Weight Issues

It was 27 August, almost one month back, when I was recorded as overweight for the first time ever in my life. I was told that I was overweight by almost 3kg relative to my height during a weight loss campaign organised by Health Promotion Board, called 1 Million KG Challenge. For those who have not heard of it, you may have seen this logo before.

I was surprised, and my friends were all surprised too when I told them that. Sure, I have a slightly-bulged tummy, I have a pair of slightly-flabby arm, I have a pair of thick thighs. However, generally I still look slim. The lack of exercise is finally taking its toll.

I was being challenged to shed this 3kg in four weeks, and if I managed to do so, I will get rewarded in the form of some shopping vouchers. Now that the 4 four-week deadline is almost over, I am still nowhere close to shedding the 3kg, because I was simply too lazy to exercise. This got me wondering how I lost my passion for exercising.

I used to be actively exercising during my army days, even when I was not required too. I loved running, and could run on a daily basis. Ever since I left the army, I exercised much lesser. I was still running during the first few months when I started working, about once or twice a week. However, the frequency of my runs decreased gradually. Was it my laziness? Was it the lack of a running partner? Was it the odd stares from colleagues? I am not sure.

Whatever the reason may be, indeed I stopped exercising. I am getting fatter. I am not a narcissistic guy who cares a lot about my appearance, but it still saddens me when I realised I am overweight. I hope this sadness can be a motivation for me to start exercising again, and from this regain my interest for exercising.

-Announcement-

Sorry for the lack of posts in August due to hectic work commitments, and a less happening lifestyle to inspire me of new topics.

I am currently working on a new article, so stay tuned!

-The god has spoken

Gender Equality

I came across an article on the #1 local newspaper, The Straits Times, few days ago, and one article caught my attention. It is about a woman trying to seek maintenance fee after divorcing with her husband. However, the judge ruled that the women do not deserve the fee as she was self-sufficient financially; she earns more than her husband.

This article caught my attention because of the progressive thinking that was displayed. As mentioned in the article, the idea for women to seek maintenance evolved out of the 1961 Women's Charter that was passed to protect women when many were housewives supported by their husbands. However, through all these years, women have been fighting for their own rights, for gender equality, and their efforts are largely successful. Women are now as powerful as men in a society, and they are earning some good money too. Since most of the women are now independent and self-sufficient financially, why do women still feel that they entitled to get maintenance from their divorced husband, like shown in this case?

Women had been fighting for gender equality for years; they even have an association for that known as Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE). Let's take a look at their vision and mission.

Vision 

A society where there is true gender equality – where women and men are valued as individuals free to make informed and responsible choices about their lives. 

Mission 

To remove all gender-based barriers so as to allow individuals in Singapore to develop their potential to the fullest and realise their personal visions and hopes.

Both their vision and mission speak of helping both gender. However, from all the actions that I had heard about AWARE, they seem to be pro-female, which I am totally fine. They are the Association of Women for Action and Research after all.

In the past, women were treated unfairly. Most of them are made to stay at home to be housewives; they did not have equal chances at education and job. Now that this unfair treatment is long gone, women are standing toe-to-toe with men in terms of education and job opportunities. Women had proven themselves to be as capable as men, and should not be looked down upon. Their fight for equality over the years is successful. However, the fight for equality stops just here.

Women have already gotten those that lack of in the past, but have not relinquish those that they have over men since the past. What do I mean by that? Women are still expecting themselves to be treated like how they were treated in the past. They expect men to help them with physical work. They expect men to be the one paying for bills and fees. They expect men to be the one paying for dates. They expect to be given priority over men first, aka "ladies first". So how is this gender equality?

In Singapore, we have the National Service, where all physically-able males have to get enlisted into the nation's defence service. The enlistees undergo physically and mentally tough training for a span of 2 years. What about women? Why are they not part of the conscript? Why are they not fighting to be part of the conscript?

So let's have a summary. 

Some advantages of females over males:

1. A one-way entitlement to apply for spousal maintenance upon divorce

2. Not expected to do physically-demanding work

3. Not expected to pay

4. Gets priority treatment

5. Do not have the spend 2 years serving the nation

Some advantages of males over females:

1. Not that I can think of.

Gender equality? Doesn't seem so to me. Gender equality will not be fully established until females give up on expectations and rights that they are enjoying over males. Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to establish sexism. I am just trying to point out how far are we from true gender equality. 

-The god has spoken

There's No End To Being Slim

I came across an article with the header "Australian Model Posts Untouched Bikini Photo" a few days ago. Just from reading the header, I was awed by the model's courage. We all know that most photos of models are tempered with, so this header caught my attention and I went in to read the article.

The Australian model is Robyn Lawley, and according to the article, she switched from straight-size to plus-size modeling. In other words, she now has a fat body, or in this case, supposed to have a fat body. Why do I say so? You will understand what I meant after you see her modeling photo.

So, this is what the modeling industry regard as plus-size. Mind blown. From a man's point of view, her body looks perfectly fine, and is nothing near fat. In fact, she may even be thinner than majority of the females I know. That's the thing - the modeling industry had set the acceptance level for fatness so low that even the model in this picture is considered fat. The worse part is that majority of the females are buying into this standard. For the purpose of comparison, here are some photos of some other models:

I recognise that this special range of models are what the industry call as too-skinny models, and these are some extreme examples. However, it is the standards and values that the industry is introducing to the world that is acidic. 

Many females look up to models and yearn to have bodies like them. And in order to achieve such bodies, they find all ways to shed off the fats in their body, either by cutting down on food consumption, doing intensive exercises, consuming slimming pills, or doing surgeries. These methods are harmful to their bodies, but they feel that the trade-offs are worthy.

To quote a Chinese comedian Dayo Wong, he once said “ 瘦的官方标准就是 - 瘦，减十磅，为之瘦。” In English, it means "The official standard of slim - when you are slim, reduce 10 pounds, then you are slim." In other words, there's no end to being slim, at least to the females. 

A lot of females are constantly trying to cut down their weight, even when they are already slim and light. They just feel that they can be slimmer and lighter, and that to them, equates to more attractiveness. Truth be told - the ultimate goal of females constantly making themselves look attractive is to attract males. This is the instinct of living things; to attract opposite sex. There's no denying that.

For the female readers out there, I am now going to spill it to you what kind of body attracts male. I believe that I am representing majority of the males when I say this - we do not find skinny girls attractive. Robyn Lawley as shown in the first picture, or even slightly chubbier than her, attracts us instinctively. The 4 subsequent models will turn off most males.

Ladies, be natural, and not be too bothered by your weight. The battle against fats will never end. As long as you are alive and kicking, fats will come back to you. No one can permanently put an end to weight-gain. Don't get me wrong, I am not promoting obesity. I am just encouraging you to not be too extreme when it comes to weight loss. Just do enough to keep your body healthy; that's all that matters. 

-The god has spoken

A Little About Myself #2

Since I talked about education in my previous post, I feel like sharing with you some of my thoughts on our education system and my education history.

I always felt that while education is important, our education system is putting the focus on the wrong aspects. The emphasis seems to be more on memorising theories and facts, than to really teach and learn something practical that value-adds our lives. Thus, I had a nonchalant attitude when it comes to studying (of course, my laziness played a part too). As a result, my academic results were average at best, and always fall a little short in getting to my desired school.

I started in Yishun Primary School. I was consistently in the first class since they started to band us according to our results. I received the honour of First-in-Class in primary three and Best-in-Mathematics in primary four. However, there was a sudden slump in my results when I was primary five. Luckily, I managed to improve on my results during primary six, and got an aggregate of 241 for my PSLE.

My desired school of choice then was Anderson Secondary School, which required an aggregate of 250 then. I was eligible for St. Joseph Institute, where 2 of my best friends had picked as their school of choice, but my family did not allow me to choose a school located too far from home. I was pressured into choosing Yishun Town Secondary School, a mediocre school which I heard was filled with bad kids back then.

I realised I was wrong on my misconception about Yishun Town Secondary School after I went there. It indeed use to have a reputation of having a lot of rowdy students, but that was in the past. A new principal and discipline master was appointed, and the school's culture changed drastically from what I heard.

I maintained my nonchalant attitude towards studying  during secondary school, and expectedly, I went from first class in secondary one to second class in secondary two, and subsequently third class in secondary three & four. Although I was consistently among the top two in the cohort for Mathematics, I was poor in my other subjects, especially English. Throughout my entire secondary school life, 16 examinations, I managed to only pass my English paper thrice. I passed my English paper during secondary one's CA1 and SA1, and failed all the way before I finally passed my Prelims in secondary four. Luckily for me, I managed to pass my English paper for 'O' Levels too. Eventually, I got a L1R5 of 18 and L1B4 of 12.

I never considered junior college as an option due to my poor English standard back then. I was looking at polytechnic, and a diploma in accountancy sounded full of potential to me. I was marginally eligible to take up accountancy course, but was beat by the strong competition for the limited intake of the course. Eventually, I was enrolled into my fourth choice: Diploma in Integrated Event & Project Management at Singapore Polytechnic.

The common belief about Polytechnic is that it is technical, hands-on, and not about memory work. These beliefs are rubbish, at least for the course I took. Sure, there are some technical and hands-on work about once a year, but that's it. The rest are all memory work. In fact, the amount of things that I'm required to memorise made me drop my nonchalant attitude and started to revise for examinations for the first time in my entire schooling life. I remember I failed one of my papers not because I gave the wrong answers, but because I did not answer the question using the textbook answer word-for-word, despite my answers having essentially the same meaning, just worded differently. Overall, I got a pretty poor GPA of 2.6+.

I feel that the current education system is focusing more on expanding the memory capacity than to impart actual knowledge or skills that one can put into use in life. There are plenty of people who can memorise real well and score well in their examinations, but knows little and cannot do much after that. These people are what the society call "paper scholar". Is this what our education system is hoping to nurture? I hope not.

Every individual has different strengths, and our current education system just doesn't allow for some of these strengths to be expanded or showcased. Everyone is being tested on the same thing; some may thrive as it is their strength, while others may falter.

With that, I would like to share a picture which I feel wraps up the flaws of our current education system.

-The god has spoken

Which Is The Path To Success?

My brother and I had a conversation with our 16-year-old sister lately regarding where should she go after O levels. At the tender age of 16, she, like most other teens, has no idea what she wants to do in the future. And frankly speaking, as her brother for 16 years, We're a little ashamed that we don't know what's best for her either. Nonetheless, we broke down and analysed the possibilities for her based on our experience (my brother went to junior college, while I attended Polytechnic).

1. Junior College

Knowing that she is the memorise-and-vomit type of student, junior college's system seems like something that she can thrive in. However, she isn't the smart type (no, having good academic results by memorising your textbook doesn't mean you are smart) and she knows that herself, so she tends to get very tensed up whenever she's mugging for her examinations. The pressure that she gives herself is so great that at times she looked like she's on the verge of breaking down. If she's already unable to cope with the pressure at secondary school level, I worry for her health if she goes into junior college.

The advantage of junior college is that it is the fastest and easiest route to go into one of the 3 government universities (NUS, NTU, SMU). If my sister can cope with the pressure, she should have no problem going into one of the universities through junior college.

2. Polytechnic

Polytechnic, unlike junior college, do not run on a show-hand-in-one-examination system. The students are required to consistently perform well in their assignments and examinations. It is not so much of a do-or-die for the students. However, the students need to constantly be on their toes and maintain a high level throughout the 3 years. Polytechnic's syllabus, generally, are more application-base and pure memorising will not secure an excellent result. This is something that my sister is weak in.

Going to Polytechnic also requires the students to decide on a field to take on. At the tender age of 16, my sister still has no idea what she likes or she is good at. Asking her to choose a field that may likely be her future career right now seems to be a tough choice for her.

The advantage of taking a diploma is that if she do get her degree thereafter, she is more "valuable" than her peers who went to junior college and then university.

After weighing the pros and cons, we still weren't able to decide what's best for our sister. After the conversation, I continued to reflect on the conversation, and I realised that it was only right that we couldn't decide what's best for her. She is the only one who knows herself best and able to decide what's best for her. And this is where an individual  is being defined.

It takes a certain maturity level for one to know what they want, what's best for them, and strike a balance between these two aspects. Truth be told, what you want may not be what's best for you in this practical world. Most of the teens do not have that maturity to make that decision yet, but they are forced to regardless. Those who are able to make that decision, they are the one who can and will succeed in life.

Many people complained about our education system for forcing our youngsters to decide on their future when they are not matured enough to do so. However, if you look at it in another way, it pushes the youngsters to make a mature decision for themselves early instead of continuing to guide them through their life, and delay their maturity.

Whichever path the students decide to take on, as long as they make their decision base on sound and logical reasoning, they will likely to achieve a certain level of success and self-satisfaction. For those who choose where to go for childish reasons, such as following where their best friend goes, will have a mountain to climb.

-The god has spoken

The Simplest Thing May Not Come That Simple

There are many things around us that seem simple, and is already part of our daily life. We are so used to seeing such things that we don't think how did these things come about. No, I am not talking intangible things like friendship, love, care, concern etc like many other articles out there had already talked about. I am talking about tangible things, or rather products. Many products that we use in our daily life may seem simple, but I can assure you that they all take immense creativity to make it happen.

Let's look at some examples:

1. Hot Dog Bun

Hot dog bun is something I'm sure everyone has eaten before, and most people like it. The hot dog adds a salty flavour and chewy bite to an otherwise bland and dry bun, and at the same time make it more filling for our tummy due to the meat content. It seems very simple; just slice up the bun and stuff a hot dog in, and indeed it is very simple. However, do anyone have any idea how much creativity it takes for the first person who came up with the idea of a hot dog bun? At least I know that I'm not creative enough to come up with this idea hundreds of years ago before it appeared.

2. Shelf

A shelf is a must-have furniture in every household because it allows us to organise our things neatly. However, the most brilliant part about a shelf is that it creates additional area that you don't already have using floor area that you already have. Confused? Before the first shelf was being invented, we could only leave our things lying around on the floor. When there are too many things, the things will occupy too much of our floor area, leaving us with little walkway. Surely, smarter people will stack up their things so that there will be more walkway. However, when they want to take a certain item and it is right at the bottom of a stack, it will be very troublesome and time-wasting. By using a shelf, we are creating additional areas to put our things, and they are not stacked right on top of each other, making it easy for us to take any one item.

3. Bag

Having a bag is very convenient as it allows us to bring along with us many items that we could not have managed with our bare hands. It is just a simple container where we can put anything we need on the go. Simple as it may seem, again, will you be able to come up with such an idea before the idea of a bag first surface? Not many people may be able to do so.

Above are just some examples of simple things that we see, use, consume everyday, but the changes that they bring to our life is drastic. Living in this generation, we are all blessed with such simple yet brilliant inventions. Simple as they may seem, these are the outcome of our ancestor's creative brain juice. 

The downside of living in this generation, however, is that we lack such problem-solving creativity. How many of us can create something all-new now? We can only at best modify and improvise on past creations, but not create something never seen before. Our brains are mostly clouded with complex stuff like computer and machine, and the simplest thing somehow become not as simple anymore.

-The god has spoken