Singapore American High SchoolNovember 8, 2004 Vol. 24 No. 3the eye

By Michael HuIn a recent mock U.S. presidential

election, John Kerry won with 54 percent of the vote, while 46 percent of students voted for George Bush. The election, held on Oct. 27-28 in the cafeteria, was organized by sophomores Nate Mahoney, a Republican, and Simi Oberoi, a Democrat.

“It was my idea originally, but I decided to share it with Simi and the [Student Democrats Union (SDU)] club so our two clubs could cooperate,” Mahoney said.

The election was not heavily advertised. The two clubs placed an ad on the Morning Show, but relied mainly on word of mouth to let students know about the election. In total, about 185 students voted. Write-in votes were not counted.

Senior Tommy Philips found out about the election through the Morning Show. He voted for Bush because he said he “canʼt stand Kerry.” Although he knows this election isnʼt the real thing, he still wanted to know what the result of the election would be.

Students identifi ed themselves on their ballots with their student ID numbers. Mahoney and Oberoi used these numbers to mark students off an ID numbers-only list to make sure no one voted more than once.

SDU sponsor Paul Welsh said that although the votes do not count for much, it is important for students to vote and express their views.

“In a hotly contested election, itʼs good to see students exercising a democratic right that will soon be theirs [in real life],” Welsh said.

Kerry wins with 54 percent . . . in mock vote

At the time of Kerryʼs concession, Bush lead challenger Kerry 254 to 252 electoral votes. Entrance to the White House requires 270. Twenty electoral votes were up for grabs in the battleground state of Ohio, where Bush lead by 120,000 votes at the end of the fi rst day.

Bush is expected to carry Ohio, Iowa and New Mexico, the only states yet to be called at the time of print. This would give Bush 286 electoral votes.

If Kerry decided to challenge the count in Ohio with recounts and litigation, it could have been several weeks before Americans knew for sure who would lead the country for the next four years.

“I think the people would like a clear-cut election, not something thatʼs going to be decided in courts by high-paid lawyers,” math teacher Don Adams said.

In 2000, it took 35 days of legal battles after Election Day before Democrat Al Gore conceded the election to Bush. Kerryʼs advisors said part of the reason they conceded the election was that they did not want to contribute to further division in the country by prolonging the process.

“I think the people get kind of confused with the dragged out process,” Student Democrats United President Simi Oberoi said. “It makes the people think their vote

doesnʼt count.”Ohio had not counted their

absentee and provisional ballots when Kerry conceded. Under Ohio law, the count would not begin until 11 days after the election.

Early in the evening, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards told crowds gathered in Boston that they would “fi ght for every vote,”

The Kerry camp realized the gap in Ohio was too much to make up through provisional ballots. Had the country needed to wait for the ballots to be counted, math teacher Brian Donalson does not think an 11-day wait would have been too long.

“The fact that itʼs not instantaneous is not a problem,” Donalson said.

While the Electoral College came down to one state, Bush convincingly won the popular vote by about 3.6 million votes.

One of the reasons Bush became the fi rst candidate to win the majority of the popular vote since 1988 may be because many believe he is best-suited to protect the nation from terrorism. Of the voters who thought terrorism was the biggest issue in the election, 86% voted for Bush.

Math teacher Don Adams disagreed with this belief that Bush is the best man to protect the country.

Singapore American High School

Election Day, Nov 2, ended with no winner again, but at around 11 a.m. Eastern time on Nov 3, Senator John Kerry conceded victory to incumbent George W. Bush, avoiding what could have been a turbulent couple of weeks fi lled with legal battles and recounts. Story by Doug Fagan.

CNN’s America Votes catches junior Urvashi Mathur’s attention as she makes her way through the cafeteria with junior Alison Yuen. Most students followed the day-long broadcast of election returns during breaks and in some classes. Photo by Brian Linton

Printed by Royce Press Pte Ltd MITA (P) 950087

ELECTION, cont. on page 2

ELECTION WATCHERS. Democrats and Republicans in the American expat community spent the morning at the American Club watching election returns. Channel News Asia’s Suzanne Jung broadcast live from the Colonial Room. Photo by Laura Imkamp

Singapore American High Schooleyethe

Vol. 24 No. 354% 46%

Kerry concedes as Ohio leans into Bush column

Mock election draws 20 percent

2 November 8, 2004 ❁ the Eyeelection issue

By Michael HuSome teachers were disturbed

by an Eye story in our Oct. 27 issue that said an IB curriculum was being considered by a curriculum commettee, actually the Board of Governors ̓ Curriculum Committee. Some asked how the Board could make a decision on IB without any teacher input.

Curriculum Committee at a glance

Committee members:• 5 Board Members• Superintendent Bob Gross• Director of Staff Development and Curriculum Mark Boyer• Principals of the Primary, Inter-mediate, Middle, and High Schools

Clarification:

Editors-in-chief: Doug Fagan, Laura Imkamp News editor: Mike Hu

Op/Ed editor: Phil Haslett Features editor: Ally Vaz

A&E editor: Bridget HanaganSports editor: Alex Lloyd

Reporters: Penn Bullock, Priyanka Dev, Doug Fagan, Bridget Hanagan, Phil Haslett,

Kelsey Heiner, Ted Ho, Mike Hu, Laura Imkamp, Lon LeSueur, Alex Lloyd, Jonna Threlkeld, Ally Vaz

Adviser: Mark ClemensAssistant adviser: Judy Agusti

The Eagle Eye is the student newspaper of the Singapore American School. All opinions stated within these pages are those of their respective writers and do not necessarily refl ect the opinions of the Singapore American School, its board of governors, PTA, faculty or administration. Comments and suggestions can be sent to the Eagle Eye via the Internet at eye@sas.edu.sg. At the authorʼs request, names can be withheld from publica-tion. Letters will be printed as completely as possible. The Eagle Eye reserves the right to edit letters for reasons of taste and space.

Singapore American High School40 Woodlands Street 41Republic of Singapore 738547Staff: (65) 6363-3404 x537Adviser: (65) 6363-3404 x539Fax: (65) 6363-6443eye@sas.edu.sg

Singapore American High School40 Woodlands Street 41Republic of Singapore 738547Staff: (65) 6363-3404 x537Adviser: (65) 6363-3404 x539Fax: (65) 6363-6443eye@sas.edu.sgeyethe

Phil Haslett

Consider the following from the first season IASAS tournaments:

-SAS claimed five gold medals and one silver medal-The Girls ̓ Soccer Team outscored their opponents 12-1 en route to their gold medal-The four volleyball and soccer teams held an aggregate 21-3 record throughout IASAS-Both Boys ̓ and Girls ̓Volleyball Teams beat their championship game foes 3-0

Impressive. Very impressive. The Eagles totally dominated the first sport season of the year. But now, here are some facts you may not know:

-The International School of Kuala Lumpur took one bronze medal, three fourth place finishes and two fifth place finishes in the three tournaments-The International School of Bangkok claimed one gold medal and four silver medals

These facts are not here to glorify our success. They prove a point: that the IASAS sports

system is unfair, and for one simple reason: school size.

Here are the approximate populations of the six IASAS schools:

ISKL: 470ISM: 640ISB: 688TAS: 820JIS: 880SAS: 938

SAS is two students shy of having a high school with twice as many kids as KL. No wonder the Eagles dominate in athletics. With such a large talent pool to choose from, teams are more selective, dedicated, and skilled. Itʼs the same as the lottery: with more tickets, one has more chances to strike it lucky. ISKL has half as many chances as SAS.

In the United States, this never happens, thanks to a system that groups similar-sized schools. A high school with 4000-plus will never play a private school with less than 200. This prevents those 400-pound football players that shave twice a day from beating the tar out of a handful of prepubescent toothpicks with

helmets.Of course, there are

extenuating circumstances. We are in Asia. We canʼt just hop on a bus for an hour to find a school to play basketball with. Schools in the United States rarely fly to play in tournaments.

What is the solution? Should we practice less? Should we split the school into two? Should we buy private jets and set up a runway on the back soccer field?

The SAS athletic program must accept the role of being numero uno. We are in the same situation as JIS in the early 90ʼs. With a total school population of nearly 3000 at the time, Jakarta won the majority of IASAS medals. With the nationwide civil unrest in 1998, expatriates protected their families and themselves by moving out. Now, itʼs our turn.

As a student, athlete, coach, teacher or proud parent, bask in the glory of the Eagle. As the Vikings said, “We came, we conquered, we left.” But looking past the endless practice hours, the injuries, the Tiger Balm and the 100-Plus, we have an unfair edge. Credit the athletes, then credit the school size.

Eagle dominance of IASAS a factor of size, not just skill

staff editorial

“Come on guys, speak! Itʼs called Speakerʼs Corner for a reason!”

This quote from a political club member reverberated through the nucleus of the high school. But there was a problem: Speakerʼs Corner is specifi cally an event hosted by Peace Initiative on world issues. The election-day event hosted by Save the Elephants and Student Democrats Union had misrepresented another club. This poses a question: Are there too many clubs at SAS?

The answer is a definitive yes. As of now, 85 clubs exist at SAS. They come from all fields. But it has simply gone overboard. We have the Barbeque Club and the Piñata Club to back up this thesis. Who knows, next weʼll have the Cinnamon-flavored Teddy Graham Honor Society, the Sparkling Fingernail Polish Group and the Association for Indoor Co-ed Netball.

Someone needs to use some common sense. Do students really need an organization to celebrate their affinity for feathered cartoon characters stuffed with Hersheyʼs Kisses? Do they need a sponsor to keep the Baby Back Rib – Chicken Wing debate in order?

The foldable table adjacent to the cafeteria stereo gets more attention than Paris Hilton,

mainly because it advertises a spectrum of pink cupcakes, sugar cookies and Rice Crispies treats each break. It seems that despite all the creativity our clubs have, they can only earn money by teasing our sweet-tooth (hats off to the Bintan Club, who have broken the glucose trend by selling pizza).

Universities often boast in their glossy brochures that they have a plethora of clubs and organizations. Keep in mind, however, that the majority of these colleges have a population much larger than that of our SAS tribe. They cannot be compared. And the 85 groups do not represent the schoolʼs diversity, but rather expose how the teenage mind often jumps ahead of itself. Handfuls of clubs never fully blossom. This year, a third political club backing up Ralph Naderʼs Green Party strutted its stuff at the annual club fair, then fell off the face of the earth and into the Black Hole of Clubs That Couldnʼt be Organized.

The number 85 should only be associated with the average age of Anna Nicole Smithʼs husbands, calories in a Fruit Roll-Up, and how many CDʼs William Hung has sold. If you make a club, keep it running. If you join a club, do not quit. Actions can only be supported by purpose.

Introduce passion, reason into designer club craze

“Itʼs just the opposite,” Adams said. “Heʼs the one thatʼs inciting terrorism.”

Senior Joe Harvey thinks Bush has a way of articulating himself to appeal to the American people as a regular citizen.

“Bush seems more normal than Kerry,” Harvey said. “Kerryʼs kind of stiff. Bush is like one of the guys.”

Donalson agreed that there is a comfort level with Bush, especially among the older generation.

“The older people in the United States, whether they agree with Bush or not, like the fact that Bush does not come across as a politician,” Donalson said. “He comes across as someone that has opinions and sticks to them.”

Donalson supported Bush because he says what he thinks and follows through with what he says. Adams, a Kerry supporter, strongly disagrees with Bushʼs foreign policy.

“I donʼt think America should be dictating politics through the barrel of a gun,” Adams said.

ELECTION, from page 1

Principal Paul Chmelik said that current discussion are only exploratory. He said that if the Board decides the IB program is worth serious consideration, a study committee of teachers and, possibly, members of the school community with IB expertise would be formed.

“I do believe it will be more of an initial discussion rather than anything defi nitive,” Chmelik said. “I suspect that we will talk about whether a thorough review of the matter is truly warranted.”

The committee will decide whether the school should offer both IB and AP programs.

Board member and committee chair Sally Greene said the committee is revisiting an issue that has been debated in the past.

“We decided that we offered one of the best AP programs in the world, and we were not going to fi x what was not broken,” Greene said.

The Curriculum Committee meets on Nov. 18.

Adoption of IB program not on the books anytime soon as Board re-examines old issue

YEARBOOK DEADLINES. Islander staff met with the senior class last week to talk about deadlines for senior memories, activities and portraits. Memory word limits for the 2005 Islander were not reduced this year in spite of the growth of the student population. Photo by Laura Imkamp

3the Eye ❁ November 8, 2004 election issue

By Doug FaganThe latest installment in

John Maddenʼs Playstation2 football series includes the best new feature yet: the “hit stick.” Punish receivers running routes over the middle, or knock the quarterback out for the game with a punishing hit. All it takes is a fl ick of the R3 button on your controller,

By Lon LeseurAfter 86 years of humiliation, failure, and near

misses, the Boston Red Sox are finally World Champions. On Oct. 27, they completed their sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals and ended the curse that plagued them for decades. Though thousands of miles away, both the Red Sox and the Cardinals have large fan bases within SAS.

During breaks and frees, students crowded around computers in the library intently watching and waiting

for the animation on the screen to show a hit, a strikeout, or even a home run. The numbers on the screen are barely able to represent the emotion, momentum, and mood of the game, but students take what they can get.

Most interested students followed the playoffs from school, but some went so far as to skip classes to watch games live on TV at home. A handful of seniors did this during game seven of the AL Championship Series, where the Red Sox completed their comeback to beat the Yankees in a historic series. Boston was the first team to win a seven-game series after falling behind 3-0,

Playoffs trump classes as Sox sweep Cards to break 86-year curse

By Priyanka DevFans of the OC: look

out. One Tree Hill, a WB drama revolving around the complex lives of a group of high-school students living in small-town North Carolina, is just as great. With a cast of relatively new faces, the show features Chad Michael Murray

(Cinderella Story) and James Lafferty (Emeril) as two brothers who have very little in common, besides the fact that they share the same father. Their lives collide in a web of lies and love triangles. The show features Hilarie Burton (MTV VJ), Sophia Bush (Van Wilder), and Bethany Joy Lenz (Guiding Light) as the female characters that play opposite the two brothers. Unlike the lives of the rich kids on the OC, the lives of the characters of One Tree Hill more closely resemble normal teenagers. However, like the OC, the show captivates viewers with an amazing emotional roller-coaster ride of events involving attractive people.

Game: Madden 2005

TV: One Tree Hill

and you can swing momentum in your direction.

If the addition of the revolutionary “hit stick” isnʼt enough to convince you to purchase the game, consider the new Franchise Mode. Sign restricted free agents and watch veterans and rookies battle it out for a starting position. Do not trade away any NFL Icons like Randy Moss or Peyton Manning. If you do, expect to see your squad take a major morale hit. Assume total control of your stars and franchise with Madden 2005.

The

MermaidMermaidLit-

Dance Perfromance Preview Scuttle (Junior Claudia Coudron) and Sebastion (Senior Emily Murray) lead the seagulls in a dance as they plot their revolt against Prince Eric’s marraige to the decieving human Ursala.

TV: Simpson on SNL

By Bridget HanaganDonʼt be fooled by the

phrase “live performance.” In her guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” Ashlee Simpson demonstrated that just because the show airs live on national television doesnʼt mean that the singing is live as well. At the beginning of Simpsonʼs second song, which was supposed to be “Autobiography,” her band started to play, except it was the wrong song. Instead, a recording of the song “Pieces of Me,” which she sang earlier that night, began to play while

Simpsonʼs microphone was hanging down around her waist. There was no mistaking that something was wrong when Simpson did some “exaggerated hopping dance moves,” and ran off stage. The incident, reveals a well known, but often ignored Hollywood secret; that singers pre-record their voices as back-up to make their live voices sound stronger than they are.

After the fi asco, Simpson claimed that she had a severe case of acid refl ux disease, which caused her vocal cords to swell up, resulting in her inability to sing live. n.

“At ʻSaturday Night Live ̓I completely lost my voice and everything,” Simpson said. “It was a good opportunity for me to be like ʻI donʼt lip synch, my God! ̓Iʼm very anti-that.”

and these students were willing to miss school to witness such an accomplishment.

“I was experiencing history,” senior Greg Sorensen said, “and I stayed until the last out”.

Social Studies teacher Bill Rives, an avid Red Sox fan, was a part of this “Red Sox Planet” that followed Boston the entire season. He said a combination of relaxation and focus led this Boston team to a World Series ring, and he is ready for “86 years of dominance” to follow. Rives said he didnʼt watch the games on the computer, but he did periodically check every couple of innings.

With World Series rings on their fingers, no one knows what is in store for Boston now. With free agents like starting pitcher Pedro Martinez and catcher Jason Varitek, the Red Sox could come back next year with an entirely different squad. Regardless of next yearʼs outcome, the Red Sox never have to deal with the “curse” again.

I was exper ienc ing history, and i stayed until the last out.

“ “

By Alex LloydMoshing delegates will join the other music

lovers at this yearʼs Peace Concert. The new date of November 19, which is nearly a month later than last yearʼs Halloween date, was chosen so that it would coincide with IASAS MUN here at SAS.

“We thought that the bands and Peace Initiative would probably benefit from having the delegates present at the concert,” Athletics Director Mimi Molchan said. Molchan will pay for the delegateʼs tickets.

In addition to a new date, there will be more variety in the types of music played by the mostly local bands.

“We had a lot more Singaporean bands tryout this year,” Peace Concert judge Pratyush

Rastogi said. “We have a good range of bands this year and I think we have something that will appeal to everyone.”

Tickled Pink, Mistral and Carillon are the only SAS bands out of the eight selected to play.

Among the Singaporean bands are Pug Jelly and Ronin who were both featured in a Straits Times article on October 22. Pug Jelly was named “The best band to mosh to” while Ronin was titled the band “most likely to inspire a big-hair revival.”

“It was the hardest year Iʼve ever had to judge,” Rastogi said. “The bands were amazing and took it to a completely new level.”

Bands, interlude acts readying for Peace Concert Singaporean bands bring more variety to the stage

4 November 8, 2004 ❁ the Eyeelection issue

Peanut ban targets long-time favorite caf dish

By Priyanka DevWith 240 visitors on campus, the weekend of

the IASAS Model United Nations Conference will be unlike any other. Students from eighteen schools in eleven countries will travel to SAS to participate in this event.

The conference, which SAS is hosting for the first time in ten years, is expected to be one of the biggest events of the school year.

Between Nov. 18 and 20, band and health rooms will morph into committee rooms. The elementary theatre will transform into the General Assembly hall. Delegates will gather

to discuss world issues in a campus environment modeled after an actual United Nations assembly.

Besides transforming the campus, activities directors Mimi Molchan and Brian Combes are finalizing travel arrangements, housing arrangements, and the event schedule. Despite the amount of planning and organization required to host the event, Molchan and Combes say they are looking forward to the weekend.

“MUN is exciting because it is the one big event that we do that involves non-IASAS schools,” Molchan said. “Itʼs a chance to get to know people from eighteen different schools, which is very cool.”

Besides the other five IASAS schools, participants will also be arriving from India, Bangladesh, Brunei and Hong Kong. Delegations from four schools in Thailand, three schools in Japan, and even two local international schools are expected. Already, over 93 SAS families have committed to housing these visiting delegates for the duration of the conference.

Apart from the eventʼs grand scale, the conference will expose SAS students and faculty

...This is Halloween...

By Ted HoPeanut lovers will no longer be able to sprinkle

peanuts over cafeteria chef Hoe Sim Juanʼs Szechuan chicken. Hoe removed peanuts from the condiments bar after a student with severe peanut allergies found one at the bottom of a bowl of spaghetti in early September.

Hoe was told by the Facilities and Operations director, Anthony Wong, that he could no longer use peanuts in any dishes, nor put them on the condiment bar.

“One parent complained that her daughter had peanut allergies, and that the peanut which dropped into her food would kill her daughter,” Hoe said.

There was a concern that, no matter how careful cafeteria staff and students were, a stray peanut might still contaminate other food.

“We removed the peanuts as it was a potential health risk to people who suffer severe allergies,” Wong said. The parent of the child with allergies complained directly to Wong.

The ban affects only peanuts. Students can still order cashew chicken, since other types of nuts do not affect people with peanut allergies.

Superintendent Bob Gross said that parents often ask the school to make menu adjustments that consider the studentsʼ health.

Every year, either through one-on-one contact with a parent, or during the parent coffee sessions with the principals, the issue of offering more nutritious meals are brought up. A nutritionist has worked together with Hoe to provide healthier options.

“The salad bars and the sushi bar are examples

of Mr. Hoeʼs effort to provide alternatives,” Gross said.

Hoe has offered the salad bar as a service to the school since 1992 when he said that health food became popular.

“Iʼm losing money on the salad bar,” Hoe said, “each day I can only sell between ten to twenty bowls.”

Wong and Gross are now looking for more healthy food alternatives to fill the space next to Subway. The empty space next to Subway was originally intended for a Burger King, but Burger King decided it was not profitable for them to continue operating at the school.

Coffee Bean requested the empty spot, but Gross and Wong are looking at healthier options before they consider giving the space to Coffee Bean.

“The one vendor that is being considered the most seriously at the present time is a smoothie vendor,” Gross said.

to the Model United Nations simulation. Though space may be limited in some facilities, spectators will be able to watch as the delegates debate.

“Though very few people watch, this event will increase the profile of Model United Nations at SAS, “ faculty sponsor Michael Stagg said. “It will give students a chance to see first-hand what MUN is like at a high level.”

Model United Nations offers students an opportunity to gain an understanding of pressing UN issues, develop public speaking skills, and revel in the spotlight ofa model world leader for a few minutes.

“The thing thatʼs kind of cool to realize is that the people that participate may just be the ones in the future who really are up there, trying to solve our world problems,” Combes said.

THE WATCHER. An unidentified student seems to stalk social studies teacher Jim Baker. The crimson-clad grim reaper moved through the halls all day sending sidelong glances at those he passed. His greatest skill seemed to be in causing discomfort. Photo by Brian Linton

SCAREDY CAT. Junior Christine Byrne is the only costumed student at this lunch table. Many students seemed to have missed the instructions for this special dress day and arrived in the usual alternate dress day clothing. Some did wear orange and black, others claimed they were dressed as American teenagers. Photo by Brian Linton

ZOLTAN. These students took their costume cue from bubble-pack wrapped aliens in the film “Dumb and Dumber.” Seniors David Castillo, Pratyush Rastogi and Cayley Coulbourn failed to anticipate the heat-producing effects of their costumes. Photo by John Littons.

HEADS UP. This headless freshman, Javish Tolani, seems not to have learned about the dangers of handling sharp blades as his fingers move blindly toward the paper cutter’s slicing arm. Photo by C.T. Chen

Students with peanut allergies at serious risk from smallest contact

Students from 18 schools to converge on campus Families pitch in to house 240 visiting Model U.N. delegates

“. . . the people that participate may just be the

ones in the future who really are up

there, trying to solve our world

problems.” Brian CombesAsst. Athletic and Activities Director