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 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 [...]

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 [...]

Striking a balance between work and play

Playing hard? Working harder
MANY of my peers spend most of their school holidays working temporary jobs, or participating in internships, or both. Some work part-time during the school term too, as tutors or research assistants.
Those who are graduating seem eager to start work, sending out applications long before their graduations. Given the recession, they have [...]

What I’ll be looking for in this year’s Budget

Freeze university fee hikes
FOR those of us at school, our worry is whether the Budget allocation for education will be compromised in these hard times, bringing about another hike in university fees.
Just last year, all three local universities raised their annual tuition fees by about 4 per cent. Some faculties raised their fees by an [...]

News that shook my world

Bangkok bedlam
THE highlight of the year for me was the seizure of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport by thousands of anti-Thaksin protesters for nine days from Nov 25.
I was awed by the sheer audacity of the protesters and the scale of their plan.
Even the police, armed with court orders, could not evict them from the airport [...]

NDP: Has it lost its relevance to youth?

Gen Y writers reveal what the National Day Parade means to them now.
An empty celebration
THE constant urge to pursue materialistic needs – not the National Day Parade – is what bonds Singaporeans together.
The sights and sounds of the parade itself have overshadowed the sense of nationhood it is supposed to invoke.
While messages of [...]

What good is a leisure island if we have no time to enjoy it?

YouthInk writers share their thoughts on the URA Master Plan unveiled recently.
Too busy for leisure
THE proposed plan to turn the nation into a ‘leisure island’ is a laudable effort by the Government to encourage Singaporeans to spend more time with their family.
However, its aims seem unrealistic in work-obsessed Singapore.
Consider an average family of two parents [...]

Voting age: It’s not a numbers game

YouthInk writers share their thoughts on the recent debate over whether the voting age in Singapore should be lowered to 18 and if their contemporaries should be entrusted with the power to choose their leaders.
Opt in if you’re ready

I HAVE always believed that suffrage, or the right to vote, is one of the cornerstones of [...]