Entrepreneurial

Today's a welcome holiday, for Youth Day no less. Having said that, I've spent most of it marking, as was the case with Saturday and Sunday. In addition to the marking I also kept busy with other school-related matters. On Saturday morning (and early-afternoon, as the event over-ran) I accompanied our entry for the Junior College section of the Plain English Speaking competition. Rekha's a very talented girl who put in a solid, if slightly nervous (and who can blame her), performance and duly was moved on to the final. We've got a bit of time now to prepare for the final and, with a bit of work, I can see her being in contention for a top award, possibly the very top. I sort of enjoyed all the speakers, though one or two visibly struggled. It's good to see youngsters giving it their best shot, especially in an event that calls for so much courage in terms of having to deliver unscripted material at short notice (as they do for the 'impromptu' round) before an audience. I noticed one guy who looked a bit miserable at not having made it to the final and felt sad for him - actually I thought he'd deserved to get through. But that's the thing about competitions, you're going to get losers, like you're going to get in life, and sometimes, often, pretty much always, it's not going to feel quite fair. It's good to be philosophical about such things, and remarkably easy when you're not the one who didn't make it.

Yesterday we went to a wedding in the early afternoon (my quota for marking having been duly completed) followed by three or so hours at the Young Entrepreneurs' Fair held at the HDB Hub Hougang. It wasn't that ACS(I) were doing anything for the fair though. Rather we were there to support Admiralty Primary's stall at which Fi Fi was one of the six-girl team. Not that we restricted ourselves to buying from them - we circulated heroically and found ourselves persuaded to part with the readies for quite a number of items. The various stalls were competing against each other to see who could make the most, Singapore's way of inculcating the entrepreneurial spirit in its young. ('Enterprise' and 'entrepreneurial' are powerful buzz-words in the curious language of Singapore's education system.) I suspect that quite a few of the participants may have come to the conclusion that it's so hard to sell anything in the real world that it'd probably be best to get a job with a steady salary not tied to sales quotas. But I got the impression that the kids were finding ways to have a good time, which is what really counts.

Our best buy: the bunny in the rocking chair, as pictured above, now occupying a place of honour on the shelf above the computer.