Nationally Speaking

Commentary, Nationally Speaking, Op-Eds

Currying No Favour: A Response To “Curry”
Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Dominique Zhao (16S05A)

In conjunction with Racial Harmony Day, a forum theatre performance was held during for the Year 5 assembly– an attempt to promulgate the reality of multiculturalism. By presenting an interactive mode of theatre, the play sought to engage us, the supposed disinterested youth, in the resurfaced feud between Indian and Chinese neighbours over a mere pot of curry.  To this end, they largely succeeded as the play generated some hype when a student stepped up to resolve the conflict with unsurprising ease – kudos to the student for showcasing the much-lauded diplomacy that spelled success on the school’s part. However, very different things can be said of the play, whose portrayal of a multifarious social issue could use more discernment and tact.

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Commentary, Nationally Speaking, Op-Eds

MRT Breakdown: Stranded and Singaporean
Reading Time: 4 minutes

By Justin Lim (16A01B)

On the 7th of July 2015, both the North-South and East-West MRT lines broke down due to a power fault. I should’ve expected something was about to happen when I boarded a train where the lights were oddly out at 7:30PM, but at the time the mood lighting merely seemed like a funny defect.

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Commentary, Nationally Speaking, Op-Eds

Not Just a Man’s Job! The Case for Women to Serve NS
Reading Time: 7 minutes

By Collin Teo (16S06Q) and Esther Gao (16S03N)

Photo: Straits Times
Photo: Straits Times

If National Service is truly a matter of National importance and a form of Service to the country, then why is it that only males need to serve – and not females? Earlier this year in March, the Singapore Armed Forces Volunteer Corps (SAFVC) started training for their first batch of enlistees. The SAF saw it as a way to engage more females in military service and hopefully encourage more Singaporeans to step forward. The initiative was well-meaning, but failed to tackle the larger, more systemic problem of gender inequality that lay at the core of Singapore’s system of conscription.

In this article, we examine the issues at the core of this discussion on a topic relevant to all Singaporeans. In particular, this issue is especially relevant to Rafflesians because half of us have to go on to serve in the military, while the other half of us have the option to do so. Through writing this article, Raffles Press hopes to ignite an old debate about women serving in the military, and hopefully get Rafflesians to ponder the significance and meaningfulness of doing military service in Singapore. Ultimately, we hope this encourages more females to serve in the military alongside their male peers.

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Commentary, Internationally Speaking, Nationally Speaking, Op-Eds

EmancipAsia: Knowing the Price of Everything, But the Cost of Nothing
Reading Time: 6 minutes

By Qiu Kexin (16A13A) and Naomi Koh Jie Min (16A13A)

It’s not an uncommon sight to see your average Singaporean consumer struggling with shopping bags.
It’s not an uncommon sight to see your average Singaporean consumer struggling with shopping bags. Source: The Guardian

Today, frugality is dead. We saw this with the release of the iPhone 6 last September, whereupon many Apple-obsessed fans queued overnight outside Singapore’s telcos, with fights breaking out over menial issues like queue-cutting. To many of us, this may seem to be an extreme example of unneeded materialism, and we scoff at diehards who camp in queues overnight, especially when the past iPhone models can fulfill the same functions – but we don’t realize that we are also guilty of indulgence and wastage. It shows in the ways we students try to out-‘step’ each other by looking for the trendiest clothes and overspending on artisan cuppas from atas coffee boutiques. It would not be an exaggeration to say that our reasons for buying things have shifted from need to desire.

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Commentary, Nationally Speaking, Op-Eds

EmancipAsia: Maybe A Product, Perhaps A Slave, But Never Human
Reading Time: 8 minutes

By Justin Lim (16A01B), Wang Kaiying (16S03E)

“Best Deal!”

“Discounted Price!”

“Super Cheap!”

What would you expect these signs to be advertising? Fruits? Clothes? Electronics?

How about humans?

For today, we are Jason and Jenny Tan, helping our parents to enquire about the procedures needed to hire a foreign domestic worker, or, to use local parlance, to “get a maid”.

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