Many in the MOE here, including Heng Swee Kiat and the
school principals, must be thanking their lucky stars that this did not hit our
school children on their frivolous overseas trips all over the world. Should a
mishap like this ever happened, no amount of sorry, regrets and remorse would
be enough to bring back the children alive.
Time for MOE to stop this nonsense of sending little
children in long trips overseas for the so called rich experience. The children
are highly susceptible to accidents. Even the adults too will be victims as not
many are prepared or have the presence of mind to deal with such emergencies.
The Korean tragedy could be greatly minimised if the adults know what they were
doing.
Every trip overseas, every long journey by cars, coaches, by
ships or planes can turn into a tragedy. Accidents and the unplanned events
will happen. It is best that MOE stops such trips and let the parents plan it
themselves if they think it is so highly desired, and they assumed the full
responsibility for the safety of their children. School principals and teachers
should not be made to shoulder such heavy responsibility for something good to
have but really not worth the risk and not worth the experience.
We have been lucky. The closest mishap was in the Philippines
when a typhoon hit and a few of our undergraduates were there, and lucky enough
to tell their tales. When the children are older, young adults, with better
survival skills and the ability to look after themselves, the risk are lower.
Those primary school children and lower secondary school
children are very vulnerable and best to be safe than sorry. When nothing
happens, it is damn fun, damn great to talk about, an ego booster for those
involved and the schools. So what?
Kopi Level - Green
/// Many could have survived if they were told to evacuate than to sit tight and wait to be rescued. ///
ReplyDeleteJust like the daft 60% Sinkies.
Keep voting for PAP.
And hoping PAP will be pro-Singaporean.
And in the end.
They get retrenched and replaced with foreigners.
Very tiok. Many of these idiots are now probably driving taxis. Hope they also displaying their degrees, MBA certs in their taxis, telling their sob stories to all their passengers so 60% is reduced to 20%.
DeleteTiok.
ReplyDeleteWe can always hope the return SQ flight from London to Singapore will suddenly disappear without a trace.
ReplyDeleteThe casualties are high because they involved school children who obeyed crew and teachers instructions to sit tight and wait to be rescued. So Sad, so many life lost. RIP.
ReplyDeleteExactly like Sinkies told by Papies to vote for them or the country will go down. Now they know who went down after voting the Papies
DeleteDidn't know that the south Koreans are behaving like Singaporeans. Sit, they sit and leading to their death.
ReplyDelete6.9m, 6.9m. You die your business. How did the Singaporeans reacted? Do as they are told?
Many elite schools flushed with funds both from their alumni and tax payer monies on the pretext of sending their elitist children to do charity work chose ti go overseas fir their projects.
ReplyDeleteThese princes and Princess do nit even know how to ah a simple cup went to third world countries to build
huts fir the poor.
My god, more obstruction then construction. All in the name of their prestige.
So many local charitable organisations need them here just to do simple chores rather than going for these useless projects.
Also, prestige that their children goes overseas tours with their schools that one up against other schools.
Mr RB, if something like tragic like this were to fall on sinkie children, dont know what to say
"Time for MOE to stop this nonsense of sending little children in long trips overseas"
ReplyDelete- every year, moe and principals received a lot of gift from travel agencies to encourage such overseas trips. corruption? bribe?
- money is most important not safety or health of children.
- this is what the world is all about. profit above all else.
Shit happens. Out of the blue. It is nature's way of reminding deluded humans that UNCERTAINTY trumps causality anyday.
ReplyDeletePeople love causality. It is so easy to understand. If something happens, there must be a reason.
And then nature gives you a slap and something happens for no reason, and the cause is pure "bad luck" to put it in human terms.
But I find the scientific/ math explanation quite boring. The "god" argument is far more entertaining, since "god(s)" cannot be understood by mere mortal humans because they simply don't have the brain power to do so.
So once in awhile, god will punish the humans by some calamity will kills alot of children. This adds to the wake-up call for humanity, that since god made you and your children, he can kill anyone of you at any time for any reason -- this of course coming from a being that claims :"god is love".
God is love, but everyday he kills kids....stop thinking and for a reason. Yu can't understand god, nor his motives nor his "plan". You're human. If Abraham was willing to kill his son, and god acrificed his own kid, then FUCK YOU, you already knew the type of asshole cruel being you chose to worship.
Luck for the catholic priesthood, god never kills all the kids. He leaves some behind for the clergy to bang. So I suppose he does reward his followers...occasionally.
Nah, I can't figure it out. I'm too human. :-)
To prop up business at Singapore Flyer and Bumboat River Cruise, some kindergartens are taking pre-nursery children on outings to these places.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why they need to take such young children to such places rather than more congenial places suitable for their age, not to mention the hazards such kids face if anything goes wrong.
Maybe I am old and outdated in my thinking, but as Ah Bean said, it is better to be safe than sorry. Look at the distress those Korean parents are facing? Pitiful, if you are a parent or grandparent!
Amazed that the Koreans have so little experience and equipment to deal with capsized ships.
ReplyDelete- They should have started cutting through the hull immediately.
- Hundreds of divers? Doing what? Why did they not blast open the portholes (windows) and enter?
- I am sure they have all these tiny explosives that they use to blast open doors. The underwater version should exist. Shame.
- So the hundreds of divers are just swimming around finding an open door? Crazy.
- In a sinking vessel it is each person to him or herself. They should have rushed for the deck.
- Now they found it was junior officer at the helm and not the captain.
The deputy school principal who pushed through this trip has taken his own life to take responsibility. It would not do any good to the parents of the children that lost their lives.
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy was compounded by the instruction to stay in their cabins when the ferry was sinking. What was the captain and the teachers thinking?
Sinkie school principals, please think harder when you want to push through one of these glamour trips.
Quote from Straits Times of 19 April:
ReplyDelete/// Anger against officials reflect South Korean history, culture
"The roots of this practice of blaming the government for anything come from the medieval kingdoms, when the king was the owner of the country and had all the fortune and power," Ms Kim Ji Myung of the Korean Heritage Education Institute told the Straits Times.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Though Singapore does not have a kingship, it is run like a kingdom and a fiefdom. An elite minority has the fortune and power, and the rest are left with scraps and have to collect cardboard boxes and tin cans. Occasionally, throw some bones to the huddled mass - here you go - Pioneer Package. Baby package. Economic sharing package. Still not enough? You want three meals in restaurant, food courts or hawker centres?
@The:
ReplyDeleteYes, at the root of it, it's culture.
The nature of politics, is rooted in a cuntrees CULTURE. It's not "the government" it is the people and their culture. (a collective expression of their dumb fuckery)
>> Though Singapore does not have a kingship, it is run like a kingdom and a fiefdom.
That's not going to change anytime soon. You might as well accept it, and exercise your own rational self-interest by careful evaluation, looking for opportunities which ultimately benefit #1 -- YOU.
Culture is neither "good" or "bad". Cultures contains feature which have been cemented by practice and time -- and they may or may not apply to the present time or to the individual's particular circumstance. At the end of the day, everyone is AUTONOMOUS. You can act according to the "automatic programming" of your culture, or you can choose -- depending on your situation -- another way.
As they say in Thailand: "Up to you. Mai pen lai".