although free dinners are never to be sniffed at, especially not by graduate students living in penury, it seems to me that when politicians from home visit and ask to meet with students what they really want is to be able to say see what fine lawyers/engineers/research scientists/entrepreneurs/ our little island has turned out at some of the finest universities in the world! they are only minimally interested in meeting philosophers, art historians or literary scholars, to name but a few areas in the humanities in which singaporeans do graduate work. and since none of them are about to give me more money to buy books schmoozing up to politicians seems a waste of time that could have been happier spent reading. unless it's someone very exciting like tharman i do not think i will go to one of these dinners again.