Replace “Soviet Russia” with “Temasek Polytechnic”. In case you’re not familiar with the title, see Russian reversal.

Students in my school have to undergo a period of internship and/or complete a major project for the first semester of their final year. In my case, both were lumped together in one huge chuck. Its been about 6 weeks since I started, so now would be a fair time to review my experience.

Once again, the czarist school planners fouled up and the company my group was supposed to be attached to pulled out after our initial meeting, claiming they had too many students. Good foresight by the management right there. However, we inherited the original proposed project anyway. I’ll skip the technical mumbo jumbo associated with the actual project.

The objective of the entire semester is to simulate a working environment. Thus far, the only thing they got right is the dull looking work cubicle and stiff hours.

Reading nerfbat.com on my laptop

Other than the fact that my group wasn’t attached to a company to begin with, and hence no pay (you don’t get any even if you were attached anyway), we had to fork out an additional $4.80 for a stack of paper with horizontal and vertical lines across it and a formally dressed up page smacked right on top of that, otherwise known as the log book, intended for some apparatchik to gloss over and penalize you for leaving out the minor of all details. As of now, 6 weeks in, I’ve written zero things in it.

Time management is of utmost importance. When you spend your entire day locked in a cubicle, you have to make the most out of it. Therefore, I allocated the entire chuck before lunch for perusing through all my RSS feeds. Now that I’m updated with the intricate happenings of the world, great! Time for lunch!

Despite my rants, I genuinely enjoy working on my project, something that not everyone can agree with.

An invitation to Myanmar was extended to a member of my SIP/MP group yesterday and he is still shuffling back and forth on his decision as of this moment. Many other such invitations have been sent out to students in my diploma all over the place. Other than the obvious displeasure I felt as a result of the poor management and organization on the school’s behalf, extending such offers after the SIP selection instead of before, I would support his decision either way.

On the other hand, why anyone would choose to do his/her internship in Myanmar is beyond me. Myanmar, wedged between India and China, is a third world country, inheriting all the problems a third world country face such as poverty, a less than efficient transportation system, a poor social system and hygiene issues (diseases). Those are not the only issues. Under the military junta that runs the country, it faces a whole plethora of problems ranging from inflation to oppression of free speech and outright violation of human rights. As far the city is concerned, living conditions are way below Singapore’s standards. In fact, a draft resolution was proposed to the UN Security Council by the US and UK early this year on the issues of virtually non existant human rights this year, although it got vetoed somewhere along the path. To be perfectly honest, it sounds like a hell hole, no offense to all you Burmese.

This hardly sounds like a land of opportunities that one usually looks for outside of Singapore. If you choose to leave Singapore, be it temporary or permanently, you would choose a destination superior to Singapore, not worst.

The only positive outcome of this entire adventure is that it’ll look good on your portfolio. Personally, I wouldn’t accept such an invitation if I was going to live in such conditions. You choose to do something because you enjoy and love it, not just because it looks good. And no, I don’t buy the “it builds character” reason either.

If you do go, watch your words and pray that you don’t end up like Aung San Suu Kyi, or I won’t be seeing you for a very long time.