The most likely reponse: "Umm... Got CIP hours not?"
What is the use of CIP? To some students, CIP is a bothersome quota of 15hours a year of voluntary work; a waste of good time which could be used for playing computer games or watching television. Others may regard it as something more important and ponder upon its underlying purposes. Let me share with you my own personal experience of a CIP. This was the 1st CIP activity I had in HCI so it had a rather large impact on me...
Unlike other secondary school students, our entire Sec 1 cohort spent 4-5 hours collecting old newspapers and clothes from residents in the Taman Jurong Area during the Friday before National Day, instead of merely sitting through a series of meaningless performances in the hall. Initially, I was quite annoyed at having to spend this important occasion doing CIP. The thought of slogging away while my ex-classmates were having fun and even released from school early was almost too much to bear. The only compensation I would have in return would be a few miserly CIP hours. As I still had to fulfill the minimum requirement of 10 (then, now 15) CIP hours annually, I resigned myself to my fate and boarded the charted bus for Taman Jurong with a reluctant sigh.
When we arrived at our destination, we split ourselves into groups of 5s, each taking one block. 2 of us were to do the even floors, the other 2 the odd ones and 1 was to remain to "guard" the newspapers and old clothes harvested. I was assigned to do the even floors and went about ringing doorbells and knocking the doors, asking for newspapers and clothes. As it was a Friday, most of the residents were working, hence, about half of the flats were empty. After gathering the donations, we assembled at the void deck and stacked them into neat piles for collection.
I recall that at least 25%-35% of the flats I visited housed Indian and Malay families. For your information, this is because of Singapore's HDB Ethnic Integration Policy. Today, eight out of ten Singaporeans live in Housing and Development Board (HDB) estates. In a bid to get the major races mingling, the HDB’s Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP) was introduced in 1989. It works in such a way that each race can only occupy a fixed percentage of flats in an area at any point of time. Once that quota has been reached, no more families of that race can move there.
There are some who feel that this EIP policy is a bane of our society. They feel that it is troublesome, as they would not be able to live near their family members if the quota is full when they marry and settle down. There are also those who are selling their flats and have many willing buyers but they are all of a race which has maxed its number. Hence, they supported abolishing this rule.
However, I feel that this policy is in fact a boon to our society. I understand that it may be irritating for some for the above-mentioned reasons. However, there is a reason why Singapore's government implemented this rule. In the past, when Singapore was a British colony, the different races were separated into different areas to prevent potential racial riots or conflicts. However, fights among the races still broke out. Hence, instead of dividing them, PAP introduced the EIP policy to foster a multi-racial environment and unite the different races. To date, this has turned out to be the right decision, as racial conflicts in Singapore are far and few in between.
Overall, I feel that racial harmony is not a given for Singapore. Thus, we must have the EIP. By maintaining a multi-racial environment in our housing estates, we maintain social stability, racial harmony and religious tolerance, hence keeping Singapore safe and secure for all races.
So, what is my opinion of CIP? A waste of time? Definitely NOT! Voluntary work then? Not quite... As you can see, I did learn quite a bit from my CIP activity of collecting newspapers. Its like Service Learning; not only do I serve the community, at the same time, I learn. Its better than blindly doing CIP or only learning in theory; essentially, the best of both worlds. I get to help the less fortunate and improve myself. So, next time anyone asks you whether you want to go for CIP, be sure to answer with a loud, hearty ...
source:http://www.fotosearch.com/bthumb/ARP/ARP101/yes.jpg
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