Wednesday, March 16, 2005 @5:38 PM
I had my history symposium today. nah, i was just the audience, sniggering at the participants (ok, that's mean.. commenting) The two questions directed were "if Singapore-Malaya merger was successful, how would that impact Lee Kuan Yew/PAP" and "if Lenin had not died (so early), how would that impact WW2"
Regarding the 1st question, my alma mata, MGS, did quite a good job, though the speakers weren't very fluent. They were expecting LKY to be arrested yet PAP would then be in the hands of Toh Chin Chye. But these made us, audience, ponder. Hence Jowell, went forward and threw a question, "if the arrest of LKY was made legal, wouldn't the tunku of Malaya try to destroy PAP instead of letting it strive in Singapore?" I think they didn't anticipate this question, so they answered, but wasn't relevant to the question.
Next was the 2nd question of which ACSI and Nanhua gave their hypothesis. Nanhua presentation, sorry, was quite boring. Too wordy and I couldn't understand what are they driving at. But I'm impressed by the way they stayed by their stand when SCGS girls threw them questions. Nanhua people were the right ones, while SCGS just didn't get their facts right. SCGS was asking "why did USA need to drop two bombs to scare USSR?" In fact, it was true that USA had two intentions when dropping the A-bomb. Of course, the main reason was to destroy Japan so that Japan would surrender unconditionally. Next, was the hidden reason.. a reason that was not exposed by the Americans, but the historians.. that was to demostrate USA's military might-- to show USSR that without the help of the Soviets, USA can destroy Japan. In one of the war conferences (Yalta i think), Truman (US then president) declared that they had a "very powerful new weapon" in front of the Soviets. At that time, Soviets were still part of the Grand Alliance, yet they were clueless about it, showing the mistrust both had. Besides, in one of the conferences, it had been agreed that USSR and USA would invade Japan TOGETHER, yet USA defied the agreement and dropped the bomb.
Yeah, so basically, SCGS didn't get their facts right, yet trying to debate with the poor Nanhua kids, who were the right parties. Eventually, after the presentations were over, my friends and I went over to the SCGS people to correct them. We weren't being smart alecs, just telling them that Nanhua people were right, cos they were sounding like sour grapes to us when they were asking those questions (they didn't get into the finals)
YEAH, So much for the symposium.
I was talking to my cousin who's studying overseas not too long ago, and she was telling me about how her friends (citizens of singapore's neighbours) there are still very traditional. These two girls are in her class. They are both muggerish and super smart
"1 of them admit to me today that when she was doing her A levels, her ambition is to be a housewife!"
"and the other gal, her fam is really traditional as well...and she does most of the washing and cooking at home"
"& they think that its a tragedy if 10 yrs down the road, they're a high powered career woman but unmarried"
"they have no ambition or watsoever.. except to be a great wife"
"despite having so much education and mugging so hard in uni"
My cousin was puzzled, so am I. So, what's the point of studying so hard, getting a good degree, an honours even, when you can just hang it at some small corner of the house while you are busying entertaining your hubby. Ok, maybe i'm exaggerating a bit, but i think that's the case for most indo girls. In Singapore, guess the better way to call these housewifes are "taitai". these taitais are educated and rich, who carry louis vitton bags, wear dior perfume. Actually, come to think about it, I don't mind being one. You can hang out at some high-class cafe having high tea, shopping in Paragon or Takashiyama whenever the new season of clothes arrive, cruising around the island in a mercs or BMW, fetching your kids from place to place, playing mahjong whenever you feel like it, pampering yourself with facials and spa weekly. Great life. But meaningful?