mass call 2011, incidentally post #200!

"I can think of perhaps 2 other occasions in your lives that will rival this day in terms of significance and honour. One would be the day you take your marriage vow and the other, the day you become a parent and hold your baby in your hands for the very first time..." - excerpt from speech by Vice-President of the Law Society Lok Vi Ming, S.C

was called to the singapore bar on saturday 27th august and am very glad leave the profession, ironic as that is, on a high note. having finished what i started, it was fine and fitting closure to a good five years. enjoyed every moment of lawsch and have been incredibly blessed with wonderful people along the way. pupil-ing on the team i pupil-ed on was a privilege, and hand on heart i can say the chances of ever working with an (almost) perfect team like that again are very very slim :(

grateful for the mentorship i've received, and even more grateful for the support and encouragement of those i respect. my lawsch dean was my referee for medsch applications and i am convinced i was accepted because he wrote so nicely. yay to the close of one chapter and the beginning of the next. i leave in exactly two weeks and am excited beyond belief.

"This is a profession that leads you to be involved in the lives, businesses, the hopes and aspirations of people from every level of society; from the weakest to the most powerful among us; because the law is part, and rightly so, of every aspect of our society. This is a profession that allows you to be a teacher, a counselor, a protector, a healer and a friend to people who seek your help and to people you are paid to oppose." also from Lok S.C.'s speech.

 

 so with that, it's goodnight but not goodbye.

p/s on an unrelated note, 27th august was really a day of milestones seeing how i also voted for the first time! 

p/p/s have a soft copy of the law soc veep's speech so if you were at call and are interested, drop me a line and i'm happy to send it over.

curry drama

this genius invite landed in my inbox last week and i couldn't resist sharing it.

There's never really a need for a reason to get together and chow down, but in the event that you do require an explanation you'll find it over here:

Reason #1 is located over here http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110808-0000102/Number-of-neighbour-disputes-hit-high
(Now whoever heard of such a preposterous thing!)

Reason #2. is located over here http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=254441147918239
(A good excuse to cook and eat in good company if I ever heard one)

trust ashie, hostess extraordinaire, to throw a politically aware dinner party!

i, for one, was completely oblivious to the curry going-ons. however, this alternative viewpoint, as voiced by the voice of reason (naturally), was that perhaps it's all a storm in a teacup (curry pot?)

understanding the furor a bit better, it seems like netizens were unhappy with the indian family being told to restrain from cooking curry when the sensitive-nosed chinese family was at home. however, this arrangement must've been suggested by either party and agreed to by the other. i.e. it must've been mutual and consensual. so there didn't seem to be a need for all the anger at the result.

for the uninitiated, mediation is never about a one-sided outcome and because it's not binding. this is unlike a court order which is 1. determined by the adjudicator and 2. binding. thus, the mediator's role isn't to decide the outcome based on the facts presented so any angst towards the mediator is misdirected. the mediator's role is to be move the parties towards a mutually beneficial solution.

there you go, mediation in a nutshell i.e. me clinging desperately to what little legal knowledge i can purport to semi-possess.

that said, we really don't need much of an excuse to eat curry nor to party. what a great way to share curry appreciation and champion tolerance.

if you're curious as to how the party went, clickety click to ash's right here.

the skyline

musters up more patriotism than any national day song (copyright infringing or otherwise) can.

not an everyday sighting at RP

doesn't it look like it's the two of them off to war against the world?

our men were promoted to captains and the bestest boss on earth gave me "dispensation" (oh how i love that word!) to begin my weekend at 4pm this evening. the promotees pulled a quick change charlie in the office and we hurried to the next street where the waiting steed was parked. made it to the ceremony hall with seconds to spare, although we were relegated to the latecomers' row :(

the ceremony was funny - plagued with technical glitches and they even took a lengthy "technical break" to sort things out. and this was compounded by the one hour of propaganda songs and videos we were subjected to before the actual ceremony. the only thing i concluded is that for the next general elections, home should be played on repeat at the polling booths if the incumbents want to guarantee a landslide victory. just listening to the song once through made me feel more patriotic than i have in months.

on an unrelated note, they joke that in the army, they "wait to rush then rush to wait". today i saw first hand why.

bellyaching aside, twas nice to be a small part of a big part of their lives. and so glad to have had our favourite couple celebrating too :)

sad

was on the train this morning and involuntarily witnessed a tirade of verbal abuse from a chinese singaporean to someone who was ostensibly an indian national. the foul language hurled had me cringing and i felt so very embarrassed to be singaporean. what sparked the attack is inconsequential, from where i was standing, it seemed like the abuser had been accidentally jostled amidst the morning rush hour.

strangely enough, no one said anything. the victim didn't respond and none of the bystanders reacted. it was almost surreal, that this lone bitter man was ranting in public, venting his frustration on someone who'd done nothing to deserve it.

and that's when it hit me that this is the immediate result of candidates inciting hatred and xenophobia in an attempt to garner support. it's easy to be a mouthpiece, amplifying the disgruntlement on the ground level. but if candidates are not responsible for what they say, this is the sort of potential riot they can cause. it's sad that singaporeans are so deprived that candidates sink to behaviour that would be illegal in more developed democracies.

is potty mouthing on the morning commute really something singaporeans want to be associated with? ironically, i too "don't even need to bring my passport" when i take the train, if singaporeans reflecting the same anti-foreigner sentiment make me feel "like i'm in a different country".