Desmond Keong

Had sore throat and runny nose for the past few days. Fortunately, the symptoms have subsided.

It has been one week and I have more or less settled down. As compared with the last eight weeks, the stress level and workload are comparatively lower. One thing which I don’t like (I should say ‘detest’) is the strange timetable arranged for my batch. I cannot imagine myself staying until 7.30 pm on Friday at a secluded area in the west. My dinner time is completely disrupted too.

An article featured in TODAY commented on whether the Marina Arts Centre (aka ‘Durian’) is an icon or a costly mistake when it incurred million dollars of losses each year since opening. This brings me to the same sentiment when the place I used to belong is busy raising funds (half a million dollars to be exact) to build a so called "Arts Conservatory Centre" within the premises. As this facility is not a ‘need’ but a ‘want’, the government will not provide any subsidy in funding this project. Each and every single cent must be raised from every member who belongs to the family.

The reasons given by the highest echelon in building the Arts Conservatory Centre are: we can (1) enjoy the facility in many years to come and (2) provide something for our future generations to use and enjoy. I was quite skeptical on these comments. Do Arts really have such a high status in a civilised society that we are willing to expend our resources in it? Half a million dollars is not a huge sum on a national scale, but if this sum were to be raised by only 1 500 over members in the family, it will be a burden to those who are not as well-to-do as the person in the highest echelon. In the process of fund raising, not only do we experience a marked up price in the canteen food, there is also a back-track in the healthly eating habit which the place has been trying very hard to advocate. You may argue that one or two days of unhealthy food will not make one obese overnight. Well, it is still a debatable statement whether such a move will set precedence to unhealthy eating habits in the long run.

I do agree that Arts is gaining more recognition in an advanced society like ours. The value of Arts is unmeasurable. Whether the eventual Arts Conservatory Centre will promote greater Arts awareness among the members in the organisation, we shall let time to tell us the answer.

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