The Cs that guide us forth

What are the new Cs that will guide today’s youth caught in the world’s deepest recession since the Great Depression? YouthInkers give their two cents’ worth on the shift in values
Build on health and abilities
TO QUOTE a cliche: Youth is wasted on the young. Why? Because we spend so much time and effort chasing the [...]

Keeping the young in touch with grassroots reality

Get our heads out of the clouds
HOW can tomorrow’s leaders be attuned to the grassroots community if many of us are confined to our privileged backgrounds and elite schools?
If all we fret over is getting first class honours or organising chi-chi parties, we will never understand how some struggle to put food on the table.
Many [...]

What would stop me from picking up a cigarette?

Open their eyes
TO GET youth to banish cigarettes from their lives, it may help to give them a personal glimpse into the mess smoking can create.
While serving in the Red Cross back in secondary school, I visited a nursing home and met an elderly resident who used to be a chain smoker but was now [...]

What makes us ready for a Singapore beyond Lee Kuan Yew

Sound values ingrained in system
SINGAPORE’S model of good governance, built on the principles of meritocracy, fairness and efficiency, has propelled it to great success.
Future leaders from my generation will have to ensure that this system continues to work well. Fortunately, we have what it takes due to the education we have received that is better [...]

How does your school ‘brand’ you?

Values, not brand name
I SPENT my junior college days in Hwa Chong, a notably premier institution whose achievements include having produced 49 President’s Scholars – a record among junior colleges here.
But what matters more to me are the values it inculcated in me.
My identity stemmed greatly from its can-do mindset, and I was constantly encouraged [...]

What I’m willing to do while waiting for a job

I’ll do it for free
I WOULD gladly intern for free, were I convinced that the experience would be worth it in my chosen field of journalism.
With hiring freezes in almost all local news media companies, I found many doors shut in my face. So after evaluating my choices, I felt it might be a [...]

Female Ministers: Glass ceiling broken?

Meritocracy should come first
WHILE gender equality is an important aspect of a modern, developed society, it cannot and should not be at the expense of meritocracy.
Which is why the Government should be commended on how it has slowly but surely worked women into and up the rungs, rather than indulge in popular appeal and [...]

Busy Singapore youth find little to cheer

Fulfilling expectations of others
SOCIETY demands that we get good grades, get good jobs, lead good lives.
We are being forced into courses we don’t like, such as law, economics or medicine, just because it’s a ‘good’ course that can score us a ‘good’ job when we graduate.
How can we ever be happy if we’re doing things [...]

Service jobs: Menial or rewarding?

Nothing wrong with service jobs
AFTER working part-time at an ice cream shop for almost a year to supplement my income, I see nothing wrong with work in the service sector.
Despite having to stand for seven to eight hours four days a week, plus the less than glamorous cleaning duties and having to work on some [...]

Streakers get the boot: fair or not?

Be creative in punishing them
I MET the punishment meted out to the streakers with incredulity. Why such harshness when no one was hurt, albeit a few pairs of eyes?
Expelling them from their hall is similar to suspension from secondary school, in that they are both usually the last resort and the easiest option available.
The guilty [...]