It seems like Hollywood’s game plan is to simply keep churning out sequels, in some thinly veiled attempt to get us cinemagoers to spend more money on their movie franchises. Of course, that never works since, as we all know, watching it online is a far better alternative. *Justified does not encourage piracy, watch it in cinemas, folks.
Now that that’s settled, where were we?
Sequels – they are never better than the original, right? Surely, that isn’t true for Part 2 of our Law Club interviews (check out Part 1 here). In fact, these five ladies / four ladies and one gent definitely give meaning to the saying “saving the best for last”. Or do they? In this interview, amongst other things, the Law Club members talk about salmon sashimi, hairy bodies and trashy horror movies. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the second half of the 38th Law Club…
First up, we have school food critic extraordinaire, and all-round salmon lover, our corporate relations director, Rachel! She’s also an all-rounder and the secretary of LSIRC.
Corporate Relations Director — Rachel Ang Shu Yien
Why did you want to run for Law Club?
“I thought that there was a lot of potential for Law Club to do a lot of tangible things to help the school population. For example, in terms of welfare, we can help improve facilities, or the lounge, where a lot of people go to.
Likewise, I think in terms of job scope, we can also use events to make Law School more happening, with events that people want to go to. In terms of welfare, we want to make life easier for everyone, so we have small little things like free food or welfare packs – which everybody loves because free stuff!”
Why did you want to run for Corporate Relations? What do you do?
“For us to be able to do all these things, we need money – so that’s where my role comes in. I reach out to get sponsorships, which allows all of these initiatives to take place.
Also, everyone knows that food in BTC sucks, so I work with the Welfare Director to try to get better food. For instance, by getting discounts at food places outside of BTC to entice people to take the walk out to get better food. It will be hard to get all these sorts of things but I will try my best to help Law School get these benefits.”
Who are our current sponsors? Any new potential sponsors this year that you are aiming for this year?
“Our current sponsors are actually on the Law Club website.” Rachel laughs.
Off the top of my head, there are places like Bar Bar Black Sheep at Cluny Court, Mr Prata – okay, that is quite commonly known. Basically, there is a whole list of sponsors on the Law Club website, but the problem is that not enough people know about them.
In my term I will try to expand our efforts. For example, I know a lot of people like Cozy Corner’s popiah, so maybe we could try to get food that is more popular, or sponsorships from other places -like Kith Café (which just opened), or even Sogurt’s new café (called Kara). These might be places that people don’t mind going to once they finish their lessons in the morning. I’ll probably be looking at trying to target all these new cafes that recently opened up – they might be interested in trying to get publicised more, so they may be more willing to collaborate with us – rather than going to food joints that already have long been established here.”
We have prepared a series of “would you rather questions” for you… do you own a dog by the way? Or any pets?
“I had a fish…?”
Ok, imagine you had a dog. If you were marooned on an island with a dead friend or your dog, would you rather eat your dead friend or kill your dog and eat it?
Rachel pauses to think for a while, and then inhales sharply.
“You mean kill my own dog?”
Yes.
“So, either eat my dead friend or kill the dog?”
Yes.
“Eat the friend. Because he’s already dead.”
Rachel says, chuckling. For a moment, the disjunct between her laughter and the morbid nature of the question made the room feel a bit colder.
“…and I like dogs so I wouldn’t be able to kill it. I don’t want to go through the process of having to killing it. Whereas if my friend is already dead, I guess the guilt that I feel would be slightly less. Of course, I’ll still feel guilty, but a lot less. I can’t kill a living thing.”
We let the ensuing silence wash over us for a moment.
Would you rather go to jail for a year or be homeless for a year?
“If I were to go to jail, does it mean that I did something wrong?
I’d rather be homeless. Actually, I think BTC is a good place for me if I was homeless. The security is really lax, there’s always free food from random events, and the air-con is switched on for really long. You can just sleep on level 4 and 5 – there’s all the soft sofas.
Okay, maybe Angsana is hard because you must tap in, but on Mondays to Saturdays the main doors to Block B are always open until a certain time, so as long as you get in before they lock it, you can just sleep there overnight. As long as you hide in the toilet from the guard for a while.
So, I’d rather be homeless, because there are places to crash in BTC.”
* Justified does not endorse the practice of sleeping overnight in school. Please go home and get a good rest from mugging.
Would you rather have no hair at all or be completely hairy but you can’t remove the hair?
“I’d rather be bald and have no hair anywhere. But I’ll never let myself be seen bald – I’ll always cover myself up, I’ll wear a hat and a cap all the time.”
Wear a wig…
“Oh my gosh I didn’t think of that!!”
What do you want to eat as your last meal before you die?
Without hesitation:
“Salmon sashimi.”
Valen adds that since her quick answer was so specific, it meant that she’s been thinking about this for a long time.
“Salmon is my favourite food; aburi, teriyaki, anything that has salmon in it!”
What would you say would be your motto in life?
In contrast to the previous question, hesitatingly:
“I don’t have a nice catchphrase, but it would probably be to just be happy and make the most out of my time. Since time is limited, for everything that I do, I would want to do what makes me happy. Likewise, I would want to develop friendships that are not toxic and that make me happy.”
On that note, our next person has got you covered – especially in the area of finance. When we asked her friends for words to describe her, we received insightful answers such as “stringbean” and “leggy”. Najla Ba’ashim, our finance director, brings cultural diversity to our Law Club.
Finance Director — Najla Ba’ashim
Why did you want to run for Law Club?
“One of my reasons is that, since I am actually doing a double degree, I am only going to be in Law School for 2+ years. I want to make the most out of the 2 years, and try to make an impact here first.”
Why did you want to run for Finance Director?
“I’m not the type of person who likes doing high-profile roles, I guess, and I prefer doing work in the background. I’m the kind of person who likes to ensure that processes go smoothly, and basically, I like to see things go well. I think being a Finance Director helps to make processes be more efficient. And, being in this position helps to make the finance work – for all the projects initiated not just by Law Club, but also by the sub-clubs – go more smoothly.”
What do you think you can bring to the table? They say that each member of a team complements each other as a whole, so what do you think is your ‘thing’? Your niche?
Najla (to Eden): What’s my niche?
Eden: “I feel like Naj is the one who is very all-encompassing. She knows how to take note of all the small details, but at the same time, she doesn’t neglect the big picture.
All these kind of things, apart from being part of her personality, will also make her a super good finance director, because she needs to take note of the big picture. I can’t find anybody else who is more suitable than Naj.”
So… do you agree with what she said, or…?
Najla: “Thanks. Yeah, I guess especially for finance, it’s a lot of organizing. On the one hand, you need to have the big picture of how to allocate the money to the sub-clubs and across Law School as a whole, but on the other hand, you also have to consider all the details (like minor admin) – like how are you going to budget for food, how are you going to allocate the budget for IFG and LawMed etc. So it goes from the big picture to the small picture.”
(Najla, sheepishly: “I’m a bit paiseh to say these kinds of things about myself.”)
We’ve heard that this is your first time doing anything finance-related (in Law School) Is that true? What are your thoughts on that?
“The thing is that as a freshie, you don’t get many chances to do anything finance-related – but then again, I’ve spent 6 months at an accounting firm and handling finances for firms. When it comes to handling these kind of things, I think I’m well up to the task.”
If you could re-do Year 1 again, what would you do differently?
“I would figure out a better study pattern earlier. It’s a common and unavoidable problem for Year 1s, when you’re trying to find your groove and find out what kind of studying method is the best for you. I think this was especially so in Year 1, because semester 1 was grade-free.”
If you could change one thing about law school, what would it be?
“…change the food… I would change the canteen. Anything else would be a step up.”
What colour do you think represents you?
“Purple. I’m very bad at saying why: if Eden answered this question she could smoke 2 pages. (Eden protests in the background.)
But I would say that purple is a very elegant, royal colour, which I aspire to be. It’s also made up of red and blue, which are two primary colours.”
So, you’re trying to say that you’re basic?
“NO!
Primary colours – not basic okay. Basic colours making new colours – it’s kind of like my job scope, because being a Finance Director requires me to see both big picture and the small details.”
When it comes to trashy horror movies, or trash talk in general, our publicity director Chun Yang is your guy! Whether it’s when and where the next free milk tea distribution is, or what not to do in the woods, you are gonna want to hear what this guy has got to say – if he can stop making puns, that is.
Publicity Director — Seow Chun Yang
Why did you want to run?
“Honestly, Jun Heng was in need for someone to do publicity. I guess you know that publicity requires a lot of art skills, and it’s not like someone can just go in and learn how while on the job – well, you could, but it’d take a while – so after he asked around, my name came up. And after I got into the prospect of running did I become dedicated towards it. Though admittedly, I didn’t really have a solid plan to run or anything.”
What do you think will be a challenge for you as a publicity director?
“With respects to my job, it’s basically this – if there needs to be publicity done, then I’ll do it. But if we’re talking about publicity in general, for Law Club, then I think currently the challenge for the role is that these past few years (at least for me, in general) the student body… doesn’t actually know what Law Club does.
Did you guys know everything that Law Club does before this interview?”
…No. Honestly, we didn’t.
“Exactly! So other than selling shirts, no one knows what we do.
Actually, we do other stuff like Law Careers Fair, Law Beach Games. But no one knows that Law Club is the one doing all of that – and I think that’s a huge problem. Not to mention that other than voting for them at the beginning of the year, you don’t really see their faces, or like, be able to contact them, unless they’re your good friends.”
What new ideas, if any, do you have for publicity?
“So, especially for the Year 1s, I think they’re very detached from Law Club. There are welfare initiatives in the Law Club that a lot of people don’t know about – so I’ll just give an example: there are free pads available in the Law Club room! But no one knows about this – so you’d have to run all the way to Cold Storage to get a pad, but really, it’s just easier to go straight to Law Club!
Oh! And you can microwave your food!!”
Oh my god, this is a life changer.
“Yes! It’s a welfare initiative. But I didn’t know about this too (laughs) until I read the AGM report. Oh, and you can borrow umbrellas from there (but you have to put a $10 deposit, so… please bring it back).
So, because not enough people know about these things, my plan is to use one of the notice boards outside in the corridor, that’s not currently being used – we could possibly put our faces there, to let people know who we are, and use it to show or plan some initiatives as well, whenever there are new ones. That would be good.”
Anything else?
“Okay, so last year’s Law Club – they did a really good job, and their Publicity Director, Shiyin, especially with the Law Careers Fair and everything – so I want to at least maintain that minimum standard.
Following up on that, she gave me other projects that we could put on the notice board – which she also planned to use – but by the time she wanted to use it, she was already stepping down.
Generally, publicity is really an ad hoc thing. It’s more like a supporting role towards the committee members – I don’t really start up initiatives. The only thing I’m really in charge of is, I think, Law Club merchandise. So Shiyin came up with a few designs as well – and they were pretty good, you know, so I plan to maybe bring back those designs, since some of the freshies are looking forward to buying the Law Club merchandise. But the room is kind of messy right now so I don’t want to open it to the public yet.”
So, the Publicity Director is in charge of selling the shirts?
“Well, anyone in Law Club can sell the shirts, but publicity and design-wise, and liaising with the suppliers, it’s all done by Publicity. So yeah, I handle the merchandise.
Because I don’t really start up initiatives, I can’t really say what I’ll do better, but when opportunities come my way then I’ll just… get it done, and done well. It’s more of improving on the quality and standard, rather than simply just starting up something.
Together with the Honorary General Secretary, we’re supporting roles. Again, it’s more about improving the quality and standard rather than starting something new.”
“We saw the recent publicity poster you posted on Overheard, the one advertising class comm, etc. And the first thing we noticed is that you like to use a lot of fonts – (laughs) there were like, 7-8 fonts there, seriously – so what’s your favourite font?”
He laughs nervously.
“Eh, I don’t know. Favourite font meaning ‘I need to use a font that fits everything?’ There’s like, no font that can fit everything! But the font I would never use, though, is Comic Sans. That one really damn useless – like, why is it even available? Was it created to make people angry?
Valen: Maybe people use it for comics? (Chun Yang is aggravated greatly by this suggestion.)
“No! What? No one even uses it for comics!! It’s the bane of fonts. I’ll call it the worst font of all the fonts out there. I don’t even know why it’s there. Like Shi Han! Ugh.“
Note: Shi Han is currently the President of CJC, who just happened to be there when the interview was happening. Please let us know in the comments if you want a feature on Long Shi Han.
Okay, you won’t use Comic Sans, but if I force you to name one font that you’ll use for, like, every poster from here on out, what would it be?
“One font I would use for every poster from now on… um, let me look through my computer. I don’t know man! It’s so hard… I wouldn’t know. But maybe Cambria?”
Nods in the background.
Since it is Halloween season now, what would you consider the scariest movie you have watched? And are you for or against watching horror movies with your girlfriend?
“There was this one time when I was 9 years old and my parents decided to show this movie at home. It’s called Into The Mirror, some Korean film. As a kid, you know you’d be scared of everything – it was like, every night from 9 to 10pm there would be a demon or, you know, some otherworldly sh*t in the mirror. And this thing would try to kill you. As a kid, you don’t know what’s inside the mirror! So like, there’s a mirror in my toilet, so every 9-10pm and if I had to shower at that time, I’d look at the mirror with my eyes closed. I’d dry my hair, put on my clothes, and do everything with my eyes closed.
It seriously stuck with me. I was scared of this until I was like 13 or 14. Forreal!”
Since you mentioned that you like horror movies, would you watch horror movies with your girlfriend?
“Also, I’d just like to say that I watched horror movies with my girlfriend before she was my girlfriend. (winks)
But she doesn’t like watching scary movies. Which is bad, because I’m really into trashy horror movies. There’s this one called Don’t F*ck In The Woods, right – it’s about these horny teens that go into the woods to have sex, but because of their overflowing hormones – like, they’re really horny – it awakens this horny monster. It’s ridiculous. “
Update: The movie is real. He wasn’t making it up. Here is a link to the IMDB page. The poster is a picture of someone’s butt.
If you could go back to Year 1, what advice would you give to yourself? What would you have done differently?
“I guess it would be to play more.
I felt that in Sem 1, everyone is fumbling around, so you don’t really know what you don’t know – in the end I spent a lot of December studying. But I realise that even if I spent less time studying, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. So maybe just use Sem 1 to get a feel of what to do, and in Sem 2 you’ll more or less know how to study. If not, you’d have spent like one month being unproductive?
Go overseas during December. To like, Santorini, in Greece. That’s my dream place to go: I haven’t been there before.
It’s like my basic girl kind of place to go – the one where they have like, blue roofs?”
Haven’t heard of it before…
“The blue colour roofs! If you don’t know that, then I guess you just don’t know. But, everyone wants to go lah. Take my word for it.”
Our next interviewee has quite a reputation in Law School. Some call her rabz kebabz, others say she’s too good for this Earth. Her OGL partner, Linming, says he tends towards the latter. Is his opinion relevant? We ask our Events director, Joyce, some questions.
Events Director — Chew Xin Ying Joyce
Why did you want to run for Law Club – and for the position of Events Director in particular?
“I wanted to run for Events Director, because it is not as niche as other positions, in the sense that it does not require a particular skill set. Jun Heng approached me and since a lot of people running for Law Club were already my friends, I thought that it would be fun to join them.
I was also quite uninvolved in school life, so I wanted to use this chance to mix/ interact with people. I also thought that this is a good opportunity to contribute to Law School.”
What do you do as an Events Director?
“I am in charge of internal events such as the Open Day. (Like an open house for Law School, to introduce Law School to interested students?) I am also involved in organising other events like Law Beach games.”
What is the goal for events this academic year?
“There were a few problems faced during this year’s Open Day since a lot of people did not want to sign up, so we are coming up with measures to encourage more people to do so. Law Beach Games went quite smoothly though.
We are still working in progress for the other events. Marcus, the previous Events Director, suggested that we plan events for the Law School student body as well. But we’re still thinking about it because we’re taking into consideration other factors.”
What is your favourite club?
“…what kind of club?”
Haha… Up to you.
“For sub-club, of course I have to say it’s LSIRC! Because I am in LSIRC! LSIRC is a fun club!”
“You know, the other sub-clubs are quite academic-based but LSIRC is the only sub club in Law School that runs events for the welfare of the student body. This is linked to the reason as to why I ran for Law Club- I was very uninvolved in school, I only came for my tutorials, so I spent less than 8 hours a week in school. I was only in LSIRC and I didn’t mix around a lot. There are a lot of people whom I did not get to know, and LSIRC let me know even more people in Law. Since we are already studying all day, it’s good to you know, take a breather, and be involved in less academic activities.
But if you’re talking about my favourite club club, then it’s Bang Bang. F Club is a bit weird, and Cherry is too hot!”
Bang Bang: 7 Raffles Boulevard, Marina Square, Singapore 039595. Opening Hours: Wednesday: 10pm-5am, Friday: 10pm-6am, Saturday: 10pm-6am. IG: bangbang_sg. Law approved.
What was your favourite memory of Year 1 of law school?
“Definitely my Korea trip with LSIRC. I think it was probably the best trip of my life as well. We ate, shopped, socialised and partied so much on top of the very educational and informative academic talks hehe. Plus, I went with my best friends and it was just such a refreshing break from Law School. Technically it didn’t take place in Law School (laughs) but this trip was definitely an opportunity presented by the school, so I hope it counts.”
Would you rather not be able to stop being serious or never stop joking?
“I think I’m already someone who never stops joking, and most people rarely see my serious side, hah! But I think the implications of always being a joker are worse than that of always being serious, like when I go out to work or during serious interviews. So I guess I’ll choose to always be serious.”
Would you rather give up alcohol or clubbing for a year?
“I can give up both. Hah… but if I had to choose I would give up alcohol for sure. I actually don’t really like drinking plus the caloric count is crazy. In fact, whenever I drink, it’s because I wanna get high to club. But there are other ways to get high, so yeah. Give up alcohol. Bad for liver also.
Rounding off our two-part series, we have quokka in human form, our Welfare Director, Eden. And word on the street is that she is currently looking for An Ideal Husband. She tells us it’s an Oscar Wilde reference, but we remain skeptical. Interested fellas, please slide into her DMs.
Welfare Director — Eden Low
Why did you run for Law Club, and why Welfare Director?
“For me I came from a school that is not very represented in law school – JJC — so when I came from law camp, I was very very scared. When my mom dropped me off I saw people coming together because they knew each other from JC, secondary school. Everyone seemed to know each other. I feel like Law School can be a very scary place at times, but the thing that makes me want to stay and makes me not want to quit is the fact that I had a really supportive community around me, and they’re all my friends.
The community and the mix of everyone, and everything – their supportiveness, the inclusivity and the community feel – makes me want to stay and makes me feel like I’m home. That’s really what I want to make everyone in Law School feel.
I’m pretty sure that to some extent, that everyone tends to be like, “I’m just going to fake it till I make it.” You know what I mean? Sometimes we feel uncomfortable but we pull through it, we grin and bear it and pretend that nothing’s wrong — we fake it until we make it. We’re not happy. I don’t want people to have to feel that way.
I want people to feel good. You have so many classes in your first year that you spend so much time here – I hope that by joining Law Club I get to share that sense of happiness, that sense of community, the same one that I have with the rest of law school I felt last year. I feel like Law is a professional degree — the people you know here will often be in your future. So, I feel like if there’s a good culture here, it will/may translate into a better culture later on.
I think we shouldn’t just be developing our knowledge of the law while we’re here – we should also be developing our friendships and relationships. We want to make a conducive environment, where people don’t feel afraid to say Hi to one another in the corridors. It’s all small things like this that can make Law School a better place.”
Do you have any plans for welfare this semester? Can we have a preview of welfare ideas coming down the line this year?
“Ok, I’ll give you a general overview rather than a semester — welfare is less of an event, and more like an all-encompassing thing. We have the obvious things like welfare packs, and NUSSU Free Cone Day. Or instead of Free Cone Day, we also have NUSSU Free Milk Tea day. For one, we have all the NUSSU related welfare initiatives.
Other than that, we were hoping to really improve the lounge. I think I can speak for everyone when I say the lounge is just a really chill and happy place, and really it has a valen-ient (valiant) atmosphere. Did you get that? See what I did there?”
Valen is distraught and groans loudly. Some say they could see the soul slide out of his body at that pun.
We’re not writing that down…
“Ok… so anyway the lounge has been hope to many valiant battles of Pings and Foosball. It’s a really central, homely gathering place for Law Students. So firstly, we want to clean up the lounge, get board games, things like that to make the lounge even better than it is now.
We’ll definitely get more umbrellas, since people do walk out and sometimes it rains. We have an umbrella loaning system and a microwave in the Law Club Room. We also hope to continue Project Ground Up Initiative. I think Gina did a great job as Welfare Director during our batch. And her work with Project GUI: it’s something we can really continue. It’s something any law student can use to organise their events — for example, Cat Therapy last year was a great success.”
Can you make cat therapy happen more often?
“The thing is that I’m not the one organising the GUI, but rather, anyone can organise it. The name speaks for itself. For example, if you’re like ‘hey, I want to hold a writing event etc, I’d need a budget for some refreshments, maybe gifts for guest speakers’. We’re also going to have a TinyURL set up so you can just send in a proposal and we’ll try to make it happen if possible.
Other than that, I think it’s a bit intangible, but I really believe in the Ground Up Initiatives. I feel like it will make BTC, in general, a happier and nicer place. You know how people often joke, oh lawyers are so sneaky, they’re all snakes etc. But now we have this great platform for people to do things for the greater good — so let’s change that!”
I think we know you’re taking a lot of commitments this semester, like CLAS for CJC and being on the exco for Justified (laughs) despite also having to balance your studies — how do you balance?
“Honestly, right now I’m still trying to manage. I feel like I’m someone who’s bored very easily — and that being said, I’m not going to do things just for the sake of doing them. For example, for Justified, I really do like reading the articles, so I stick there. I did a CLAS internship, and I feel like it really changed my outlook on Criminal Law, so I wanted to stay on and help out on there.
I genuinely think that everything I do is very meaningful. That these roles, these projects create a positive impact in law school and beyond. If not now, when? Especially given how busy we are now, when we go on to work after Law School, we will never have the time to commit ourselves to these causes ever again. Now is the best time to do it.”
Now that you’re the Welfare Director, is there any goal you want to achieve this year? Anything you think you can do better than last year?
“As I said, I really think Gina did a great job. She’s always the one who is getting things done behind the scenes. Especially simple things that most students take for granted, such as getting the air conditioning switched on for a longer period of time. It was all her effort. I want to follow in that path.
Apart from that, I really just want to make law school a more vibrant, warmer and happier place.”
What do you think is your spirit animal?
“I actually don’t know? Let me think, what’s an animal that always looks happy? A care bear?”
Claire: A quokka.
“Oh my god, yes, I’m a Quokka!”
A – what- crocker?
“No, a Quokka -they’re these animals that always look very happy and are always willing to hug people. And I love hugging people.”
We know you like literature, since you made those literature references before we begun the interview, so if you had to pick one book to call your favourite, which would it be?
“Wow, that is tough, that is very tough.”
Or what is something you’re into right now?
“I’m into reading this book I’ve been reading for 6 months — the Broom of the System — but I’m not going to talk about it much. To put it simply, it’s a book uses many different alternative realities in its narrative. But I can’t give you a favourite book off the top of my head.
While I can’t tell you my favourite book, or my favourite author, I can tell what kind of authors I like, what kind of books I write. In a way the works I read are influenced by own writing style. My writing style is one that is very prosaic. One of my favourite books was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close -the one about the child — and its writing was so beautiful, it felt like I was there. I like books to make me feel things, taste things, as though I’m there. I wouldn’t dare to say that I aspire to be like some of these writers, but I do enjoy writing, and by extension, reading what I like.
In a way, it’s just like what I believe in — I do what makes me happy, I read what makes me happy.”
On such a happy note, it is time to get back to less happy readings. *Disclaimer: if Lord Denning’s writings gets you excited for more than 4 hours, a trip to the doctor is highly recommended. And for everyone else who has grown used to readings and no longer draws interest, may you finish your readings soon.
As a final send-off, once again, the 38th Law Club’s goal this year is to create a more vibrant and inclusive school culture – to establish Law School to not simply be a place where students gather just to go for class. Towards this end, the Law Club will be introducing various initiatives such as a Suggestions Form for initiatives, so it’ll be easier to approach Law Club, but also the Inter-Batch Lounge Games, reformatting the Justice League as well as refurbishing, cleaning and essentially upgrading the student lounge to become a warmer space. These initiatives come in addition to Law Club’s hallmark events, such as the adrenaline-packed Law-Med as well as the Law Careers’ Fair. Watch this space for hopefully more updates on the Law Club’s initiatives this year!
Here’s wishing the 38th Law Club MC the best of luck in achieving their goals this year! Do your best for Law School! We will all be rooting for your success. =)
