My stay in SG [part 4 - the scholarship's aftermath (cont'd)]

Now, continuing my previous post, what's so weird about the scholarship? Let me just start from here: all those 4 years from 2004 to 2008, I had thought that I was supposed to get 1 of the 2 copies of the original scholarship agreement, be it signed or not. I realized that I had not actually been given any one of those, but I didn't care about it at all. Maybe it's just the way they do things, so I thought, trying to be positive thinking that I'd definitely get one prior to graduation. Only after I encountered the previously mentioned problem with the sponsor regarding my request for defering the bond did I realize that I was the only one who had not received any formal document from the sponsor, if there was really any sponsor. There were 3 of us who got the same scholarship 4 years ago (again, if there was really any scholarship), and the other 2 had gotten their documents since we were in sophomore year. So, what makes me so special that my case is different, that they'd do anything (including hiding the documents) to stop me from going? Woww...am I indeed the Superman that they'd need me to work for them directly after graduation before it's too late when Lex Luthor comes with tons of cryptonites? Maybe I should really try to fly after this, and if I was really Superman, I'd fly directly to....Vegas??? Well if Superman does read this, sorry dude, I know you don't gamble.

Well, back to reality. At that time I guess it was already too late for me to settle everything like visa, etc. to go to the States. So I just knew that I couldn't attend the graduate program in Fall 2008, and my concern was then switched to getting the documents, to prove if I really got any single penny from the "sponsor". After all, mathematicians need proofs, we even prove that 1 is greater than 0. The NUS Registrar Office, with whom I had been having contact with, kept giving me some absurd reasons why the company had not entertained my request regarding the scholarship agreement documents. They told me that the sponsor was interested in looking at those documents and that they were using them to consider my appeal. How lame, it didn't sound like a good reason to me at all.
[Lesson learnt: apparently Singaporeans not only have to learn about good customer service, they also have to learn how to lie in a smart way]

So I told them to tell the sponsor (gosh this is so frustrating that I have to always write me-NUS-sponsor and sponsor-NUS-me, but this is exactly how it all worked; I'll explain this in the 5th part), that they were not the only one interested in looking at the documents; I was too, like freakingly. In fact, since they had 2 copies of the documents, why'd they need all 2 to consider my appeal? Couldn't they just use 1 and make a million copies out of it if there were really a million people involved in considering the appeal? And btw, don't you think there's something really flaw in their argument? Let me put it this way: they came up with this reason saying that they were using the documents to consider my appeal, but at the same time, the scholarship documents that had been held was only mine, with me being the only scholar who wanted the pursue a graduate degree outside sg. What a coincidence! Do you get what I mean? So apparently "my sponsor" had this sort of psychic power. Back to 2004, they must've already known that 4 years later, in 2008, this scholar Sie Haskell would submit an appeal for pursuing his postgrad study overseas, and that the other 2 scholars wouldn't. So they intendedly held my document to use it in 2008 to consider the appeal. Wowww....now shouldn't I be proud? I apparently had been sponsored by a company with such a great power of predicting the future. Even statisticians can't predict such a thing. Where does this company come from? Is it from out there, say Mars? Some kind of aliens or UFOs turn out to be generous enough sponsoring an ordinary Indonesian student to pursue an expensive Science course in NUS, the supposedly-ranked- number-29-in-the-world university. Now I should really contact them again asking for help to predict when on earth I can leave this god damn island.

Btw, I just remembered that there's also this moron reason they came up with weeks after my 1st appeal was rejected. They told me that my appeal had been rejected because I was about to pursue a PhD program which'd take 4-5 years, significantly longer than a Master program which'd take only less than 2 years to complete. Make sense? Maybe, if they hadn't previously sent me an email which explained that scholars may be allowed to defer the bond for pursuing either a Master program (for a maximum period of 2 years deferring the bond) or a PhD program (for a maximum of 5 years in deferring the bond). Now let me ask you a question. What's the point of them listing a PhD program as one of the options if a Master program'd be the only one given real consideration in the end? In mathematics, I guess this is what we call proving by contradiction. I even tried to convinced them that they could hold my degree scroll as a guarantee that I'd come back to sg to serve my bond after I get my post-grad degree, because I wouldn't be able to find any job in the world without that letter anyway. Even this proposal was rejected as well. Oh yeah, I kinda forget...I'm Superman remember? They need me to save the world asap, people can't wait for 5 years for Superman to start doing things.

(to be continued....now this really sounds like a Superman movie)