He’s a pretty much forgotten political thinker from the 18th/19th century, who, when remembered, was remembered unkindly as a flip flopper. But tonight I was reading his speech The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns and I realised exactly how applicable this guy’s criticism is to Singapore’s system of government.
Archive for October, 2008
My Love is Constant
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged benjamin constant, political philosophy, Politics, Singapore on October 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Essay 4
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged school, university, work on October 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Today I finished reading a book with lots of pictures of naked people. I feel enriched by the deeply intellectual environment here at Cambridge.
I Heart Clementines
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged clementines, food, hall on October 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I have discovered a new favourite fruit here. Clementines are these little things that look like oranges, are much sweeter than oranges and very juicy. It’s a pity that they can’t be found in Singapore because they would make oranges go out of business. This joyful discovery was made after my resolution to avoid hall [...]
Essay Crisis
Posted in Uncategorized on October 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Will inform you when this is over.
Thanks for All the Fish
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged professors, school, wikipedia on October 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
You know you’re in a scary place when your psychology professor starts by saying his aim is not to give you the fish, but giving you a fishing rod. (i.e. you better work hard because I sure as hell am not giving you any answers). And your social anthropology professor and your politics supervisor (who [...]
Freshers’ Flu
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cambridge, freshers' flu, marx, work on October 16, 2008 | 2 Comments »
This is something that apparently no one escapes, and I haven’t either. I’ve been luckier than some. Right now, I have a sore throat which I have been trying to relieve with cups of tea. The lectures are accompanied by an orchestra of bronchi and nasal passages. I am quite sure that several germs have [...]
Lone Ranger
Posted in Uncategorized on October 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Taking care of yourself is hard work. You need to make sure that there are no scummy things growing in your clothes. You need to feed yourself heathly things. You need to remember not to lock yourself out of your room. Taking care of yourself is really hard.
Americans Ain’t So Dumb
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged candidates, democracy, elections, US on October 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
After making that title statement, I’d imagine that most people who’ve read it will now be thinking, “You had better have some good, hard stuff to back that up.” It’s been a perennial criticism among many of America’s intellectuals and the more secular people of Western Europe that Americans tend to choose leaders based not [...]
Mental Gymnastics
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged admin, cambridge, freshers' week, school on October 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
These days my brain’s circuits are running on overload. The name processing department has a large backlog and not enough filing cabinets to organise all the information into correct categories. The event-awareness committee has made a muck of sending alarms to my brain whenever some freshers’ activity is happening in the next hour. And my [...]
In a Galaxy Far Far Away
Posted in Uncategorized on October 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
My days are consumed doing 2 things: admin stuff and drinking. Well, actually I’m exaggerating. You can pretty much avoid drinking altogether here and still socialise. But there is no way of avoiding all the paperwork. Like how I need to register with a GP later so I can put myself on the NHS. And [...]
