Article of the Day:
Our 5 seconds of fame
The first challenge I had
to face in this year's IPSF APSS Symposium was the sweltering heat.
The feverish ambient
temperature at Kent Ridge Hall had the mummifying effect of entombing delegates
in their beds at night. Even the ceiling fan at top speed did nothing more than
create a minor El Nino in the dormitory room. Every toss and turn was
accompanied with the prying action of a sweaty back from a hot mattress surface,
like scrapping scorched eggs from a frying pan.
Thankfully, after the
registration ordeal and perspirant insomnia, the entire morning of the official
first day of the symposium was spent in the considerably less confined, but most
importantly, air-conditioned Lecture Theatre 32, despite being a 10 minute
uphill climb from the dorms. Clearly, even with all the new age interior-decor
savvy of NUS buildings today, the infrastructure and accessibility still leaves
plenty to be desired.
The opening ceremony was
absolutely first rate. The bubbly contraption was in a class of its own, and for a
moment when the lights were turned down and it fizzed and frothed, I thought we
were in a traditional Jekyll and Hyde standard mad scientist dungeon laboratory.
The multimedia short bombarded the delegates with sound and imagery of a quality
I've never seen in my 3 years of Pharmacy. A novelty of the highest order.
Dr Liak addressed the
theme of the whole symposium, Facing the Challenge, with special focus on the
impending bane and boon of IT, genomics and those infernal robots. I figure that
if robot arms could replace factory assembly workers in Japan, why not
pharmacists, among other ultimately redundant professions like teachers and
policemen (think Robocop), given an infinite memory base and unparalleled
artificial intelligence? It looks likely by the end of this century, as
far-fetched as it sounds.
Plenty of food gone to
waste so far. The FnB team looked weary. Everyone else in the sub-comms looking
both the victims of the weather and sufferers of the inability of finding time
to wash themselves. Kweh Ko Kah Ko/ Cannibal King songs still reverberate in
medley in my brain.
And oh yes, after coming
back from NUS, hot, tired, and smelling of a hybrid of polyetylenated Mee
Goreng, it was a self-fulfilling
pat on the back to see 5 seconds of our opening ceremony captured on the
nine-thirty news on telly.
You know the symposium
banner in the background when they interviewed Dr John Lim? A while ago I was
there tying its ends to the whiteboard posts along with the Publicity subcomm
members. We, the Pharmacy department, finally have our deserved 5 seconds of
fame.
Contributed by:
Mr Mark Wong
Publications Advisor
Publicity Sub-Committee
