"WHEN 26-year-old Lester Lim was an undergraduate at NUS, he went to the United States in 2008 on a six-month exchange programme at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The stint coincided with the historic election in which Mr Barack Obama became the country's first African-American president.
Although it was a foregone conclusion that the state's electoral votes would go to the Democratic Party (Mr Obama was the state's senator), Mr Lim remembers vividly the seriousness with which young Americans took their ballots.
His roommate, an Italian-American, locked himself in his room on Election Day because he wanted time to think over who he was going to vote for, and why.
Mr Lim recalls his incredulity then: 'I was knocking on the door, saying, are you sure you are going to spend the whole day thinking about this? The answer: 'Yes. It's my civic responsibility.''
'The civic awareness that young Americans have, I don't think Singaporeans realise it yet,' reflects Mr Lim, now working in the financial industry."
If it sounds too incredible to be true, it probably is. This guy got punked. His smart roommate wanted the room to himself the whole day and used the election as an excuse. Probably to bang his girlfriend in peace. Like seriously. If the campus is overwhelmingly pro-Obama, why would the roommate need the whole day to think about it? Why do you need to lock the room to think about it? And this fool Lester thinks it's civic awareness.
The stint coincided with the historic election in which Mr Barack Obama became the country's first African-American president.
Although it was a foregone conclusion that the state's electoral votes would go to the Democratic Party (Mr Obama was the state's senator), Mr Lim remembers vividly the seriousness with which young Americans took their ballots.
His roommate, an Italian-American, locked himself in his room on Election Day because he wanted time to think over who he was going to vote for, and why.
Mr Lim recalls his incredulity then: 'I was knocking on the door, saying, are you sure you are going to spend the whole day thinking about this? The answer: 'Yes. It's my civic responsibility.''
'The civic awareness that young Americans have, I don't think Singaporeans realise it yet,' reflects Mr Lim, now working in the financial industry."
If it sounds too incredible to be true, it probably is. This guy got punked. His smart roommate wanted the room to himself the whole day and used the election as an excuse. Probably to bang his girlfriend in peace. Like seriously. If the campus is overwhelmingly pro-Obama, why would the roommate need the whole day to think about it? Why do you need to lock the room to think about it? And this fool Lester thinks it's civic awareness.
Last edited:
