Minor scandal involving my alma mater, Raffles Junior College, if you can imagine that! Seems one of the students has pulled a stunt right out of Boston Public ( the increasingly ludicrous David E. Kelley TV vehicle where high school is worse than hell ) by videotaping a scolding by a GP tutor then uploading it on the Internet. ( On the abovementioned show, the editor of the school paper runs a website where she posts degrading cartoons of the school staff, one of which depicted two dating teachers having sex under the covers, complete with grunting and moaning. ) Don't even ask me how the press got wind of it, but this was reported in the Straits Times today, and related to me by my mother ( I read local papers only occasionally ).

The language used wasn't strong, in my opinion. I didn't hear of such incidents occurring during my 2 years at RJC, so I don't think this is a common occurrence. Furthermore, the students at this institution are going downhill with each passing year. I meet them in various places, and think they need some whipping into shape, with their obscenely short skirts, untidily puffed out blouses/shirts, and less than decent behaviour ( especially the couples ). I'm sure there're some good ones left, most likely the councillors, but teenagers nowadays are getting more pampered / spoilt / rebellious, and RJC or no RJC, you can't escape it. In my time ( yes, I'm so old I get to use that phrase! ), we were terrified of our tutors, and would never think of answering back or not doing our homework. Just an icy stare from across the room would render us silent, and I doubt any of us would be malicious enough to sabotage the teacher by discussing something like this on the Net, much less videotaping and uploading it.

I'll bet the student's parents are now kicking up a huge fuss, and who knows whether the person who got scolded had it coming? My mom has been teaching for 40 years now, and tells me that students who get reprimanded almost always deserve it. It makes sense, right? Unless you've got some delusional or mood disorder, why the heck would you tell someone off if he/she didn't do something wrong? I think young people nowadays just can't take criticisms anymore. And parents propagate this defiance by jumping up and down when their precious little ones come home and cry / complain about their "mean teacher". My mom has noticed this trend over the decades, and now pre-empts potential problems by telling her pupils' parents from the word go that if they have any issues regarding how teachers discipline their children, they'd better let her know immediately. A number of them still give the school every right to slap / scold their kids. Some of them welcome it, 'cos they can't control their own offspring. But now, more and more baby boomers / younger parents are graduates, and thus more demanding, and some psychologists say, hyper-sensitive about their children getting whacked, 'cos they pamper their kids to a ridiculous level to compensate for their absences ( due to work commitments, etc. ). Well, all I can say is, if you do this, your kids are going to be brats, and will turn into adult brats in the future.

I know alumni from RJC visit this site -- I see links to my blog in the referrals section -- so if you read this, please post my comments on the RJ website, and make my support for the college known. The student who put the video on the Internet should be punished severely. He / she doesn't deserve to be a Rafflesian.

As for the arguments surrounding the Iranian twins, details are still scarce, but considering they were both smart and highly educated, I would assume they understood the risks involved. Their adoptive father wasn't too happy though, and will be lodging a formal complaint against the hospital and doctors. Having lost his 2 adopted daughters, I can understand his grief and anger. And being a doctor himself, he obviously knew the dangers of the surgery and will demand answers to his questions.

But think about all the other "therapies" available out there: traditional medicine, new-age treatment regimens, religious practices that prohibit blood transfusions or any form of surgical intervention that is proven to save lives. Some are totally unproven, others well-documented to cause harm, yet they're allowed to continue, as millions of people subscribe to either their own beliefs, or the testimonies of others. Do you think they were informed about the dangers of these "treatments"? Of course not. Sometimes, while I explain how traditional medications may contain steroids or liver-damaging ingredients, I can literally see my patients starting to daydream, 'cos they have their own opinions on the subject, and my M.B.B.S. degree doesn't even count in their minds. I've seen people with cancer discharge themselves to seek bomohs and Chinese sinsehs, who give them herbal concoctions rather than advise them to return to the hospital stat. These patients later turned up with overwhelming sepsis on the verge of death, and we weren't able to save them. Singapore is rather tolerant of traditional practices, but I hope patients can be more discerning in the future.

Anyway, I digress. Let me reiterate the above point that was initially made. If you want to use the argument about "experimenting" on the twins, then someone had better bring up the issues regarding other unconventional therapies. Traditional medicine practitioners won't tell you their treatments could kill you, right?