Singapore's cleanliness / Visit by Brother Rene Delorme

18 Feb 2008

Mr Yeo spoke about the vows that all Brothers take. The vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. The vow of poverty means that the Brothers give all their money to the poor or the Treasury of the Brothers, which helps maintain all the schools. The vow of obedience means that Brothers cannot say 'no' to the superior-general, Brother Rene Delorme. If a Brother, no matter how long he as stayed in a country for, has to move to another country as ordered by the superior-general, he would have to. The vow of chastity simply means that a Brother cannot get married.

19 Feb 2008
Singapore's cleanliness

Mr Simen read an article from the Straits Times Forum, which can be found in the 'Home' section.

The letter, from an American visitor, about the difference of Singapore's cleanliness between 1988 and now. During a visit in 1988, she was impressed with the cleanliness of Singapore. And she recently came back for another visit. Even though she liked the fact that Singapore had the likes of a 'garden city', it was not as clean as 20 years ago.

Mr Simen said that Civic Education meant something to people 20 years ago, and teenagers today take the fact that Singapore has many cleaners for granted and therefore litter. He also stated that other countries used to use Singapore as a benchmark for their own country's cleanliness, but over the years, instead of improving the standard, the cleanliness level deteriorated. This is because the effort to keep Singapore clean is lax, Singaporeans become complacent on cleanliness. This affects Singapore's image as a clean country.

Grooming

A student text-messaged Mr Simen regarding grooming checks and that "even though our hair is long but we keep it neat, we still have to cut." Mr Simen explained that these measures the school takes are for us to understand the importance of grooming, especially when we grow up.
In St. James Power Station, there is a policy that states only people above the age of 23 are allowed to enter. This is because people at this age have most likely completed university and has started working, and therefore are able to present themselves well. Most people think that teenagers dress untidily and do not present themselves well, so these grooming checks ensure that the Montfortians are prepared for the future and should take these in the right spirit.

Visit by the Superior General of the Brothers of St. Gabriel, Rev. Brother Rene Delorme

Brother Rene, accompanied by Brother Emmanuel and Brother Gasper, entered Valor@Montfort just before the Angelus. Afterwards, they were greeted by class 2E4 and toured the lab while Mr Simen spoke to him about the lab. From there, he proceeded to the pond area where he was greeted by loud cheers and screams as the whole school had a chance to see him. This visit is a great honor and we could see that Br. Rene was impressed. A very humble man, Br. Rene is in his 2nd term as the Superior General. School was dismissed early at 12.30pm and Br. Rene spoke to the staff in the hall. It was a privilege for us to meet him and we sure no one would forget today.



By Alvin Lim and Brian Theng, 2E4