Struggling to stage itMélange loses opening night shows

EphraiM Loy

it was supposed to be their first performance but turned out otherwise.

Several first time actors, di-rectors and production crew from Stageit, a theatre CCa in SMU, who were supposed to stage Mé-lange, as part of the arts Festival in SMU were disappointed.

“it was my first experience and i fell in love with my role. i was dis-appointed to hear of the cancella-tion,” said fourth-year social science student Chong Wan En.

in an email, one of the mem-bers involved wrote: “Three days ago, the school administration de-cided to cancel tomorrow’s opening shows because the plays were not up to their standards. instead, the club has been forced to hold a “by-invitation-only” preview in lieu of the performance.”

The students involved in the production claimed they had start-ed preparing for the big night some five weeks ago.

a special preview to a panel comprising members from the arts Festival organising committee and

staff from the office of Student Life (oSL) was held just a week before the actual shows.

The panel gave comments to improve and had suggested having more rehearsals and concluded that Stageit did not “deserve too many shows”. a suggestion to cancel two opening night performances in place of more rehearsals was thrown up.

This did not materialise. it was finally decided that the opening night shows were renamed “exclu-sive previews” and subsequently removed from publicity posters’ schedule.

“We don’t really care what it is called - exclusive preview or any-thing else. We just want to perform and carry on with the show,” said Elvin ong, a director for one of the plays.

added Leong Xinyi, a cast member for “This is Not a problem” one of the three plays supposed to be staged: “(The school) is supposed to support talent and i feel this is a platform for us to do so. it’s like taking away our rights and shows the lack of respect for students.”

The students involved claimed they have added in an additional day of rehearsals after feedback from the panel.

But the main concern is the respect for the student population in general, a taste of what it is like in performing arts and the hope to develop budding talent in theatre. The entire production was made up of first time actors, light and sound crew - almost half of the people in-volved were entirely new.

“i think the main point is that we tried our very best. Juggling CCa and studies at the same time can be quite difficult,” explained second-year business student Chen Zihao.

When contacted, oSL main-tained that they had requested for earlier preview dates but such re-quests were not met.

“although the arts Festival or-ganising committee had committed to putting the shows on its calendar, it was a leap of faith by the com-mittee. They also have the right to exert quality controls over what was to be staged. Stageit had the right to deliver or risk the shows being removed. They are equally answer-able to the arts Festival organising committee,” said oSL’s assistant Director Lim Siauw Chong.

he added that he was the one who suggested to put in extra re-hearsals in lieu of the first night’s performance to allow the crew and cast to have pre-committed time to rehearse intensively.

The “exclusive preview” was at-tended by some 200 invited guests and students who responded to the emails that were sent out.

“i’m happy to see that every-thing went on well. My perfor-mance could have been better,” said Wan En, in an interview after the “exclusive preview”.

All abuzz on Patron’s Daypage ii

SMU Arts Festival:All about sensespage iii

I am interested in Tradingpage Vi

Unbranded columnpage Vii

Shark’s fin anyone?page Viii

It’s Singapore 2010!page iX

Racing fever among SMU studentspage Xi

A Model’s Lifepage Xi

The Blue and GoldBullion of Knowledge, Gears of Timeissue 2 MiCa (p) 149/02/2008 March 2008

THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM: Stageit’s exclusive preview of Mélange attracts audience despite struggle

“It was my first experience and I fell in love with my role. I was disappointed to hear of the cancellation.”

FOuRTH-yEAR SOcIAL ScIENcE STudENT cHONg WAN EN

The Blue and Gold

issue 2,page ii

March 2008

What’s up @ SMu

All abuzz on Patron’s Daypresident Nathan’s annual visit to SMU gets students excitedraDhika kaNUga

28 January, 2008 was a welcome change from the regular schedules, a chance to get out of the library/gSr/Seminar room that we’re usually stuck in and do something different. The participating teams made up less than a fourth of the crowd - the rest consisted of en-thusiastic supporters cheering their teams on!

The SMU-KIA Car Challengea one-of-its-kind event, the

SMU-kia Car Challenge brought out the true spirit of friendly com-petition. Most of us had been won-dering what the two kia picantos parked right outside the School of information Systems (SiS) were for. Well, who’d have thought they would be put to such fascinating use!

The SMU-kia Car Challenge was essentially a game that involved stuffing as many people as possible into the newly face-lifted kia pi-canto. Teams were supposed to fit as many members as they could into the car within 10 minutes, and stay inside for three seconds with all the doors and windows shut. The team that managed to get the maximum number of people in the car would be declared the winner and would get a cash prize of $500. Doesn’t sound that difficult right? Well, try fitting 20 people into a car that size, and you have yourself quite a neck-breaking and sweat-inducing expe-rience! having a first-aid booth was a smart move on the part of the pa-tron’s Day organising Committee.

The first record was set by the team consisting of the patron’s Day organising Committee themselves, who managed to squeeze 17 people into the car. Little did they know their seemingly-high record was going to be broken several times over.

The team that called them-selves the “idle Seniors” consisted of SMU’s tiniest fourth year girls. They had chosen well – the height and weight of all the team members seemed almost exactly the same. With an astounding 26 girls in one kia picanto, they were a shoo-in for the final round! The other team that qualified for the finals had a com-bination of members from SMUX and SiS students. in spite of hav-ing guys on the team (who take up much more space on an average!), they fit 27 people into the kia pi-canto.

of the nine teams that took part, four qualified for the final round. a special mention must go to Team “Fat Divas” for including a male ‘Fat Diva’ (who sure had a field day being in a car with 25 girls!) in their team in the final round. in ad-dition to the “Fat Divas”, SMUX and SiS, the “idle Seniors” and the Floorball team qualified for the fi-nals.

Size definitely does matter in a competition of this kind, and no amount of squishing and shov-ing on the part of the other teams was able to overcome the clear-cut advantage the idle Seniors had. They won the kia Car Challenge by getting an astonishing 29 girls into the poor kia picanto! They had their strategy down to perfec-tion – one of the girls was slid into the car through the window right before their three-second count-down began. The SMUX and SiS team came in a close second, with 28 people in the car.

The Tug-of-WarFree donuts from Donut Fac-

tory were the highlight of the after-noon, and the Milo Truck kept all the participants and spectators well fuelled.

The traditional patron’s Day tug-of-war ensued, and this year with a new team in the Schools Category - the School of Law. The open Category consisted of teams from various CCa clubs, as well as one other team who called them-selves “MiLF”. For those of you who are raising eyebrows, “MiLF” stands for ‘Man, i Like Friend-ship!’ The round-robin format was followed, with the School of infor-mation Systems and the School of Social Sciences dueling it out in the finals.

The team to win the best of three rounds in the finals would be declared the winner. Team SiS had the loudest cheerleading squad – and encouragement does go a long way! Team SiS won round 1 and round 2, and emerged winners of the patron’s Day Tug-of-War a third year in a row.

President Nathan’s Arrivalpresident Nathan arrived at

5pm, and was greeted enthusiasti-cally by a song-and-dance show put up by The indian Cultural Society. The evening’s Student awards Cer-emony began with SMU Chairman ho kwon ping’s address.

The reason that SMU organises patron’s Day each year and consid-

ers this event to be of so much im-portance was brought forth by Mr ho kwon ping himself. right at the start, when SMU asked presi-dent Nathan to be our patron, he had a simple request. he wished to be involved in student activi-ties and to get a chance to interact with the students. patron’s Day, therefore, serves the purpose of up-dating president Nathan with the latest developments at SMU and also gives us students the chance to meet him and spend some time interacting with him.

Various scholarship recipients were felicitated on stage. president howard hunter’s address involved appreciation of those CCa groups that have rendered special services to the University – such as SMU peer helpers, the Student Coun-cil of Discipline and the Students’ association. The various Dean of Students awardees for excellence in CCas were also called up on stage. it is very commendable the way SMU acknowledges students for their achievements, and these stellar students serve as inspiration for others.

Each year, the inter-school championship goes to the school that wins awards in five major in-ter-school events. Upon winning

the Tug-of-War, SiS walked away with this year’s inter-school Cham-pionship. a beaming kelvin Lee, last year’s SiSS president, took the trophy.

The winners of the Univer-sity Student Life awards, Caderas Latinas, put up an entertaining performance. president Nathan was all smiles as he was led to the “Dreams” exhibits, which consisted of booths put up by various CBds – such as SiSS, SSU, SMU Law Society, Bondue etc. all the booths were creatively designed to express what each CBd stood for. here, president Nathan spoke to the vari-ous student leaders at the booths and got a chance to understand all the different things that embody SMU’s vibrant culture.

Groove@SMU!The party that signified the

end of the patron’s Day Celebra-tions was a very noisy affair! There was free food, beer, ice cream and the sound and DJs were courtesy of Dbl-o. it was the first time the T-Junction has seen such a party and the atmosphere was no different from a club. an array of hot per-formances by SMU Samba Masala and Eurythmix drove the dancing and cheering crowd wild.

phoTo: LiM WEi MiNg

The Blue and Gold

issue 2,page iii

March 2008

What’s up @ SMu

raDhika kaNUga

This year’s patron’s Day marked the introduction of the inaugural SMUSa-Bizcom CCa Scholar-ship. Set up by the students for the students, the scholarship recogn-ises students who have contributed greatly to SMU student life.

Breaking the stereotype of most scholarships that are awarded on academic grounds, the SMUSa-Bizcom Scholarship encourages students who dare to venture be-yond their academic requirements.

The recipients this year, Teoh pei ying and Wilson Lim, have a record of inspiring achievements to their credit.

pei ying has represented SMU on a number of sports competi-tions and has also served as an Events Manager for both the SMU Sports Union and the Ultimate Frisbee Club. The experience that she gained from previous overseas Community projects has enabled her to take up responsibility and or-ganise future such programmes for SMU students. pei ying looks for-

ward to contributing to SMU life in whatever ways she can.

Wilson Lim is the man be-hind SMU’s successful Dragonboat Team. he took it upon himself to set up and train the very first Drag-onboat Team and gained valuable friends, skills and a whole new per-spective towards sports. he has led the team through several national races and an international race in penang. The work that he did dur-ing his term as Event Manager for SSU has gone a long way in pro-moting SMU’s vibrant student life.

his extensive involvement in a number of events has given him a greater sense of belonging to SMU and made his journey in university very enjoyable.

Following his graduation from SMU, he hopes to continue to con-tribute to student life through ad-vising and linking SMU to external organisations. advising all students to be more proactive in student life activities, he said: “Studies are no doubt the primary reason for us to be in SMU, but to study and yet en-joy the vibrancy of student life will

enable you to experience a more fulfilling and well-rounded univer-sity journey.”

Spearheaded by the 7th Biz-com Director roy Chia, Bizcom pledged $20,000 for a period of four years with two scholarships of $2,500 each to be given out each academic year.

The money for the scholarships was generated through events and initiatives by Bizcom.

New scholarship unveiled at Patron’s DayCCa involvement counts for awardees of this scholarship

All about sensesA summary of non|sense, the annual SMU Arts FestivalTErri-aNNE TEo

it would have been difficult not to notice this year’s arts Festival. From the numerous interpretive in-stallation art pieces scattered across campus to the tantalising buffet of events offered, this year’s festival, held from 18th January to 29th February, was clearly a sight, sound and touch to behold.

Commencing the festival was the opening gala graced by Minis-ter for information, Communica-tions and the arts, Dr Lee Boon yang (below, second from left). The opening event was “Listen to your S(teel)”, a multi-disciplinary production commissioned by Dr Joyce koh, where a steel ensemble was manipulated by roller-bladers to create an astounding harmony of visual and aural delights, encap-sulating the explosive spirit of the fortnight’s affair.

Curated by Dr Eugene Tan was the festival’s extensive visual arts exhibition, showcasing works by 13 local artists.

a mysterious expanse of black paint interspersed by continuous white lines, occupying the wall par-allel to the school gym, was Joshua yang’s drawing installation titled “Trying to tie up the loose ends but leaving just enough room to breathe”. arousing great curiosity in many the moment it first ap-peared, it was not uncommon to hear discussions among those who walked past it en route to classes – was it a brain, a map or something else. Upon closer inspection, one would notice seemingly handwrit-ten notes amidst the white path-ways. inspired by the ‘snake game’, the artist explained that these ‘notes’

are observations and emotions ex-perienced as he created a random pattern with his paint. The arbitrary sprinkling of stars found translates to ‘teleportation points’ where he ‘traps’ himself within the patterns and needs a way out. it is almost as if the artist has created a timeline for himself, tracing his journey in art the same way we move through daily life.

another remarkable art piece is “The Sixth Day” by Donna ong. Set in a painfully unfurnished room, the dimly-lit solitary dresser stands in beautifully contrast. Un-like Joshua yang’s wall, everything here screams ‘intention’, from the meticulously placed glass bowls of seedlings and white egg-like balls, to the uncannily realistic metal spi-ders and strings of pearls that are strewn about in a haphazard fash-ion. a soft-spoken woman, Donna brought to life themes of rebirth and hope through the repetitive use

of spherical objects and the spiders which represent womanhood in greek mythology. along with that are endless contrasts, such as the barren state of the room in com-parison to the growth the seedlings symbolise, pronouncing hope and optimism in the midst of negativity. This piece reminds us of the infinite possibilities of art, if only we stop for a while and allow ourselves the freedom of interpretation and ex-pression.

To shake things up a little for non|sense was local celebrity hos-san Leong in “LoL”. Fashionably dressed in a pink shirt, jeans and donning funky glasses, he was per-fectly at home on stage, predictably a hit with his classic impropriety, comedic timing and effusiveness. Naturally, this one-man show left no chair empty, and there was little standing room left by the time he took off with an energetic rendition of Copacabana. Throughout the

show, the crowd was held rapturous by one bawdy joke after another, with his regular interjections of lo-cal humour in the form of satirical songs and outbursts in hokkien. By the time he wrapped up, the audi-ence was lapping up his every word, fully satiated with the night’s enter-tainment.

Student artists were also inte-gral in the festival, jumping out at us through “T-art2”, where disco-themed toilets would burst into song when entered, which proved to be truly an unexpected, if star-tling, experience.

another exhibition by student artists was “The other Sight?” aptly constructed by SMUSaiC. This collection of photographs pushed us to take a second look instead of simply passing by. The showing is set in a pitch-dark room illumi-nated only by torches hanging from the ceiling. in order to ‘see’ the pho-tographs, one would have to find

them by using one of the torches, hence placing greater emphasis on our sense of sight. There is an in-vestigative feel to it, as you search the room with your beam of light, and one of discovery as you stumble upon pictures in the most unantici-pated locations such as above you, plastered on the ceiling. This same theme of discovery parallels the photographed places that are off the beaten path, such as lonely railway stations and empty streets waiting to be explored. paired with this are the faint sounds of everyday move-ment such as those of traffic. These transport us to the photographed sites, adding yet another dimension to this sensory exhibition.

Full of surprises, innovation and meaning, the SMU arts Festival has invoked, charmed and enlight-ened. an event that sought to add a non-sensifying twist to campus life, it has made its mark and will be re-membered.

phoTo: oSL

The Blue and Gold

issue 2,page iV

March 2008

Viewpoints

Dear Friends,The cycle begins once more

with internship applications, pre-sentation rehearsals, and mugging for the finals if you’re not already busy enough.

Whatever the case, thank you for squeezing in this read between your classes and project meetings. and while i’m on the subject of applications, the recent spate of Business Study Missions across the world disturbs me greatly. how do you choose between New york and russia or Skandinavia and Dubai? This leaves decision-making-chal-lenged individuals like me sitting on the fence. Lady Liberty over the Bolshoi Ballet or Mermaids versus the Burj al arab?

alas, internship commitments mean the only travelling that i’ll be doing over the next few months is to and fro raffles place. For the year 1’s and 2’s, this summer pres-ents new adventures, from summer study programmes abroad or even a Cip to change the world. it doesn’t matter what others say – opportu-nities, i believe, are everywhere and lie waiting to be exploited by those motivated to do so.

and that is what a great many of you have done. This issue may be our last for the academic year, but these pages are filled with imprints of your involvement in school. We

have memories of patron’s Day 2008 and the deliciously enter-taining arts Fest. CCa heads step down and fresh new faces move up the chain of command, preparing for a brand new year of leadership and accomplishments for your re-spective teams.

here at The Blue and gold, we’ve seen our fair share of ups and downs over the course of our term, and our emergence from these problems would be impossible without the consistent support of the Students’ association, the of-fice of Student Life and fervent supporters shouting words of en-couragement every now and then. To our cheerleaders, thank you for presenting us with the platform to launch our ideas and for setting forth reasonable expectations for our progress in student journal-ism. and we’re very grateful for the funding too, of course.

in return, The Blue and gold has necessitated subtle changes to address past discrepancies. From the beginning, we have set ourselves out as the first campus newspaper to feature current affairs in addi-tion to school news. This will not be compromised. however, in our attempt to better distinguish be-tween the news reporting sections and the researched commentaries by our writers, ‘What’s Up @ SMU’

will report on school events, while ‘SMUdge’ features our writer’s views exclusively. This will improve the style of the paper and more importantly, allow us to include as many articles within the respective sections.

at this point, i’d like to take a page from Erin Brockovich and talk about numbers.

it’s just 6 degrees of separation between you, me and the rest of the school.

10 is the number of weeks you’ve been in school this term and it’s less than 2 months till sum-mer 2008. you probably have 3 to 5 projects due soon, but if you’re lucky, you’ll barely have 1 exam to sit for in april. 4.00 is the gpa score we all secretly pine for, but in truth, you simply need a 2.00 to graduate. The past academic year has seen 3 issues of The Blue and gold, 7 ex-co members and 1 ex-hausted team.

But hey, it’s been worth it. Thanks for the ride, SMU! See you next term!

alicia NgManaging DirectorThe Blue and gold

It’s just 6 Degrees of Separation Between You, Me and the Rest of the School

Overseas community projects present unique lessonsa response to “Voluntourism hot in SMU?”

TaN WENDUaN

are overseas community service projects just a glorified reason for a holiday? Should one begin commu-nity service at home? as a person who has been involved in commu-nity service projects both home and overseas i must say there are defi-nitely unique lessons an overseas community experience can provide.

i have had the opportunity of going abroad to Sri Lanka and Thailand, and helped in projects catered for beneficiaries ranging from orphans to elephants. While stints in Singapore have allowed me to work with secondary school students to develop their leadership skills, volunteering with orphans in Sri Lanka addresses a much more

fundamental need: that of homeless children with an objective to have a happy childhood.

Singaporeans take as given the opportunity to have primary school education. Children brought up in a country filled with civil strife hardly have this privilege, and peace for them hangs delicately in the bal-ance. i know this first hand, as a sui-cide bomb attack happened not far from our accommodation during my first day in Sri Lanka. gun-tot-ing soldiers lined certain key streets in Colombo, reminding us daily of the peace we have in Singapore.

overseas community service provided me the opportunity to be exposed to world issues not avail-able in our sheltered Singaporean lives. Nature conservation is hardly

a big issue in Singapore, but can-not be ignored because it has a key link with the well-being of future generations globally. Seeing perma-nently disabled elephants, caused by poachers or irresponsible han-dlers, made me see the extent of the plight of the asian elephant. This plight is something that i will con-tinue to learn about and share with all interested parties.

overseas community service is vital for SMU to develop a globally conscious student, aware of impor-tant issues outside of small Sin-gapore. in addition to that, it also provides a unique experience for self-discovery as well as opportuni-ties for teamwork. Bonds created during these trips are definitely ones carried for life.

an incident happened during our recent trip to Thailand, where some members of my 15-member team fell almost three meters from a wooden platform. This is by no means a feature of every project overseas, but the reaction and sup-port shown by all team members was crucial in a time of crisis. This support definitely allowed the team to bond, as well as realise the impor-tance of each team member to the team’s overall well-being. in carry-ing out the physical work required of the trip after the incident, this understanding and shared learning

definitely provided much needed motivation. This sort of experience based learning in a foreign environ-ment surely cannot be replicated in the comforts of home.

in all, while it seems like all fun and games, i feel that overseas community service provides an opportunity for SMU students to learn about pressing global issues, practice team working skills and is an excellent avenue for personal development. it is a combination of learning with fun. after all, we are in the company of friends - friends that we will keep for life.

EphraiM Loy

i have never been on an over-seas community involvement proj-ect to help the less fortunate or build homes but i have led groups of supporters to Manila and Doha for the South East asian games and asian games respectively.

however, i still enjoy volun-teering at home.

at home i get to meet and in-teract with youths and sometimes i am asked to give advice on their studies and even listen to their problems. i look at it as a long-term mentorship project.

This is all part and parcel of my duties as the Chairman of the punggol Community Club’s youth Executive Committee where i take charge of a group of 28 youths to plan community events for the more than 1,000 youths in the area.

Each committee has a fixed term for about two years. and once you start off, there’s no looking back. it is unlike going on an overseas community involvement project where you plan for a few months and implement it. although there’s this argument that you can go again to continue from where you have left off the next year.

youths who cannot commit long-term can also choose from a wide array of short-term projects ranging from sports to arts.

apart from sitting on the youth advisory panel for the na-tionwide annual youth month festi-val ShiNE 2007 where i provided ideas and feedback for marketing the event, i also helped to conduct a session to solicit feedback for ShiNE 2008. This was a short-term project that lasted only for a year.

another interesting project that i still talk about till today is one that involves performing arts.

a total of 34 Singaporeans from different backgrounds worked with a Spanish arts group to per-form stunts in the air for the open-ing of the Singapore arts Festival last year. it was an awesome three-day experience.

Such projects are only the tip of the iceberg. if you take a look at the website of the National Volun-teer & philanthropy Centre, there are loads of projects that need vol-unteers and are tailored to various interests.

There’s so much more to do at home still.

Youth leader loves volunteering at homeChoose from long-term or short-term projects

The Blue and Gold

issue 2,page V

March 2008

Bulletin Board

aLiCia Ng

a slow recovery was in store for financial institutions when cri-sis struck in January this year for French Bank Société générale.

The actions of trader Jérome kerviel cost the French bank up-wards of USD 7 billion, and was reminiscent of the scandal a decade

ago that brought down Britain’s old-est bank, Barings.

The rogue trader behind the fraud, Nick Leeson, spent four years in prison in the 90’s and is now in-volved in regular speaking engage-ments. he is also the CEo of gal-way United FC. however, his losses, which exceeded USD 1 billion dollars, is a far cry from kerviel’s

record-breaking trading loss in his-tory.

it is widely reported that kerviel was able to avoid detection largely due to his in depth knowledge of Société générale’s controls and operational processes. he worked within the operations Division for a few years before advancing to the trading floor in 2005. his ascent within the company and subsequent

actions cast light on the adequacy of corporate practices today, which include intra-company movement. regulations in place are not suf-ficient in preventing a minor loss from burgeoning into a headliner almost overnight, and are inter-de-partmental transfers proving to be more risky than advantageous?

Not many companies get a hap-py ending in moments like these,

and in the past decade we have witnessed management meltdowns and the collapse of conglomerates across many industries. For Société générale, support remains strong from the French government, cou-pled with the recent finalisation of their majority stake in russian retail bank, rosbank suggests a slow but steady recovery.

ChEoNg EN MiN

The notion that the world is metamorphosing into a single global milieu of interconnected and mutually-dependent constituents is as popular as it is biased.

Taken from the perspective of benefactors of globalisation, the theory’s premise clearly favours af-fluent entities and nations, implic-itly emphasising the advantages of joining the international country club of established and emerging markets, and partaking in techno-logical transfer and cultural fusion.

The propensity to believe that globalisation engenders a shared sense of stability is true; insofar as developed hegemons and their weaker but willing national part-ners are concerned.

Unfortunately, globalisation has elicited a far less favourable response from countries that have already been politically disenfran-chised, resulting in pariah govern-ments that respond by attempting to shield their citizens from a force perceived to embody the nefarious ideologies of a world hostile towards the sovereignty of these states. The apprehension and unease that is as-sociated with globalisation is based

on the premise that distinctive cul-tural nuances would be transposed by universal norms and values.

Within the borders of these nations, isolationism is extremely prevalent. in order to limit the ef-fects of globalisation on society, governments ultimately have to put in place censorship mechanisms which prevent information from freely crossing borders and infiltrat-ing the lives of citizens, resulting in an impediment to the existence of social debate essential in fuelling progress vis-a-vis the exchange of ideas both internally and multilat-erally.

however, all this does not nec-essarily translate into instability for these states. it is precisely because of the meticulous rejection of external influences from sovereign agendas that countries such as North korea and Cuba manage to sustain their domestic institutions.

Collective stability in these countries is maintained by the ad-herence to status quo. as those with a protectionist stance start to allow foreign exposure to infiltrate society, volatility intensifies. For ex-ample, implementing fair elections and voting within China would see

the entire state ideology challenged because of this shift in policy.

This explains why the ruling elite of these countries are fight-ing so valiantly to buffer society from globalisation, which arguably encompasses all the evils of imperi-alism, modernisation and pressured progress – advancing in a direction states lose control over dictating to a significant extent.

iranian president Mahmoud ahmadinejad has articulated the fact that his government tightly regulates news and entertainment programmes originating from oth-er countries in favour of promoting propaganda propagated by state-managed media outlets to preserve its national identity and power over the socio-political arena within iran.

Nevertheless, globalisation is penetrating the armour of nation-alism cloaking the societies and government practices of many such countries that regard the former with suspicion. North korean citi-zens are discovering ways to exploit signals generated from cellular re-lay facilities constructed along the Chinese border to contact family and communicate with the media. This is sending waves of panic into

North korean leader kim Jong-il, who subscribes to a neo-Stalinist political doctrine and is well-aware of the chaos which could result from North koreans finding out the truth about their plight.

it would seem reasonable, given this development, for western na-tions – which have received the most perks from globalisation and are also considered bastions of free-dom – to ride on this bandwagon by engaging these pariah states.

Contrary to that, the govern-ments of these developed coun-tries instead have applied punitive measures on these nations, such as economic sanctions, to combat the perpetration of non-compliance of internationally accepted standards and norms of operation. This an-tagonistic approach had the effect of disenfranchising the latter, pro-viding their governments with in-creased impetus to shut the rest of the world out.

Many believe that just as sanc-tions aided Saddam hussein’s auto-cratic control of the inflow of cash to iraq, and the US embargo on Cuba fuelled domestic support for Fidel Castro, attempts to further se-quester iran and North korea aug-

ment their totalitarian leaders’ juris-diction on power and legitimacy.

iran’s government educes sup-port from the mandate it obtains by venerating nationalistic sentiment, propelled by fervent opposition to the detriments of the core-periph-ery model of globalisation.

The younger, more educated strata of iranian society gener-ally dissents against governmen-tal efforts to segregate them from the international community and global development, and out of fear, the state has responded by imple-menting additional apparatus to repress the potential social move-ment towards the embracement of globalisation.

Essentially, globalisation can only destabilise pariah states to the extent that the governments of those nations allow it to influence socio-politics within its borders. however, because of this realisation as a reaction to globalisation, rogue states are likely to cultivate extrem-ist policies out of a rational inter-est to protect sovereign autonomy and domestic ideologies, which only exacerbates the ease of their assimilation into the international community.

Lying Low DaViD LaU

Does globalisation disenfranchise the pariah state?

History repeats itself in financial scandal

School NewsThe Blue and Gold

issue 2,page Vi

March 2008

ELViN oNg

Led by practice associate pro-fessor Caroline yeoh, 32 students from the asia pacific Business (apB) went on a field trip to Macau on 25 February.

The field trip was a culmination of lessons on international business, class presentations on integrated resorts and potential new entrants in the region, and guest speaker seminars on the development of in-tegration resorts and the Meetings, incentive Travel, Conventions, and Exhibitions (MiCE) industry. it was also an opportunity for the stu-dents to have first-hand experience on recent developments in Macau over the past few years and its fu-ture plans, with the development of various integrated resorts along and near the Cotai Strip. The knowledge and experience gathered in this module and field trip will put the students in good stead when Singa-pore’s integrated resorts in Marina Bay and Sentosa open in 2010.

We visited and studied a total of four integrated resorts/casinos dur-ing our 3-day 2-night stay in Macau – galaxy StarWorld hotel, Crown Macau, MgM grand Macau and The Venetian Macau. The site vis-its were important for our project

presentation, report as well as the learning journals that have to be submitted at the end of the apB module.

at galaxy StarWorld, Mr paul Temple (principal, Training and Development) and his team warmly welcomed the class and gave an in-depth presentation on the business model of the galaxy Entertainment group and the upcoming galaxy Mega resort near the Cotai Strip. he emphasised that galaxy’s focus was on the asian customer and that they were proud of their unparal-leled service quality in the industry.

The next stop was Crown Macau. a site tour of the luxuri-ous premium suite and overall inte-rior design of the six-star hotel left many students in awe. at the end of the tour, three senior staff from vari-ous hotel departments – human re-source, concierge, and food and bev-erage – answered questions about Crown and its upcoming develop-ment near the Cotai Strip – The City of Dreams. We were interested to know how Crown was planning to compete effectively against the other properties, and how Crown, being an australian company, man-aged to overcome various operating and cultural challenges in Macau.

Students were given time to ex-plore MgM grand Macau, a new resort which opened in December last year, on their own.

The following day was spent in The Venetian, Macau, which hap-pened to be the residing hotel for the class. There were three presen-tations from senior executives from Las Vegas Sands and The Venetian, Macau, which covered Sands’ over-arching vision for the Cotai Strip, Venetian’s hotel operations, and how Sands generates MiCE business in Venetian itself. in the afternoon, we were led by staff from Venetian for a tour of its spectacular facilities, from its 1 million square feet of MiCE space, to the 15,000 Venetian arena, which recently hosted Celine Dion’s Taking Chances World Tour 2008.

after having experienced the integrated resorts in Macau and with information of Macau’s future development plans, the question at the back of our minds was - how is Singapore going to compete with this strong competitor in the asia-pacific region? That is the question we will have to answer when we re-turn and complete the second half of the apB course.

I am interested in TradingLearning about how Singapore can compete in Asia-Pacific UDay rao

here i go in trying to com-municate what a trader does in an alternate and clearer manner as op-posed to the one i got from some-one i asked, which was “trader is a trader who trades in commodities”. Sounds correct but lacks the sexi-ness of the job that normally is at-tached to it.

Essentially a trader is a profes-sional who understands the com-plete nuances of a certain com-modity and is involved in taking positions on them. This could be in the form of hedging, deriva-tives, futures, spot trading, physical trading and being involved within each process from the production/refinement of a commodity to the transportation of the commodity (import/export as well as supply chain). Traders could be also setting up trade routes for the flow of com-modities.

There is a wide range of com-modities one could trade in. From the common - agriculture (i.e. cof-fee, cocoa, orange juice), energy, livestock, metals, minerals - to the obscure: weather.

Major players in this industry, pure players in commodity trad-ing and value add services, would be companies like archer Daniels, Bunge, olam, Noble and Li Fung. Four of these companies contribute to a total market cap of close to $40 billion.

Commodities markets are al-ways going to be of interests due to its knock on impact on other areas. This is truly an interesting area that is fascinating and at times rather complicated. it seems to involve everything that our studies encom-pass. Each subject contributing to a perspective never viewed before. and by no means can an article of this space constraint be able to ex-plain it all. With demand growing and supply being scare and limited, commodity trading is an exciting and dynamic place to be.

i would probably recommend you to read Jim roger’s book on Commodities as a start. But to quench your thirst further why not get involved in the school’s own iTi (international Trading institute) and the iTT (international Trading Track) a specialisation under the Finance major. The iTT educates in the general fundamentals of trading such as Trade Finance to the more specific such as the recently an-nounced course on oil. Managed, taught and mentored by profes-sionals from the field, it ensures that students are equipped with the right knowledge. The hands-on interactive program beats reading a book. Non-iTT majors can too bid for a couple of courses of interest subject to availability. in my opin-ion it provides a nice rounding to our education.

The Blue and Gold

congratulates Singapore on winning the bid

to host the first youth Olympic games

Higher LearningThe Blue and Gold

issue 2,page Vii

March 2008

Unbranded column*Why are you here? Why am i here?

Far too often, after interactions with students, parents, fellow fac-ulty members, University adminis-trators, employers of our graduates, and alumni, it appears that the pur-pose of a tertiary education system is to serve as a sort of human re-sources consultant for the corporate world.

and this is how it is done. We select a fraction of the students graduating from junior colleges and polytechnics. This selection is based primarily on our best guess of who would be liked best by the best (i.e. highest paying) employers four years from now. We then put these students through a set of courses, somewhere between 35 and 45 de-pending on how hard they are will-ing to work, and for how long. The primary purpose of each course is to contribute one course grade per student. Students slog it out, main-ly trying to figure out exactly what they need to do to get the maximum grade in each course component and in each course. Faculty slog it out to assign grades in such a way that (1) minimises their work load, (2) reduces grade review requests, while (3) keeping to highly secre-tive grade distribution guidelines, and, (3) produces at least a minimal course evaluation score for them-selves. That minimum standard on course evaluations itself of course, depends on rank, tenure and status of the faculty.

at the end of four years, we neatly arrange these students in or-der of gpa from 4.00 down to 2.00. of course, we have already, carefully, if not always gently, got rid of those students who could not make it past 2.00. For those employers who cannot process numbers easily, we helpfully categorise students into bunches with various honorifics for easy recognition. Sometimes, in the process unfortunately, we have also got rid of faculty members who could not make it past X on a five-point course evaluation scale (unless they were particularly productive researchers). This magical number X cannot be revealed in public ei-ther, for it might give the odd, un-ethical student some odd, unethical thoughts. Not you, dear reader, of course, but who knows about that kid sitting next to you surfing away

while a professor is trying hard to explain how to score an a for the possible quiz question on “sustain-able competitive advantage?”

We then present such a list to potential employers who have also lined themselves up according to starting pay. and we start match-ing them up, one for one, highest gpa student to highest salary of-fering employer. When the entire list is matched up, we release sta-tistics about what percentage of our students got jobs (not careers, not lives, not romance, not knowledge) within so many months of having finished the 45th credit at SMU. We all wear funny hats and gowns, and march around SUNTEC City for an afternoon, with the highest gpa (typically School of accoun-tancy) student getting five minutes to tell the rest of us a suspicious-ly-fictitious-sounding-but-heart-warming-nonetheless story about what s/he really, really learnt at school. and then the students all take photos with their brand new graduation-present latest camera models, to enhance, overnight, a thousand Facebook profiles. and to give their parents and grandparents bragging rights over Mama Wang, Uncle padmanabhan and granny Fatimah next door. and then the students all return home, and next Monday, to their bright, new, shiny jobs (not careers, not lives). and the faculty all return to school the next Monday too, pleased with yet

another successful execution of the grand plan.

is that it? is that what you are here for? is that what faculty are here for? To put our brains and brawn, and blood, sweat and tears, together, to find out what is the best starting salary you can get when you leave school – by striving to get the highest gpa you can get while at school?

it doesn’t have to be that way. Not for you at least. you are not av-erage. you are not a nobody defined only by your NriC and gpa and starting salary. you too. and you. and that girl over there. and that guy who is obviously way too inter-ested in that girl he is pretending to be cool to (or cool towards?). and that girl there who seems to have mistaken the concourse for the Milan fashion ramp. and that guy there who would do well to pump some other less built internal mus-cle to the level of his clearly well developed external muscles.

So, no, none of you is average. Nothing wrong with being aver-age of course. it’s just that you are not. Just by definition, the prob-ability of being exactly average, when you are picked out of a con-tinuous distribution is exactly zero. But more importantly, in your own mind, too, you are not exactly like everyone else around you. you are someone. you are special. you have special qualities and weaknesses and strengths and a family back-

ground and a unique combination of looks, brains, and personality. For you, college life does not have to be about, and should not have to be about just pursuing what the average of the students around you want to pursue i.e. the highest gpa so as to pursue the highest salary, so as to pursue the highest condo-minium floor in the highest priced neighbourhood.

Well, what else could it be about? What else should it be about? More, in the next!

*This article is the first in what might become a regular faculty column in The Blue and gold. The main objective of this column is to convey an independent faculty perspective on academic matters that seem of great importance to SMU students – on grades, class participation, group projects, examinations, grade reviews, etc. The author does not claim to represent the official SMU view, but s/he might be influenced by it. guess who this faculty member might be – three lucky winners chosen among the first 25 correct guessers (within the first 15 days of this article being published) will get some sort of prize. a good suggestion for a name for this column might also get you a prize, (or at least a letter of reference for a copywriting job). Comments, critiques, ideas for future columns, questions are welcome – email me at unbrandedcolumn@gmail.com

“Is that it? Is that what you are here for? Is that what faculty are here for? To put our brains and brawn, and blood, sweat and tears, togeth-er, to find out what is the best starting salary you can get when you leave school – by striv-ing to get the highest GPA you can get while at school?”

Few can testify to the efforts of the 7th Sa Exco – the late nights, the reforms, the subtle influences on the student body. Still, that doesn’t stop them from doing all of the above and more. at the 2007 agM and Sa investiture, outgo-ing Sa president ahmad Firdaus Daud and his team shared some of the many accomplishments made during their tenure and extended a tearful farewell to his term in the highest-ranked student body on campus. peppered with light-heart-ed moments and interaction from the audience during the agM, those present caught a glimpse of collegiality attained by this small group of individuals who had, just months earlier, selflessly placed the needs of SMU above theirs.

Passing the baton from the 7th to the 8th

Higher LearningThe Blue and Gold

issue 2,page Viii

March 2008

Real life experience with HIV/AIDS

Visitors pen their support for affected victims of hiV/aiDS at the one Life Experience – an ex-hibition to experience walking in the footsteps of people living with hiV/aiDS. The exhibition traces the journey of affected individuals from Singapore, africa and Cam-bodia through photo exhibits. The individuals share their thoughts and experiences on life with hiV/aiDS via recorded messages provided on headsets. Designed to provoke the senses, the exhibition allows greater understanding of how people get in-fected and how hiV/aiDS affects others. it goes beyond the realm of increasing public understanding of the disease. rather, it aims to cul-tivate empathy, sensitivity and seeks to dispel the stigma and discrimina-tion attached to hiV/aiDS. The exhibition was held from January 5 to February 3 on Campus green.

NgEoW ShaNg LiN

The shark is caught alive and whole. Within minutes, it is severed of its fins and thrown back into the ocean. Unable to swim, the shark sinks towards the bottom and is left to bleed to death or fall prey to other fishes. This method is known as finning. a highly calculated act to maximise profits no doubt but it is also a practice that is highly in-humane.

We seldom spare a thought for sharks and when we do, what comes to mind is Steven Spielberg’s vi-sion of a shark terrorising a coastal town, looking for its next meal. in reality, however, the reverse is true. The situation is dire for sharks as they are being emptied out of our oceans and into bowls of soup at an alarming rate. Sharks have roamed the oceans for the past 450 million years since the dinosaurs, and now there is a strong possibility that they might completely disappear in the near future.

it is not uncommon to find shark’s fin soup on the menu in restaurants across asia. a dish guaranteed to bring in the profits; a dish that will continue to stay on the menu as long as there is a de-

mand for it. as China’s economy surges, this demand is set to grow exponentially as the level of dispos-al income for the average Chinese increase. given the sharks’ low re-production rate and their slow ma-turity rate, the extinction of sharks is a very real possibility.

The problem of overfishing presents itself as one of most press-ing issues today and while modern technology has allowed for bigger fishing vessels and better nets, the expected bigger returns are not rea-lised. in 2006, The BBC reported that the total amount of fish caught globally has decreased by 13% from 1994 to 2003 and put forth a bold prediction that seafood would be off the menus within the next 50 years.

While many governments over the world are working to set up regulations against overfishing for commercial fishes such as tuna and salmon, there are no catch limits being put forth towards protecting sharks. as the supply for these com-mercial fishes dwindle, fisheries and consumers have taken to targeting sharks as an alternative source.

Current regulations state that sharks should not be just killed for their fins and but should be fully

utilised and a number of individual countries have gone further to ban the act of finning. however, it is the enforcement of such regula-tions that prove to be extremely tricky out in the ocean that seem-ingly presents itself as a free-for-all game. institutions such as green-peace and the Sea Shepherds may have tried to stop these rogue fish-ing expeditions, but the only clear way to end such fishing practices lie in the hands of the consumers.

Consumers today have little un-derstanding of where their bowl of shark’s fin soup originates and are generally unaware if the sharks are being caught through illegally or unsustainable means. What is more surprising however, is what shark’s fin is used for. The fins itself have no taste in themselves are used merely to add texture to the soup. While it is the fin that lends the soup its name, it is a very possible that it can be removed altogether.

in hong kong, after fierce criticism from conservationists, the Walt Disney Company, creator of the film “Finding Nemo” with the tagline: “fish are friends, not food” bowed to pressure and removed shark’s fin soup from the menu in the hong kong Disneyland theme

park. on the local front, there is an increasing number of newlyweds who have decided not to serve shark’s fin soup as part of their traditional wedding dinner. These actions towards the preservation of sharks though rudimentary, are vital and present a small glimmer of hope that change is imminent.

it is more than just preventing the extinction of sharks. The sur-vival of sharks is key to maintain-ing the marine ecosystem. a system that is highly volatile, a rapid deci-mation of sharks will destabilise the fragile balance. it is unsurprising that reports are beginning to reveal that scallops are declining, as fishes that prey on these shellfish are un-checked. Sharks also provide an im-portant revenue source for the dive tourism industry around the world.

in the 2007 Wild aid report for sharks, sharks were identified as “likely to be in the first round of marine extinctions caused by hu-man activity.” 50 years on, as hard as it may be to predict what the world would be like then, it is definitely without a doubt that should the demand for sharks increase, sharks will join their prehistoric counter-parts, the dinosaurs.

Shark’s fin anyone? Counting down to the last shark

MaNagiNg DirECTor alicia Ng Sue yee

EDiTor-iN-ChiEF Ephraim Loy Suan Je

EDiTorS anirban Datta guptaUday rao

MarkETiNg DirECTor Cheong En Min

arT DirECTor Michael Ng Wai Ting

LogiSTiCS DirECTor Lee Cher han

CoNTriBUTiNg WriTErSradhika kanugaTan WenduanElvin ongTerri-anne TeoNgeow Shang Linoh Jin rui

CoNTriBUTiNg CarTooNiST David Lau

Want to write us a letter? We want to hear from you!Write to us at:pubcomm@sa.smu.edu.sg

The Blue and Gold

The Blue and Gold

issue 2,page iX

March 2008

SMudge

aLiCia Ng

What are some of the achievements of the SMU Cricket Team?

Well, the team started of with guys playing for fun and we came in third in our first ever iVp back in 2003. Shortly afterwards Cricket was removed from the iVps and the SUNig (Singapore University games) were started. We have been second runner-up in that over the last two years. 2007 was probably our proudest year as the Cricket team entered the Singapore Cricket League as the ‘SMU Lions’ where we competed against 20 other cor-porate and clubs in the 4th Division. We ended up being placed fourth in the league and were promoted to Division 3 in the 2008 league. 2007 also saw the team being taken under the wings of the Sports Excellence program and now the club follows two intense training session of three hours each, per week.

Who’s your coach and how often do you get on his nerves?

We have had many coaches over the years and got on a lot of their nerves! Last season we had an un-der-23 prodigy from india coach us but this season we don’t have one as the Singapore Cricket associa-tion has no coaches available at the moment. So senior members of the team make it their duty to impart knowledge, correct techniques, etc.

once in a while a few of my senior friends and coaches from domestic clubs help us by supervising some of our training sessions.

Why can’t Singaporean guys play cricket as well as Sri Lankans can?

Well they can’t seem to get their mind round the rules can they! No seriously. Cricket is way more popular back in Sri Lanka than it is in Singapore. kids are practically born with a bat in their hand! hav-ing constant exposure to cricket at home and on TV develops interest and knowledge of the game. This is developed in schools at a very early age with strict training regimes. With such a vast pool of heav-ily trained kids, you’re bound to see high standard for the sport. When you play with people of high stan-dard, you improve! Simple as that. having said that, Singapore Cricket is developing very fast and there are a couple of great young kids playing for Singapore now.

What’s the best/worst game you’ve ever played?

My most memorable moment would be back in Sri Lanka when i was a junior in the under-17 team playing our tournament semi-finals. We needed 10 runs in the last four balls of the match and i had just come into bat. i somehow managed to get them off the first three balls and we

were into the finals! Don’t know how i did it but it was memorable!

The most painful experience as a player is when the team loses games that you know you should have won. in December 2005 the SMU cricket team toured perth for the iraUg (indian rim asian University games) and lost a couple of matches which we really had ‘in the bag’. had we won those games, we would have come in fourth in the tournament which would have been a huge achievement. They were probably the most painful cricketing losses of my life.

What are some of the biggest chal-lenges that an SMU athlete faces?

i never use studies as an excuse because studies can always be bal-anced given good time management (there are a few national athletes who prove that). But i guess the fact that some clubs do not have enough funds to train properly is a huge hin-drance. also, unlike other univer-sities, SMU does not have its own fields for sports like cricket, soccer, rugby. So it’s difficult for players to train as-and-when they want to (like NUS and NTU). Last but not least i think SMU has lacked a ‘Sporting Culture’. however there are pro-grams in place to ensure that this changes so i don’t think that would be a persistent problem.

Any secret ritual you perform be-fore each game?

We do our version of the hakka. Trust me when the clothes start flying off that’s a very intimi-dating sight!

Tell us about your ambitions for the SMU Cricket Team in 2008.

having lost more than half our team last year we are in the process of rebuilding the SMU Cricket team. So far things are going great and we hope to carry on our good form in the 2008 League - ranking amongst the top five, if not winning it.

5 Minutes with Jan Bogtstra

Cricket in action

SMU students literally painted the town red. at 4pm, the 400 red T-shirts specially printed in sup-port of Singapore’s bid for the youth olympic games in 2010 were snapped up by a long queue of supporters on Campus green.

Supporters then proceeded to the Lee kong Chian School of Business to assemble for the big operation. Leading the contingent, comprising students from vari-ous schools in Singapore, was Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, youth and Sports and parliamentary Sec-retary Teo Ser Luck.

The contingent with various school flags made their way to the padang while the SMU contin-gent followed hot on their heels, in red. Together with 5,000 other Singaporeans, the SMU support-ers joined in to witness the perfor-mances lined up including one by SMU Samba Masala.

By 7pm, Singapore’s prime Minister Lee hsien Loong and Defence Minister Teo Chee hean arrived amid cheers. anticipating the results, Singaporeans from all walks of life kept their eyes glued to the big screens on both sides of City hall. Videos of youth speak-ing about the games were flashed one by one on the big screens.

in a matter of seconds in-ternational olympic Committee president Jacques rogge appeared on screen. heartbeats raced and screams erupted but all too soon for the announcement. The result was only to be announced after bid vid-eos for both candidate cities were screened (Moscow first, then Sin-gapore). Seconds later, the bid en-velope was opened and Singapore emerged winner.

it’s indeed an exciting moment for Singapore.

It’s Singapore 2010!

SuPPORTINg THE BId: SMU students rally behind Singapore’s bid for the youth olympic games in 2010

aNirBaN DaTTa gUpTa

Singapore Management Uni-versity’s Dare to Dream project has always served to provide participants with the opportunity to achieve what many may deem to be ambi-tious. past projects include a kaya-king expedition from Singapore to penang and a trekking expedition to Mount kilimanjaro.

in addition to the adventure ele-ment, Dare to Dream 2007 has in-cluded the service-learning compo-nent. instead of just adopting a ben-eficiary for this project, the Dare to Dream team comprised of five hear-ing impaired youths who partnered 12 SMU participants to work with khangchendzonga Conservation Committee (kCC) on eco-tourism and conservation at yuksam, Sik-kim, india.

The partnership between SMU students and hearing impaired (hi) youths provided a rare opportunity for both parties to learn from each other through their partnership and service to a third community, Sik-kimese. SMU students learnt to un-derstand the challenges faced by the hi youths and the Sikkimese com-munity in their daily lives. Similarly, hi youths were challenged beyond their handicap to serve the Sik-kimese community.

How was the experience of spend-ing your December holidays serv-ing and interacting with the Yuksam community?

First of all, the passion and the hospitality of the community totally overwhelmed me. The amount of care, sensitivity and the effort they put in to make us feel at home is certainly very touching. Some of them are like our parents, con-stantly reminding us to wear warm clothing, to put on our beanies in

the night and making sure we have proper food.

The love they show for the nature, for the environment, for their neighbours and even aban-doned children is simply amazing. Though they do not have much, they adopt abandoned children so that these children can have a home. Though they hardly have income, the community pays to have non-biodegradable waste transported to gangtok (the nearest city which is 80km away) where it will be prop-erly treated. Their aim is simple: to not pollute the environment (there weren’t any government regulations that require them to do that). Com-munity-based home stay programs that would benefit the villagers are greatly supported even though some of these promoters themselves are inn/hotel owners. it is hard not to be touched by their love and respect for every living thing. it is also hard to not start reflecting on the things that we have taken for granted.

What have you learnt by work-ing with the hearing-impaired (HI) youths?

Before this project, i never fully understood what it meant to have taken our ability to hear for granted. i didn’t know and neither could i have imagined how even the most insignificant actions that we do dai-ly is being facilitated when we can hear. it is as simple as laughing. one can never imagine not knowing how to laugh and that’s exactly what some of the profound deaf don’t know. They have never heard laugh-ter their whole life and consequently, they learnt the facial expression for laughter but not laughter itself.

Now start thinking of the daily tasks that require hearing. it in-cludes crossing the road near a bend (you can’t see the car but you can hear it approaching), knowing that

someone is behind you and wants to overtake you, calling out to your friends across the room, getting the attention of someone who is not within touching distance, chatting with your peers and more. There are so many actions we don’t give a sec-ond thought to, but these were the exact actions that we couldn’t ex-pect the hearing impaired to do and we ourselves couldn’t do any more when communicating with them. it may seem easy not to do these ac-tions but it took us great amounts of sensitivity to realise we have taken these actions for granted and to re-member not to do them in front of our deaf peers. Sensitivity is one les-son learnt.

interacting with these hearing-impaired youths also made me rea-lise that there is a constant struggle for the hearing impaired because deafness is an invisible handicap.

They are expected to perform the duties of fully able people because they look just like anyone of us, yet in reality they are limited by that in-visible hurdle.

Being mindful of one’s body language couldn’t have been learnt better elsewhere. Without hearing, seeing is everything to them. Body language truly speaks more than words in such communication.

The HI youths must have faced some challenges in Sikkim. How did they overcome these?

The challenges that they faced in Sikkim are very similar to what they would face in Singapore. Most of them are communication-based challenges which were easily solved with the buddy system and team-work. in addition, the local commu-nity was very helpful and sensitive, thus reducing many of the possible challenges.

How did the skills you have picked up in SMU assist you in implementing marketing strat-egies for eco-tourism and the home stay program?

The very important soft skills that have facilitated this project are the ability to interact and ask the

right questions. The training that SMU has given us by making us speak up and ask questions during seminars has probably helped us ask the right questions and shed some of the shyness.

Skills picked up during mar-keting and advertising classes have really helped in brochure designing and planning. For example, it helps to know what appeals to tourists (consumers), which layout and lan-guage style suits the information best.

Many of the skills that we have developed since young are enhanced in SMU through projects, seminars, interaction and exposure has al-lowed us to contribute to the web-sites, map designs, interior layouts etc. Example would be analytical skills, research skills, report writing and presentation skills.

What’s next for the “Dare to Dream” project? Are there any events lined up for the near future?

Each year’s Dare to Dream has a unique project scope. if you have something challenging, unique and viable, pitch it to the office of Student Life and who knows, your project may be the next Dare to Dream!

SMudgeThe Blue and Gold

issue 2,page X

March 20085 minutes with Koh Su Jun

They dared to dream in India with hearing impaired youths

“Interacting with these hearing-impaired youths made me realise that there is a constant struggle for the hearing impaired because deafness is an invisible handicap.”

phoTo: koh SU JUN

SMudgeThe Blue and Gold

issue 2,page Xi

March 2008

oh JiN rUi

“i believe there’s more to life than being really, really - really good-looking.” That is definitely the most ridiculously interesting comment i had ever come across. Still, you would have to give credit for Ben Stiller’s performance in Zoolander. From the constant bick-ering and bitching to the moments of vanity and self-obsession, you ac-tually wonder if this is for real.

honestly, i don’t know how much it matters to be good-looking but i know for sure that it’s easier for a person to fit into society if he or she isn’t ugly. as unfortunate as it is, those that produce the movies we watch or the magazines we buy

have set this norm. and we subcon-sciously allowed those images to seep in and slept on it, dreamt about it or even fantasised about it.

Why did this happen? So many reasons, who would know. Can anyone do something to change it? No. and that’s in your face, cold-straight no. you’ve been listening to Eric Clapton too often and no, you can’t change the world. Even the president of the United States couldn’t do it, what more anyone of us?

So, what shall we have today? i’d like the porcelain skin with brood-ing eyes. how about a little pout and some angle for the camera?

Not a problem at all. if one could, at any point in time, summon the looks of one’s liking and con-stantly be the most-adored creature to walk the face of this earth, then who would you be? i would get a thousand different answers from whomever, if even any at all, that bothers reading this article. End of the day, if you could be as kind to agree with me, it is a matter of per-ception. Like how some would say the glass is half full and the other half from across the room would rather think that the glass is half empty. But either way, there’s still a glass.

My point in case – everyone’s just a glass and you determine whether that glass is full or emp-ty. it’s your choice. alternatively, there’s always Dr plastic.

Speaking of Dr plastic, who attends to our need of wanting to look good, i think certain govern-ments could provide this form of public service to their people. prob-ably like a plastic surgery depart-ment under the National health Service and there could be subsidies for those in need.

Maybe even in Singapore, we could tap into our Medisave for such purposes since i hear that it’s common for parents to pay for their kids’ look-good operations. and in time to come, with the success of all

the human gene projects and the possibility of parents customising their babies, Dr plastic would only be reserved for all the failed proj-ects. Thus, we should all embrace the notion of looking good but it would be illegal to look exactly like another person, just like a form of copyright or patent.

in the past few months, i’ve ac-tually had a chance to witness some of the happenings in a model’s life by participating in CLEo’S 50 Most Eligible Bachelors, the ‘hey gorgeous!’ competition and fash-ion shows for Flesh imp, as well as Newurbanmale.

all these experiences were real-ly enjoyable and honestly, it’s a mo-ment to savour when one is onstage. Cameras flash and snap. Crowd goes wild. you get the feeling like everyone’s watching and wanting to be you. i know it’s really shal-low but i’m just sharing the feelings that were running through at that moment. and with each passing second, you just get more and more confident, and i’ve got no idea if it’s the adrenalin rush or the attempt to be professional, but the poses just gets increasingly ‘modellish’ for a first-timer like myself.

My friends had a good laugh and were pleasantly shocked, as i would rather believe, with my new-found fame. So that’s community

service in a deviated form - proba-bly less than a standard deviation at 99% confidence level. Whoever said that models are empty up there?

i remember vividly how the tabloids hammered the contestants in the ‘hey gorgeous!’ competition for not being able to answer ques-tions on general knowledge. Funny how those people have nothing bet-ter to write about and they make a living on someone else’s misery. Maybe they should catch “are you Smarter Than a 5th grader?” and come to terms with their inabilities as well.

These are the stuff that get you down and it doesn’t help that most of us are still stereotypical of mod-els. Worse still, we form extreme images of male models as ‘un-straight’ and female models that sleep their way through so as to come out tops. That’s probably the reason why our society still remains divided on Section 377a and the public can’t decide on the level of media censorship.

point aside; i do believe there are exemplary individuals that still bring honour to the Models’ Creed – “i believe there’s more to life than being really, really - really good-looking.”

Thank you Zoolander.

A model’s lifeSMU student gets his brush with fame

Racing fever among SMU students

The organisers had planned for a three-day sign-up but had hit full capacity just on the first day. That was the response for a trip to the premas karting Circuit track in Jo-hor Bahru, Malaysia organised by SMU Motor inc. The 29 students who went on the trip were rewarded with adrenaline pumping fun. apart from some spinning in the go karts, the first-timers also managed their machines to negotiate tight turns at high speeds. plans for more of such go kart events are in the pipeline, say the organisers.

PHOTO: TEH HONG YUE

phoTo: SMU MoTor iNC.

SA PageThe Blue and Gold

issue 2,page Xii

March 2008

Tiffany Tay Vice presidentinitially, it was courage and passion to serve that impelled my choice to run for the Students’ association. Fortunately, by the faith and trust of those who voted, i was elected as a member of the 8th Students’ as-sociation Executive Committee. i was both thrilled and delighted. yet little did i know, a wide array of op-portunities awaited, and fresh set of challenges laid ahead.

My greatest hope for the new term is to do my part to serve the stu-dents and enhance the vibrancy of student life in SMU. also, i hope to bring about more opportunities and initiatives for students to come to-gether and bond, and build a more cohesive SMU community.

Nathaniel Koh honorary Financial SecretaryDuring the elections in 2007, i cam-paigned on the basis of the “5-star plan”, which are (i) appreciating students, (ii) Enhancing identity, (iii) promoting culture of values, (iv) Developing skills for success, and (v) Enabling financial autonomy for CCas.

having been elected, it is my re-sponsibility to follow through with this plan. That said, i am no super-human. implementing such a plan requires the effort and endurance of a team of motivated individuals. as such, i am excited and exhilarated to work with my fellow elected mem-bers of the Executive Committee, and i look forward to the goals and actions that we have put in place that will enhance the vibrancy and inclusiveness of our student life.

Febrianto honorary general Secretaryi am really excited at the prospect of serving my second term in the SMU Students’ association. The challenges and opportunities of-fered by SMUSa to improve the life of students in SMU is endless and exciting. What i hope to achieve in the com-ing year are two major goals. First is definitely to improve the welfare of students in SMU be it about the well-being of the students, unfor-gettable student life experiences during their stay in SMU or even the satisfaction of the learning pro-cess in SMU. My second goal is to bring SMUSa closer to the hearts of SMU community as an associa-tion that will always be there for all of you. after all every matriculated SMU student is part of the SMU Students’ association.

Lim Yih Huat assets SecretaryEver since i became an SMU stu-dent, i felt that i would never have the time to be involved much in CCa or school activities. This was because i believed that the school workload was too heavy and that school activities were not important. That all changed when i was part of the organising committee for Fresh-men Team Building (FTB) Camp 2007.

as the Sa assets secretary, i hope that i would be able to serve the school and student body, and to improve the student experience in SMU. i also hope to influence stu-dents who are not involved in school activities to become more active, so

that their experience in SMU would be even more enriching.

Tey Bi Qin Student initiative Secretaryit has been an exciting and amazing journey from the moment i decided to run for Sa. i am thankful to be given the opportunity to serve the school population and make a dif-ference (or at least try to). at the same time, i realise that one year is really a short time for me to do whatever i want to do. it will really be a test for my time management skill and commitment. To be honest, i get cold feet at times when i look at our visions. however, i strongly believe that we can move “moun-tains”. Therefore, i am really looking forward for my term of office!

Chang Chia Joo Events SecretaryMany of you do not know me, and probably do not care what i have to say. i don’t blame you.What you do care about are: That the kopitiam food sucks. That we have too few gSrs. That we have too many exams.That everybody mugs so hard you feel like you need to mug too.That we have no school spirit. That there is no sense of belonging to the student community. The list goes on…We are a young school. There are many things that need fixing. i want to fix them. But i can’t do it alone. The Sa Exco can’t do it alone. We need your help. We need everybody in on this.

Christina Tay Welfare Secretary Being in the SaC is a whole new experience to me. i look forward to

the challenges that i’ll be facing and i’m extremely thankful to the stu-dents for giving me this opportunity to serve them. i will give my best to ensure the rights and welfare of the students.

in my term in office, i hope to es-tablish a strong feedback channel where students can provide sugges-tions to the council easily, and also, to have their feedback responded to quickly. Ultimately, what i hope to achieve is to have students un-derstand that their welfare is of the utmost priority to the SaC. and by the end of the year, they will be able acknowledge the various enhance-ments attributed to student life, here in SMU.

Vincent Bei Business Secretaryi am very excited to be co-opted as the business secretary of the Sa and to be working with the new team for the upcoming year. i can see the passion and desire in each of us to serve and there are many exciting and bold plans we have set out for the year. What we need now, is you, as our target audience, to support us, take part in our activ-ities and give us constant feedback for us to serve you better. i am sure this will be a great year ahead.

Ng Seok Imm asst. honorary Financial Secretaryhaving been co-opted into the Sa Exco, i was given an opportunity to serve and a multitude of learning av-enues which i was unaware of. in all honesty, the task ahead did seem a little overwhelming and intimidat-ing initially. however, with the exco members working closely together, and having guidance from outgoing

exco, it helped to provide a strong foothold to start on. With such a foundation, i am confident of our team’s ability to achieve our targets, and also look forward to having fun learning in the process.

Lynette Chua Communications Secretaryi never knew what SMUSa was about when i first entered university. and when i knew about it through my training in FTB, people weren’t too optimistic about Sa. Me being me, i never would have wanted to bother about such school-related activities. i guess my turning point came as i sat down one day, won-dering what would it be like if i had done something for the school - for myself. Then i realised that i was going to graduate before even knowing it. So ta-dah i decided to run for elections. i am really glad to have the support of my friends. and i hope that i will not ever have to disappoint them.

Nasir Hibatun iT Solutions Secretaryi never expected to find myself to be part of the Students’ association in SMU. Nonetheless, the journey so far has been an enlightening one for me as i start to gain insights into how student matters are handled at higher levels of administration and the complexities involved in bring-ing initiatives from the drawing board to reality. With the portfolio of iT Secretary being a new addi-tion to the Sa this year, i look for-ward to embarking on projects that will help grow the iT capabilities of the Sa slowly and steadily, while also addressing iT related issues along the way. No points for guess-ing that i come from the small but strong family of the School of in-formation Systems!

The Blue and gold is a publication by the Singapore Management University Students’ associationprinted by khL printing 57 Loyang Drive Singapore 508968

Thoughts from the SMUSA Executive Committee