My Reelity

Just came across this excellent interview with Mr Ngiam Tong Dow, former head of the civil service in 2003. Give that man a Tiger, what an excellent insight!

Two things I wish to highlight from the interview :

Q. So what should this new compact consist of?

A. It should go back to what was originally promised: ‘That you shall be given the best education, whether it be academic or vocational, according to your maximum potential.’ And there will be no judgment whether an engineer is better than a doctor or a chef. My late mother was a great woman. Although illiterate, she single-handedly brought up four boys and a girl. She used to say in Hainanese: ‘If you have one talent which you excel in, you will never starve.’ I think the best legacy to leave is education and equal opportunity for all. When the Hainanese community came to Singapore, they were the latest arrivals and the smallest in number. So they had no choice but to become humble houseboys, waiters and cooks. But they always wanted their sons to have a better life than themselves. The great thing about Singapore was that we could get an education, which gave us mobility, despite coming from the poorest families. Today, the Hainanese, as a dialect group, form proportionately the highest number of professionals in Singapore.

Q. What is the kind of Singapore you hope your grandchildren will inherit?

A. Let’s look at Sparta and Athens, two city states in Greek history. Singapore is like Sparta, where the top students are taken away from their parents as children and educated. Cohort by cohort, they each select their own leadership, ultimately electing their own Philosopher King. When I first read Plato’s Republic, I was totally dazzled by the great logic of this organisational model where the best selects the best. But when I reached the end of the book, it dawned on me that though the starting point was meritocracy, the end result was dictatorship and elitism. In the end, that was how Sparta crumbled. Yet, Athens, a city of philosophers known for its different schools of thought, survived. What does this tell us about out-of-bounds markers? So SM Lee has to think very hard what legacy he wants to leave for Singapore and the type of society he wants to leave behind. Is it to be a Sparta, a well-organised martial society, but in the end, very brittle; or an untidy Athens which survived because of its diversity of thinking? Personally, I believe that Singaporeans are not so kuai (Hokkien for obedient) as to become a Sparta. This is our saving grace. As a young senior citizen, I very much hope that Singapore will survive for a long time, but as an Athens. It is more interesting and worth living and dying for.

I heartily agree with ‘That you shall be given the best education, whether it be academic or vocational, according to your maximum potential.’

And our resemblance to Sparta now is horrifying. I would wish we become Athens as well.

Just did my taxes.

For the first time, my acting income dipped below the 4-digit mark.

So there it was, The Sign, blinking and flashing brightly indeed.

“I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign
No one’s gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong
But where do you belong? Oh oh oh”

So after queuing for 2.75 hours on Saturday, I’ve finally gotten my hands on the spanking new iPhone 3GS, thereby finally upgrading my 2G (Phoebe) after 2.5 years.

Gisele, however is not taking too kindly to my restoring a backup of Phoebe into her. And boy, is she making a big deal out of it. My text messages will disappear after I exit the SMS application and I can’t save new notes, and have trouble opening the older ones as well.

If I however set up the phone as a new phone, she works like a charm and purrs with my every touch.

Is it me or is my iPhone behaving like a real lady?!!

Dear Shu Qi,

If by chance you don’t marry Mr Lucky-Bastard-Chang when you are 35, will you marry me instead?

Yours truly and hoping to be truly yours,

Vincent

Who would have thought that after 4 years, this is really the winning number.

Too bad we didn’t continue buying the number lol.

Most of the time, this question always leave me in a state of bemusement.

Let’s see what the basic definition is :

ac?tor
? ?/?ækt?r/ [ak-ter]
–noun
1. a person who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, television broadcasts, etc.
2. a person who does something; participant.

So going by the above definition, then I guess I am one.

But anyone can be an actor, you say. True, I mean its not like you need a Masters degree to be one. And wasn’t it Bill (William Shakespeare) who labeled everyone an actor?

I guess why people ask me the question is because I’m too obscure and/or haven’t been featured prominently in anything mainstream. I don’t fault them for that; heck if I’m in their shoes, I too, will have difficulty believing I’m an actor.

But I do get offended by people if their questioning goes along the lines of “Are you pretending to be an actor”. Please lah, I got nothing better to do meh? Why do I want to pretend to be something anyone can be?

And then there are those who differentiate between extras, bit players and main part actors. Most of us have to start somewhere and its just too bad that the industry here don’t really advocate working your way up. But that’s not a reason to condemn those who call themselves actors but have been only doing carelefare work (see definition above).

So am I really an actor? Well, you decide for yourself. But I do know I have a good body of work behind me, so if anyone’s asking, I’m an actor.

And a darn good one at that. 😉

What’s with all these hoo ha about an association being set up man. I had no idea it would create such a commotion when I first read it in Today. I figured most people will read it, laugh it off and then turn their attention to something more worthwhile.

I know I did.

But I guess perhaps everyone is just plain bored and wanted something to break the doom and gloom around us these days.

With the rainy day Budget now catering to just a slight drizzle, I guess we do need all the distractions we can get just to stay sane.

And since we’re on the topic of distraction, I’m seizing this opportunity to announce a club I’m setting up.

Membership is FREE and for females only; just email me a photograph of yourself in bikini, along with your name and phone number. 😉

Dedicated to the eclipse expected today.

I, Vincent Lee, do solemnly and sincerely apologise on this very day, for calling you, my personal blog, boring. I should have know better than to gauge your content by looking at your readership and number of people who comment. I should have known that its entirely possible for me to have written entries in which people will find it hard to comment about.

As for readership, I should have known that its probably due to me not actively promoting your existence and by no means should it be an indication that you are boring.

I hope you accept this apology and don’t eat up the posts that I’ve spent hours in the future as retaliation.

Peace out.

So it turns out, “The Happening” movie really isn’t so happening at all.

At least, thats what the word on the street is.

I haven’t seen the movie, so I can’t really comment on it. But there can’t be smoke without fire right? And I’ve got a funny feeling that only fine film connoisseur like the Asshat would appreciate it. But I digress.

What I think is happening here is an important lesson folks. If you are happening, you do not proclaim to everyone that you are happening. It just doesn’t work that way. The Happening movie is one prime example. Tell the world you are happening and watch yourself fall very short of that description.

In fact, if you really think you are happening, you’ve probably happened already. And the whole world just wants your happened self to get over it already. So stop telling people you are happening dude. If you are really happening, people would be able to tell straight away; they don’t need telling.

And as you can tell already, this is so not a happening post.