For the people who are still coming here to check if I'm updating - here's the new URL:

http://www.hyperreality.blogspot.com

Do you know who you are? I mean, truly truly who you are, and what you want in life?

I think if you're really aware, graduation year makes you put on your more introspective glasses for a while as you take stock of your life, especially when you're looking for a job. Then all sorts of things come up - that job doesn't fit, I don't want to do that job, I'm not too happy with the work conditions, I don't think I want her as a boss...

Hold the arguments about being fussy and everything for a while - they're valid arguments, but that's not what I'm looking at just now. I'm looking at how you know innately what sort of a job you think you'll like. Not many of us can articulate it very well - in fact, I think some of us can't articulate it at all.

Somehow or other, I think it pretty much boils down to how well you know yourself. I doubt any of us do. I think you get to know yourself as you interact with life - and how many of us can truly say we're taken life by the balls, and yes, dammit, lived life the way we always wanted.

I think this problematique pretty much extends to encompass the reason behind why you see so many Singaporean 20-somethings in universities and other tertiary institutions disenchanted with their studies. Primary school. Check. Secondary school. Check. Junior College. Check. University. Check. What next? Uhm... isn't it on the checklist?

Aimlessless. Uncertainty. Emptiness. Suddenly, this black hole of potential opens up within you that you didn't even know was there. What did you fill it with previously, you wonder. And what will you do with it now?

Clubbing. Fast cars. Fancy girls. Flashy guys. Booze. Cigarettes. The Stock Exchange. Sex. Shopping. Bugger the protestant work ethic (work hard because work is good for you) - why bother? It's not like I have a "starting point", a baseline from which I can fall from. Essentially, I have no identity. The world is my oyster, and I can damn well do anything I want with myself.

Congrats, buddy. Welcome to the dark hole that is yourself. But guess what?

Black holes suck.

Ladezzzz and Gentlemenzzz,

The day is Thursday, 27th February 2003.

The deadline is 31st of March.

There are 25 days left before we have to send it in to bind.

Yesiree!

Just emailed like 25 people all over the ASEAN region for interviews - mostly email of course, although I quite honestly wouldn't mind calling a couple of them up.

Got refused by not one, but TWO NUS professors I was counting on to say yes... which makes me quite sad... Mr Jose Tongzon (Econs lecturer) is going away for 3 weeks, and Mr. Simon Tay(Law lecturer) says that while he knows about ASEAN, e-ASEAN isn't his beat. I don't know whether to tell him I want his opinions on ASEAN, and not really e-ASEAN... scared to seem like I'm bugging him.

Four bad email addresses have bounced back... and one YES reply!

"Okay, but I am very busy now so my answers may be a little short."

Who cares? I've got an interviewee!

I think I've got the first part down, but now I'm just wondering about the structure of the thesis... I think my basic problem could be that I still don't really know what I want to investigate - yes, Singapore's role in e-ASEAN, but I think I need to spend a lot more time explaining e-ASEAN and the programmes that have been put up before I can even start on it. I'm reading all the documents that have been put on the e-asean website, but I had to stop work because my printer ran out of ink and I'm absolutely ticked off by that because I'm kind of on a roll here with the thesis... bah.

I'm also trying to find out more about the task force itself - I found out that the original plan of ASEAN was to have an ASEAN Information Infrastructure (AII), and they had a Working Group (AIIWG) to look into the feasibility of the AII. Then the AII WG suggested that the e-ASEAN vision be formed, with an e-ASEAN task force to look into the policy. However, my question is - are the WG and the TF the same thing? Did the TF supercede the WG? I'm thinking there are two groups - the Task Force and the Working Group, since there are two websites (http://www.e-asean.info/index.html and http://www.e-aseantf.org), but then again, they seem to be repeating things, so I really don't know. The e-asean info page also seems more up-to-date than the e-asean task force page, which doesn't have anything more recent than November 2002 (which is still passable, I suppose).

Anyway, coming back to the thesis, I was thinking of a possible structure:

RQ) What is Singapore's role in e-ASEAN?

subQn) What is ASEAN and e-ASEAN? (explaination and history of e-ASEAN)

subQn) Is there a need for e-ASEAN? (I would like to show this in economic terms to justify the need Networked Readiness Index by Harvard)

subQn) What is the current state of e-Readiness of ASEAN member states? (IBM-ASEAN study)

subQn) What has been done since e-ASEAN's inception? (Programs implemented and developed by e-ASEAN; shepherded by certain countries)

subQn) Then here I'm stuck. I feel that I should be asking a crucial question here, because all the other questions seem to simply "report" on the current situation at hand. I want to ask what are the potential (or current) problems facing e-ASEAN implementation, and what are some possible solutions (or incentives, as you mentioned) to counteract these problems. I suspect that it might become clearer after I research more into the programs implemented and developed by e-ASEAN a little closer... and then I would be able to narrow the scope of the thesis to the countries which are managing the 5 or 6 programs (they're in my thesis).

I'm really scared at not being able to finish my thesis in time now. :(