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Singapore Quotes

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Singapore Quotes

“I keep seeing this ad on TV. It talks about teachers. Thank you for teaching me. Thank you for changing my life. They all look happy. Have they always been this happy? Did they have a perfect childhood? A perfect school life? I was happy once. But I was young. The older you get, the more you remember. The younger you are, the more you forget.”

PlaySchoolTeachTeacherStageSingaporeScriptHaresh Sharma
Book:Those Who Can’t, Teach
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“The landscape of Singapore is different now. Modern buildings scratch the skyline with a pomp and display that wasn't there in days gone by. Old and new come together to create a modern Singapore that was still in the process of being made as I grew up.”

MythologyLandscapeCityModernityOldSingaporeCity LifeCultural HeritageSingapore Literature
Book:The Merchant of Stories: A Creative Entrepreneur's Journey
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“Associate Professor Irene Ng from the Department of Social Work at the National University of Singapore (NUS) explains that 'As you put students into finer and finer categories, their social circle becomes more and more isolated... Even if they have good intentions to do so, their social circle is just so limited they will have limited empathy and understanding to help effectively people who are different to themselves.”

EducationLearningSingaporeTeaching Quotes
Book:Cleverlands: The secrets behind the success of the world's education superpowers
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“Time will solve all the problems Chinese school graduates face. In our bilingual society, there are no more Chinese school graduates, only English school graduates who can speak Mandarin. These English school graduates probably can also read and write Chinese, but they did not go to a Chinese school, and they act and think differently from us. Drawing a line between us, they would never say they graduated from a Chinese school, because former Chinese school graduates, that is, the vanishing group of people that includes us, are second-class citizens. They, on the other hand, belong to the first class, the Chinese elite, English school graduates who are fluent in Chinese.”

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Book:Trivialities About Me and Myself
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“In its basic form, nursing can be seen as a duty, but beyond the incessant operational activities that lay the foundation of our daily work, the profession is all about grace. Helping people is a noble calling. It is a privilege to serve my fellow human beings. Fifteen years has seen many ups and downs at the workplace, but I have enjoyed serving the many patients who come into my care, and have prayed for the souls of those who were on the brink of death.”

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Book:Nurse Molly Returns
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“Coincidence sometimes happens as in a fairy tale. Wong was in an emotional state of mind. Still smoking opium, he thought about Kwang’s long-dead father, who had arrived in Singapore from Amoy on the junk Nam Hong. The opium den now felt bare and lonely without all the old vibrations. It was also dark and damp and the small kerosene lamp was running low on fuel. Wong added more kerosene and mumbled to himself, “Tonight I am going to smoke my way to heaven!”

FictionNovelSingapore
Book:Spider boys
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“In the city, human beings celebrated and enjoyed material conditions and comforts, but were caught in the labyrinths and knots of spiritual shallowness and psychological confusion. In the city human beings wrestled with the demands of survival and profit but fled from life’s imperatives of honesty and moderation. In the city man was afraid to confront his own face.”

NovelCitySingaporeEnglishTranslationMalayAlfian Sa AtCultural MedallionIsa Kamari
Book:The Tower
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“It is a strange thing, looking at the sea. When it is calm, or with only gentle ripples, it gives an impression of being soft and kind. But often, on such a calm, the wind suddenly blows, thrusting the water back into angry waves. At such times, in a certain sense, one feels sorry for the sea. Never of itself offensive to others, it is all too often attacked by wind and rain, the rain falling densely upon it, shaming the beauty of its calm face with a million bouncing bubbles. Were the wind to stop blowing, the ocean, surely, would never afflict the land with any calamity, nor would any human beings suffer.”

NovelOceanClassicSingaporeMalaysiaTan Kok Seng
Book:Son of Singapore
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“Pak Suleh recalled the atmosphere on his island of Pulau Sebidang, which had been ruled by his ancestors for more than a hundred years. Now it had been passed to foreign hands—whichever nation from whatever foreign world which had been claiming the island was theirs—such that he and his ancestors who had lived on that island for generation after generation had been chased away to live in these birdhouses. They had now inherited these congested breathing diseases. Why was it that he could no longer enjoy the wind which blows from the sea, which is very much one of God’s incomparable benevolences? He could no longer savour the swaying coconut trees, ketapang trees, beringin trees and other trees which whistled and murmured when caressed by the winds as their dried leaves fell onto the sand, mixed with red and white flowers scattered all over the pristine white beach, resembling the moving clouds on a wide piece of white paper. I have lost everything, thought Pak Suleh deep in his heart.”

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Book:Penghulu
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“You scour these Chinatowns of the mind, translating them like sutras Xuan Zhang fetched from India, testing ways return might be possible against these homesick inventions, trace the traveller's alien steps across borders, and in between discover how transit has a way of lasting, the way these Chinatowns grew out of not knowing whether to return or to stay, and then became home.”

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Book:Clear Brightness
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“Love Hurts. I daresay there’s two or three poems, six novels and at least twelve songs on the subject. That’s how the Janus-faced beast of poetry gets written in the first place, in all its myriad of magical forms. So; why cover this hitherto uncharted and highly original territory? Why leap fearlessly into the unknown, nostrils flared, eyes flashing fire? Well, in the name of love, lust and limerence, why on earth not? Suffering is gratuitous and pointless, yet also vital, valuable and necessary. My last tête à tête gave me plenty, incorporating elements of the forbidden, of rebellion, pornography, pregnancy, parental approval – followed by fury – of infidelity, friend estrangement, life on one island that was heavenly and a second that veered between purgatorial and infernal, of violence, miscarriage, masturbating Indians, pepper spray, antipathy, disloyalty, evictions, a planned future, failed globetrotting and habitual lies, whilst being indicative of a wider, all-encompassing social corrosion, and while the story itself may remain merely hinted at or alluded to in the course of this generalised polemic, it’s as worthy or valid as any other such tale told round the campfire and whispered across the beaches of the world. All life’s a roll of the dice, tiger; ride into the bastard storm and if your wounds hurt, be grateful you survived to lick them, even in the darkest nights of the soul when the sun is a mattress fire the god of your love died in. Love Hurts, and in a stupendous and savage cosmos, it’s my right to sit at the keyboard and bleed. Besides, love, poverty and war are the necessary accoutrements to a fulfilled life; this is the all-encompassing theme of our human condition and the crooning, persuasive symphony of that philosophically unfathomable miracle of life itself… especially as love leads to poverty and war. Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward, after all. I certainly am… we choose our own chains... ~excerpt, "Love Hurts”

LoveRelationshipsInfidelityLove HurtsSingaporeDaniel FletcherDaniel S FletcherLove Hurts QuotesDaniel Fletcher WriterFletch
Author:Daniel S. Fletcher
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“Love Hurts. I daresay there’s two or three poems, six novels and at least twelve songs on the subject. That’s how the Janus-faced beast of poetry gets written in the first place, in all its myriad of magical forms. So; why cover this hitherto uncharted and highly original territory? Why leap fearlessly into the unknown, nostrils flared, eyes flashing fire? Well, in the name of love, lust and limerence, why on earth not? Suffering is gratuitous and pointless, yet also vital, valuable and necessary. My last tête à tête gave me plenty, incorporating elements of the forbidden, of rebellion, pornography, pregnancy, parental approval – followed by fury – of infidelity, friend estrangement, life on one island that was heavenly and a second that veered between purgatorial and infernal, of violence, miscarriage, masturbating Indians, pepper spray, antipathy, disloyalty, evictions, a planned future, failed globetrotting and **** ***, whilst being indicative of a wider, all-encompassing social corrosion, and while the story itself may remain merely hinted at or alluded to in the course of this generalised polemic, it’s as worthy or valid as any other such tale told round the campfire and whispered across the beaches of the world...”

LoveCommitmentNarcissismLove HurtsSingaporeBaliNorwayInfidelity In Relationships
Author:Daniel S. Fletcher
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“Greg Aloi Singapore - How is a coach different from a consultant? The key difference is in the way that the coach does not do the work for the coachee (the one receiving the training). Greg Aloi The coach trains managers and senior managers so that they can perform their roles and responsibilities more efficiently in the organization, but does not do the job himself. That is, with an example, a coach will help the company to make it understand how the development of strategic management works and the consultant will develop that strategic plan himself.”

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Author:Greg Aloi Singapore
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“My mind skipped to a sunlit Saturday morning a few months ago when Noah was supposed to be revising for his exams. I caught him looking out the window instead, distracted by a roving butterfly. “Noah, you’re supposed to be studying!” I scolded. He replied languidly, “I am! I’m studying what’s out there.”

FictionSingaporeBased On Real EventsPsle
Book:The Good, the Bad and the PSLE: Trials of an Almost Kiasu Mother
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“We have a lot more opportunities in Singapore now compared to the 1960s and 1970s. We have access to the same careers, receive the same education and compensation. Many also venture into industries that were formerly “men’s fields”. The last I checked we were ranked #55 out of 150 odd countries in terms of gender equality, according to World Economic Forum. We are still lagging behind Scandinavia and some European countries, but we are way above all the Asian countries. We are quite fortunate to be women in Singapore.”

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Author:Fanny Lai
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“How, I asked, would people debate freely if the fear factor hung over conversations that some deemed controversial? I concluded: “As long as the government is perceived as Big Brother waiting to pounce on those who are critical of policies, and as long as the talented and the bright imagine a conspiracy at every corner, you tell me, how to become a world-class country?”

PoliticsSingapore
Book:Reluctant Editor: The Singapore Media as Seen through the Eyes of a Veteran Newspaper Journalist
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“Editors knew they were in a charmed circle, being privy to the policymakers’ thinking, but these off-the-record sessions were also a double-edged sword as they tied editors’ hands. When reporters uncovered stories on which editors had already been briefed, such stories had to be held back until the official announcements were made. Editors also found themselves hemmed in when they evaluated stories, because they always had to bear in mind what had been discussed with the ministers. Such privileged meetings hung like an albatross around many editors’ necks.”

PoliticsSingapore
Book:Reluctant Editor: The Singapore Media as Seen through the Eyes of a Veteran Newspaper Journalist
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“Will the Singapore government be amenable to this type of journalism, as it had spoken out publicly on many occasions against mixing news with analysis and comment; the separation of news and analysis and comment had to be like that between church and state.”

PoliticsSingapore
Book:Reluctant Editor: The Singapore Media as Seen through the Eyes of a Veteran Newspaper Journalist
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“Cheong genuinely believed that being pro-government was nothing to be ashamed of. I read his book as a reminder to new ministers and new editors that the relationship was a special and delicate one needing mutual respect. That is why he gave some examples of the difficult negotiations and the give-and-take with the government. He feared that it was becoming a more one-way subservient relationship.”

PoliticsSingapore
Book:Reluctant Editor: The Singapore Media as Seen through the Eyes of a Veteran Newspaper Journalist
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“Peter’s management style was very different from that of his predecessors. He was a listener, always ready to hear out his journalists when they approached him. He ran an open and transparent newsroom and believed in the principle that government and media should not be one. There should be a line, no matter how thin, between the two. He believed the PAP was good for Singapore, but not that all its actions were correct.”

PoliticsSingapore
Book:Reluctant Editor: The Singapore Media as Seen through the Eyes of a Veteran Newspaper Journalist
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“In a private setting, Leslie and Minister for Information and the Arts George Yeo engaged in a debate over the issue, with George Yeo finally declaring that the government would defend its Members of Parliament even if they were wrong.”

PoliticsSingapore
Book:Reluctant Editor: The Singapore Media as Seen through the Eyes of a Veteran Newspaper Journalist
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“I think one structural explanation could be that precisely because the internet has emerged as a platform on which the government gets attacked every day, the government is guarding its control of mainstream media even more jealously.”

PoliticsSingapore
Book:Reluctant Editor: The Singapore Media as Seen through the Eyes of a Veteran Newspaper Journalist
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“Greg Aloi Singapore Business Process Depending on the business, the business process specialist may be required to do more than assess and provide solutions. Greg Aloi Some companies ask the specialist to implement the solutions, a request that usually requires technical and project management skills. In addition, the specialist may be asked to test the new process to ensure its successful implementation. Greg Aloi Singapore Some companies ask the business process specialist to participate in training employees to use the new solutions effectively. Training may include the development of training materials and the communication of training information in the classroom or online instruction sessions. Greg Aloi This is a way to ensure that everyone gets the same message in the same training.”

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Author:Greg Aloi - Singapore
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