start of the day’s programme, a video about the stories of past those who have shaved in the past. I was having a conversation at that time with Goh Zuo Min, vice-president of the 33rd Students’ Council, and I had casually asked him what was his reason for shaving. As the lights dimmed for the video, he gave me an answer that was so radically different from everything I had heard so far.

“Last year, one of my batchmates had cancer, and he passed away,” said Zuo Min.  “He was someone who was very strong, even though he was sick, he could not hold his pen, he had trouble walking. Yet he still tried to come to school, still tried to take his final year exams. For me it was very inspirational, because I knew him personally and I knew his struggles.” Many RI boys from Year 4 last year will likely remember him and his indomitable spirit, and there are undoubtedly other boys who had shaved in his memory as well.

In her speech, principal Mrs. Lim Lai Cheng brought up a few other Rafflesians among us who are fighting against cancer. One of them is a Year 2 boy who will soon be returning to his classes after chemotherapy, and another a Year 4 who will hopefully be re-joining regular lessons soon. These stories were all the more sobering because they struck so uncomfortably close to home. It could have happened to anyone.

Mrs. Lim also made mention of the Year 2 class who had come in support of their friend, and how 1/3 of the class was about to shave at the event. The class in question was 2L, and classmate Eugene Jiang stepped forward to show his support for friend as well as other cancer patients. “I know it’s a bit hard on them, especially the children, because going bald makes you odd in the society. But I just want to let them know they are not alone.”

The “odd” comment is definitely something many of us can relate to, and as the event unfolded, it began to resemble a scene after a NS bookout rather than a regular day at RI. Egg-shaped heads weaved through the crowd, and I felt my eyes linger on the shavees among us for longer than I would have, which was strange because hair is something you do not notice until it’s gone. Appearances were something mentioned by most people, and although we would all like agree that “appearances don’t matter”, a young person without hair will likely receive all sorts of unsought attention and stigma on a daily basis.

Some people lauded the female shavees for their bravery, because for many girls a headful of long hair makes them feel more confident and beautiful, and even forms an important part of their gender identity. For an RGS girl like Estee Leong, one of the ceremonial shavees (together with her father), she felt that it was a surreal experience but taking two years to make the decision has prepared her for “any prejudice or judgement that may come”. She was shaving because of a relative who came close to a cancer diagnosis, and although she was grateful for the volume of support she received, she wanted others to see past her bravery as a girl “to think of the cancer patients and the reason she shaved in the first place”. Other ceremonial shavees included the five house captains and Mr Adrian Tan, who told a heartwarming tale of how he fell in love with his wife who overcame cancer a few years ago, and their two children who were born since her recovery.

Mr Tan Sijie, the teacher in charge of Community Advocates, was shaving too for a personal reason. He did not doubt the sincerity of the organising team and the shavees. “Some of them have stories to tell. Either their families have been through this, or they know friends or relatives who have been through cancer first hand and then decided to shave. [Some have] stepped up by organising the event, and it’s because they feel the cause and find the reason to do it. I’m sure that among the 215 students shaving today, there are those with stories to tell. But whether they shave or not is really up to them, because this is just one way of showing support.”

But what about people who might have the wrong perception about the event? JuneSu Tan shared this concern, but felt that CA had taken steps to ensure that shavees understood the hardships a child with cancer goes through and their ultimate cause for shaving. “Hair for Hope is a very large scale event that aims to raise awareness for childhood cancer and raise funds at the same time. Sometimes the act of shaving overshadows the true meaning for the event, but we have sent out newsletters to the shavees during the June Holidays to remind them what they are shaving for. During the shavee briefing, we also tried to incorporate messages that we hope they will take home with them. And earlier today, we played a video where we interviewed three students who have shaved last year and whom we thought knew what shaving meant. They were not just shaving, but shaving for Hair for Hope and they were our advocates to help spread the message.”

There is something special about an event that dares to tackle an issue as difficult and deeply personal as cancer, and I found meaning in lending a voice to these touching stories which might otherwise have been left unheard. But something stuck with me long after I had left the hall, and that is when I realised the answer to my question had been staring me in the face all that time. Lost among the calls for students to ‘brave the shave wave’ and trending in by ‘shaving’ the date was the theme for this year’s event: Shave for the Brave. Taken at face value, courage is certainly indispensable for many of the shavees present. But you are not the Brave. It was not simply a stunt, because your act of shaving is a poignant gesture of support for the children standing against cancer, who may hold their heads up a little higher even if they lose their hair, who are not passive sufferers but people who have fought their hardest and are still fighting.

They are the brave.

By Tan Jun Xiang (14S06C) and Bryan Chua (14A01A)

It is everywhere we look: from the massive banners festooned on the parade square to the promotional booklets handed out during Open House. Yet to what extent do we really understand and appreciate the theme that supposedly charts the very direction of our school for the year ahead? In spite of the great meaning and value such themes hold for the school, they have hitherto been little more than decorations on our parade square, left in plain sight but going largely unnoticed and unappreciated.

Close to seven months after the theme was first unveiled this year, it has yet to gain significant traction with many Rafflesians. A quick survey conducted on a small sample of 50 Rafflesians found that a majority of respondents were unimpressed by the theme this year, with two-thirds of the respondents indicating that the theme was “not meaningful to them”. When asked about what they thought about this year’s theme in general, responses ranged from an utter lack of awareness (“What? You mean this year’s theme is Great Expectations?”) to general puzzlement (“Why doesn’t the school just tell us what the theme is actually supposed to mean?”). Among the students approached for the survey, more than 15% were unaware that “Great Expectations” was even the school theme for the year, let alone what the theme actually meant.

This year’s school theme, as featured on the school website

 So, for starters, what does the theme actually mean? As stated on the school website, the original inspiration for the theme came from a staging of the play “Great Expectations” by Raffles Players in 1975. Faced with the departure of two key teacher-advisers , they made the bold move of eschewing the traditional Shakespearan play and staging an original, adapted version of the great Victorian classic “Great Expectations” instead. The musical was subsequently presented to a national audience comprising students from different schools, where it turned out to be a great success. In this respect, the theme serves to pays homage to their ingenuity and resolve in the face of adversity.

However, the theme itself is an odd choice given the actual meaning it seeks to convey. The theme draws heavily from two renowned novels written by Charles Dickens: Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities. The latter featured one of Charles Dickens’ most famous lines “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, a line which was adapted into part of our school theme as “It was the best of times, and it’s still getting better”.  Ostensibly, the quote signifies our drive towards continual progress and improvement – an apt reflection of our school motto, “Auspicium Melioris Aevi”, or “Hope for a Better Age”.

Yet the meaning of the quote as originally intended by Charles Dickens is nothing like the actual message the school is attempting to convey. The famous line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” was taken from the opening paragraph of “A Tale of Two Cities”. The deliberate juxtaposition of the two extremes serves to highlight the coexistence of great prosperity and poverty in London and Paris – a theme that later served as one of the central tenets of the entire novel.

By alluding to this literary quote, the school may inadvertently accentuate the divide between RI and other schools around Singapore, highlighting the schisms that have long existed between so-called “brand-name schools” and other lesser-known schools. This could easily be misinterpreted by some as asserting our school’s superiority over others (an opinion held by several Rafflesians we surveyed), and is certainly not an impression we would hope to give to incoming students.

But of course, it would be unfair to expect every prospective parent or student to examine the theme in such literary depth. To the average newcomer who takes the theme at face value, what would “Great Expectations” connote?

For one, such themes are often employed during Open House, and tend to make up a large portion of a 12-year old’s first impression of the school. When taken literally, the theme basically seeks to remind anyone wishing to enter the school that they will face “Great Expectations”.

Admittedly a realistic picture, but nonetheless hardly a draw factor for a typical 12-year old student choosing the right school in which to spend the next four (or six) years of his life. It is both perplexing and unfathomable that as the national education system looks to shift away from the stressful school environment that has become so characteristic of our nation, our school seems to be moving in quite the opposite direction.

Reminding students of the great, often insurmountable expectations that come with being a “Rafflesian” is no sure-fire way to keep our students on their toes and constantly striving for excellence. As far as personal experience goes, the opposite effect is far more likely. For the average Rafflesian who is constantly bombarded by the need to excel in pretty much all aspects of life, the relentless push for excellence might well be the impetus for students to give up entirely rather than trying even harder.

In a bid to better understand the thought process behind the conception of the theme, Raffles Press corresponded with Mr. Dominic Chua, the Head of Department of Communications, Alumni Relations and Advancement which was largely responsible for coming up with the theme. One thing that was brought up was how the theme was intended to have “different layers of meaning” and to “mean different things to different groups of students”. Mr. Chua described it as a “theme that works when there is discussion about it”, an opinion we wholeheartedly agree with.

When asked about the meaning behind the theme, Mr. Chua mentioned that the theme was trying to “do justice to all these people who’ve come to this school and gone on to do pretty significant things and serve Singapore in many ways”, and the difficulty was in “striking the balance between selling the school short and … not presenting a prideful or egotistic image of the school”.

We cannot help but wonder then if more could have been done to convey this impression to the student population. For a theme that celebrates an entire 190 years of our school history, there is remarkably little mention of it throughout our Rafflesian corridors. Though it is not a bad theme by any means, it joins a long litany of themes that have been let down by poor execution and a general lack of resonance within the very student population it seeks to represent.

In the future, it might be worthwhile to consult students during the drafting stage of the school theme, according the student population a keener sense of ownership and pride in their own school theme. Coming up with a meaningful theme that everyone can appreciate is no easy task, but it is definitely worth working on if we hope to create something that the entire student population can rally around.

The large and expensive banners purchased by the school every year really don’t matter all that much; what’s truly important is not how prominently the school themes can be displayed around the school, but how proudly they are emblazoned on our hearts.

by Lee Chin Wee (14A01B)

Did you know that every day, more than 22,000 African children die of acute malnutrition? Or that there are over 450 patients on the National Kidney Waiting List here in Singapore? Or that for a patient diagnosed with leukemia or lymphoma, the odds of finding a match from the existing registry of volunteer bone marrow donors is 1 in 20,000? Chances are, you do – every day, we find ourselves bombarded by messages from the latest social advocacy campaign, fighting to grab our attention. We memorize these facts all the time, so they can be regurgitated in the middle of a GP Exam. We walk past posters bearing these sobering statistics without so much as batting an eyelid.

The insidious thing about numbers and statistics, however, is that they make it far too easy for us to detach ourselves from the very real suffering experienced by very real people. Someone who is represented as a single digit on the bone marrow transplant waiting list could well be a doting dad, a loving daughter or an adorable younger brother. At the “Hope for Tomarrow” bone marrow donation drive held in RI, I met Jane Prior, the President of the Bone Marrow Donation Programme. She graciously granted me an interview which still lingers in my mind as I write this article.

She motioned for me to take a seat. We were in the Stamford Training Room, amidst the steady stream of Rafflesians who wished to add their names to the bone marrow donor registry. “I do have a personal stake in this programme,” she shares. “My eldest son, he was 11 at that time, was a beneficiary of the Bone Marrow Donation Programme. Thanks to the BMDP, he’s grown to become a young man, 26 years of age.” It served as a powerful reminder that behind every patient in need of medical aid, be it a bone marrow transplant, an organ donation or a blood transfusion, lies a unique set of hopes and aspirations not unlike my own – to attend a good college, to get a well-paying job, and to take care of their parents in their old age.

Jane smiled gently, as if she could tell what I was thinking. “A girl, (a) Hwa Chong student, was diagnosed with leukemia in the lead up to her A levels. She tried to get a bone marrow transplant from her sister, but she unfortunately passed away because it was not a good match. She was accepted to a prestigious university in the UK, but didn’t live long enough to start studying there.” While there may be a 1 in 4 chance of finding a matching donor within a patient’s immediate family, it simply means that asking a close family member to donate bone marrow still has a 3 in 4 chance of being unsuccessful. To us, these are merely numbers and statistics. To patients with severe blood disorders, this is the difference between life and death.

Geng Zhaochong (13A03A), one of the student volunteers who worked with the BMDP to bring the registration drive here to RI, would like to do all she can to reduce these unenviable odds. “We had 300 Rafflesians turn up to register on Thursday alone, and we hope we can get around 200 to 300 more names today.” Considering that barely 12 people added their names to the bone marrow donor registry at the BMDP’s last registration drive at a local tertiary institution, the fact that more than 500 Rafflesians voluntarily pledged to donate their blood marrow if it were needed was incredibly heartening. While their reasons for doing so often differed, it did not take long for me to identify a common, resonant message underlying all their personal convictions. Zaky Askari, a Year 5 student, reasoned, “I decided to go along with my friends – it’s all about doing what you can for others if you are in the position to do so. If you won’t do it, then who will?” It was a sentiment shared by his batchmate, Marc Leong, who said that he “just wanted to prevent unnecessary deaths, actually. If you think about it, if the entire world was on that registry, practically no one would die from leukemia and I’m just doing my part by taking a step closer to that ideal, I guess.”

If you are a racial minority, the chances of finding a suitable match are even lower

That quote got me thinking. Truth be told, donating blood marrow sounds far more intrusive and painful than it actually is. A quick Google search would reveal that on the off-chance of you actually being a suitable match for someone, the procedure is conducted under general anaesthesia, with the bone marrow itself extracted from the pelvic bone. It is an outpatient treatment which lasts only a few hours, with literally no significant medical risk. Why then was there such a dearth of willing donors on the bone marrow donor registry?

In Zhaochong’s opinion, the lack of knowledge and the prevalence of certain widespread myths about bone marrow harvesting are to blame. “We’ve received a few negative responses from parents – who understandably can be quite protective of their children. The problem is that many mistakenly believe that harvesting bone marrow involves ‘drilling into your bone’, or could ‘paralyze you from the waist down’.” Jane Prior concurs, noting that there are only around 55,000 individuals currently on the bone marrow registry. “Singapore is has become Westernized in many ways, but socially and culturally, we are still a very Asian nation. The BMDP tries it best to educate the public, and we hope that instead of you being discouraged by your friends and family from registering, your friends will buy you a beer after you donate your blood marrow!”

Despite the slim chance that a registered donor will ever surface as a match for a patient, there exists an uplifting story of success far closer to home than one would expect. Based on what I could glean from my interview with Mrs. Prior and Deputy Principal Mr. Leong’s speech during morning assembly, a former Rafflesian who signed up to be a donor while she was still in Junior College emerged as a match for a patient a few years later. As Jane revealed, “The patient, whose life she did save, is now a father with two very grown up daughters while (the ex-RJ student) is married and a mother of three. Their families are very close now; linked by that amazing bond. The reality is that something that took very little of her time allowed a father to see his daughters grow up.” Here’s the thing: if we assume that adding our name to the bone marrow donor registry is pointless because of the statistical improbability of being identified as a possible match, then we give in to the seemingly insurmountable odds and do nothing about it.  But if we do our part just by consenting to a painless cheek swab, then the odds a leukemia patient faces in trying to find a donor need not be 1-in-20,000.

What about individuals who may be fraught with anxiety at the thought of having to commit as a bone marrow donor? “If they come up as a match, and they are probably afraid, I would ask them to have the courage to wear the patient’s shoes and walk a mile.” Jane paused for a moment, choosing her next few words with deliberate precision. “Because it’s a very stark reality. And honestly, the maximum you have is five days of inconvenience or sitting at home doing nothing – and a life could be saved. Otherwise, it’s definitely gone.”

For individuals afflicted with severe blood disorders, their lives need not depend on the lottery of chance. At the end of the day, this isn’t about being noble, or living up to a set of arbitrary and predetermined ‘Rafflesian ethos’. It is about volunteering to take the first step in the journey to create a more compassionate Singaporean society.

It is about being the change which you wish to see in the world.

The Organizing Team with their teacher-in-charge, Mrs. Nicola Jane Perry and President of the BMDP, Mrs. Jane Prior

Hope for Tomarrow is a blood marrow donation drive organized by students from RI’s Humanities Programme, in conjunction with the Bone Marrow Donation Programme (BMDP). You can find out more about the BMDP and the bone marrow donation registry on its website, www.bmdp.org. If you wish to sign up as a donor, click here to receive a free test kit, or here to pledge some money to this non-profit organization.  

By Gao Wenxin (14AO3A), Chen Hao Xin (13SO6Q)

Lim Ci Hui (14AO3B), Lu Xinyi (14SO6B) and Cara Leong (13AO1B)

As part of our food column, our journalists review two more eating options near RI for your digestion – Shunfu Mart and Brownice.

SHUNFU MART

★★☆☆

Situated a short two bus-stops away from school, Shunfu Mart is a hawker centre located at Blk 320, Shunfu Road. Even before embarking on this food trail, one will often hear rave reviews of this food centre, well known for its popular baked goods stall, Chocolat N’ Spice. However, when we arrived at around 7pm, many stalls in the complex, including the baked goods stall, were already closed, so for prospective patrons out there, be sure to arrive early so as to enjoy some of their mouthwatering muffins!

We first sampled the char siew and roast pork rice ($3). The meat from this stall was well-prepared and the gravy in particular was the highlight of the dish. This stall offers generous helpings and comforting local food, but due to the dry texture of the rice, you might want to consider a refreshing bowl of soup ($2.50, various flavours including watercress and lotus root) as an excellent complement to the meal.

Another recommendation would be the duck rice ($3). The braised rice that accompanied the duck rice was slightly oily but aromatic and flavourful. The duck meat is tender and delicious accompanied with the stall’s chilli sauce, and has equal shares of fat and lean meat. The meal comes with piping hot soup and the friendly aunty here will also remind you to scoop your bowl of duck & peanut soup on your way out! Other than duck rice, this stall also offers kway chap and mixed rice dishes, which we were unfortunately unable to try.

Taking a quick glance around the market, there are other stalls that sell char kway teow and mixed rice, and top off your meal with a cup of homemade barley or grass jelly at the drinks stall ($0.50-$0.70). Do note, however, that if you do not wish to order the mixed rice dishes, the food centre is rather lacking in vegetarian options.

Overall, Shunfu Mart didn’t live up to its hype (perhaps owing to the fact that we were unable to review a number of stores), but we all enjoyed substantial meals at wallet-friendly prices.

BROWNICE

★★★.5☆

After dinner, we decided to treat ourselves to dessert and headed to Brownice, a short walk away at Sin Ming Centre, 8 Sin Ming Road #01-03. Instead of the indulgent, full cream ice cream most of us were accustomed to, Brownice’s speciality was selling unique brown rice ice cream. It is even in the Singapore Book of Records as the first vegan ice cream store!

The shop is air-conditioned and has plenty of seats as well as power sockets, perfect for sitting down with dessert and having small study groups or discussions. It also has an inviting and warm atmosphere, spacious and decorated in white and pale blue. The staff were friendly and we were allowed to sample as many flavours as we liked before purchase.

We were greeted by a variety of dessert choices to go with our brown rice ice cream, including waffles, brownies, hot pockets, teas, and coffees. Brownice’s specialities include the mudpie (a hazelnut chocolate and french chocolate ice cream confection, $9.80) and of course, various other flavours of these healthy brown rice ice cream. There were many options available, including an array of chocolate flavours for the chocoholics among us. We ordered a three-scoop cup ($7) which was the greatest value-for-money, and also perfect for sharing.

The three flavours we chose were Banana Oat, Strawberry, and French Chocolate. One thing that immediately struck us was the rich flavours of the ice cream despite the lack of artificial flavouring! The taste of fresh fruit and quality chocolate was unmistakable. Out of the three we sampled, the Banana Oat ice cream stood out due to its unique, dulcet flavour. The French Chocolate was soothingly sweet without being overly saccharine, as was the Strawberry flavour, which had a refreshingly zesty, sorbet like taste.

Tired of jostling with the crowd for the queue at Udders or Salted Caramel? Well, we highly recommend Brownice for everyone looking for a guilt (and calorie)-free treat, with their unique brown rice ice cream offering a fun alternative for even the lactose intolerant.

By Lee Chin Wee (14A01B)

Cover Photograph by Wang Ziren of the Photographic Society

To borrow the words of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Grace Fu, Singapore is a ‘city full of paradoxes’. The more I mulled over this quote, the more appropriate it seemed. We are one of only three Chinese-majority nations in the entire world, yet we still take pride in singing a national anthem penned in Malay. We were a castaway Malaysian state that now economically outpaces the whole of the Malaysian peninsula. We are a nation that once rose on the back of immigrants, but now turns its back on migrants seeking a brighter future. As citizens of this complex and often contradictory city-state, we constantly face a struggle to define what “being Singaporean” truly entails. Today, as you sit back with friends and family to celebrate Singapore’s 48th year of independence, do ask yourself a very simple question – Why am I proud to be Singaporean?

Trying to provide a logical, measured explanation for a frustratingly imprecise set of emotions is not an easy task. Do I feel grounded to my nation because I believe in the Singapore narrative, or because my family is rooted here? Do I belt out a medley of national day songs with gusto because I love singing with my friends, or because I love Singapore? Should these questions even be phrased as a choice between binary opposites? Honestly, I find it incredibly hard to feel a sense of affinity to the imagined community which is Singapore –  after all, Singapore is simply a collection of 1 tiny and 62 even tinier, rocky islands, brought together under the umbrella of a nation by sheer historical chance. Unremarkable, and hardly spectacular. Yet, even as I tell myself that this  territory is no different from the hundreds of other states elsewhere in the world, that my social circle could very well be transposed to many other nations, I struggle to view myself as anything other than a Singaporean citizen. There is something deep inside of me that always wants to go back.

Why then do I still cling on to my identity as a Singaporean? For me, the answer lies not in the towering glass skyscrapers which overlook the Singapore River, nor in the sense of security I feel walking home from school in the dead of night. It would be far too presumptuous for me to take pride in achievements which I played absolutely no role in obtaining – I am, quite frankly, lucky to have been born in a developed nation like Singapore, where most of us are empowered to live in relative comfort and security. Patriotism, however, stems from something more fundamental and elusive than the gratitude I feel every time I compare my circumstances to that of someone who may be less fortunate than me. In the same way we wouldn’t be proud if we were born to incredibly rich parents, or if a friend managed to secure a place in a prestigious university, the notion that arbitrary national achievements somehow trigger an individual’s sense of patriotism rings rather hollow.

In search of a more compelling reason, I struck up a conversation with one of my best friends a few weeks back. He told me that his love for Singapore was derived from the principles which Singapore seems to stand for. While middle-class Americans might feel proud of the USA because they believe in the American Dream, or a Dane might find pride in his/her nation’s egalitarian principles, my friend suggested that patriotism was linked to the values a nation supposedly espoused. The problem, however, is that I often find myself disagreeing with some of our nation’s current guiding principles whilst still staying proudly Singaporean. Do we necessarily have to agree with MM Lee’s conception of a semi-authoritarian “Asian Democracy”, or with the government’s minimalist approach to intervention in the free market before we can claim to be patriotic Singaporeans? Of course not. Neither do we have to buy into the values embedded into the popular narrative of Singapore’s history to be proud of our country – the principles of meritocracy and racial equality are similarly upheld in other countries across the world. Surely there must be something special about Singapore.

Perhaps the simplest answer is also the most appealing to me. As an irrational, malleable Singaporean teenager, the very fact that my parents gave birth to me in a Singaporean hospital on Singaporean soil may be the most important reason why I take pride in my nation. There are certain immutable characteristics about myself and my relationships that I will never be able to change – my hair is black, my facial features are distinctly Asian, my spoken English coloured with an unmistakable Singlish twang. My conversations are naturally peppered with a touch of Hokkien (admittedly of the vulgar variety at times), and I sometimes accidentally invert the iambic pentameter when reading out lines from Shakespeare, even when I know I shouldn’t. Most of my closest friends and family members are Singaporean, while my tastes and preferences are shaped by my Singaporean experiences. It would be impossible to define myself without reference to my nationality, because my identity is anchored in the broader context of the nation. As (supposedly) ‘Global Citizens’ in an increased interconnected era, it is easy to forget that our virtual avatars often mask our actual selves. To be proud of being Singaporean is to be proud of who I am.

Our perception of the world around us is invariably refracted through the lens of our experiences in Singapore. As much as I would like to think of myself as a global citizen, I know that I would never truly feel at home walking the streets of New York or Paris, flagged out instantly by my appearance and accent as a foreigner, surrounded by unfamiliar faces and cultures. Although we would eventually adapt to a disconcertingly different foreign environment, the cultural connections and language markers which we develop during the formative years of our childhood will always remain. In an article for the Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, Dr. Michael Cole from the University of California writes, “Culture plays an essential role in how children make sense of the world. Development of signification and adoption of the appropriate cultural tools (symbols, meanings, scripts, goals etc.) of human activity are basic challenges of early learning.” In a compact, highly-connected and diverse city-state such as Singapore, our culture isn’t solely bound up within our ethnicity or religion, but rather shaped by the interactions between these groups within the context of our nation.

Am I claiming to be patriotic out of circumstance, and not by choice? In a way, yes. I’m convinced that if I were born Russian, for instance, and grew up surrounded by Russian friends, family member and customs, I would nevertheless be proud of my nation. Because I have been born a Singaporean instead, I have had the privilege of standing on a point of intersection between an almost contradictory array of cultures, ethnicities and religions. Where I have been born has indeed played a huge role in determining who I pledge my allegiance to. Maybe patriotism is itself a paradox – that even though many of us recognize that our love for a larger, imagined community may not be wholly rational, we are still willing to cave in, and let the lion roar.