Day 1 at IMF

I shall began my reflection for my first day at IMF with the following paraphrased passage from John Stott's "New Issues Facing Christians Today"

"There is a need to distinguish between 'social service' and 'social action'. Social action looks beyond persons to structures, beyond the rehabilitation of prison inmates to the reform of the prison system, beyond relieving human need to removing the causes of human need, beyond works of mercy to the quest for justice, beyond improving factory conditions to securing a more participatory role for the workers, beyond caring for the poor to improving - and when necessary transforming - the economic system and the political system, until it facilitates their liberation from poverty and oppression"

This short paragraph left the deepest impression on me during my super duper quiet time in Europe. It came back to me today during a series of discussions pertaining to the role of World Bank and civil society in addressing social issues like corruption, HIV, education for children etc etc.

The day actually started with a pretty lousy dampener. We were told, for pretty obvious and sensitive reasons, that our buddies from the various civil society organizations were not allowed to sit in with the press coverage following the release of the all-important World Development Report 2007. So the best that they could do was to let us watch the press coverage 'live' in the CSO office. Chelsea and I thought that it was really stupid to come all the way to Suntec to watch tv, and we decided to give it a miss and try our luck at other seminars at the Pan Pacific hotel. We were originally told that our security pass would not allow us to catch the seminars at the Pan Pacific ballrooms, so it was quite funny that somehow we cleared all the checkpoints (I think there were at least 3 of those checkpoints) before we reached our target. It was probably more funny to pretend to be rich and powerful among all the important-looking people at the jazz bar, and trying to order the cheapest drink while waiting for a seminar on "ASEAN integration" to start. We settled for a rose bud tea that costs 12 bucks.

But the quest to Pan Pacific proved to be pretty fruitful. Met some great academics and politicians like Rodolfo, Chan Heng Chee and Tommy Koh. Chan Heng Chee, by the way, is from our PS department and is now ambassador to US. Very motherly looking person, very very intelligent too.

We joined the main group after that for some informal meetings with some World Bank people, who are probably quite important, but I don't know what they do. One important-looking guy was pretty inspiring as he shares his views on youth engagement with civil society. One of his accounts with youths was this 'test' in which a professor, probably from some bible school, was supposed to deliver a speech on the Good Samaritan. However, he had to rush off for some important business, and told one of his students to speak on his behalf. So they purposely lay a sick and elderly man along the main path between the professor's office and the lecture hall, to see if the student will stop by to help the elderly man, or rush off to deliver his "Good Samaritan" lecture. The test was repeated twenty times and none stop by to help the elderly man.

Thoughts of the youth and tiertiary culture in SJSM kept coming to my mind during this point in time. And when we were back in NUS to further our discussions on the limitations of World Bank's outreach to the youth, I had a chance to talk to a civil society delegate from Bangladesh, who is disabled on his left leg but nonetheless is representating his organization that deals with social welfare services to disabled people in South Asia. Somehow, the conversation drifted to the political/civil society situation in Singapore, and I tried to share with him my views that are based on my relatively insignificant experiences with TWC2 and SIF. It is quite a humbling experience, in the sense that things that were significant mile stones in my uni life, such as fighting for migrant workers' rights and helping people in Sri Lanka, pales in comparison to what these folks do, who believe so wholeheartedly that it is possible to transform the world against all political and social and economic odds.

Mr Bangladesh began to share with me his vision for a more Asian-driven form of regional civil society to help the weak and the needy. His vision wasn't too far off from my Laotian-coffeeshop-cum-social-entrepreneur project. But his one sounds more strategic and possible for civil society in Singapore and ASEAN to thrive. I guess I'm not looking at these things from a Christian perspective yet; it is more about understanding the reality of the world, and the reality that is plaguing the apathy of youths in Singapore, and understanding the different ways and means to do something meaningful while I still have some sort of social capital in me, before I succumb to some strange social forces to conform to the not-so-real realities of life.