Dear Sir/Mdm,

I refer to the article “Poly students in homemade sex video gets counselling” (ST, Feb 22 06).

I am appalled to read that the discipline teacher of the said junior college was bestowed with the authority to conduct “handphone raiding”, i.e. investigating the contents of mobile phones without the owners’ permission, on 5 students in the last half year.

The article noted that one student was unabashed with the circulation of her photographs as she deemed them artistic. Unlike the possession of lewd and obscene materials such as pornographic magazines and VCDs, artistic nudity does not fall within the same category. The former is an obvious breach of local legislation whereas the latter is not. In fact, many Singaporeans were reported to have paid for artistic nude photographs of themselves taken by professionals for personal keepsake in the wake of Mr Steve Chia’s incident in 2003. Mr Steve Chia was not charged for the possession of the nude photos of his maid and himself.

By conducting unauthorised investigation into the students’ handphones, the teacher concerned had infringed the privacy of these students when the photographs could have been merely artistic nudity meant for personal viewing and keepsake. It could also cause potential embarassment to the students for the photographs were never meant to be shared with a teacher. I would personally cringe at the thought of someone sieving through even my personal messages without my permission.

Handphone raiding is socially unacceptable and generally considered an extremely rude behaviour even amongst friends. It is akin to gaining unauthorised entry into one’s email account and is evidently an infringement of one’s privacy. What is MOE’s stand on such practices and whether educators should be empowered to probe into personal materials of students? Whilst it is imperative that educators inculcate the right moral values in our children, we should be mindful not to overstep the boundaries of our jurisdiction.

The editors at Today must have went out for breakfast when this letter was published.

Here’s my reply.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I refer to the letter, “Art of naming” (TODAY, Nov 8) by Mr Heng Cho Choon.

While Mr Heng’s idea for better naming within Singapore is noble, has has made a plethora of fallacious assumptions in his letter. “Insipid” as “Bukit View” and “East View” may sound, his presumptions that these schools are “faceless” and “devoid of characer” are not only unfounded but are also extremely superficial.

Contrary to Mr Heng’s belief, naming a school after personalities such as our late President, Mr Ong Teng Cheong, will not allow the school to “immediately take on a new character”. For instance, the name “Yishun” is currently being used by two Secondary Schools and a Junior College. Not many people know that “Yishun” is named after our late forefather, Mr Lim Nee Soon. Being associated with a name with an illustrious history certainly did not seem to propel them into the leagues of “Victoria and Raffles”, at least not academically. Most would consider Yishun JC a neighbourhood Jc simply because Yishun is also the name of the neighbourhood.

Whilst having a branded name can help its students to identify themselves better with the school, the essence and character of a school ultimately depends on its people. I have studied in both so-called branded Secondary School as well as a neighbourhood JC and I fail to comprehend why any school can be “faceless” or “lack of character”. I have many friends who do not hail from branded schools and still thoroughly enjoyed their experience in their “unbranded” Alma Mater.

And why should a bridge not be named after Singapore River if it’s indeed located there? Have we forgotten that our forefathers used to live and work by the river? Indiscriminately adopting names of personalities for our schools, shopping centres or HDB neighbourhood will not infuse any character into them.

Best regards,

of Indolence

I’ve learnt lately that no matter how slothful one can be, there is always some one in their life that can change that. For instance, there are two colleagues in my office who are infamous for their indomitable indolence and apathy in their undertakings. Not surprisingly, they have recently been handed the pink slip and given up till next June to leave (Yeah, I work in a pretty kind place to have given them 1 whole year to find a new job). Just yesterday, one of them asked me to swap my Friday duty with her. For the record, no one likes to do duty on Friday as non-duty personnel get to go home half-and-hour earlier than usual. I was surprised, and I inquired jokingly if she is going to pah tor (dating) later. She replied that her P2 child is having exams till Thursday and she would like to get home earlier to revise with him.

That, is the kind of sacrifice one is willing to make for someone dear to them, no matter how slothful one can be. Well, I guess so.

of Job Satisfaction

I’m not exactly sure how many of us really enjoy our job. Perhaps in contemporary society and especially so in a merit and cash-driven society like the one yours truly lives in, it can be really difficult to find the elusive perfect job. After all, even the poorest of our society does not have to worry about finding a shelter over his head (“Home, cheap home”, Today, October 14 2005). Ideally, our job should pay well, not too easy but not too challenging either. Such is the conundrum that plagues us relatively affluent citizens of the earth.

I was at the gents a while ago and there were a few foreign workers washing up. We have a lot of them around lately as we enjoy tearing down and rebuilding our offices ad nauseam. Anyway, that’s besides the point. Unlike us, they do not enjoy welfare benefits of 5-day work week (I believe our government is only interested in the procreation of Singapore citizens and the rich and powerful PR foreign talents). In fact, they slog through their weekends to finish their renovation jobs to satiate the insatiable demends of their affluent clients. Job after job, weekends after weekends, they were still in high spirits, singing songs in their native tongue in the gents at 5:30 pm. They weren’t singing because they’re knocking off like most of us do. In fact, for many of them, the work has really just begun. I mean, I don’t really expect the people in my office to tolerate all that drilling and knocking during office hours.

So what keeps them ticking? I would like to think that it must be the images of their wife and children back at home, thousands of miles across the seas – awaiting for a chance for education, awaiting for money to feed the children, perhaps. After all, the only reason why they left their family behind to slog on an alien land could only be in pursuit of one thing – bread. Perhaps, job satisfaction can really only be attained when one truly needs the job to fulfil the needs of one’s loved ones. Perhaps then, any job will do.

For now, looking at Apple’s latest offering (no, not the iPods) is beseeching the devil within to join the white side.