Comments on: E-Engaging young S’poreans…with whom?

By: The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup: Week 11

The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup: Week 11 — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 08:26:17 +0000

[...] – Gerald Giam: E-Engaging young S’poreans…with whom? [...]

By: Gerald Giam

Gerald Giam — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:30:43 +0000

Old Friend – I’m a programmer myself! Yes I agree about your point about good man for wrong job. About education, I think I posted the clip of Obama mentioning Singapore and Taiwan’s education system. Unfortunately the quality of the typical Singaporean coming out of our education system still leaves room for improvement. Very good technically, but can’t communicate well. I think it is in no small part because of our education system. I emphasise “typical”.

James – Which bills are you referring to? Btw, US president doesn’t introduce Bills. Only Congress does.

By: James

James — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:36:29 +0000

Talking about President Obama.

I’ve observed that the bills he attempted to introduced into his country are very similar to our government policies. I’m thinking if those bills worked, the U.S. will definitely bounce back as a credible superpower.

By: An Old Friend

An Old Friend — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:26:57 +0000

On a side note, Barack Obama mentioned Singapore in his speech on education reform… around 4 min 25 s into his speech.

In short, our students (at eighth grade, whatever that is), outperform their US counterparts three to one, whatever that means. You can bet your last dollar PAP sill say something about it pretty soon… I’d give them credit for doing such a good job w.r.t. education.

Regards,
An Old Friend

By: Kaffein

Kaffein — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:42:27 +0000

Good piece of article.

>2 years has lapsed and the PAP is still trying to come to grips with the internet. Probably the way they think are these:

- It’s not a threat.
- Blogs are just ramblings, musings. Hardly worth the content enough to give a bite in politics.
- Nobody will take notice or probably just scoff at the ‘personal’ views.
- The content within is not authentic as compared to MSM.
- If blogging starts ramping up, bring in a couple of pro-establishment websites to counter.
- Engage them, bring them to toe the line, warn them that charges will be pressed.
- If all else fail, there is always ISA and jail and hefty fines.

Well, that’s why we have the Chua sisters gunning bloggers down and discrediting them. This is a sure way how NOT to engage the bloggers.

Kaffein

By: An Old Friend

An Old Friend — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:06:00 +0000

Hi Gerald,

“It’s like asking a programmer geek to be a public relations professional.”

You have a problem with geeky programmers? :)

On a more serious note, I like this line… it sums things up pretty succinctly. It suggests a (national?) penchant for getting a good man for the wrong job.

I know of an A-star guy who is doing biz development when he holds a Ph.D in the bio-sciences from the US of A. Maybe I don’t see the big picture or do not know what I am talking about. I have the impression MBA’s are better suited for BD, while Ph.D’s are better off in the lab or at least near one to think about big research problems. Perhaps mere mortals like yours truly can never understand the working of great minds, such as getting a Ph.D to do BD, or a programmer to do PR, or top military officers to run private enterprises. This line of reasoning simply eludes my simple mind.

Regards,
An Old Friend