The National Arts Council (NAC) recently launched the SG Arts Plan which is a 5 year plan that charts new directions for arts in Singapore and supports the needs and aspirations of the arts community and all Singaporeans. One of the tasks for this plan is to implement digital initiatives by using technology to design arts experiences and to increase accessibility to the arts.
A good way to make arts performances such as concerts, musicals and operas more accessible to more people is to provide live streaming online through a portal. In fact, some of the most prestigious opera houses across Europe began streaming performances live online since May 2015. With the high percentage of our local population, both young and old own mobile devices such smart phones and tablets, this idea is viable. Moreover, our local network infrastructure is capable of supporting high bandwidth and usage and ensures seamless viewing of contents online via mobile devices anytime, anywhere. With this live streaming feature, people may still enjoy watching any performances they are interested in but unable to attend. In a way, this feature also allows unlimited number of people to watch the performances without the physical space constraint of the performance venue. For paid performances, people should be expected to pay a cheaper fee to watch online. The artistes and production company would be agreeable to this idea since it helps to promote their performances to as many people as possible. However, the drawback of this live streaming feature which most people will highlight is whether they are able to capture the real immersive experience of watching the performance live in a gallery, theatre or opera house. Nevertheless, this live streaming feature provides an alternative avenue of watching performances and would certainly reach a wider audience.
The invention of the Internet made it possible for art to be created in various forms and distributed across the digital world without the need to go through art galleries. With apps like Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest, anyone out there can showcase their art work easily. However, to ensure cohesion among our local artists and the communities, there should be a portal created for sharing and bonding purpose. This portal not only facilitates sharing and commenting of art works but also acts as a place for artists to maintain their portfolio. The relevant authorities and institutions should have access to this portal to view and grade the art works for cases such as the artists applying for admission into an art institution or studies.
Technology affects art across various mediums and is able to change the way artists are operating. Modern day image and video editing software provide more than a million shades of colours which are far more than traditional watercolours. The huge array of tweaking and fine-tuning options open up limitless horizons for artists to express themselves more creatively and accurately. While artists of the past rely solely on pencil or brush to make beautiful works of art, modern day artists can make use of sound, video or computer generated images to provide a more immersive experience. Rather than merely displaying static art works, the portal can support additional materials such as voice or video from the artists to accompany the art works for more detailed descriptions.
Another advantage of technology is that it allows experimentation. Given the fast turnaround time to compose something and see the results, Children or anyone who is a beginner in arts can simply reset and retry multiple times. This ability promotes incredible imagination and aids comprehension of structure. The portal can possibly provide such basic tools for children and beginners in arts to have some hands-on as a way of arousing interest and promoting the creation of arts.
Data analytics is the process of examining data sets in order to draw conclusions about the information they contain. It is used by many corporations across all industries to enhance productivity and business gain. Similarly, we can make use of data analytics to interpret important data, such as audience segmentation and consumption patterns for the arts industry. When data analytics feature is included into the portal, it will enable art practitioners to cater to changes in audiences’ needs and preferences for future art works.
Sunday, 25 November 2018
Saturday, 17 November 2018
Problems with Singapore's Art Scene
In less than a generation, Singapore transformed itself from third to first world and its economy developed at such a rapid pace which many people considered to be a miracle. However, its arts scene does not develop at similar pace and is in fact, developing at a very slow pace and is not as thriving compared to other developed nations. It is a universally acknowledged truth that a country in possession of a First World reputation must also have a thriving arts scene. Here are some of the challenges and problems faced by Singapore’s art scene which explains why it is not as thriving as expected.
First of all, Singaporeans have had the mentality that pursuing studies or careers in arts would not be as lucrative as science. When Singapore was in the process of rapid economic development as driven by the government after its independence, many jobs were created in sectors such as Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction. Obviously, being a developing nation back then, Singapore required many expertise in these sectors related to Science to develop its infrastructure and support the economy. Unfortunately, now that Singapore is already a developed nation, its conservative mentality of the people are still geared towards pursuing Science related studies and careers for a more secure and better future. Due to this reason, science related stream or courses in our secondary schools, junior colleges and tertiary institutions remain to be a more popular choice than arts related stream or courses. As a result, people formed the impression that only academically weaker students should pursue arts as an alternative option. To debunk this perception, the National Arts Council (NAC) has been developing ways to describe the importance of the arts to our society, economy, education, and well-being and actively engaging the public through organising a series of arts events island-wide occasionally. The NAC and National Heritage Board (NHB) have also jointly award the arts and heritage scholarships to nurture outstanding individuals who are able to contribute to Singapore’s arts scene.
There is also a myth that local artists are not as successful as international ones. Some people believe that due to the fact that academically weaker people pursue arts as an alternative option resulted in lower standard of artists in Singapore which attributed to less impressive achievements from our local artists in the international art scene. There are in fact artists such as Linying, our very own singer-songwriter who clinched a spot on Spotify’s US Viral 50 playlist which people who are not really interested in this area are not aware of. Perhaps there should be more publicity for the major achievements of our artists through various means such as television and Social Media where majority of our people spend lots of time in.
On the contrary, there are children who has interest and intend to pursue arts for leisure at a young age. Most of them love music and would like to take up classes in playing musical instruments such as piano, dancing or singing. These private lessons are often costly and usually only rich families can afford. To ensure that these children are not discouraged from pursuing arts for leisure due to cost, the government can award some subsidies to make lesson fees more affordable. This scheme would be something similar to the SkillsFuture credit which is given to Singaporeans aged 25 years and above with the exception that it is intended to expose local individuals to arts at a young age.
In recent years, Singapore hits the top of the table for being one of the most expensive city in the world to live in. Housing and office rental forms one of the main component contributing to this notorious international ranking. Art housing which is becoming more expensive than before hinders the development of arts scene through higher cost in rental and ticketing. Although rental charges are heavily subsidised by NAC, utilities and maintenance costs which are substantial are borne by the tenants. With donations from corporates and individuals fluctuating according to economic performance, NAC faces the difficulty to maintain the amount of funding provided to art practitioners. Only when people realised the importance of arts and the values it brings to us then funding would be more constant and substantial. NAC needs to continue with the uphill tasks of arts advocacy.
First of all, Singaporeans have had the mentality that pursuing studies or careers in arts would not be as lucrative as science. When Singapore was in the process of rapid economic development as driven by the government after its independence, many jobs were created in sectors such as Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction. Obviously, being a developing nation back then, Singapore required many expertise in these sectors related to Science to develop its infrastructure and support the economy. Unfortunately, now that Singapore is already a developed nation, its conservative mentality of the people are still geared towards pursuing Science related studies and careers for a more secure and better future. Due to this reason, science related stream or courses in our secondary schools, junior colleges and tertiary institutions remain to be a more popular choice than arts related stream or courses. As a result, people formed the impression that only academically weaker students should pursue arts as an alternative option. To debunk this perception, the National Arts Council (NAC) has been developing ways to describe the importance of the arts to our society, economy, education, and well-being and actively engaging the public through organising a series of arts events island-wide occasionally. The NAC and National Heritage Board (NHB) have also jointly award the arts and heritage scholarships to nurture outstanding individuals who are able to contribute to Singapore’s arts scene.
There is also a myth that local artists are not as successful as international ones. Some people believe that due to the fact that academically weaker people pursue arts as an alternative option resulted in lower standard of artists in Singapore which attributed to less impressive achievements from our local artists in the international art scene. There are in fact artists such as Linying, our very own singer-songwriter who clinched a spot on Spotify’s US Viral 50 playlist which people who are not really interested in this area are not aware of. Perhaps there should be more publicity for the major achievements of our artists through various means such as television and Social Media where majority of our people spend lots of time in.
On the contrary, there are children who has interest and intend to pursue arts for leisure at a young age. Most of them love music and would like to take up classes in playing musical instruments such as piano, dancing or singing. These private lessons are often costly and usually only rich families can afford. To ensure that these children are not discouraged from pursuing arts for leisure due to cost, the government can award some subsidies to make lesson fees more affordable. This scheme would be something similar to the SkillsFuture credit which is given to Singaporeans aged 25 years and above with the exception that it is intended to expose local individuals to arts at a young age.
In recent years, Singapore hits the top of the table for being one of the most expensive city in the world to live in. Housing and office rental forms one of the main component contributing to this notorious international ranking. Art housing which is becoming more expensive than before hinders the development of arts scene through higher cost in rental and ticketing. Although rental charges are heavily subsidised by NAC, utilities and maintenance costs which are substantial are borne by the tenants. With donations from corporates and individuals fluctuating according to economic performance, NAC faces the difficulty to maintain the amount of funding provided to art practitioners. Only when people realised the importance of arts and the values it brings to us then funding would be more constant and substantial. NAC needs to continue with the uphill tasks of arts advocacy.
Thursday, 15 November 2018
My Interest & Involvement in Arts
Art consists of a range of human activities that create visual, auditory or artefacts to express imagination or conceptual ideas. It is intended to be appreciated for its beauty or emotional power. When art is mentioned in Singapore context, most people especially children or teenagers would associate it with Drawings, Paintings or Artefacts (such as lanterns or kites) due to the involvements in making these items during art lessons from nursery to secondary two in school. However, art comes in many different forms and is definitely more than the visual category of items which most Singaporeans have encountered during school days. Other common forms of art includes Architecture, Sculpture, Music, Poetry, Dance and Performing. All of these are important in our daily lives as they were used to communicate ideas or provide pleasures for us. A good example of art being used to communicate ideas is the broadcast of the Pioneer Generation Package advertisement on television to the elderly for the purpose of creating awareness for this package in the form of a song. The usage of art to communicate idea in this case increases the effectiveness by capturing the attention and making the content easier to remember through melodious tune. Music is another popular form of art that provides entertainment for us to relieve stress. Given the importance of art in our daily lives, there is a need to actively promote the creation and appreciation of art, an area which I feel Singapore is far lacking behind many nations.
Art and science are often perceived as polar opposites. Traditionally, tertiary institutes categorise their courses into one of these two areas and require their students to stick to one side of the fence. Although I am considered to be a technical person because of my profession and background in Information Technology, my interest and involvement in art is no lesser than the people in the arts and entertainment industry. I enjoy watching West End and Broadway musicals as they provide immersive entertainments and also greater understanding of humanity through insights into specific cultures, behaviours and thinking of people of certain eras. When I told my friends about my interest in musicals and even wrote blog posts about some of those musicals I like, they were indeed surprised to know that such a technical person like me would display such great level of interest in a form of art which locally, few people would be interested in. To debunk this perception, I replied them saying that Leonardo Da Vinci, the great Italian polymath was a scientist as well as an artist. Some of his most well-known inventions include parachute and helicopter whereas famous paintings include Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He was a perfect example to illustrate that art and science are closely related and both areas contributed to his exemplary success.
As an Information Technology professional, I have the opportunity to apply art in my work through designing user interfaces (UI) for web or mobile applications. The standards and guides provided by documentations such the Web Interface Standards (WIS) defines the objectives while art helps me overcome the subjective interpretations of the users interacting with the user interfaces. For example, the standard would mandate the size, wording and position of the various UI objects while art is being applied to design icons to prevent cluttering too much text on the screen especially on a mobile device. Icons are subjective and may be interpreted differently by different users. This is how art is applied in a field of work that is highly perceived to be purely scientific.
Art and science are often perceived as polar opposites. Traditionally, tertiary institutes categorise their courses into one of these two areas and require their students to stick to one side of the fence. Although I am considered to be a technical person because of my profession and background in Information Technology, my interest and involvement in art is no lesser than the people in the arts and entertainment industry. I enjoy watching West End and Broadway musicals as they provide immersive entertainments and also greater understanding of humanity through insights into specific cultures, behaviours and thinking of people of certain eras. When I told my friends about my interest in musicals and even wrote blog posts about some of those musicals I like, they were indeed surprised to know that such a technical person like me would display such great level of interest in a form of art which locally, few people would be interested in. To debunk this perception, I replied them saying that Leonardo Da Vinci, the great Italian polymath was a scientist as well as an artist. Some of his most well-known inventions include parachute and helicopter whereas famous paintings include Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He was a perfect example to illustrate that art and science are closely related and both areas contributed to his exemplary success.
As an Information Technology professional, I have the opportunity to apply art in my work through designing user interfaces (UI) for web or mobile applications. The standards and guides provided by documentations such the Web Interface Standards (WIS) defines the objectives while art helps me overcome the subjective interpretations of the users interacting with the user interfaces. For example, the standard would mandate the size, wording and position of the various UI objects while art is being applied to design icons to prevent cluttering too much text on the screen especially on a mobile device. Icons are subjective and may be interpreted differently by different users. This is how art is applied in a field of work that is highly perceived to be purely scientific.
Sunday, 2 September 2018
My Thoughts on Education And Technology
How technology can
help to improve learning?
Emerging technologies are quickly gaining momentum in the
education sector. There are several ways which the adoption of technology can
help to improve learning.
First of all, the Internet made E-learning possible
for students by allowing them access to course materials anytime, anywhere. With
the majority of households and public places having high bandwidth Internet
access, an institution may adopt E-learning as a means of teaching by
developing its own portal for staff and students to access. Lectures may post
videos of their lectures on the portal for students to watch on demand. In this
way, the students may attend lectures in advanced or after they have attended
the same lectures on campus. Having these online lectures allows students to
reinforce their understandings of the topic by learning at the own pace in the venue
of their choice. Similar to online lectures, tutorials and lab exercises may be
posted online for students to prepare them in advanced before attending the lesson
on campus. The answers to these tutorials and lab exercises could also be made
available online after the actual lesson for the convenience of the students.
Besides having learning contents made available online, discussion
forums can be created to facilitate discussions on the learning topics among
the teaching staff and students. The discussion forums also provides a platform
for students to clear their doubts with their lecturers on certain areas of the
learning topics or provide assistance to students who are weaker in the
learning topics. Through the discussion forums, lecturers can easily spot
students who are actively participating in the discussions and award them
additional marks accordingly for active participation. The downside of having
discussion forums is the need for the teaching staff to moderate inappropriate
posts from students.
To enhance the learning process, the portal may also
provide a means to make peer-graded assignments possible. Students
submit their written assignment online for fellow students to review and grade
them according to the rubrics set by the lecturer. In the event of a dispute
arising due to the review or grading, the portal would need to provide a
feature for the lecturer or tutor to intervene and settle the matter.
As students these days are getting more knowledgeable and
outspoken, the portal may provide a blogging feature for them to post
their research or thoughts on the learning topics. With the younger generation
of students being more tech-savvy, writing blog is certainly not an uphill task
for them. It gives them the opportunity to showcase their passion, knowledge
and learning process. The lecturer may consider awarding bonus marks to
students who write blog that provides insightful contents to the learning
topics.
Last but not least, the portal can provide a repository
of past years’ examinations or test papers and also mock exam papers from
the lecturer. Having students attempting mock examinations or tests online
helps the teaching staff to monitor their progress and arrest areas of
weaknesses. The results and data for these mock examinations or tests collected
in the backend can be analysed for the purpose of curriculum planning.
What are the
challenges faced by education institutions in Singapore?
Educational institutions around the world including
Singapore are facing tough challenges. These challenges are results of social,
economic and technology trends.
More evidently in the case of Singapore, like any other
first world countries, faces the problem of ageing population. Due to the need
for Singapore to develop rapidly before and after independence, more
educational institutions were created to meet the demands of the baby boomers
generation. As society progressed and transformed Singapore into a first world
nation, birth rate decreases and on the contrary, educational level of its
people increases. This trend resulted in decrease in schools’ enrolment
which in turn lead to oversupply of learning facilities and teaching staff over
the years. The effect had been felt from the defunct or merging of primary,
secondary schools and even junior colleges in recent years. While there is no
way for these non-tertiary institutions to escape the fate of becoming defunct or
merging due to falling enrolment, tertiary or post-secondary institutions can
try to make up for the shortfall in enrolment by operating Continuing Education
and Training (CET) classes for working adults. In fact, our government
encourages tertiary institutions to transform themselves to support
SkillsFuture, which is national movement to provide Singaporeans with
opportunities to develop their fullest potential throughout life, regardless of
their starting points (i.e. lifelong learning).
With the increasing educational levels of Singaporeans
and demands from employers, more public and private tertiary institutions were
setup in recent years. The increase in institutions naturally created more
competition as students have a greater choice of local and overseas
institutions to choose from. Emerging technologies also made E-learning
possible. One such example is Coursera, which is an online learning platform
founded by Stanford University professors that even offers degree programmes. Although
these degree programmes offered by such online learning platform may not be as
well accredited as those offered offline by a formal intuition, the short
courses they provide are relatively popular among working adults for lifelong
learning due to the low course fee and convenience to access anytime, anywhere.
The evolution of technology introduces new jobs and
eliminate existing ones at the same time. Educational institutions need to run
a race against the technology evolution by constantly creating new courses
and changing existing course syllabuses to meet industries demand, especially
the rate of evolution increases rapidly due to the smart nation initiative. A
good example to illustrate this point is the use of Internet-facing
applications and chatbots to cover the first level of interaction with
customers. The role of the customer service officers would switch to handle
more complex requests or interactions and at the same time help to train up the
chatbots to make them smarter in their interactions with customers.
Institutions providing the customer service related courses would need to
incorporate this new task into their course syllabus.
Saturday, 19 May 2018
Revisiting Venice
Four years ago, I started my cruise vacation in one of the world most
renowned European city. It is not a populous city with excellent
connectivity, good infrastructure or magnificent architecture. Instead,
the charm of this small city lies in its uniqueness, its simple and
isolated way of life which is the complete opposite of the big buzzing
city which we grew up in. This city is non other than Venice in Italy,
the Queen of the Adriatic. According to history, Venice came into
existence in 421 AD when large number of people fled to this lagoon from
mainland Italy to avoid invasions of barbarians from the north due to
the decline of the Roman Empire. For over a thousand years, the shallow
waters between Venice and mainland Italy had not only effectively
protected these inhabitants from the barbarian invaders who were lacking
in ships and sea knowledge but also from the Italian political life.
Venice is also the birth place of Marco Polo, the famous Italian
merchant, explorer and writer who was the first European to reach China.
In fact, it was believed that Marco Polo came to know about noodles
when he visited China and subsequently introduced it in Italy which led
to the invention of spaghetti. He was buried in the San Lorenzo church
in Venice after his death.
As there was no direct flight from Singapore to Venice, I flew directly to Milan instead. After an interesting three days tour of this fashion capital of the world far up north in Italy, I traveled southwest to the Port of Venice via a private hire mini bus. Before reaching Venice, the weather forecast on my iPhone indicated sunny weather with a high temperature of 30 degree celsius in this city which was perfect for sightseeing especially in Europe. Upon reaching the Port of Venice, the weather was indeed sunny. The moment I stepped out of the mini bus, I could feel the chilly gust of sea breeze blowing at me. I felt a hundred times colder than being in an air-conditioned room despite a supposedly warm sunny afternoon of 30 degree celsius . After checking in to my cruise ship and settling down in my room, I proceeded to sign up for a three hours tour of Venice. As I was queuing to step out of the cruise ship at 6 pm in the evening, the weather became colder and I sneezed several times and started to have running nose. An American lady beside me asked whether I was not adjusting well to the weather. My dad who was accompanying me replied her saying that we are from a tropical country and not used to such chilly weather. To my surprise, she said that such weather was not considered cold to her. Both my dad and I were dressed in thick jackets while she wore only t-shirt and jeans.
After stepping out of the cruise ship, we were ushered into a small boat which took us from the Port of Venice to the city centre where all the excitements began. As the boat traveled along the way during sunset, our tour guide, a young Italian gentleman introduced to us the various landmarks visible from our boat and spoke briefly about their history. When darkness fell by the time our boat reached the city centre, the heart of Venice city was brightly lit with temperature dropping even further and accompanying persistent chilly winds. Before we were dispersed to tour the city centre on our own, the tour guide reminded us to be back at the same location on time for our transfer back to the Port of Venice. Failure to do so would require us to take private water taxi which would likely cost as much as 70 Euro dollars for a mere 20 minutes journey.
The city of Venice has no roads for vehicles to travel. Even bicycles do not seem to be allowed either. Due to the narrow streets and vast network of canals, the only and most practical form of transportation is boat which makes this city so unique. Retail shops, cafeterias, bars, restaurants, service apartments and luxurious hotels line the streets of Venice. From my observations, souvenir shops are everywhere throughout this city and visitors could expect to find a wide variety of souvenirs not found elsewhere in Europe. I only realized that Bata is a European brand until I saw a Bata shoes shop in Venice. I had always thought it was a Singaporean or Malaysian brand. As I walked along the streets in Venice looking at the various shops and taking photos of the various landmarks, I was shivering and trying to withstand the bitter cold which was getting more unbearable even with my thick jacket. When the weather became too cold, my dad and I with two other tour group members decided to find a cafe to sit down and have a drink. We ordered two glasses of beer and two cups of Cappuccino which cost about 50 Euro dollars. The other reason why we decided to visit a cafe was because we wanted to make use of the washroom. Similar to other European cities, finding washroom is always a big issue. Even though there are signboards showing the direction to the nearest public washroom, they are often very misleading and not worth the hassle to figure it out. After consuming our drink, we proceeded back to the pickup area for our transfer back to the Port of Venice. The atmosphere in Venice at night was so vibrant and romantic that I had decided to come out again if I have the chance. While walking to the pickup area, I walked pass by this hotel which I found to be extremely cozy and luxurious. In fact, I stopped by and took a second look at the interior which looked pretty much English style. Perhaps that was the reason it was named "Londra Palace".
After the small boat took us back to the Port of Venice, I actually ran a short distance of about 100 metres back into the cruise terminal building to take shelter from the bitter cold. When my cruise ship departed Venice at midnight, I took a final look out of the porthole in my room as it passed the city centre. Along the way, I saw some high end apartments located facing the sea which is similar to those in Sentosa. Although it was a torturing experience because of the cold weather, Venice remains an extraordinary place for me and I have always wanted to revisit this place.
As there was no direct flight from Singapore to Venice, I flew directly to Milan instead. After an interesting three days tour of this fashion capital of the world far up north in Italy, I traveled southwest to the Port of Venice via a private hire mini bus. Before reaching Venice, the weather forecast on my iPhone indicated sunny weather with a high temperature of 30 degree celsius in this city which was perfect for sightseeing especially in Europe. Upon reaching the Port of Venice, the weather was indeed sunny. The moment I stepped out of the mini bus, I could feel the chilly gust of sea breeze blowing at me. I felt a hundred times colder than being in an air-conditioned room despite a supposedly warm sunny afternoon of 30 degree celsius . After checking in to my cruise ship and settling down in my room, I proceeded to sign up for a three hours tour of Venice. As I was queuing to step out of the cruise ship at 6 pm in the evening, the weather became colder and I sneezed several times and started to have running nose. An American lady beside me asked whether I was not adjusting well to the weather. My dad who was accompanying me replied her saying that we are from a tropical country and not used to such chilly weather. To my surprise, she said that such weather was not considered cold to her. Both my dad and I were dressed in thick jackets while she wore only t-shirt and jeans.
After stepping out of the cruise ship, we were ushered into a small boat which took us from the Port of Venice to the city centre where all the excitements began. As the boat traveled along the way during sunset, our tour guide, a young Italian gentleman introduced to us the various landmarks visible from our boat and spoke briefly about their history. When darkness fell by the time our boat reached the city centre, the heart of Venice city was brightly lit with temperature dropping even further and accompanying persistent chilly winds. Before we were dispersed to tour the city centre on our own, the tour guide reminded us to be back at the same location on time for our transfer back to the Port of Venice. Failure to do so would require us to take private water taxi which would likely cost as much as 70 Euro dollars for a mere 20 minutes journey.
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Sunday, 31 December 2017
School Days Badges
Time flies and it’s already the last day of the year 2017. Everyone
is probably busy clearing unwanted stuffs in the house to usher in the
new year. After all, since everyone wants to have a fresh start for the
brand new year ahead, it is a good practice or custom to dispose
unwanted items that are taking up space to create more rooms for new
items on our wish list to be acquired. While I was clearing my room
yesterday, I found some badges worn or attained during my primary and
secondary school days which made me feel pretty nostalgic.
Most of these badges I found were worn as part of my National
Police Cadet Corps (NPCC) uniform during my secondary school days.
Nothing could be more exciting, adventurous and memorable than joining a
uniformed group as Co-Curricular Activity (CCA), something which was
made compulsory by the Education Ministry to ensure every secondary
school student lead a balanced and fulfilling school life. As I was
pretty timid and reserved during my primary school days, joining a
uniformed group had never crossed my mind initially. I was hoping to
join a CCA that was more laid back just to earn enough points to meet
the academic requirements to graduate from secondary school. However, my
parents wanted me to join a uniformed group instead to toughen myself
up for national service. There was a few uniformed group available in my
secondary school namely National Police Cadet Crops (NPCC), National
Cadet Corps (NCC) - Sea, Boys’ & Girls’ Brigade (BB & GB), St
John Ambulance Brigade (SJAB) and Concert Band. Since I had ever been a
member of the instrumental ensemble group before in primary school,
joining the Concert Band seemed to be a good idea but they did not have
any physical activities to toughen me up. I was not interested in
becoming a first aider either and therefore SJAB was not in any of my
choice. Although BB seemed to be a good choice, it is affiliated to the
Christian faith requires its boys to participate in religious activities
such as bible sessions which a non Christian family like mine was not
comfortable with. NCC - Sea had many gruelling physical activities which
my dad felt that it was not suitable for me after knowing from a senior
member during my school CCA Open House event that because their
activities were so physically demanding, all new members were required
to undergo a health examination before joining. Hence NPCC became my
only choice.
NPCC was a demanding CCA that required its members to devote much
time and commitment to all its activities. Because it represents the
Singapore Police Force, much emphasis were placed on regimentation.
Every cadet regardless of rank was required to turn up in tip top attire
with neatly ironed uniform and polished boots for parade every Saturday
morning. The weekly parade consisted of activities such as foot drill
(with baton or rifle) most of the time, theory or practical lessons on
basic skills like First Aid, Crime Prevention, Fire Safety etc, Camp
Craft (pitching of tents, knots & lashings and lighting kerosine oil
lamps) and Physical Trainings (push ups, jumping, running etc). These
activities were conducted by teacher officers (i.e. teachers appointed
by the school principal to take charge of the CCA) or Cadet/Honorary
Inspectors (Ex NPCC members who volunteered their time to take part in
NPCC activities while studying in junior college, ITE, polytechnic or
university) and administered by senior members in secondary 3 or 4,
known as Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs). Every year, there were
various activities such as Camping in school or Pulau Ubin island,
Revolver Shooting, Camp Craft Competition, NPCC & National Day
Parade happening during term time and school holiday. One of the
proudest aspects of joining NPCC was the opportunity to experience
training with weapon. There were foot drills involving the use of old
rifles which were used during World War 2 and eventually distributed to
all secondary schools and came under the custody of the school principal
and maintained by NPCC members. All NPCC cadets also had the
opportunity to fire the .22 revolver (carried by police women on duty)
live at the Police Academy. After attending all the various activities,
cadets feel proud upon passing the required tests and obtain the related
badges.
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Here are the descriptions of the above badges I attained.
(1) Civil Defence Proficiency Badge
This badge was awarded upon attending a 3 days course conducted by
the Singapore Civil Defence Force on basic First Aid & Fire Fighting
and passing the theory and practical test. Somehow, I missed the session which the entire cohort of secondary 3 and 4 cadets went to the community centre near our school for this course and had to go to one of the Civil Defence camp together with few other cadets to attend this course.
This was the very first badge I obtained and was awarded upon
passing the theory test consisting of few multiple choice questions on
traffic signs and rules. One of the teacher officers conducted a short
lesson on this topic followed by the theory test which was fairly
simple.
This badge was awarded upon passing the theory test consisting of few multiple choice questions on Crime Prevention. One of the teacher officers conducted a short
lesson on this topic followed by the theory test which was fairly
simple.
This badge was awarded upon passing the theory test consisting of few multiple choice questions on Neighbourhood Watch. One of the teacher officers conducted a short lesson on this topic followed by the theory test which was fairly simple.
(5) Singapore Anti Narcotics Association (SANA) Anti Drug Abuse Badge
This badge was awarded upon attending a 3 days course conducted by SANA on anti drug abuse, passing the theory test and completion of a small project. From what I recall, this course was conducted like once every year and I was one of the 4 cadets (2 males and 2 females) chosen by our main teacher officer during secondary 3 to attend. This torturing 3 days course consisted of long hours of lectures. The SANA volunteers talked about the various types of drug and how people abuse them while police officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) shared how they detect, arrest and prevent people from abusing or smuggling drugs. This course was conducted at SANA headquarter which was located at Orchard, near The Forum shopping mall at that time. Fortunately, we were dressed in our full NPCC uniform while attending the lessons because the air-conditioning in their lecture room was so cold. We were given $3 per day for lunch by NPCC headquarter which was obviously not sufficient given the fact that a proper meal cost more at Singapore prime shopping district. To save the hassle, the 4 of us including many other attendees settled our lunch at the fast food restaurant across the course venue. When we were dispersed for lunch in our full NPCC attire, there were many curious tourists (mostly And Mohs) wondering why there were so many policemen and policewomen out on the streets. LOL
(6) NPCC Drill Proficiency Badge (3rd Class)
This badge was awarded upon passing the test on giving commands to a squad to perform basic foot drill.
(7) NPCC Drill Proficiency Badge (2nd Class)
This badge was awarded upon passing the test on giving commands to a squad to perform foot drill with rifle.
(8) NPCC Name Tag
Every NPCC cadet wears a name tag above the left breast pocket.
(9) Singapore Police Force Crest
Every NPCC cadet wears this crest above the left eye on his/her beret.
(11) NPCC Unit Formation Logo
Every NPCC cadet wears the formation (school) logo on both side to show which unit (school) he/she is from.
The non NPCC badges include ..
(10) Presbyterian High School (PHS) Badge
Every PHS student wears this school badge above the left pocket of the shirt/blouse. Before I was enrolled into the school, the school logo was different and the badge was sewn onto the shirt/blouse at the same position. When I enrolled into the school, the logo changed and after students complained about being uncool/childish wearing a cloth badge, the school decided to switch to this metal badge which is worn by existing students till today. Although it looks more fancy wearing a metal badge, there is a chance of getting poked by the safety pin if we are not careful. Moreover, some students may forget to wear this school badge when they are in a rush and risk being caught and booked by prefects.
(12 - 14) National Swimming Survival Award (Bronze, Silver, Gold)
These badges were awarded upon passing the National Swimming Survival test conducted by Singapore Sports Council. The test consisted of 3 parts. First, candidates were required to tread water for several minutes in their pyjamas (shirt and trousers) attire followed by removing the pyjamas, tying knots on both ends of the trousers and blow air into it to form a "float" and used it to swim for half a lap without having feet touching the floor or holding on to the edges of the swimming pool. Immediately thereafter, the candidate would be required to swim for several laps without feet touching the floor or holding on to the edges to complete test. Finally, candidates were expected to come out of the swimming pool without the use of the ladder to pass the test. This test was supposed to simulate the scenario of falling into the sea, swimming to shore and climb up via the rocks. The duration of treading water and number of lap increases as the candidate progressed from Bronze to Gold award.
Looking at these old badges certainly makes me feel having some sense of achievements during my school days and motivates me to obtain more certificates in future.
Saturday, 11 November 2017
Interesting Facts About The Equator
Most people know that the Equator is just an imaginary line dividing the northern and southern hemisphere of the earth. The Geography lesson which we had in school taught us that the latitude is 0 degree at the Equator and places in this region have constant high temperature, high humidity, high amount of rainfall and consistent amount of daylight throughout the year. The Equator is therefore perceived nothing more than just an important reference point on the world map. However, there are interesting facts about the Equator which our Geography lessons did not cover for unknown reasons.
Here are some of the interesting facts about the Equator.
Ideal Location For Spaceports
The earth bulges slightly at the Equator, making its diameter approximately 43 km greater than that at the poles. This feature makes places near the Equator ideal location for spaceports (e.g. spacecraft launching stations). As the earth regions around the Equator rotate at higher speed, less fuel is required to launch spacecraft.
Lesser Gravitational Force
It is believed that there is lesser gravity at places near the Equator than those nearer to the poles for 2 reasons. The first reason is bulging of the earth nearer to the Equator (similar to the point mentioned above) makes it further away from the centre of the inner earth, thereby reducing the gravity. The second reason is the presence of more centrifugal force at the Equator to reduce the gravity.
Absence of Coriolis Force
The Coriolis Effect is an important phenomenon that explains why water and air flows in opposite direction on the 2 hemispheres of the earth. In the northern hemisphere, water and air flows in the counter clockwise direction whereas in the southern hemisphere, they flow in a reverse direction. As mentioned above that the earth bulges slightly at the Equator, regions of the earth near the Equator spins faster than those nearer to the poles. As a result, air that travels in the direction of the Equator to the north pole gradually diverts to the right as the earth spins from west to east. The situation is similar for water flowing out of the sink. If you are still unclear, watch this video that explains the Coriolis Effect. Since the Coriolis Force acts in a north south direction, the Equator being the line that divides the north and south has no Coriolis Force. You would probably be interested like me to conduct a simple experiment yourself at home after learning about this Coriolis Force theory. I had observed that the water flows in a single direction downwards in the sink, toilet bowl and bath tub in my home. In fact, you really cannot rely on the sink, toilet bowl and bath tub for this simple experiment as which direction water would flow depends on the design of the piping system. Obviously, you would need a setup that eliminates all other variables which is shown in this video.
Due to the 3 interesting facts mentioned above, there are 2 interesting phenomenons observed at the Equator. As there is lesser gravity at the Equator, a person naturally weighs slightly lesser and would encounter difficulty walking in a straight line along the Equator because of conflicting gravitational pull from the north and south. There was also a simple experiment which a few poker cards (stacked together) placed along the Equator line were glued onto the palm of a man (without using any adhesive) when he touched them and slowly moved his palm upwards. It is also supposed to be seemingly easier to make an egg stand on the tip of a nail at the Equator. No where else on earth other than the Equator would produce such effects. The second phenomenon related to the Coriolis Force is that water neither swirl in a clockwise or counter clockwise direction. Instead, it flows downwards from a sink onto a pail when the experiment was conducted.
There are 11 countries in the world which are traversed by the Equator. These countries include São Tomé and PrÃncipe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. Some of these countries have erected monument at their Equator line. Ecuador, being particularly proud of its equatorial location has a monument known as Mitad del Mundo located 26 km north of its capital city, Quito. Mitad del Mundo was built to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the French Geodesic Mission, an 18th-century scientific expedition intended to help determine whether the earth’s circumference was greater at the Equator or around the poles. Every year, thousands of visitors flock to this attraction not because of its fanciful souvenir shops, posh cafeterias or interesting museum. Rather, these visitors are hoping to have photos of them with each foot on one side of the Equator taken and to witness interesting phenomenons along the Equatorial line. Unfortunately, this monument was built at the wrong place. The actual location is in fact 240 metres further north of this monument. This mistake was unknown until the invention of Global Positioning System (GPS) in recent years which helped to determine a more accurate position. Although many people argue that GPS may produce different readings depending on how it is calibrated and is subjected to interference, it is definitely more accurate than measuring techniques used during the 18th-century. Despite this big mistake, Mitad del Mundo remains as a tourist attraction because the mistake is too expensive to be rectified. Fortunately, for visitors who insist on getting to the real Equatorial line, there are two other sites available. The first site is the privately-owned Intinan Museum which the owner claimed that the real Equatorial line traversed through based on GPS reading. The second site is the Quitsato Sundial, a cultural-tourist place located 47 km at North of Quito. The location of Quitsato Sundial was also proven by GPS to be 00 00 00 0 degree north (i.e. true Equator). Google Map shows Mitad del Mundo and Intinan Museum are near each other whereas Quitsato Sundial is some distance away.
If you are living in Asia, you may choose to visit the nearest Equatorial line in Indonesia instead of traveling a long voyage to Africa or South America. There are several places in Indonesia which the Equator passes as mentioned in this article. The nearest site from Singapore is Pontianak city which is about 631 km away. The best time to visit any Equatorial monuments is during the March and September equinoxes when the direct overhead sun produces no shadow.Similar to Ecuador, there are also controversies that some of these monuments no longer lie on the exact Equatorial line possibly due to the shifting location of the Equator (I really do not understand how this is possible). Perhaps if you have the chance to visit any of these monuments, you can verify the location yourself using the GPS function in your smartphone. All you need to do is to stand on the Equatorial line facing the east or west direction with a smartphone on your hands pointing to the direction you are facing. When the readings show you 0 00 00 degree north, congratulations for earning the experience to stand on the real Equatorial line! If not, please move northwards or southwards accordingly based on the readings. The real Equatorial line should not be so far away.
Despite all the controversies of the location of the Equatorial line, it is interesting to witness the phenomenons in all the sites which claim to be the exact location of the Equatorial line. This leads to questions of whether the location of the Equatorial line is constantly changing, whether readings from GPS is indeed accurate and whether the experiments conducted at those sites are conclusive. There is also a theory mentioning that the Equator itself is not a mere line of several millimeters thick but rather a line having a width of 5 km which explains why those phenomenons happen within the 5 km width. Whatever the case is, Equator monuments around the world continues to draw tons of visitors due to the fact that the Equator is an important reference point on the world map.
Another interesting thing worth mentioning about the Equator is that there is a ritual known as the Line Crossing ceremony that commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the Equator. In this ceremony, sailors who have already crossed the Equator are nicknamed Shellbacks while those who have not crossed are nicknamed Pollywogs. Pollywogs are supposed to pay respect to King Neptune and endure a series of "hardships" administered by Shellback when the ship crosses the Equator. This tradition observed by ocean liners, merchant vessels and naval ships ensures that Pollywogs are capable of handling long rough times at sea in order to be promoted to a Shellback. Some cruise ships hold this ceremony for entertainment purpose as well.
Here are some of the interesting facts about the Equator.
Ideal Location For Spaceports
The earth bulges slightly at the Equator, making its diameter approximately 43 km greater than that at the poles. This feature makes places near the Equator ideal location for spaceports (e.g. spacecraft launching stations). As the earth regions around the Equator rotate at higher speed, less fuel is required to launch spacecraft.
Lesser Gravitational Force
It is believed that there is lesser gravity at places near the Equator than those nearer to the poles for 2 reasons. The first reason is bulging of the earth nearer to the Equator (similar to the point mentioned above) makes it further away from the centre of the inner earth, thereby reducing the gravity. The second reason is the presence of more centrifugal force at the Equator to reduce the gravity.
Absence of Coriolis Force
The Coriolis Effect is an important phenomenon that explains why water and air flows in opposite direction on the 2 hemispheres of the earth. In the northern hemisphere, water and air flows in the counter clockwise direction whereas in the southern hemisphere, they flow in a reverse direction. As mentioned above that the earth bulges slightly at the Equator, regions of the earth near the Equator spins faster than those nearer to the poles. As a result, air that travels in the direction of the Equator to the north pole gradually diverts to the right as the earth spins from west to east. The situation is similar for water flowing out of the sink. If you are still unclear, watch this video that explains the Coriolis Effect. Since the Coriolis Force acts in a north south direction, the Equator being the line that divides the north and south has no Coriolis Force. You would probably be interested like me to conduct a simple experiment yourself at home after learning about this Coriolis Force theory. I had observed that the water flows in a single direction downwards in the sink, toilet bowl and bath tub in my home. In fact, you really cannot rely on the sink, toilet bowl and bath tub for this simple experiment as which direction water would flow depends on the design of the piping system. Obviously, you would need a setup that eliminates all other variables which is shown in this video.
Due to the 3 interesting facts mentioned above, there are 2 interesting phenomenons observed at the Equator. As there is lesser gravity at the Equator, a person naturally weighs slightly lesser and would encounter difficulty walking in a straight line along the Equator because of conflicting gravitational pull from the north and south. There was also a simple experiment which a few poker cards (stacked together) placed along the Equator line were glued onto the palm of a man (without using any adhesive) when he touched them and slowly moved his palm upwards. It is also supposed to be seemingly easier to make an egg stand on the tip of a nail at the Equator. No where else on earth other than the Equator would produce such effects. The second phenomenon related to the Coriolis Force is that water neither swirl in a clockwise or counter clockwise direction. Instead, it flows downwards from a sink onto a pail when the experiment was conducted.
There are 11 countries in the world which are traversed by the Equator. These countries include São Tomé and PrÃncipe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. Some of these countries have erected monument at their Equator line. Ecuador, being particularly proud of its equatorial location has a monument known as Mitad del Mundo located 26 km north of its capital city, Quito. Mitad del Mundo was built to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the French Geodesic Mission, an 18th-century scientific expedition intended to help determine whether the earth’s circumference was greater at the Equator or around the poles. Every year, thousands of visitors flock to this attraction not because of its fanciful souvenir shops, posh cafeterias or interesting museum. Rather, these visitors are hoping to have photos of them with each foot on one side of the Equator taken and to witness interesting phenomenons along the Equatorial line. Unfortunately, this monument was built at the wrong place. The actual location is in fact 240 metres further north of this monument. This mistake was unknown until the invention of Global Positioning System (GPS) in recent years which helped to determine a more accurate position. Although many people argue that GPS may produce different readings depending on how it is calibrated and is subjected to interference, it is definitely more accurate than measuring techniques used during the 18th-century. Despite this big mistake, Mitad del Mundo remains as a tourist attraction because the mistake is too expensive to be rectified. Fortunately, for visitors who insist on getting to the real Equatorial line, there are two other sites available. The first site is the privately-owned Intinan Museum which the owner claimed that the real Equatorial line traversed through based on GPS reading. The second site is the Quitsato Sundial, a cultural-tourist place located 47 km at North of Quito. The location of Quitsato Sundial was also proven by GPS to be 00 00 00 0 degree north (i.e. true Equator). Google Map shows Mitad del Mundo and Intinan Museum are near each other whereas Quitsato Sundial is some distance away.
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Despite all the controversies of the location of the Equatorial line, it is interesting to witness the phenomenons in all the sites which claim to be the exact location of the Equatorial line. This leads to questions of whether the location of the Equatorial line is constantly changing, whether readings from GPS is indeed accurate and whether the experiments conducted at those sites are conclusive. There is also a theory mentioning that the Equator itself is not a mere line of several millimeters thick but rather a line having a width of 5 km which explains why those phenomenons happen within the 5 km width. Whatever the case is, Equator monuments around the world continues to draw tons of visitors due to the fact that the Equator is an important reference point on the world map.
Another interesting thing worth mentioning about the Equator is that there is a ritual known as the Line Crossing ceremony that commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the Equator. In this ceremony, sailors who have already crossed the Equator are nicknamed Shellbacks while those who have not crossed are nicknamed Pollywogs. Pollywogs are supposed to pay respect to King Neptune and endure a series of "hardships" administered by Shellback when the ship crosses the Equator. This tradition observed by ocean liners, merchant vessels and naval ships ensures that Pollywogs are capable of handling long rough times at sea in order to be promoted to a Shellback. Some cruise ships hold this ceremony for entertainment purpose as well.
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