- felt rather shallow and useless, but inspired
where we listened to our panelists bridget lew (from H.O.M.E, a shelter for abused migrant workers), mr brown (local controversial blogger, self-titled comedian), and sylvia lim (opp MP).
it was a great forum and i'm glad there was active audience participation during the q&a, we had a broad discussion ranging from social issues, political issues, to macro-economic issues and more. before the forum i couldn't really see how the speakers were going to connect, as different as they were. on a micro scale, their interests were really quite unrelated to each other's.
but the underlying message which they had for all of us at the end of the day was that we each could do our own part, find our own voice, for society. whether it was by starting a shelter, recording podcasts, or joining the parliament.
i really really deeply respect bridget lew. this is the second time i've met her and heard her speak and spoken to her personally - the first time was when she did a promotional event in singapore for the 100 Peacewomen project; and she never fails to amaze me with her passion and conviction for her work, her tireless efforts to prevent and stop abuse, and her humble and unassuming nature, very evident from the way she runs her shelter, and even, her dressing.
i've also decided that i really like sylvia lim. i liked her already during last yr's elections, and her speech today confirmed it even more. perhaps it's because she is always very calm, very rational, and very intelligent (unlike other more infamous ex-opp partymembers).
as for mr brown, he spoke to us on a very personal level today. he talked about social injustice from the perspective of what happens to him, and more importantly, his family, which brought out issues which every singaporean can relate to. while bridget and sylvia are extremely admirable, i guess the average person can't imagine themselves setting up a haven for the abused or joining parliament, mr brown's efforts are so much more simple - a blog. which is what almost everyone reading this has for their own as well. and while he likes his work, he makes one thing very clear - he's essentially a comedian. his blog posts and pod casts are for fun. if we want to raise more issues, or get anyone to really take notice of our opinions, we need to do something ourselves. he's saying "this is MY voice. go get your OWN!"
- discovered that i CAN speak slowly after all
this was very last minute and ordinarily i wldn't have agreed to it except that i really felt i should help out - once in IDP, always in IDP! so i was the MC for today's ceremony.
all we had was one rehearsal last night, and one more this morning. the script was still new to me last night so i just read straight off it and was way too fast as usual, ppl always complain that i speak too fast.
but last night i memorised it, (and had the stupid script playing in my head the whole night and morning), and it paid off cos i was fine... great... brilliant today! haha. a moment of egoistic indulgence there. a few ppl expressed their amazement at the fact that i'd memorised it all, and our hard-to-please director even said i had a nice voice! *phew! i'm just glad i didn't embarrass myself!
- once again marvelled at how meaningful our simple peace ceremony could be
every year, every time we rehearse our ceremony it seems simple to the extreme. a few words by our president, the students in national costumes and flags reciting the peace pledge in their national language, and a song. the whole thing takes about... 20 mins.
but somehow, every year at the ACTUAL ceremony, it always transforms into a magical moment. this year we had even more nations represented, and the whole array of students with their individual national costumes and flags, and each saying "May Peace prevail on earth" in tagalog! dutch! malay! german! chinese! hebrew! korean! etc, and then the minute of silence for those who have lost their lives in the absence of peace, the end of which was signalled this year with a moving piece by our new chamber choir. you have to be there to feel it.
- survived a 24 hours (++) fast for peace
yup we fasted for peace. 24 hrs, starting from noon yesterday. i woke up in the middle of the night with hunger pangs gnawing at me and couldn't get back to sleep. so i started the day really early. i'm totally ready to hit the sack now except that i still have slides to make.
- felt really proud of this year's Peace Day committee for the fantastic job that they did
organising peace day is a crazy job, i know, i've done it. it was probably worse last yr because we were more rushed and more disorganised. this year they had a better team, and more time, and peace day turned out even bigger and better than last year! i'm so proud of all those involved! and once again we're in a dilemma. i was totally on the brink of insisting that we won't be involved again next year, because it is SUCH an intensive job and totally takes a toil on our people, and yet the sweet satisfaction at the close of the event just makes it seem so worthwhile after all, more so this year than last. like i said, once in idp, always in idp. it'll be so hard to tear ourselves away.
a long post today because the day warrants it. photos up when i get them. alternatively, it'll have been on the news tonight or in the papers tmr, check it out yourselves.
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