Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Start of The End

2009 began tumultuously with this.
Already a few weeks into school, and reality finally beginning to sink in that my days in NUS is indeed numbered.

Especially, now that I've officially run out of opportunities to sell my remaining textbooks, after a very unsuccessful attempt at BuyBackAsia.
So here's a final shot. Anyone interested in the following textbooks, please contact me. I guarantee the best price, value and quality!

Title: Essential Cell Biology
Author: Alberts Bray Hopkin Johnson Lewis Raff Roberts Walter
Edition: 2nd

Title: Biology, Concepts and Applications
Author: Cecie Starr
Edition: 6th

Title: Marketing - Real people, Real choice
Author: Soloman, Marshall, Stuart
Edition: 4th

Anyone interest?
A donation is much appreciated...


On a separate note, my Final Year Project has been a bottomless pit in terms of time and effort.
I'm beginning to suspect that my mentor expects me to be in lab during normal working hours, even if it means skipping my lectures and tutorials.

And of course, after conducting my daily experiments in lab, I would have to crunch out some useful numbers, to prove that I'm making groundbreaking discovery.
But I think I'm more more of an alcoholic than a researcher.

Indeed, culturing all these bloody (pun intended) human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells have driven me close to insanity.

But the final straw had to be this...
Do notice that there a tiny lump of growth in the tissue culture flask.
And NO. The flask is supposed to contain clear cell culture medium and NOTHING MORE.

To prove that the twenty-cent-sized lump has to be some sort of insidious creature, here are some photomicrographs of it on the edges...
I get goosebumps whenever I see these evil fungal growth.

So you could imagine how I almost fainted when I found the "MOTHER" Fungus growing in the tray of water in the incubator. The motherfungal thing was at least half the size of my palm!

You might not "appreciate" the gravity / grotesqueness of the situation if you have not handled cell culture before. But it's probably the equivalent of finding first finding a cockroach in your food, and then discovering the cook is a cockroach!

Fine, bad analogy.

On another random note, I just found out that playing 围棋 (WeiQi) and "digging gold" is much frowned upon in Bishan Community Club.

Finally, this entry wouldn't be complete without announcing to the world that I have officially joined...
The Conservatory Chamber Singers of
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Music

It sounds good, ain't it?

Haha. Actually, it's because I'm taking this 2MC module by Yong Siew Toh "MUA3211: Chamber Singers II"
Module Descriptus:
This course allow students to learn the fundamentals of vocal production and choral techinique through participation in a vocal performance ensemble. Students will participate in regular rehearsals, and will learn and perform choral music with an emphasis on Renaissance and Twentieth-century music. Through this course, students will gain knowledge of diverse repertoire, composers, genres, styles and period performance practices. They will also learn fundamentals of vocal production and choral technique and will experience working together in a unique team ensemble.
As I've mentioned, this is my final semester in NUS. So I decided to fulfill my final wishes and end it off with a bang. Indeed, this module is absolutely extraneous which probably has no effect on my CAP and might even siphon some of my precious time from my FYP.

But who could resist not taking a module conducted in a classroom with a Steinway Grand Piano?

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Friday, January 16, 2009

Final Year Crap

No. This blog hasn't died yet.
My only excuse for a relatively long hiatus is the inordinate grotesque amount of time my final year project has been soaking up. It has derailed numerous ambitious plans I set out to accomplish in the December holidays, but it didn't take long for me to realize that it's already 2009.

Christmas was literally bloody short.
But nonetheless, I still manage to hit an ultra-last-minute trip to Hong Kong.
But because my FYP interim report is due in less than a couple of days time, I think I'll hold off the detailed blogging.
So to tide the dearth of words in this entry, here's an article I wrote for The Online Citizen.
And yes, it's about everyone's favourite political party to hate/love, the Singapore Democratic Party. Heh.

SDP: Misunderstood, misguided or misaligned?
By Kelvin Lim / Writer

The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) is arguably Singapore’s most controversial political party, boasting a colourful history involving ideological clashes with the government, inter and intra-party disunity and facing an inundating surge of legal lawsuits and charges.

After years of negative reporting by the local media, the public standing of SDP seems to be permanently marred in the eyes of some Singaporeans.

A quick search into recent archives (2008) of The Straits Times on news pertaining to the SDP has indeed yielded a less than flattering picture.

Date

Headline in the Straits Times

22 August

Chees, five others charged with illegal assembly

2 September

Illegal assembly: Woman fined $650

14 October

Chees deserved jail terms for their conduct in court: Judge

14 October

PM, MM get $950k damages; Amount determined in part by ‘egregious’ conduct of the Chees

15 October

A-G takes trio to court for ’scandalising judiciary’

24 October

Two fined for taking part in illegal assembly

Raison d’être: Civil disobedience

It is tempting to dismiss them as politicians who are bent on breaking laws and creating trouble, but scratch beyond the rebellious surface and it might reveal more than meets the eye. The rationale behind their actions has been explained on their website, and also detailed by Dr Chee Soon Juan’s The Power of Courage.

The SDP states that the most fundamental objective for a political party is policy-making, followed by implementation of policies upon successful election into the parliament. But without free and fair elections, they rationalise that the only alternative path is “for citizens to exercise their rights through peaceful mass protests to compel the PAP to accede to the people’s demands for a free and fair election system”.

In a nutshell, they have been advocating political change through nonviolent action.

Nonviolent action is a means of social change that avoids the use of physical violence. Sometimes going beyond institutionalised methods such as petitioning and voting, it takes the form of civil disobedience. As the name suggest, civil disobedience involves a refusal to disobey selective laws and regulations which are deemed to be unfair and unjust.

Various famous historical examples of civil disobedience were the Salt Satyagraha by Mahatma Gandhi, the Montgomery Bus Boycott sparked by Rosa Parks and resistance against South African apartheid, led by Nelson Mandela.

Framing that principle in the Singapore context, Dr Chee purports that Singapore has its fair share of “unjust laws”, which aim to circumscribe basic human rights such as freedom of assembly and speech. To “overcome” these laws, he advocates breaking existing “unjust laws” even if it results in stiff penalties. He reasons: “The Government can jail 10 persons; it can even jail 100 persons but it cannot jail 10,000 persons.”

Liberalising the Speakers’ Corner: A fruit of civil disobedience?

Since Dr Chee was appointed as the Secretary-General of SDP in 1993, it remains debatable whether his confrontationist approach has yielded tangible results.

In a working paper published by Asia Research Institute titled “Calibrated coercion and the maintenance of hegemony in Singapore”, Dr Cherian George posits that these tactics are aimed at provoking a strong response so to expose “the repressive core of the state”. Yet, due to the Singapore’s small geographical size and its traditional economic strength, the People’s Action Party (PAP) has been able to respond to the multiple acts of civil disobedience with little visible political cost, by limiting legal action to organisers and speakers instead of the participatory audience.

On the other hand, long-time political commentator, Mr Alex Au points out the recent relaxation of regulation on public protests at Speakers’ Corner as a visible fruit of civil disobedience. During the IMF-World Bank Summit held in Singapore in October 2006, Dr Chee Soon Juan and Ms Chee Siok Chin engaged in a standoff with the police for three days and nights, and were prevented from marching to the conference venue. Predictably, it generated unfavourable press coverage worldwide and even earned stinging criticism from the World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz when the authorities tried to bar accredited activists from entering the shores of Singapore.

In any case, one may never know for sure whether the move towards liberalising public protest at Speakers’ Corner on 1 September was impelled by the SDP’s acts of civil disobedience by, or a deliberately-paced progression towards active citizenship.

A clash of ideals

Former NTUC Income chief, Mr Tan Kin Lian is by far, the most successful organiser in attracting record breaking numbers to the Speakers’ Corner, and advocating justice for unwitting investors who have invested in complex structured products especially those linked to the collapsed Lehman Brothers.

On 14 October, much to the dismay of the SDP, Mr Tan highlighted the importance of investors staying within the laws. He cautioned of “groups that wish to expand their anarchical ranks and would happily urge you to break the law”, and bluntly warned against doing “what many stupid and selfish politicians in Singapore have done and seek self destruction.”

In a reply posted on the SDP website, the party accused Mr Tan of joining in with the voices of scaremongering. Rhetorically, they asked where Mr Tan could have assembled the DBS investors, if activists had not campaigned for freedom of assembly. Rather than disparaging civil disobedience, fighting for political and civil rights could “come in very handy in [the] future”.

There is much debate over the validity of what the SDP has been fighting for, such as whether current laws are really unjust in the first place. Furthermore, people who support ideals pertaining to freedom of assembly and speech may not be willing to intentionally go against established laws which restrict its very definition.

SDP on a tightrope

In March this year, SDP launched a series of “Tak boleh tahan!” (Malay for I can’t take it anymore!) campaigns to protest against rising inflation which resulted from price hikes including the GST increase. Conducted at HDB estates such as Toa Payoh Central and Bishan, it was a calculated move towards engaging heartlanders on bread-and-butter issues.

In the months that followed, the SDP also tried to reach out to local university students at National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU).

Of late, the public outreach process has all but stopped as the SDP and some of its stalwart supporters had been besieged by a series of charges and lawsuits. With hefty compensation sums awarded to Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in recent defamation lawsuits, the SDP faces possible bankruptcy and deregistration as a political party.

The party is placed in a more precarious position than ever before. While it has managed to win supporters through the Internet, it remains to be seen and tested whether the newfound support might translate into substantial public support to prevent its demise.

Combined with a lack of consensual support between opposition parties and an ever evolving PAP, SDP must find a way to leapfrog ahead of the current conundrum while maintaining continual contact with Singaporeans, both online and offline.

Dr Chee recognised that “no campaign or movement can guarantee immediate and automatic success”. Whether or not SDP translate its grandiose political ideals to reality without going under is anyone’s guess.

Don't ask me why I'm inserting this random webcomic strip here.

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Monday, January 05, 2009

Life of Me

If my life could be surmised in one poem, it would be this. Uncanny brilliance.

The Old Sailor
by A.A. Milne

There was once an old sailor my grandfather knew
Who had so many things which he wanted to do
That, whenever he thought it was time to begin,
He couldn't because of the state he was in.

He was shipwrecked, and lived on a island for weeks,
And he wanted a hat, and he wanted some breeks;
And he wanted some nets, or a line and some hooks
For the turtles and things which you read of in books.

And, thinking of this, he remembered a thing
Which he wanted (for water) and that was a spring;
And he thought that to talk to he'd look for, and keep
(If he found it) a goat, or some chickens and sheep.

Then, because of the weather, he wanted a hut
With a door (to come in by) which opened and shut
(With a jerk, which was useful if snakes were about),
And a very strong lock to keep savages out.

He began on the fish-hooks, and when he'd begun
He decided he couldn't because of the sun.
So he knew what he ought to begin with, and that
Was to find, or to make, a large sun-stopping hat.

He was making the hat with some leaves from a tree,
When he thought, "I'm as hot as a body can be,
And I've nothing to take for my terrible thirst;
So I'll look for a spring, and I'll look for it first."
Old Sailor 2 Then he thought as he started, "Oh, dear and oh, dear!
I'll be lonely tomorrow with nobody here!"
So he made in his note-book a couple of notes:
"I must first find some chickens" and "No, I mean goats."

He had just seen a goat (which he knew by the shape)
When he thought, "But I must have boat for escape.
But a boat means a sail, which means needles and thread;
So I'd better sit down and make needles instead."

He began on a needle, but thought as he worked,
That, if this was an island where savages lurked,
Sitting safe in his hut he'd have nothing to fear,
Whereas now they might suddenly breathe in his ear!

So he thought of his hut ... and he thought of his boat,
And his hat and his breeks, and his chickens and goat,
And the hooks (for his food) and the spring (for his thirst) ...
But he never could think which he ought to do first.

And so in the end he did nothing at all,
But basked on the shingle wrapped up in a shawl.
And I think it was dreadful the way he behaved -
He did nothing but bask until he was saved!

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Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy New Year

I'm tired.
Really tired...
Not even the Nespresso machine in my lab lounge can perk me up.

I can't believe it. It's the year 2009.
My final school holidays of my life time is ending soon and my to-do-list keeps burgeoning uncontrollably.

Indeed, it's beginning to dawn upon me that my Final Year Project is a bottomless pit in terms of time expenditure.
No matter how much time you spent on it, there is always room for more.
So what lies ahead for me this year...

Free LUSH CDs?
More Monday 围棋 sessions?
And anal-retentive Jokes
In 2007, I visited New Zealand on a student exchange programme.
2008 was less of a bang with visits to nearby countries, Thailand and Hong Kong.

But this year, if things go as planned, 2009 will certainly get really interesting.

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