my ajumma notes

I think the ladies over at AWARE, both old and new, are doing themselves and women a disservice by dragging this business on and on. It sure doesn't do any favours for women when they are seen to be conniving, mean, vengeful, quarrelsome, and whatever else people must be thinking about them now. So, ladies, just stop it.

I guess many a tennis-fan blogger must have said a thing or two about the now-infamous racket-smashing by Federer by now. I am by no measure a fan of his. I will admit that I am pleased that the world order has changed and will continue to change. In fact, I am quite looking forward to the year-end rankings which, if things go as expected, may see him slide to something like #4. He has been a tennis god and role model for so long for so many and although he wasn't/isn't so for me, I don't want racket-smashing and such to be the final images I see of him. Hence, I would like to put here this cute picture of a very young Federer. I hope people will remember him for his tennis and what he has done for the game. Let's leave the racket-hitting and -throwing and yelling to Safin, Roddick, Gonzalez, et al. Got the picture from here .

It is nice to see young people take a social interest in life around them. Hence, I enjoy reading letters in the Forum by students, such as this young man (? - think the writer is male), although I do not always agree with their logic. As it is, I do not agree with several things he wrote about but let me not go into that. In fact, I think he should be applauded for having a mind of his own and the guts to write to the national press, not to mention his enthusiastic learning attitude. What I want to say is that I couldn't help feeling sad that he his love for the Chinese language is so entwined with his consciousness that he is learning the language for exam purposes. He wrote of reading more Chinese books, but for the purpose of writing better compositions for the exam. Also, for someone who, as he says, reads 'voraciously', I am surprised that his teachers did/do not encourage him to develop his own voice and style in writing. Surely he has the language competence to do s...

There's an article today in TODAY, 'Are we ungracious, or just shy?' Couldn't help but laugh... I'm sure there are many shy people in Singapore. I'm sure there are many gracious people in Singapore. And I'm sure there are many ungracious people in Singapore as well. However, does being shy make one behave in an ungracious way? I do not think the example of 'shy' people not giving up seats is a particularly enlightening one. Sure, there is the possibility of being rebuffed and 'made to look stupid'. But it's all in the mind, isn't it? Why should you feel 'stupid' if someone refuses the seat you offered? And if you are rebuffed, just sit back down, lah. If you have the 'courage' to publicly offer your seat, you must have enough thick-skinnedness to ignore the rebuff. But I do agree with the sociologist who said that "If you don't want it (the seat offered to you), say 'Thank you, but I don't need it....