The daily affair of staying attuned

By Stacey Wong HianYan | why2616@singnet.com.sg

Murmurings could be heard as the lecturer raised the thorny question in the marketing seminar: “Should undergraduates be interested in campus and local news?” I was mildly disturbed when a showing of hands revealed that most students are only remotely interested in daily happenings around the world.

Either that, or they do not read the newspaper at all. The girl sitting next to me even commented that she would consider reading the newspaper everyday a chore.

Her comment highlights a perennial concern that Singapore youths are generally apathetic and not attuned to world affairs.

Are we apathetic because we fail to see the connection between these current affairs and our lives? That being said, maybe we are just too self-centered to care about things that do not concern us.

When half a year ago, the NUS Students’ Union managed to convince the school Administration Board to amend the revised S/U policy option deemed to give the latest cohort an added advantage. Responses to the poll and discussion forum were overwhelming. Appeals, emotions and accusations were thrown voraciously. But, is the student population really vocal because they are interested in the issue, or is it because the outcome will have a direct impact on their grades that they have become more than mildly interested?

I do hope that the former explanation holds true but observation and a tingling suspicion suggest otherwise. To test this hypothesis would be relatively simple. We could perhaps start a forum encouraging students to recommend ways to make our school infrastructure user-friendlier to the disabled. Will the responses be as encouraging or as enthusiastic? It is hard to admit that the upshot is that we are simply too busy with our lives to take an interest in affairs that are of little concern to us.

When that happens, each of us risks becoming a self-contained entity. This becomes a fundamental problem as there will come a time when big opportunities are presented to us, but we will be in no position to take advantage of them because we have become inward-looking as a result of our impassiveness.

In an era of global competitiveness, knowledge acquisition and time management skills are vital assets. But, it is hardly justifiable to equate completing our loads of readings before tutorials with the above skills. The knowledge route does not necessarily suggest rote learning. It entails an interactive learning process. We learn by reading stories and sharing anecdotes, thinking and reflecting on each other’s experiences. Thus, the news medium is an excellent learning platform as it performs those very functions.

An engaging read will allow readers to imbibe the diversity of the human race. The more we read, the more interested we will become as human beings have an innate desire for discovery. This sense of curiosity will reinforce our capabilities immensely as we look to ratchet up our own personal competitiveness.

An understanding that breeds from keen awareness will allow us to competently implant our ideas and tap onto the opportunities present in the system. A person who can successful exploit the global opportunities present at these interstices will also be one who can successfully manage and run the system. Undoubtedly, this sense of competence will up the notches on one’s competitiveness scale.

The daily affair of staying in touch with the world should not be considered a task; it is a social obligation required of every passionate undergraduate because university life should and must not be reduced to the mindless pursuit of grades alone. That entrenched mentality should be ridded if Singapore is to become a true knowledge-based economy.