Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
Another Wee Shu-min clone bites the dust
I read this blog yesterday written by this person called Moca, who is a JC1 student in RJC. His blog entry, which I reproduce below is in essence a clone of Wee Shu-min’s infamous post.
L337
I am elitist. I believe those in the elite circles (no inverted commas) are better than those outside, not because they are naturally smarter, but generally because those who are there made it there on something, and they do deserve some recognition, more so than the general populace. So don’t complain that the elite schools get more money etc. They actually deserve it.
Xinrui showed me an article about some guy called Derek Wee, who wrote something about how people become redundant to society once they reach 40, and was complaining about lack of incentive and blaming the govt etc. Apparently a senior of mine commented on her blog about him and basically called him an idiot. I agree with her. Link is HERE.
Basically that’s the guy’s article and her blog post. Won’t bother summarising, but basically i’ll add my point on it. Derek’s argument that people become reduandant once they reach 40 is supported by evidence of taxi drivers. And erm, because he met a couple of taxi drivers who got retrenched and couldn’t find jobs, says that everyone becomes obsolete at 40.
… I dunno about you guys, but i can easily name 10 people (not even related to the government!) that still hold good steady jobs over the age of 40. So please don’t take your taxi drivers as case study for the whole populace.
So anyway my senior’s article is now apparently being branded EXTREMELY ELITIST (EE lol) and erm… is getting alot of flaming. She’s some MP’s daughter too, which adds a nice ironic effect. Anyway she basically says (ok fine i have to summarise) that just because he feels that he’s going to turn useless at 40, doesn’t imply that everyone else is. The funny part was that there were acutally lots of people that agreed with Derek’s article, even though it was never published in the ST. (Derek Fans say it’s because the govt doesn’t want his ‘all-too-true views’ getting out to public, my senior says it’s probably because his english sucks.) No prizes for guessing who I agree with. In fact, i think any article not in proper english should be automatically dismissed from anybody’s concern. Like that my one no need read liao la.
Ironically enough, i don’t think elitism is something the upper class invented from themselves. Elitism in my opinion starts from the segregation of certain people, because of social stereotypes, and all that crap. I get really annoyed when people go “Wah you from RJ ah. Must be damn smart lor” etc. When in actual fact we’re really no different from the rest of you people. Except maybe for the fact that we do use our brains for something more useful. It’s the mentality however, that people have about us, which we eventually accept for ourselves. So don’t blame us for being elitist.
Moca wrote @ 12:38 AM
And today I visit the blog again, it was shut down. That guy ran away, just like Wee Shu-min. And in its place, someone opened up shop again to put on the record what that guy wrote. This was his last post:
Last Post
I love being proven right.
Oh yea. I am such a media whore. After all, i was looking for the attention of all the people who regularly come to this blog, of which i can count on my fingers. (Homg. i’m saying i can count! Elitist!!!)
It’s sad yet funny. I doubt there’ll be any change sometime soon though. I wonder why on earth people somehow find the time to go search for ulu blogs to flame. Wee Shu Min is famous, i am not. Shu Min is a hell of a lot smarter, and a better writer. I read that she never actually apologised to Derek directly, so i guess she still stands by what she says. I however, lack such strong convictions. Call me a coward, but this isn’t what this blog was set up for. I don’t like fighting losing battles.
And for all those people with nothing better to do, get this straight. What i write, i write. Nothing to do with the school that i love whatsoever. And no matter how much i do complain i do love the school.
So this is the last post i guess. It’s gonna stay up for a few hours before the blog closes. If any of you people somehow still follow me to the new blog, i’ll be really amused/disappointed. Apologies for any defaming of the school name, and also to any friends that may have been implicated in this… Hell i have no idea what to call it.
Bye.
I can hardly believe my eyes that another RJC student who declares his views as such and such run away when more people start reading his blog. Of course, 2 RJC students DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT represent the entire school. However, it does make one wonder why these students are so afraid to stand up for what they believe in? Maybe they are too conditioned to scoring As and getting praises until when they start getting criticisms, they just bolt. I wish they were less cowardly than that.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Aaron Ng on 27/10/2006 at 11:33 pm, and is filed under Ramblings. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 3 years ago
Agreed there, Aaron!
These “elite” students dare to bare it all on their blog, knowing well that they would surely garner much unwanted attention, yet they go into hiding once they get what they were seeking in the first place – Attention. If any of them want to enforce the points they make up, they jolly well stand up straight and repel the imminent barrages that come their way. To prove their point, they should be brave enough to face up to their critics, regardless of how adept the latter are at debating, ranting and returning fire.
about 3 years ago
Hi fellow student from elite school,
Absolutely. So many bloggers dare to put their name and face up, standing by what they write and believe in. If these people have gone through the best of our education system but goes into hiding when challenged, I think we wasted a fair bit of our taxpayer’s money. If he gets a government scholarship, even more waste.
about 3 years ago
Actually, while I don’t think most RJC students think/behave that way, the school does seem to produce more than its fair share of kids with this mindset even beyond these 2 recent examples.
Must be a product of years of being told they are the best/smartest/elite that makes them unapologetically arrogant/narrowminded. What a shame that it tarnishes the school’s rep.
about 3 years ago
Time to teach a little humility to kids in top schools. Just because you can score As doesn’t mean you’re the best. These straight A students should try clearing their own toilet choke or restoring their house blackout next time.
about 3 years ago
Other than the 1st paragraph, I feel that the rest of the article is quite alright. Its his POV. I don’t agree with him, but he has the rights to say his view.
If Shu Min uses the same tone, I guess there wouldn’t be so many people blasting her now.
about 3 years ago
Well, I agree that he has the right to say. But what I do not agree is to close shop and run. I mean, if you dare to put your views out for others to see, then dare to defend it.
about 3 years ago
I love this line… “Except maybe for the fact that we do use our brains for something more useful. ”
What pray tell is the “useful” aspect that he/she is putting his brains to? Useful to himself with regards to exams and classes perhaps… but clearly not broad enough to understand the complexities of others in the society around him. Extrapolating that, he seems to suggest he is a more ‘useful’ part of society just because he does well in school and goes to a good school. Ignoring the fact that the Derek Wee’s of the world have already spent 2.5 years serving NS (defined simply as SERVING the Nation), have paid taxes, and is part of a citizenry merely voicing a concern for his fellow countrymen.
All this just points to a very narrow mindset, and merely reinforces the perception of book smarts while being socially/critically unsavvy. Throw in arrogance for good measure too.
Thank goodness there are still others of that age that truly impress. That ACJC girl who made the news because of her blog criticisms of a senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs executive’s comments reminds us that there are at least kids out there that are sensitive to issues and factors around them
about 3 years ago
Winston Churchill talked about the iron curtain that descended on Europe. I think there we have a hairline crack that’s rapidly widening in Singapore. Soon, we won’t have the upper class, the middle class and the lower class. It’ll be the elite class and the rest.
about 3 years ago
Another “Jiak liao bee” idiot who rephrases WSM views in a milder tone …
I wonder if the elite schools have a different way of handling students ? somewhat like the Special forces ?
You guys are Nothing but the best ! you must behave and think differently from the rest ! and What you think , is probably “more correct” than the word correct itself !
then they mutate into elitist students who think they are smarter and have had more education and received better quality education than the average student … sighz ..
I have met these “elitists” during my NS days … cant even handle a tripflare properly … Kept screwing and screwing the screws the wrong way … ( it was meant to be screwed Anti-Clockwise … but he juz kept assuming screws went clockwise .. and he kept himself busy for a full 5 mins ) … and we gOt screwed by the PC …
about 3 years ago
“There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility.”
Theodore Roosevelt
about 3 years ago
thank you for another wee, i like it, sorry my bad english
about 3 years ago
If you ask me, I think he’s alright. Just because he declares “I’m elitist” doesn’t put him in the same camp as all elitists out there. Rather, people should really read into his essay to find his stand and point of view before they should comment. Not doing so amounts to the same sheer ignorance they allege that “elitists” are guilty of.
Look here, he says that he is “really no different from the rest of you people”, yet people accuse him of lacking humility. Does this quote smack of him not understanding his place in society?
Wee Shu Min clone? Nice try at trying to associate him with his senior, but I’m sorry, I really don’t see the link here. He’s far more watered down and realistic in his approach, and he’s pointing out facts that should be accepted, such as the futility of taking taxi drivers – a very narrow sample base – as the case study for the rest of society.
Furthermore, even though I may have no authority whatsoever in this blog, please remind yourselves be civil in your comments. If you wish to debate with him, please do, but unless you wish to be considered a barbarian, kindly restrict yourself from personal attacks.
about 3 years ago
If you ask me, I think he’s alright. Just because he declares “I’m elitist” doesn’t put him in the same camp as all elitists out there. Rather, people should really read into his essay to find his stand and point of view before they should comment. Not doing so amounts to the same sheer ignorance they allege that “elitists” are guilty of.
Look here, he says that he is “really no different from the rest of you people”, yet people accuse him of lacking humility. Does this quote smack of him not understanding his place in society?
Wee Shu Min clone? Nice try at trying to associate him with his senior, but I’m sorry, I really don’t see the link here. He’s far more watered down and realistic in his approach, and he’s pointing out facts that should be accepted, such as the futility of taking taxi drivers – a very narrow sample base – as the case study for the rest of society.
Furthermore, even though I may have no authority whatsoever in this blog, please remind yourselves be civil in your comments. If you find his views wrong, please do point them out and debate with him if you wish. But this name-calling and personal attacks should be left out of civilized discussion, regardless of how eloquent you would like to make your little laments about RJC’s students.
about 3 years ago
i believed personally i would be inclined to sympathise Derek Wee’s view on the 40+ elders being retrenched and not being able to get a job. that’s mainly because i grew up in a humble neighbourhood where many of the people belong either to the middle-income group or even to the lower-income group. so naturally i encounter many elder citizens being extremely frustrated with the government and all when they find themselves out of job as most of them are the sole breadwinners of the house or/and families are facing various social problems etc. perhaps you can label me as a conservative chinese whereby i was taught since young to respect the elderly. even when they do make mistakes, the society where they were born into did not give many of them a chance to receive an education and thus reduce their choices of livinghood by a huge margin. i understand even if they were not well-educated, it does not mean they have the right to criticize the government for failing to cope with the employment difficulties faced by many people of the older generation. however my main argument here is that the motive behind many of the old to complain about the difficulties faced due to old age, is to simply to support themselves and their families.
being an elitist or even the smartest guy in the world doesn’t give someone the right to label anyone as an ‘idiot’. as i believe a sane person has a true objective for his/her actions. hence we should at the very least place yourself in their shoes and give some thought in understanding their plight before criticizing insensitively others.
quoted from his 5th paragraph, “In fact, i think any article not in proper english should be automatically dismissed from anybody’s concern. Like that my one no need read liao la.” moca’s opinion that perhaps the english used by Derek Wee was lousy could not be argued much since that’s pretty much his opinion. however the personal attack towards Derek coming from his tone is something not necessary.
the freedom of speech is often preached upon, especially in a globalised society in Singapore and Moca simply blogged on his own blog illustrating his views towards the issue. however action requires one to prepare for its own consequences and the fact that Moca as the identity as an RJ student to argue about the issue brings the college into the picture.
“Apologies for any defaming of the school name, and also to any friends that may have been implicated in this… Hell i have no idea what to call it.”
even with the above statement, what was done was done. damage was inflicted. anger was incurred. emotions were stirred.
and to stress on the comments made by Student from an elite school.
“If any of them want to enforce the points they make up, they jolly well stand up straight and repel the imminent barrages that come their way. To prove their point, they should be brave enough to face up to their critics, regardless of how adept the latter are at debating, ranting and returning fire.”
the act of him blogging that he admitted to being a media whore and love being proven right can be deem as being arrogant and a person who fear retaliations from the public.
picture people having their mouths sealed and the ears peeled wide open. now we have what Moca wanted. an audience to listen to him and nobody to argue back with him. that’s that.
about 3 years ago
right, i should think his ‘admitting’ to being a media whore was actually sarcasm. what he meant was that his blog was a private one and he did not ask for the attention. the article was not meant as social commentary, nor was it an ‘essay’. i believe some really bored people went googling ‘elitist’ and ‘wee shu min’ to flame anyone who expressed similar sentiment, to vent their anger at being looked down upon or something. societal concern though elitism may be, most people are angry cause they see it as a personal insult. in which case doubt should be cast upon the validity of criticisms.
i visited his blog while it was still up, and most of the comments were honestly mindless flaming, without any real substantiation (if i remember correctly) hence there was really nothing to argue against. from what i hear the blog was shut down due to excessive flaming and personal attacks. while combating elitism was all the rage, certain individuals thought themselves to be in some sort of Ku Klux Klan like thing i believe.
note lack of elitist sentiment.