i hate "hey yeah" by outkast! it stinks! ok...
my exam's tomorrow and i'm online like there's no GEOG paper in the afternoon at 2pm!!! -breathes- huhhhh... ok. i just want to get something off my chest. read the papers this morning and there was this straw poll on singapore's young people not having a clue about current affairs. apparently, "we" lack so much of that knowledge that it is "worrying".
first of all, i want to say, don't believe everything the papers say. you have to take every darn thing with a pinch of salt. i learnt this from 2 adults, my tutor and my doctor.
secondly, if you don't know 5 questions about the few events in the recent weeks, it doesn't make you a current-affairs-deprived young adult. the article should have mentioned :
one) A-level, O-level, polytechnics, varsity students have been NOT reading any thing except their textbooks or the examination papers and timetable. hell-o? didn't they realise that we have absolutely no time? (ok not me, other muggers. heh)
two) even J1 students have been busy with their PW, which they totally hate, which was meted out to them as a way of inducing creativity, by whom? the moe, who else? is it their fault that they have zero minutes to even watch the news, seeing that they go home at midnight everyday?
three) what if you did come across those events, those articles, those comments made by journalists whose jobs are to KNOW about current affairs if they're writing about it? is it a crime not to remember the new malaysian prime minister's name? who the h*ck cares about malaysia in the first place? (ok that didn't sound good.)
then again, i'm disappointed that some people didn't even know malaysia had a new PM. either they have no life because of juggling school, exams, ccas and projects or they haven't even touched a newspaper since they discovered it makes their fingers black with ink.
it does show how un-savvy "we" are but hey, it's ONLY the opinion of a 100 or so singaporeans! there are nearly 4 million people in this tiny island, so the results are like off by 40 000x!
it's as though we are too shallow and it's sooooo "worrying". so what if some of those polled are from top secondary schools and junior colleges? like i said, they probably have tons of other things, which matter to them because they ARE students, to worry about. and after their exams, they are probably having a great time hanging out with their friends and families.
perhaps it's wrong to think this way, but at least i know there are 2 sides to every story. for one singaporean who doesn't know what defence minister teo talked about recently, i'm sure there're 2 others who do. apathy will always be prevalent among us but it's only normal as teenagers and such to be caught up in our own lives unless we truly enjoy current affairs.
why don't we? i suspect it's because of the lack of a good humanities education in the early stages of our lives. it's sort of worse after studying SS. we grown to learnt that the humanities is utterly tedious and boring because the only reason we're studying it is because it's compulsory. but actually, i don't agree. i know i'm full of contradictions.
and usually, it's only those students in top schools, who because they want to get into the prestigious humanities programme in jc, get to really know humans and enjoy it(or hate it but there's a higher chance they somewhat like it). they are the ones who really know their stuff and they'll only be able to discuss it among their own classmates who are taking the same subjects. and usually, there are more science classes in jc.
it's like, who else can you discuss these things with? not many people have a liking for current affairs because etc, etc...
hmm... this is my first attempt in writing something like this and i supposed i'm very very raw, therefore my arguments are not wholly supported. practising for GP. heh. ok ok i know i should get back to geog and stop thinking about next year because i haven't even finish my 'O's.
just wanted to say, i want to enjoy my teenage years while keeping touch with worldly affairs because i don't want to be a farce-faced poseur who pretends to be oh-so-knowledgeable. it's nice to be able to talk about these things with adults sometimes...
