Pre U Sem

6 Meals a day, 5-Day-long Seminar, Friends 4ever, 3 Fun SLOs, 2 Free dry-fit shirts, Seminar Group 1

The numbers said it all. Honestly speaking, the activities within pre-u sem isn't very much interesting. I'll give it a 2.5 out of ten. Reason being, all the presentations are pretty much the obvious things aka "duh-stuff". Obviously I know that there is brain-drain in Singapore (I can even chunk out the figures due to my little research on the topic for an essay competition). Obviously, ageing population is a problem in Singapore when more resources have to be devoted to this age group and even more problematic when there is a declining fertility rate which translates to a smaller working population for support (I can tell you that an average Singaporean lives up to the ripe old age of 85 -and it is still increasing-). Obviously, we are facing one of the worst economic vices, a widening income gap. In fact, our gini co-efficient (a measure of income inequality) is worse than philippines? (I would really like to contend about the accuracy of the figures though the source came from a UN research report)

Technically, the problem is there. Solutions anyone? There have been some good solutions proposed, though wasn't well evaluated though. (even the NJ's solution to ageing population isn't THAT good, but good enough la) So make that 3 out of ten.

Q&A was more of the subject of contention. Some asked really stupid question. Like some guy from XXXJC asked the minister about the lack of governmental efforts in tackling global inflation and income inequality. The minister immediately got up and listed out the entire set of policies in place to tackled the problems (and we are even projecting to have a budget deficit this year due to increasing government payments to address such problems). Then there will always be students from the school that symbolizes elitism to its furthest extent. "Mike-whoring" for the entire seminar. But you can't blame them, most probably that they have a quota to fulfill. Then again, there are some good comments (like the one from the IJC scholar and her rainbow colours) and some good questions which really sparked people thinking. Kudos to those students who gave in-depth replies and tolerating nonsense questions. So make that 4.5 out of ten.

Given that we got to see Vivian Balakrishnan (and even stood quite close to him as he walked down the isle), make that 5.5 out of ten. He deserved a lot of credit for being engaging and breaking away from the traditions of delivering a key-note speech. I think this is a win-win situation. He (or his secretary) doesn't need to prepare his speech while the students had more time to interact with him. You can't beat this offer right?

Last but not least, how can we forget the friends that I've made in pre-u sem? There are some rumours of me liking XXX. Say, we just clicked quite well given for our IP background aka people with the non-conformity mindsets. But apart from that, there are one whole bunch of interesting, handsome, pretty, bimbotic, smart, unique people. DaeYeon, Jason (lim), Jon Neo, Nicholas, XiuQing, Caitlin, Mathias, Shamini and etc. Crazy people to hang around with. These are the people who truly made Pre-U Sem something not just an intellectual holiday chalet. So make that 9 out of ten.

Where did the last point go to? We can never have perfections in life. Keep it that way. It's the only way for things to improve. Consider the fact that I knew a little bit more about Teena (and her private life), make that 9.1 out of ten. Haha.

Again... I have some many bottled thoughts which I really want to put it up here. But perhaps another time? Let those thoughts mature for a while more and perhaps when I'm particularly emo, I shall just let it all out.

Last thoughts: Aristal is not just a dance-affair. It was also a time to "flaunt" the beauty and show that suave body. But you were really pretty and beautiful with that dress and let-down hair. Then again, it's God's gift for girls to have long hair and can do whatever they want with it using infinite amount of accessories. As for you, simplicity is beauty. Perhaps, wearing heels will score you a perfect 10. My honest opinions. Nothing more.