Worst Group Ever

Rage.
I rage at life.
I rage at the problems.
I rage at the people.
I rage at the world.
I rage at myself...

Ok maybe second worst. The worst was in IS2101, when I had to solo almost the entire proposal by myself. That one had a Vietnamese guy and another nerd who didn't do anything. This time round, I got an Indian and Indonesian guy. The Indian dude is a lazy bastard, to put it nicely.

I'm not xenophobic, whatever that even means these days, but I can safely tell you that I have worked with people from many different countries, so I know what it's like. How are they? They suck. Overrated, and often not much good at all.

There are a few exceptions, those really bright ones. But the rest are like rotten eggs that spoil the basket. Why does NUS even invite them over, I'm still wondering. There are really so many more Singaporeans out there who couldn't make the cut the enter NUS. I have a few personal friends who ended up in SIM instead. They are really good, but their A-levels don't tell the whole story. I was the lucky one. The only person from my class who made it to NUS.

Supposedly a top 10 ranked university, NUS is only diluting it's image by bringing in these garbage students. Honestly, what is the screening process for admitting these people anyway. It's not just their lack of performance that irritates me, but also they just downright don't fit into our culture.

As much as I feel Singapore doesn't have a strong identity, we somehow do have a subtle culture built up over the years. There are things we say and do, and more importantly things we don't say and don't do. By mass importing these 'outsiders', they just come in with their own culture and way of doing things, and it changes up the mix for better or for worse. And mostly, through experience anyway, it's for worse.

Funny thing, is that they usually insist on having their own way. Maybe we make them feel so great by inviting them over, they think we rely on them. Usually, personally at least, when you visit a country, you want to learn about their culture, respect their culture and people, and adapt to the environment, not fuck up the whole place. The latter seems to be the case for all these foreign workers and international students. What is wrong with them?

Perhaps, it's because we import too many "low-grade" foreigners from developing nations. It can't be help for the labourers, which is largely unskilled work anyway. But for university students?! Shouldn't we be enticing foreigners from the more developed nations, who are more cultured and attuned to our metropolitan society? Why target mainly the developing countries? Is it part of some larger scheme to put our mark on these countries to create economic opportunities in future?

Who knows. But in the meantime, we suffer in silence.

On the brighter side of things, yesterday was our IS3260 Gamification project launch. It went very successfully, relatively speaking. Our man Xin Xiang made one helluva sales pitch. That guy is an awesome presenter, seriously. He is also a born leader, able to connect with many different people. Impressive.

So, we managed to sign on 3 teams, get them to download the app, and submit a picture. I wonder though, if they would continue to participate in the quests we have laid out for them. The app is really buggy too, so that might be a turn off. Also, I think overall our system is too complicated, with all the battles and all. I felt that the quest in itself is already enough work to ask of them.

I hope we win in the end. In terms of the project showcase, and the final grade. I have very high hopes for this module. Besides one guy, our team is very cohesive, and able to communicate well with each other, unlike my Service System team. Having a team of Singaporeans and a team of foreigners within the same semester has allowed me to experience the stark difference, in how we are able to work and be productive, or lack thereof. And, I can still safely say, I prefer the Singaporeans.

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