It was a Singapore event organised by the Singapore Club at Upenn. For a community of 20+, it is amazing they pull off this full day biennially. There was a forum in the morning featuring the Singapore Ambassador to the US, a legal academic, a blogger, and a PAP MP. The Ambassador drove from DC in the morning (actually someone drove him), the blogger was on his way to Europe, he made a detour, the academic was based in the US, the MP was flown in and was flying out.
The Ambassador said what what expected of an ambassador to say about Singapore. The academic talked about the importance of critical thinking and how it's missing in the schools in Singapore. It was a long time since she went to school in Singapore. The blogger brought up many controversial points to stay relevant to the topic of Singapore at the crossroads. The MP talked about all the wonderful things the party has done; it was not Singapore at the crossroads, it was Singapore down memory lane.
They even catered Indonesian food for lunch, cheese and cookies for tea. I met many nice Singapore chaps, scholars from DHS and HCI. They even put up a musical that evening! The issues were about studying abroad and the uncertainties of going home to that scholarship bond. FWP. First world problems.
