Speakers at the recent TEDxNTU event on campus shared innovative ways to deal with life’s challenges
by Leow Wen Xuan
OVERCOME PERSONAL ADVERSITY BY HELPING OTHERS
“I realised that an illness does not define who I am as a person. It is common for others to express pity when someone’s unwell. But I believe that we, as individuals facing health challenges, have an incredible potential to contribute meaningfully to the world, and even make a lasting impact on people’s lives.”
TAMMIE ONG
While battling multiple illnesses, the 19-year-old polytechnic student raised an impressive $23,000 for various non-profit organisations through three fundraisers.
“THE MOMENT BEFORE” SHAPES YOUR EXPERIENCE
“The moment before is as long as you like, or as long as you’re allowed. Right up till the second before you make your entrance, before the director calls “Action!”. Or for many of us these days, (it’s) when your online meeting begins.
Typically, we focus so much on the now and performance success. The irony is that we underestimate how much the now and performance success is so dependent on the moment before.”
KAMIL HAQUE
The award-winning actor and storyteller is the founder of Singapore’s first professional acting studio and has coached leaders from Fortune 500 companies, among others.
COPE WITH COMPLEX EMOTIONS THROUGH FOOD
“Our food voices speak so closely about comfort, about care, about love. And in an Asian society, we often struggle to say things like this. We struggle to use the words ‘I’m sorry’, we struggle to say ‘please’, we struggle to say ‘thank you’. And perhaps most important of all, we struggle to say, ‘I love you’.
But when words fail, food does not.”
ASST PROF PAUL VICTOR PATINADAN
The School of Social Sciences prof studies death, dying, illness and grieving. His latest work explores the role of food in facilitating healing after the loss of a loved one.
TAKE ON CLIMATE CHANGE
“We need to be better at learning from our successes. Yes, it’s important to learn from failures and catastrophe but no one has ever learnt how to ride a bicycle by watching YouTube videos of people falling off bikes.
We need to learn from successes so that we can better share them with others so that they can be replicated, scaled and adopted in the many communities around the world that need them.”
ASST PROF DAVID LALLEMANT
The Asian School of the Environment prof heads NTU’s Disaster Analytics for Society Lab, where he develops analytical tools to quantify climate and multi-hazard risks, and promote resilient communities.
SEE ART IN YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE
“Art is all around us. And all it takes is an open mind, and an appreciative and observant eye to connect the dots. I argue that art is an integral part of daily life. Even in seemingly mundane moments, like the way we choose to make our beds, fold our laundry or spread jam onto bread.”
YEN LING KONG
The art writer, educator and curator has led commissioning projects for artworks in public spaces, including for the Singapore Bicentennial.
TACKLE CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN AVIATION SAFETY
“Trying to maintain the same levels of safety around the world is hard… Take safety reporting, for example.
In a country where there’s a high-power distance index, where hierarchy is clearly established and respected by staff, staff within the organisation may be hesitant to report unsafe practices that are committed by their superiors.
Thus, we need to take a nuanced approach when implementing safety culture within each organization and each country. We have to graft it in within the existing organizational culture and national culture, much akin to transplanting an organ. This requires a deep understanding of the existing cultures and patience; trying to copy and paste an existing model from another country will almost certainly result in failure.”
MICHELLE LOW
The trailblazer in aviation safety develops aviation safety policies for countries across the globe, from Singapore to the United Kingdom and Germany.
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