Monday, February 17, 2014

Clueless about Singapore's defining events!

It took my former workmate and canteen teatime kaki, Bruce Gale, an Aussie, to point out an open secret: older Singaporeans' appalling cluelessness about their country's modern history, despite having lived through, say, the formation of Malaysia, Konfrontasi, and the creation of ASEAN:




As Bruce pointed out, he was not referring to today's younger Singaporeans who learnt about colonial Singapore, post-colonial Singapore and post-independent Singapore vicariously through social studies lessons and national education talks (imparted, by now, by educators who themselves learnt about defining key events vicariously). Bruce mentioned a 50-something and a "well-educated" colleague who asked (incredulously), "How did Singapore get dragged into Konfrontasi?".

I, too, can testify that many of my contemporaries will refer to their O-levels and A-levels when harking back to their student days. For Heavens' sake! They, ie, my "generation", took the Senior Cambridge exams (School Certificate = today's O-levels; and Higher School Certificate = A-levels). No, we mustn't simplify that. The distinction reinforces our sense of history (just as the true Pioneer Generation cohorts will think of secondary-level education in terms of Form One to Form Five, and, thereafter, Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth).      

If we keep reducing everything to a discourse that only today's young can comprehend, then expect a further dumbing down of our historical sensibility. As it is, people now talk about the National University of Singapore as if it existed from Day One, with no predecessors. Aiyoh!
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Still on cluelessness, I wonder how many Singaporeans are aware that the Earth revolves around the Sun (after all, isn't it said that "the sun rises in the east and sets in the west"?). I bring this up because of this AFP article, carried by insing.com:

One in 4 Americans unaware that Earth circles Sun: poll

http://news.insing.com/feature/one-in-4-americans-unaware-that-earth-circles-sun-poll/id-e7393101

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Finally, dyscalculaic I may be, but I was intrigued by this teaser ad:


I may still have a fear of all sums, but -- thanks to Google -- I easily found out that the factors of 69 are 1, 3, 23 and 69. So the answer to the above question is 68. QED!

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