akademik

quick post before a mega post coming up.

"Many Americans, including most students and practitioners in the helping professions, have been socialized to think in a certain way - primarily to understand case situations in individual, family, and group terms, often minimizing the effects of the multiple factors and levels of the social environment on human behaviors and lives."

from a outstanding book i found while doing my essay on social service management comparison between China and Singapore. I so regret deciding to take this topic. Too much to read, too much to write. Should have written on migrant workers in China or something. Spend lesser time on work so can go to China again.. To Hubei, Fujian, and Chaozhou. 3 more places to goooooo....


Social policy intervention. FTW! more reasons why you should take welfare econs next sem.. by Dr. Irene Nick.

Fighting a War

The watch hits 0129 hours. It has been 37 minutes. 37 minutes since the last mission began. 37 minutes of fidgeting.

Now is the time. The time to check on them. Dropping whatever he was doing, Carl heads on the door. Checks left. Checks right. And left again. Nobody. Stealthily, he ghosts down the corridor, turning the corner before peering into the lift lobby. All's quiet. Taking a quick scan of the area, Carl enters, reaching for the lift control buttons. He pushes it gently, then retreats into a corner where he had a good view of both exits of the lobby, as well as a full view of the lift door.

As he waits, each ticking second sounded was like a pounding hammer on his nerves. "It's been 38 minutes now" he muttered to himself. Finally reaching the 9th floor, Carl braced himself as the lift doors slide open. Empty. Breathing a sigh of relief, he enters at presses the button for the top floor.

The doors shut and the lift began its ascend. A moment of respite for Carl as he prays that nobody else will enter. The lift accelerates to its peak speed, carrying Carl closer to his destination. With two more floors to go, he readies himself to expect the unexpected. For all he knew, he could be walking right into an ambush.

As the doors gently open, the familiar blue and yellow doors greeted Carl. No trap. Taking his first tentative steps out of the lift, a cold rush of air met Carl, welcoming him to the top floor. Not taking a moment to pause, he scurried along to winding corridor, entering the brightly lit room at the end.

The humming of the machines filled the background as Carl made his way to the all too familiar machine. The mission had been completed. Opening the machine door, Carl started to check the status of the mission. Searching through the pile and putting it together neatly for quick retrieval, he then realized it happened yet again. It was the 7th time it has happened. "Not again," he muttered to himself. "Damn machines." For the 7th time in 3 months, he had lost a sock. A good quality sock. Shaking his head, he gathered the rest of his laundry and trudged back to his room.



haha! so the bloody washing machine/dryer keeps eating my socks. and thus... i went to buy ten pairs of socks. rockssssss. there was a good deal on them.. buy 4 get 4 free. lol. each pair only costs S$1.80. (bought another two elsewhere) yes. now i have enough ammunition to defeat the enemy - the bloody washing machine/dryer. STOP EATING MY SOCKS! half of the socks supposed to be yours though. for china.. (haha. you know who you are. not going to say, later some people say got some lovey dovey thing going on. HAHA!) well can always go back and buy more... SOCKS!

confusion

in recent news....

guangzhou sent a team to singapore to study the social work/social welfare system. over the last few years, they have been modeling after HK. upon discovering the singapore model... they realized its so much cheaper than the HK model... and now they are confused whether to follow HK or Singapore.

brilliant hilarious stuff.

the singapore model will never work in china, because of the demographics. china is too big to use the singapore model. classic case of wei ren min bi fu wu rather than wei ren min fu wu.

but this made my day. haha! and yeah it really shows the determination of the govt to improve their social services. rocks. dept better allow us to go guangzhou for placement. need to havoc in school when i come back.

cos we're uniquely singapore.

Self-determination

在中国社会工作，最大的一个irony是self-determination。self-determination在社会工作，是一个很重要的概念。如果社会工作者在大学选专业的时候没有self-determination的话，那面对客户时，能不能理解这个概念呢？在广州的中山大学，社会工作的学生通常没得选择。他们申请去大学的时候，他们会被派去一所。哪一所呢，就看他们的成绩如何。中山大学是广州最好的大学，也可能是中国南部最好的一所。当学生入到中山大学，就已经是一件好事。很多公司都会请你去他们那边打工。入进中山大学后，学生们要读一个专业。他们会写下他们想要读的专业，能在一个文件写十个，然后排名一到十。通常没人要做社工，因为大多数的人都没听说过。听过社工的学生也不要做，因为薪水太底了。（一位刚毕业的大学社工学生，能赚大概两千人民币。一位中学老师的薪水大概是四千人民币。）但是大学的每一个科目都有极限。大多数的学生都要选business或功臣或政治有关的专业，因为能赚大钱，但不够位。结果，他们被派去读社工。这会保证有社工学生，但是这已经破坏了社工的self-determination概念。中国的社会工作发展真的会令人觉的非常奇怪。

这两个月去中国太多次了，差不多每个星期都去。太多次了。没钱了。也终于要开始做功课和读书了。两个月没做了。哈哈。

为人民（币）服务！