Blowin' In The Wind

Liberal arts college: Great ... but not for everyone

Singapore's main newspaper, The Straits Times, today reports that when a local girl with excellent high school results chose to enrol in Carleton College, her friends were surprised she did not choose a big-name university. But she is glad she went to Carleton. I am not surprised.

My wife, who teaches in a college in Calcutta (Kolkata), and I have visited our son who is at a liberal arts college in America. We also visited him when he spent a semester at a leading British university last year.

His liberal arts college seems better in so many ways. The classes are smaller, there is more interaction between teachers and students, there are jobs on campus. My son won't be coming home for his summer holidays because he has been offered an internship in a city not far from his college town.

And the education he is getting is much more wide-ranging. Because he is at a liberal arts college, he has to take courses in various disciplines. Though he is doing a double major in science and  technology, he also has to read the social sciences and humanities. That is how he has come to like economics. For his political science course, he had to subscribe to the New York Times. He has had to write papers in English which were not only beyond me but even impressed my wife, who teaches English.

But in ever practical Singapore, people might ask, isn't it better to specialise? Well, liberal arts college graduates may go on to further studies, or they may work for a few years and then do their masters. What they gain is a rounded education which gives them a perspective that those who specialise from the undergraduate level are not likely to have unless they are very curious, which could distract them from their studies and result in poor grades.

One could say it is better to specialise and build a successful career than acquire a rounded education and a so-called better "understanding" of the world, which is not the same thing as street smarts.

I agree: a liberal arts college education is not for everybody. I am not being snooty. One can go through some of the world's best universities without getting a liberal arts college education.

This is an education based on the premise of creating Renaissance men and women which seems too ambitious today when knowledge is expanding exponentially, branching into new areas and disciplines that were inconceivable when the Renaissance ideal was born.

But one needs to understand science, know a bit of economics, and be able to write. A liberal arts college graduate should have no problems with all this.

I am not sure, however, whether Singapore is the right place for a liberal arts college.

A liberal arts college encourages openness and a questioning spirit which are not very evident in Singapore.

How Singapore edits Wikipedia

Everyone knows there's self-censorship in the Singapore media.

But the censorship extends even to Wikipedia!

A personal detail about a Singapore minister, who is currently in the news, was removed from Wikipedia recently.

I remember seeing that detail earlier. But when I checked his biography again in Wikipedia two days ago, it was no longer there.

However, anyone who can log in to Wikipedia can still see that detail by checking the page's history.

Love is... a college course in Singapore

Young Singaporeans are being taught how to fall in love, get a date, and keep the relationship going. The course is being taught in two of Singapore's five polytechnics, reports the New York Times today. The love lessons are part of the government's ongoing campaign to get Singaporeans to mate and multiply. Mate as in matrimony: single mothers are not encouraged. Singapore has a serious shortage of babies: the 4.5 million population could start shrinking if more young couples don't get into the act now. Grow more babies for Singapore!

But saying, "I do", apparently doesn't come easy to Singaporeans who are more likely to soliloquise "I want" -- want the five Cs, that is, cash, car, credit card, country club and condo: those are what Singaporeans are alleged to crave, not the pipe-and-slipper routine of Darby and Joan.

Actually, it's not just the eligible bachelors and nubile bachelorettes who are more interested in their careers than in the "crazy little thing called love"; the government behaves like a yuppie too as it goes about playing Cupid. It wants more babies from "what Singapore considers the genetically desirable educated elite". Not my words. I am quoting from the New York Times. Here is how the article begins:

The New York Times and the Straits Times

Will the Internet drive newspapers out of business? It looks like newspapers can flourish only where the Internet is not widely used. So the New York Times is suffering while the Straits Times is flourishing in Singapore where there are only 39.2 Internet users per 100 inhabitants, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Information Technology Report 2007-2008.

Rupert Murdoch's New York Post reported on Friday:

The New York Times' newsroom is preparing for a bloodbath...
The word from inside is that approximately 50 unionized journalists have accepted the buyout proposal, and only another 20 non-union editorial employees have gotten on board.

That means the ax could fall on as many as 30 editorial people in the company's first-ever mass firing of journalists in its 156-year history.

Executive Editor William Keller had said originally that he was looking to cut 100 people from the Times staff in response to the dismal newspaper advertising environment...

Tuesday was the deadline for employees choosing to accept buyout packages, which offer three weeks of severance for each year worked.

The job cuts follow a slump in revenue. The Associated Press reported on April 17:

The New York Times Co. lost $335,000 in the first quarter as advertising revenues slumped, the newspaper publisher said Thursday in a report that fell far short of Wall Street estimates.

The loss worked out to less than a penny per share, versus net income of $23.9 million or 17 cents per share a year ago.

Revenues fell 4.9 percent to $747.9 million from $786 million a year ago on a 9.2 percent slump in advertising revenues. Classified ad revenues were the worst hit, declining 22.6 percent.

Compare that with the rosy financial outlook for the Straits Times in Singapore.

The Straits Times' parent company, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), reported on April 14 a net profit of $100 million Singapore dollars ($73.4 million) in the second quarter. It said:

Print advertisement revenue rose by an encouraging 11.3% to $179.8 million (Singapore dollars). 

Obama at his best

My opinion of Barack Obama did not go up when he backed away from Hillary Clinton's challenge to have another debate with her. His argument that they had already debated 21 times and he wanted to talk to the voters seemed specious: a televised debate would attract a much bigger audience than a campaign rally. More likely he doesn't want a repeat of their last debate, before the Pennsylvania primary, which he lost big-time.

But while Hillary is the better debater, Obama is eloquent. It's just that he is at his best when he is sharing the stage with no one else -- in Wordsworth's words:

Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

This is no backhanded compliment, or I would not have quoted from one of Wordsworth's touching Lucy poems.

The fact is Obama moves and inspires not when he is taking questions from others but when he is speaking directly to the people.

He is just as eloquent as a writer.

I was just reading the 2004 preface of Dreams from My Father. It's so good I can't even decide which passage to quote.

But these past 15 months of campaigning have taken their toll. And, in David Brooks' memorable words, "Obama fell to earth".

I prefer Hillary when it comes to politics because she is more experienced and more resilient.

But Obama almost revolutionised politics by attracting the young and the liberals with speeches and slogans that prompted one BBC commentator to ask whether it was "clever marketing" or "transformational politics".

Whatever it is, it takes a certain genius, which Obama has.

He has so many qualities.

And yet I admire Hillary.

Doom and gloom in Singapore

Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) deputy chairman Tony Tan got the George Soros/Warren Buffet treatment from the international media yesterday. He was quoted everywhere from the BBC to CNN for his dire forecast. `We could be facing a recession which is longer, deeper and wider than any recession that we have encountered in the last 30 years,'' he said.

Oh yes, we are already in the midst of an oil crisis, and there's still President Carter, trouble in the Middle East, resentment in China and Russia. All we need to complete a Seventies Redux are the hairdos and bellbottoms.

Jokes aside, Dr Tan is eminently qualified to sound the alarm because of his position in one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds. Which unfortunately has been taking a bath. As Dow Jones recalls:

GIC recently invested $6.9 billion in Citigroup and in December invested 11 billion Swiss francs -- now equivalent to about $11 billion -- in UBS AG after the banks booked large losses on their subprime-mortgage exposure.

AFP adds:

Citigroup, the US bank hardest hit by the subprime troubles, on Friday reported a 5.1 billion dollar net loss during the first quarter.

Earlier this month UBS revealed an additional 19 billion US dollars in writedowns, making the Swiss-based bank the worst-hit by the subprime crisis.

UBS said it was seeking to raise 15 billion Swiss francs through a rights issue, and some analysts said they would not be surprised if GIC provided another capital infusion for UBS.

Dr Tan believes the investments will pay off in the long run. But he conceded: "The next few years may well be among the most challenging years for GIC since our establishment in 1981."

Just how much does GIC and little brother Temasek Holdings have at stake? Reuters says:

• Morgan Stanley said in February GIC was the world's third-largest sovereign wealth fund with $330 billion in assets under management, behind the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority with $875 billion and Norway's Government Pension Fund with $380 billion.
• GIC is one of the 10 biggest property investors in the world, and owns Merrill Lynch's  London office and Westin Paris. Its other holdings range from those in Indian financial firms such as ICICI Bank to Budapest airport.
• According to Morgan Stanley, Temasek manages $159.2 billion and is the world's seventh-largest sovereign wealth fund.
• Temasek has a 28 percent stake in Southeast Asia's largest lender DBS Group, a 19 percent stake in Standard Chartered Bank and a 2.1 percent stake in Barclays.
• Temasek last month raised $3 billion by selling Singapore electricity firm Tuas Power to China's Huaneng and it offloaded its 42 percent stake in Indonesia's sixth-biggest lender Bank Internasional Indonesia BNII.JK to Malayan Banking Bhd for $1.1 billion.

There's more. See the Reuters factbox.

Angus Ross Prize: The bare facts

Congratulations to the young Singaporean lady who won the Angus Ross Prize for English and the three runners-up, also from Singapore, who were so good a spokesman for the examiners in Britain said it was hard to separate them.

"Singaporeans take top spots for Cambridge Angus Ross Prize", reports Channel NewsAsia.

The Straits Times reports:

Since the Angus Ross prize was first awarded in 1987, Singapore students have a strong history of winning it (sic, that's Straits Times grammar) the Angus Ross award, with students showing outstanding ability in their examination scripts.

Dr Newman Burdett, CIE Head of International Education, said: 'Over 20 years, only once has the Award been presented to a student outside of Singapore.

'This is testimony to the hard work and talent of students in Singapore. Their writing style shows a maturity of thought and expression.'

But did anybody check in which other countries students have to take the International Cambridge A Levels and are eligible for the Angus Ross Prize?

I am quoting from the University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) media information PDF file on Cambridge International A and AS Levels:

In Singapore where Cambridge International A Level is the state qualification they (sic, Cambridge has grammar problems too) are respected around the world for their high quality education. Singapore tops many education league tables.

In the US, state schools in Florida are using the Cambridge programme to raise academic standards. This has resulted in students at the University of Florida who have Cambridge qualifications out performing IB and Advanced Placement students at the end of their first year.

In New Zealand, growing numbers of schools are choosing Cambridge International A Levels as an alternative to the national system.

The factsheet adds:

Cambridge International A and AS Levels are taken in over in 100 countries (over 90,000 entries a year).

But it mentions Singapore as the only country where the Cambridge International A Level is the state qualification.

Mauritius is not mentioned though I thought there too the Cambridge International A Level enjoys the same status.

Elsewhere apparently schools may offer it as an alternative to local examinations.

I wouldn't have bothered to point this out unless I read this in the Channel NewsAsia report:

Every year, thousands of students from Europe, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Argentina, India and Pakistan sit for the GCE examinations.

Frankly, I haven't come across a single student in India who has taken the A Levels.

Top Indian schools are more likely to prepare their students for the Indian School Certificate examination or its other Indian counterparts. Those are recognised abroad. International schools offer the A Levels as well as the International Baccalaureate. I met a couple whose children were preparing for the IB but not the A Levels. Indians in India normally don't attend international schools because some of the local schools are better and more well-known.

UAE going nuclear, reports Abu Dhabi's first English newspaper

Holy moly! Another nuclear power coming up in the Gulf! Oil-rich United Arab Emirates says it has no choice because it is facing a shortfall in electricity and likely to run short of natural gas.

So says Abu Dhabi's first English language newspaper, The National, launched four days ago. With former Daily Telegraph editor Martin Newland as its editor-in-chief and staffed by journalists from The Daily Telegraph, Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker, the National aims to be the Wall Street Journal of the Gulf, reports Bloomberg.

But first and foremost it is a government newspaper. It is part of the Abu Dhabi Media Company which is wholly owned by the Abu Dhabi government and funded by the world's largest sovereign wealth fund.

The National reports today::

The UAE will become the first Arab nation to develop nuclear power, the Government announced today, as it unveiled a policy aimed at securing global backing for the multi-billion dollar programme which is in the final stage of evaluation.

In stark contrast to the strategy pursued in Iran, which is seeking to enrich uranium that could also be used for atomic weapons, the Government’s programme will deliberately avoid any threat of proliferation by importing the fuel and set a new global benchmark for atomic transparency.

“Nuclear energy represents a commercially competitive and environmentally friendly option for the secure generation of electricity in the UAE, particularly in the light of projected future shortages of natural gas,” Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement.

The country is facing a big shortfall in electricity over the next decade because demand is rising by up to 15 per cent a year and supplies of natural gas are expected to run short.

The Globe and Mail has a story on the National, too, headlined: New Abu Dhabi newspaper aims to create fully free press. Bloomberg doesn't say so, though. It will be interesting to read the National's opinion, review and arts and life pages with so many Western journalists involved in an Arab government newspaper. Other Arab media have their share too. But this one is new.

Murdoch the total media man

The New York Times is my favourite newspaper but now it has to reckon with the canniest media man in the world. Rupert Murdoch is a genius.

Some of his properties may be awful, for example, the Sun and Fox, but they are wildly successful.

Nobody has a sharper nose for what's likely to sell, whether in politics or media. Newsweek reports he has a hand in the redesigned Wall Street Journal coming out tomorrow. Wouldn't I love to see it! According to one of his biographies, he has an eye for newspaper design, having once worked as a newspaper subeditor for his father.

 Newsweek reports when the New York Times broke the Eliot Spitzer scandal,

Murdoch was stuck on his crippled jet in a hangar at a private airport in Palm Beach, Fla. With his wife, Wendi, looking on, Murdoch frantically worked the phones, bombarding New York Post editor Col Allan and Fox News chief Roger Ailes. "I couldn't believe it," Murdoch said later of Spitzer's scandalous predicament. "Naturally, I was on the phone: 'What do you know, and how are you going to treat the story?' " Murdoch was so caught up in the moment that he even sketched a mock layout of how the story might appear in The Wall Street Journal. Murdoch didn't phone editors at the Journal, however. "He doesn't treat the Journal the same as he does a tabloid," says a spokesman.

The Newsweek story on Murdoch is a must-read. It's remarkable that at the age of 77 Murdoch still has such a consuming interest in every little detail of his business. Newsweek reports he even monitors the time it takes to truck his papers from printing plant to distribution centres.

One gets the feeling the media is not just a business for Murdoch; he is a newsman at heart. A newsman with an eye on the bottom line. The lengths he has gone to build his media empire: becoming an American citizen to get into the television business, dumping his second wife for a Chinese third wife as he expanded into Asia.

He can also be fickle in business, buying up properties and then dumping them, which is what he did to the Chicago Sun-Times.

But he values quality: The Times, the Wall Street Journal.

I do hope the New York Times comes out a winner in the battle with the Journal.

It's sad the New York Times has already posted a first quarter loss of $335,000 -- piffling by any measure, but still a loss, and this even before the battle has really begun.

No newspaper compares with the New York Times. The kind of public service it does -- publishing even full videocasts with complete transcripts of the Clinton-Obama debates -- is unprecedented.

Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam: Not going gently into that good night

Old soldiers never die, they just fade away, said General Douglas MacArthur in his address to the Congress in April 1951 after his dismissal as UN forces commander in chief in Korea.

But the highly-decorated American general, who earlier helped reconstruct Japan as the supreme commander of the Allied forces in Japan, garnered further honours before passing away at the age of 84 in 1964.

Singapore's veteran opposition politician Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam is old, but is not ready to fade away.

Now 82 years old, he is returning to politics even after having been bankrupted for his opposition to the ruling People's Action Party whose leaders successfully sued him for defamation in Singapore courts.

Yesterday, he announced he is setting up the Reform Party. He has applied to the authorities to register the party.

A lawyer educated in Britain, JBJ was the first opposition politician elected to parliament in Singapore in a 1981 by-election, 16 years after independence, as a Workers Party candidate.

Now having been discharged as a bankrupt, he hopes to contest the next general election due by 2011.

He will be 85 then. He is two years younger than his old adversary, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, whose son Lee Hsien Loong is now prime minister.

JBJ is highly critical of the ruling party though it has made Singapore one of the richest, most stable countries in Asia.

Still, one has to respect his indomitable will and self-sacrifice. He could have enriched himself as a successful lawyer. But he became an opposition politician instead and went bankrupt in a country where ministers are paid million-dollar salaries because the government says it has to compete with the private sector to attract the best talent into public service.

One does not have to agree with him to acknowledge the fire in him. What he told reporters yesterday announcing his party can be read here and here. I will only quote a poem by Dylan Thomas:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Muslims who saw no difference with Hindus

It's possible to be a Muslim and believe all religions are equal. Take this poem, for instance:

The Hindu says, "I am superior";
The Musalman says I.
Two halves of a grain of mung they are;
Which, then, is greater than the other?
Don't quarrel over who is superior;
And who is not;
The one is a devotee of Ram, the other of Rahman.
Deen Darvish says, the two unite in one ocean;
There is only one Lord of all.
The Hindu and the Musalman are one.

These were the words of Deen Darvish, a 19th century Kashmiri Sufi saint, and what he was saying was not all that revolutionary. The same ideas had been expressed long before by Dara Shikoh, the son of Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor who built the Taj Mahal.

The author William Dalrymple writing about Kashmir in the New York Review of Books traces the long history of religious tolerance in India.

Prince Dara (see portrait) came to believe in the essential unity of Hinduism and Islam. He was led to this conclusion by another Sufi saint, Mullah Shah Badakshani , in Kashmir, writes Dalrymple.

Prince Dara in his treatise on Sufism, The Compass of Truth, proclaimed:

Thou art in the Ka'ba at Mecca,
as well as in the (Hindu) temple of Somnath.
Thou art in the monastery,
as well as the tavern.
Thou art at the same time the light and the moth,
The wine and the cup,
The sage and the fool....

Dara had the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads translated into Persian as The Mysteries of Mysteries, and wrote a comparative study of Hinduism and Islam, The Mingling of Two Oceans, which speculated that the essential nature of Islam was identical to that of Hinduism. He also wrote of the mystical visions he received from Hindu deities.

But his writings proved too radical for the Muslim elite of Mughal Delhi, says Dalrymple: