Tuesday, September 30, 2008

i stepped into a bookstore, specifically Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City today.

and boy was i overwhelmed by the wide range of commentary books they had on shelves!
not that i know not what a bookstore has....but rather it was today that i flipped some books, of which caught my interest.

talk about the childhood books that I was reading. which was just a couple of minutes ago to yiwen...

well the range of books that sparked that hidden interest were like topics ranging from how this fella lived his life for 365 days in a journal to commentaries like Is the world flat and globalisation to blah blah blah.

if only they had stools and cosy seats ala Borders. yes today was one day of which the value of a library in me extended to merely a place for arduosly mugging for stupid exams. are our library books range as good as those found in bookstores or is it just me who dont know how to find the 'good' stuffs in the library, for all i know is that libraries have children section and all i know there are kiddy novels like erm Nancy Drew and what nots...Archie's comics too. somebody bring me to a library one day to find. (note why i say someone bring me instead of accompanying me; i probably would be lazy to go myself! :p)

talk about libraries just for mugging...and the F1 for Singapore writing history. yes u'll ask whats the link. sometimes dont u find it sad and to the point of it being meaningless when the world is constantly judging u...
by how u fare
by how u perform
by how well u score
by how much u earn
by how much fame u have

and the list goes on...

this promos has been certainly one of the most heck-care attitude that i've brought for a major exam. the shear thought of studying all that there is - just for the grade, makes me just lose that drive that motivation that focus. i mean im not saying that scoring well is anything wrong but that why is this world so inequitable why is everybody and everything being judged being ranked being in a hierachy system. why is is that grades mean EVERYTHING? can a 2hours paper really judge u comprehensively and accurately? judging u according to? based on?

if only exams were abolished. im sure its pretty much a waste of time to both students and teachers alike. think of those poor dodos stoning for a 3hour paper invigilating. who would want to? and all those used papers for foolscap, answer booklets etc. if only, if only they were abolished.

that will certainly be the true essence of education - learning because u want to, u desire to for those are the subjects u are truly interested in; not merely to "get those grades to get to uni to get my degree to get my honours and find a high-paying stable job" sounds fairy-tale like. if one's not interested why force? why compel? its not that physics equations or integration steps will really be useful, unless u aspire to be an engineer and that brings me back to the same point of being inclined and having that desire to learn more. truly in this complex world....less is more.

talk about why singaproe is hosting the grand prix in the first place. doesnt it all boil down to money money money and fame fame fame? go flip the newspapers and see...its all about tourism dollars and 'showcasing singapore to the world' for fame....and 150million is being spent on putting up that 'show'. ever asked yourself that opportunity cost of that 150m? if that 150m could be used and channelled to other purposes?

u know it irks me how we being the richers ones are keeping the wealth to ourselves and circulating it among ourselves. allow me to quotes some facts from human geography. see...info learnt that i know i can apply...yet it didnt come out for the papers so which when used would be deemed as irrelevant (and obviously i didnt really know how to ans to the qns to the best of the little part of knowledge that i know). is it comprehensive? obviously not!

"20% of ppl in EMDCs have 80% of world's income trade & investment while 20% of poorest only have 1% of that"
"15 out of 200 countries conduct 63% of exports, 67% of imports"
"US leads the Services industry with annual US$9trillion followed by Japan US$3trillion."
"The entire African continental economy is no larger that Spain at $580 billion"
"1 in 5 in the LDCs live by with less that US$1 a day"

Africa and her starking people and being by-passed of the benefits. 2 billion other people. being forgotten? imHo countries should slow down, people humble themselves and stop trying to build each a sandcastle and tower of wealth to out-win and beat one another...pillling on to the already stiniking heaps of cash and stock that they already have....relying so heavily on cash. see what happened in 1929 during the Great Depression? see what happened just 2 weeks ago to lehman brothers and yada yada? why place such a great reliance and dependebility on money - a material thing! why? can people ever wake up of their senses? their money will die with them one day too. instead of using money to heap and pile to stash away why not use it to make another person's day? why not use it to help the other 2 million people living at the 'hidden' corner of the globe?

if only each country were to contribute just 1% of their GDP to the african economies, to only ensure that they have a REGULAR and ASSURED meal each day, thats all they ask for. we? i AM certainly sure they will have a 100 times better living conditions to what they have now.

i just came home from a seoul garden treat. no doubt it was a simple gesture of a Thank you meal and i did appreciate that...but what irked me again, was the wastage of food! heaps of meat was piled up and in the end it was obviously destined to be in the dustbin. well im not trying to be a whine-kid here but i certainly cannot just sit down and say nothing too! (not that i can do much anyway).

and so each time i hear of money this and money that, nations spending on this and that....i often ask myself where did this money come from? and where will this money end up in? after thaat quote of 1 in 5 live on less that $US1 a day pops into my mind.

so i ask.

are we really doing enough to help those acutely poor, those starvaing and yearning jsut for food each day. they are at the hands of us the devloped, the rich countries for their providence. 20% holds 80%s of the world's money. as stewards of this earth and having much blessings, are these being used more wisely to help those are they all horded by the rich and those with only a self-agenda to fufil? and i ask yet again, does anybody, any country at all realise the world (the rich ctry) needs to do MUCH MORE to make that small difference?

to tie in, does grades really mean all that there is in store for us? "to get grades to get into uni so that u can be rich one day in a high-paying job?" sheer naivety. grades certainly dont mean much all to many of us although one will argue that "there is no choice thats the value of the grades and the only way to survive". all relative because of the complexed society we are 'transiting' in.

what has the world evolved into. money being the centre of all; that common agenda that common goal for all that we are doing.

is it really worth all that trouble and sometimes, that misery?

it all started with that forbidden apple...

yes i know i have ranted qutie a bit and some may criticise me of being a NATO (no action talk only), saying how we should help and not being so selfcentered yet on one hand i am not doing anything too, only to rant and to blabber in cyber space. for that i shall take my, graceful exit, before i get ridiculed & criticised that the world probably will never really care and school's still of paramount importance.