Strangled by Ivy

The first part of my advice squarely parallels what William Deresiewicz, former professor at Yale University, mainly wants to convey in his book released last year, Excellent Sheep. In it, he argues Ivy-League students lack imagination, avoid risk, and are more likely to conform. Those who get into Harvard are indeed excellent and driven, but the system also makes them "anxious, timid, and lost, with little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose." The madness of credentialism as well as lust for prestige and success drive students to head "meekly in the same direction, great at what they're doing but with no idea why they're doing it."

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Abe’s refusal to offer apology diminishes Japan

China and South Korea’s ire over Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s speech to the US Congress is to be expected, given that he chose to gloss over Japan’s war of aggression in East Asia during World War II.

The rise of China's sugar daddies and a 'broker for gold diggers'

More than 100,000 men join website hooking up the mature and affluent with younger partners

Japan academics call on Tokyo to face history

A group of nearly 200 academics, including Pulitzer Prize winners, has published an open letter calling on Japan to face up to its World War II crimes, including its system of sex slavery.

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Letter

Free Parking in Singapore

11 Car Parks in Singapore You Didn’t Know Had Free Parking

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Does Australia have double standards for Bali Nine duo?

BBC

China 'seriously concerned' at New Zealand hack attempt report

China's Foreign Ministry expressed serious concern on Monday after a newspaper reported that New Zealand and U.S. intelligence services planned to hack into a data link between Chinese government buildings in Auckland.

Reuters

New Zealand PM happy to talk to China about spy claims

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key on Monday invited Chinese officials to quiz him about reports that Wellington worked with US intelligence on a plan to hack Chinese diplomatic communications.

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Revealed: the team behind China’s Operation Fox Hunt against graft suspects hiding abroad

Man leading hunt for corrupt officials overseas reveals the qualities that make his team tick

Former Filipino nurse charged with sedition and giving false info to police

Filipino Ed Mundsel Bello Ello, who was sacked by Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), faces two charges of publishing a seditious comment on his Facebook account and three of lying to the police.

If Only—To The Memory Of Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015)

Catherine Lim

US stance against China-led bank 'embarrassing': ex-Goldmans exec

Washington's opposition to a new China-led development bank is "embarrassing" and "idiotic", a former top Goldman Sachs executive said on Thursday, as an increasing number of US allies embrace the institution.

APF

Vietnam legacy has lessons for anti-Americanism today

The relative decline of the United States and the perceived shift in the global balance of power with the rise of the Middle Kingdom are new factors at play.

China’s influence set to climb as US thwarted on new infrastructure bank

Seven decades after the end of World War II, the international economic architecture crafted by the US faces its biggest shakeup yet, with China establishing new channels for influence to match its ambitions.

How Lee Kuan Yew’s political legacies have rubbed off on China

Communist Party inspired by Singapore’s late leader, citing the city-state’s stability, clean government, smooth transitions of power and rule of law

AIIB: Washington loses campaign against Beijing

'What was he thinking?' is the kind of rhetorical question we would direct at, for example, the lazy high-school student who ended up plagiarising the historical narrative posted on the website of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and submitted it as a class paper on race relations in America. It was a silly idea that didn't make a lot of sense, and it wasn't going to work.

US needs to adapt to an engaged China

As Asians imagine a world without Lee Kuan Yew, I can’t help wondering what that diplomatic giant, with strong opinions on many things, would have made of the US’s lead-booted diplomacy over China’s new infrastructure bank?

Hostility From U.S. as China Lures Allies to New Bank

“But there is a strain in Washington that if the U.S. is not in the lead, then the U.S. should not be part of it,” he said.

Egg on Washington’s face in bank farce

Even as Washington is busy denouncing Britain for becoming a founding member of a new China-led development bank, key allies are ready to jump ship.

New Zealand spies on China, other Asian nations: Snowden papers

Electronic surveillance by New Zealand’s government extends from China, its biggest trading partner, to Antarctica and is shared with the United States and other international allies, according to documents released on Wednesday.