Zimbabwe 'seeks jail crisis aid

A TV documentary was shot over months recently in South Africa. It reveals a shocking secret that how lots of inmates in Zimbabwe die of hunger and disease. Moreover, this film also showed countless graves in the jails. Because everything was open wide to public, I think maybe the government can not cover up its embarrassment any more. But the new government did not make any comments on the film. They shifted the blame to the previous government. Only the prime minister explained they had urged donors and trading partners to back the government and he said the government had made a significant progress even though it is small within the following six weeks.

The news also describes the atrocious conditions in the jail. As what a prisoner said, the sick and healthy had to sleep side by side in an overcrowded and extremely dirty cell. As what the film showed, the prison stuff had already changed the cells to “hospital wards”.
Worse still, a mortuary had built with the prison’s grounds and you can see many rotted bodies on the ground and there are many maggots moving on the bodies.

According to the film, there are 55 prisons in Zimbabwe. To my astonishment, they only have a capacity to hold 17,000, but over 35,000 lives in these prisons.

I think the prime minister really can not cope with these problems. He can just tell the world this is a good opportunity for the west to invest.

However, even though they appeal to the west to give them help, the countries like UK can impossibly help them, because they can benefit nothing from Zimbabwe. Maybe China can do something because for such a developing country like China, at least the international advocate can help establish a good status. Actually, that is just what China is doing now.

Progress

I think I have changed a lot during my bridging course. Most of the people around me now are new friends who may not notice the change, however, I myself cannot pretend. I used to prefer silence and loneliness -- had my lunch, waited the school bus, slept in the library after lunch and woke up to fearfully look at the darkness outside-- all by myself. I did enjoy it.

However, coming to Singapore, I was pushed to make a change, otherwise, I might feel that I could not match the blazing sunshine and the bright sky here. If I kept donging things by myself in this strange environment, I always found that great stress was put on me, as if I was going to make a big mistake the next minute and had to repeat to say sorry. On the contrary, staying among all my sincere friends made me feel carefree and secure. They are sunny and smart, sometimes they like to act like spoiled children with exaggerating expression. Life is on its way to be simple and happy, which makes me believe that life loves the liver of it.

I wrote a letter to my old friend to tell her that I had changed and was very confused if changes were always good. She said that I used to sit on a hard rock in the deep sea, like a log, and now I got into a large bubble and could float, so I should walk around and sun myself. I think she is right again.

I am still leaning to satisfy, and I have made slow progress. I know I am showing progress, so I feel quite satisfied-- then I progress again.

Thanks, my dear new friends.

If I should see you，after long year.
How should I greet, with tears, with silence.
　　——George Gordon Byron
　　

The Legendary Bridging Course and Group 3

Actually, I had over-finished my blog writing two weeks ago. This week, because of the variety show and post-test, I decided to give up the last blog entry. But after reading Liusi’s blog, I have a strong desire to make a summary, or just write down some feelings about the whole intensive English training course and the relationship we have built up with cooperation and sincerity.
Frankly speaking, I had high expectations about improving my English for this course at the beginning of it. Gradually, it is a pity that I found my progress in English was not as fast as I expected. But soon I also found that I have learnt a lot which I cannot get access to through books, video tapes or, generally speaking, academic studying. I came to know many new friends who have distinctive talents, including Chinese students and Singaporeans. I learnt how to cooperate with partners and how to share your genuine feelings with others. At the beginning of the bridging course, I always tended to keep silent in class and listen carefully to what the tutor is teaching, as what I did in high school. Soon I realised that if one never speak up in class, no one would know what is in his or her mind and others will not be concerned with the person. So I began to try my best to express myself clearly and with a strong stand in class. I felt very satisfied to talk or discuss with everyone in class.
Then I began to know the purpose of this bridging course deeper and deeper gradually. It is called Bridging Course and the subtitle is intensive English course for PRC students. So either officials of MOE of the coordinators in NUS focus their concentration on how to make us assimilate into this new environment as soon as possible. We need to be familiar with people here, the agenda of daily life, the ideology of the whole society and especially, to make ourselves at home. So I think we should still appreciate this bridging course as much as we can, although it failed some of us’s expectation. Through the course, we knew more about Singapore and its people. Once we have mingled quite well with the locals and adapted in to the system here, we can find a lot of opportunities to improve our language. It is a long way to go, but the effect in the long run will be a big surprise for us.
Incidentally, it is really a wonderful experience to have studied in Group 3. We have a lot of talented people here and it is not exaggerated that we are one of the most excellent groups. The legendary group 3 is the stuff of legend in the history of CELC.
Hope to keep in touch with all of you after matriculating in NUS.

Bookworm, me?

On Monday, our dear vice principal Ms. Nora gave me a astonishing comment. She said,"You are a bookworm, rather than a sporty guy". I said:"Do not judge a person by his appearence", whereas she replied,"I am just telling the truth".

How could it be? Why have I made such an impression on her? What is worse, maybe there is not only her who think I am a bookworm! I think it is quite necessary to make a clarification for myself.

According to the Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary, bookworm means the person who devotes all himself to reading. To be honest, I am not that reject to the word. However, what I want to shed light on here is that I do not dedicate myself to reading. My motive of reading is not finding joy or comfort, and why I want to read is somehow out of utilitarianism. In order to make me more competent in the challenging university life, I have to equipe myself with some special knowledge. Due to this reason, I often read some books that some of you think is too difficult. Judging from this, I cannot be a bookworm.

Besides, I often exercise after school, especially playing basketball. As a result, I have a relatively robust body. Thus, it is hard to say that I am a bookworm.

Anyway, what Ms. Nora said at least has proved one thing, that is, I am not that lazy during the bridging course. This is a reward to me, and I do appreciate that she said this!

Sophia and the Story Behind

Sophia is not a girl. Sophia is not a hotel. No, things cannot be that boring, because Sophia is a band. I started to have undying love for the band since December, 2006—in a harsh and bleak winter—when I first touched one of its albums called people are like seasons.

K, my high school soul mate, introduced the band and lent the album to me. The album was kind of love token to him because K bought the CD with his ex-girlfriend. As a matter of fact, I did not think, at that time, students like us were buying CD; instead, what we were doing in the shabby CD shops was more likely to be spending a whole afternoon using our own Walkman to “test” boxes of old CD, most of which came from USA and Europe and only had one copy in the box. We had confidence in our taste for music and could immediately distinguish our own type of music the moment we pressed the play button. Not many students had this kind of access to music and that was partly why we found it so cool. Hundreds of CD walked onto my shelf, as well as K’s. We were willing to exchange our treasures because we were looking forward to each other’s affirmative feedback on the CD and we knew each other even better than ourselves

Back to Sophia, it really killed me. How could it be so perfect, so spotless and so seductive? I loved every single song in people are like seasons. I loved every haunting melody and every word in the lyrics. I even loved the design of the cover and its paper wrap. I listened to Sophia day and night, sometimes under the foolish delusion that the earphone had fused and merged in my ears. K felt proud that I like it as much as he did, and so did I.

At that time, my small room was a big mess with CD here and there. Maybe that was why I lost it. It should have been in my Walkman because there was no need to put it elsewhere since I listened to Sophia all the time. However, what was left for me, was its beautiful, empty wrap. I immediately realized I would never allow myself to tell K that I lost it. He would not be angry at me anyway, but I dared not to take the risk of facing his disappointed eyes and the endless blaming of myself.

I decided to try, sink or swim. And it turned out to be the first time when I got to know how powerful manpower could be. I asked all my friends who seemed to have a small collection of CD if they had ever bought or encountered Sophia’s people are like seasons. They said no. However, I did not expect that several days later my friends’ friends came to me, “Hey, you have many CD? Do you know Sophia’s album? One of my friends’ friends lost hers.” I was even more grateful when I heard the shopkeeper’s confusion about why recently many students asked for an unknown band, called Sophia.

If we kept trying, it was possible that I finally found another and gave it to K, as if nothing had happened. However, I forgot K was also one of those friends, and a rather important and smart one. Definitely, he was asked. Definitely, he was the last one to be fooled in the world.

He called me and said if I really liked it, I could keep it as long as possible. I asked how long the longest was. He said as long as I was fond of it. I said thanks and really meant it.

K was a boy with few words, but the few words he said on the phone conveyed a lot. He did not deliberately pretend, though it sounded so, yet, successfully let me know that he knew what was going on. No embarrassment. No tension. No blame and no lie. He just naturally released me.

Indeed, people are like seasons, changing all the way to die. However, I am bent on listening to CD and will carry on regardless of all the advanced approaches to listen to music (mp3? mp4? mp5?), hoping that I could be taken a trip down memory lane when we could easily forgive and happily sing along.

forever

Group 3 forever
Wait until the 200th blog appears.
Finally, bridging course is to an end. I have been eager to go to university since I came to Singapore. After all, my high school classmates all became my seniors.
6 hours a day, 4 days a week, we spend five months in CELC. The room is too narrow and the light is so dim; together we learnt with our tutors. Sometimes it shined and sometimes it shit, whatever, we should wait in a lousy queue (if there was) for lousy buses. Learning to debate, learning to play jokes on others, learning to give nickname, we spent our Mondays; studying literature, words, grammar and etiquette, we went through Tuesdays; “do you follow what I am trying to say?” “What is your point?” accompanied us and taught us critically thinking in Wednesday mornings; that afternoon was devoted to word puzzles and talk and writing; so many newspapers and fresh things were in Thursdays. Every teacher has special character and so does every student.
It was a pity that our class have never got together to do something meaningful. However, variety Show is a good opportunity; A visit to Ms Lun’s can also be a relief.
Exited about future and feeling pity for our separating, we will spend the next few days. Good luck, everyone.

Bitterest Christmas Day

“Have you decided, Steve?”
“Yes, indeed. I love Houston. I would like to play for it.”
“Actually, Vancouver is not bad, isn’t it?”
“Come on, you want me to be a popsicle.”

On August 27th, 1999, Steve Francis, who was No.2 pick rookie, refused to play for the Vancouver Grizzlies which has chosen him already. Eventually, he was traded to Houston which he had been yearning for day and night.

This boy, wearing a cap with Houston Rocket badge, promised proudly, “I will bring this city glories and prides. Francis did all his best to carry out his promise. He fought for Houston Rockets for 5 seasons, with 7226 points, 2295 rebounds and 2381 assists in total. Moreover, he was the second Houston Rockets player that had been selected to play in NBA All-star Game. Most importantly, In 2002 NBA rookies draft, he helped Houston pick Yao Ming, who was No. 1 pick that year. In fact, that was not a good thing for himself.

Yao should thank God for sending himself a “Big Brother”. Steve is a guy who is loyal to friends and has overall interest on mind all the time. However, supposing you are the big brother and leader of the team without controversy, then a seven feet six inches big guy with a heavy oriental accent came to your team and everybody told you, “Hey, buddy, we all understand what you have contributed to our team. You are really something but for now we must run our team based on the interest of that big guy, so you need to make change for him.” What are you going to do?

That is what Francis did: On the court, he changed his style, passing the ball to the inside as more times as possible to perform “Inside-out” tactic which he was good at. After the match, he accompanied Yao to do shopping, taught him English and invited Yao to parties and camps. When Stoudamire dunked over Yao’s head, roaring to Yao’s face, it was Steve, exploding with anger, who jabbed Stoudamire’s throat with his elbow. “He is my brother! Nobody can bully him. Try it if you dare.” Steve said, vehemently.

Four years later, That Chinese young boy who was protected by Steve before had become the best centre in NBA and the playmaker of Houston Rockets. However, Steve himself had been traded to different teams, warming the bench and being lowly paid.

On the Christmas Eve, Rockets officially declared that 31-year-old Steve Francis would be transferred to Grizzlies for the draft rights of 2011. As for this trade, Francis declared, “I will obey the choice of Rockets unconditionally. Actually, I am surprised that I have to go back to Grizzlies in the end.” Rockets fans criticized the team manager for his acerbity. Yao also expressed that it was sad news. For better or worse, nothing can be changed already. At the reunited evening for every family, a hero fighting for this city before made his way to Memphis.

“I am a real Houstonese for the past, the present and the future.”Steve Francis said.