Commentary

CCA Events, Commentary, Sports

Treading Through Thick and Thin: NSG 2026 Boys’ Water Polo
Reading Time: 7 minutes

By Mary Tu (27S06O) and Tan Yun Jun (27S03M)

All photographs provided by Xu Fengxuan (27S03M), Zhu Jiajia Christine (27S03G) and Zhu Taiwu (26S06K) from RIAC

Pre-game

11.15am, 14 April 2026: The bus carrying classes of Rafflesians hisses to a stop at Our Tampines Hub, doors sliding open to unload the match supporters that will be cheering on the Boys’ Water Polo team at their NSG finals in minutes. Some clutch onto creative boards adorned with pictures and personalised messages to support their friends in the match. 

11.28am, at the grandstands overlooking the swimming pool: The Rafflesian match supporters ramp up the noise with a hearty Rafblood cheer. Hwa Chong Institution, not to be outdone, responds with one of their own cheers. School spirit was coursing through every individual’s veins as they geared up for  the  NSG finals.

Some Rafflesians showing their school pride by painting themselves with the school colours

11.29am: Splashes announce the players’ entrance into the pool, filling the air with the smell of chlorine. The atmosphere instantly electrifies, and all eyes are on the fourteen players lining up in the pool: seven in white caps, and seven in black. 

11.30am: The whistle is blown on the dot. The calm surface of the water is immediately thrown into a flurry as all fourteen players surge towards the centre of the pool, focused entirely on the red-and-yellow ball that has just been thrown into the arena. 

The game has begun. 

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Commentary, Opinion

Why Study Motivation Content is Failing You
Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Tan Yun Jun (27S03M)

“I Lack Motivation to Study”

We have all heard it, or perhaps said it ourselves. It is a universal sentiment amongst students, the frustrating feeling of dread that makes academic tasks feel like ascending Mount Everest. Some would then attempt to inject motivation into their souls wistfully through online study motivation content.

Fortunately, they come in various forms to cater to each pained soul. Studytok, which provides short-form videos of aesthetic notes, mini vlogs and a multitude of study tips. “Study with me” videos and vlogs that motivate students through providing a virtual companion and productive environment. Targeted at the drama enthusiasts, drama-based study motivation videos compile study scenes from various K-dramas and C-dramas.

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Commentary, Culture, Humour, School Life

Beyond the Rot: How Brainrot Divides (and Unites) Us All
Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Gregory Ng (27S05A), Mary Tu (27S06O) and Ong Tsz Xiang (27S06M)

How did you react to this image? Either the frightful howl of children screaming “SIX SEVEN” manifested in your mind and sent shivers down your spine, or you joined in the hype. Either way, you probably would not have been able to escape the vicious claws (or rather, palms) of the 6 7 trend. And you’re not alone in this.

For the boomers out there, 6 7 is part of the wider phenomenon of “brainrot”: absurd internet trends whose reach extends far beyond our social media feeds and into everyday conversation. Yet, as we find ourselves unable to look at a banana or a strawberry the same ever again, we should challenge ourselves to consider: can this low-effort content offer more than just an assault on our attention spans?

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Commentary, Nationally Speaking, Singapore

Tradition Adrift: Orang Laut Heritage in a Modern Nation
Reading Time: 8 minutes

By Gladys Koh (26A01B), Kunchur Bharat (26A01B) and Lerraine Neo (26A01A)

All images, unless otherwise stated, were taken by the writers.

Before Lee Kuan Yew, the Crown colonies, and Raffles, there were the Orang Laut. Literally translated from Malay as ‘people of the sea’, they are a group of seafaring nomads who resided in the waters around Maritime Southeast Asia, such as the Malay Peninsula, the Riau Islands, Java, and Sumatra. And, they are Singapore’s indigenous people. 

Also known as the Orang Pulau, in Singapore’s quest for modernisation, they have faded into obscurity, confined to a few pages in a Social Studies textbook, if any. One organisation, oranglaut.sg, wishes to change that.

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Commentary, Current Affairs, Internationally Speaking, Op-Eds, Opinion

When Machines Wage War, Who Remembers?
Reading Time: 5 minutes

By Gladys Koh (26A01B)

For all of its devastation, war has a way of forcing invention.

A century ago, when the first tanks rolled over the mire of the First World War, soldiers recoiled with horror. They called them “metal monsters”—unfamiliar machines grinding through the trenches like something half alive.  While some soldiers fled amidst a spray of successive gunfire, others stood frozen, trapped in the shadow of impending doom. 

The first tanks used in World War I. Image credit: Imperial War Museums

But the scenes before our eyes have shifted today. 

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