Vice President of NUSBS 2010/2011

Hi,

That's me. Vice President of NUSBS 2010/2011. This is the last 2 days of my term. 2 days before AGM. Now I am beginning year 4 of my undergrad life, and yet I still remember the sweet memories of attending my first NUSBS AGM back in 2008 when I was a freshman.

One of the things I do not like is that most of the posts have no competition, and yet we still have to vote. I even remembered that I asked so many questions to the candidates who were running. And was a bit annoyed at having to reintroduce my name, faculty and year before asking it. One of the questions was: why are year one people not allowed to run for MC?

I guess I didn't noticed Carmen back then. It was late.... very very late..... I was getting hungry and do not want to miss the last bus. It might be that when it was her time, I was a bit frustrated and was not concentrating on the event anymore. It turns out that she was the only year 1 who ran that year. I was just too busy feeling sad and sorry for myself to notice that. Well there were lots of things I think I could have done better, chosen better, cause it will affect the rest of my life.

Why did I missed matric fair? Or else I would had joined in NUSBS earlier..... why did I choose Friday night IS in SPS? Or else I would had attended the whole Welcome Tea, instead of bolting off after paying the $5 membership fee. Then after Welcome Tea it was AGM. And it will be too late to apply for a position now. Well, I didn't asked myself why did I go to Vietnam for IPhO instead of joining in Camp Ehi Passikho...... Nope, silver medal was worth it.

Ok, back to the story. I then wanted to be close with the 30th MC. I had gone for almost every Dharma Circle on Friday night if not all, changing my IS timing in order to do that. I've tried to join in as much BS activities that I find to be free, interesting, and when I am free.

That time, I had Monday nights of classes (SPS), then that ruled out Discovering Buddhism and MDC (both on Mondays), and then there is the Tuesdays Meditation course which is not free, but a Wednesday Meditation interest group which is (I've joined this, or tried to come). And Saturday mornings Welfare visit. Well, having waking up late (after a Dharma Circle, I usually go back to SPS to hang around until very late), and needing to travel outside (money....) I don't go for that one.... not much....

Well, came INCOVAR, I decided to increase more Buddhism in my life, wanting to attend every single activity we have. And during the first Camp Ehi Passikho in East Coast Park...... there was a prep talk by the 30th MCs to the subcoms (including me), briefing about the positions, and the roles that they need to fulfil. Someone jokingly asked me to run for President. I was thinking of only Dharma Director. Then Jacinta said: "maybe next year lah". And then... Carmen, who's the same year as me.... got to become the president, and I got to become the Deputy Dharma Director.

Well, seeing another round of "not much choices" by the voters and the President role only having one candidate.... I was frustrated again. And determined to aim for that post.

I had rescheduled Discovering Buddhism to Thursdays, tried to reopen the closed downed... Meditation Interest Group...Got the Meditation Course which moved to Wednesday, got forced to join in because I'm organising it.....Still going very little for Welfare Visit....or none at all.... joined in MDC finally.... oh and generally, joined in 4 of 5 weekly activities, making me one of the most, if not the most, active member (MC or otherwise) in the society.

One hard long year.....had passed, I've managed to survived, and had a generally bad time in the MC. However each and every activity charged me up... I've experienced becoming a novice, and even joined-organised a retreat! I do like being in the activities a lot.... despite being only me, alone, most of the time. I do like to go out to represent NUSBS too... a lot.

A bad time in the MC, mainly because we were all overworked, I didn't know how to utilise subcoms more efficiently, and I didn't get to be considered as potential President material.

I was aiming for Dharma Director..... again.... then comes a lot of various stuffs, I wanted to quit.... then came other various conditions..... and I came back.... to want to become the President or Vice President.

Eventually, it was decided that I become the Vice President...... I gave up the Pres. for wanting to stay away from Singapore for the whole 3 months of holiday... for summer research.

Well, that year, I ran for President, and Vice President. I wanted a competition, a choice for the voters to make. (Although I keep on telling people not to vote for me as president, and there was only Wai Kit and me running for these two positions, and... I made a speech that does not suit the occasion, talking to bridge the gap between the mindset of having Dharma/fellowship balance, which I saw them arising hand in hand due to people attending activities regularly).

Then I got in. During an intimate sharing session where no words uttered there goes beyond the walls of the temple we had MC retreat in.... I shared the above.

And what happened next.... was that I got to do a lot of things that I wanted to do..... helping to do the President job for a lot of the time, since Wai Kit was so busy with lots of other stuffs. Taking up any job I like and do it the way I like....... utilise and engage the subcoms to much greater and deeper levels than ever before, giving out and distributing jobs to people....

And no one distributed much of any jobs to me.... cause I volunteered for almost everything. Almost all TIBS involvement, all weekly events, etc..... and there really was not any need to give a job to me.... I find them.

One of the things I'm very very glad of was that Wai Kit passing me the president email to take care of for 2-3 weeks during the December holidays when he went to Thailand and India for Buddhism in Asia trip. I felt.... honoured.

I did not get MIT, Caltech and other Universities' Summer research Programme. So having thinking that.... well, it is likely that I'll have a long summer break.... I started to let go..... of the feeling that I didn't get to be the President of NUSBS and yet didn't managed to get to go for Summer research anyway.

Then came London. And I had started to push a lot of the jobs I used to do to Wai Kit.... making him work more and more.... more than me..... I see that as my way of making him deserving of the position that he holds. And right now, I feel, he is a very very good and capable President!

And then I came back from London.... it is all almost over now. Well, as a last wish come true, I got to be the presenter for Prezi Presentation of NUSBS at the Welcome Tea. Something that Carmen did last year.

Just today.... earlier today.... I was in a bus, with Rong En... asking him if he is running for President at Astronomy Society.

He said no. I asked why.

The reply is that Vice President lets you do what you want to do. Not everyone turns to you for what to do and you're not in the spotlight all the time.

I immediately reciprocated well, and finally realised that.... I do not need to be a President. I've gotten what I wanted, and more. I've gotten 14 spiritual friends, 14 special people whom I shall appreciate and treasure... as the whole of the holy life.

Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get. I'm not successful, I'm happy.

NUS Residence Admission Scheme (RAS)

NUS(National University of Singapore) has been using CCA (co-curricular) points as a standard of judgement to decide who gets to live in campus. That is until this year.

After a year long warning, NUS has finally implemented the Residence Admission Scheme (RAS) and abolish CCA points. The goal is to do away with all the abuses of CCA points by clubs and societies and to promote students to have a genuine interest for joining CCA, and not joining in just for the points. It also serves to balance some overly zealous students from joining too much CCA until it affects his or her studies.

The RAS is based on Categories.

Category A, Executive & Management Committees of Student groups : other than the confirmed stay of 10 NUSSU Executive Committees and all 4 of each constituent clubs's Committee; the 4 of each societies and interest group's committee are to be balloted into 200 places. Assuming the information at
http://www.nus.edu.sg/osa/activities/svcs/societies.html and
http://www.nus.edu.sg/osa/activities/svcs/interestgrps.html
are updated and accurate, this translates to 46% chance for each of the selected 4 inside societies and interest groups.

Category B, Special Schemes: Varsity Athletes (the Sports Club alone has 26 member clubs inside it) are selected, limited to 100 places, CFA (Centre for Arts) groups (24 groups) are selected up to 50 places.

Category C, Halls of Residence: Hall masters selects 50 students who offers vibrancy to the hall, all members of JCRC (Junior Common Room Committee), and selection of Hall residences by SCRC and JCRC, based on contribution, subject to senior undergraduate quota (assumed to be half of total hall places in the estimates below). Practically it means some spaces are opened up and it is easier to get into a hall, but most are still controlled by the halls.

Category D, Members of Student Groups: This allows NUSSU & the Constituent Clubs to select amongst themselves 300 guaranteed places. The societies and Interest Groups has to squeeze again, 10 members from each balloted into 200 places. This translates to 18.5% chance of each recommend students to get a place.

Category E, General Student Population: General Senior Undergraduate population (Local - Yr 2 & above, International Yr 3 & above) students in this category will ballot for the remaining places at residences and halls, after accommodating SEP students, the guaranteed students mentioned above, and the first and second year international students. The students who did not managed to get spaces via the two 200 places above will fall to this category too. The chances then depends on how many local students would want to apply for campus accommodation next year, assuming that all international students would want to.

So, in a daring estimate of 20% of Local students would want to live in campus (for living too far or not having a home in Singapore), the chances would be 30% for each student. This is of course if all the figures for the accomodation and no. of students at http://www.nus.edu.sg/osa/housing/undergraduate/rates.html and
http://www.nus.edu.sg/aboutus/factsfigures.php,

are correct. Plus no students illegally harbour other students in their rooms, also taking into account the places that University Town which helps to reduce the competition, and one on one exchange for SEP, assuming 1000 SEP student a year, for both semesters, also 20% of all students are international students, which splits half-half into undergraduates and graduate students. If all these figures are correct, then 30% is a pretty good estimate, with an estimated error of 3% or less.

So this means that for societies and interest groups, the 4 in the Committee gets a total of 62% of being selected to live in campus, the 10 amongst the members gets a total of 43% chance, while the vast majority will remain with 30%. That is if there is still a vast majority left.

For those who are used to the CCA points and sees on campus housing as a reward for working hard at CCA, this spells trouble, not only for societies and interest groups (which compromises the majority of non-Hall CCA, but also for CFA, Athletes, NUSSU & constituent clubs, and even the Halls!).

If humans are logical programmable beings with no interest in CCA other than to get on campus housings, the number of people at all these CCA will decline to a bare minimum of those places guaranteed by RAS. And all students, especially those who plans to go through university without joining CCA and yet wants to stay on campus for the convenience, will apply for NUS accommodation. If that happens, then the 30% chance drops to as low as 7% when all students apply for accommodation.

As if that is not bad enough, the random balloting means that there will be cases like a very hard-working Vice President at a very active society, spending 30 hours per week on CCA, does not get a space in campus despite having 50% chance (selected for top 4 and all students apply for on campus housing) compared to someone who does not do anything in CCA but is successful in applying for accommodation despite the 7% chance.

Imagine the amount of complains OSA (Office of Student Affairs) has to quell down early next year as the accommodation results are released. Imagine the number societies who had to cut down their activities due to lack of manpower and members. Large scale activities gets harder for societies and interest groups to undertake if they lack the spirit of Halls and Clubs (those who are able to produce rag floats). Even the Clubs and to a lesser extend, the Halls will have to cut down on their activities as the competition for the members to get the highest position available increases.

Talented members for a particular society or interest groups may decide to join in CFA, Sports, NUSSU & Constituent Clubs, or stick closer to their Halls despite being second best at all these. Just because if they are selected in all the others, it is 100% guaranteed. This spells a really big trouble for all societies and interest groups (Remember they are the majority of the non-Hall CCAs). Each society and interest groups then has to either develop the spirit of "togetherness" resembling the halls or perish. This might be easier for the religious societies as they can rely on spirituality to bind them together, to work for a greater goal than material things.

Each societies and interest groups are required to submit their internal recognition scheme to OSA yesterday and are advised to announce their respective schemes to the members so that the members can plan it all properly.

It seems that the rise or fall of a society or interest group then depends on how cleverly they present and decide on their internal recognition scheme. This year's Welcome Tea season will witness many freshmen comparing each society's scheme. Being the clever students who managed to come into NUS, if they inherit the mindset of "CCAs are for housing", then the societies who are unskillful will perish on the day of their Welcome Tea itself.

How then, can everyone avert this crisis?

Are the Management Committees of each societies and interest groups supposed to compare the internal recognition scheme of everyone else and set theirs to be lower and easier to get? No matter how easily one can get the recommended list, the fundamental problem is that there is too little spaces to give. The competition is too high, too tough, too unfair.

What is the solution then?

Here I present a humble suggestion:

The most honest approach is to really recognise this fundamental problem and tell the members to scrap the outdated mindset of yesteryears. Sincerely ask them to join in the CCA purely based on interest sake and because they see the inherent benefit (learning about how to run a society, more about the particular subject etc...), nothing else. Expecting for anything else will cause suffering. A realistic project to work on by each CCA group is to develop the social aspect of their respective group to become closer, nicer, warmer, and more desirable to be in. That is to make the members feel that there is more to the society than the materialistic aspect.

Also everyone has to discard the old mindset of "on campus Housing is reward for CCA", especially amongst each and every Management Committee members in each and every CCA group. Let this change not cause trouble but to bring about change (of mindset) that will empower each CCA groups. This can only happen if everyone in a CCA group thinks in the same way. So you are welcomed to read and pass this on.

Note: image is taken from http://nussupru.org/openhouse/, the estimates for the chances are done by the author. Email ngxinzhao@nus.edu.sg to request the Excel sheet calculation if you are interested, improvements and corrections to the calculations are welcomed.

BERSIH 2.0 aftermath

On the 9th July 2011, many Malaysians, regardless of races, language and religion, numbering up to 50,000 (estimates vary depending on the source, 50,000 claimed by Bersih 2.0,
6,000 claimed by police) walked out on the streets, supporting the call for free and fair elections.

They were walking towards a Stadium previously granted by both the King (Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin) and the Prime Minister (Dato' Sri Haji Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak). However, the Home Minister (Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein) still refused to acknowledge BERSIH 2.0 and declared that Bersih is illegal. Thus they were not able to obtain a police permit to gather at Merdeka Stadium. Despite this, the supporters of BERSIH 2.0 marched down the streets on that day only to meet a well prepared police line of defence which had been on the street blocking the road to the Stadium since the day before.

What followed was internationally condemned for police brutality and violating human rights. Police thrown tear gas into the peaceful crowd and splashed water cannons at them. They evenattacked a hospital after cornering the citizens into it. One citizen died after collapsing and only receiving help from an ambulance after one and a half hour. His family blamed the police for withholding medical aid to the victim. Over one thousand demonstrators were arrested that day.

The aftermath came down hard on the government of Malaysia, Barisan National (BN). Not only does Amnesty International denounced the crack down, they supported a small group of BERSIH 2.0 UK in London doing street protest (by giving protest signs) while the Malaysian Prime Minister visited London from the 12th to the 15th July. Even Queen Elizabeth wore a yellow dress in greeting Najib and his wive. The author personally joined in the protest on the last day on the 15th July and had a great time singing "Yellow Submarine" outside the Intercontinental Hotel where Najib was to have his dinner.

Yellow being the colour of BERSIH 2.0 T-shirt is banned and deemed illegal in Malaysia. While submarine was for the sandal case involving Najib. Even the United Kingdom police supported the call for democracy as they recognise that democracy involves having demonstrations from time to time. (In fact even having just been in the United Kingdom for only 10 weeks, I had already witnessed 3 other demonstrations held for various other reasons.)

Before the demonstration on the 15th July, there was a short briefing for us, reminding us of the peaceful spirit of demonstration and non-political involvement of BERSIH 2.0. The main message of that particular demonstration was to demand the release of six person still being withheld by the Emergency Ordinance (dubbed EO6). After the demonstration, the organisers for the BERSIH 2.0 UK debriefed us, saying that the movement for free and fair elections does not end with the 9th July rally but to be continued on. Having a presence at London is important as well as the unprecedented numbers of Malaysians having spoken up. Also, in a play of words, they said that the government of Malaysia only banned BERSIH, not BERSIH 2.0!

Following up on continuing the movement for electoral reform, BERSIH 2.0 has released a guideline on their website asking individual Malaysians to take the spirits to the core and initiate their own events. This is relevant in view that the Malaysian government has been busy covering up (via local mainstream media) almost everything bad about what happened in the 9th July rally and trying to win over the hearts of the common people. One report in the Economist on the BERSIH 2.0 rally was partly censored before distributed to the people and the police released their own version of what happened on that day. In my personal view, it all seems to be a foolish attempt that will succeed only if the internet did not exist or that fewer Malaysians cared.

With the next General Elections in Malaysia coming up before March of 2012, the outlook does not look good for BN. In a facebook page unrelated to BERSIH 2.0, more than 200,000 people liked "100,000 People Request Najib Tun Razak Resignation". One blogpost said that the Malaysian Prime Minister should learn from Singapore Prime Minister "to share power".

As for the global view, the author must apologise for the previous article for not being able to find anything about Singapore BERSIH 2.0 rally at the time of writing the previous piece. According to the facebook page Global BERSIH 2.0, more than 4000 people in over 38 cities around the world joined in the 9th July rally at their respective local time. These included Singapore Online (63), Singapore Picnic (200). "The organisers in Singapore, aware of the restrictions on public gatherings posed by the Singapore authorities, quite cleverly decided to do an online show of their love for Malaysia and their support for the Bersih 2.0 campaign. However, there were some folks who decided to gather informally for a picnic at a popular park."

It is impressive that there are so many Malaysians out there. As a Malaysian student in NUS, I can say it is unsurprising as Malaysia has been allowing brain drain to continue for a long long time by now. The latest case can be seen with the First Malaysian Gold Medallist in the International Physics Olympiad 2011, Chew Kok Wei who is going to Peking University to study Physics. Hopefully, whatever government comes to power next in Malaysia can fix what has been long broken in the country.

London, the Internship

This is the post that I will review what my feelings about this Internship at the United Kingdom.

Coming to an overseas summer research project has been my dream since I knew about Caltech SURF from Tao Ye who just came back from there to continue on her year 4. A bit late for the usual schooling time, but just nice timing to catch up very fast. I was a freshman then.

I planned so many modules and programmes for myself that I had to take at least 6 modules in NUS every semester, and no way I'm going to go for SEP (Student Exchange Programme). A summer exchange programme is too expensive, and the two other overseas trips (BIA and CHIP) I had the fortune to join in while in NUS are too short (2 weeks).

So this is truly the first time I've ever spend so long overseas (I count Singapore and Malaysia as my home by now) and living alone. It's 10 weeks now, 2 more weeks to go. And thus I have achieved one of my dreams. Thanks to NUS, Imperial College, Hariom, SongHan, and my parents!

In this summer, I had also fulfilled one of my childhood dream of playing Pokemon for real (using the official handheld device) at least before I eventually lose interest in it. Well, seeing that adults rarely play games, I take it that they are a boring species to grow into. Part of the reason I'm still so childish. Now I kinda understand that some adults do play games too, while most seek their pleasure from romantic encounters and a life partner.

Currently I have largely finished Pokemon Black, starting on with Pokemon SoulSilver, and ordered Pokemon Platinum. That's the 3 games I'll play.

Also I've not expected to meet so many friends that I've already known in the United Kingdom during the period that I'm here.

First off it is Carmen.... I guess I didn't realised or care that she when to United Kingdom for SEP. I just knew she's in SEP. So I was kinda like, oh Carmen is in UK too right? Will I get to meet her there? Only after I got the Imperial offer for some time.

Strictly speaking this is not considered as my friend that I knew before, but.... Then my dad's friend, Uncle Kok Heng invited me for a dinner! It was nice. I went to his home too!

And now for the more Imperial side of the story, my cousin, Jia Long is still an Imperial student but.....just nice that he's in USA doing one year exchange and we completely miss each other while I'm in his College....... But then.... his sister, Ting Hui had graduated from Manchester's University and is coming back for work just before I leave. So at least I get to meet one of my cousins.

Then there's of course my Secondary School friends. Ming Wang, who is an Imperial guy! He just when back and introduced me to Franciscans in the UK. Amazing, just how much link there are. And then I found out (embarrassingly) that two other of my Sec School friends who are Franciscans too are in UCL and LSE respectively. (Haven't meet them through)

And now closer to NUS again, Wei Ling came with her parents to London and then to Cambridge for a similar summer intern (shorter than mine). And I get to meet her here at London and at Cambridge when I visited her.

This is not in United Kingdom, but I'll say it still..... Also the SPS gang (including Wei Ling) where I've met my previous room-mate, Hariom, IPhO buddy, Mukhtar, pre-IPhO friend, Tuan Beng, the usual handsome Sandoko, the eating champion Raymond, and tall Wei Guo. Didn't get to see Barry, Yee Ann, and Chern Hui..... but it's cool. Oh and it's during my two days weekend trip to France!

And now I got word that Tzyh Haur (fellow SPS senior, friend) is coming to London! Haha... nice....just amazing how nice a timing I had here.......

Speaking about timing, here are a few amazing events that I've visited since coming to UK. They are just so near and timely that I can't miss it!

1. Pokemon National Championship UK at Birmingham.
2. Rubiks Cube world record (London), 330 people solving in 1 hour at the same place, I was one of them, got a free cube too.
3. Flash mob meditation in London. Went for 2 already, going for the third one just before I leave.
4. BERSIH 2.0 rally (London), just sending our Prime Minister before he goes off to Rome. This is where I met so many more Malaysians in the UK!

Cool timing huh? I didn't expect these to happen while I'm here. But since they did, it's just amazing to join in!

The experience of guarding my wealth and not overspending, in fact, recording down all my expenses so that I don't have to transfer money from Singapore is just harrowing and offers a real insight into what does it means to worry about money. Now that I can clearly see I'm successful in saving lots of money, I'm a bit less worried about this part.

Taking about saving money, cooking meals has been a wonderful experience. However, cooking the same thing for the same person (me) can get boring easily. So, not only do I keep on improving my cooking skills and materials (now my soup taste so good, you'll want some), I'm looking forward to cook for others to enjoy! I kinda understand how a housewive/husband feels like now!

Travelling on foot is one more thing I get to do a lot in the UK. I get to rediscover the passion for travelling (on foot) in me. This is one thing that I love about London!

On the negative side, (to balance out too many perceived positives here) I am interacting with Buddhism far too little here........in favour of comic books..... read almost all the Marvel Ultimate Universe comic books already!

And I'm a bit lonely, didn't make much friends here. Anyway I needed some time for myself. To think, to talk to myself. This is important for the things I'll need to face when I come back to Singapore.

So with three more weeks to go before school reopens, I need to focus on what's up ahead: To finish my work in Imperial and to prepare for my Final Year Project in NUS!

Malaysian Call for Fair Election: BERSIH 2.0 is on 9th July 2011

Singapore's neighbour, Malaysia is having one of the biggest Demonstration in recent years.

BERSIH (clean) 2.0 is the follow up of the 2007 Bersih Rally. It calls for free and fair elections in Malaysia with 8 demands (more details at the website, http://bersih.org/?page_id=4111):

1. Clean the electoral roll
2. Reform postal ballot
   
3. Use of indelible ink
   
4. Minimum 21 days campaign period
   
5. Free and fair access to media
   
6. Strengthen public institutions
   
7. Stop corruption
   
8. Stop dirty politics

Lead by Dato' Ambiga Sreenevasan, BERSIH 2.0 has so far gathered over 50 thousand likes on it's officialfacebook page with strong calls for Malaysians to be brave enough to come and join in the planned street rally on 9th July 2011.

The street rally is meant to be peaceful and non-political, just civil movements of 62 Non Governmental Organisations asking for greater democracy. However, the response to this rally turns out to be tremendous. Perkasa (a non-governmental Malay Supremacy), and 56 Non Governmental Organisations are asking BERSIH 2.0 to call off their rally and are launching a counter rally against them. UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) Youth also calls for a counter rally, separate from Perkasa against BERSIH 2.0. The opposition to BERSIH 2.0 claims that it is a political movement (as it contains the political opposition party,Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, and Democratic Action Party) out to topple the current government.

Not only that, the Malaysian Government has declared BERSIH 2.0 as illegal, declined gathering permits for all three parties involved and the police are out to arrest the people who are wearing the BERSIH 2.0 yellow T-shirt and several leaders of BERSIH 2.0 . There is also a threat that the rally may lead to a declaration of a state of emergency and wide ensuing violence. This lead to the United Nations human rights office to voice concern about measures being taken by authorities in Malaysia, including restricting freedom of expression, ahead of a peaceful demonstration.

Malaysia's ceremonial head of state, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had to step in and call for all three parties to resolve their differences with the government peacefully. BERSIH 2.0 leader, Dato' Ambiga Sreenevasan met with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and agreed to stage the rally in a stadium instead of having it on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. The Home Ministry said that meeting the King doesn't make the BERSIH 2.0 rally legal.

Meanwhile, Malaysians in 24 cities around the world are planning to gather at the same time to show support for the BERSIH 2.0 rally. Notably, Singapore is not in the list. With it's closest neighbour being in such a rocky ship, one has to question does Singapore cares?

Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow, we'll just have to wait and see.

The Middle Way

Looking at the life of a monk now, most layperson (including Buddhist) would immediately comment that the lifestyle is too extreme.

Waking up at 4a.m. in the morning, 227 precepts to keep (311 for nuns), wearing only robes all the time, meditating most of the time, keeping mindfulness at all waking times, learning the Dharma everyday, even having 3 months long of rain retreat each year. Not only that, a monk does not eating after noon time, does not indulge in entertainment, no money, no marriage, and certainly no sexual activities.

Try a small taste of that for a day (in our 8 precepts day) and see if you want to continue it for a week (in our meditation retreat). More than half of the participants dropped out.

Yet are not the monks supposed to live life according to the Middle Way?

Of course it would be deviant from the Middle Way to judge everyone via the standards of the monks. There are standards for laypeople too at Digha Nikaya 31, Sigalovada Sutta, but we are not talking about that here.

It would be easy too to say that most of the middle class citizens are very indulgent in entertainment thus consider a community of monks to be extreme without the other end of the spectrum like war-torn people (who are elsewhere) to compare. This realisation is meaningless to this article too.

When I started learning Buddhism on my own, reading the books without joining in a Buddhist Society or having Kalyana-mitta or a teacher to guide me, I had gone so deep and so fast into the theoretical ultimate reality and accepted what I see as obvious truths, that I decided to have "monk" in my email. And thus thinking this is how an enlighten being should view the world (impermanence, suffering, non-self) , this is what an enlighten being would not have think of (greed, hatred, delusion), thus deluded myself into a serious state of depression every moment I discovered myself to deviate from perfection.

That put me out of touch with Buddhism for a while in order to regain my sanity.

It took me years later on to realise “All things in Moderation. Including Moderation.” The way to Enlightenment is not the extreme way that gets you there faster. It is not a intermediate goal to achieve and get rid off so that I can get on with life. It is rather to realise that life itself is impermanent (still don't realise it, just putting it here to say I don't realise it). Now, from my involvement in Tertiary level Buddhist Societies, I am going back into Buddhism, gently, calmly, (sorry I still won't use slowly), practising it step by step with my Kalyana-mitta here and teachers to guide me.

So what is the Middle Way?

The Middle Way is also to be learned first, before practising, realising and sharing. And to learn is to have right understanding and right thought.

The Middle Way on the line between two extremes end of love and hate is not the indifference in the middle, but rather to rise above the line and to have Universal love, loving-kindness, thus naturally right speech, right action, right livelihood comes into play.

Knowing causes, knowing effects, knowing oneself, knowing how much is enough, knowing the proper time, knowing individuals, knowing groups of people: these Seven Noble Virtues constitute walking the Middle Way. (Refer to Anguttara Nikaya, Book of Sevens, no. 64, Dhammaññu Sutta: One With a Sense of Dhamma) Using discernment, wisdom and compassion in living one’s life, thus explaining the constant right mindfulness, right effort, right concentration to keep on walking on the razor edge of the Middle Way.

Not taking ourselves too serious nor too flippancy, when one can laugh at oneself, then one is taking moderation in moderation.

Analysis of Weird People

In this post, I am going to present my views of why weird people (personality wise) are weird and how people generally treat them.

Think of Einstein, think of the typical mad scientist image, think of the various successful people who are weird. Think of the reasoning that if you blend into the crowd, how can you standout in your future? How can a normal person make a huge impact on everyone’s life?

When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way you will command the attention of the world.

   --  George Washington Carver (1864-1943)

Think now of Bugs Bunny, the Mask, The Pretender, Stephen Chow, Dicky Cheung, Animaniacs, and you can see that there are so many inspiration to be extraordinary.

Well, weird people may also be weird just to make people laugh. To not make people laughing at them, they laugh together too! Making a clown of themselves. Or they might know all the social norms and just decided not to follow them, but to break all of them in a skilful way so that life gets more interesting.

It is also a way to repel girls (mentioned previously) and to make oneself famous (or infamous) extremely fast.

Now whatever the reason is, the weird people are certainly not (not always at least) criminally inclined, crazy nor are they guaranteed to be a super genius. However, they are certainly human beings. Humans with feelings, perception, mental faculties, consciousness, and (for this case) a normal body.

Now let’s concentrate on other people’s responses to weird people. Generally, people who do not understand these weird people will be exactly predictable, as what these weird people want them to behave. For example, if they want, they can portray a super qualified image of them, “humbly” letting information of their past glory leak out so that they become the centre of attention and famous. Or they can move their hands during conversations with others, nodding their heads obsessively, bringing an overlarge accessory (like a 2 litre water bottle), just to freak people out from talking to them a second time. They can even say “You are pretty”, “Are you single?” etc… to a beautiful girl as first greetings. This guarantees no future with any self respecting girl.

So these people who only had to interact once or twice with the weird people are described above. And there are those who had to interact more and frequently with weird people, eg. neighbours, school/work colleague, relatives, normal friends and are not really close enough with these weird people. For these people, they had to develop a defence mechanism in dealing with the weird people (let’s just shorten it to weirdos).

Defence mechanism

1. Interact as little as possible. Making both sides very quiet and awkward silences happen a lot of the time. Practically ignore them. (But then we ignore most people most of the time, and we ignore the fact that we do)
2. Bully the weirdos, just because you can’t understand them, means you got to fear them. The only way to deal if this if you can’t run away is to establish superiority. Once you established superiority against these weirdos, you don’t have to care if they had superior intellect or anything else. Bullying here can extend to a wide range of things. Forgive me for not being politically correct, but it can range from a friendly nudging question like: “You plan to be single all your life?” (the common assumption that you had to be normal to get a girl/boyfriend) to denying work opportunity (discrimination has largely gone against women, races, the disabled, etc…, however, there are wide spread discrimination against weird peoples).
3. Tolerance, we should not discriminate against anyone. So what if they are weird? As long as they are human beings, (or living beings) we should treat them no different from others. This response can be from a religious group that the weirdo joins in, other weirdo themselves. It ranges from smiling at the weirdos, to becoming friends with them (because they can’t stand the rudeness of rejecting/ bullying or ignoring the weirdos), and giving them opportunities to integrate with the rest of the society. Generally, they are seeking to understand the weirdos and help the change weirdos in order to live a more normal or happier life.

Which one of the defence mechanism activates depends very much upon how annoying the weirdo is and how innately good the people who responded are.

And now for those who live their lives with the weirdos, roommates, family, close and best friends. These people know that behind the collection of unusual behaviour, the weirdos are just people. Humans with feelings, perception, mental faculties, consciousness, and (for this case) a normal body. These people treat the weirdos as what they are, best friends, family, close friends, etc… giving the sense of social fulfilment to the weirdos (even if some of the weirdos do not recognise it as social ignorance maybe part of their specialty). These people are the real angels of the weirdos’ life, accepting the weirdos for who they are. Helping them as the tolerant people are and gently steering the weirdos into a society that accepts them and where they can be happy.

However, that said, it is just the personality of the weirdos to seek out the crowd that recognises them as weird and thus they might purposely go to find and manipulate the first group of people a lot. They might also be unlucky enough if they were very annoying then and some of the first group of people became regulars in their life and starts to bully.

Whatever the way it is, the lack of a consistent and coherent fight against the discrimination against weird people may stem from the following reasons:

1. It is difficult to define weirdos, by definition (Ok I know it is contradictory to use these words…), weirdos can exist in every possible society just to break the norms and increase the diversity of the social situation.
2. If a society of weirdos form, it would not boast a long or consistent enough form to have a legal representation as any society that forms from the weirdos will turn the weirdos into beings that does accept the rules of the normal people who joins in societies and have lawyers etc…, in other words, the weirdos has to become normal to join in the weirdo club (weird huh?)
3. This group stagnates https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=211949258701&v=wall , maybe due to the low density of weirdos that makes the members there unable to ask their friends to join as the members are probably the only weird ones amongst their friends. Also some weirdos are not proud to be weird thanks to the tolerant group who tries to change them.

Well, anyway here’s my contribution to the lacking research and writing materials on behalf of these weirdos. Thank you if you feel weird after reading this.

Meditation Flash Mob in Trafalgar Square on my Birthday!

On my Birthday, the 2nd June, I happened to join in a cool Meditation Flash Mob in London. Spot me if you can!

At 2:12.

At 5:40.

Ok ok, I was 5 minutes late and did not bring my camera.... but the meditation was too short! Anyway, in the cold summer day and turning into night, I did took a long time to go back.

Back to the topic, I hope to bring this to Singapore! (And later on, if I stay in Malaysia for some time, to Malaysia!)

SP2171 and 72: Time travel, is it possible?

In the year 2009, three SPS (Special Programme in Science) students investigated the previous research of time travel and made a small discovery of their own. They found that time travel, allowed by the General Theory of Gravity (GR) because of curved spacetime, is self consistent in curved space time itself!

The tale of time travel may seem absurd and discarded by most as impossible due to the Grandfather Paradox (you can go back in time to prevent your own existence if time travel is possible). However, there are solid Physics behind time travel. It started when Willem Jacob van Stockum first showed that one solution of the GR equation by Einstein allows for time travel. The whole van Stockum Universe was just an infinitely long rotating cylinder whereby the spacetime outside is so curved that the light cones tipped and allows one to move back to where one started by travelling around the cylinder.



The vertical axis is time. An observer in any point in spacetime can only travel to the future of his or her light cone (as no one can travel faster than the speed of light), and thus when the light cones tipped sufficiently, one can travel around the cylinder back to the exact point in time and space where one started.

This provides a way to create a Closed Time-like Curve (CTC), a physicist way of saying time travel. With GR producing potential time travel paradoxes, there are four ways that the physics community are dealing with it.

1. The Radical Rewrite Conjecture: from multiverse to saying time can be rewritten, this is the radically rewriting the laws of physics and causality conjecture. (Science Fiction series Doctor Who falls under this category)
2. Self-Consistency Principle: the basic tenet is that whatever is recorded down in history cannot be changed. So if one travelled back in time, one would have already done it. It also means either restricted free will or no free will.
3. Chronology Protection Principle: all the ways of allowing time travel cannot yet work in our universe because of the impossible requirements like: infinitely long cylinder, negative energy etc... there maybe a deeper law, like quantum gravity that will protect causation and prevent all forms of time travel.
4. Boring Physics Conjecture: time travel has not been shown to be practical or possible yet with 100% certainty, so there are better things to worry about.

Obviously Science fiction writers has explored the first way, physicists like Novikov had proposed the self-consistency principle using wormhole as the time machine (in flat space-time background), while others likeStephen Hawking had proposed the Chronology Protection Principle and most of the rest of us chose to adopt the boring physics conjecture. However, until 2009, no one has yet tried to see if the self-consistency principle could work in fully curved spacetime itself.

There comes our three students, Han Weiding, Jani Hariom Kirit, and yours truly who investigated this case for the van Stockum Universe. What we had found was that there exist at least one self consistent path for a billiard ball inside the van Stockum Universe to go back in time and hit its past self so that the past self can go around the cylinder, back in time, to become the future self that did the hitting in the first place.

Therefore, we concluded that time travel is still possible under the self consistency principle and that GR has not contradicted itself.

This however does not tell us in absoluteness if time travel is possible or if it is, will it require the radical rewrite conjecture or self consistency principle. The search for an answer goes on.

Note: at the time of literature review and research, the three students were in their 2nd and 3rd semesters in NUS.

Pokemon Video Game United Kingdom National Championships

Ever since the introduction of Pokémon, and me getting to play with Pokémon Blue inside a PC (can’t save at that time, so each time I had to replay it from the beginning), I wanted to own and play a real Pokémon game on a video game handheld console itself, at least before I lost interest in it.

I thought I did at one time, even when I got good grades at SPM or STPM, I didn’t asked for it. Maybe I was a bit disappointed at the number of Pokémon you have to get to catch em’ all. The fourth Generation being introduced and having to have both Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advanced to get all Pokémon.

Then came Pokémon Black and White, still on Nintendo DS, and also the 4th Generation can be self-sustaining, independent of the third generation. And me being able to come to the United Kingdom, finding cheap offers on the game, and finally this pushes me to the decision: http://www.pokemonvgc.com/uk/event/124.

Pokémon video game National Championship right in the United Kingdom itself, at the time went I am in the UK, on a Saturday! Right when I know I can easily go there! Nice opportunity like this can’t be missed out. So on the first weekend in the UK, I brought Pokémon Black and Nintendo DSi to start training.

And in two weeks I had finished the game for the first time (you should at least finish the game twice to go through everything that is offline about the game), and just starting to seriously train up my skills in double battles for one more week.

A lot of the features of the game requires you to go on Wi-Fi connection. Or having at least another player with Pokémon Black or White. Then one can enter the Union Room (or use infra-red) to battle with each other, trade, or just having fun interacting with another player on your console!

With only three weeks of training, and still cannot win against all the trainers inside the game with perfect scores, I knew there was virtually no chance at all for me to win the Championships. But still look at the first two Prizes:

• 1st Place:

  • A National Championships 1st Place Medal
  • A Nintendo 3DS system
  • An invitation to compete at the Pokémon Video Game World
  • Championships in San Diego, California, U.S.A., on August 13th & 14th, 2011
  • Airfare and 6-day/5-night hotel accommodations for the winner (including parent or legal guardian for players under 18) to attend the Pokémon Video Game World Championships

• 2nd Place:

• A National Championships 2nd Place Medal
• A Nintendo 3DS system
• An invitation to compete at the Pokémon Video Game World
• Championships in San Diego, California, U.S.A., on August 13th & 14th, 2011
• Airfare and 6-day/5-night hotel accommodations for the winner (including parent or legal guardian for players under 18) to attend the Pokémon Video Game World Championships

At least there is some 1/256 chance of getting there (assuming random probabilities and 0.5 for each player to win).

Well, it is also a fact that half of the 512 (maximum) players will be knocked out on the first round, and I happened to be in the lower half.

And so, on the Friday, I went on a 11:30pm bus to Birmingham International Airport. Tried to sleep on the way there, in fact, I didn’t play the game on the way but really try to relax myself… Anyway, didn’t work.

So right on arrival on 2 a.m., I was getting a bit stretched out on the no. of hours I have woken. I trained up my top six Pokémon until 5.00 a.m. , bought breakfast and lunch to eat while in the queue, and off I went once the mini-train from Birmingham International Airport to the Birmingham International Interchange starts. The sky has brightened by then too.

I spend some time exploring the train station before going on to NEC. I was looking for a way out to the National Exhibition Centre Hall 8 where the Pokémon Championship is being held, it was opposite the NEC. But since it was 6a.m. then and the time for registration was

I went on to the NEC, right on a the first minute starting to walk this long corridor there, I realised, NEC=National Exhibition Centre. Haha, and I printed a map on how to walk from the Airport to the NEC! It was all inside and well connected, I don’t even have to go on a road! So on to a few walkways I saw this

And then this when I finally arrived!

Some even slept overnight there! Wow! The line was not that long when I arrived, but in a few minutes that I was there, it got twice as long! And of course I started playing with them! Trading, battling etc… It was heartening to see parents bringing their kids (from dunno where their home is) at so early in the morning and line up with them, buying breakfast for them etc…some family even has a lot of children as brothers!

We waited (and play while waiting) for about one hour and a half before the door opens and those aged 15 and below have their hand being marked by a colour sticker. Once inside, I knew immediately that even if I didn’t win anything, it has been a worthwhile trip from London. A very very worthwhile trip. Immediately the photo-taking and playing at various places takes place! Enjoy!

First thing that greeted me! Wow! Air balloon inflated btw.

The juniors and seniors are lining up to register! And some pretty staffs too there was!

This is where the real battle commends! With a four pin plug in the middle. 

The most famous Pokémon of all time!

The final battle of the day, the finals of the master division is to be held here!

While the younger kids compete, the older people are enjoying various other stuffs, including a knock-out friendly battle. The loser gets out for the next in line and the winner won three times in a row gives up his place for other players. Oh yes, don’t be surprised by the cool way they put the battle on the big screen! 

The three starting Pokémon in Unova region in Pokémon Black and White! I chose Snivy, the grass Pokémon in the middle!

The hall is very big! And for the right, I tried to battle a special download for the battle institute over at the event!

Here’s the place for trading card promotion/introduction to the kids and people who never played it before.

And now, to review just how long the line was:

Despite their saying the line will be closed once the cap for player is reached, I think they did not reject anyone. The registration is still on-going even after the first few battles started! It really is a very nice place to be!

Here’s the battle scene, where parents see as their children play in this great battle! For those who had won, they proceed on to the right, so there are marked sections showing which area are for the first battle, which are the second etc…

As the battle goes on, the parents and other players are relaxing in the hall.

 

And finally I was satisfied with the pre-competition playing, I lined up with the rest of the people in the Masters division. Well, there are a lot of cool people there too! See this:

From earrings to hoodies (Pikachu hoodie), this gal is full of Pokémon! She even treated us to a packet of rice (for small luncheon)!

A Snivy hoodie, and is that Misty? I traded friend code and done feeling check with her, and only now I realised there is some resemblance of her with Misty!

Team Rocket, Pikachu (seriously, she has red dots makeup on her face!), (unknown green guy), and bug catcher!

Ash’s cap!

I was doing the survey (a feature inside the Pokémon Black and White game that automatically collects survey results from the players around with who enables their C gear, or Wi-fi enabled and has done their internal survey) along the way all the time I was there. Here are some interesting results: (I’ll select them as I see which is most interesting, as there is a lot of them)

Which version do you play? Total number: 198 people. 

Black	White
99 (50%)	99 (50%)

Amazing!

What’s your starter Pokémon? 297 total

Tepig	Snivy	Oshawott
99	99	99

Even more amazing!

How long have you been playing (hours)? 231 total

100+	99 (43%)
90-100	5
80-90	22
70-80	18 (I’m here)
60-70	21
50-60	18
40-50	16
30-40	6
20-30	9
10-20	6
0-10	11

So there are some not so serious players in the competition too (those less than 50 hours or so…, ok maybe those less than 100 hours, including me…)

Are you male or female? 127 total

Male	Female
99	28

Wow, overly male dominated!

What kind of job do you have? 157 total

Student	99
Artist	15
Office Worker	12
Creator	12
Job-Hopper	8
Self-Employed	4
Public Official	4
Homemaker	3

So adults do play Pokémon too!

What kind of people do you like best? Total: 222 people.

Type of People	No. of people who likes them
Fun	99
Kind	99 (my answer)
Cool	24
Rich	0 (this is funny!)

What kind of movies do you like? Total: 210 people.

Comedy	99
Action	50
Sci-fi	28 (me here!)
Horror	22
Suspense	11
Romance	0 (Another amazing fact!)

Ok that’s all for surveys. Now I do think that the purpose of the survey is for people like me to put it in blogs! Haha.

Hmmmm… an observational fact is that whenever a category goes up to 99 people it stops there, so maybe the survey is flawed due to it not being able to record more than 99 people for any category!

Now for more pictures. After my defeat, I take the time to hang around and take pictures of these:

As Carmen commented: I love how they put details into these things!

Then there are three more surprises!

Snivy, Oshawott, and Tepig! All cheering for those who are still in the competition!

Then I had some trades and battles and wrote this:

At the time of writing, the semi-finals of the Masters Division of Pokémon Video Games United Kingdom National Championship is on-going.

At Birmingham, UK, the spirit and passion for Pokémon brings together many kind-hearted and nice young boys and girls from all over United Kingdom and perhaps even the world!(me for example)

What strikes me most is that the staffs here does their best to care for everyone, despite having kids as young as 6 years old in the competition, you cannot hear any sound of crying. What you have instead is trainers as old as 22 years talking to and interacting with trainers as young as 8 equally and having fun battling and trading Pokémon even through they didn’t know each other the minute before.

The spirit of fair play and accepting defeat is clear amongst all the participants too. A handshake is exchanged before and after a battle (which is a knock-out game, loser gets out). And even in the final moments of the competition, many trainers who are not in the top 4 stayed back to keep on watching the battles screened and learning the techniques that will help them become better trainers for next year!

Being here, just attending an official Pokémon event makes the 2.5 hour journey from London worth every pound. The atmosphere is so friendly and pleasant that one doesn’t mind losing in the championships. It is as they say in the Pokémon world, as long as the trainers care for the Pokémon, we all live in harmony and joy together.

As such, the idea of Pokémon has produced great success in not only to provide a lot of (almost) endless entertainment, and the challenge to catch em’ all, but it also promote a sense of sportsmanship, of universal friendship, and of kindness towards all, humans and Pokémon (I would interpret this as animals and plants in our real world) alike.

And now the finals is starting, I’m not going to miss out on this one!

So are all these people!

A few moments before the finals!

And the result is:

Congrats! But as far as we are concerned, they are both winners as the prize for both are virtually the same.

Before I left, I just wanted to take a thanking photo of those who had worked so hard in making this event a great success for everyone!

See ya next year! And it was time to go back, passing through nice things like this,

I managed to get back to London before the sky turns dark!

Nice sunset at sweet old London!