Homework Cafe CiP cancelled

Hi guys,

Sorry to say this but the homework cafe event tomorrow has been cancelled (the teachers rejected it).

The one next next friday will still carry on however on 8/2/2013

Really sorry for this late announcement but we only just received the information too

~B61

Flag Day consent form

Hi guys,

For those who were not here on wednesday's training, here is the consent form

~B61

More Details on Red Cross Flag Day CIP

Hi All,
         Here are the details for the Red Cross Flag Day CIP this Saturday. Attendance is COMPULSORY and as such the relevant procedures for applying for an excuse will apply. Also do note that your participation in this CIP will determine if you get your CS Bronze (Community Service) badge under the new badge scheme by HQ. (Also, CIP hours!)

Time: Saturday 26 Jan, 0730-1330
Venue: Yio Chu Kang Secondary School (Reporting & Dismissal there.)
Attire: Red Cross Unit T-shirt (wear the RI PE T-shirt if you don't have it)

          To repeat you guys are expected to go and report at Yio Chu Kang SS by yourselves and will also be dismissed from there. Please be punctual and report by 0730 latest as this event is organized by Red Cross HQ and thus not under our control.

Have a Nice Day :)

~B61

Platoon points for 21 Jan training

Hi,

Here's a summary of the platoon points for today's training:

FA "Scissors paper stone"
Epsilon: +0
Iota: +30
Omega: +5

PT
Epsilon: +45
Iota: +90
Omega: +20

-B61

RC Flag Day (Internal Collection)

Hey guys!

As mentioned previously during training, we will be collecting funds from the school population in support of the Red Cross Flag Day organised by HQ. It will be on this Friday, during PIT, from 0650 to 0750.

Hence, please meet at the main atrium by 0645, where you will be given your tins and briefed on your groupings before being dispatched to your respective classes. Just be in your school uniform and that would suffice.

See you there!

~B61

New Admin Regulations (Attendance)

Hi all,

As previously mentioned, in order to keep better track of attendance and monitor on the welfare of you guys, there are new regulations being added onto the current administrative protocol for attendance, so please do pay close attention.

Accepted excuses for Absence from Trainings (non-exhaustive)

1. Any sort of illness which require you to rest at home
2. Representing school in participation of competitions
3. Family issues/Religious activities
4. Any other pre-fixed activities (>1 month before) which cannot be postponed (e.g. medical appointments, overseas trip, etc)

*As much as possible, pre-fixed activities are to be postponed if they are to clash with training dates. 

**Religious activities are to be reported 7 days before, while other pre-fixed activities are to be reported 14 days before.

NOT ACCEPTED

• Forgot/Don't Know - You are EXPECTED to find out (the next training date) for yourselves
• ANY other non-medical issues beyond school with the exception of the above mentioned

Accepted forms of Supporting Evidence (non-exhaustive)

1. Medical Certificates (MC) - ONLY evidence type applicable to support the excuse of Illnesses
2. Teacher-In-Charge's email to Mr Tok, Ms Wan Yao or Ms Chen Haiqin to excuse you from training for competition purposes 
3. Parental Letters - Cannot be used for 2 consecutive trainings

NOTE: MCs issued on non-training dates are NOT accepted (i.e. if you are sick on Tuesday, you are still expected to report for Wednesday's training). As long as you are in school on a training day, attendance is still compulsory and we will monitor your condition before deciding to send you home or not. Otherwise, light duty (such as refraining from PT) will be provided.

Late Reporting (>30 minutes late)

If you are going to report late for training, you are expected to inform Admin Exec (Amos Sir) 2 days beforehand via email OR sms before the start of training (if you only find out on the day itself). Otherwise, attendance will NOT be counted.

*If any training-clashing activity (e.g. remedial) ends before 1715 (1 hour before the end of training), attendance of that particular training is still required. 

Failure to abide to regulations

Phase 1: You will be contacted by the Admin Exec on the day itself. If reason provided is unacceptable/insufficient, proceed to Phase 2.

Phase 2: You will be interviewed by either the Vice-Chairperson or the Chairperson on the next training date. If problem persists (or continued absence from the following training), proceed to Phase 3.

Phase 3: Teacher intervention. Necessary disciplinary action to be taken on a case-to-case basis (including the issuing of warning slips). 

Please be reminded that these regulations apply to all other non-training compulsory activities (e.g. CCL, Peformance Night, Camps, etc), and that the usual protocol of downloading the excuse form and having it filled and submitted by the next training is to be taken note of as well.

Remember, these are only guidelines to ensure the your presence in each and every training which are essential to your own personal cadet development, and that the NCOs & Teachers have the final decision to the validity of your excuse (even if it is not on the accepted list). 

These regulations will take effect as of Today, 16th January 2013. Please submit excuses for Week 1/2 trainings by Week 3 Wednesday, 23rd January 2013.

Thank you and have a great day.

~B61

FA and Evacuation guide is up on RIRC treasure chest!

Hi,

We've uploaded the FA and Evacuation guide on the RIRC treasure chest! If you aren't quite sure what this is, it's a very comprehensive guide to First Aid and Evacuation done by our batch. It is inspired (and based on) the old Addendum by B56-B58. While we've retained a lot of the content of the addendum, we hope it'll be easier to read. Hopefully it'll be more useful as revision material after lessons or before accreditations as well. We might even use it in lessons.

Please have a look. It'll be very useful for those who wish to brush up on their theoretical first aid, and it should help with some aspects of practical first aid and evacuation as well.

FACommers, please read through it as well (yes, the FA manual is the official book, but it can't do any harm to read another document to revise your FA and Evacuation as well).

-B61

Pledge cards will be collected on 13 Feb

Hi,

We'll be collecting the pledge cards back from you on 13 February, Wednesday (Week 6).

If you still haven't gotten a pledge card yet, please ask any NCO the next training.

Remember that you should try and collect money from your relatives and non-school friends. We will be collecting money from RI staff and students soon.

-B61

Question of the week 2

Guess who this is (the person who got injured)? The person who gives the correct answer gets 15 platoon points.

Also, guess when this happened for 10 platoon points.

Only one guess is allowed. Answers with more than one guess will not be considered. You must write your guesses in the comments section.

Only sec 2s are allowed to guess (sec 3s are no longer in platoons any more).

Slenderman

Remember Delta in November camp?

Guess who the NCO is for 15 platoon points.

First training of 2013 - Wed, 9 Jan

Hi,

The first training next year will be on Wednesday, 9 January. Monday is a school holiday because we have school on Saturday.

See you there!

-B61

Best platoon for second half of 2012 - Omega!

Hi,

The latest platoon points for 2012 are as such:

Epsilon: 598

Iota: 391

Omega: 625

So Omega is the best platoon for this second half of 2012! 

Your PMs are thinking of a suitable reward for you now, so look forward to something special in the first one or two weeks of training.

We'll be starting afresh for next year, so there'll be a chance to win (again).

-B61

New First Aid and Evacuation Guide!

Hi,

We've finally finished revamping the FA addendum! Now it's no longer a reference/encyclopedia-type document, it's made more as a guide to first aid and evacuation than merely a reference. While we've retained a lot of the content, we hope it'll be easier to read. Hopefully it'll be more useful as revision material after lessons or before accreditations. We might even use it in lessons.

Of course, it's merely a document, and first aid and evacuation are both largely practical subjects, so don't expect to learn everything from it.

Here it is:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mfihrl3ahe8rf5w/First%20Aid%20and%20Evacuation%20Guide%20%2829%20Dec%202012%29.docx

Have fun reading! :)

-B61

List of Injuries

Hi All
         Attached below is the List of Injuries by B56---we have decided to keep it separate from the FA Addendum (which we are revamping and shifting away from a 'reference' approach, as was the case previously).
         
        In any case we believe this List is rather useful in providing a convenient and useful reference for most injuries that you would normally encounter in the course of your FA lessons, so happy reading :)

The link for downloading is as below:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12503805/LIST%20OF%20INJURIES.docx

Looking forward to seeing you back in Training soon!
~~B61

Selflessness?

I'm going to start a series of musings, put up here to keep the blog a tad more interesting and alive and draw in more viewership (heck you guys might even actually learn something from these!1!311) So hooray.


So before that, here's a disclaimer: These opinions posted are mine and mine alone and are in no way reflective of what anyone else thinks. It's also fairly obvious who I am. So yes. These also aren't meant to attack anything/anyone and if you feel offended, you're probably being too uptight.

Oh but really, I might get a tad critical. If you can't stand people having a strong opinion, don't read on or you might get hurt :(


Anyway, we begin!

Inspired by http://theunichannel.blogspot.sg/2012/12/our-so-called-selflessness.html


I'll quickly summarise the post on the UniChannel: some random person went for some random thing, blabla some random stuff happened and some lecturer asked (and I quote) ‘Are we truly helping others or helping ourselves?’ in reference to volunteering and helping people in need. So this random person who is clearly somewhat unquestioning about widely-held beliefs (See also: sheeple) to have not considered this at all in his or her life suddenly faces a dilemma! Oh no! Teen-life crisis!


So s/he goes on to feel depressed because s/he always thought that altruism (something I'll cover later) exists but gosh her beliefs have been challenged by a single statement so she (and I quote) "got really lost in life and in the things [s/he did]. Like being a Volunteer Instructor for Red Cross Youth, helping a wheelchair person to cross the road and all the things I thought I did in the past which were good".


Ignoring the strange sentence structure, this person's LIFE basically just got flipped around by a single question that's so simple and yet s/he failed to consider for AT LEAST 16 years of his/her life. Oh and it's basically saying that s/he is confused as to whether or not s/he is helping others out and doing supposedly "good" things merely for her own self-gratification (google it up if you don't understand, kids) and for her own benefit. So the person's confused, conflicted, lost, blabla, very sad stuff.


But s/he comes to a conclusion! That made absolutely no sense at all! You can go read it yourself, but I believe what s/he's saying is something like the fact that one questions whether or not his intents are truely altruistic is good enough already and the person will somehow miraculously and magically find his way back to the right path! Whatever the heck that is. Whee.

The post then ends off with some irrelevant photo of some old woman carrying a kid in a blanket. With some weird quote about having hands to help yourself (that's what she said).


So - now begins the fun part (have you ever done dissection in bio? Oh wait, no, you're still little kiddies hoho but this is where I dissect her post)

ANYWAY, ignoring the fact that this person has SOMEHOW NOT CONSIDERED SOMETHING LIKE THIS FOR SO MANY YEARS OF HIS OR HER LIFE (an amazing feat in itself), the conclusion of the post is what gets me the most. It makes so many assumptions that even the assumption song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywmpMQYojs) can't compare.

Basically, it's saying that it's GOOD to be altruistic, that we should WANT to STRIVE towards being selfless and helping others for the sake of it. The audacity of someone to actually say this is galling.

Altruism: Pure altruism consists of sacrificing something for someone other than the self (e.g. sacrificing time, energy or possessions) with no expectation of any compensation or benefits, either direct, or indirect (e.g., receiving recognition for the act of giving). [Taken from Wikipedia]


OR


Ethical altruism: Altruism (also called the ethic of altruism, moralistic altruism, and ethical altruism) is an ethical doctrine that holds that individuals have a moral obligation to help, serve, or benefit others, if necessary, at the sacrifice of self-interest


OR


Altruism: Bulls!@# in its purest form.


Altruism is the practice of giving/helping others without expecting ANY form of reward to oneself, be it CIP hours or money or what have you. Furthermore, it's assumed that the less one gets from doing the good deed, the better it is.

Do you have any idea what that assumptions means? What it implies?

It means that the WORSE you feel and suffer when you're helping others, the BETTER the act is. If you do a good deed but feel good about yourself while doing it then HELL NO OH NO NO NO HOW DARE YOU FEEL GOOD THAT'S SELFISH!!!111111


So compare, for example, person A who helps a lot of people but feels like "hey i'm doing a good thing" and becomes happy because he's helping people due to his empathy, and person B who helps a lot of people at the expense of himself and he ends up feeling wretched, miserable and depressed and is never recognised for his works. Person B is the one that's more morally righteous! BUT if person B at any point of time feels good about what he does or thinks like "hey I'm doing this stuff to feel morally righteous" then his acts suddenly lose their value.


IN OTHER WORDS, the more you suffer due to your helping others, the better a person you are. So your goal in life is to SUFFER AS MUCH AS YOU CAN! Hooray!

If you STILL don't see a problem with that, feel free to pass me all of your money and belongings and live on the streets and suffer (no I'm kidding, please don't...pass it to a charity or something or I might get into trouble with your parents)

Ok but really, this philosophy EXPOUNDS leading a sad life, dedicated to OTHERS and you receive no form of reward at all for what you do. Why one would even believe that suffering is the ultimate good (see the problem there?) really is beyond my understanding.


Then we have ETHICAL altruism, which is the same as what I mentioned above but goes on to state that we have an OBLIGATION to help others. An obligation that pops out of nowhere and clings to us for life (like some unwanted girlfriend)!

In relation to this, let's look at one of the NE messages that no one actually gives a crap about, shall we?

"No one owes Singapore a living.

We find our own way to survive and prosper, turning challenge into opportunity."


Similarly, NO ONE OWES ANYONE A LIVING. Simple as that (unless you sign a contract or something saying that you owe some dood a living but that's pretty doubtful). We have no obligation to others, and there is in no way a necessity to SACRIFICE ourselves for the sake of OTHERS (I mean, there's no justification for where this obligation comes from, and lack of proof = doesn't exist. Like how we say there's no unicorns or dragons or women rights because there's no proof that there are and yes that's a joke don't get all uptight women rights exist women are great yay feminism!!)


Ultimately, the crux of the problem is this -- there seems to be this notion that being selfish is somehow inherently wrong. This notion that to help others in order to benefit yourself is IMMORAL and 'using' them (another idiotic phrase, everyone 'uses' each other anyway, that's the basis of any mutual relationship), while to do things that benefit yourself but not others is somehow morally acceptable. Probably stems from some random Confusian values or something (or was that Confucian) but it's just plain stupid. There is NOTHING wrong with "selfishness" - in fact some herald it as morally upright (google up ethical egoism). Humans are not born slaves to each other. We're not born into lives of servitude with the very purpose of our existence to suffer while attempting to bring joy into others' who's goals in life are also to suffer while bringing joy to others. Everything ends up being an orgy of misery and tears if we were to follow through with this ethical altruism crap and it just doesn't stand.


[a bit more philosophical part, if your brain's already been turned to mush feel free to go back to mapling or watching soccer or whatever it is]

The idea though, that to be "selfish" is to be evil is a funny one. All this, of course, leads back to purpose(s) in life, and that stems from what's objective. As far as I can tell, the only thing that's objectively good is happiness -- I mean really, that's pretty much the definition/idea of happiness. This means that anything that makes you happy is good (ethical egoism once again). Is this what people call selfishness? Perhaps. But those that would deem "selfishness" evil, those that would decry working hard for only oneself, are the true evil ones. They are the looters, the moochers, the ones that seek to live off those that have succeeded more than them. Ever seen people (P) whine about how rich people (RP) who come into their fortune rightfully "waste" their money on fancy cars and big houses and are therefore selfish and evil? True, it may not be necessary to waste money on nice cars and bungalows - but it's their money and their property and they can spend it any way they want and it's hardly "immoral" to do so. Then again somewhere in the P's narrow mind is this little thought that the money would be better spent if given to them by the RP, so yes.


Any ethical egoism does NOT mean that oh, everyone's selfish, oh everyone only cares for themselves and backstab each other and the world goes up in flames and fire!

In the words of James Rachels, "Ethical egoism [...] endorses selfishness, but it doesn't endorse foolishness." I may be an ethical egoist but still support, say, the development of schools in third world countries because that results in better education systems, improvements in those countries and eventual benefits to me. I may be an ethical egoist but still won't, for example, backstab people in order to get a promotion or something because ultimately that doesn't help me at all if I'm not capable enough for it and everything gets screwed anyway.


Anyway, this has been a long post, filled with many many different things, and you may have gotten lost somewhere along the way, but moral of the story is -- humans aren't and SHOULDN'T BE altruistic/selfless, and it's fine to be selfish and think for only oneself and his/her happiness. There's a lot more on this topic that I couldn't cover because that'd take a few thousand words more and I can't think properly at 3.40 in the morning, so I end off with a few interesting sentences from Wikipedia and google and all those fancy websites.


WIKIPEDIA: "Altruism, ultimately, denies an individual value and is therefore destructive both to society and its individual components, viewing life merely as a thing to be sacrificed. Rand is quoted as writing that, "[i]f a man accepts the ethics of altruism, his first concern is not how to live his life but how to sacrifice it."[12] Moreover, "[t]he basic principle of altruism is that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification for his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue or value." Rather, she writes, "[t]he purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live."

*Ayn Rand is an objectivist, the author of the books Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead - highly entertaining and enlightening reads, if not controversial. And yes Alfonse I know you think she's depraved or whatever


"Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche suggested that egoistic or "life-affirming" behavior stimulates jealousy or "ressentiment" in others, and that this is the psychological motive for the altruism in Christianity. "


"All of our commonly accepted moral duties, from doing no harm unto others to speaking always the truth to keeping promises, are rooted in the one fundamental principle of self-interest."


"Other philosophers, such as Thomas Hobbes and David Gauthier, have argued that the conflicts which arise when people each pursue their own ends can be resolved for the best of each individual only if they all voluntarily forgo some of their aims - that is, one's self-interest is often best pursued by allowing others to pursue their self-interest as well so that liberty is equal among individuals. Sacrificing one's short-term self-interest to maximize one's long-term self-interest is one form of "rational self-interest" which is the idea behind most philosophers' advocacy of ethical egoism"


"Ayn Rand argued that there is a positive harmony of interests among free, rational humans, such that no moral agent can rationally coerce another person consistently with his own long-term self-interest."


Feel free to read the criticisms as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_egoism#Criticisms

Interesting stuff really. I do hope you search up more on these and start thinking and questioning.


Oh and another moral of the long blog post is to question everything, because there are widely-held beliefs that have real basis and are just being blindly followed, and you might be one of those little sheep bleating to the beat of the masses (if you haven't already gathered, it's not good to be one of those).


Thank you for enduring through all that, and once again, if you got offended or anything, then learn to lighten up because even the original poster on the UniChannel is perfectly fine with this post.

First Aid Addendum being revamped

Hi,

We're in the process of updating and revamping the First Aid Addendum on RIRC Treasure Chest. So please don't print it or anything until we upload the new one (we'll post on the blog when we do).

The new addendum will follow our current FA syllabus much more closely and will hopefully be useful for you to refer to for anything FA-related at home.

Thanks!

-B61

Omega's platoon CIP

Hi everyone,

Some of you may be wondering what happened to Omega's platoon CIP. Well, as the Omegans should know, we were planning to work with CHS Primary to give the students there FA lessons, but it didn't work out in the end. So we tried contacting some other organisations but got rejected as well. Then camp came and we got caught up with it. So now we're most likely going to work with HW Cafe, an organisation which helps children and teenagers with family problems with their homework and such. It also runs activities and camps for them. We'll probably help to run fun activities or perhaps help out more regularly. The details will soon be worked out with Omegans.

-B61

Consent form for camp

Hi,

The consent form for camp is finally here!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ze7ztwuabxlmm34/consent%20form%20for%20RIRC%20NOV%20Camp%202012.pdf

Sorry again for uploading them so late.

Reminder for November camp

Hey guys,

This is a reminder that November camp is from 28th - 30th Nov, Wednesday to Friday.

Camp will start at 8.00am on 28th November, and end at 1.30pm on 30th November.

The reporting area is S. Rajaratnam Block foyer. PE attire or unit t-shirt should be worn.

Project Otella camp pack list

Hi,

Here's the pack list for November camp. Sorry for uploading it so late.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fs24quax2j72tea/November%20Camp%20Packlist_v1.docx

We're rushing the teachers for the consent forms. Hopefully they'll be out in a few days' time.

*UPDATE* Please add in the following items in the packlist

• Promotion Form x 1 (filled up)

*UPDATE 2* Even if you know you don't meet the promotion criteria, you should still bring your uniform and tie or RCU because you might get promoted in principle.

*UPDATE 3* There's also no need for the mug since we will be drinking packet drinks.  Note that the bottles do not have to be Coke bottles.

*UPDATE 4* We have received many queries about missing uniform parts/incomplete uniform parts. If you have any of these, please bring your School Uniform + Tie. Missing incentive badges such as Evacuation, Footdrill etc, are not considered as missing uniform parts.