NO MORE NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS
Let's have life-long aspirations
Okay, tomorrow will be the first day of 2015. I hope you would not be trying too hard to keep your New Year resolutions. Giving up your bad habits? Trying to sleep more? Hoping to eat more healthily, to exercise more or to generally be a better person?
Well, experience tells us that making such resolutions are likely to fail. Perhaps, these resolutions are not worth making in the first place.
Don't get me wrong - it is always praiseworthy to try to improve ourselves, but I think we should not just want to do certain things from year to year.
Maybe, we should have some permanent aspirations which are common with everyone; and I think it should be an ongoing process for the rest of our lives. So, with that in mind, let me recommend the following simple life principles:
1. SEEK KNOWLEDGE
2. LOVE OTHERS
3. BE GOOD
4. DO GOOD
Let's strive to have a fruitful and fulfilling life!
Wednesday 31 December 2014
Friday 26 December 2014
Tuesday 2 December 2014
TRUE PURPOSE OF SCHOLARSHIPS
Published in the Forum Page of The Straits Times on 2 Dec 2014
Let me disabuse all scholarship holders, past and present, of the notion that they are special people who in some way deserve to be provided with an expensive free education in prestigious foreign universities (“Drop ungrateful scholarship holders” by Ms Estella Young and “How successful have programmes been?” by Mr Justin Wang Qi Wei; last Friday).
A scholarship programme is not about the recipients, their careers, their earnings or their ever-changing interests; it is about the maximisation of our national intellectual capital for the benefit of society.
Scholarship holders are very fortunate people who were given financial support by their fellow citizens to further their studies, in view of their desire, commitment and potential capability to serve as leaders in specific fields, either in public service or in the private sector.
Scholarships are awarded because there has been a meeting of minds and a common purpose between the recipients and society.
Those who harbour grandiose illusions about their own talents and a matching false sense of entitlement should never apply for a scholarship. Those who treat scholarships solely as opportunities to secure fame, prestige and an easy road to self-serving ends should abstain, lest they waste everybody’s time.
Those who, at the end of their studies, did a cost-benefit analysis of bond-breaking should ask for moral guidance.
Not keeping their end of the bargain after successfully completing their studies is not merely a breakdown of a transaction between the scholarship holder and the Government, but also a grave affront to the trust, honour and respect that we normally reserve for recipients who served our society humbly and dutifully.
Daniel Lee
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