Results Day

Finally. Finally the day has arrived. Though I have been distracted in the meantime by my job, unlike previous vacations. Finally the day has come to prove my peasant status (as Andrew would have put it). I have just been proven, in the final examinations in NUS for that matter, that I'm neither the top, nor the bottom. I feel like the guy in Eye for a Guy 2 who suddenly blurts about how average he is.

But I have calmed down, though still feeling a little sore. I had basically scored an all-B sem. Not even half an A. Fortunately no C. As a result I dragged my overall CAP down, even further from the initial goal of Second Upper. I'm basically a completely hopeless case. Logically it all adds up. I had lost most of that fire I entered university with by the last semester, and what's worse, there was nothing really that fitted in with my interests or capabilities. Hence I slackened for 2 of the 4 modules, paying my attention to the other 2 more interesting ones. I only discovered how intensely interesting and inspiring Prof Gordon's module was after the semester started. But the room was filled with "powerhouses". I didn't stand a chance. Similar for the essential module. To me the entire sem was all a chore, do be done with. Hence I completely deserved my results. Still, it appears a hard pill to swallow when presented on my notebook screen.

It will take me some days to emerge from its shadow. Probably by tomorrow morning I'll be fine. Usually. Thanks to Ermita for all your encouragements. I just need to throw myself into my job. It's a great job I have. I have absolutely no complaints on that quarter.

That's it for now. Hope I can bring better tidings next time I call. If I do call. Adios.

I can't organise an outing for nuts. I'm serious. I can't organise one to save my life. Just ask my friends.

POLITICS OF 'STAR WARS': A SLAP AT BUSH POLICY?
The Associated Press
CANNES, France -- Without Michael Moore and "Fahrenheit 9/11" at the Cannes Film Festival this time, it was left to George Lucas and "Star Wars" to pique European ire over the state of world relations and the United States' role in it.
Lucas' themes of democracy on the skids and a ruler preaching war to preserve the peace predate "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" by almost 30 years. Yet viewers Sunday — and Lucas himself — noted similarities between the final chapter of his sci-fi saga and our own troubled times.
Cannes audiences made blunt comparisons between "Revenge of the Sith" — the story of Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side and the rise of an emperor through warmongering — to President Bush's war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq.
Two lines from the movie especially resonated:
"This is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause," bemoans Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) as the galactic Senate cheers dictator-in-waiting Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) while he announces a crusade against the Jedi.
"If you're not with me, then you're my enemy," Hayden Christensen's Anakin — soon to become villain Darth Vader — tells former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). The line echoes Bush's international ultimatum after the Sept. 11 attacks, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
"That quote is almost a perfect citation of Bush," said Liam Engle, a 23-year-old French-American aspiring filmmaker. "Plus, you've got a politician trying to increase his power to wage a phony war."
Though the plot was written years ago, "the anti-Bush diatribe is clearly there," Engle said.
The film opens Wednesday in parts of Europe and Thursday in the United States and many other countries. At the Cannes premiere Sunday night, actors in white stormtrooper costumes paraded up and down the red carpet as guests strolled in, while an orchestra played the "Star Wars" theme.
Lucas said he patterned his story after historical transformations from freedom to fascism, never figuring when he started his prequel trilogy in the late 1990s that current events might parallel his space fantasy.
"As you go through history, I didn't think it was going to get quite this close. So it's just one of those recurring things," Lucas said at a Cannes news conference. "I hope this doesn't come true in our country.
"Maybe the film will waken people to the situation," Lucas joked.
That comment echoes Moore's rhetoric at Cannes last year, when his anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the festival's top honor.
Unlike Moore, whose Cannes visit came off like an anybody-but-Bush campaign stop, Lucas never mentioned the president by name but was eager to speak his mind on U.S. policy in Iraq, careful again to note that he created the story long before the Bush-led occupation there.
"When I wrote it, Iraq didn't exist," Lucas said, laughing.
"We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We didn't think of him as an enemy at that time. We were going after Iran and using him as our surrogate, just as we were doing in Vietnam. ... The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable."
The prequel trilogy is based on a back-story outline Lucas created in the mid-1970s for the original three "Star Wars" movies, so the themes percolated out of the Vietnam War and the Nixon-Watergate era, he said.
Lucas began researching how democracies can turn into dictatorships with full consent of the electorate.
In ancient Rome, "why did the senate after killing Caesar turn around and give the government to his nephew?" Lucas said. "Why did France after they got rid of the king and that whole system turn around and give it to Napoleon? It's the same thing with Germany and Hitler.
"You sort of see these recurring themes where a democracy turns itself into a dictatorship, and it always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds of issues, and threats from the outside, needing more control. A democratic body, a senate, not being able to function properly because everybody's squabbling, there's corruption."

http://movies.msn.com/beacon/hubarticle.aspx?ptid=396a9238-d777-468c-8ed7-063a78e98fde

Is humanity doomed to repeat history? Especially when they are overly concerned with their own interests. What contributes to corruption in any case? The age-old debate within histo circles of cyclic versus linear history immediately comes to mind. I can only reply that someone once said that he who does not study history is doomed to repeat it. Certainly applies in this case.

The Chinese on the other hand, appears to have found a solution. THey do not believe in democracy, or at least it is not manifested into a formal system of government or social thought. They place emphasis on the education of those would-be power-holders, ensuring that they get the best education in morals and social responsibility. Mencius once said, "Water can capsize a boat just as easily as it can carry it." The job of a power-holder is to bring succour to the geat public, and no emperor is allowed to forget that.

Perhaps the Chinese had anticipated the problems of Western democracy, perhaps they have not experienced it yet (probably because they never gave it a chance in the first place), but they certainly gives us food for thought in this modern age of reflection.

Ideas for magazine article

Got tasked by my editor to come up with an article for the FOP issue of Insomniac (it's the Arts Club magazine if no one has realised by now, after 4 years of milling around in the faculty). Treat it as my parting shot for the Arts Club and FASS before I get perceived as a "grown-up" the next time i visit the campus. So, any ideas? I have to do it "professionally", so I think probably along the lines of NewMan or... something like that (ok, that reveals the limit of my exposure to magazines). Help!

Saturday morning, and results gripes

Finally one day which I can sleep in. Maybe the 7 am wake-up call every morning needs getting used to. And the fact that late nights are absolutely out now, except if I'm still stuck in the office. Hope that doesn't happen, really. I'm not a lawyer yet, I shouldn't get lawyer timings.

Finally something up my mind. Why can't they release the results earlier? I've always had this gripe in previous years, but only got reminded of it after exams. The semester doesn't feel it's over before the results are released. It always feels like it's not over yet. While at the same time I'm trying to move on and make plans, for next sem or whatever. How is one supposed to plan like this?

Methinks an ideal time would probably be 2 weeks after the end of the last day of exams. Enough time to party, enough time to get bored. It's not a good sign when you are bored out waiting for that damn result slip. For those who needs more time to party, travel, we can always lengthen the time the results are available online, or this measure is not even necessary since we have the mailed copy. I don't think the examiners take that long to mark the papers, do they? At most 3? 4 days? For those with enrolment of thousands, we can rope in the tutors and teaching assistants. Should be able to finish by the 5th day, even for the crazy engin modules which the sad blokes are forced to sit through. I really pity them. Think NUS should just hand over the training of engineers over to NTU. It's doing a lousy job anyway. I always thought they were wasting everybody's time, as proven by the industry a couple of years back. Can ask the engin grads if anyone's not convinced. Should study more important things like philosophy and *heh* history (of course). Since nearly everyone is gonna head out into the service or financial sectors.

Anyways, coming back. It's a good idea eh, releasing the results earlier. A heart attack is always better than one preceded by a long period of pent-up stress. A double whammy when that happens.

History Class of '05 Graduation BBQ

Can I even call it that? But it was great fun, and it felt great to see everyone again. It's been two pretty busy weeks. Went straight after work. Had to stall till 6+ before I dared to leave the office as nobody was really leaving yet. Too bad I missed the earlier part. Still feeling a little hungry which I satisfied by downing the beer & the snacks.

On a comment by Prof Gordon that I'm not whiny enough, I can only laugh. I feel that a blog entry has to be inspired, probably formed in one's head before writing. Perhaps it's also a result of the environment that I'm living in that I'm not inspired often enough. How's that for whining?

Right, too tired after all the partying (quite a new way, I must say) and not thinking straight. Gonna drop now before I make any more speeling mistakes.

And Prof Farrell singing the Bee Gees song. Was that his other self as well? Heh...

Time passes slower when you are working, but I wouldn't want it otherwise.

1st day at work

Today I start on my long-term working career (I hope, I pray...). Actually strictly speaking should be yesterday, since it's already past midnight. It was an exciting day. I got to start on the project I was assigned to straightaway, and the best part was that I was able to "go into the field" to observe how some outdoor work was done. I've always hated being stuck behind a desk staring at a screen for hours. It's not natural, it's not what the human body was designed for. The human body was designed to move around, to be active, to be creative. So I always preferred jobs that offers a mix of the indoors and the outdoors. For a long time I thought that the only work that provided that was being an army officer--you had to be doing admin in office one minute, and out in the field with your men the next.

History research, fortunately, provides the other alternative. I can't imagine being kept out of civilisation for prolonged periods of time, despite all the an-officer-and-a-gentleman talk. Can't find any of those old ancien regime-type aristocrat officers now.

So, back to my 1st day at work. It was great, it was what I've always enjoyed doing. And it wasn't even planned! I stumbled onto this job during my final year in uni. And all I can say is that I'm very lucky, and I'm gonna love my working life.

Good luck to all you job-seekers out there!

This is what I get for believing in human agency...

Hahahahaha... Satan, here I come...

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Last installment: on history

"History, sharing Greek origins with political science, also has elements of the ancients-moderns identity crisis, in addition to the other problems of the strictly modern social sciences. As already mentioned, both participants and observers are unsure whether it is a social science or one of the humanities. Its matter is resistant to the techniques of the behavioral sciences, since it is particular, and therefore not easily generalizable, deals with the past, and is therefore beyond controlled experiments; but it does not want to be merely literature. I believe that none of the other social sciences includes history as part of the social schema, with the exception of that part of political science which is concerned with political practice as opposed to social science, e.g., some aspects of American politics and of international relations. History until the nineteenth century meant primarily political history; and it, unlike political science, was not refounded in early modernity. Its traditional role was enhanced during the new foundings because it told what happened, as opposed to old political science, which told what ought to have happened. Therefore history was understood to be closer to the truth of things. History had to wait until the nineteenth century for its modernization by historicism, which argued, as it were, that being, certainly man's being, is essentially historical. Historicism appears to have been a great boon for history, a radical step upward in status. But the appearance is somewhat deceptive. Historicism is a philosophical, not a historical, teaching, one not discovered by history. Rather than the prestige of philosophy adhering to history, the reverse occurred. All humanities disciplines are now historical--not philosophy, but history of philosophy, not art, but history of art, not science, but history of science, not literature, but history of literature. Thus history is all of these, but also none of them, because they are discrete disciplines in the humanities. History became the empty, universal category encompassing all the humanities, except insofar as it remained its modest, narrow political self. But because it does not have an anchor in political passion as does political science, it could float easily away from that dock under the influence of the prevailing winds, as politics was depreciated by so many other things, especially historicism. So, history, a wonderful, useful study, full of most learned individuals, is as a whole a medley of methods and goals, six disciplines in search of a self-definition."

--Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, pp.366-7 fn

All this in a footnote. Nowhere else in Allan Bloom's survey of the university's disciplines does he cover History, except in a footnote. But he was dealing more with philosophy and the Great Books, so maybe he could be absolved. But this is definitely one of the most concise yet comprehensive synopsis of the history of history and its key contemporary problems that I've seen.

Come to think of it, this also serves as an excellent exam question on historiography. I bet it'll kill off tons of students, while separating the sheep from the goats.

I've been taking a long break from my exam revisions and, as it is evident, I've been spending my time reading a particular book. It has proven to be extremely fruitful, and I have to thank Dr. K in part for that, especially for raising this book which I had already in possession by that time. I just wished that I had read this book earlier, during the semester, which is quite impossible. Our discussions on historiography would have been much more fruitful. E.g. on the question of whether there is an objective truth to be discovered by historians. I would have said that an insistence on the presence of an objective, rational truth that can be gotten by rational methods is in itself based on irrational belief. But then again that would not have helped reach any conclusion in the discussion, other than to bring the discussion to a much higher philosophical level while at the same time scoring some brownie points with the prof.

I'm rambling, and I should sleep. Should be able to finish the book by tomorrow and hopefully start on my final revision. All good things come so late in life...

On the role of universities in democracies

"The university's task is thus well defined, if not easy to carry out or even keep in mind. It is, in the first place, always to maintain the permanent questions front and center. This it does primarily by preserving--by keeping alive--the works of those who best addressed these questions. ...

The university as an institution must compensate for what individuals lack in a democracy and must encourage its members to participate in its spirit. As the repository of the regime's own highest faculty and principle, it must have a strong sense of its importance outside the system of equal individuality. it must be contemptuous of public opinion because it has within it the source of autonomy--the quest for and even discovery of the truth according to nature. it must concentrate on philosophy, theology, the literary classics, and on those scientists like Newton, Descartes, and Leibnitz who have the most comprehensive scientific vision and a sense of the relation of what they do to the order of the whole of things. These must help preserve what is most likely to be neglected in a democracy."

--Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, pp.252-4

As the great Sir Winston Churchill once said in the House of Commons in 1950 in a debate on university reform,

"The first duty of a university is to teach wisdom, not a trade; character, not technicalities."

I wonder how that would have been applied to our esteemed National University of Singapore.