Embrace love and life.

We spend 9 hours today, with the exception for an hour long lunch, having both moderated and unmoderated caucuses to pass a resolution on the chronic Zimbabwean hyperinflation crisis. Thing is, I signed up for this Model United Nations conference because I thought I could learn more about the inner-workings of this global constitution. It seems like I have received more than I have bargained for.

The debate got REALLY heated up many times, and I found it pretty amusing how the delegates of the developed countries took some points made in the motion personally. Haha, and how the delegate of Belgium referred himself as King Albert II. Sad to say, after such a long time spent discussing and evaluating possible political/economical policies Zimbabwe could adopt, the session was still in a complete mess, not seeming to reach any consensus.

Having spent the past few days reading up on Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and tyrannical political reign, I am not very surprised that it is finding hard to comply to comply to global pressures to redress its outstanding arrears with the IMF. No cookie-cutter economic solution can remedy the situation at hand and more than just tweaking several policies, the Zimbabwean government needs to be more transparent in its fiscal activities, The delegate of Zimbabwe felt that our suggestion of holding fair and free elections were a violation of their rights. No doubt being a sovereign state entitles them their own rights but by claiming that they practice democracy is a fallacy when the Mugabe government resorts to using force to oppress the freedom of its people. I hope that tomorrow's day of discussions would see the global community pledging more than just humanitarian aid, and of greatest importance is for the EU to lift sanctions from Zimbabwe.

We had about 30 delegates present today, and the motions passed were pretty fruitful, if not for the lack of unison voice in wanting to sincerely provide the necessary financial aid to Zimbabwe with lesser strings attached. I have come to a better understanding about the workings of the UN. Sadly, countries with a small percentage vote (which is proportionate to their GDP) do not really count for much, and my country Nigeria is one of them. So most of the time, other than having find the need to clarify certain boundaries during the session, I was pretty much stoning, haha. Now i know why some of the delegates in those huge UN sessions (at least 60 countries, especially for the General Assembly) look like they are not paying attention at all.

Of course, it doesn't beat watching the real UN experience but this comes pretty close to it.

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The place we are staying at is at NTU Executive Centre. It's like this posh 4-star hotel and I feel like I'm on a mini holiday, haha. Except some people are really enthusiastic about forming alliances and blocs that they call you through on the room's telephone to negotiate, bargain and hopefully come to a compromise... but come on, after more than 4 hours after the session has been suspended?! I am so so tired... I haven't seen my mummy for a week, because she goes to work early and by the time I am back, she's in bed. :(

I can't wait to have a nice warm family dinner tomorrow, something I have not done in a week.

Back to arranging our points for tomorrow.

I feel very mentally tired (and spiritually dry), and I feel like a gross bag of lard. I haven't been doing my QT as regularly, and I am sick of finding myself excuses for not doing so. I have to get started. I haven't been exercising much, except during trainings. All good intentions of using the school gym after classes are always thwarted by meetings and the pressing need to do all things academic related (i.e. spending more than half an hour trying to print PolSci readings).

I don't regret signing up for Model United Nations, but at this point in time, I feel like A-level Econs has come back to disturb me, or shall I put it in an more positive light; 'It has come to good use'. But what good use is it if I can't specifically recall the knowledge?!

My paper is due tomorrow at midnight and for the past 3 hours, I have been reading about the UN, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. Economics in theory is simple to grasp, but when I try to apply it to the fore-mentioned countries, I have to take their political and social contexts in consideration. A question that I have been pondering on is, who carries out economic and social reforms when the leading political party is corrupted? How can we approach the problem? Broad-based stabilization and reform agendas have to be drawn up, plus another crucial factor is the importance of building up credibility to attract both domestic and foreign investors.... ramblerambleramble.

I need more General Knowledge. I try to read the papers everyday, and it was a leisurely habit I adopted every morning when I sit down to have breakfast. However, time is so tight nowadays that I just skimp though the headlines. Not-good-for-BGS. Where everyone fights for airtime. And within 2 days of checking the discussion board on Vista, I have 20 new messages greeting me, all lengthy discussions and varied options on Business Government and Society. Sigh.

Is there such thing as being chronically fatigue?
I need TIMEOUT.

Someone pulled out of the NTU Model United Nations and I've got a place! I'm such a lucky ducky, know I guess this is the closest I can get to 'working' in the UN (the only thing I am upset about that the conference day clashes with my 'lou-hei-ing' dinner with RunTeam mates and CNY AA3 gathering!). I am a delegate for Nigeria in the IMF. My first choice was to be under the Security Council, which will be examining the issue of stability in the Middle East. I guess what the IMF is examining is interesting too, it will be on Zimbabwe and its economic crisis.

I have to submit a Position paper in 2 days! The time line is SO tight. Pol Sci presentation on why communism failed is in less than 12 hours time, and I am very grateful for such cooperative team-mates. Despite the crazy load of readings to cover, we managed to come up with something that even prof was agreeable with. I am mad busy this sem (but like I said, I want to be more involved in school, so I'm following Gandi's advice to 'Be the CHANGE'); I have signed up to be a FTB faci (because someone told me being in the sub-comm is 'very cui', whatever 'cui' means), and involved in helping out with Patron's Day, am going for an interview to be an editor for SMU-SA guide (I didn't know they had a guide), an exchange student buddy (shit I haven't been in contact my buddy since sch started, I should drop him an email!), plus BGS and CT projects in the pipelines.... plus I need to find ways to cope with the fact that THREE of my closest friends are flying off soon. ;(

Below is a video that our CT prof showed us in class... as usual, very enlightening. Makes us think why we want to study in the first place, and it really shouldn't be just for the fact that we need a job in future. Plus, have we actually asked ourselves why the humanities are ranked lower than maths and science...? Which leads me to ponder if a question reversal would happen if the humanities were actually given much more attention to in today's world.




On my way home today, I was sitting in front of two very loud mouthed typical Singaporean aunties. The traffic came to a crawl just outside the National Museum. They complained on top of their shrill voices on how the bus services sucked, and that they would only reach home at midnight. Obviously an exaggeration. Despite considering the possibility there might be an accident, they were the least sympathetic of the whole situation (at which this point, we still didn't know why the bus crawled at a pace slower than an average person walking). Only then did a huge flashing sign told us that the annual Taipusum festival was talking place, and due to several road closures, congestion was expected. And you know what the two aunties said? 'CHEY, TAIPUSUM ONLY! WASTE MY TIME! WAH, SO MANY INDIANS BLOCKING THE ROAD!' 'EH WHY THE ANGMOHS WANT TO FOLLOW AND WALK BEHIND THEM?' (I presume that the Caucasian tourists were curious about this festival, hence they were taking part to soak up the atmosphere.)

I felt a sense of utter disgust. Nevermind their relentless complain before finding out the real reason for the traffic jam. I mean, where was the racial sensitivity and tolerance? I doubt they would like it if they were to hear a non-Chinese complain non-stop about the crowd in Chinatown during CNY! They would probably be the ones to say, 'Don't like then don't come LAH!'.

LIke MM Lee says, we definitely need to put in more effort if we strive to be a civic-minded and gracious society. Plus, people should start smiling more and not look like they perpetually have dog-poo on their feet.

Speaking of being more gracious, lately there have been newspaper articles reporting on how many Singaporeans do not have neighborly ties with the people living within their vicinity. Thankfully, I am blessed with thoughtful neighbors who were always willing to lend a hand. However, the past week has been quite entertaining for the people living in my estate, thanks to one man who chooses to make a spectacle of himself.

We all know that his children make al ot of noise when they use the swimming pool, and several neighbors, including my dad has kindly told them to tone it down. Little did they expect the children (all below 12 years) to shout back. I guess someone had written an anonymous letter  (not sure if it is out of good wlll or sacarsm) to tell the parents to teach their children some basic courtesy.

So the father of the children wrote a very rude letter to all the residents, asking the 'coward' to show up. Firstly, there were SO many grammatical errors in the letter, and I think I should send it in to the Sunday Times's English As It Is Broken column, so we don't repeat his jarring errors. Secondly, he seems to be elevating and placing himself on a higher pedestal, because he wouldn't stoop so low to pass such comments. Very ironic if you ask me. He used the words like 'bastard', which he probably wrote in anger (highly unprofessional as an adult). And very stupidly, he went to the police to complain about the original letter! As if the police would entertain him, plus he is definitely in the wrong to blindly accuse people... I have to take a look at his TWO letters he personally signed off, photocopied and placed in everyone's mail box. Thanks for the entertainment, Mr. Lim.

Way past bedtime now.