Scholar under fire: more than just about racism

The story of the PSC scholar making racist remarks blew recently and sparked a flurry of comments about the conduct of Chua Cheng Zhan, a maths scholar at Northwestern University in Illinois USA.

Basically he complained that the Singapore charter in his university was being swamped by Indians and Pinoys and he found dark-skinned people gross.

You can read his (censored) blog at:
http://www.chengzhan.net/main/blog/12157914.html

You can also read an archive of his comments at:
http://ivan.ivanandxia.com/history/2005-04-14/stop-talking-cock/

Naturally the numerous hypocritical netters crawled out of the woodwork and started commenting about how public funding was spent on a racist.

However, it gets more interesting when you read into what he wrote. The thing that obviously jumps out is the alleged racism but his 2nd posting strikes me of elitism. Elitism in its worst sense. Pure arrogance of his perceived high place in society. His comment on comparing Proton Sagas to Jaguars was the most galling and highlights this arrogance.

His family is obviously rich (father is MD of an investment firm) and wealth brings many advantages, including financial support in schooling, the ability to “grease the schooling palms”, hire maids so you don’t have to waste time doing chores and many other perks.

I have never been a fan of MOE’s policies and that includes the PSC. What exactly is the PSC’s commitment to the people regarding public money for scholars? I really question the board’s selection process. Here is a man that has an extremely comfortable background and let’s face it, rich people generally do better in Singapore’s education (tuition, home PCs, internet, etc). Does this man really need a scholarship? Shouldn’t a scholarship be given to NEEDY students? Why are we still giving scholarships to people who see them as merely status symbols to boast during family pow-wows?

Perhaps the PSC board was following the PAP’s stand for fermenting an Elite, where the money stays with the Elite, and that includes public money. What better way to keep public money in your pockets than to give it to the sons and daughters of Elites?

Has the PSC been farming Public Commission White Horses since the beginning?

Many can jump to his defense claiming he wasn’t writing in his own persona. While that might be possible for his racist comments, I believe it isn’t for his 2nd comment. By drawing personal feelings and family members/emotions into his comment, he is drawing from his own psyche.

I for one hope to see this fool’s scholarship withdrawn.

Originally posted at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/1633

http://www.newsintercom.org/index.php?itemid=303

Conquer your fear…

and I promise you, you’ll conquer your death!

RARRRWWW!!

Big words spoken by Colin Farrell’s Alexander. Lame movie btw. Trailer promises big battles. In truth, the whole movie sucks. Battles? 20 minutes max, total. Anyway I digress.

My topic of the day is about losers and winners. Alexander was a BIG winner. He conquered the known world by age 25. However, despite his prowess, he couldn’t muster it in bed and died of grief after his gay lover succumbed to typhoid. So he was both a winner and a loser. Local news this week featured quite a few winners and losers. Let’s start with Singapore Idol.

It was finally revealed that Taufik beat Sly by 200,000 votes. Big Whoop. The big winner? SingTel at 50c per SMS vote, about $1.5mil. The runner-up? Sly. HUH? What, didn’t I say Taufik beat Sly by 200k votes? Yep, but picture this: One singer gets to perform cover songs at a popular world-renowned Taiwanese singer’s concert, the other performs at a local charity show. Who’s the bigger winner here? Seriously tho, in the world of pop idolotry, Sly works, Taufik doesn’t. Think Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken. Loser and winner.

Next on the block, the full impact of the Mediacrap-Mediawerks merger has been revealed. SPH glaringly shifted allegiance by assessing each and every ex-SPH celeb like so much cattle. More’s the pity, esp Lynn Poh’s assessment of being a dime a dozen. Wasn’t she together with luminaries like Ix Shen and Ericia Lee the next big things? Speaking of Ericia Lee, another BIG loser, with her boytoy and sister getting jobs but not she. What’s she gonna do now, model underwear? Two things for sure, each and every ex-SPH star likely got contracts with big caveats, ie no more limelight (eg Kim Ng and Bryan Wong) and Mediacrap got a whole stable of talent for cheap. Winner? Status quo circa 4 years ago.

Of coz there’s the Star awards and ST’s fashion hits and misses. Boring.

Big loser, MOE. It was discovered that a Chinese language teacher for 5 years actually faked her credentials and whatnot. The Chinese Embassy verified that the teacher’s creds were fake after an investigation by the Immigration authorities. The big loser part? After the creds were <b>already verified as fake</b>, the MOE statement (sorry can’t get a quote) was that its next move was to verify the teacher’s credentials. WTF? Where are the brains “moulding the future”? Come to think of it, if TVD could find the quote, it’ll make the Stupidometer quote of the year.

Finally, the big losers of the week: 2 bank robbers and a dead body in Balestier.

http://www.newsintercom.org/index.php?itemid=201

Tertiary irony

Irony of the highest order. That’s my interpretation of the phrase “tertiary irony”. Recent news about “alternative intakes” of NUS/NTU students was also irony of the highest order.

1,400 places were “reserved” for unlikely students who were deemed to be appropriate for entry into various faculties, by dint of their extra-ciricular activities, and not just of the CCA/ECA kind. They wanted extremely special folk who at the same time had stellar grades. Kindly look at the given examples highlighted by ST: in my humble opinion, those 3 bright kids did very well, with a plethora of Bs and As. Yet they were deemed by the elitist tertiary institutions to be unworthy for initial entry.

Do you see the horrible irony here? They were rejected during the first selection process. Shouldn’t they have been chosen in the first place? By sheer dint of the fact that they had such interesting hobbies and yet were still able to get good grades, stood them two better than the thousands of extremely boring and bookish 1st-cut entrants into the faculty. You know, those who had 4 As, probably a few S paper distinctions but naught else to show for her/his 18 years of life.

NTU/NUS, get a life. This “olive branch” you’ve extended does not show your widening generosity and focus interests; it merely shows your stupidity. The fact that MOE Inc’s machinery forces our kids down the grinding path of enforced CCAs and top grades, leaving no room for hobbies, merely enforces the stupidity and irony of it all.

http://www.newsintercom.org/index.php?itemid=74