Stupidity and Fear

A fight happened today. I feel angry.

There. That's my feelings. Kenny doesn't allow me to say anything in detail - but for the record let's say i'm pissed off at the way some people reacted. Kenny thought of my safety, bless him. The others were dumb and only thought of their safety. None of the Taekwondo prefects there did anything - one black belter was too far away and didn't know what was going on until too late. Not his fault, really, although i could do with his help. And here i was, low level Judoka, flipping through makikomi throws (self defense throws to be used against bigger opponents, usually with the aim of maiming or killing) in my head, when nobody helped me or defended the poor prefect that was being attacked.

What was worse was that nobody wanted to tell Ms Chong. I was going from prefect to prefect to prefect, trying to convince them, and they all said that - heck - they said many things, all stupid. They did not know how to react! And what was worse was that i didn't go - they told me it was not my right; better for the KPs to do so, for they were the 'leaders'. I am sure they would defend themselves, telling me that they have handled this before (have they expelled a student from school before as Paul and Kenny and i had done in form 2? I wonder). They were off saying that by hook or by crook they will get Jerome out of school.

Stupid.

St Thomas has a very harsh, very brutal way of dealing with these cases. This is the problem when the people with power do not know how the system works. The Thomian culture has always been - you fight me, fine. But tomorrow you will have to face Ms Chong, kicked out of school, transferred to another school way out of the city, and also deal with either your parents, or if your parents can't control you, then the police.

And here is this person telling me that he has handled cases such as this before, that he was afraid for the victim - ' ... what if he is attacked outside? Easy for you to say, call police and whatever, but how about his friends outside the prison. Won't they attack too?'

Hah. Theologically they can talk big. But in real life it works. St Thom was once worse than Kch High. Then we had a policy that if you fight, we fight harder. You'll be out of the school faster than a speeding bullet. How would this people know? They weren't Thomians. No wonder Kch High and whatever other schools sucked! They just hushed it up when a fight occured.

Hush it up! How clever! How selfish of them to think of themselves and their safety. HELLO! WE'RE IN ST THOMAS! BEST DISCIPLINE EVER! HOW WE WORK IS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM YOU OTHER SCHOOLS!

In the end I managed to convince a KP to report it. If i had gone, they would have looked at me as if i was some bighead, ignoring orders from my 'leaders'. I should have though. I hate myself for that. Anyway, she went, and even then the others chastised her for doing it, because they were scared.

But let's be fair. Some of these high ranking prefects came from schools with lousy discipline systems. That's why prior experience told them to hush it up. My prior experience was i may go down, but i'll go down fighting. Back in primary school, when i was bullied, i made the person pay by bringing parents into the picture. And the teachers and the headmaster. And they paid, alright. Strangely most of these gangsters are now my friends. Teehee.

Next, some of the 'leaders' came from all-girl schools. They never had such experience before. Perhaps they schould come over to Chung Hua No 1 sometime. It'll be a hair raising experience, i tell you. But you can't blame them, at any rate. They reacted remarkbly well, looking back on it.

And most importantly, they were all wanting to conform. I am guilty of this sin too. Next time, in order to do what i know is right, i'll have to stand up and not give a damn about what people think of me. They will hate me, but then all people who have done right things have been hated. Annan was hated. Gandhi was hated. Donald Trump, in his quest for helping New York rebuild Wollman's rink, was hated.

People love you when you're normal. And they'll hate you when you either do something right or something big. They'll hate you when you when you do not follow the crowd, and if you succeed.

I believe there is a big lesson here. Stand up for what you know is right. And ignore what others think of you. It'll take great moral fiber, and it'll take great courage, but if you don't you'll never know what you can acheive.

The New Principal

Its about time i wrote something about him. As you all probably know, St Thomas's has gone and gotten itself a new Head, after the last one decided to fly to Aussie and get permanently damaged. (PhD lah, what were you thinking?)

So, Mr Wong Hiong Foo. He wears trousers, a huge tie, a flapping Thomian coat (don't they all?) and looks like a cross between Temenggung Jugah and William Hung.


He didn't really make a strong first impression at his debut in the school two assemblies ago. He went on stage, told us about how he missed his old school, that our academics and sports were 'nothing to shout about', and then read out some sentimental, mushy thing he probably got from a chain email. I was half expecting him to blurt out, "Pass this on to at least fifty friends, or i'll do a pole dance and sing She Bangs!"

Okay, okay, that was inappropriate. But the assembly wasn't a big hit, with most of the teachers looking oddly stiff and the students making remarks everywhere about his haircut.

Off the stage, however, he seems nice and friendly enough, if a little out-of-place. Paul says he's in culture shock, and the second assembly (with him) seemed to prove that. He told us (and the students were chattering louder than ever, to my dismay. I had to threaten a student that i would break his arm if he didn't shut up. He didn't. I did a small wrist turn - one that wasn't maiming, just painful. He shut up.) that was perpexed as to why we still enter the staffroom even when there was a sign there forbidding students. He commented that we were very polite and that he had to keep replying good morning good morning good morning ...

Duh. Captain obvious.

It is slightly disconcerting to see an ugly haircut bobbing around on top of the black coat that once signified Mr Peter Foo. A usual scene would be him walking around, looking at flowerpots, prefect checking stations and classes, all the while making notes in a notebook. It was as if St Thom was this huge foreign organism, and he was figuring out how we ate, pooped and reproduced.

Well, most of us still regard him as a specimen. I cannot say whether he is a good or bad principal - the true test of character, one that will make us all respect him, would be adversity. I can only say - and this with convition - that Mr Foo will be sorely missed, for many reasons besides his nicer haircut.

Update: Mr Wong recently walked into our class to inspect our tidyness. He talks well off the stage (with a little lilt), and commended an aura akin to Peter Foo. I don't know about the others, but i think St Thom is in good hands with a disciplinarian like him around. ;-)

Yellow Fever

Got gastric again after going to Judo and sparring it out. We learnt Sode Tsurikomigoshi (what a mouthful - English translation would be Sleeve Floating Hip Throw, i think) and then we had Chin Peng making a completely ass out of himself. I mean, if you can't do proper falling, then why show off and then yell at the white belters (that are like one month younger than he was). I certainly do hope Judo would kick some maturity into him, although judging from the easy sparring match i had with him, not in a few years.

I'm in pain now. Stupid of me to forget my breakfast. So, i found this cool racial differences short movie to entertain myself:



Enjoy the message.

Laugh

After so many melancholic posts, i decided to inject some humour i found through a link in Robin's blog. It cheered me up tremendously, as well as the comments you guys left on the debate posts i made. So, to make sure all of you don't drop dead reading sad, mourning articles scattered throughout this blog, here it goes:



And last, but not least (gab, remember our conversation on TKD kicking the nuts off guys? Well, check this one out).

Dragging its tail indeed.

Red And White Competition

I blogged about my first Randori match. I did not blog about my first ippon. I will, however blog about the twice-anually red and white competition.

I mentioned earlier that Paul and i were going to subject ourselved to pain. Joash said: "Oh man. I pity your opponent tonight. You're going to be so worked up about Fitri (rude Greenian 2nd speaker) and completely pulverize the opponent."

No such thing happened. I went there, did several perfect Osotogaris for practice (much to the delight of me and Tang and Sensei) and then overdid one with Tang really flying through the air. I have to be careful now. My tokuiwaza is no longer as useless as it once was.

So the red and white comp. Nyam layed out the strategy by saying our group - the intermediates, would all aim for draws. We were up against a much stronger Red team. They had Desmond (seoinage) and Frankie (black belt TKD) plus some other guy who is a silat instructor. They were a lot better than us, though we had Steffi (SUKMA woman's category) and Tang (SUKMA juniors) .The black belters (we have little of them) on their side were all champions.

I got into the zone. No feelings, no worries - enjoyed the matches before mine. We did well with the beginners. Some minor wins, some draws. So far according to plan. Then Vyneriiddo went up, agaisnt a much better opponent. It was a very close one. He managed a last minute Uchimata and both drew with Wazaaris. Next was James. I defeated him the month before with a leg sweep, nothing to shout about. I expected him to be good. He was, but the opponent was big. He tried his best, but in the end the opponent managed to up with a minor throw. Not an ippon, but James had to leave the mat. My turn. Nyam told me, "Go. He's tired."

We bowed, and i grabbed him, not wasting anytime on kumikata cause i wasn't good at it. He immediately attempted an Osotogari. Now, Osotogari is my tokuiwaza - my favoured technique. I had been working on it for 8 months, and although i was supposed to be getting better at it, most of the time i learnt of the ways it could fail.

I made his move fail. He retreated. I smiled and said "Osotogari!"

He grinned and tiredly said, "Yes."

I said, "Good."

Two seconds later i entered Haraigoshi and threw the big guy. He flew.

Strangely i did not feel truimphant. I believe there is a message in this. Don't take so much joy in your opponent's demise. And the atheletic zone is really, really cool.

Are you trying to tell me something?

Coz, Lord, you've got the timing right. In and out. Me and Paul. He even resorted to poetry to lose stress! Now he's probably running on hilly terrain to lose certain memories. I'm going to the dojo. And i feel like this:

Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge

You'd probably recognize that as a My Chemical Romance album, but its strange how it goes around haunting you. After jumping with joy and overreacting (that St Th3 lost) i am now notorious around the debating circuit as Mr Emotion. Not that i care (although, as usual, i feel like i murdered someone) - i'm already retired.

And its official. The Theresians hate me.

They really shouldn't though. I regret the stupid jumping around, i admit, but you have to understand it was three year's bottled emotion - determination, grit and lots of pain. Every debate i lose i improve, from a rude fast speaking buckaroo to someone with a semblance of calm and politeness. And on the way i learnt that hard way that my team, as talented as they individually are, rely on me as the third speaker to make it or break it. A Theresian (Jervinna, i think) remarked casually yesterday before their debate that the third speaker wraps or kills the team. Immediately all the thomians there - Cikgu Mac included, turned to stare at me.

I looked up from an Utada Hikaru article and made choking noises. It did not help.

So what if God gave me the ability to think on my feet? What if i could talk fast? I was a wild card! How much easier it would have been if i had Jervinna's knowledge of the roles of speakers! I wouldn't have caused the legendary fall in the Thomian - Marian debate, we wouldn't have lost last year to St Theresa, and i wouldn't have caused Paul to feel so bad this year.

And why? Because i accidently made a good rebuttal during our second pracitise session agaisnt Aldrin's NS argument.

That is beside the point, really. The point here is this: I once supported St Theresa. Jacintha's generation, against St Thom. I took one look at Carlson's speech and immediately went to the other side, for i know we could not win. Janice was there, we were both equally inexperienced in debate (although i admit she was always a tad wittier than me) and she asked me who i thought would win. After an interruption from Ling i told her that her school would win. It was one of those rare moments we actually agreed on something.

I was right - it was rare. And her school won.

But after awhile i really resented them. They were sapping the spirits of the debates - that they talked good english and they were sooo damn nice. It wouldn't have been that bad, coz i admire most of the Th3sian speakers (Amanda, Jacintha, Janice, Abigail - this year Jervinna had a damn good reply speech against Batu Lintang) but the judges just let style overcome substance. If you've read my blog on the debates last year then you'd probably know how we out-argued the judges. It was painful, but it taught me that just because they're judges doesn't mean they're on-par with our knowledge of the rules. All the other schools had no more spirit, for they knew nobody could topple the great St Th3. And though they didn't have the beniefit of Orlinda's constant drilling of the rulebook into our heads (we probably have about a thousand adjudication briefing's worth of junk) they really looked deflated after several rounds. This year i never mentioned how the internal mechanism of the debates worked to the newbies. I wished Nicholas from St Jo good luck, and prayed for a nervous Joshua.

They had a good time. The seasoned ohters did not.

It is funny really, that then i found the ending to be thoroughly enjoyable. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OUR COMPLAINTS GOT BLASTED IN THE TEACHER'S FACES.

'A stand is not a repeat of the motion'
[A flashback of the Abdillah teacher telling us it is]

'Do not POI a POI'
[A flashback of Sarah telling me it can be done; Another flashback of a group of judges telling an amazed Paul and me that it was perfectly alright]

What was best?

'State your sources properly and link them back to the argument'
[A flashback to the Greenians saying newspapers are better sources of information than university reports because our PM reads newspapers]

To cap it off, i stymied the rude second Greenian speaker by asking her exactly what Batu Lintang's stand was for the finals (they had none - Gapor had a poor one, but she insisted Batu Lintang had a better stand); commented LOUDLY to Paul how sad some RUDE people couldn't accept POIs properly; and then accurately predicted the winner (Gapor! Yippee!) and the best speaker (Abraham! Double WOOTS!)

Years back, a Labuan debater - Sabrina, i think (Aldrin, Sze Howe, some help here please?) accerately predicted who would win the state level debates between Sabah and Sarawak. She was younger than me, but more matured. I wondered how she knew.

Now, after experiencing good, bad and downright terrible adjudicating, i do know. The finals was judged fairly, and i realize how clever she must have been to be able to realize that so early on in her debating career.

My only regret? That Aaron and Aldrin couldn't get to experience such a satisfying end to the Interschool Debates and their secondary school debating careers.

I've met cool people from almost every team. And i don't deserve it. They do. I was the wildcard.

They were the anchors.

2006 debates

I am strangely elated. St Theresa lost, for the first time in many years. This may sound cruel and stupid, but its really good for a different school to win. A lot of debate teams were discouraged from even joining, coz St Th3 would just win again. That doesn't bode well for healthy competition, coz it just feels like you're taking part in a debate where you'll never win, anyway. But they lost! Yippee!

Now, at least, we can all root for St Th3 without prejudice. It feels satisfyingly free to know everyone has a level playing field, although the judges still do not follow Semenanjung/International Debate rules. But who are we to say, eh? Since when has Sarawak made it to the finals in Malaysia? Cikgu Orlinda, our couch for three years (prob more, but i wasn't in the team then) has complained about the sheer lack of proper enforcement. Well of course she'd say that. She'd debated Semenanjung back in high school and won (yes, she is not from Sarawak), she debated the teachers debate and won, and she's been to (was it Harvard or Oxford or Yale?) and debated there too alongside Andee. And was good at it.

For starters, you're not allowed to POI after a POI. Everytime you do that marks is taken off. Somehow most of our judges strongly believe you can do that.

Next, you need a Stand. And a stand is not a stupid repetition of the motion, it is why that motion is supported. It'll go ... So so and so (eg, Homework is a burden to students) because *state reason here*

Without a stand you lose immediately. However, here most of the judges don't even know what a stand is.

Truisms and tautologies are not allowed. If you use a truism or tautology, such as Abdillah last year, you should lose immediately. Unfortunately most of the judges do not know what the heck it is. Strange, really. It is amongst the first things taught to international debate teams.

AND, we lost. This is probably the first year none of the seeded Saints teams made it to the semis. St Mae got kicked out by St Th3. St Jo was to be expected - the poor 1st speaker made a point of how handphones could help in emergencies.

And gave an example of a girl having her period in the library.

*sigh*

We were defeated by Green Road, who didn't have a stand. Nevermind, i told the rest of the team. Personally i wondered if i was at fault. I did not help Paul enough with the reply speech, and i was the most experienced in the team. How i have changed. When the Green Road third speaker spoke, i wondered if i should revert back to the debating style i used in my first few debates. Aggressive, fast, like-a-bully. In those days, the early debates, i was really brash, with the sole purpose of making the opponent look stupid. I did too, with alarming frequency. I made Abigail speechless, made Sarah look like a dummy, talked circles around the entire prelim opponent last year, and at the SM Sains friendly even before that.

I cringe at the thought of that style.

And when the Green Road third speaker spoke (and mind you he got best speaker award later), all i felt was pity. He was self assured and very aggressive, but when my rebuttals appeared to be solid (so far the only person that has made me look stupid in debate is Orlinda) he became irrational and bothered and loud. He even claimed newpapers were more reliable sources of information than university studies, because our Prime Minister read them.

Maybe i should have been a bully. Maybe i should have been this fast spoken hot shot. I was not. I was calm, sickeningly polite. Orlinda called me classy. But maybe, just maybe, if i had pushed a lot harder Green Road, who had no stand, wouldn't have won.

Maybe.

8, Debates and Shizenkotai

It would be unfair if i do not blog this. Tomorrow is the debates, loud, furious and nerve wrecking. I just defeated James last week with a Morote Gari in the Judo monthly contest for March. Attempted an Osotogari, but the kuzushi failed. In the end my body reacted of its own accord and swept him, almost like a uchimata-sukaeshi (is that how you spell that?). But nevermind really - ippon is ippon.

But, and this is most important - Elaine called to tell me that she's going to Singapore to take up nursing!! WOOTS! I am happy as anything for her. Even better news - Lynn was shortlisted for the JPA scholarships - and i pray that everything will fall in place. And now all that is left of the eight musketeers is Aaron and me.

Of course most of the readers of this blog won't know what i'm talking about, so let me explain. I was happily part of a team of 8 wonderful people that was the pulse and life of St Faith young people. We worked very well in organizing events, we learned, we grew up and i must admit they are closer to me than any of my school mates of Judo sparring partners. I mean, we were so comfortable with each other, in such a way that none of us hid any part of our personality. Most of them are gone, but we have Abigail and Paul (woohoo!). At any rate, outings with them is like letting down your hair - these are friends that can get under your skin remarkably well.

They are:
Amanda - she's now in the process of becoming a doctor, in KL doing her foundation. She taught me the joy of taking care of kids, and was a damn good debater. Always ready for a good laugh, very easy to work with.

Aaron - Amanda's little bro. Still in church, still serving. Great guy.

Adele - Known her since Godknowswhen. Really sweet person. Teases me about (what she calls) my feminine legs. Damn larr (why did i call her sweet horr?). >.<''' Moved to another church with Rach.

Rachael - Also known her since Godknowswhen. Sukma squash player, funny, witty, smart. Also one of the few females i know that is seriously into gadgets and games. C'mon lah. She can beat me in Prince of Persia hands down. Now in a different church.

Elaine - bouncy girl that was once in girl's wing of the Boys Brigade. Amazingly, she's still loyal to the organization. I dunno why. Sings, dances, worked with kids. Flying to Singapore this Sunday.

Lynn - We all used to call her 'everything girl'. She really is. Anything you need, be it string, paper or coloured markers during an event crisis she will get. Plus Aunty Faye once called her Artsy Farty. Which she strangely doesn't like. Now in another church, shortlisted for JPA.

Jason (JJ) - Aaron's good friend and a natural athelete. Probably among the most popular guys in BL, for reasons all of us in the 8 are very familiar with. Hehe.

And last of all, Me. No comments.

The farewell party is this Saturday. Prob in a McD somewhere. And it seems to me more and more farewell parties are happening. Sooner or later it'll be my turn.

I don't like that.