"The former, sir." I said to myself.

i came up with something interesting at course today.. fyi, i went for the first half of a two day course at the ST Building, in the Tanjong Pagar area.. has got to do with Communication and Relationship Management..

so, back to the story.. i came up with an answer that i couldn't imagine me coming up with.. haha.. i felt like Edward Norton in American History X, only for the exception of his skinhead/neo-Nazi/white supremest sentiments..
the question was like, given the following terms, which would you rate, from first to last, in order of importance to yourself.. the terms: Nationality, Race, Religion, Age Group & Gender.

so my answer was (in order of importance to myself) : Religion, Race, Nationality, Gender & Age Group. and i thought that was the end of things, but AK (the instructor) told us to explain why it was ranked that way.. Derek Vinyard (Norton's on-screen character) took over me at this point..

Religion : Religion keeps someone's feet planted firmly to the ground. It provides a sort of guidance for that individual. I know that its a fallacy for me to say that a person without religion is misguided, but in my opinion, religion sets a number of guidelines, a sort of vision and mission for an individual to follow, and not deviate from.

Race : Race is very much related to religion, in my opinion, and from the example of myself being a Malay/Muslim. It is also important for an individual to recognize his race as a ton of history is behind "race". The history of your parents, of your grandparents, it is all behind race. Singapore adopted and became a multicultural country because of migrants, and they carry a wealth of knowledge, culture, etc. that would encompass race. That's the reason I rank race second.

Nationality : I think Singapore has done a great job, with regards to assimilation (in the initial stages) and I recognize that such ideas like NS and stuff, managed to gel people of different races together. If I was not given Religion and Race as two other choices, Nationality would definitely be first, no doubt. Some of my closest friends are not Malays, and some of my enemies are Malay.

Gender : In my opinion, I place Gender fourth as it is very much underrated. I mean we all recognize women nowadays are much more successful as compared to before, but in my honest opinion (without it being debated in parliament), I do not think that Gender Equality is very much recognized. I mean, we do not have to go too far to see examples. Take the pledge: "regardless of race, language and religion." And where's Gender Equality. That is why, in my honest opinion it would be ranked fourth.

Age Group : Age group is last as, even if someone younger than me is better than me, I would give the person due respect deserved. Not insulting or putting down experience, I respect experience, but the main crux of the matter here is Age Group. That is why I put it last.

these words like spewed from my mouth, and I was glad i let it go..

and to think that AK said, just prior to this;
"When Mr Irfan rests his head on his hands, I don't know if he is organizing his thoughts to answer my next question, or if he is just day-dreaming."
--> look at my title.. =)

the sun sets on this mini chapter in my life..

just realised.. i'm gonna miss so much stuff after my last day.. mostly spending lepak time with the guys at work, playing ping-pong (YES!! PING PONG!!), visiting the yellow box, friday afternoon soccer sessions.. ya.. these are like the main stuff I will miss.. haha.. after not winning any trophies or anything throughout NS (still sore about not getting Best Shot during BMT.. )-= , i won 3 trophies during my short stay in PTD.. power lah! haha..