Quote from Sister Francoise

有花自然香。

How scary...

Quoted from: http://singcitizen.com/portal/2002/08/

Reminds me of my slightly traumatic experience while relief teaching in 2005...

The day starts at 7.20am. It is the morning assembly and some students are fidgeting while the flag raising ceremony is being observed. The vice-principal has noticed this and makes a point to speak on this after the ceremony. A routine hair-and-attire check is carried out before the students can sit on the parade square for the morning reading session.
Some students start to talk among themselves and the teacher makes them stand up and keep standing. Some others forget to bring their reading material or are lost in their thoughts. The teacher attends to them.

At 7.50am, the teacher follows the class to the classroom where the morning greetings are exchanged and the students settle into their chairs. The first lesson of the day starts. It’s Monday today - a lucky day for teachers because the students are too tired from a weekend of play to fool around. They need some hours to wake out of their lethargy. By mid-morning the teacher’s luck will wear off as the students resume their normal self. Some students are lost in dreamland but as long they they do not disturb the peace in the class, the teacher keeps mum.

It’s only the first period and the students are already taking turns to go to the toilet. They like to go in groups but are restricted to only two students at any one time. The teacher passes to each of them an EXCUSE card which they clip to their shirt pocket.
It’s been ten minutes and these students have yet to return from the toilet. Some others want to visit the toilet but the teacher says to wait till the earlier two return. They finally return five minutes later. Their hair is gelled into spikes which vaguely resemble durian spikes but black ones lah. The teacher has no time to deal with their spiky hairdo as the teacher needs to rush to the next class - there are four consecutive classroom periods before the teacher gets to rest.

The teacher goes into the next class - a secondary four normal academic class. It’s prelim exam this week and some of the students are not at all bothered about the exam. It takes some work before the teacher can get the students to become quiet. There are four repeat students in the class and they are the ones who talk and talk and talk, taking no notice of the teacher. The teacher gives them a pep talk but to no avail. The teacher gets the foursome to stand in the corridor so the class will be quieter. At the end of the two-period lesson, the teacher collects the written work - only about 20 students hand in the work out of a class of 40. The teacher makes it a point to talk to the class’s form teacher about the students’ lackadaisical attitude.

The fourth period is spent in a secondary 3 normal technical class. It’s only mid-morning and the students in this class are restless. Some of them walk around the class much to the chagrin of the teacher who has some trouble keeping a rein on them. Others chat loudly; some shout across the room to other classmates. A few have removed rubber tube protectors from their chairs and are playing with them. One uses these tubes to drum on the desk. The teacher has been spending the last three periods in other normal academic classes and needs to conserve some strength for the rest of the morning so the teacher leaves them alone. There’s too many of these hyperactive chaps for the teacher to handle. It’s a normal technical class, the teacher thinks aloud - no point getting the vice-principal or principal to cane them. They have been caned many times already and think of it as only a slight itch. It always happens that these students are back to their usual nonsense within fifteen minutes of the caning. The period ends.

Ah! A free period at last! Back to the air-conditioned Staff Room to grab a bite and a much needed rest.

The sixth and seventh periods are spent in a secondary 4 normal academic class. A student takes a pot shot at the teacher using a paper bullet. The teacher - alert from years of teaching in a normal academic class - sees him in the act but pretends not to notice. The boy hurls another paper bullet at the back of the teacher; his classmates laugh. The boy basks in the limelight and takes another potshot but the teacher has decided enough is enough and turns around in time to catch the student in the act. The teacher tells the class chairman to keep the class quiet. The teacher tells the culprit to follow along to the principal’s office. The boy pleads ignorance of what he has done. The principal listens to the teacher’s and the boy’s accounts and then canes the boy after he finally admits to the misdeed. The teacher returns to the class to continue the lesson.

It’s the eighth period of the day and this period is spent in a secondary 3 express class but this class is the tail end of the express classes in the school. The students are rowdy and inattentive. Several shoot paper bullets at one another. This year, paper bullets seem to be in vogue at school, along with spiky hairdo and The Dog pencil cases. The teacher is too tired out to go after the errant students. The teacher informs the form teacher about the paper-bullet problem back at the Staff Room when the period ends.

The ninth period is a free period. The teacher is in the Teachers’ Rest Room reading the newspapers. A teacher comes up to him saying a parent is outside wishing to speak to him. The teacher goes out into the corridor. The parents of the student whom the teacher had sent for caning are there with the student. The father of the boy says his son has been suspended from school for a day and wishes to find out what has happened. The teacher asks the boy to speak first. The boy says he actually was aiming at his classmates but the paper bullet missed its mark and hit the teacher. The boy says he shot at his classmates because they had shot at him. The teacher tells his side of the story. The teacher had seen the boy shoot paper bullets at the teacher but didn’t want to blow up the matter.
However, the boy was apparently enjoying the attention of his classmates and the teacher had to catch him red-handed. Luckily, the boy’s father is supportive of the teacher and rebukes his son for his errant behaviour. The teacher tells the boy’s parents not to worry as the teacher will speak to the principal the next day if the principal wants to take further action.

The eleventh period is spent in the school hall. It’s Monday assembly. The students are treated to a mime display by a professional drama group. The teacher is a form teacher to a secondary 1 express class and sits next to the class in the hall. The express class is a world away from the normal academic classes the teacher has been to today. Unfortunately the teacher doesn’t have any periods with this class.

The afternoon is spent marking the students’ written work and planning the next day’s work.

A fresh reminder of the challenges I would have to face soon...

冯校长的名言

取自： http://dxcchdbk.blog.sohu.com/21779677.html

100年后，我今天驾了一辆什么样的车，住什么样的屋子，银行里有多少钱，已不再重要，只是，世界可能因为我曾经对一个孩子的生命很重要，而变得美丽。

Imperial Scholars Street

Read(past tense) this funny story by the MM on why Suzhou was chosen to build a joint-venture industrial park....

China had an egalitarian society for many dynasties. Anyone could become a xiucai,ie a scholar, if he studied hard and passed his exams. Many imperial scholars, zhuang4 yuan1, came from the lower strata of society, many were sons of farmers for instance. Once a person became a zhuang yuan, he was highly valued and usually the Emperor was more than happy to marry his daughter off to him.

When these scholars retired, they usually went to enjoy their retirement years in the South where the climate was milder and cooler. One popular destination was Suzhou. As the years went by, more and more former imperial scholars settled and raised their families in Suzhou, so much so that there was a zhuang yuan jie, ie Imperial Scholar Street, in Suzhou. The offspring of these people had good backgrounds and a conducive environment to pursue their studies, hence more and more imperial scholars emerged in Suzhou.

Now, while we have the technology, these people are smart and learn fast. Hence they make good partners.

Now we know why Suzhou was chosen!

Competitive S'pore, competitive parents

Was talking to my secondary school teacher Ms Chow many weeks back. She shared with me her experience in teaching at a neighbourhood school.

It appears that the class she taught had 5 attention-deficit students. I asked if it was MOE's policy and whether famous schools such as RI would have attention-deficit students in each class as well, her answer was no. The parents chose to enrol them in a normal school. She commented that these students would be able to learn better at a pace more suited to their abilities if they had gone to a special school instead of a normal school. The reason is that they are constantly unable to catch up with the materials presented in class and some of them had really weird habits that would distract the rest of the class. For instance, she had this student who would stand up in the middle of lesson and just walk up to her and go in circles around her. At the same time mumbling "Ms Chow... Ms Chow... Ms Chow..." He's just so weird...the way i see it.

The issue of attention-deficit students not getting the best education suited for them is a very real issue in her school for every class had a few such students. And it is the parents who made the decision to put them in normal schools, for pragmatic reasons. These include the loss of 'face' as the Chinese calls it, imagine telling your relative your child is in a special school, how would your relative think of your child? Especially in this competitive Singaporean society where parents are willing to sacrifice hours to do voluntary work just to get their children into "good" schools such as Nanyang Primary.

The other issue was that parents are scared that their children would lose out if they went to special schools because
1) they would learn slower than their peers
2) in the future when they seek jobs, it would be reflected in their resume that they went to a special school -- this is a potential turnoff for employers
3) the children may develop an inferiority complex and find it difficult to integrate into society in the future.

Hence, nowadays teachers at normal neighbourhood schools also have to handle the added pressure of devising a way to teach these students without somehow holding back the normal students. This certainly makes work tougher.

Well, my personal take is that it is actually for the good of the child, if he has been identified to be attention-deficit, to send him to a special school. The curriculum there has been specially tailored made to suit his needs. It is added pressure for the child if he constantly falls behind in normal school and has to play catch up all the time. And when he doesn't perform well, this translates to additional pressure for the teachers and the parents as well. However, i might not be in the best position to comment since i'm not a parent yet. Perhaps my viewpoint might take 180 degree turn when i do become a parent and understand the various societal stress one has to take in that role.

High school musical

This is good...

Quoted from talking cock.com
http://www.talkingcock.com/html/article.php?sid=2668

University donations

The next topic my prof touched on was about university culture.
He graduated from University of Chicago and contrast his undergraduate experience against the one we have at NUS.

A few months back, the Straits Times ran an article on the amount of donation local universities get from alumni. Interestingly, only a mere (get this!) 1% of the alumni donated to the university. My professor was not the least surprised. The question he asked was short and concise -- So, after 3 years in NUS, what do you think you have gotten out of your university experience? Well, seriously not much. And certainly not something you would brag to your friend about when you graduate. Now contrast that to your friends who received an university education in US universities. You can be sure that they can't wait to tell you what an awesome experience they had there. Well well, no surprise why graduates simply discard that letter asking for donation from local universities straight into the trash bin. The only time the school remembers about the student as an individual is when they are asking for donation. On the other hand, my prof immediately flashes out his cheque book when someone from University of Chicago approaches him for donation.

His exact comments were: "Here, take this and do for others what you have done for me!" It was obvious that his experience at University of Chicago had left an impact on him.

Another matter that he took issue with was the system of grading in NUS. He commented that giving someone a B- when he has worked hard, but simply hasn't understood the materials well enough isn't the best way to encourage someone to work harder. He used the module i was taking as an example. In the class, there are 25 students. There are 3 truly exceptional ones, who are a cut above the rest. Meanwhile, the rest are equally good and hard working. Now with the bell curve, 8 of them are definitely going to get a B- for the module, even though they have worked hard. And my prof is sad over this. He said that if he had the chance to really spend time with the student one-on-one for one whole semester and get them to read certain important publications to get them on track in terms of information and some fundamental knowledge on religions and customs, ie the subject matters, he is sure these students would be able to perform as well as those at the top of the class. The issue is: Singaporean students do not have the culture of meeting their prof every week for consultation, in fact, those who do go for consultation are in the minority! Of course, class size is another matter too. In US, size of the class is usually smaller. Hence, sadly, as much as he knows these students are no less bright than any other he came across, he would have to hand out a B-; after telling them repeatedly "i know you have the potential and you can definitely do well if you work harder". Makes him sound like a hypocrite when there is little he can do since the school imbued him with limited discretionary powers.

And while we as undergraduate complained about the heavy workload, the fact of the matter is that we are spending more time doing unnecessary stuffs rather than truly rigorous academic work. In other words, there is definitely a better way to do things and learn more. He cited the honours thesis proposals he received from honours students over the years. According to him, these are students he has seen over the years and are certainly as bright as any he had ever seen. However, when they reached year 4 and submitted their thesis proposals, my prof was appalled by the lack of depth in their argument. Having taught them over the years and knowing that they are capable of more, he was convinced that it couldn't have been the student who was at fault. He concluded that there were inherent problems in our education system that led to this issue occurring year after year. (And him being disappointed year after year, with what was not been done for the students)

However, it looks like things is going to stay this way for quite some time. Changes doesn't seem to be heading our way.

Singapore education system

Had a good chat with my history prof on fri.
(Or rather had a good time listening to him voice his opinions)

He commented that if he had been brought up in Singapore, he would probably be selling chicken rice right now; instead of being a history professor at the university. The reason he stated was the rigid and highly stratified education system in Singapore. It is a system that has little tolerance for failure and severely skewed towards academic results.

Since primary school, the people are classified into different types based solely on academic ability. There are the pri 4 streaming, the PSLE, the O level, the A level etc. By the time one reaches university, he would have gone through no less than 4 stages of streaming and classification. Even then, these so-called 'talents' are also differentiated.

The true cream of the crop gets picked up by the government and sent abroad to prestigious universities such as Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Imperial College to name a few. Then, the second best are in USP and the likes in NUS and other local universities. Next, there are those could make it to local universities. Finally, the rest would have either self-finance and go to SIM or less well-known universities abroad.

According to what he said, his attention wasn't focused on his studies until he reached high school, equivalent to JC over here. As such, he didn't exactly score too well when he was in Middle School, ie Secondary school. Now, if we translate that to the Singapore education system, it probably meant that he would have to go to an ITE at the end of sec sch and his path in life pretty much decided there and then. Becoming a professor is almost impossible. But luckily, he was born in the US and he was thankful that the US education system was much more tolerant and allowed him the time and space to pursue his dream when he regained his interest in studies in high school.

Now selling chicken rice and teaching history at a world renowned university are worlds apart, what does this tell us about our education system? What about the many could-have-beens that have been buried by the education system?

Game without Nash eqm

Take a 2 person and 2 choice game.

Rule of the game:

A coin is tossed.

For Person A, he can call head (H) or tail (T).
If Person B calls the same, ie HH or TT, then A gets $1.
If A calls H and B calls T, then A loses $1.

The reverse is true for B.
In other words, if B calls H and A calls H, then B loses $1.
But if B calls T and A calls H, then B gets $1.

The game is played infinite number of times.
Interestingly, the following result is observed...

When A calls H and B calls H, A gains $1 and A continues to call H.
But B loses $1 and will switch to T.

Once B switches his choice, A realizes that he is losing money, so he will switch to T too.

They can keep playing and continue switching but neither party will gain or lose!


Well~ I thought this is an amazing game. No winner or loser and no Nash equilibrium!

Coca Cola Story

One of my favourite stories from one of my favourite Professors...

You take $1 and you slot it into a vending machine,
You press the right buttons,
A Coca Cola comes out.

You take the same $1,
You throw it out of the window,
You wait for 1 hours, 2 hours, 3 hours...
Nothing happens!

You must know what result you want to get! Then you can get the result~


Moral of the story:
Begin with the end in mind.
The method comes naturally thereafter.

Financial illiteracy

The recent subprime mortage crisis has finally hit home and hit hard on the heartlanders. MAS estimated that around 10,000 Singaporeans are affected by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and may end up losing their hard-earned savings amounting to around 0.5 billion dollars in total.

In the recent gathering over at Hong Lim Park, many told a depressing tale. Most of these heartlanders who have invested in the minibonds in their 60s. They had invested their hard-earned savings; some as much as $100,000 to $200,000, after getting assurance from the relationship officers in local banks that minibonds were low-risk yet offered returns of 5% or more, which is a lot higher than the amount they are getting from putting their money in fixed deposits. Many of them could not read English and never fully understand what kind of product they were investing their money into. They trusted what the bank officers said and took the minibond to be simply another kind of 'fixed deposit' (the bond period was 5 years), which was low risk but could earn them higher returns of 5%. With Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy, there is a possibility that these investors could lose all their hard-earned savings. It's worthy to note that most of them were extremely low-risk investors. Capital preservation was of paramount important to them and they only agreed after repeated assurance from bank officers that their capital is protected. For many of them, it was the sum of money they had saved for retirement. Now they can forget about retiring~

Amazingly, as an Economic major, I have never been taught how to read a financial product throughout my 4 years in University! I can barely imagine how the aunties and uncles, most of them uneducated, were to make sense of what SWAP, bonds, minibonds and structured deposits were! Yet, it is amazing how these structured products were a huge sellout! Think about the thousands who bought the minibonds. Something doesn't quite fit right here. Of course, i know relationship officers and financial planners go through a lot of courses and as such i shall not question their professionalism. But seriously, if the potential investors cannot understand what the whole product is about, how are they supposed to invest in them? I was watching this tv news report in which the reporter got a copy of the minibond agreement. Yes the details were inside but it was not reader friendly at all! Any layman who looks at it will not be able to make good sense out of what the agreement talks about. In short, the whole thing was just too technical and too confusing, even for some of the financial consultants the reporter interviewed! It's such a complex product!

However, sadly, this is not the only structured product in the market. When we invest our money in something other than deposits, i wonder how many of us really know what we are investing into? My guess is not a lot, in fact, only a small proportion of the population who has studied in the relevant courses. Other than blaming the bank officers who made such products simpler than they were, and in some sense, making the product into something they were not, perhaps we should also acknowledge our serious financial illiteracy for it's our financial illiteracy that will cost us in the long run.

Simple rule: If you can't understand it, don't touch it.

Insights from Financial Planning talk by Mr Tan Kin Lian

- Buy Term Life Insurance for 25 years, after which your children would have grown up.
Beyond that, you can pretty much rely on your savings. Major illnesses are covered by Medishield.

- Watch out for this product (not available in SGP yet): Decreasing Term Life Insurance, useful because it cuts your sum insured as you get older and thus your premium. May sound counter-intuitive but explanation given by Mr Tan was surprisingly logical. An insight that would only occur to us when we reach his age. ie. By then we are not that far away from death and our children no longer needs to be taken care of by us.

- Preferably, accumulate 0.5 million SGD , before accounting for depreciation and inflation, by the time you retire, usually around 65. This works out to about $1000 per month assuming you start work at 25. This will be your rainy day fund.

- Life insurance amount should be at least equal to 5 years of earnings. ie If you earn $2500 per month, $2500 x 12 x 5 = $150,000. More if you can afford and of course more if you earn more.
That way, your family can still function even without you around.

- Go for what you can afford. Forget about the $1 million life insurance your agent told you about. If you are just earning $2,000 a month or less, align your expectations accordingly. Never let the premium become a source of financial burden. It's meant to provide protection, NOT undue stress unnecessarily.

Finally, the one i liked best:

-Once you are very old, say 70+ or 80, medical insurance become way too expensive and are really not necessary anymore. For one, you have medishield. Then again, let's say you are down with some critical illness say cancer. Would you want to go for an operation that cost $250,000 yet the success rate is not 100%. Many old people would rather die in the arms of their loved ones at home than on the operating theatre or on the hospital bed. By then, it's just watching the days go by. 一天过一天。Why would you want to get a health insurance when you are not even planning to go for any major operations in the first place? Minor specialist treatments costing between a few hundreds to a few thousands can easily be taken out of your rainy day funds which have already been consciously built up.

I thought this was really insightful. What he said made sense. When you turn old, your mindset about life will take a drastic turn. Many things become transient. Not withstanding that the risk of operation increases proportionate to age. Of course, there will be people who argue that we should seek to live a longer life so that we can do more fulfilling things; we can still contribute to the society. I don't deny that. But if we were really sincere about doing these, we should have started when we were young and well. Not wait till we are old and frail. No time is an excuse. It's the heart that wants to do something that counts. Just some personal thoughts~

Some useful websites for financial planning

www.askdrmoney.com

www.tankinlian.com

www.tankinlian.blogspot.com

The last one had been quite popular since the Lehman Brothers Minibond issue.

When outstanding is just average

Check this out! Elite college = scholar factory? Haha~ Now i DO agree that there is a Singaporean culture somewhere ingrained in us.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_216917.html

Perfect scores, perfect students

Woo... I like this... Says quite a lot about our education system which has zero tolerance for failure. What kind of values are we imparting to our children?

http://diodati.omniscientx.com/2008/03/15/perfect-scores-perfect-students-a-perfect-storm-for-future-failure/

Good advice from YN

For those of us who are stressed out by school or work, there are 2 things that matters most in this world:
1) Life
2) Sanity

And we should strive not to lose either in our pursuit of goals.

Jiayou x3!!!

Nice quote for those of you still having exams or work stress:

If you are going through hell, keep going.

~ Winston Churchill

Alexander Graham Bell

When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.

~Alexander Graham Bell

Pasar Malam Theory

Was watching Women on Top hosted by Quan Yifeng, one guy interviewed gave this interesting theory about how Singaporean guys are still 'hot' even when they get older...

His Pasar Malam theory about S'porean guys:

Some Singaporean guys are like the bags in pasar malam, going at 3 for $10. Singaporean women won't give two hoots about them because they are not designer goods. However, these bags have something important about them-- they are made in Singapore. When we take these 'bags' and put them on sale in other markets such as China and Vietnam, their prices skyrocket. Why? Because there are 4 things inside the bag...

1) CPF
2) PR/ Citizenship or citizen rights
3) HDB Flat
4) Baby Bonus

Hence, these 'bags' are in popular demand abroad.

Quote from Warren Buffett

Inspiring Quote from Warren Edward Buffett:

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.

小和尚与老和尚

Got this from Jacky Wu...

有一天，小和尚与老和尚一同出差，路经一条河。这时，有位貌美的姑娘要过河，又不想弄湿脚，就请老和尚背她过河。老和尚一言不发，背她过河。小和尚看了，百思不得其解。

过了几天，小和尚终于按捺不住，开口问老和尚：“师傅，几天前那位姑娘。。。”
老和尚看了看小和尚，说到：“我早已将那姑娘放下，你怎么还将她放在心中？”

启发：放下，释然。

记忆

一个人一个世界。X亿个人X亿个世界。

1天24小时。1小时60分钟。1分钟60秒。

1年365天。24个年头

12，614，400分钟

756，864，000秒。

缓缓人生路，一步 一 脚 印。

每分每秒都可能欣喜若狂，或痛彻心扉。喜悲至极就在
那一分、那一秒、那一刻。

欲归不能。欲舍不可。

不论悲喜终归为该世界添上一笔，使其缤纷。

而此世界仅存于你；专属你独一无二的世界。纵使拥有金山银山也无法修饰，或重新打造。却又是他人要盗也盗不走的。

世界上最珍贵的东西——记忆

何谓人生？

无非一连串记忆绘制的动画片。

Quote from DHTKWG

Me: People change after they have girlfriends.

DG: No~ I'm still perfectly abnormal.

=P

Count your blessings

I was watching the news last night and the Indonesian authority predicted that there might be floods in Jakarta in the coming weeks. This reminded me of an incident which occurred when i was in Jakarta a few years ago. I was on the bus when we passed by a huge water body on my right. I commented to my friend that it was a beautiful lake. Immediately after commenting, a thought struck my mind. It may not be a lake after all! Having read about some parts of Jakarta being flooded earlier that day in the newspaper, i considered the possibility that it could be a low-lying area that was simply flooded! It was a daunting thought. Think about all those people who turned homeless due to the flood. That's why we should count our blessing that we are living in Singapore. Floods are a thing of the past for our government has an efficient drainage system in place. At least not those floods that go to two or three storeys high.

Maid? Made?

Someone related an incident which set me thinking about a relatively current issue in Singapore -- the presence of maids in our society. (To be politically correct, lest someone accuses me of being racist) Ermz... i mean domestic helpers. Let me provide some background before i give my five-cent worth.

This particular domestic helper is from Indonesia and has been working at my friend's house for 5 1/2 years. Since i visit my friend quite often, she (the domestic helper) is not just some stranger, but someone i know personally. I have never chatted with her, so i cannot claim to know her well. However, she has always been polite and hardworking and always offered me food and water whenever i visit my friend. Hence it came as a surprise to me when my friend mentioned to me that she had been caught stealing money and had been sent back to Indonesia. I mean stealing was the last thing on my mind and it was something that i never thought she would do.

Now, in case you are wondering whether the domestic helper had been mistreated, the answer is a firm no. I understand that the employer has always regarded her as part of his family and never mistreated her either physically or mentally. Proper rest days were given and salary paid on time. The family had been satisfied with the domestic helper's performance and never thought of finding a replacement. The dramatic twist took place a few months back. The employer had a practice of leaving his wallet on the study table. Since there is no outsider staying in his house, other than the domestic helper whom he treated as a family member too, i guess he probably felt safe to do so. I'm not sure about the exact date but starting from a few months ago, the employer realized that some cash had been consistently missing from his wallet. And it was usually $50 notes. This went on for a while and the employer decided that this cannot go on, so he decided to install a pin-hole camera in his room. And indeed, the next day, footage captured revealed that the domestic helper was the culprit.

Probably out of goodwill and her consistent good performance, the employer did not immediately accuse the domestic helper of theft, but asked her if her family in Indonesia was facing any type of financial difficulties and whether she was having any personal problem. The answer was negative. She acted as if nothing had happened. The employer had no choice but to refer her to the agency and confronted her in front of her agent with the footage and charges. She was given a chance to explain herself but failed to provide any satisfactory explanation. In fact, when they wanted her to cough out the money she had stolen so far, which had amounted to thousands of dollars then, she even pretended to faint. Well in the end, it was no happy ending -- she was returned the money and was sent back to Indonesia. Surprisingly, when she was taking back to the house to pack her stuff, the employer found that she had in her possession a MP3, a handphone and some accessories -- things that revealed her spendthrift nature.

The family was taken aback by the whole incident, so was I. How could a thrifty and diligent domestic helper have undergone such a massive transformation in such a short time? It was a thought-provoking incident which i could not make sense of. I went on to inquire whether there was any mistreatment or grudge of any sort, but no. If there had been any indication or signs that she was unhappy, but no either. If she had appeared unusual, out-of-sort or showed any sign of guilt, but the answer was still negative. However, there was one point raised which could possibly shed light on the incident. My friend commented that she had been hanging out with a group of Indonesian friends in her free time. It was possible that she had been influenced by them or even coaxed into stealing by them. Indeed, for a person who is far away from home, she has no home support to fall back on and is more easily influenced. I guess environment plays a big role in affecting a person's personality. Perhaps her friends had not been good company at all and being her only friends in Singapore, peer pressure and her friends' negative influence could have changed her from a simple person to what she is now.

Just an incident to demonstrate that people DO change and it is easy to succumb to pressure. One's environment determines one's behaviour. Choose who to hang around with wisely!

Quote from Dr Han

"There are a lot of unexpected things waiting for you. Whenever you turn a corner of your life, something you had not expected is waiting for you."
"Those unexpected things make your life better or more interesting."

Haha~ How true!

A meaningful quote from Dr Han, my Econometrics II lecturer. Coincidentally, it fits the theme of my blog.