the blue and gold - issue 9 - march 2010

THE BLUE AND GOLDThe student’s voice • MICA (P) 200/03/2009 Issue 9 • March 2010

Being your own bossin SMU...

THE BLUE AND GOLD

THE BLUE AND GOLD is a fully student-run publication of the Singapore Management University Students’ Association. All rights reserved. No part of this publication should be reproduced without the prior permission of the authors concerned and The Blue and Gold. Printed by KHL Printing Co Pte Ltd.

The Blue and Gold81 Victoria StreetSingapore [email protected]

Editor’s noteDear readers,

Picking up this magazine would mean that you are part of a growing group of students: one that is not only updated with student trends but news that concerns you!

In this issue, our writers sprawled the school campus for new stories on school events and student trends. From the arts festival to the marriage in SMU, we went around looking for things that you were part of (like some of you during Patron’s Day) and you would want to know.

Student entrepreneurship has always been a dream state that SMU students hear about. Not only is it the off-beaten path, it is also full of uncertainty. And if running a company for profit seems too simple, try taking on a social enterprise for size.

Talking about size, one the our largest CCAs, SMUBE gained flak after releasing their official rate card. Non-ACF clubs will now need to pay for SMUBE’s event services.

Looking further from our school backyard, our world is facing a painful and dangerous reality: be it terrorism or the environment. Globalisation has brough many more players onto the chess-board and it is going to be messy.

That’s the ninth edition for you and I do hope you would enjoy it! From all of us here at the Blue and Gold, We’ll see you again in August!

Anthony AngelaActing Editor-in-Chief, The Blue and [email protected]

This issue of The Blue and Gold is proudly sponsored by

COMMUNICATIONS SECRETARY, SMUSA

Lee Cher Hern

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Owen Tan

ACTING MANAGING DIRECTOR

Michael Ng

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Ephraim Loy

ACTING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Anthony Angela

MANAGING EDITOR

Ankita Prasad

SENIOR EDITORS

Esther YeoTalisa Kaur Dhaliwal

EDITORS

Nadim Ali KapadiaTobias Yeo Zhi QiangSheena LeeAashna Nasta

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Chloe Sng

Viewpoint4 Expectations of love

Anthony Angela shares on expectations when in love

5 Foreign workers? Foreign talent?Cover Story6 Being your own boss... in SMU

Wang Sha checks out the

entrepreneur culture in SMU and

finds it thriving

12 Creating the social enterprise of tomorrowAnthony Angela explores the social

side of business

School Events13 On turning 10!

Shreya Vora captures the highlights

of SMU’s 10th birthday celebrations

16 Meet your perfect brew in schoolSaunders Shen keeps up with beer

appreciation — SMU Barworkz

newest hobby

17 Sports at its bestEphraim Loy attends the SSU Sports

Awards Night

18 10th SMUSA sworn inMichael Ng sums up the SMUSA

Annual General Meeting 2010

19 SMUBE’s new policy questionedMichael Ng revisits the debate on

student remuneration

20 Being young and married in SMUAnthony Angela sits down and

discusses marriage in SMU

March 2010 • Issue 9

Contents

THE BLUE AND GOLD

22 Writing can be a form of student activismShobana Nadaraja finds out why from

this publication’s Editor-in-Chief

24 Getting a life — Managing CCAs and GPAsNarem Gunawardana speaks to

students to find out how they have time

to actively pursue their CCAs

Worldscope28 Environmental efforts: The big

threeSumedha Jalote studies the issues in

climate change through three major

agreements

30 Major environment conferences32 Reflections on the war on terrorHigher Learning34 A milestone for the first HPair

2010 Asia conferenceSohail Sardana reveals how SMU will

embrace future leaders worldwide

35 An encounter with the men in white teamAnthony Angela unveils challenges

behind the writing process

Campus Arts36 SMU Arts Festival 2010: A

reflectionDenise Seetekbeng, Elle Lim, Kimberly

Yap and Teena Ngo look back on their

favourite art festive performances

Digital38 Picking the right smartphone for

youTechonology blogger Daniel Tsou

helps us to find the perfect match

Spotlight40 From showbiz to businessTravel42 Korea through a native’s eyes

Chiang Chia Wen provides a glimpse into the Korean cultural experience

44 Vita in ItaliaLim Si Hui discovers a new dimension

of romantic Italy

46 Unrestrained freedomMichael Ng introduces us to the

culture of student power in Hong

Kong

48 The Shangri-La I documented: Project Argali 2Talisa Kaur Dhaliwal explores from

the edge of paradise

50 Entering the USA: Easier than I thoughtOwen Tan gives his take on the

security measures at US airports

January 2010 THE BLUE AND GOLD 4

Anthony Angela shares on expectations when in loveExpEctations of lovE

Viewpoint

It is the end of week 7 and my boyfriend’s family is still celebrat-ing Chinese New Year. Yes, and they

invited me and I came and did my best to smile, chit-chat and hide the fact that I’m worried about that assignment that I have due or that reading that I haven’t done. That’s love for you I guess.

Having a relationship in SMU is absolute-ly, at least for me, not simple. Due to my commitments in sports and now, in this publication, I realised that I haven’t spent that much time with my beloved. Though he is very understanding and does let me have my way, one can’t help but feel bad for all the times I have made him wait (the longest I remembered was three hours), all the times that I canceled on him and all the times I wasn’t there for him.

But I’m certain that not everyone is as lucky as me. Through my SMU life,

friends have shared their stories with me. Some get furious by the fact that their other half demands too much from them while others cry that their sweetheart does not spend enough time with them. I guess everyone has different expectations of their beloved and letting them know yours should not be too damaging.

Expectations can include the little things like being on time to the more serious matters like career progression – especial-ly for those thinking of working overseas.

Why not let him know about your ambi-tion and ask him about his. This little conversation can help you understand what kind of life your dearie wants.

For me, expectations sharing came as a surprise when I learnt where my boy-friend wanted to live in future. It was totally not what I expected.

Being absolutely career driven, I want to be passionately in love with my career (wherever it took me)…and my boy-friend. But as things turn out, you cannot always have the best of both worlds. We are still working towards a compromise, I still absolutely adore him and I think we’re good.

Having the time to share would be the big issue for students. For some of my sports friends, they are lucky since both boy-friend and girlfriend are in the same CCA, but that’s not always the case. I believe each relationship needs time to build and if there is too little maintenance, it crumbles because you’re not updated

“...each relationship needs time to build and if there is too little

maintenance, it crumbles...”

with the latest on what your sweetheart is thinking or feeling. Trouble starts here.

Tough as it sounds, we just have to deal with it. One of my all time favourite movie quotes is from Star Trek’s Generations movie: “When something’s important, you make the time.” It is hard enough to get attached but to stay attached means working on the relationship. Sharing expectations may be the first part of that process and though it does not always work, we at least have the knowledge that we tried.

Think about it!

5 THE BLUE AND GOLD January 2010

Foreign workers? Foreign talent?By Linette Lim

Meet Labu, a 26-year old con-struction worker in Singapore. Labu is unable to work because

of an injury to his right thumb. Without work, Labu goes without food. But that is not all - there is no insurance payout, and there is no medical care. There is no safety net for the likes of Labu, because the gov-ernment is not obligated to protect their welfare. They are migrant workers.

I only started volunteering at Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) this year, so I cannot claim to know much about the situation. However, from what I have seen and learnt from migrant workers and TWC2 social workers thus far, it does seem like manpower laws allow errant employers to get away with not paying for medical bills resulting from work-place accidents. It does seem like people like Labu are treated as mere factors of production or labour units. Dehumanis-ing them like this exempts one from treat-ing them with dignity. In Prime Minister Lee’s speech at the Nanyang Technological University Stu-dent’s Union Ministerial Forum in 2009, he stated that 55% of the non-citizens in Singapore are transient workers. The non-citizen population currently stands at 1.25 million. These transient workers are denied basic rights, like mandatory days off and minimum wage. Unlike foreign talent that needs to be wooed with incen-tives, these transient workers are in large supply, and will agree to any terms of employment. This sets up opportunities for exploitation. In their 2007 book on migration in East and Southeast Asia, researchers Piper and Yamanaka classify Malaysia and Singa-pore as migrant-receiving countries that “severely curtail pro-migrant actions”. The most liberal migrant-receiving area

is Hong Kong, where minimum wage is guaranteed by law. Piper and Yamanaka also assert that Filipino migrants in Hong Kong are more likely to undertake col-lective action (in the form of organi-ed protests) to oppose policies that threaten their economic rights. Of course, in any discourse on the rights and treatment of migrant workers one should not solely examine government legislation. An issue of grave importance is how Singaporeans perceive these foreigners and how we want them to be treated. Many citizens are either apa-thetic or do not support equal rights for migrants. Some fear that giving their domestic helpers a mandatory day off will give them opportunity to ‘fool around’ with male company; while others claim that the low wages are justified by the for-eign worker levy they have to pay. While these concerns are not unreasonable, there is a need for greater understanding and mutual respect between citizens and migrants. Singapore in a recent UNDP report was ranked 7th in average incomes, using GDP per capita (PPP US$) as an indicator. Even though Singapore has a relatively higher average income than many OECD countries, we have not achieved similar human development, ranking only 23rd in the Human Development Index. Can this paradox of economic growth be ap-plied to the Singaporean individual?

Perhaps in our pursuit of economic well-being we have dehumanised not just migrant workers, but ourselves as well. Once we stop seeing them as factors of production, we can relate to them as human beings, as brothers and sisters, or fathers and mothers who have come a long way from home to improve the lives

of their siblings, children and parents. As I sat in Sutha's restaurant off Cuff Road registering workers that came in for free meals, I realised I have not felt this happy in a long time. I felt free, unjudged and completely at ease in the presence of the workers. We teased Abdul, one of the workers who was wearing sunglasses (due to an eye injury), saying that he now looks like a movie star. I entertained personal questions ("How much you earn-ing?") and explained the concept of volun-teerism, drawing smiles and thumbs ups. I impressed them with my vocabulary of twenty Hindi words (of which five are the words for the numbers 1 to 5). The most important part however, was listening to their problems and offering solutions - in other words, making this wonderful place I call home a better place for them to live in. Barely literate and poorly educated, Labu needs someone like you and me to stand on his side - to accompany him to the hospital, offer legal help, or navigate the convoluted hallways of the manpower building — and demand social justice.

View

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Being your own boss... in SMUWang Sha checks out the entrepreneur culture in SMU and finds it thriving

Photos by Wayne Lim Ting Ke and Wang Guangzhao

SMU life can be stressful but certainly not enough to get to Adam Teow Li Chong. Adam is part of a group of students in SMU who run their own businesses while studying.

A third year student at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, he is the founder of Achievers Science, a subsidiary of Edulink Learning Centre. Achievers Science carries out workshops in Singapore and reaches out to more than 250 students, generating revenue of more than $10,000 a month.

Adam’s passion to create Achievers Science start-ed at the age of 18 when he was in India. “I went to New Delhi for army training, I saw kids along the street begging for money. At that time it hit me that someone should reach out to educate them.” He remembers. And with that, there was no turning back.

By the time he decided to start his own busi-ness, Adam had been in the tuition industry for 5 years. He taught tuition, ran workshops for schools and centers. He had also completed a 10 month leadership training that gave him the courage and confidence to start up Achievers Science. Adam’s first investor was his mother; He paid her back with the profit within a month.


Adam’s big break came. He won a contract to run science courses with a local organisation. After that, other opportunities streamed in.

Adam was approached in April last year, by an international publisher to write two books on learning science and is now having one of them published.

The road for an entrepreneur, however, has never been an easy one. Desmond Lim Huang Hui is one of the students behind Treehouse at SMU. He shared how the lack of experience and knowledge of running a cafe became a serious issue.

“We found that our ideas were not feasible when we started to prepare. We were not sure how to start because we didn’t have much experience. We have to make decisions based on nothing, from what kind of plates to buy to what decorations are needed.”

The team behind Screme, consisting of Seth Lui and Leong Tang, both final-year business students and Rachel Tan Weili, a senior in economics, also faced similar problems. They had a tough time at first. Seth recalled those time when things went wrong, “We had little revenue, we ran out of supplies, we got so stressed. Teamwork also played an important role.”

As they say, if there’s a down, there must be an up and for an-other student entrepreneur Chua Zhi Hon, David that could be his experience in a nutshell. David is one of the co-founders of Baboonza.com, a successful IS project extension which just got government funding SMART.

In 2007, David started his first business, Frro LLP, together with a NTU student and an engineer. He recalled, “Frro LLP was my first registered business. It was an IT company, which provided web posting and IT solutions. We provided small businesses with consultancy services and helped them go online.” The Frro LLP, however, ran only for a year or so and David moved on to Baboonza.com, an IT solution that fuses online search with social networking. “At many stages in my life, I was either run-ning websites or doing other projects. It is my dream to create something that can help people. I cannot imagine life without my own business.”

Similar thoughts were shared by Rachel from Screme, who didn’t intend to become an entrepreneur. “I learnt time management and communication skills. Most importantly, I discovered the thing I want to do.”

Starting up a business of your ownFor those looking to start their own venture, take a peek at the available options in and around school for help. For those inter-ested in the cafes, OSL and SMUSA have some student-friendly

initiatives available like The Loft below (where Screme is at) and Treehouse.

For those interested in participating in bazaars and business re-lated activities, consider the initiatives from BIZCOM, the finan-cial arm of SMUSA. Their aim is to create a practical business environment for students. The club organises bazaars that allow students to set up their own booth and experience running their own shop. Jack Moy, a second-year business student and director of the SMU-BIZCOM described the club as a place for everyone,

“The profits that we make through organising events are all channeled to students. This channels include SMUSA activities, freebies etc.”

Another initiative that aspiring entrepreneurs should look to-ward is The Institute of innovation and entrepreneurship (IIIE). The IIE was launched in 2009 with the help of various initia-tives provided by the Singapore government. Adeline C. Tan, the Evangelist of SMU IIE, shared with us that aspiring SMU entrepreneurs could get help through the whole innovation entrepreneurship value chain.

Students could consult with experienced business mentors; get access to an incubation space, the Business Innovation Genera-tor (BIG) to run their business. They also can take advantage of the Entrepreneurs Corner, a monthly networks session to meet investors. So far, IIE has assisted 23 start ups in their pursuit for entrepreneurship. Adeline emphasised: “Our focus will always be on quality more so than quantity.”

The risk involvedIt is necessary to think through all the pros and cons of starting student ventures. Pursuing this path is exciting, but also requires courage, perseverance and the willingness to sacrifice.

Seth recalled his life when he first started: “We are either in school or here “. When Rachel, who is also juggling with her grade, was asked how to balance, she answered “Grades are important, so in my final year I will work more on it.

Jack shared with us his thoughts: “My first year was nothing but study. But if you give up an opportunity to try out something new because of fear for lower GPA, you will lose track of more important things in life.”

For those who are interested in becoming student entrepreneurs, Adam suggested: “Never be afraid to try. Have courage to jump into new experiences. And always remember to push yourself to the limit of your abilities! You will be surprised what you will find living your life at the edge.”

Agnes Ang School of Information Systems, Year 4

The Venture: Agnes is one of the founders of Tocco Studios, a multi-touch solutions provider. Tocco focuses on big screen multi-touch systems allowing two to four people can collaborate with ease.

Tocco Studios offers services that ca-ter to the entire value chain includ-ing interface design and production.

Contact: For more information on the multi-touch solutions available, do contact Agnes at [email protected]

sMU claiMs that its stUdEnts arE daring and willing to takE risk.

To prove if this statement was true, The Blue and Gold went in search for entrepreneurs in SMU and realised that there are quite a number of students and graduates running their own businesses.

Anthony Chang Chia Joo Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Year 4

The Venture: Anthony started Prosperity Bird Nests Pte Ltd recently. He aims to sell processed bird’s nests to Chinese restaurants in western countries.

A word of caution for those who are interested in the bird’s nest business, Anthony says learning about bird’s nest is awfully expensive. Once, he went for a one day

course on bird’s nest and it cost him a whopping $1,000!

Contact: For those who would like have find out more about Anthony and his bird’s nest, contact him at [email protected]

Lee Jun Kiat Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Year 2

The Venture: Jun Kiat started Reactive Design with some friends in JC1. They started with stage designs and event photo productions but today, after six years of experience, their service offerings include advertising, branding, copywriting, T-shirt printing and much much more.

For those looking for an effective and affordable advertising, visit http://www.reactive-design.com.sg

Contact: You can also contact Jun Kiat at [email protected]

David Chua Zhi Hon

School of Information Systems,Year 3

The Venture: David and two other SMU students run Baboon za.com, a new kind of website that

blends your social network with your online searches.

Baboonza.com is now funded by the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology

Explorer Grant and is in the midst of raising 2nd round funding from venture capitalists.

Contact: You can drop David an email at [email protected]

Keith Ng and Damon Widjaja SMU graduates

The Venture: Keith and Damon are the founders of Socialico. Their flagship product is the FAME league, a social game that allows one to buy and sell shares of friends and celebrities on a virtual stock market. That then pro-vides information and predictions of different events becoming a powerful system for data collection.

The Fame league is currently available on Facebook and has been selected as one of the 50 finalists (out of 400) in the fbFund 2009.

Contact: Check them out on Facebook at Fame league or visit www.famelea-gue.com


Creating the social enterprise of tomorrow

Most SMU students would not choose social work as a career route. They usually complete

their 80 hours and continue with studies, internships and many other activities. But for Goh Aik Chuan, he does everything the normal SMU student does, apart from one: running a consultancy program for NGOs.

Aik Chuan, a final year economics stu-dent in SMU, is part of a growing number of individuals and groups in Singapore starting social enterprises. Though his or-ganisation is technically not an organisa-tion, the program has been successful and running for a few years.

He started the idea of consultancy with the intention of changing the way students got involved in community proj-ects. “Students are trained in marketing and crunching numbers and many other skills that are much needed in the non profiting world especially at low cost.” As such, Aik Chuan and some friends came together and after a failed attempt at market research, they settled on consul-tancy. “We decided to cover the larger scope of the value chain where someone had to implement ideas.”

To date, Consulting for Cause has profes-sional advisors and permanent team leaders like Aik Chuan to run the daily operations of the program. Student vol-unteers come in for each project with a permanent team leader who guides them to complete their projects successfully. But things are not as smooth sailing as it seems.

Aik Chuan laments, “We have come to realise that NGO in Singapore are not very familiar with the concept of consult-ing. They don’t know what is expected of them and they don’t necessarily under-

stand how the outcome could be carried out. It’s not easy to make money out of this.” And therein lay the first problem that many social enterprises face.

A more general problem is the public’s reaction to donations made to NGOs. “The public still thinks that every dollar that they donate, the full dollar should go to

the poor. There’s no such thing as the full dollar going to the poor. There’s adminis-trative cost, there’s a project management cost and many other cost associated with a dollar donated.”

The same thing applies to social enterpris-es. Speaking to the vice-president of the SMU-ISE (Initiative of social enterprises) Edwin Leong Chen Sheng, he makes it clear that social enterprises are entirely different from the traditional NGOs.

“If the organisation is an entity that runs a business and earns profit that goes back to the entity, then the organisation can be self-sufficient. This brings many benefits in terms of providing employment for your beneficiaries. You don’t have to rely on charity or funds from the government. You can get your own source of income.”

Despite possible negative social respons-es, support for the movement into social enterprises seems to be looking good, at least in SMU.

Edwin estimated that there were around 70 members in the ISE with 30 of them actively involved in projects locally and abroad. “Usually when people join ISE, they do it for varying reasons. Some of them join because they want to start their own business while others because of their passion for community services.” Edwin said. What is particularly interest-ing is that the projects themselves are almost independently run with periodical monitoring from the vice-president of projects at the ISE.

In Singapore, where the social enterprise scene is young and small, Aik Chuan enlightens on me situations one would be facing, “There are not many case studies and not many people you could look at or seek advice from.” As such, there are two things that you need, according to Aik Ch-uan. One is entrepreneurial spirit and the second, ego. “The truth is that you have to have certain sense of value of yourself. You have to know that you can accom-plish something and you have to have the guts to say that you can accomplish it.”

Anthony Angela explores the social side of business


School E

ventsShreya Vora captures the highlights of SMU’s 10th birthday celebrations

On turning 10!

SchoolEvents

We’re finally 10. What a celebra-tion it was! A sea of students wearing the 10VE SMU

t-shirts shed off their studious personas for a while, and came together at Campus Green to salute SMU’s ten years of excel-lence, effort and endurance. The three months of hard work and planning put in by the organising committee culminated in the most happening ‘birthday party’ in town! We recapture for you the ten most exciting activities at this fiesta:

Free flow!We were drawn like bees are to honey, to the well-stocked food stalls, enticing us with goodies ranging from ice-cream to hot and spicy Ramly burgers! While no one complained about the free Mountain Dew and 7UP Revive which quenched our thirst in the scorching heat, it was the free beer that kept everyone’s spirits high.

Poker with a twistA combination of Twister and Poker,

MegaTwister was a game developed right from scratch for this special occasion. Nine teams battled it out fiercely, but the Dragon Ball 1 team beat the rest to win the war. Good job guys!

Bouncing to the beatThe new, peppy soundtracks that were being played added to the fun and frolic. Those in search of a little more thrill and excitement bounced their way through the music on the bungee trampoline.

Photos by Tan Zeyan, Michael Ng Wai Ting and Patron’s Day Committee


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Face-off!The different CCAs and school teams let their muscles do the talking and compet-ed against each other, while the rest of the school rooted for their favourite teams, in the most energy-filled event of the day, the Tug-o-War. The Sailing team and Bon-due emerged as the champion tuggers.

Artistic expressionsA hand-drawn caricature, beautiful Hen-na on your hands and a creative airbrush design on your casual top — all for a mere S$25! Where else would you get such a great deal? No wonder these stalls were so overcrowded!

Spectacular spectaclesThe stilt walkers and a magician com-pleted the transformation of the Campus Green into a carnival ground. The various stalls and joy-ride added to the ambience.

A walk to rememberA glimpse of the vibrant and dynamic stu-

dent life at SMU was portrayed through the displays of the different Constituent Bodies such as the SICS, SMUX, SSU, SMU Icon, etc. This display, along with the warm greetings from the SMU faculty and students, was a perfect welcome to SMU Patron, President SR Nathan, who graced the occasion.

Words of wisdomThe ceremony was inaugurated by President Howard Hunter, whose words, “In less than a decade, SMU has grown from an idea on the drawing board to a vibrant university,” perfectly described the University’s growth in a nutshell. Mr. Ho Kwon Ping, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, highlighted how SMU is syn-onymous to an agent of change and urged us to continue our pursuit for excellence. The third speaker of the day was Mr Lim Kong Wee, Valedictorian of the Graduat-ing Class of 2004. Remembering his days at SMU, he spoke about how the faith of the students and the effort put in by the

Faculty have made our institution reach new heights of success.

SMU’s got talent! The celebratory performances by Just So, Eurhythmix and Samba Masala added an-other dimension to the formal segment of the celebrations. They indeed portrayed the true flavour of SMU’s spirit and cul-ture. The ceremony was concluded with the Chamber Choir seeking blessings for SMU in Irish.

Soaring highIn the days leading up to Patron’s Day, some members of the SMU community — students, faculty and staff alike – had penned their wishes for the University’s tenth birthday on three gigantic, com-memorative balloons. On D-day, the pink, white and blue balloons soared high and lit up the sky at dusk.

Of course, that was by no means the end. In fact, the party had just begun! Students


satisfied their building hunger-pangs at the all-you-can-eat mass barbeque and feasted their eyes at the SMU-ASEAN Artist Residency Exhibition, Content: A Navigating Point at T-junction. This was followed by parties at student hotspots - Screme and Ice Cold B’s. As promised to us, everyone was truly a VIP at this birthday bash. Remembering the past and anticipating the bright future, we commemorated the tenth year of our exis-tence in a very memorable way indeed.

Here’s to SMU — We 10ve You!

School E

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Saunders Shen keeps up with beer appreciation — SMU Barworkz newest hobby

Meet your perfect brew in school

SMU Barworkz, in collaboration with a group of NTU students, organised the first ever beer appreciation

event at SMU recently. From 12 to 2 pm on the 14th of January, “Meet your Perfect Brew” and Brewerkz offered SMU students free beer samples ranging from Iguana to Fruit and Golden Ale to Oatmeal.

One of the organisers, Chrystal Chan who is a fourth-year student from NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information had initiated this project. Together with her team of like-minded in-dividuals, they are striving to reach out to tertiary level students here in Singapore.

The team intends to offer students an alternative to the conventional hard li-quor and spirits that most students would consume during their “down time”. Their aim is to raise awareness and change the perception that people have towards beer.

“The complexities involved in the appre-ciation of beer can be equally as challeng-ing and fun as wine,” said Chrystal. Beer unfortunately had long been as-sociated with the negative image of “old-uncles” sitting by the coffee shops, drinking beer while watching a soccer match according to Chrystal. Students do not like to be associated with this image and hence avoid consuming beer.

There are also others who are repulsed by the slight bitterness of beer. “By varying the basic ingredients of the beer brewing process, the acidity of the drink can be altered to suit one’s taste,” said Chrystal. “Like wine with its grapes - it is all about finding the right beer.”

With the help of Brewerkz, a popular chain of restaurants that brews its own beers, Chrystal and her team have been

introducitng the various types of beer that Brewerkz has to offer. Their intention is to show that there are alternatives to the regular Tiger or Carlsberg found in the market. Brewerkz offers an exciting array of beers, from interesting fruit beers to more exotic flavours like pumpkin infused beers.

Tan Jin Li, who is assisting Chrystal in this project, has admitted that a plau-sible disinterest in beer could possibly stemmed from its lack of availability. The project’s target audience, being tertiary students, frequent clubs like Zouk or The Butter Factory for a night of party and many have a preference for hard liquor.

Brewekrz has brought beer to another level of appreciation but their beer choices are not readily available at the clubs. Nevertheless, Brewerkz prides itself as an alternate joint for relaxation and/or a place to have silly banter with friends and colleagues.

Not only did this project aim to allow students to appreciate the taste of beer, but also it aimed to increase awareness on the beer brewing process and how Brewerkz differentiates itself with their unique flavours. This is the first event of its kind to be co-hosted by Barworkz. Barworkz is an SMU Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) that focuses more on cocktails, flair bartend-ing (the art of manipulating bar tools for entertainment e.g. juggling the bottles) and promotes bartending skills.

Barworkz may look into further devel-oping beer appreciation courses if the response from the school is good.

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Sports at its bestEphraim Loy attends the SSU Sports Awards Night

If there was one thing that made the annual SSU Sports Award Night a memorable one, it would be the format

of presenting the awards. Not to mention the pun the organisers adopted for their tagline — super awesome night. From getting nomi-nees to drink a clear liquid from a shot glass, to a pole dance item by winning SSU Team of the Year, SMU Dragonboat, there wasn’t an awesome lack of stunts.

The event took a markedly different approach. While previous awards ceremonies organised by SSU were held in SMU, this year’s event was held at The Butter Factory.

“Sports Awards Night is a casual affair, not about regime - it is about showing a different side of sportsmen and sportswomen,” de-scribed by SMU Sailing’s President, Christo-pher Lim, who also contributed to the mood of the event through his role as the emcee.

SMU Sailing was a big winner at this year’s ceremony bagging four awards in total. And it is not an easy feat. The team had been working hard since last year and has been supportive of SSU events over the past year.

Said Christopher: “The team put a lot of effort. There’s no secret to success and ev-eryone played their role well. The club takes in new people and it is the well structured training programme and the commitment and dedication of the seniors that help to train the new members. It is about mentor-ship, faith in the structure and the sending of freshmen for competitions.”

Proceeds from the event will be channeled towards fund-raising for SSU according to its Events Manager, Poon Wei Xian.

SSU Sports Awards Night Honour Roll

W

SSU Smart Jock Award Catherine Chua, SMU Sailing

“I thought no one was looking” Award Ong Jet Wui, SMU Run Team

SMU Best Biceps AwardAllen Poon, SMU Dragonboat

SSU Hottest Legs AwardAgnes Yap, Women’s Rugby

Concourse Head Turner Award SMU Track and Field

Face of SSU Award Ashley Liew, SMU Aquathlon

Competitive Excellence Club Award 09/10

SMU Sailing

Sportsman of the Year AwardKoh Seng Leong, SMU Sailing

Sportswoman of the Year Award Tan Siobhan, SMU Sailing

SSU Team of the Year AwardSMU Dragonboat


Michael Ng sums up the SMUSA Annual General Meeting 2010

10th SMUSA sworn in

This year’s SMUS Annual General Meeting brought an end to the bumpy ride for the outgoing Exco

and unloaded a new burden on shoulders for the incoming one.

The outgoing SMUSA Exco presented their past achievements to the students present. Many ad-hoc issues, which the Exco was not prepared for, such as the change in the Group Study Room booking policies and the recent rise in carpark rates were cited.

In addition, a new position in the Exco was initiated to meet changing needs. This included an International Students’ Secretary to manage the affairs of the increasing international student popula-tion in SMU.

The SMUSA Exco further streamlined financial paperwork for clubs with the introduction of a cashless deposit via AXS machines and a new claims process. A dialogue session was held with student constituent representatives to discuss on-going financial issues. Budget standards were also set for clubs to keep expendi-tures in check.

Internally, the outgoing Exco faced some challenges. On separate occasions, two members of the Exco left due to personal issues. The remaining members took on the extra responsibilities as they felt that they were able to handle it on their own. The duties were either administrative in nature, or overlapped with other Exco members’ roles. After alerting the relevant offices regarding the situation, SMUSA President Rachel Kok said, “We braced ourselves, sucked it up and just did it.”

There was also trouble with succession in this year’s Elections Committee. The past practice has always been that one member from the previous commit-tee would stay behind to head the new committee. This year, however, all four of the past committee members had either graduated or were on exchange. Thus, the committee was formed purely from FTB facilitators who happened to be available.

In her final speech as SMUSA President, Rachel Kok commented that the respon-sibility of the changes to student life does not only lie in the hands of the SA. Rather, staff from the administration offices, fac-ulty and the general student population

play a pivotal role as well. She cited past dialogue sessions with the faculty that sought to bridge the gap between faculty and students.

We are students too“Just like you, we are students,” incoming SMUSA President Sophia Lo acknowl-edged. “Your journey in SMU will not be lonely. SMUSA will always be there with you and for you.”

She also revealed that there would be more regular feedback sessions for the students. SMUSA would also be look-ing to interact and communicate with students via Facebook as well.

Sophia also highlighted that there has been increasing importance placed on striving for academic excellence by SMU students. Thus, the 6th Students’ As-sociation Council (SAC) will aim to help students cope with academic excellence.

In a separate meeting with Tessa Ang, SMUSA Vice-President, it was revealed that the school CBd’s will be streamlin-ing events such as Know Thy Major talks and opening more networking sessions for students with professionals from the field.

The SMUSA Exco will also be looking into BOSS bidding, and find ways to improve the system for students. They will be releasing the student satisfac-tion survey soon to compile figures on the academic issues that students face. Substantial recommendations for change to the university administration would be made thereafter.

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A new policy by the SMU Broadcast and Entertainment (SMUBE) to charge clubs for providing emcees,

equipment, and stagehands has roused at-tention on campus. A rate card, listing the pricing and conditions, was formed with the approval of the Office of Student Life (OSL), Arts and Cultural Fraternity (ACF) and the Student’s Association Council. “The fact is that we are just a club that fosters interest and we help people learn about all aspects of media,” said Amanda Voon, SMUBE President. “Helping other clubs is just a sideline effort that has grown over the years,” she added.

The SMUBE situationFirst and foremost, SMUBE is obliged to provide their services to certain universi-ty-wide events demarked by OSL, and em-cees on the Arts Excellence Programme (AEP) have to serve for ACF events as well as university-wide events. ACF events come free as SMUBE receives long-term annual funding and support from ACF and OSL.

SMUBE serves over 90 events per term, bringing it to an average of three events per week. It reserves the right to reject requests from clubs. “It’s not nice, espe-cially when (clubs) come in last minute and don’t have any alternatives,” Amanda commented.

Resource allocation“Any creative service depends on man-power, availability, etc. Resource alloca-tion is crucial.” SMUSAIC commented on SMUBE’s rate card: “A rate card will help (SMUBE) focus energy on more important events, and sieve out those that lack support to the artistes, performers or insincere and half-baked proposals.”

“Event organisers will have to think

SMUBE’s new policy questionedMichael Ng revisits the debate on student remuneration

whether they need grand scale sound system,” Michael Quilindo, SMUBE Vice-President said. SMUBE sees the rate card as pushing organisers to do better plan-ning for their events since there is money involved. It should be fine as long as clubs budget for their events properly, now that OSL and SA are fully aware of the rates.

CompensationThe ethical debate on whether students should be compensated for their efforts on campus is not new. SMUBE’s official release on the remu-neration states that the policy “give(s) our members an incentive to continue sup-porting (clubs) events on top of their own BE activities and schoolwork”. Michael feels that members of SMUBE are always the “unsung heroes” behind events. There needs to be some token of appreciation for their efforts.

When asked if students were taken advan-tage of because they worked for free Art-dicted President, Lin Ding Xiang replied: “Sometimes, if students do not understand why they do something they are asked to do, they will usually end up feeling that they’ve been taken for granted. Hence, it is always important for them to question themselves or the person who assigned the task, why they are doing it.”

Ding Xiang added that “the school pro-vides all the necessary opportunities and platforms for students to expose them-selves within their area of interest. And in return, the students should give back to the school by providing services that require their area of specialisation.”

SMUSAIC, on the other hand, feels dif-ferently when asked whether students should charge for their on-campus assign-ments.

“There may be instances where friends with DSLRs will volunteer to cover events or take Exco photos pro bono. However, that should not be an expectation placed on all photographers,” according to a statement from the club.

“Taking on an assignment involves tre-mendous effort before and after the actual shoot, and photographers should be rewarded and recognised for their work,” the statement reiterated.

“In addition, photographers own and maintain their own equipment, and these costs should definitely be covered … Just because the photographer happens to be a student of the same educational institute does not detract from the fact that effort has been put in and the use of his/her equipment incurs costs on the part of the photographer,” explained SMUSAIC.

A compromisePeople familiar with the situation have said that providing stagehands is already at a cheaper rate. Without providing financial incentives, SMUBE would simply not have anyone left to do events and clubs will have to foot the full cost of hiring external organisers.

SMUBE also proposed that for smaller events, clubs could borrow Passport Fenders-simple-to-use portable amplifiers from SMUBE for free to cut costs.

Also, events organised by schools or school CBds should look to seek help from the IITS (previously known as CIT), which supports requests for audio visual equipment from academic schools (including CBds), centres and corporate offices, but not CCA clubs.


Anthony Angela sits down and discusses marriage in SMU

Being young and married in SMU

Being young at SMU is not a big deal. After all, everyone’s between the age of 18 to 24 for the ladies

and a little older for the guys. But being young and married would send many heads turning and lead to gossip that would spread like wildfire, through the concourse, to all six schools.

But before anyone starts thinking “shot-gun”, there are those, in our school, that are not shotgun triggered. Aaron Khoo Fu Chern’s marriage is one example. He wed last October as the term was nearing to an end and recounted to me what his friends’ first reactions were. “They thought I was bluffing them. They could not believe it until we showed them the ring,” he laughed.

The idea of marriage had begun when Aaron joked with his mother about get-ting married on the 10 October, 2009. The effect of such an idea sparked an immedi-ate response. “My mother took me seri-ously and told me to go and book now!” he remembers clearly. As unique as such a response is, Aaron’s family had seen the marriages of all his sibling sisters — and with him married, his parents, particu-larly his mother, would be more at ease. “My mother said that with me married, a burden had been lifted off her shoulders.”

Aaron is a part of the minority of males who have married below the general marrying age of 29 (for guys) as published in the Department of Statistics database. He reflects on his choice to marry young as one that enhances stability. “Once you get married, you have less to think about. There’s this uncertainty about the whole dating thing that sometimes keeps a person distracted.”-Such distraction, though eliminated, does not replace other issues that arise with marrying early.

Financial concerns could easily become a problem for couples who forget the practical aspects of marriage. Aaron said that while he had used many of his contacts, the entire wedding, including the photo shoot, still cost him around $40,000. Un-less one is already working, footing such a bill would be difficult.

For Aaron, his parents footed the bill. Aar-on recalled: “They said if they make a loss, they will take it. If there were any profits, they will keep it. I think my parents were very kind to sponsor the whole thing.”

In fact, this has been the case for shotgun marriages too. Timothy Hsi, Assistant Director at the Centre of Counseling and Guidance at SMU shared that in shotgun marriages parents are generally sup-portive of their children once the issue is exposed to them. However, he also highlighted that support from friends is equally important due to the image that pregnant girls who are still studying have.

“In our culture, we’re still very Asian and though we seem to be more westernised and open-minded, we are still very con-servative.”

As conservative as we are, Singapore’s

divorce rate has been on the rise, from 4,705 in 2006

to 5,155 in 2008 ac-cording to the

Depart-ment of Statistics. Such

rates, though worrying,

do not shake Aaron’s con-fidence in his union.

“Because I come from a Christian back-

ground, we try our best not to resort to divorce. It is

really the Biblical principle that you shouldn’t. At the most, we go for

counseling.”

To play it safe, Aaron also underwent a pre-marital course to help him and his other half prepare for life after mar-riage. “I met up with my pastor to talk us through, to make sure we know what we are getting into before we get into it. So, we are more mentally prepared in case anything goes wrong and hopefully noth-ing will go wrong,” Aaron said.

Such marriage preparatory courses are available through various religious communities and are also offered by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.

Considering Aaron’s love story, one can somewhat understand that there is noth-ing quite wrong with marrying young.

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1. How do I decide whether to take on more installment plans for my purchases? Is there any way to calculate the limit?

As a general rule, we should not use more than 35% of our net take-home pay to service our loans. For example, if John’s take-home pay is $1,000, he should not spend more than $350 a month to service his loans.

Before we start a purchase installment plan or take on another one, we must first determine whether the purchase is a need or a want. If John wants to change his TV that is working fine to a brand new 42 inch flat screen TV - just because he wants to - it is definitely a want. It will not benefit him by entering into an installment plan and getting into debt.

Installment plans for purchases seem attractive as they enable one to own things without actually paying in full. It also allows the consumer to buy numerous items with the same monetary amount. For example, if John has $1,000 to spend on his new house’s electrical appliances, he can either purchase one flat screen 42 inch TV that costs $1,000 or he can use instalment plans to purchase five $1,000 items, paying $200 down-payment for each of the items. Sounds good, right? However, John is now a slave to his loans for a long time, paying interest which benefits the credit company. To make matters worse, if John defaults on these installments, the creditors will re-possess these items, which leaves John with nothing!

2. Is there a way I can mitigate the risk of cyclical unemployment? (i.e. every three to five years)

Cyclical unemployment occurs when there is not enough aggregate demand in the economy. It varies with the business cycle – it rises during economic down-turns and falls when the economy improves. During a downturn, the demand falls for most goods and services, hence less production is needed and conse-quently fewer workers are needed & unemployment results.

If you are in a job that is affected by cyclical business cycles, take action well in advance of any developments. Constantly upgrade your skills to ensure that you stay relevant. Lateral transfers, additional duties and responsibilities, and even internal job applications are all good ways of avoiding any crisis. During a restructuring exercise, choose new jobs if you are given a choice, as they will be stable for a while.

The alternative is to switch to jobs which are not in danger of being restructured. This requires doing more work but it is worth it. You can also do this as a form of career progression too, adding value to your CV.

However, dodging bullets is a lot easier if you are not in the target zone. Choose industries or sectors that are inmune or have a lesser impact from cyclical unemployment (e.g. education, healthcare or civil services etc.). Generally these sectors are cushioned & spared from cyclical business movements. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Even if you are in ‘vulnerable’ jobs, so long as you keep acquiring skills that your chosen industry requires, you will not fear when the dreadful day comes.

Chan Keng Leong, CFP, ChFC, MBA

Chan Keng Leong joined Prudential Assur-ance Singapore in 1994 and is now a Finan-cial Services Director. He achieved numer-ous awards and recognition, including Life Member of the Million Dollar Round Table and ranked Top 3 amongst Senior Financial Services Managers. He is also the creator of Prudential’s sales programme - The Prudential Way System.

Keng Leong is among the first batch of local Certified Financial Planners (CFP) in Singapore in Year 2000. He was the Head of Certification and Examination in Fi-nancial Planning Association of Singapore (FPAS) for four years. He was also FPAS’ immediate past Vice President.

As a financial planning practitioner, Keng Leong is a frequent writer of financial articles in the local newspaper. He is a well sought-after speaker and has spoken at many local conventions and seminars, including LUA Singapore, insurance com-panies, Singapore Institute of Banking and Finance, MoneySense, MINDEF etc. He has also spoken on many overseas platforms, including the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table Annual Meeting. He has been interviewed frequently for his views on financial matters.

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Writing is a form of student activism if the words of Ephraim Loy, Editor-in-Chief

of The Blue and Gold, are anything to go by.

The recent SMU graduate now works for the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Or-ganising Committee but is still evidently addicted to this school publication.

He recalls the early years of his as a writer with the now defunct SMU publication Vie.

“My first article hit out at a poorly organ-ised student activity by the SMU Students’ Association (SMUSA) in 2006. SMUSA has evolved over the years though there were fewer candidates putting themselves up for office,” he reflects.

“The team started The Blue and Gold from scratch in 2007. We had no resources – just a group of enthusiastic students.”

The new publication started off as a newspaper which later became a student magazine. The Blue and Gold was a vehicle to engage students in discussion of issues that are dear to them, aimed to provide students with facts and figures to make informed decisions.

Ephraim shared that he feels that writing is a form of non-violent protest. It not only uses peaceful means to solve con-flicting issues but is powerful enough to represent the voice of the students.

“Do not keep issues within yourself. Voice it out, talk about it and find solutions for improvement but make sure you have the facts to back it up,” he says.

Sometimes, however, the publication has to face the pressure from the school ad-

ministration for holding on to its beliefs. “We receive calls from the offices when we touch on sensitive issues. However, as long as our claims are backed up by evidence there is nothing too sensitive that cannot appear in The Blue and Gold. Ultimately we are the representatives of students’ voices and they have the right to be well-informed.”

One such incident was the stolen BIZ-COM T-shirts which had rippled rumors throughout the student body. “As a publi-cation, we strive to report on issues that students are concerned about. And this was something on everyone’s lips - there was so little information in the open and so much speculation on what had hap-pened.” Ephraim recalls.

The activist streak in him set a chain of events in place including requesting a statement from the Dean of Students on the incident and meeting with SMU’s senior management on the issue a few days later.

Ephraim hopes that clearer communica-tion can be established by having more dialogue sessions or even having SMUSA parliament sessions.

“This SMUSA parliament session can be convened twice in a year. Perhaps months before parliament sits, members from the SAC can go around soliciting feedback from students. When SMUSA parliament is in session, members in the SAC debate openly amongst themselves about issues they feel strongly for in front of students,” he suggests.

While there are the challenging situa-tions an Editor-in-Chief has to face, noth-ing beats being in the part of the team at the Blue and Gold. “You know, an editor is not an individual that only edits but an

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Shobana Nadaraja finds out why from this publication’s Editor-in-Chief

Writing can be a form of student activism

editor is also a diplomat, someone with strong project management skills and has to feel the pulse of life on campus,” he adds.

“Initially it went up, then it steeped downwards, after which it rose up again. If you were to ask me if I regret not focusing solely on my studies, I will say no without any hesitation. Not only have I been actively involved in school activities but also in external activities. Through my social interaction outside, I had managed to secure two internships which have proven to be a valuable expe-rience to my personal development. My philosophy in life is that maintaining an excellent GPA is not everything. Having said that, I am not denying that GPA is im-portant but having an extensive network outside of school is also important,” he says matter-of-factly.

Ephraim elaborates that the skills SMU has imparted have been practical. For instance, he mentions that the numerous presentations over the years have given him the confidence to put across his ideas and to actively seek opportunities independently. But more importantly, be-ing part of The Blue and Gold has geared him to be involved in student activism — something that is evident even now, within The Blue and Gold.


Digital SectionDigital Collaboration Made EasyLee Jun Kit checks out applications that make life simpler

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Not just black and white: Student activism should be encouraged in an institution that thrives itself on being confident and articulate.Photo by Wayne Lim Ting Ke

As a publication, we strive to report on issues that students are concerned about.”

Ephraim LoyEditor-in Chief, The Blue and Gold

“


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Getting a life — Managing CCAs and GPAsNaren Gunawardana speaks to students to find out how they have the time to actively pursue their CCAs

As the night sky began to swallow the sun this Tuesday evening, a group of approximately 50 boys

and girls huddled together, warming up their muscles while engaging in friendly banter.

It seemed as though a bunch of friends had come for an evening walk. This bunch of seemingly care-free friends split up into smaller groups and embarked on their lung-busting, muscle ripping circuit-trainings.

Students are known to complain about the ‘rat-race’ culture in SMU which gives them very little time to engage them-selves in non- academic pursuits.

“We have no life!” is a top contender for the most overheard statement in the library. Deadlines, which are perceived in the very literal sense of the word, are the root cause of many red-eyed students drowning in coffee. Therefore, we can safely assume that every waking second of an SMU student’s life is spent buried under heaps of academic literature.

But what about those students who ac-tively participate in CCAs? How is it that they find the time to participate in these?

Liu Jianrong, Captain of the SMU Drag-onboat team and second-year economics student, insists that the key to a perfect equilibrium between academics and CCAs is “time management”. Despite training for up to 12 hours a week, he is able to find time to do his work. He does so by working according to a strict sched-ule and with the support of his friends.

“Even though the training is tough and time consuming, everyone should try this sport. It has taught me the valuable lesson of time management as well,” said


the modest Captain. Many of the other members share this sentiment.

Kimberly Wee Wei-ling, a second-year ac-countancy student added that the family atmosphere within the team ensures a great deal of team bonding.

“We spend a lot of time with each other, even studying and having meals to-gether,” said Kimberly, exhausted after training. The passion for achievement and unfailing support from their peers motivates them to find that 25th hour in the day.

‘Love’ is a highly subjective topic, to say the least. Some think it is what makes the world go round, while others compare it to the flu and other similar pandemics.

Jessica Joyce Lee Juan, a first-year Eco-nomics student who is in no less than six CCAs, cited love as her secret for making

the time to pursue them. “If you love what you’re doing, it’s pretty easy to find ways to accommodate everything you have to do! The heart-pumping, inspira-tional beats and the people behind them ensure that there’s never a dull moment,” said Jessica, on her way to Samba Masala practice. She also claimed that “one learns to fight the urge to procrastinate” simply because there is no time to do so. The popularity and excitement generally as-sociated with larger CCAs such as Samba Masala is one of the reasons why they at-tract and retain such a large member base.

However, not all CCAs succeed in doing so. In fact, the smaller the group, the greater is the sense of ownership and be-longing inculcated among the members.

An SMU Astronomy Club (who wishes to remain anonymous) revealed that the dedicated group of six members were con-sidering closing shop. He stated that the

unsuitable nature of this club, rather than lack of time on the part of the students, was the main reason for the small mem-ber-base. “There are fewer people because it’s not suitable for a business school. My special interest in astronomy motivated me to stay in the club for two years, but now it’s unlikely that we can continue,” he stated quite dishearteningly.

This is a good time to reflect on how far we’ve come and also to prepare for the arduous conclusion to yet another term. As we struggle to meet our deadlines and contemplate on how the others seem to have an eighth day in their week to pursue their CCAs, we tend to overlook the basic principle of making every hour count, rather than counting every hour.

So stop being a mere onlooker standing behind the glass windows of the library. Step out and join in. Quickly though. After all, time is of the essence.

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Michael Ng Having taken other tests such as MAPP and DISC as well, I knew that it was important to respond quickly without too much think-ing. It also helped that I was not applying for a job, not under any pressure to reply the questions “correctly”, and messing up the data.

A few weeks later, we dropped by Pruden-tial’s office to get our reports explained.

The first thing that I saw on the report is a graphic of a ‘green’ traffic light a sign that I was suitable for a sales career! This was rather surprising, given that I had never really liked sales.

We were given a background presentationabout POP7 by Steven Lau, it is here that I began to find out a lot more about Pruden-tial’s hiring policies, and how serious they are in providing opportunities for their Financial Consultants to build their careers.

Steven showed us the equation: Talent x Habit x Opportunity. ‘Talent’ encompassesthe inherent and trainable parts of a person, ‘Habit’ refers to the attitude and effort one puts, and most importantly ‘Opportunity’ is providing the right career and work experi-ence to the employee. The whole equation then drives ‘Performance’. It is refreshing to know that Prudential does not see its people as resources, but as customers. A true service attitude pervades from the management level all the way to the most junior staff in the hierarchy.

Going into the report, Steven explained that for POP7, it is not just about the highs and lows of each individual score, but the correla-tion of multiple indices and what they mean for the individual. For example, a person may warm up to strangers quickly but if he is extremely driven by results and does not listen well, he ends up being pushy.

The report shows the scores into ‘inher-ent traits’ as well as trainable skills. Steven showed a matrix of high and low scores. Of course people with good traits and do not need much training are excellent for the Financial Consultant role. Candidates with the right skills but not the right inherent traits are fine but they require more training and coaching. Prudential believes in selecting people with the right attitude, but lacking in skills. This will help the individual to achieve better results in the long run.

The things I picked up after Steven had explained the scores was that I had the traits for not just a sales career but also that of a journalist as well. Scores showed that I am able to self manage my results, prefer an unstructured management style, and that I am highly investigative. Too investigative for a sales career might mean the would likely bore the customer with technical details of the product, but not sell the product.

My resistance towards sales showed up in the extremely low score in ‘openness to prospecting for sales through social contacts’. I had always strived to keep professional and personal matters separate, with neither crossing paths. Although reports showed I have great potential for a sales career, it also underpinned my resistance towards prospect-ing for sales might not work out well. More importantly, the report provided areas that I could work on, the training I require in order to succeed in sales, and how management could communicate with me.

Candidates are also given reports on their strong points, and how they could improve themselves in other areas as well. This proved to be of great use to me. Not only did I discover some strengths that I never had the confidence to put on my resume, I also had a pretty good idea where and what I need to do to plan my career path

“POP”ping into right careerA overview of Prudential’s professional profiling toolRecently, our sole sponsor, Prudential, kindly provided the editorial team a overview of their profiling tool using Personal Orientation Profile (POP7). Michael Ng and Angela Anthony share their experiences.

“Not only did I discover some strengths that I never had the confidence to put on my resume, I also had a pretty good idea where and what I need to do to plan my career path.”

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Anthony AngelaThe experience was much like doing a survey with the ultimate objective of discovering whether I am suitable for a competitive sales career.

Before I did the POP7 test, I had a lot of skepticism since most of the personality tests I’ve taken are usually subjective since some of the attributes are based on situational forces. As I did the test, I realised that the questions were a lot more specific than I had initially thought. I was actually looking forward to the results.

My initial reaction upon getting the report was “How did it find out so much about me?” The summary of scores and cautions provided a good overview of my potential. I was surprised that I am considered ‘highly enterprising’ (according to my results) since I have always wanted to work for others rather than for myself.

Apart from that, other things like a high ‘in-dependence score’ served to confirm what I know about myself. However, I was shocked that I scored really low for ‘Listening Style’: I knew I was not a good listener but I did not know I was that bad! It was certainly a wake-up call for me.

The staff at Prudential were really helpful.For starters, Steven Lau, from the Acad-emy of Competence & Excellence department,explained that POP7 is a psychometric assessment for identifying top performers for competitive sales jobs.

He assured us that the ‘Attitudes’ scores (like my Listening Style) can improve with experience and coaching. He also provided many examples and was thorough in his explanation of the different measurements used in POP7.

After listening to his explanation, I felt I understood more about myself and my ability to work in a competitive sales environment. It was definitely a good thing and it made me rethink what I could consider doing in future.

It also provided me with insights on my ‘peo-ple’ and ‘investigative skills’ which confirmed my beliefs in what professions I should work towards and how I would perform in a working environment. Lastly, after Steven’s explanation of my ’Attitudes’ scores, I realised what I should focus on changing and what I should enhance.

Looking at my future, I feel like I have more confidence in myself to take a job in a competitive industry. The explanations from Prudential’s friendly and proficient staff only added to my confidence and made me believe that I could reach my potential. Now a sales career does not look as scary as I once thought.

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Climate Change Secretariat every two years. The states also agreed to raise funds to the amount of $100 billion per year from 2020 to help developing countries reduce emissions. In January 2010, the US and Canadian governments committed to reduce emissions by 17% by 2020, and the Australian government by 5%. Although the agreement is not legally enforceable, it requires participants to allow international scrutiny of their efforts.

The world has taken steps to mitigate the man-made harm inflicted on the environment, but these efforts are not enough. Most countries are hesitant to ratify legally enforceable emission cuts and even the US hasn’t even ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

Most environmental agreements we see today are non-treaties, relying on voluntary, non-enforceable targets. International efforts, the way they stand, are not enough to control the global rise of temperatures. Governments need to put global warming at a higher level on their priority list, and start formulating stricter measures to save the environment from complete degradation and collapse.

Environmental Efforts: The Big ThreeSumedha Jalote studies the issues in climate change through three major agreements

Worldscope

The past two decades have seen more environmental movements than ever before. Al Gore’s docu-

mentary, ‘The Inconvenient Truth’ intro-duced popular opinion to the dangers of global warming, and scientific consensus has led to some international cooperation over climate change.

The recognition that global warming transcends all political and economic boundaries, and requires cohesive efforts, has forced unlikely global partners to team up and engage in international cooperation.

Among the multitude of environmental summits and agreements reached, three are particularly worth mentioning not only due to what they entailed but also due to the diverse responses and reactions of international partners bound to them.

The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). While the UNFCC is a non-binding treaty between members, it allows for updates called protocols which would hold members to mandatory emission limits.

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 and came into force in 2005, with 187 states having signed and ratified it. Under this protocol, 37 industrialised countries, classified as “Annex I”, such as France, Germany, Greece etc, committed themselves to a 5.2% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The protocol includes several flexible mechanisms to allow Annex I countries to meet their emission limitations by purchasing emission reductions credits from elsewhere, projects that reduce emissions in non-Annex I countries, etc.

Many environmental economists think

that the costs of the protocol outweigh the benefits; many think that the agreement is inequitable and inefficient, and will do little to curb greenhouse gas emissions. However, as it stands, the agreement is at least legally enforceable. If an Annex I country does not comply with its emissions limitation, then that country is required to make up the difference plus an additional 30% of the difference.

The Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP) is an agreement more specific to Asia. The APP is a non-enforceable agreement signed between Australia, China, India, Japan, US, South Korea and Canada in 2005. These states account for over 50% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, GDP and population.

The partner countries agreed to co-operate on development and transfer to greenhouse emission-reducing technology, and on reducing emissions. However, with no mandatory enforcement mechanism, the APP has been criticised for a lack of legal enforceability. In fact, in 2006, a year after the agreement was signed, none of the members had cut emissions of greenhouse gases.

The recent Copenhagen Accord is another non-enforceable agreement drafted by China, India, US, South Africa and Brazil. The agreement endorses the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol and recognises the scientific consensus that temperature increase needs to be limited to 2 degrees Celsius.

The member states are to submit voluntary emission targets in 2020, and report mitigation actions to the UN

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But I don’t just deal with figures


Major Environment Conferences

By Talisa Kaur Dhaliwal

Copenhagen Accord, DenmarkFor the first time in history, the Copenhagen Accord brought together all the important global players-China, India, Brazil, US, Russia, Japan, and the EU- affirming their commitment to tackle environmental degradation. Unlike its predecessors, the Copenhagen Accord placed developed and developing countries on equal steed and recognised that it was crucial for both to participate in reducing emissions.

IPCC/Geneva, SwitzerlandIPCC for short, the International Panel of Climate Change stems from the United Nations Environment Programme and World Meteorological Organisation. It differs from other global environmental initiatives as it offers scientific explanations on the current state of the environment and its plausible ramifications. Thousands of scientists are part of this body and often offer conflicting reports on the state of the environment, thus sparking off debates on man and his effect on planet earth.

Montreal Protocol, Montreal/CanadaHailed as the “most effective climate treaty to date”, the Montreal Protocol targets the reduction of chlorofluorocarbons in developing countries. It is lauded for its method of lending financial assistance to such countries in order to help them adopt environmentally-friendly measures.

Washington Declaration, WashingtonGraced by the delegates from the US government and European Commission, this conference, held in 1995, adopted the global programme of to protect the marine environment from land-based activities. It demonstrated a fervent need to protect and preserve the marine environment for future generations.

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Illustration by Kelvin AtmadibrataSchool of Arts, Design and Media,Nanyang Technology University

Kyoto Protocol, JapanProbably the most famous and most cited of all green initiatives, the Kyoto protocol was first adopted in 1997. This international agreement aimed to set binding targets for 37 industrialised nations worldwide in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

ASEANStarting with the development of a series of sub-regional environmental programmes in 1977, ASEAN has been continuously introducing new means and ways of tackling environmental issues. ASEAN’s Vision for 2020 hopes to establish “mechanisms for sustainable development to ensure the protection of the region’s environment, the sustainability of its natural resources and the high quality of life of its peoples” (as taken from ASEAN’s website). This is coupled with 12 more strategies and 55 other programs to meet its goal.

The Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP)The APP, or Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, comprises seven Asia-Pacific countries: Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, Korea, and the United States. In total, these countries account for ‘more than half of the world’s economy, population, and energy use’ as stated on the APP’s website. It works to introduce clean energy in major sectors of the market.

Environmental Action Programme for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) countries, central EuropeThe international community realised that environmental degradation could be tackled best if it involved a joint effort of all countries. In 1993, the Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe established board strategies which included prioritising the environment on national agendas and mobilising the populace to support environmentally friendly efforts.

Worldscope


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Reflections on the war on terror

Take the name “9/11” today and eyebrows begin to rise. This name traverses beyond representing a

mere date or event, as it signs a rupture in the fabric of world history.

It was with great disbelief and shock that the world witnessed the news footage of the destruction of the World Trade Centre towers, in one of the worst terrorist attacks the United States has ever witnessed, tak-ing the lives of close to 3,000 victims. The actions and reactions that closely fol-lowed this attack have changed the world dramatically. Today, the international com-munity completes more than 9 years of its so-called ‘global war on terror’.

This war has resulted in millions of deaths across the globe and many more injured. Statistics indicate more than 100 000 have been killed directly from the war of terror, which has created more than 5 million refugees worldwide. The extraordinary scale of this war stretches from New York to Bali and London to Lahore.

The notion of a “war on terror” has been a defining mark of the 21st century. For many, this phrase captures the gravity of the threats faced, the need for inter-national solidarity and the urgency for a well-planned response. Nevertheless, despite this, terrorists have survived efforts to destroy them and have instead grown stronger and more daring. The internation-al community today faces an increasingly urgent need to rethink its goals in this war on terror. The issue is not whether we should attack and eliminate terrorism at its roots. We must. The question is how.

The changing terrorist The terrorist today is different from the conventional brand of yesterday’s terrorist. Ignorance, economic deprivation and so-cial injustice do not feature as the primary

cause for their actions anymore. The ter-rorist threat today is far more diffused and decentralised, often fueled by a revanchist ideology of achieving some greater politi-cal objective.

The September 11 attacks showed an adversary that was highly cohesive and centrally organised, under the leadership of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahi-ri. Nevertheless, interventionist measures that ensued led to the metamorphosis of new terrorist groups, many of which are linked in varying degrees of command and control back to al-Qaeda’s senior leader-ship. They include groups such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Jamiat-ul Ulema-e-Pakistan and the Abu Sayyaf Group (Malaysia).

The war on terror today is a multi-dimen-sional one: real vs. virtual, psychological vs. physical and conventional vs. uncon-ventional. Terrorist suspects from atypical backgrounds are becoming a rising phe-nomena. The demographics of those being taken in today on charges of terrorism are so diverse that many European counter-terrorism officials have almost given up trying to predict what kind of people they should be on the alert for. Age, sex, ethnic-ity, education and economic status are increasingly irrelevant.

The Bali bombings, Mumbai hotel attacks, arrest of individuals in Detroit, Denver and New York as well as the attempted Christmas Day bomb attack on a US aircraft show the diverse range of agents counter-terrorism officials increasingly have to deal with.

The potential for an attack of a similar scale to September 11 may be low today. However, the possibility of new attacks coming up in different directions, using different mediums is ever-growing. While

we have seen a decline in the number of successful international terrorist incidents, there has been a rise in both the spread and the average number of casualties for each successful small-scale incident that occurred.

The fight against terrorism has shown not to be one for the faint hearted, feeble minded or impatient; the international community will have to prevail in seek-ing improved solutions in handling new situations which arise. Reflecting on past actions and measuring its benefits/costs before subsequent action is one step the international community must strongly take in managing this war.

Have we over-reacted to terrorism? From the reactions to recent events such as the Fort Hood shootings and the attempted bombing of an airliner on Christmas Day, an over-reaction to terrorist attacks and at-tempts seems to be the general consensus adopted by most Western governments. This neatly fulfills one of the key goals of terrorism – to induce fear and panic. While terrorists groups and networks have weak-ened considerably, resulting in numerous foiled attempts, they have succeeded at most times in tipping governments and citizens off their balance.

Terrorism is an unusual military tactic that hinges upon the reaction of its onlook-ers. If they are not ‘terrorised,’ the plot miserably fails. Benjamin Friedman once said, “One way to disarm terrorists is to convince regular Americans to stop wor-rying about them”. Terrorist attacks never carried the same buzz and fervor as they do today. Rather than rewarding the terrorists with our over-reaction, we should evaluate the costs of this and think of new ways we can channel our precious resources.

The economic and human costs of over-

By Nadim Ali Kapadia


reaction are immense. The yearly budget of the US Office of Homeland Security is approximately $US 50 billion. Widespread fear has led to an overspending on defenses and security, at the expense of greater soci-etal needs. The United States now spends US$4 billion a year on airline passenger screenings alone.

In a study published in April 7, 2006, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, together with a Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes estimated the ultimate cost of the war on terror to be between US$1 and US$2 trillion. “The full costs of the war are still largely hidden below the surface” they warned.

Worldscope

Promoting fear of terrorism often creates an over-reaction which is counter-pro-ductive, consolidating further opposition against the United States and its allies, while aiding terrorist recruitment and the likelihood of further attacks. Fear often finds its most fertile nestling ground in conditions of ignorance. The more the public is made aware of the phenomenolo-gy of terrorism, the more resilient it stands against panic. Governments can play a role in providing a better context to a more nu-anced understanding of world events. The call for a “war on terror” should be an attempt to build solidarity in the battle against a common shared enemy. But the

base of this solidarity between people and governments should not hinge upon who we are against, rather it should focus on who we are and the values we share. We must recognise our collective responsibil-ity in the effort to uproot terrorism.

Terrorists succeed when they cause nations to become fearful and vengeful; when they seed division and animosity; when they force nations to react with violence and antagonism. The best response is to refuse to be cowed.


A milestone for the first HPair 2010 Asia Conference

The Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) is a non-profit organisation under the

Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Science. The organisation is a realisation of Harvard University’s commitment to fostering communication among nations about economic, social, and political concerns that have lasting implications for global peace and prosperity.

Come August 2010, SMU will be organising the HPAIR Asia Conference, a five-day academic programme with six panel workshops moderated by Harvard graduate students. Previously, HPAIR organised annual academic and business conferences separately. The new format of the Asia Conference reflects the integration of both formats, in what promises to be an exciting event for SMU.

The goal of the HPAIR Asia Conference is to stimulate open dialogue and foster greater cooperation among the world’s future leaders. In attendance will be students from top universities from around the world who will come together in Singapore to listen to and interact with leaders from the fields of business, politics and academia. The theme for the first HPAIR Asia Conference is ‘Sustaining Momentum: Ten Years into the Asian Century’. The conference will be centered on Asia’s meteoric rise and questions on whether the 21st century is ‘Asia’s century’.

SMU got involved in HPAIR through the SMU Ambassadorial Corps (ASMU). The ASMU team was looking to organise events in line with the university’s mission and identity. Through a former ambassador who attended HPAIR, ASMU identified the conference as an avenue to reach out and promote SMU to an international student audience. Following

this, four ambassadors attended? the HPAIR Academic Conference 2009 in Seoul, South Korea. Apart from it being a unique learning experience, they were also provided with insights on organising a successful conference on a large scale.

Following discussions with the Office of Student Life, an official bid was prepared. In October 2009, SMU’s bid to host the HPAIR Academic Conference 2010 bore fruit and the work began.

HPAIR returns to Singapore after four years. In 2006, the conference was organised as a joint effort among the three local universities. However, SMU is organising the 2010 conference independently and this provides our University with an excellent opportunity to celebrate the SMU lifestyle with an international audience.

ASMU hopes to showcase SMU’s academic rigor with a practical twist. Through this conference, SMU looks to establish that beyond the seminar style teaching and world-class research, we also

possess a vibrant university life.

The conference is being organised in the 10th year of SMU’s existence and its theme mirrors the challenges and aspirations faced by the University in the coming decade. In its first decade, SMU has grown exponentially and established itself as one of Asia’s leading Business Schools. A conference of such a magnitude gives SMU the opportunity to announce to the world that “SMU has arrived”.

However, the Ambassadorial Corps and SMU itself face several challenges over the coming months. ASMU, while organising a conference of such a scale, has to balance their efforts with everyday commitments. Working with an organising committee thousands of miles away presents a logistical and communicational challenge which ASMU has been looking to overcome. Therefore, the success of the conference depends upon the support of the SMU student body and community.

HigherLearning

Sohail Sardana reveals how SMU will embrace future leaders worldwide


Higher L

earning

The Wee Kim Wee Lunchtalk could not be more crowded. Late comers rushed in and looked

around for a proper seat while the early birds sat in excitement, eagerly awaiting the beginning of the talk. Students, professors, school administrators and the public squeezed into SR 1.2 at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business to hear the authors of the much anticipated book, “Men in White”, speak.

The “Men in White” project began in 2002 when then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong thought of creating a book that would coincide with the 50th anniversary of the People’s Action Party (PAP) in 2004.

At that time, the then Editor-in-Chief of The Straits Times had three individuals, Sonny Yap, Richard Lim and Leong Weng Kam take on the project of creating a book of all the political players involved in the party’s past. This book, initially due for publication in 2004, was released in September 2009.

Speaking at the talk, Mr Sonny Yap highlighted that the book was a non-partisan and non commemorative book and certainly, was not meant to be a PAP propaganda book.

“None of the PAP people were ever involved in the writing or the editing of the book,” Mr Yap explained. In fact, when questions on the criticism on the internet surfaced during the question and answer session, Mr Leong cleared the air by stating that key leftist members like Mr Peter Low Por Tuck felt that the book had been fair and unbiased in its content of past events after it was published.

But that was not the only challenge the team faced. With the book’s timeline spanning from the 1950s to the 2006

elections, both Mr Yap and Mr Leong faced enormous challenges in reaching key political players that were in their 70s, 80s and 90s.

As such, some were reached too late while others were too sickly to be interviewed.

Another challenge was establishing trust with the interviewees, many of whom were former leftists of the Barisan Socialists. “They would ask,” Mr Yap recalls, “why should we cooperate with you to do a book that will demonise us and glorify the PAP?” As such, a lot of time was spent on building trust through friends and building rapport with interviewees.

Such trust would prove difficult to build especially with individuals that joined the communists and lived through the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960.

Mr Leong faced a particular problem when trying to contact the exiled members of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP).

Fortunately, with reliable contacts, Mr Leong was led to two peace villages in Thailand where some of the remaining MCP are living. The peace villages are part of a peace accord between the MCP, Thai and Malaysian officials allowing for the settlement of some of the remaining communist members.

Mr Leong recalled that there were about some 30 Singaporeans living at these peace villages. Though no regret seemed prevalent, they longed to return home to Singapore. However, with national laws as they stand, they would have to renounce their communist beliefs.

While the 1950s and 1960s proved to

be exciting times filled with near death situations, the 1980s and 1990s were not as eventful.

The task of author Richard Lim thus became rather difficult especially with limited accessible information.

Fortunately, Richard retrieved two classified documents from the PAP, one of which was the post-mortem of the 1984 elections where the PAP lost two seats to the opposition, ending their one party rule.

Details of the document indicated the public’s dissent with policies like the graduate mother’s program, the change in the withdrawal age of a person’s CPF savings among other issues.

In essence, the book covers the turbulent times of the 1950s and 1960s to the spontaneous changes in politics in the 1980s and 1990s and also provides a special part on the governance of Singapore by the PAP.

It tries to capture all the political players of the different times and their thoughts on the different events by interviewing them.

In doing so, the book becomes not only a book of history but a testimony of the past, present and hopefully, for the future.

An encounter with the Men In White teamAnthony Angela unveils challenges behind the writing process


CampusArtsSMU Arts Festival 2010: A reflectionDenise Seetekbeng, Elle Lim, Kimberly Yap and Teena Ngo look back on their favourite art festival performances

SMU Arts Festival was a huge event this year spanning a whole month with performances, workshops, films and much more. The month -long celebrations had fulfilled the meaning of its theme “CONTENT: CONTENT.” Festival director, Jimmy Ye, hopes that all those involved in CONTENT: CONTENT as well as the audience to learn by heart that being bold and breaking

out of the norms in arts as well as in life itself is the only way we can experience contentment. Our reporters spotted their favourite performances and couldn’t resist penning their thoughts down.

Just SoJust So, which marked the beginning of the SMU Arts Festival, shares a tale of animals’ coming to be. The per-formance was wrapped around grand produc-tion sets and showcased SMU’s finest talents, while the audience held their breath, laughed, and cried with the ensemble throughout the night. Needless to say, the per-formance was a whop-ping success. Renowned director Sebastian Tan attributed his success to the perfect pick and mix of SMU students that completed the cast. Indeed, one cannot help but agree. The actors fit the different roles perfectly, quite so that it appeared almost ef-fortless in their part. With this to kick off the SMU Arts Festival, let us all offer a toast and celebrate for SMU’s coming of age, as we continue to share in its history and play our own parts in making it Just So.

GAYA 2010: The Tale of Sitti NurbayaGAYA 2010 was an exciting and challenging experience for the SMU Komunitas Indonesia (SMUKI).“I did this out of love for SMUKI,” said producer Helen Wijaya. She loved and enjoyed what she was doing, even when not paid. When asked about what she learned from the characters, her answer was: “Be content with life. Happiness is a choice.” All the earnings from the play were donated to the Padang earthquake victims, as relayed by scriptwriter Putra Muskita.

InDanCity: Beyond 2010Taking audiences Beyond ordinary dance moves and choreography, InDanCity’s second annual production, Beyond 2010, was a huge spectacle accentuated by the creative talent of both the choreographers and the dancers themselves. From giant sheets of cloth, Velcro-on stools and giant tubes to ordinary chairs, it seemed that there was nothing that the group could not turn into a dance prop!

Revolving around the many themes drawn from various

pronunciations of the Chinese word “shi” (or “ten”, in line with

SMU’s 10th anniversary), most masterpieces garnered a gener-

ous, well-deserved ovation. Still, some dance numbers ended with

raised eyebrows and an almost re-luctant round of applause from a few

members of the audience who were still unsure of how they felt about the

performance. But as one of the dancers remarked, “That’s what’s so great about

what we do: it is usually abstract, with no specific meaning. This gives (the audience)

more space to think!”

And with that belief, coupled with sheer deter-mination, and armed with a love of dance, the dancers managed to persevere and to deliver yet another successful and insightful produc-tion. Hats off to Beyond 2010!

BailamosBailamos brought forth the sensational art of

social dance. Caderas Latinas, alongside dance troupes from NUS, NTU, Republic Polytechnic

and SIM showcased a wide range of social dances — from Salsa, to Latin dance, to the Boogie.

The dancers astonished the audience as they went all-out with their dance moves, colorful costumes and daring stunts. The event drew to a close with the audience dancing the night away; some even getting first-hand dance lessons from the dance instructors themselves. After experiencing a thrilling, exciting night like this, Bailamos will surely be a spectacle none would forget anytime soon!

Intersect10n: Where will the beat take you?Intersect10n was definitely a night to remember! With songs ranging from classical to rock music, the audi-ence was constantly surprised by the many hip-hop dance interpretations Eurythmix performed. Creative director, Miguel Martinez, said that they used the idea of dancing to different genres of music and mixed it with hip-hop thus producing the “Inter-sect10n” (or meeting point).


Digital

Picking the right smartphone for you

The number one question I get asked on a weekly basis is “Which smart phone is better? X or Y?” My answer

has always been “it depends on you”.

While that might sound like an excuse saving me some time from answering that question, the truth is there is no such thing as the “best smart phone”. There is, however, the “best smart phone for you”.

Your mobile phone could potentially be the most important gadget in your life simply because it is always with you. Does it not make sense, then, that if you were to pick a smart phone, you would be better off picking one that you are not going to hate using?

Unless, of course, you are the sort who doesn’t care about how well the device works, as long as it looks cool. Then this guide is totally inapplicable to you.

Understanding YourselfThe first step to picking the right smart phone is to know what you need/want and what you plan to use it to do. Do you plan to surf the web on this device often? Do you plan to use it as your media player or your personal organiser? What is your priority? Once you know what you are looking for, it will make it easier for you to pick a device.

Understanding Your OptionsIn this ever changing gadget world, even the definition of “Smartphone” is always evolving. By today’s standard, however, a smart phone is a mobile phone that is capable of allowing you to install 3rd party applications to extend the func-tionality of the device, and not simply a phone with many features. Therefore, the next step is to decide which platform you would like to use. In my opinion, deciding on the platform is more important than

deciding on a specific model, since this decision will affect your experience with the device. Remember to rank your prefer-ences based on your priority. That would make your deciding process easier.Picking a modelNow that the hard part is over, it’s time to pick a model from the platform you have chosen based on specific features (camera quality, screen size etc), budget and design. Since the most important decision has already been made, it doesn’t matter with

the order in which you decide. However, here are some pointers to help you not regret your purchase later:

Test the keyboardAlways ALWAYS test the keyboard/key-pad. It is going to be the most commonly used feature after all. For onscreen key-boards, watch for how well the keyboard corrects your mistakes. The iPhone’s keyboard, for example, is smart enough to correct your typing based on where you press, and not just based on typo errors. Also take note on how easy it is to type punctuations and numbers. Some key-boards require several steps to get to those keys.

Check the charger and other accessoriesThis is more of a safety precaution than

Technology blogger Daniel Tsou helps us to find the perfect match

a piece of advice. Some mobile phone shops, especially your “friendly” neigh-borhood shop, swap out the original charger for a 3rd party charger. This has happened to my friends too many times that I need to point this out here to make sure that you won’t get cheated. To do this, check the battery for the phone’s logo to ensure that proper endorsement of the battery has been made. While you are at it, why not check all the contents in the box, referring to the user manual to see the contents of your box.

The journey has just begunYour smartphone is going to be your partner for quite a while, at least until you buy your next mobile phone. Hopefully with this guide, you can find yourself a smartphone that can empower your life, rather than stand in its way.

iPhone Android Windows Mobile 6.5

S60/Symbian (Nokia) Blackberry

Web browsing 1 2 31 5 4

Music and video Best

Applications store 140,000+ 20,000+ Not very big2 Not very big2 Not very big2

Home screen - Widgets Widgets/”Today” screen3

“Today” screen Shortcuts

On-screen key-board

1 24 34 4 -

Software can be tweaked

- Yes Yes Yes Yes

Multi-tasking - Yes Yes Yes Yes

Responsiveness 1 3 5 4 2

Other notes The best mobile games usually end

up here first.

3 of your 5 relatives own one (almost)

Great Gmail and Google Calendar

support

Experience varies between manufac-

turers

Great physical keyboard

Huge number of shortcuts mean you can carry out tasks

super fast

Great physical keyboard

Requires extra Blackberry plans

for BBM and email

Notes:* The touch-screen models for this platform are not considered as they are far from maturity at this point.1 Varies with manufacturer. The built-in Internet Explorer is horrible, but Opera Mobile, provided with Samsung and HTC phones for example, is very good.2 Although these platforms recently introduced their own app stores, you can find applications on the web without it, which make it hard to properly number.3 Varies with manufacturer. Example: HTC provides the highly customisable and usable HTC Sense home screen, while Samsung provides the TouchWiz widgets home screen.4 Varies with manufacturer. Android’s default keyboard is not too bad, while Windows Mobile’s is horrible. HTC, however, pro-vides a brilliant custom keyboard for both platforms.5 This means you can install 3rd party applications that can change the way your phone functions.6 Multi-tasking has a downside: the more apps you run, the slower your phone gets.

Here are some of my observations on the different platforms. Be sure to check the phones out before making a decision.


By Sheena Lee Villanueva

Perceived as a hostile guy with a tough exterior, Jackson Tan has proven to be the opposite. Not

only is he friendly, Jackson is also a very humble and gregarious guy, totally dif-ferent from a lot of preconceived notions made about him. A final-year student from the School of Economics, Jackson is pretty much like any other student in SMU. He can be easily spotted at the SMU gym helping out as gym staff.

His hobbies and interests include tri-athlons and water sports such as diving, kayaking and sailing. Nevertheless, he does not limit himself to what he knows and continues to explore new sports like rock climbing. Just like how the rest of us dream to make it big someday, Jackson dreams of owning his own resort after he graduates.

He may look like a typical SMU student, but in reality, he’s more than that.

One of the finalists in the MediaCorp Star Search competition, as well as the holder of the Mr Personality award, Jackson has reached a dream that thousands wish for — getting into the entertainment industry. His interest started when he was young. Star Search was, at that time, the most prestigious and the only talent search in Singapore. Wanting the glam of it all, he thought acting was something that he would be really into. The idea faded as time passed by, until his mom encouraged him to enter the competition. With the full support of his family, Jackson joined Star Search and not long after, became a real star.

“I can’t dance for nuts,” Jackson shares. So what did he do to catch the judges’ attention during the audition?

“I didn’t wear a very striking shirt. It was

Spotlight

From showbiz to business


really mellow. I was wearing beige. And my hair was terrible then because I just came back from Bali and it was not very well kept.” However, these did not affect the judges’ opinion about him. Jackson was asked to do an acting scene and showcase a special skill. He mentioned that he didn’t really know what he wanted to do during the special talents section. He ended up pretending to be the emcee of the show — not singing or dancing, which are the most commonly done. What probably made him stand out was his willingness to take risks.

During the Star Search run, Jackson brought home a lot of new lessons.

“Star Search actually allowed me to learn about focus.” Jackson shared that contestants had very little time to prepare for performances. They were given around two weeks to learn dancing, singing, martial arts and acting. His stamina was built up due to their day and night trainings and tight schedule.

This really helped him as he went into the acting business, which had a lot of irregular hours and long periods of work.

“This actually drains a person out, but you always have to look refreshed on screen so we learnt certain techniques to combat that. One of them is to focus, and the other is to really channel the energy when the time calls for it.”

Jackson is a self-managed artist, part of the gym staff and a full-time student. How does he balance all these aspects of his life?

Staying positive. Jackson said that being optimistic is something that he is still learning but is definitely what helps him cope with everything that’s going

on in his life. “We can do a lot of things at the same time. By putting our hearts into them, staying positive and finding the passions for each and everything we would have the basic drive in doing everything well.”

“The learning doesn’t stop when you make it into the industry. You need to constantly upgrade yourself and expose yourself to as many opportunities as you can to practice your skill and to learn from others”, Jackson remarked.

Taking his own advice, he is currently taking up a course by Professor Margaret Chan called Post Modern Theatre Studies, which he says offers him a lot of new perspectives.

So what’s next for Jackson Tan?

Jackson mentioned that he has two concurrent plans. First plan: To kick start what he has learnt from his four-year stay in SMU, he tendered for Screme. If he wins the bid, Jackson will make this his full-time business. Second plan: Jackson applied to become a cadet pilot. This way, Jackson said, he can fly around the world and scout for new locations, build up his capital and find business partners.

Jackson is just another SMU student, but he took a risk and followed his dream and that, made him the star that he is.


Chiang Chia Wen provides a glimpse into the Korean cultural experience

Korea through a native’s eyes

Travel

Most people know South Korea as a country with kimchi- spicy cabbage, hanbok- colorful

traditional dresses, entertaining drama shows like Boys over Flower, and a group of female singers called Wonder Girls singing “Nobody”. However, Korea is not just about what you see in Korean dramas and K-pop. Korea is a dynamic country with a fusion of rich traditions as well as a vibrant modern culture.

In order to get a real taste of the Korean culture, you will need to understand the values of the Korean people, go and try the food that the locals eat, hang out in the places that Korean like to go to spend

their leisure time, and visit historical sites to experience the past.

Showing RespectWhy do then bow to one another? In Ko-rean society, there is high power distance among the Korean people because there is a culture of seniority. Bowing and say-ing hello, “Ahn-nyeong-ha-se-yo”, is the norm when it comes to greeting people in Korea. This is a way to show respect to one another, especially when one is greet-ing a person whom one has met for the first time or someone who is older. Even though the person may be younger, it is still necessary to show respect first and subsequently establish how old the other

party is and then figure out how to ad-dress that person. As a rule of thumb, you should always bow and say “Ahn-nyeong-ha-se-yo” to any one in Korea, except to those whom you know are definitely younger than you, like little kids.

Bonding over a Meal Having meals together is one of the favorite ways that Koreans bond with friends and other people. Koreans value the relationships that they have with their friends and they want to maintain it by asking one another out for a meal or drinks. A typical outing is to have dinner with a group of friends at a barbeque restaurant and have grilled pork belly, a


Travel

must-try dish, with a bottle of soju — a Korean distilled spirit that is very popular because it is very affordable and has high alcohol content (20%).

Another all-time favorite food for Koreans is their street snacks. You can easily find a street vendor with a push-cart selling freshly made snacks such as spicy rice cakes (ddeok-bok-ki), fish cakes (o-deng), and deep-fried vegetables (twi-ggim). Ddeok-bok-ki is usually very spicy, so be prepared to train your taste buds to eat spicy food in Korea. If you are adventur-ous, you can try soon-dae, sausage made of pork intestines with glass noodles and pork blood.

Koreans’ favorite past-timeKoreans, similar to any other nation-alities, like to go shopping during their leisure time. The main shopping places in Seoul that cannot be missed are Dongda-emoon market, Myeongdong, and Edae (short form of Ewha Women’s University). These places all sell clothes that are from the latest fashion trends at affordable prices.

A unique favorite past-time of Koreans is to go to a jjim-jil-bang, a 24-hour Korean sauna, with their friends or family. This is a place where you can have a sauna, hang out in the common area to watch TV, eat snacks and desserts, drink refreshing cold drinks, and sleep overnight. You may experience a culture shock when you go to Korea because the bathing area is open with no curtains. But, of course, the male and female bathing areas are separated.

Understanding the Korea’s historyExperiencing Korea’s history and tradi-tions can be done easily by visiting vari-ous palaces, folk villages, museums, and the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). There are various palaces and museums in the heart of Seoul. The two most famous palaces in Seoul are Changdeokgung Palace and Gyeongbokgung Palace. The War Memorial of Korea is also a museum that should not be missed if you are interested in learning about the history of Korea. To get a glance at a traditional folk village in Seoul, visit the Namsangol Hanok

Village. Insadong is a traditional cultural street with many tea houses and shops selling antiques, ceramics, rice cakes, and souvenirs.

Visiting a different country and truly experiencing its culture and understand-ing the people can be difficult to do in a short period of time. Don’t worry if you can’t experience everything, but do try the

things that Koreans do and you will get a better understanding of Korea and the Korean people.


Lim Si Hui discovers a new dimension of romantic Italy

Vita in Italia

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Renowned to be the home of Romeo and Juliet and origin of the Roman Empire, Italy is now a democratic

republic with a rich cultural heritage.

With a total population of 60 million residents, Italy has the world’s 23rd larg-est population. Undeniably, Singapore’s population of approximately 4.5 million is hardly comparable. Moreover, accord-ing to the World Tourism Organisation, Italy is the 3rd and 5th most visited coun-try in Europe and in the world.

Having embarked on a four-month Eras-mus Programme in Milan, Italy, insights have eradicated pre-conceived notions — both favourable and unfavourable ones — about Italy, a country endowed with beautiful Renaissance and Baroque architecture.

Milan — Resplendent Fashion Capital of the World?After informing friends and family about my embarkation to Milan for several months, the general response was one with envy and yearning expressions.

Milan is indubitably famous for having a major global influence in fashion, be-ing the headquarter of Italy’s illustrious brands such as Gucci, Prada and Versace. Prestigious shopping boulevards are sprawled all over central Milan’s fashion district Quadrilatero Della Moda. As one strolls down main streets in central Mi-lan, such as Via Dante, one will definitely spot at least one Italian donning luxuri-ous fashion apparel or accessories — perhaps a lanky, brunette Italian in Gucci shades or a tanned, dark-eyed Italian man enrobed in a Prada leather trench coat. I clearly remember the bewildering experi-ence during my first day of lectures at my university — I noticed students carrying Louis Vuitton bags everywhere, and some

even have Prada spectacles!

However, the city of Milan, when com-pared to the beauty of its exquisite Italian brands, pales in comparison. I was taken aback when I arrived at central Milan — Graffiti enveloped dilapidated walls, litter was strewn everywhere and lifts were old-fashioned and queer. I even thought that Orchard Road, though not being renowned as a fashion street, was exceed-ingly better than the fashion streets of Milan. After getting to know some Italian friends, some even conceded that Milan is in a dire state. Hence, one should not come with high hopes that Milan would maintain magnificent architecture and pristine clean streets to complement its glamorous identity as the fashion capital of the world.

Siestas and Laidback ItaliansAs part of administration procedures mandated by the university, we had to obtain some documents from the post office. To our dismay, although we arrived at 5.30pm in the afternoon, the office’s staff rejected us as they were ‘preparing’ to close at 6pm. In addition, unlike diligent Singaporeans, Italians are predisposed to work less. For instance, the official opening hours of my university’s International Student Desk, which is akin to SMU’s Office of International Rela-tions, is only open for about three hours on certain days of the week! Moreover, it is an integral part of Italian culture for shops to take siestas, a break during the early afternoon.

After understanding more about Italian culture, I realised that one of the rea-


sons why Italians have such a laidback attitude is due to the Italian culture of enjoying life. In Italy, various bars hold appertivos, events with an all-you-can-eat buffet-with-drinks concept. In addition, many clubs, particularly those in Milan, organise events for high-end individuals or university students to mingle.

However, after living in Italy for some period of time, one may begin to pine for greater efficiency, as it becomes a tad vexatious waiting in a long queue due to slow-moving staff serving at the MacDon-ald’s counter, or having to compromise pre-arranged appointments to accommo-date a telephone shop’s siesta when one has to urgently buy a new mobile.

Intriguing Mysteries of Italy

In spite of the laidback norm of Italian culture, one will be amazed by the myriad of architectural styles, ranging from Gothic to Neo-Classical, that have been well-preserved in Italy. The Colosseum, an elliptical amphitheatre that used to host gladiator games in Rome, has a grand appearance, which looks additionally majestic when lit up at dusk. From Piazza Michelangelo, one of the most popular attractions in Florence, one can see a breathtaking view of Florence’s land-scape.

The attractions mentioned above are all prominent sights known to many visitors. However, Italy is home to many obscure yet mysterious and exceptional sights. If in Rome, one should make a trip down to St. Iganzio di Loyola Church. Most

churches have an actual ornamental dome built at the top of a church. How-ever, this church is quite an exception — its ‘dome’ is an optical illusion painted on a flat ceiling. When I saw it, I was astounded by its realistic depiction that looked so much like a real dome!

Have you heard of underground Italy? If not, explore Church of San Clemente in Rome. This church is more than just a church — beneath its ground, there is a hidden labyrinth of narrow walkways and drains and several burial sites. It was definitely a fascinating visit, discovering phenomenal artworks and insights about the ancient way of life.

All in all, I definitely had the most unique experience in Italy — having immersed in a rich yet romantic Italian culture, conversed with brown-eyed, generally amicable and impassioned Italians, and tasted thin-crust pizzas smothered with mozzarella cheese, the Italian experience is definitely one that has left an indelible impression in my mind.

Travel


Michael Ng introduces us to the culture of student power in Hong Kong

Unrestrained Freedom

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Union — the word that makes the world of difference. Free from corporate influence, the City

University of Hong Kong Student Union tries its best to navigate through the laby-rinth that their precedents built for them: constitution.

According to City University Student Union’s official website: “The union carries forward the spirit of freedom, democracy, independence, self-govern-ment, unity and mutual aid, widens the academic, cultural and intellectual scope of members, participates in the process of formulation of the University’s policies and assists in their implementation.”

“Freedom” includes many things: protests, participation in regional politics, and

other things Hong Kong also well known for. But this is not without scrutiny.

CounterchecksThe Democracy Board is the front line of all campus politics. Courageous students stick up multiple sheets of A4 to form banners, and posters for their message. School administration staff scramble to post their official responses beside contro-versial issues. The City University Student Union, being responsible for the board, controls the quality of boards and address critical issues if they arise.

I managed to catch sight of a post on the Democracy Board crying foul at how a branch of the union was poorly managed and wasting money. Apparently, not optimising operations qualifies as

“wasting” in students’ minds. The next week, it showed a formal letter from the branch head in question resigning. Next to it was another note lobbying for a review of offerings by the student union’s mini café. Money is serious business here.

Another post on the Democracy Board showed the increasing decline of student union membership over the years. Stu-dents can opt out to save on the student union fees they pay each term. If they feel that the union and their subsidiaries are not providing value, they can simply opt out. This then creates a situation where the students union is very much at the mercy of the remaining students who did not opt out, thereby enhancing the power of students to hold the students union accountable for funds spent.

Financing for student clubs and activitiesThe need of satisfying “customers” feels very real. Judging how high membership fees for clubs are, it seems that the huge majority of club funds come from members themselves. This sensitivity to money has also brought on many interesting developments.

Firstly, membership fees mean the people who signed up have actual interest in what clubs they join. “Resume? Only presidential positions in the student union go into record, a local said. He then scoffed at the near zero possibility that local employers would consider CCA records in resumes. “They only join these clubs because of their passion for them.” Combine hardship and passion and you’ll get something special. Each club’s billboard portrayed a unique identity — a different communal feeling. The people behind these displays have passion in their clubs and you can tell that the task was not just delegated to random marketing director.


Travel

A unique cultureSpeaking about having heart, I personally witnessed a martial arts group that stood in formation outside the campus, wearing only their ghi in the chilling 10 degrees Celsius winter winds, unmoved.

Indoors, a giant medicinal oil box was walking along the common area, followed by a mini marching contingent trying their best to emulate marching, clopping their feet, and waving signboards.

The annual “Shouting event” as the locals coined it, simply refers to the elections for student bodies: ones that represent each school, and of course the student union executive committee.

Students have to form their own teams and form parties to run for office. During the elections period, these teams would form up in allocated areas on campus dur-ing break times, shouting out their slogans and chants. Famous Hong Kong pop songs are occasionally added for flavor. My local friend proudly claimed that CityU’s annual

shouting season remains one of the top rated across all Hong Kong universities.

Then what are the martial arts clubs and the other interest groups doing? Surely, they don’t need to run for elections. “Oh, they simply hopped on to gain publicity, to show people that they are around,” my local friend explained.

Due to the recent change in regulations, students are only allowed to shout dur-ing the breaks, to avoid interfering with lessons. So during lessons, they just “walk heavily” and mime.

The freedom that students lobby for cre-ated a unique culture for themselves. It’s not banned until someone says so.

Office politicsThe elections system requiring pre-formed parties seems to help in improv-ing the team spirit in whoever wins the office, now that they went though something tough together at least once. Teams also need to pre-register the posts

each member will take, which also seem to reduce friction when fighting for top seats.

That, however, doesn’t mean there isn’t any inter-team friction. Towards the end of the voting period, the two teams run-ning for student union threw up posters on the democracy board slandering the other.

When they are not fighting each other, students rile up against the establish-ment. During my stay, there was a huge uproar on the huge amount that the Hong Kong government is spending on build-ing a high speed rail to the mainland. Posters rallied for a protest on the first day of 2010.

Another poster boldly claimed only one line (directly translated): “For a country that does not represent its people, what is there to celebrate?” A reply was: “It may not represent all of its people, but it does for the majority of the people” A further scribbled reply underlined “majority” and wrote “do they?”


Talisa Kaur Dhaliwal explores from the edge of paradise

The Shangri-La I documented: Project Argali 2

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My father would open huge, ‘ancient’ and dusty looking atlases, maps and almanacs just

to share with me the joy which he felt when he spent hours scanning the globe for those unheard of and strange sound-ing ‘stans’ of central Asia, and many other exotic and Indiana Jones kind of places which most people don’t usually read about.

That’s how I first came to know of this small autonomous Buddhist state border-ing Nepal, tucked away amidst the great folds of the formidable Himalayas-Sik-kim. So years later, when his little girl was certain enough that she could explore the world on her own, I grabbed the oppor-tunity and traveled to the sleepy village of Borong-Polok in Southern Sikkim to fulfill what I had fantasised.

The Office of Student Life is well-known

for organising Overseas Community Involvement Programme (OCIP) trips to countries like Cambodia, The Philip-pines and among others, the very popular Nepal. Sikkim, in spite of being equally if not more richly dipped in the golden and serene Buddhist culture with its popularised prayer flags, spinning wheel and hundreds of ancient monasteries, has often fallen short of generating as much attention. And one wonders why? Is it ig-norance, on the part of people, that there isn’t another exotic and faraway country on OSL’s list besides Nepal?

Well, it takes one to embark on Project Argali 2 -which was organised to Sikkim- to dispel such a notion. And what better way to change the perceptions of people than to document it and show the rest, not only the work which Project Argali 2 did, but also the rich and vibrant culture which we were immersed in and the wonderful people who shaped our experi-ences.

The aim of Project Argali 2 was to im-prove the existing technique of the paper-making unit in Borong-Polok, which was often time-consuming and energy-draining. Run by a man in his thirties, and a group of strong-willed Sikkimese house-wives, the paper-making unit should not be underestimated for its run-down façade and small workforce. Who would have imagined that a small and ‘unheard’ of paper-making unit would have trade links with not only major Indian city-states, but also places as far as Australia?

The documentary team was amazed that despite enduring month-long pay cuts, the women workers continued working. While such a scenario would have invited riots and filled the atmosphere with nega-tive sentiments, these women, were con-stantly cherry, and not once could we see

trouble reflected on their faces. It was not just the paper-making unit which baffled us. When chatting with the average Sik-kimese villager, it was difficult to ignore how their happiness and contentment shone through despite their laborious life.

To any outsider, this would have seemed like a perfect life in a beautiful land. A Shangri-La.

Sikkim itself is beauty at its element. Inevitably, one would be touched by the spirituality of this misty Himalayan realm. This is a place where nature ulti-mately dwarfs all human concerns. Sik-kim is practically a ‘virgin’ in comparison to Nepal, as it is not as heavily frequented by tourists thus, retaining its continual carpet of undisturbed forest mass and ka-leidoscope of temperate flora and fauna.

While we wake up to skyscrapers in Singapore, the Sikkimese villagers are greeted every morning by the snow-clad summit of the Kangchenjunga-also the highest peak in India and the third highest in the world .Geographically, this range falls on the border between Sikkim and Nepal.

It was also my Shangri-La, because of the immense fun and enjoyment we had while socialising with the Sikkimese. Despite fumbling in broken Nepali and Hindi, it was not long before the team felt right at home with the Sikkimese villagers.

During house visits, the villagers would prepare an array of scrumptious Sikkimese dishes for us to palate, before pulling us up to imitate their folk dances. Once they were certain that we were ‘experts’ in their folk dance, they would make us stay on for long just dancing in a circle with them. This was very much the kind of circle


dance that we all probably watched in Disney films and cartoons. The difference is only that we had the chance to live the fantasy.

Before, ending this almost fantasy like account of my OCIP experience, it is pertinent that I highlight an issue, which I have been confronted with regarding the real purpose of OCIPs. Some may read this article and cynically conclude that OCIP’s are primarily about having fun, or discov-ering Shangri-Las, rather than engaging in real learning. But my response is simply this-Why can’t there be an element of fun when we people learn? Hasn’t SMU taught us that it is through interacting with others that learning occurs best? And one is bound to have fun when inter-acting with another.

In Sikkim, the villagers saw that we were having fun singing and dancing and so, found it much easier to open up to us and teach and share with us more about their way of life. It is because of this fun element that we were able to develop deeper ties with the Sikkimese housewife, Sikkimese farmer, and Sikkimese child; in essence, the Sikkimese layman. We there-fore, had the chance to learn from people of all walks of life.

So why grudge us if all those photos splashed on facebook showed us having more fun than anything else? How is learning supposed to be depicted in pho-tographs if learning is a personal thing and internalised? This is probably how OCIPs would explain it to the skeptics too. But, because I can vouch only for the team on Project Argali 2, I can confidently say that we did contribute to and learnt in this land of Shangri-La.


Owen Tan gives his take on the security measures at US airports

Entering the USA: Easier than I thought

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America is, as the stereotype goes, a land of freedom, a place where its citizens are able to enjoy “life,

liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. The attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines 253 en route to Detroit on Christmas Day of last year, however, meant that part of the Declaration of Independence would have to be compromised a wee bit more. Airline security has stepped up to near-draconian levels, and security checks have become far more troublesome.

Or so we thought.

This journalist is currently in Atlanta on a study exchange, and prior to the trip, expected the security checks to be as difficult as they come and that Changi International Airport will be indeed inconvenient. Check-in rows for economy class flights only allowed the passengers to enter – not even family could help with luggage.

Surprisingly, the scanning of bags at Changi went about quickly and smoothly - laptops had to be taken out of the hand-carry luggage, but apart from this little inconvenience, everything went about as normal.

On board the plane, there wasn’t any precaution that we had to take which was not usually included in the safety regula-tions. It was only landing in Tokyo-Narita International Airport - my first stop - when I got a taste of some real security action.

Expecting transit passengers to be let off more easily with regard to security procedures, I was surprised to see that we still had to go through a second hand-carry X-ray machine. The hassle was in passing through the metal detector — the Japanese officer asked me to remove both

my sweater and my jacket before stepping past.

The drama wasn’t over yet - prior to enter-ing the plane in Narita, another security counter inspected our entire hand-carry luggage by hand and every passenger was subjected to a full, unflattering body pat down.

The most surprising thing was before landing, when all passengers were asked to ensure that we did not cover our knees with blankets.

AmericaWhile the facilities at the Tom Bradley International Airport in Los Angeles were rather primitive, the security counters boast the latest tools that make trips much more of a hassle - X-rays, impolite security guards, and metal detectors. While I managed to escape taking off my winter boots in Singapore and Tokyo, I was asked to remove them here in LA.

I was definitely not looking forward to having any more security measures, though I did expect that we would once again be searched when we boarded the domestic flight, via Delta Air to Atlanta. Interestingly, there were no more checks before I arrived in the busiest airport in America.

Not that strictApart from a couple of additional proce-dures we had to get used to - especially the part where we had to take off our shoes before passing through the metal detector - the security procedures seemed almost routine.

In truth, the checks should have been more stringent considering that an act of terrorism had only recently been commit-ted, but for the average passenger there is

very little to complain about the strict-ness of their policy with regard to comfort and convenience.

Entering the USA was, it seems, easier than I thought. Did the system really “work”, as Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, infamously claimed? Even with the “upgrade” in security, this passenger did not feel the effects.

I’m a

BANKER

I meet multi-millionaires at work.I know the latest shipping news at my fingertips.I play matchmaker to ships and see millions of dollars change hands in a single deal.

I’m a Ship Broker.� - Ryan Ng, Eastport Maritime

The job of a ship broker is fast-paced and dynamic. A strong business acumen and matured mind are often required. The Singapore maritime industry is home to 5,000 maritime companies, with more than 100,000 people in the maritime workforce. Singapore is set to be one of the world’s leading international maritime centres. Join this dynamic and global sector and be part of the exciting buzz.

Visit maritimecareers.�com.�sg to find out more.�

I’m a

BROKERBut I’m not controlled by the stock market

Digital

Digital Collaboration Made EasyLee Jun Kit checks out applications that make life simpler


But I don’t just deal with figures

the blue and gold - issue 9 - march 2010

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