laremy.sg

I’m not against the pruning of trees, because pruning does help at times in terms of improving the aesthetics or safety of a place.

What I’m against is the excessive pruning of trees all over Singapore that takes place on a regular basis.

(At the same time, I do wish more trees could be planted in Singapore, but that’s another battle for another time).

That tree gave some much-needed shade to Pooters – something I appreciate because I hate sitting on an over-heated seat and I hate knowing Pooters is exposed to the elements.

There are other benefits to trees in our urban environment too: carbon sequestration, reduction in ambient temperatures, etc. Read more here.

That’s why trees are especially important in a place like sunny Singapore and in a world stricken by global warming.

However, I’ve always felt that whoever makes decision like these – e.g. to prune trees excessively – do so in the right spirit: to neaten and hence beautify the place, to prevent tree branches from falling and killing people during a gale or a storm, etc.

Unfortunately, these decisions seem to always be made in a vacuum, without consideration of other important factors like the ones I mentioned above: shade, shelter, preventing global warming, etc.

Why?

I think this has to do with encouraging critical thinking and providing these people with an actual knowledge of circumstances in our world today.

And that’s why it has never been more important for us to move away from subjects taught in the traditional curriculum, to teaching slightly more multidisciplinary and ‘real-world’ subjects like biodiversity or environmental ethics now.

tldr: Study literature if you enjoy reading fiction texts. The benefits – growing intellectually, emotionally and having career options for the future.

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Someone asked me this on Formspring and I thought the answer was worthy of a longer reply.

Just to clarify, I’m using literature and language here generically unless I state otherwise, because I think what I have to say is applicable to any language e.g. French and consequently, the literature of that language i.e. French.

1. For the higher-order thinking skills of analysis and evaluation in a familiar setting.
   Here, I’m assuming that you like reading and you want to practice thinking critically as a means of personal development. If you don’t, this doesn’t apply to you.

   Now, you can derive these skills from studies in almost any discipline. The advantage of deriving these skills while doing literature is that you get to derive these skills in a domain you are comfortable with and enjoy i.e. fictional texts, drama and/or verse.

   Having said that, I must say that literature consists of a whole range of genres and periods. Not everyone is comfortable in learning higher-order skills in texts from ‘strange’ genres or older periods.

   For example, I only really started understanding what literature was about when I started doing contemporary texts in my last two years of university.

2. For the humanity!
   All aspects of literature deal with the study of human beings – the ways human beings think, the ways we interact with other people, and our motivations for doing these things.

   I think this is very important in anyone’s education – it provides perspective and (hopefully) reduces chances for conflict between human beings.

   If your question is: But how does it benefit me?, then this is my answer: life is not about you.

   Life is learning about other people which in turn helps you – you learn to reflect on your actions, you learn how to communicate to reduce miscommunication, etc.

   And that helps you be a better person so that you can be a better person to other people.

   Once more, most humanities/social science courses offer this perspective, so choose literature as the vehicle to help your growth only if you like reading fiction texts.

3. For the future, because that’s what we’re all working toward.
   Besides degrees or careers in education or the arts, the sensitivity to language and language use provides good training for degrees or careers in:
   • law,
   • the media,
   • public relations,
   • advertising and
   • marketing,

   to name a few industries that are not commonly associated with learning literature.

   Why?

   Success in these degrees/careers depend very heavily on communication skills, and one very important aspect of these skills – put simply – is knowing what word to use at a certain point in time and why you have to use that particular word at that point in time instead of another word.

   Again, you don’t have to do literature to gain these skills if you have a good command of the language, so it really boils down to personal preference.

Have a question for me? Head over to my Formspring page to post your query.

I just came back from watching Recalling Mother. I was not only moved by the piece, I was also very impressed by the space in which it was performed.

There’s an exhibition going on now called The Air-Conditioned Recession: A Singapore Survey and it showcases works of art that reflect the attitude in Singapore toward the strictures and structures of modern life.

I must say that this is ONE OF THE MOST THOUGHT-PROVOKING Singaporean art exhibitions I’ve seen in my entire life (26 years) and I was very impressed by the works + proud of all the artists who have contributed to this exhibition.

Please go check it out if you can. I promise you will not be disappointed.

P.S. unfortunately the exhibition only runs until today, so if you have nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon, GO FOR THIS.

P.P.S. I heard that there are LIMITED seats available for Recalling Mother too, so if you have $31 to spare, GO FOR THAT as well.

The whole comparison to water usage is a deliberate attempt to mislead.

The standard telecom contract for data services has been based on bandwidth provided since the invention of data circuits. Indeed, the ISP’s price their services based on the bandwidth to which one subscribes. If I have subscribed for an 8Mb/sec service, how can I be a “bandwidth hog” for using 8Mb/sec of bandwidth? I paid for it, and I have the right to use it.

– Waleed Hanafi, Singapore – ISP’s to customers – “You are evil”

It’s an old article but I think it’s a very good example about how language and the media have the power to shape public opinion, and the media having a responsibility to report the news in an objective way. But if that doesn’t happen, then readers have to develop media literacy and critical thinking skills in order to separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of information and data processing.