HAPPY day!

It was a rather weird day yesterday... weird in a good way! hhaha... its been a while since i've written such an upbeat post. Well, this couple of weeks have been good for me. Other than the fact that exams are coming soon, its been rather relaxing. Probably explains why i've put on my weight. I look horribly flabby in my beloved AX shirt... blah... so i ended up drinking 'TEA-0 minus sugar' for supper yesterday. Eu & co. failed to tempt me with those oily roti pratas. heheh... well, some updates!

1) bumped into Yen Lin during JS lecture. The JS lecture was surprisingly good. She introduced a few literatures by renowned Japanese novelist. One of my favorite is 'Higuchi Ichiyo', a feminist novelist in the Meiji Period. A more contemporary choice would be "Haruki Murakami'. Check out his documentary-novel based on the 1995 Sarin gas attack in Japan. Its refreshing to hear his perspectives on the rationality of the Aum cult versus the victimized general population.

2) Found a nice study spot in central lib which over-looks the main campus streets!Yes, took me 3 years to find it. hehhe.. Its nice to stare at the passing cars and admire the HUGE tree above the bus stop. Reminds me of the quiet times I had in McGill's library, tucked away in a remote spot.

3) Enjoying research for my JS term paper. Topic is on Japan's cultural globalization as seen through Japanese animation (anime). I must say, Prof Saito from Mcgill really intrigued me on the study of Japanese anime. He unwrapped Japanese animation in such an academic fashion, debunking my presumed-assumptions about anime as superficial and childish.

4)Receievd 2 As for my sociological papers! Well, one of which is a group assignment where we had to write a 500-word ethnography. So proud of Mo Kwan & Stanley! n of course, myself too. hehe.. i was rather surprised to realize that she gave us an A+ for it, considering it was rather slack work. hehe... Thoughts it only constitutes 5%, its still something to boost my ego i guess. hehe.. The other A went to my sociology term paper which consituted 20%! HAHa.. did it in like an afternoon... Thank God for giving me a boost of confidence for this module, when i was previously rather pessimistic about scoring for it!

5) Receievd 2 calls for part-time job interviews! One of which is an events company specializing in programmes for children (i.e. partys etc), the other is a tuition centre. Well, i'll have to see how it goes after interviews next week. Happy to receieve a forwarded email from school regarding recuitment of part time behavioral therpist by ISADD. Its kinda been what I'm thinking of lately. Best part, its on part-time basis! An encouragement after the rather upsetting tuition assignment event. Si will know what i mean...

6) Joined the newly set up tennis interest group for the first time this week. It was all right, except for the fact that the guys are rather stuck up... heheh... still enjoying playing tennis though! Enjoying my golf lessons as well. Been taking it for a month or so! It feels good to hit using the drive.

7) Went to 'sao mu' during qing ming jie on the previous Sat at CCK cemetery. All of us went, including my 2 aunties and even papa. Visited AUntie Julia, Gong-gong and popo. Miss my dear popo.... when she'd sit in front of the tv and doze off, and call me 'ah-mui'...

8) Papa was off last weekend. We had a family dinner. As usual, Papa's boasting about his travel experiences. hehe.. i guess it runs in the family. Had fusion-chinese food at SHangri-La. with courtesy from audrey's bonus:D

9) Mummy's b'day today... bought her favorite Yam cake from Angie's Choice...!

10) Cindy's cajoling at going to Sydney for a month this summer is really tempting! But do esn help considering my bank a/c is dying.... heheh.. considering going to Manila to visit Merla! Si's interested too! SO that's one short holiday for the
year. Planning n saving for BIG holidays next year!

emotional abuse/maltreatment

We did a presentation on child abuse recently, regarding child abuse in Singapore. The issue of an overshadowed focus on emotional abuse/maltreament research has been intruguing me lately, especially in the context of Singapore.

The only link i can make with emotional abuse/maltreatment amongst Singapore children, is the issue of education. Sociology englighten us on education as a process and venue of socializatin and patriotism propagondism; social work englightens education as an indirect prevention effort at social issues; psychology shows that education creates the product of cognitive and developmental changes in the individual. Speak to any Singaporean parent, they'd dish out terms like "Shichida method", "remedial lessons", "tuition" blah blah. Its pathetic to see how the child is de-humanized and objectified as a 'sponge'. Intentions of "putting the child's interests at heart' are increasingly blurred with selfish intentions as spurred by competition at all fronts. i.e. among parents, between schools, local vs foreign student.

Nevertheless, I must take my hat off Singapore's capaibility at making a topic of conversation over anything and everything. Topics never run dry, from your neighbour's inconsiderate stereo music, to the 'ang mohs' increasingly plaguing the little humble streets of Singapore.