whoops...

Whoops! I just realised that my "edit post" window has been on my desktop for the past few days. It's been a hectic few weeks leading up to this break week. I'm almost able to take a breather, just a couple of final assignments and projects to go before I officially try to begin studying.

Sometimes I wonder how effective is university education. We spend 15 weeks rushing through a set of syllabus, muddle our way through projects and papers, fumble around memorising content and when the final exams are done, everything goes out of the window. How much of what we learn is kept in our brains? How much that is applied? I'm really not sure.

Maybe I haven't taken any advanced modules that require knowledge from previous classes yet. When that happens, I might appreciate what I've been through before. For now, I'm just kind of jaded and dreading the viscious cycle of assignment-quiz-project-midterm-assignment-presentation-assignment-finals. Definitely looking forward to a break from everything when I go on exchange.

Where is our creativity?

I just had my Marketing 101 class today and we got to check out advertisements. We've got some really creative minds behind some of the advertisements out there... Unfortunately, not so much in Singapore. Compared to some of the adverts that air overseas, Singapore's creative adverts fall short.

There is a very interesting trend though. Our government services tend to have very creative adverts. At least they are more witty than many commercial ones. At least they don't remind me of a poorly done powerpoint slideshow with tacky taglines and bad voiceovers.

Here are afew good examples, though I'm sure there are more good ones out there.

I thought this was quite funny. Saw it at Marina Square.

Very chilling advert, definitely gets the message across.


Our armed forces has a series of very interesting commercials. I wonder whether these adverts are effective in their recruitment.

They are definitely doing something right. I hope corporates out there take the hint and stop using crappy adverts. Take a hint from our government agencies! Spend some money on good adverts!

Have you been SIFE-ed?

It's here again. The beginning of a new team's SIFE journey. It seems like it was just yesterday that I got selected to be part of our SIFE 08 team. I still remember the hours and hours in school. Working until nothing made much sense, sending my teammates home at really late hours in the night.

I've always asked myself whether it was worth it. For a good 3 months, nothing else existed in my life. In terms of skills, my presentation skills have improved. I've become more critical in assessing business feasibility. I've been introduced to so many business models and have learnt so much from them. The thing is, I think it's only now that I see the real value behind my experience.

For the past 8 months, I've been obsessing over trying to find a self sustainable business model for a social enterprise. I've been experimenting with several ideas and working on a couple of projects. I've become more aware of people around me, realising that I'm very lucky to be where I am and to be given what I have. I believe that's the true value of taking part in SIFE. To be inspired by the projects and make a change in your own life to become more aware.

Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) - Check it out.

Social Entrepreneurship with a twist?

Before I get into Social Entrepreneurship proper, here's a link that's truly entrepreneurial for a social cause.

Pimp This Bum!

Ethical issues aside, I think this is a brilliant way to effect change. In one of the videos on the site they quote Mother Theresa: If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

This isn't the first of its kind though, it's been done before. A family tried to auction their belongings on Ebay to tide them through the credit crunch.

In the words of my Social Entrepreneurship professor, "in what way is this entrepreneurial?" What do you think?

Hoot... Hoot!

I have this feeling that we are becoming nocturnal. I thought I was crazy for being up and doing work at 3.30am when I received an email from a friend reminding me about a meeting later today. In disbelief, I replied, semi-mocking her for being up.

To my greatest surprise, 2 more members of my group replied the same email. What's happening to the world! We ar... Hoot! Hoooot! HooooooT!!!

Hoot Hooot Hoootttt? Hoot.

SMU, would you rather be somewhere else?

A quick post.

There has been some discussion about SMU and the general comments are rather negative.

Check out my reply.

I'm not blindly pro-SMU but if you asked me whether there's somewhere else better for me? I would have to say no.

Where will we be in 5 years?

It's been a long week and a variety of reasons have kept me away from blogging. Hopefully this week will be better.

I was going to write about something school-related that happened to me a couple of days back but as I was surfing facebook, I saw 2 things that hit me.

First, several people invited me on Facebook to do some "Where will you be in 5 years..." thing.

Next, I chanced upon this video. It's pretty old but the message inside is still very relevant in today's world.


It was taken in 1992, when a 12 year old girl, founder of the Environmental Children's Organisation, shook the world with a mind-blowing speech about the effects of our actions on the environment. Her message was simple and in Singaporean terms, it basically said "Wake up your idea!".

Interestingly, I had the privilege of emceeing for the inaugural National Sustainability Conference 2009 organised by National University of Singapore (NUS)'s Office of Environmental Sustainability. We had 3 days of speakers with diverse backgrounds speaking from the perspective of government, business, academic and even students.

Looking back, I can't help to wonder whether her words fell on deaf ears. It's been about 17 years and from the presentations at the conference, things look bleak for us. It seems to be the same old story, academics trying to educate and warn us about the consequences of our current emission levels, businesses attempting to convince us that they are doing their part, government seemingly caring but still unable to find a solution that appeases everyone and students boldy pushing forward with initiatives that sound effective.

It is however heartening that so many people turned up and stayed on until evening on a Sunday. Maybe we are improving and the world is becoming a better place to live in. Maybe not and all our efforts go to nought. I guess we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I hope the video inspires you to make changes to your lifestyle for the environment.

Note: I have recently gotten into the habit of sleeping without air-conditioning. Slowly but surely I'm making the change too. Have you?

P.S. Read about the girl in the video here.