This Week

The day after I came back, I just happened to look out the window before dinner, and there was the iridiscent sky. And, suddenly, it was like I was back in Penanag again, making my way around the central massif, chasing the sunset to the North Shores of the island, and catching the very last goldbursts. Like church, like spontaneous kindness, a sunset in a clear sky is something that can unite experiences separated by places. And we the city-dwellers may have encroached on the night sky with our towers to entrap the constellations in our nocturnal cityscapes, but the setting sun, at least, still remains beyond the reach of our usurpation.

Back to work, and there has hardly been space to breathe. If not for the stuff that I had already prepared before leaving for Penang, I think I would have stayed in school very late every day of this last week. And the material I was going through with my Sec 2s isn't very interesting. But I have also to say that I am reassured by their receptivity, and also the productivity and timeliness of my Sec 3 class. I realise that I may still be stuck in the Army mindset, expecting students to miss classes and not to do their assigned work, and having to spend a lot of time papering over their deficiencies. It still surprises me that all my students are, after all, responsible and largely obedient. It is a world away from the military life. And the classes seem surreal, unbelievable, utopian, when compared to the military time.

Was called in to help refine the debate case of the Arena team of the school. For those of you who may not be familiar (heck, I wasn't familiar till two days ago), the Arena is a TV show where teams from secondary schools debate each other. It is marketed as a battle of wits in the literal sense, with teams taking on martial names and costumes, and relying much more on the cutting tongue than the slow erosions of reason and logic. In this world, intimidation and flair trounce philosophy and reasoning. This show is, I think, the logical epitome of the debating culture in Singapore, which, I think, has always tended to favour style over substance (in the sense that speaking nonsense very loudly and funnily trounces speaking truthfully but monotonously). Its lack of substance bothers me. Its volume and precociousness irritates me. And since I've always thought Singapore debating is a bit absurd, more so this show! It is rather ludicrous, the amount of significance that the participants, producers and audience put on what I would otherwise consider juvenile soap opera.

Anyway, since yesterday was Founders' Day, my work week was pared down to three days. I was rather surprised to discover that, nowadays, only the Sec 4s have to sit through the prize-giving ceremonies, and the rest of the school goes out for community involvement work. It is certainly a more useful use of their time, rather than getting them to sit still and be applause-producers. I was assigned to a team in a project to collect newspapers, old clothes and unwanted books from blocks of flats in Geylang Bahru. It occurs to me that it is not only a barely productive form of work (after two hours of effort over 10 blocks, I think the truckload of trash that the 50 students collected is only worth up to $300), but it is ethically questionable, to compete away the income of the karang-guni man. In a perverted form of Robin Hood, we take from one poor demographic to give to another poor demographic.

But after all, it was quite interesting. One apartment had an amazingly verdant and lush potted garden in the corridor, and spilling over into the lift lobby and over the parapet to hang, Babylonian-style, over thin air. One had an enormous and elaborate Buddhist shrine, with miniature figures which I think may be marionettes. One had an exterior wall that was bare except for a mirror over the door and an anti-spirit scroll pasted on the door. And one, inhabited by an old and jolly man, had a wall lined with shelves of neatly-arranged Chinese comics. And it also strikes me, how nearly every apartment in our particular block was inhabited by elderly folk. It is the first time, really, that the concept of a "mature" estate has really been made clear to me. You won't see this kind of thing in Tampines, Bishan, or even the newer parts of Toa Payoh.