The Results

The last day of term passed in a haze of impatience. In the course of the day I finished reading Cherian George's The Air-Conditioned Nation, coming to the conclusion that it really is (to my sincere surprise) a good book about Singapore politics in specific and Singapore society in general. It was easy to read, and the insights that George gives have the truthfulness and retrospective self-apparentness of sociological patterns. He manages to make Singapore politics fascinating, which, to me, is no mean feat, my prejudices against the subject notwithstanding. A particular piece that I liked was George's essay on the shifting sands that is the Singaporean conception of identity, which he evocatively puts in terms of the ever-renewing cityscape. Singapore can be seen as a nomad society, he writes, but not because the population moves around; rather, the environment around them will not stand still, and so even sedentary residents find themselves inexorably alienated from the familiar over time.

So, finally read this book that I first heard about in 2004 from Purvis. To my surprise, too, whatever that was left didn't last very long, and I found myself out of things to do by 10am. Spent the rest of the morning plugging into CNN and catching up on election news, waiting, of course, for the big event of the day...

At 2pm, went over to the College section to attend the release of the 'A' Level results. It was a strange, surreal experience, the epitome of ambivalence. As the rest of the people were seized by an irresistible sense of urgency and foreboding, all I could work up was impatience - to hear the results and see how the higher-ups would spin it. I will not hide it - a vested interest in my brother getting a good result out of this experimental 'A' Level examination was contrasted with a gnawing desire to be vindicated, by a set of poor overall results, in my belief that the Through-Train was a mistake.

In the end, for better or worse, the results that HCJC produced (and, as I am to understand, the other IP schools also similarly produced) were in keeping with the traditional overperformance of yesteryear. The results were frankly phenomenal. And I have to say that they look pretty impressive on paper, with people walking away with distinctions in subjects as diverse as "Biodiversity" and "Aeronautical Engineering". That being said, there really isn't much basis for comparison; the subjects are so different in content and structure, and there is so much murkiness surrounding the real performance of the IP schools and how the MOE arrived at this set of marks, that saying that this batch performed as well as any batch before them is reduced to near meaninglessness by all the caveats that you need to add to it.

The real litmus test, I guess, is whether the results are any good for university admissions. After all, everyone may like to pat themselves on the back for successfully pulling off a tricky transition from the old examinations to the new system, but the marks are only as valuable as the doors they open for you. It does irritate me when some people talk like the marks are the objective, and that the fight is over once you lay your hands on your result slip. Worse still is a sense of entitlement to the marks that blows their significance way out of proportion. As Purvis used to say, you should approach your accolades with a lingering and healthy sense of fraudulence. And there is of course a sense of injustice when people who don't deserve it get a disporportionate amount of opportunities out of this system. But I digress - if someone gains unfairly, it is regrettable but not as bad as when someone loses out unfairly. And, going into the scholarship and admissions season, I hope that there won't be anyone in the second category. Everyone should at least get the opportunities they deserve.

After the whole ceremony, went out with Ms. Ong, Joel, JY, Llama and Conan to this rocking German pub at Novena (I shan't be more specific because we came to an agreement to keep it our little secret - these places will be ruined by their own success). We were suitably impressed by the international range of beers available, and the encyclopaedic knowledge of the friendly owners and waitresses. The food was also deliciously rich, well matched to the task of liberal drinking. It was not long, therefore, before our table was a mosaic of plates emptied of sausages, sauerkraut, roast quail, meatballs, oxtail stew and the absolutely necessary pork knuckle, with a skyline of empty beer bottles looming over the vista, representing the brewing traditions of Australia, Germany, Belgium and Russia.

And, I guess, you are never too young to reflect on old times. Setting the record straight about feuds and misunderstandings old and new, laughing about caricatures and absurdities, complaining about work and looking forward - again and again I find myself in awe of the quality of the people I know, and have the privilege of knowing as friends. It still stuns me how I am part of all this, because it could so easily have been different.

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Mosaic Music Festival is back! The fête that kept my sanity intact over the last two years returned yesterday to the Esplanade, and I reckon that I'll be down there a lot this coming week, armed with a camera and open eyes and ears. I look to be surprised and astonished, and Mosaic has not failed me yet.

Also, planning a trip up to Penang at the end of the week. It's time to enjoy some of that salary that has come in. This was what became of the original proposal to climb Mt. Kinabalu again, a proposal that was sunk on the tightness of schedules all around. Still, looking forward to this trip; a reliving of the thrill of exploration, with the new taste for backpacking tossed in. And trying to arrange a train ride into this trip - only the first time since Frexprog that I've taken an intercity train.