i love my university. it's given me so many amazing opportunities that i am super thankful for. not many people in the world get to grow up and study in a university as safe and ideal as NUS, and i realise that. my time in NUS so far has been nothing short of wonderful, so it really hit the feels when tnp wrote this article that seems to be insinuating that NUS culture is not as vibrant and wholesome as it seems.
1. if you don't like it, don't go. it doesn't take a lot of time and effort to ask around and do your research about camps. and it's common knowledge that arts camp is probably the most lup sup camp in NUS. i signed up for arts o week camp back in 2014, and i actually got in, but after a bit of consideration, i decided not to go. i didn't feel like i would fit in and resonate well with arts camp culture, so i just turned it down. simple as that.
if you do go, and you decide to sit out when they play the lup sup games, be proud of your decision. you just decided to adhere to your moral standards and put your own comfort first by choosing not to give in to peer pressure, and that's an admirable thing to do. don't sit out, then worry if people are talking about and judging you behind your back, and then rant about it to an influential local newspaper.
if you're worried you won't be able to find any uni friends if you don't go for arts camp, then don't worry cos your worries are completely unfounded. there are faculty camps, sports clubs, arts and other interest groups, halls and colleges of residence, even academic society groups. there are a thousand and one other ways for you to find friends in NUS, there's no need for you to go to that one camp that makes you uncomfortable.
in short, know what you signed up for, and be smart about it.
2. irresponsible reporting has been a hot trend in the media of late, but i think this article really took the cake. what does tnp hope to achieve by painting NUS in such a bad light? if it's to evoke strong negative public reaction and generate a hoo-ha so as to gain more readership, then i guess they've achieved their goal.
reporting was done based on the views of 2 students, and everything seems to be centred on the events at only one camp in NUS. this is generalisation at its finest. the article was completely biased, which is really sad seeing as it's tnp, one of the more influential papers in singapore.
by focusing on all the nasty stuff that's been going on in one NUS camp and highlighting the experiences of two students who did not have a good time, while completely ignoring any other contradictory positive viewpoint, tnp gave the average naive singaporean reader the impression that every student in NUS must be a bad nut with no sense of morality, and NUS is not doing anything about it.
3. of course, this allowed many people to jump on the i-knew-it, kids-these-days-are-up-to-no-good bandwagon. every generation loves to judge and bitch about the next one. i myself am guilty of it.
readers expressed horror at the falling moral standards of youth today. older NUS alumni were disgusted at what's become of the students of their beloved alma mater. other folks questioned the purpose of awarding prestigious degrees to such poorly-behaved youth with no sound character.
it hurts to see NUS and its students being bashed like that on social media, when i know we are so much better than that. singaporeans love controversy. the country's pride and joy, NUS, breeding insensitive, morally unsound brats with no class? wow, what a juicy piece of meat for everyone who hates the 'strawberry generation'.
but at the end of the day, nobody is really benefitting from poor reporting.
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