User:Ivygohnair
My mission is to fill in the gap in the Literature of Singapore Section where (probably because internet nerds are mostly below 30) older notables in this field have been neglected. I live in Paris (am bilingual in French and English) and am an "oldie" myself.
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Note: This user's account has been hacked into at least once for false postings with wicked intent.
Note: This user is friendly, open-minded and an excellent cook.
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Note: This user loves her cat.
Note: This user has a sense of humour.
Note: This user is willing to help with french translations.
Note: This user believes that "knowlege is power" and advises every newbie to take a wikibreak to discover the "politics" behind WP. Google everything and follow every thread. WP.Warning: Sometimes you will feel so soiled you'll need to take a shower :-)
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Quotable Quotes
“ | I don't man, it looked like a criticism to me. At least you certainly thought of a criticism, and that's almost as bad. Thought crime does not go unpunished here at wikipedia. Probably best that you just drop it, because pretty soon you won't be able to stop thinking about it, and then you'll start believing it, and then you'll actually do it. Yes, that's right, you'll end up actually criticizing an admin if you don't turn off your computer right now. Beware! | ” |
Derex 09:54, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
“ | That was just getting good. It would have been better if you could have turned that whole thing into a giant Wheel War. It would have been very entertaining. On one side would be the admins who thought the "Thought Police" comment was funny and on the other would have been the thought police admins. Can we bring it back on your page, Derex? For those of you playing at home, I am kidding. | ” |
User_talk:Tbeatty 16:56, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/Wikiivy.jpg)
Ivy Goh Nair (born Ivy Goh Pek Kien in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1946) is a journalist, writer and former senior civil servant of Singapore.Her book, Singapore Accent, was published in 1981. Goh Nair is married to Chandran Nair, a Singaporean poet, artist, and retired Director and Mediator of UNESCO in Paris, where they now live. They have three grown-up daughters and a cat.
Education
[edit]Goh Nair studied at the Methodist Girl's School in Kuala Lumpur and graduated in History from the University of Malaya in 1969. From 1964 to 1965 she was an AFS (American Field Service) exchange student to Wisconsin, United States, where she graduated from Greenfield High School. She later studied at La Sorbonne University of Paris where she graduated in French language and French Civilisation in 1987.
Career
[edit]She was a tutor in the History Department of the University of Malaya from 1970 to 1972, the year she left Malaysia to join the Administrative Service of the Singapore Civil Service where she remained for nine years, holding various posts in several Ministries, Statutory Boards and Departments (Ministries of Law and Environment, People's Association, The Land Office and the Department of Trade) ranging from Assistant-Director of the People's Association, Collector of Land Revenue to Assistant Director of Trade.
She was one of the Singapore foreign correspondents for Asiaweek (Hong Kong) in 1981 before leaving Singapore to join her UN Civil Servant husband in Karachi, Pakistan. She also free-lanced as a journalist in various newspapers including, the Straits Times, the New Nation , the Business Times (where she wrote a weekly column under the pen-name, B J WU in 1980), and The Singaporean, the Journal of the National Trade Unions Congress. She had a weekly column,South of the Border in the Malaysian "Sunday Star". In Karachi, she wrote a weekly column for the Star (Karachi Sojourner), and contributed many articles to various Pakistani newspapers, including the Dawn newspaper and the Karachi Herald.
In 1981, her columns written for the Business Times under the nom de plume of BJ Wu (her name in pinyin, Wu Bi Jian) were compiled into a book "Singapore Accent", Times Distributors Sdn Bhd, 1981. Favourably reviewed by both the local and international press at the time (by S T (Shashi Tharoor) in the Singapore New Nation 24 Aug 1981; and by Ian Gill in the Asian Wall Street Journal, 29 Aug 1981,[1] the book became a local bestseller and enjoyed a bit of notoriety.
Reviews
[edit]- "Is the Singapore Press 'discovering its bite?' Are we witnessing the evolution of the 'Ugly Singaporean'? Should we emulate Japan? Do the Chinese have a sense of humour? Should husbands share the housework? These are some of the provoking questions posed-and answered in Singapore Accent, a new collection of essays by B J Wu which has just hit the book stalls. Most of the essays appeared in the Business Times during the past two years. . ." writes S T (Shashi Tharoor) in The New Nation:("Book on Singapore, Bubbles With Ideas") 24 Aug 1981, who also adds "The Author is Mrs Ivy Goh Nair who has spent the past nine years in the administrative service."
Ian Gill, the Singaporean correspondant for the Asian Wall Street Journal, reviewed the book in the 29 Aug 1981 issue of the newspaper and said:
- "Journalists in the Third World have a harder job than newspapermen in Western or Communist countries. This assertion is made by Tommy Koh, Singapore's well-respected permanent respresentative to the United Nations, in a forward to a book recently published here Singapore Accent. The reason Mr Koh gives for his view is that journalists in both Western and Communist countries work within clearly defined, although different, frameworks of values and norms. . . In contrast, he notes that 'journalists of the third world often find themselves working without knowing what are the operating norms and values'. . ." Mr Gill continues: "Singapore isn't noted for its press freedom. . . . Some media observers in Singapore ,however, recently have seen an increase in the number of critical articles in the local media . . .Singapore Accent could well serve as an example of this. This slim volume is a collection of newspaper columns penned under the pseudonym of B.J.Wu. . .The columnist is in fact Ivy Goh Nair, a senior civil servant. . ."
Works
[edit]Book: non-fiction
[edit]- Singapore Accent (1981)
External links
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Ian Gill (1981-08-29). "Columnist Chides and laughs at her Fellow Singaporeans". Asian Wall Street Journal.
- Book on Singapore Bubbles with Ideas by S T(Shashi Tharoor) The New Nation 24 Aug 1981
- Stay at Home Travellers Comment, Sunday Nation, 23 Nov 80
- A Closer Look at the goings on in Singapore by David Tsu, Sunday Star,Malaysia, 4 Oct 1981
- Thought Provoking Review by Felix Chia, The Singaporean, 9 Aug 1981
- Love is not enough Interview by Nusrat Nasarullah, Morning News, Karachi,10 feb 83
- A Foreigner's Pakistan by Maisoon Hussein, The Herald,Karachi, March 1982
Credentials
[edit]- Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree
- Certificate of French, Superior A level
- Certificate of French, Superior B Level
- Certificate of French, Intermediate Level