TDP Students In Action

Roman's Post

2007-04-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

To all Pre-University Seminar participants and all those who helped out,

Good luck to all of you and I must say thank you for all your hardworks for the past few months. Sorry for not being able to join you people.

Regards,
Roman
Aerospace Technology

Round 2 of Puppet Shooting

2007-04-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

It tooks many days and weeks of hard work before the video is ready. A pat on the back for the multimedia team, the research teams and leader XiongSheng for coming this far. Some photos to commemorate the moments..

Happy Family

Behind the Scenes

The Director Junwei and Narrator Charlene

The Puppets

Posted by Michelle Lim

Pre-University Seminar

2007-04-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

These are the photos taken of some of you during the Pre-U Seminar preparations. Enjoy!

The Puppet Actors

Behind the Scenes

The Caucasian, Indian and American Puppets

Memorising the Scripts

People and Puppets

On Meet the MP Christopher De Souza Session...29 Jan 07

2007-02-02T00:02:00.000-08:00

Hi, all, a group of TDP students made a trip to the Ulu Pandan Constituency for a hands-on experience to see the Member of Parliament (MP) Christopher De Souza in action during Meet-the-MP sessions (MPS), witness how volunteers help during the MPS and hear the ground issues faced by residents in the community.

See the pictures and the students Denise, Chee San, Sylvia and Alvin in action...

Highlights of the students' experiences:
The event exposed us to how the grassroot system works, allow us to be aware of real problems and difficulties faced by our people and how the MPs try to help them cope with these problems. The best part of the event was meeting Christopher De Souza and witnessing how he handles each and everyone's case with such passion and understanding..I expected something different because I was not prepared for what was really going to happen. It was both interesting and enriching. - Denise Tan Mei Xiu, Life Sciences & Chemical Technology (LSCT)

The best part of the event is to be able to assist the MP in typing a letter to LEGAL AID to help a man who was wrongly sacked by his boss. I learned that there are many people whom needs help eg. financially but are unable to get their message across/don't know how to go about it..i did not regret going for it as it had enabled me to gain a new dimension in looking at things - Slyvia Chiang Wei Min, Life Sciences & Chemical Technology (LSCT)

The purpose of the event was to provide students with a new perspective on local issues. The best part of the event is going through the whole process of hearing and writing an appeal to listening to the MP speak and agree on assisting. I have received a new perspective of ground issues that are so common yet often overlooked by people. (eg. Traffic fines, no electricity, immigration problems, internal household problems, etc..) - Alvin Lim Jia Chan, Business & Accountancy (BA)

I learned that volunteering can be of many different ways. It's not all about visiting old folks' home or flag days. By volunteering our services at the MPS, we can also help fellow Singaporeans. The event meets my expectations as I had a chance to perform duties that grassroot volunteers did eg. translation. - Tong Chee San, Life Sciences & Chemical Technology (LSCT)

Michelle Lim

Meet-the-MP Session @ Ulu Pandan constituency (29 Jan 7pm)

2007-01-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

What is this about?
Meet-the-MP sessions allow residents with social or economic problems to seek help from the MP.
Who is the MP?
He is Christopher De Souza, and he is the youngest MP (31 years old) who have joined the Parliament recently. This is his picture (extracted from http://www.parliament.gov.sg/AboutUs/Org-MP-MP-Prof-Christopher.htm) and more information about him below.
Why should I attend?
- Experience how the constituency system works for Singaporeans - we often complain that "govt not doing enough". Is it true? See and judge for yourself...
- See the "real issues" on the ground - so that when you talk about current affairs and issues, you can talk about it in a more informed manner
- Come face-to-face with an MP - how often do you get to talk directly to an MP and see him or her in action?
Will it be an interesting experience?
Yes. This trip was started by 2 lecturers from School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Sharon Quah and Shawna Tang and due to the good student feedback, TDP decided to organize a similar trip for the students. Hear what students who have gone before have to say about their experience:

"Mr Christopher de Souza is an excellent person. He is very friendly and kind. He gave an illuminating speech to us about his work and the various challenges faced by an MP. I find Mr Chris and his volunteers very open and caring and they serve with a sense of altruism. I am very fortunate to have attended this session, which I believe is a rare opportunity." - Xiong Sheng, Life Science

"The MP and his volunteers are very friendly to the residents and to us. Some volunteers are actually senior citizens and they have done volunteering for a long time. I can feel that they volunteer with their hearts, try their best to help the community. They do this not for themselves. This makes me feel that I also need to do something to help the community."
- Dinh Xuan Thanh, Infocomm Technology

"It's been a real eye opener and allows me to see a lot of problems which I previously take for granted. It is impressive how the government has woven such a good system to help Singaporeans in need." - Wei Qi, Life Science

More at http://www.ngeeann.edu.sg/is/mps.html
When?
29 Jan, Mon, 7pm. Meet at Ulu Pandan Community Centre,
about 5 to 10 mins walk from Buona Vista MRT
Address: Block 6 Ghim Moh Road
About Christopher de Souza
Christopher de Souza studied law at King’s College London, where he graduated with first class honours as the joint top student of his class. He received the Jelf Medal for his athletic, social and academic contributions to the University. Christopher was awarded the Shell & Oxford Scholarship (without a bond) to study at the University of Oxford where he graduated with a Masters of Law (Distinction). Christopher returned to Singapore to join the Singapore Legal Service. While in the Legal Service, Christopher served as Justice Law Clerk to the Chief Justice and the Court of Appeal, Deputy Public Prosecutor and State Counsel at the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Magistrate of the Subordinate Courts and Assistant Registrar at the High Court.
Christopher resigned from the Legal Service in March this year and joined the Commercial &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Criminal Litigation Department of law firm Lee & Lee on 1 April 2006.

Quotations from the MP
"Such openness, while a reflection of good governmental foresight, must also come with an assurance that Singaporeans are still a top priority. There are common sentiments, such as when the immigrant arrives, we welcome him and his family with open arms, but will his son do NS? Will he leave for better pastures after some time? Are we merely a springboard nation? These are sentiments that need to be addressed,"
(extracted from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/specialreport/news/240194_8/1/.html)

"Many other citizens say they are young at heart! So, what is age? The real question must be: Can I serve Singapore and deliver if the responsibility is thrust on me? If one answers 'yes' with eyes wide open, then that's the spirit. The next step is action — for nation and countrymen."
(extracted from http://www.todayonline.com/articles/115102print.asp)

Scholar and the Boat

2006-11-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

Hihi all Alex from HLM here! =). Here's a story which all can learn from.

Scholar and the Boat

Once upon a time, a Scholar just got killed in an accident and was sent to the Other Side awaiting his place in the Underworld. There, he saw many ghosts, all getting on different boats whose job is to get the different people to different places of the afterlife. Because of he feels that since he's a scholar and is super smart and anything, he feels that he is superior then the other ghosts, and thus it would be shameful to ask them which boat he should take. Using his personal intuition, he got on a random boat with a few ghosts and the boat set sail.

On the boat, the Scholar looked around and found himself getting hotter and hotter. He wondered way but dare not ask the ghosts. After all, he is a Scholar and is supposed to be well versed in all subjects. The boat went on.

It got hotter and hotter. The boat continued to move, carrying with it the ghosts and the scholar. He wondered where the boat is going, but he did not ask the other ghosts. He thinks that if he doesn't know where the boat is going, the other ghosts certainly would not. Thus, he tolerated the heat as the boat moved on.

The heat was getting blistering!!! The Scholar was sweating profusely and was dying (metaphorically) of thrist, but still, the Scholar will not ask the other ghosts where the boat was going!!!

Finally, they reached the shore, where he followed the other ghosts to the Hall.

In the Hall, the Scholar saw a maginificent figure. Ther stood a big man, 3 metres tall, wearing a judge's robe with a mace on his hand. Then, finally, the Scholar asked:

"Where am I?"

"You are in the Hall of Pain, where the souls of those who've sinned much will be punished for all eternity."

And there the scholar suffered.

So...

Whats the moral of the story?
3 morals.

1) Ask questions. Ask people, no matter what their social status be. They may be worse off at some areas compared to you but they have their strong points to. Learn from them. You'll suffer if you don't. Maybe its not now, maybe its not tommorrow, but you will suffer. Of ignorance, of miscommunication and of many misfortunes that follows with stupidity.

2)Don't follow blindly. Always have a plan. Always know where you are going in the end. If not you are planning to suffer. Failure to plan is planning to fail. Remember that.

3) Ever wondered where the ignorant arrogant people are? Well, they are dead. Or suffering. or both.

Remember this 3 points and bring them to anywhere you go. These are especially useful in projects, chat sessions, forums and your daily lives.

Cheers and be blessed by Fate.

Just something to get things started.

2006-11-25T04:37:00.000-08:00

In case anybody doesn't know who i am, i'm Joon Tat. haha.
I hope this isn't too informal but i'm guessing since many of us are preparing for common tests now. So i thought maybe i'll post some motivational stuff, at the same time get the posts rolling.

hmm recently i've been listening to brian mcknight, so i'll just share his lyrics.

Brian Mcknight - Win

Dark is the night
I can weather the storm
Never say die
I’ve been down this road before

I’ll never quit
I’ll never lay down
See I promised myself I would never let me down

(chorus)
So I’ll never give up
Never give in
Never let a ray of doubt slip in
And if I fall
I’ll never fade
I’ll just get up and try again
Never lose hope
Never lose faith
There’s much too much at stake
Upon myself I must depend
I’m not looking for a place ashore
I’m gonna win

Won’t stop me now
There’s still a ways to go
Some way somehow
Whatever it takes I know

I’ll never quit
I’ll never go down
I’ll make sure they remember my name 100 years from now

(chorus)

When it’s all said and done
My once in a lifetime won’t be back again
Now is the time, to take a stand
Here is my chance, that’s why i

(chorus)

Great song to listen to when you've just had a fall.
Just remember, A man is not measured by how high he climbs, but by how high he bounces back up again.
Hope i was of some help. And good luck to all people taking common tests. (which i don't have.)

Adios!

Cheers.

Welcome!

2006-11-20T01:21:00.000-08:00

Dear TDP Students,

Welcome to the TDP Students in Action Blog.
I have added all of your emails into the Members List.
Join the community and look forward to reading your posts!

Michelle

Arcade game or Jackpot machine?

2006-10-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

I thought that it would be a bit boring if we only blog about events that we attended and so I decided to add in this entry.

I attended the job central career fair at Suntec Convention Hall today and found that there wasn't any suitable job that fits me. There were no life sciences based companies exhibiting and thus I left 5 minutes after browsing through the booths. Since time was still early, I decided to window shop at Suntec city mall.

As I was window shopping, I passed by the arcade and saw a crowd near its entrance. Out of curiosity, I went to check out what was so interesting that so many people are looking at it. And I saw this arcade game (not too sure if it is a new game as I haven been visiting the arcade since secondary 2, please pardon me for being so ignorant) called "The Stacker". It is not a very interesting game and the objective of the game is just to stack the blocks the are moving sideways right up the top. So why is this game attracting so many people to crowd around it? I took a closer look at it and found that the big prizes that one can win if he/she manages to stack the blocks up to the top includes PSPs and mobile phones. And considering that it is just a dollar a game, I think it would be quite a worthwhile "investment" since a PSP or a mobile phone would cost me at least $200.

I continued to observe a lady playing this game and discovered that it is not as easy as it looks to win. She had always lost at the last block where she did not manage to stack and it looks to me like a scam where it is impossible for anyone to win a thing. I did not calculate how many times exactly the lady had played the game. But it was at least 30. That means that she had spent 30 bucks on the game in just 15 minutes without winning a single thing and it is not guaranteed that she would win a PSP after playing 200 rounds or so. Then at the other machine, I saw a 13-14 year old kid spending about 20 bucks playing the game. He seemed very frustrated and I guessed he most probably had spent his week's pocket money to play and didn't win anything. This game seemed to me like a jackpot machine from the casino except that it is giving away prizes instead of money. So why isn't this game controlled/banned in Singapore? Is this a loophole in the Singapore law that it is not considered a gamble because it is not giving away money but prizes? To me, I personally felt that this is another form of gamble and I would not even spend a single dollar on it. Moreover, the $50 that the lady and the kid lost to the gamble could last me half a month if I spend carefully. Why waste that money?

Opinions anyone?

TDP Roundtable Discussion

2006-10-27T01:20:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

It seems that the TDP blog is not serving its purposes well enough. There are very few entries that had been made since this blog started. I've decided to post another entry on the TDP blog to keep it alive and hopefully be able to get more students to blog.

Michelle hosted a TDP Roundtable discussion on 26th Oct and we had a casual and enjoyable discussion at Holland Village Starbucks about issues like elitism, North Korea Nuclear Testing, standards of our public transport and also the recent haze problem.

Towards the end of the session, Michelle asked us what we think we would be doing in 15 years time and these are our replies:

1. Ron - Doctor specialising in emergency medicine or joining doctors without boundaries (Sounds so noble, but I believe he can make it).

2. Prisilla - Teacher/ Principal (You might want to consider enrolling your children in her school. I believe she will make a good educator).

3. Denise - Businesswoman/ Entrepreneur starting up her own business (Anyone thinking of investing in her businesses? I'm sure it will be lucrative)

4. Sylvia - Researcher (Singapore's first science noble prize winner?)

5. Alvin - Trading (Our soon-to-be self-made billionaire?)

6. Me - Gynaecologist (Don't laugh. Who says a guy can't be a gynae? Look for me if you are going to give birth to a baby. I can give a discount:))

It will be interesting to know what those people who didn't attend the session think they would be in 15 years time and I hope they can share with us by posting a comment.

Alvin also shared with us his experiences during his International Enterprise(IE) Singapore interview and I wish that he makes it to the second round of interviews and eventually to the trip.

I've also registered for the HarmonyWorks! Conference 2006 and I'll be blogging about it soon after the event.

World Bank Youth Open Space Dialogue

2006-10-03T06:04:00.000-07:00

Prisilla, Robyn and I attended the World Bank Youth Open Space Dialogue organised by the National Library Board and World Bank Singapore Office from 9 to 10 September. I would like to share my experiences.

On the first day of the dialogue, many of us were overdressed as we thought that a dialogue session organised by the world bank would be formal. Surprisingly, the session was a rather casual one. The agenda of the session was not even planned. We were told by our facilitator, Mr Nigel, that we will be setting our own agenda to discuss issues that matter to us. I found this dialogue rather novel and interesting. The process of planning the agenda was a great method as many of us had things that we would like to share and debate but no arena to do so. This dialogue had provided us we a great platform to discuss what we wanted instead of following to a fixed schedule like the previous dialogues I attended. There were different issues discussed at a single session and we had to choose which 1 we would like to attend.

Issues like elitism in education, poverty, fair trade and racial harmony were brought up. Before we started any serious discussion, Mr Nigel informed us about some "ground rules". The most notable and left the deepest impression in me were as follows:

The law of 2 feet. ( We are allowed to leave the discussion any time if we found that no progress were made or that the discussion was not what mattered to us)
When it's over is over. (We were also told that if there are any things that we felt had to be brought up, we have to bring it up during the session. When the session is over, we might not have another chance or arena to bring up the topic again)

I had a lot of opinions to share about the education system in Singapore and thus most sessions I attended were education related. One of the more interesting session was regarding elistism in education. We discussed issues like abolishing GEP and EM3 (Surprising, I found out from the newspapers that these systems were really abolished recently). We also felt that more chances should be given to the late bloomers.

To conclude, this was an excellent platform that provided me the chance to voice out my opinions. I also made a lot of new friends whom shared similar views as me and because of this dialogue, we were given a rewarded with the chance to enter The Pod (normally restricted to members of the public) at the top level of the National Library with a 360 degree spectacular view of Singapore.

(Friends made during Open Space Dialogue)

(View from The Pod)

(Singapore World Bank Representative, Mr Peter L Stephen)

(Our facilitator, Mr Nigel Seys-Philips)

APSSA Conference 2006 - Reflections

2006-08-04T03:30:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Priscilla and i (Sylvia) attended the APSSA Conference 2006 on 27 - 30 June 2006 organised by National Singapore Students' Union. We would like to share our experiences while we were there.

The 5 most memorable things/lessons I have learned or gained from the conference?

Friendships and networking
How to accept different cultures and their lifestyle
Youths do play a part in globilisation as we are the future keyplayers
A lesson we have learnt is that potentials and abilities do not have a limit to it and that as long as we set our minds to do the “impossible” and is willing to push harder, it is achievable.
Be open and listen to other peoples' suggestions because you could learn something more and different from it.

Who did we meet and network with?

Mr Reynald Vincent Dela Cruz- (University of Santo Tomas)
-> He is not afraid to ask questions and his views do not waiver even when doubted by people.

Ms Liu Lin –(Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University and Technology) -> When she was giving a speech for her country report, she appeared confident and managed to draw attention although her English pronunciation wasn't very good. She did this by first acknowledging and telling the audience that her English wasn't good and then she tries her best to explain what she wanted to say. Hence, her effort to try and acknowledgement of weakness was indeed laudable.

Some insightful thoughts that I gained from the experience...

The leadership games- it made us more open to suggestions, see our potential and challenged us to go beyond our limits.
The conference gives us an opportunity to learn, understand and appreciate their lifestyles and culture so we can apply it in the future. Eg. business dealing. Networking is very important as it forms a bridge and narrows the gap between 2 parties.
Strength - In the beginning, we felt outcast because we were the only 2 frm NP and the rest of the Singaporeans were from NUS. So we were put into ituations to force ourselves to communicate wiyh other pple and in turn realising that we could actually start impromptu conversations quite easily.
Weakness - Singapore lifestyle has somehow trained its people to be "hurrying" all the time and portray ourselves as perfect in front of pple. For instance, when attending the speeches, we were always "kanchiong" and particular about puntuality. However, the Philipinos were rather laid-back. They took their time during tea-break with ease even though they were running late. When we tried to hurry them, they didn't like it. Hence, we should learn to be more accommodative because its their culture after all.
Singaporeans tend to be more self-conscious and are unwilling to ask questions as they are afraid to embarrass themselves.

Who Am I?

2006-06-07T03:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's a riddle to start off this blog. Who can guess what is this? Just 1 word.
Prize is a trip to Paris...just kidding...

Who am I?
I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.
Half the things you do you might just as well turn over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed - your must merely be firm with me.
Show me how exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons I will do it automaticall. I am the servant of all great individuals and alas, of all failures as well.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a human.
You may run me for profit or run me for ruin - it makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet.
Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who Am I?