Sec 4 wearing rings issue...

It has been quite some time since I last blogged. As many of you should have realised by now, I had changed the way comments making work on my blog, partly because I want to make it easier for myself to clear off spam that people had been making on my blog. Of course, it is rather amusing to note how "low" people can go to try and spam you to irritate you. In fact, some people go so "low" they actually spam messages that only contain a dot.

A sample spam message would go something like:
.
posted by anonymous...

It was of course, highly entertaining for me when I looked at those comments and deleted those comments with about 2 clicks. Its even more amusing because it takes them about 10 seconds to type the message (as they need to load many pages) while it take about 2 seconds for me to delete all the message...

It has indeed brightened my day on several occasion when I look at the comments and laugh at how "low" they can go...

Anyway, as I have already promised, I will be going through the reasons why I feel that the sec 4 sc/cca leaders should not wear their rings.

As most of you should have probably realised by now, the teachers had decided that the sec 4 sc/cca leaders (whom we will call sec4 leaders from now on to save my typing time) have to wear their rings until the end of the year. This was announced to all the sec 4 leaders during an assembly not too long ago. If I remembered correctly, this announcement was made after the 28th sc investiture. Mrs Look was the one who made the announcement. Their reason, if I remembered correctly, is that they want to recognise us as leaders as we are leaders of the school... and something along that line.

I, and perhaps a few other people, do not agree with this statement. (OK, that "few other people" might be an understatement)...But that's quite beside the point... It is indeed true that wearing the ring is like carrying two heavy rocks on your shoulder, which is ironic considering that the rings are very light...

I do not agree that sec 4s should wear rings.
Firstly, it undermines the power of the new CCA leaders. It doesn't really need a lot of thought to see the connection between sec 4s wearing the ring and undermining the power of the new cca leader. But for those who are a tad bit slower, lets look at it this way. Lets assume that somehow, through a freakish turn of event, you are the new cca leader for a cca, lets call the cca, [sample cca]. So you are the cca leader for [sample cca]. One day, you are leading the group when the previous cca leader shows up, wearing the blue ring.

Lets assume for convenience sake, that you wear your school uniform when you attend the cca. So you are wearing the blue rings and asking someone to do something when this old cca leader who is also wearing the rings walk up to you. Naturally, you'll feel intimidated.
Will this allow the new cca leaders to do their job properly? It seems unlikely, judging from this fact. I mean, I would feel intimidated sometimes when I meet other SCs who used to have higher rank then me. Add on during the time when they wear those higher ranks rings, and the feeling is even greater.

Thus, the first point is that, it undermines the power of the new cca leader.

Secondly, lets us all remind ourselves again that the 28th sc investiture is done and over with. What is the purpose of this investiture? It is to officially recognise them as the members of the 28th student council right? The student council is supposed to be the leadership programme in our school and also the bridge between the school administration and the student. (This point on being the bridge between the administration and the student is being debated on the rv forum. Based on the last time I checked it, it was a 1v5 people scenario...)

Let's recall what the 8th president of the student council said to us during the investiture. He said that they were the pioneer batch to have this ring. They changed it from the badge to the ring as they wanted them to stand out of the crowd.

We must now note the very important fact that the 28th student council has already been officially recognised by the school as the new leaders of the school. In fact, the 27th student council no longer exists. Thus, when the sec4s of the 27th council wear their rings, wouldn't it be weird? I mean, the new leaders are from the 28th student council, but then here you have a member of the 27th student council wearing the rings, and the biggest problem is that they stand out, sometimes standing out even better then the 28th council. Is that a good thing?

Also, we must note that the sc teachers in charge wants all the scs to be knowledgeable of events that the sc is holding when people ask you about it. The sec4s who wear the rings are no longer in contact with the council. They have no freaking idea about what the 28th student council might be doing. As we have already said, the 27th student council has ceased to exist. By forcing them to continue existing, we do not serve to help the council at all, simply because we will have no idea what the council may or may not be doing. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of us wearing the rings?

Thirdly, do we really need rings to recognise a leader? Mrs Look's reasons was that we are recognised as leaders and thus we should wear the rings... If so, then I would like to point out that the other levels of scs from the 27th that did not made it into the 28th do not need to wear rings...

Aren't they leaders too? I mean, they have technically been in the council for at least a bare minimum of one year. If they were able to make it to the council, doesn't it shows that they at least have a group of people who supported them? Doesn't this show as well that they are leaders? Why aren't they wearing the rings then? Is it because it would cause confusion? Then how come when the sec4s wear rings it won't cause confusion?

And lets face it everyone, do you really need to wear rings to be a leader? To me, the real leader in the group is the one that pulls the whole group together when things go wrong and push the whole group through all the obstacles ahead. Do you need a ring to move people together as a group and push the group over the obstacles? I doubt so... Isn't it more self-initiative rather then recognition then pushes people to become leaders and get things over with?

It is also interesting to note that since we are sec 4s, some of us have been in there for a really really long time. If after the end of this long 3 years, you are not recognised as a sc, it is indeed a miracle. So do you really need the rings? I doubt so...

I have also heard from people that certain individuals who do not wear the rings are threatened to go for detention should they continue to not wear the rings. To me, this is a hilarious joke.

Come on people, how many time have we made fun of someone who punished people for stepping on grass? It has already became a classic moment in our school. For goodness sake, and also for the integrity of the school rule, please stop adding rules blindly to the rules of the school. I do not find within the school rules that if you do not wear rings (especially when you are no longer in that leadership position), you'll be punished with detention...
It is indeed a weird world... Rules are made on the spot to punish people...

Of course, we all would certainly agree that there are other reasons behind the need to make the sec 4s wear rings other then to recognise them as leaders... For example, a classic reason would be that they do not want the sec 4 leaders to just disappear, thus causing havoc within the level...

It is indeed disappointing that peace is only kept in the level because of scs. If that is so, than our level is really pathetic. Are we really that bad to the point that no one in the level has self-discipline to discipline themselves?

Also, it is even more interesting to note that there are still the class leaders...
What are the class leaders for? Didn't they did their job without the help of any sc during the first six months of their sec 1 life? Ok, it is true that lots of class leaders are promoted to student councillors. But it is to be noted that class leaders can also do the job of keeping the discipline in class, provided that they are up to it...
But if they aren't up to it, then a good question would be why are they the class leaders in the first place?

To me, the reasons given to make the sec 4s wear the rings are insufficient against the reason that we have found against it. The whole thing can be summed up into this idea that it is time to move on and let the new people do their job. True, once a councillor, always a councillor. But that doesn't imply at all that we need to wear the rings...

Discmon

Updates: I apologise for the lack of sarcasm that may or may not have been detected from various individuals... Either way,that is very very beside the point...
The more important thing is that I have changed the linking to the rv forum as I have been informed that the url I provided is unstable. To all you people whom created a new bookmark when you visited that place, please remember to change it...

Using of content on the blog...

I have three major things to talk about for the time being.
The first one is on the school's decision to make the secondary 4 seniors whom have already stepped down from duty to wear their insignia till the end of the year.
The second one is on the heavily ignorant spammers in the post "On servant leadership" and the flame war that had occured on "On our deputy", which resulted in me banning all comments for that particular post.
The third issue is on the using of contents on my blog for other purposes other then to read it. This is particularly relevant for certain issues as some person in the school had mentioned my blog to a particular teacher.

I'll be starting from the third issue and proceed to the second issue before going into a lengthy discussion on the first issue, which I am preparing a draft for and will most likely be completed when I have the time to do so. I am hoping that I can be able to finish off the draft before the prelims, but I think that would be too much to expect from me.
The above is the plan for the next few post, so if you aren't interested, you can don't visit my blog for the next few weeks or so.

Anyhow, I am talking about using of contents on my blog because a couple of my friends realised that people are quoting my blog to teachers. The incident went like this:

Everyone who has been paying attention to my blog, should vividly remember the small war in the comments section which had a lot of things to do with the interact club. It was an interesting comments flinging session, with internal conflicts being discussed on a non-interactors blog so that the whole community who reads this blog knows.

YP was studying in the library when he heard something along the lines of "A person's blog called discmon...". He was shocked and proceeded to find the source of the voice. He realised that there was this boy who was mentioning it to Mrs Chan. Nothing wrong with it, in fact, I'm not unhappy that the teachers know about the blog as teachers already know about the blog. (Mr Faizad is a good example)

But when contents of my blog is used, I got worried that people used only part of the content so that they can use my blog content to either a) get me into trouble or b) serve their cause because parts of it fits it...
So, I hope that all contents on my blog would be used in the most complete form. For example, if I had written that X is good and bad, you should not say that:"Discmon said that X is bad, we should stay away from him..."

Using all contents in its most complete form ensures that what all bloggers have written will not be misunderstood by others when they only see part of it and not the whole complete post. This is my only request for all people who quotes this blog, use all content in its most complete form.
Thank you.

The other two issues will be dealt with subsequently.

Discmon
Update: I thought you all should realise by now, all comments on all my posts will now need to go through me before they are posted. My reasons for quoting them as spam is valid, considering that it is group spamming...

If one person start spamming and everyone else join in, it is considered as spamming. Don't think that simply because you only posted 1 comment, you aren't considered spamming. Spamming with others = spamming...

Unless of course, you are talking about the same point, trying to support the person's stand... but that doesn't include trying to irritate the owner of this blog by continuously asking him the ridiculously redundant question of what I am going to do to you if you continue to spam my blog...
I know that the fifty reasons thing is a fun thing. I started it cause I wanted to emphasise somethings, not to make fun or irritate others along the way.
So, stop it. Mass crapping in class is ok, but on my blog, keep it to about 1 post. And when I mean one post, I really mean ONE post. Not ONE post per PERSON. Thanks.

Discmon