Students getting a slim slice of the budget pie

At a preparatory meeting for ULAB's planned virtual convocation, I suggested that we use the iconic image of Keanu Reeves dodging many bullets in the Matrix trilogy as our promotional campaign. After all, our motto this year is "against all odds", which chimes with Reeves' ("Neo" in the movie) slo-mo tackling of a flurry of bullets. The pandemic has made us take shelter in a virtual world as we try to protect ourselves from the multifrontal attack of the ever-evolving virus. Everyone laughed, and my suggestion was nothing more than "a glitch in the system" just like déjà vu is a glitch in the "matrix"—the simulated reality that makes humanity unaware that artificial intelligence has actually taken over the world. Not everyone shares their likings of the same movies; unfortunately, thanks to a global crisis, we all share the same predicaments.