NTU students inconvenienced by YOG

• Rock^Star

  5 Aug 10, 20:18

  NTU students up in arms against inconveniences caused by YOG

  August 5th, 2010 | Author: Your Correspondent

  NTU students including foreign students are getting increasingly peeved at the inconveniences they have to put up lately due to the Youth Olympic Games. NTU is the site of the Youth Olympic Village.

  Over the last few days, we have received numerous complaint letters from NTU students about the disruption in their daily routine brought about by the YOG.

  Janet Pang, a 2nd year student from the Engineering Faculty wrote:

  “August is usually a slack period for us, but because of the YOG preparations, we are forced to finish our assignments and projects early. There is plenty of re-scheduling of lectures with many brought forward. Some of the lecturers are poorly prepared because of the rush to complete the lessons on schedule. Our studies have suffered as a result of the YOG. To be frank, we rather not have it.”

  Christina Lye concurred:

  “Hello, because of YOG, our assignments, presentations and exams are all pushed forward and is affecting our result. Semester one is supposed to end in another month, but because of YOG, everything is being pushed forward and we are all stressed up. We lost our sleep for more than two weeks. Do we actuall deserve this?”

  Lau Ting Ting, a student from Hong Kong added:

  “All thanks to YOG, there are so many reconstruction going on and road blocks set up in NTU. NTU has literally transformed into a prison.  During this period, you cannot imagine how much inconvenience the YOG has brought to ppl working here. All internal shuttle bus has been shut down, public bus no longer comes into NTU because the Jalan Bahar exit of NTU is totally shut down!”

  Dan Lim, from Malaysia said:

  “NTU has been turned into a high-security prison! Can’t imagine what will happen when the YOG officials and athletes arrive. We are just here to study. Why should we put up with so many inconveniences?”

  Despite the extensive publicity given to YOG by the state media, the response from Singaporeans has been lukewarm so far. In an online poll conducted by Channel News Asia, a shocking 88 percent or 5,639 respondents indicated that they are “not interested” in YOG at all.

  Public disaffection and disdain for the YOG continues to snowball with more than 600 Singaporeans joining the “I hate YOG” Facebook to protest against it.

  Unfortunately, the PAP regime is unlikely to listen to the concerns of NTU students as it is busy indulging in is self-created “vanity fair” to showcase itself to the world.

  In the words of PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew, Singaporeans (and maybe now foreigners) are all CHAMPION grumblers.

   

  EDITORS’ NOTE:

  NTU students, how has the YOG affected you? Are you happy that NTU has been chosen as the site for the Youth Olympic Village? Are you looking forward to YOG? Please share your views with us here or email us directly. You do not have to suffer in silence. Let the world knows the truth about YOG!

   

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• AEW5001

  5 Aug 10, 20:20

  they shld as well boycott.

• AEW5001

  5 Aug 10, 20:20

  - double post -

• Medicated Oil

  5 Aug 10, 20:31

  The project is a wayang and show off which yield no benefit to the people except for the local tourist industry.

  The student union of NTU should come forward and let their voices be heard.

  The impact of the individual results cannot be ignored as they are forced to study and prepare in unfavourable condition.

  Just like the increase in night parking fees, some one have step forward to question the authority on whether it is a valid solution as the scarity of car park space is not solved.

  Stop providing silly and ignorant reasons in the press like it was increased 21 years ago.

  If it is not effective, then this is no purpose in implementing it unless the sole purpose is to make money out of the car owners.

   

• Vote PAP OUT to Save SG

  5 Aug 10, 20:38

  this yog is really a hopeless event. No one gives a flying fuck about it.

   

  No one cares about the Youth Olympic Games except the Government

  1 August 2010
  
  
  Really? The residents are celebrating it? I haven't heard a single friend or family member mention it even once.
  
  An interesting piece on the YOG by Alex Au: Alienation scores gold at Youth Olympic Games
  
  As I type this, an official is going around my block hanging Singapore flags outside of peoples' flats because no one bothered to do it themselves. Pride has to be instilled (or installed) you see.

  http://seelanpalay.blogspot.com/2010/08/alienation-scores-gold-at-youth-olympic.html

• Vote PAP OUT to Save SG

  5 Aug 10, 20:40

  Alienation scores gold at Youth Olympic Games

  Published 31 July 2010 politics and government , society and culture33 Comments
  

  Slightly over a week ago, a senior member of the diplomatic corps asked me, “Do Singaporeans care a hoot about the Youth Olympic Games?”

  “To be very honest,” I replied, “No.”

  I then put it out of my mind, my own interest level running on empty — like most of my fellow Singaporeans.

  * * * * *

  It’s the affective divide again, in the famous words of writer Catherine Lim, who in the 1990s was rapped by the prime minister for undermining public confidence in the government through her plain speaking. But it’s true: There’s a gulf between citizens and the government. As soon as something is seen as being important to the government, especially if it is seen as important to the ego of the government, the average Singaporean keeps his distance. There’s that sense of alienation all over again.

  Lately, the government has been trying to use sports as a platform for cranking up nationalism, but the more ministers get involved, the more Singaporeans stay away from the projects they sponsor.

  It’s like how very few Singaporeans fly the flag for National Day. What flags you see are not put out by individuals, they are organised by neighbourhood committees, communist party-style. That accounts for the orderly way they have been put up.

  The Youth Olympic Games project suffers the same fate. The fact that huge billboards have to be put up to feign popular enthusiasm says it all. Here’s a billboard that proclaims “Residents of Holland-Bukit Timah town celebrate” the games, put up by the government:

  

  Not more than 50 metres away is another billboard, this time for National Day, complete with likenesses of members of parliament lording it over citizens:

  

  Same same. They’re both government projects. Same same, both aver “enthusiasm” from top down. From bottom up, it’s indifference and ennui.

  * * * * *

  A few days ago, I bumped into a friend who was a school teacher. “You look rather stressed out today,” I said. She always looks stressed out, and that seems to be my opening line each time I see her.

  “I have to reschedule so many classes for next month,” she explained.

  Naturally I asked “Why?”  but before she had a chance to reply, a thought hit me out of the blue. “By any chance has it got to do with marching orders for all students to attend the Youth Olympic Games?”

  “Aargh,” she went, flinging her arms up in despair. “I’ve said enough, I’ve said enough. I’ll say no more.”

  “Am I right or not?” I persisted.

  “I’ll say no more. I don’t want to lose my job.”

  Attempting a more indirect tack, “How are students going to pay the ticket prices? How can parents be expected to pay? Not all parents have money to throw about. . . ” My voice trailed off as I thought about the the budget for the Youth Olympic Games ballooning from the initial estimate of S$122 million to S$387 million.

  http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/alienation-scores-gold-at-youth-olympic-games/

   

  As long as PAP is the ruling power in Singapore, Singapore can never progress as a nation.

  45 years, yet the nation building is still so weak.

  This is Lee Kuan Yew's greatest failure.

  This is what happens when you fuck up the culture of a society and rule through fear and repression.

  Hopeless as national leader.

   

   

• Vote PAP OUT to Save SG

  5 Aug 10, 20:55

  
  The Sunday Times, July 20, 1997

  SINGAPORE is a "freak", because it is lacking in terms of geopolitics, economics, size, population and culture, said former communist leader Fang Chuang Pi, dubbed the "Plen" by Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

  He added that, in his assessment, the country had "narrow room for manoeuvre in various areas and will run into difficulties in future".

  He gave this assessment of Singapore as an unnatural country, a freak of history, in an interview with Malaysia's Chinese-language newspaper, Nanyang Siang Pau, in which he disclosed that he had discussed the Republic's prospects with the Senior Minister when they met in Beijing in August 1995.

  
  Mr Fang and his wife at the interview in
  Thailand. Pic/ Nanyang Siang Pau

  He told Mr Lee: "I said that Singapore was a 'freak', but a 'freak' was often a genius, and most geniuses died young. For in terms of geopolitics, economics, size and population, Singapore is congenitally deficient."

  The two men also discussed the issue of culture, he added.

  "I said that using a certain language to create a culture, the culture created can at best be a commercial culture, or technology culture, or we may call it pasar culture. It has no roots, and identifies itself with a certain material interest. It is the product of expediency.

  

  "It is like duckweed, floating at the harbour. When it absorbs fertilisers, it will flourish very quickly. But once it rains and floods set in, it will perish," he said in an interview conducted in a restaurant in Haadyai, near the Thai-Malaysian border.

  Mr Fang, 71, was a powerful linkman for the now-defunct Malayan Communist Party (MCP) in the 1950s and 1960s. He held several secret meetings with Mr Lee, one of which led to the cooperation between the MCP and the People's Action Party (PAP) in fighting against British colonialism.

  He became a legendary figure for his ability to "disappear" and avoid arrest and was reported to have left Singapore in 1961 for Indonesia, from where he directed the MCP's underground activities.

  

  He and more than 20 Singaporeans who were ex-MCP members now live in Thailand, following a peace accord signed in 1989 by the MCP, and Thai and Malaysian governments.

  Nanyang's editor Lee Soo Puang and senior feature writer Kua Kim Teck, who interviewed him, described him as "no longer the mystery underground man or the guerilla fighter", noting that he had worn a long-sleeved shirt and long pants, and carried a handbag.

  "His simple attire made him look like a retiree," said the interviewers, adding that "his mind remains alert and he is also sharp-tongued".

  In the wide-ranging interview, Mr Fang acknowledged the economic progress that Singapore had made over the past three decades under Mr Lee and his People's Action Party.

  The country was "economically advanced", he noted, adding that it might not have achieved this progress if the leftist forces had taken control in the 1950s and 1960s.

  "If we look at the experiences of communist countries, Singapore could be chaotic and its economy very bad today.

  "But I will dispute this statement: If there was no Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore would sink. This was only a possibility.

  "Singapore now is economically advanced, but politically backward ... If they (Mr Lee and PAP) were not there to rule, Singapore's politics could be very active and vibrant," he said in the interview, published in several parts over the past week in the Malaysian newspaper.

  

  Asked about the merger between Malaysia and Singapore in 1963, he said that the issue had created a "serious sense of distrust" between him and Mr Lee because it was raised suddenly. All along, he had believed the merger was "merely an objective, not an item on the agenda", he said.

  He added that Mr Lee had explained when they met in 1995 that he had not lied or misled him intentionally. But when the Tengku agreed to cooperate suddenly, he decided to go ahead with the plan for a merger.

  Asked what he thought of a merger now, he said: "I think Singapore and Malaysia must merge.

  "It was an illegitimate split. The brief period of merger during 1963 showed that conditions were not conducive then.

  "Thirty years have passed and both Singapore and Malaysia have since developed in their own directions. It looks like the separation is final.

  "But more people will begin to realise that a merger will benefit both countries as well as their people. If both sides are separated, both parties are being weakened."

  * On the Republic:

  "Singapore was a 'freak', but a 'freak' was often a genius, and most geniuses died young. For in terms of geopolitics, economics, size and population, Singapore is congenitally deficient ... I think that Singapore has narrow room for manoeuvre in various areas and will run into difficulties in the future."

  * On progress made by Mr Lee and the PAP:

  "If we look at the experiences of communist countries, Singapore could be chaotic and its economy very bad today. But I will dispute this statement: if there was no Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore would sink."
  

  * On merger with Malaysia:

  "But more people will begin to realise that a merger will benefit both countries as well as their people. If both sides are separated, both parties are being weakened."

  http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/independence/ref/plen3.html

   

• Vote PAP OUT to Save SG

  5 Aug 10, 21:00

  There’s a gulf between citizens and the government. As soon as something is seen as being important to the government, especially if it is seen as important to the ego of the government, the average Singaporean keeps his distance. There’s that sense of alienation all over again.

   

  Seems like people only voted PAP through ignorance and fear, that why they don't give a flying fuck about PAP.

  Just want to keep a distance from this fucking PAP.

  This fucking PAP.

• ahtansh

  6 Aug 10, 11:30

  These students can quit and ask for a refund.

• Rock^Star

  6 Aug 10, 13:21

  Knn this is YOG, why keep fucking PAP lol. Get a sense of proportion la.