About Me

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Singapore, Singapore
Dr John Yam Poh Nam, Ph.D. (University of South Australia), MBA (University of Strathclyde), B. Eng, Electrical (National University of Singapore) 任保南博士 南澳大利亚大学, 斯特拉思克莱德大学, 新加坡国立大学 Council Member of The Workers' Party, Served as Inspector of Police - Singapore Police Force (1981-83)

Thursday, April 29, 2010

李氏家族, 父子皇朝

李氏家族, 父子皇朝
唐朝历史记载 李渊是唐朝(AD618-907)的开国皇帝,之后他把皇位传给了他的儿子李世民(唐太宗)。事实是:当时作为隋朝丞相的李渊不够果断,缺乏主动性去推翻腐败的隋炀帝。是李世民主动参与并策划了推翻已经摇摇欲坠的隋王朝的密谋。他成功的战胜了其他的反贼,征服了蒙古部落,这为他赢得了中国历史上“天可汗”(King of Kings) 的称号。经过一系列包括杀害兄弟的权力斗争(玄武門之變),他强迫李渊交出了皇位。在李世民的统治下,中国经历了东方文化复兴的黄金时期。当时中国强大的经济,政治和文化影响力从日本一直延伸到了波斯。这是唯一可以与汉朝相匹配的中华文化的高峰。"Chinatown" 被人们称做 “唐人街”,中国人称他们自己为"唐人"。

任保南博士

Saturday, April 24, 2010

改善的应该是教育制度而非降低汉语水平!

各位知交好友与同学,如果愿意支持下列请愿-- 小六会考华文比重维持不变,请到下列网站示意支持。
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/pslemothertongue
我们的下一代,汉语水平已够低,不能再降低了。我们目前要改善的应该是教育制度而非降低我们的汉语水平。再降低,那华语就会慢慢变成第三语言,好像我们起初的小学制度,要学马来语一样。是很容易流失的。

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Education is about enhancing capacity and passion to learn

I read The Straits Times this week (9th April, 2010) about the number of awards and medals our Singapore schools have won, including international debates, arts and dances. We, Singaporeans have reasons to feel proud of the achievements for their teachers and pupils' hard works and efforts. Nevetheless, let's not be carried away by these glories. Our education system should stay focused on our pupils character building, inculcation of moral values as well as enhancing our pupils' capacities and passions of lifelong learnings. It is not about competition and comparison among schools, pupils and even with other countries. Too often, I feel that our education system over-emphasized on the quantifiable element of ranking, never missed any opportunities to compare and compete with others. World champion marathoners stayed very focused - they succeed by breaking personal records, not about winning by beating others. We need to introduce the TQM (Total Quality Management) mindset and best practices among our teachers and pupils in our schools. Only then, we can have a future Singapore truly "built to last".
强中更有强中手, 一山自有一山高.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Abraham Lincoln Quotes

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause. No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

Singaporeans Total Ownership

Profit sharing for all Singaporeans - including Singapore Power,
SMRT, SBS - similar to the SingTel model - shares issued to all
Singaporeans at the lowest market rate.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Scoring high in grades but not in values

Over the past two weeks, the words “meritocracy” and “elitism” have stirred feelings of loyalty, indignation and dismay all at once.
Just ask the old boys of St Joseph’s Institution (SJI), who have been making a very public case for and against the lowering of the school’s entry requirements to enable more students from its feeder schools to make the cut. Meritocracy must prevail, argues one camp. Easing entry requirements will only cause academic standards to slip. But SJI must not become elitist, counters the rival camp. Boys from the Christian Brothers’ schools, based on that affiliation alone, should qualify.
The imbroglio once again puts the focus on the uneasy relationship between meritocracy and elitism. A cynical take is that the race to the top will always leave behind stragglers, and those who cross the line first are bound to look down on their weaker counterparts. Given this attitude, it does not surprise me that some SJI alumni are campaigning fiercely against the “E” word.
I attended Raffles Girls’ School (RGS) and Raffles Junior College (RJC), both elite institutions. I confess that as a young adult, I was conceited and felt unsympathetic to the world around me. These days, when people ask me what is my alma mater, I often say I’m a Rafflesian – but a “recovering” one.
Before I incur the wrath of Rafflesians past and present, let me say I am grateful for the all-rounded education I received. Way before the term “holistic learning” became a Ministry of Education catchphrase, my $300-a-month secondary school fees in RGS paid for classes in speech and drama, etiquette and philosophy.
My teachers did not teach us to be snobs. But neither did they teach us not to be snobs. As a Rafflesian, one never spoke in terms of examination pass rates. It was the number of As one got that signified one’s mettle. We felt entitled to big things in a merit-driven society where mental dexterity equated strength of character and virtue. We felt so because we had trumped the system, even if it was the “system” that had allowed us to get this far in the first place.
Intellectual snobbery can be a scary thing. A running joke when I was sitting for the A-level examinations in RJC was that the National University of Singapore law faculty half consisted of Rafflesians. The other half came from “students from OJ” – other junior colleges.
I did not have a single friend from a neighbourhood school. In our world, we did not see a need to venture beyond what we knew.
Many of my friends came from rich families and lived in the Orchard or Bukit Timah areas. I remember a then 15-year-
old friend asking me where I lived.
“Siglap,” I said. She asked quizzically: “That’s where all the Malays live right?”
I never learnt that failure was sometimes an unavoidable option. Two years ago, I sank into a funk when I did not get a scholarship. A non-Rafflesian friend jolted me to my senses when he asked: “How many people even get to think about doing a master’s?”
Growing up this way, you lose perspective. You forget that you belong to a privileged minority, that in the real world there are those for whom a C grade (and not an S-paper distinction) represents the pinnacle of academic achievement – but who may be wiser in many ways than the academically gifted.
It was only when I left the comforts of my flock that I realised how close-minded I was. Unlike some of my peers, I did not win a scholarship or study overseas. I studied at Nanyang Technological University, where classmates told me they were initially wary of me because I was a “Raffles girl”.
I learnt that brandishing my elite school background, from the way I spoke “proper English” to wearing my RJC physical education T-shirt around my hostel, rubbed people the wrong way. I learnt there were other ways to win respect without riding on the coat-tails of a brand-name education.
My work as a journalist also quickly brought me crashing down to earth. Loftiness goes out of the window when you have to talk to everyone from politicians to cancer patients to victims of natural disaster.
I hasten to add that for every misguided smart-aleck I encountered among Rafflesians, there were others who were humble and well-adjusted. Still, an Old Rafflesians’ Association president once quoted in this paper defined the Rafflesian character as “predominantly achievement-
oriented and goal-driven” – traits I dare say which tend to create a type of ultra-competitiveness that leaves little room for empathy and humility in the absence of a countervailing value-system.
Many of my schoolmates went on to become civil servants, lawyers, bankers and doctors. They keep to the same small social circle they grew up in, married within it and will probably wish the same life for their offspring as well.
I’m not saying they grew up into mean-spirited, Ayn-Rand spouting adults just because they excelled in what they did. The pursuit of intellectual excellence is a virtue that our educational system quite correctly promotes. But the pursuit of intellectual excellence to the exclusion of character or value excellence breeds an exclusionary attitude to the rest of society. Many of the products of our top schools forget they have to give back to the society that allowed them so many opportunities.
It is especially worrying when the exclusionary attitudes bred in school become accepted life values. You judge success using markers that only you and your like-minded friends agree upon. For example, my unmarried girl friends tell me they will never date a man without a degree, a car or a “respectable” job – and they are entirely unapologetic about it.
These are people who live for years without having to step outside their comfort zone, leading a bubble-wrapped existence.
The sooner that wrap is removed, the better.
Sandra Leong
Correspondent
The Straits Times
Singapore Press Holdings