Freaking Acronyms

Ok correct me if I'm wrong but today was a revelation for me in terms of our country's love for acronyms.

I was reading an article on Singapore when I came across the name Sellapan Ramanathan, mentioned in a current affairs article.. Now as a fellow Singaporean, what does that name mean to you?

I was slightly stunned and curious. I thought "Since when did it change/ Who is this feller that the article was referring to?

Sellapan Ramananthan. Who is he?

Well, I'm ashamed to say this but that's our return-unopposed-but-supposedly-elected President of Singapore, S R Nathan.

Perhaps it's the norm for Indian/Tamil names to be shortened as such, I don't know, could someone enlighten me please? But for many of my friends, including some in NUS, nobody knew who I was talking about when I went on MSN and started asking around.

I think it's a sad day indeed and speak volumes about politics in Singapore and how apathetic my generation is, when most of us don't even know the full name of our very own (supposedly beloved, accordig to the media) President.

Another ridiculous acronym I came across, lovingly labelled by our own civil service, was APPLES. Now I don't know about you, but I like to think that a document as important as your own passport should not be cheapened and shortened to a fruit in a market, no matter what they say about an apple a day and the doctor and all that.

I could go on and on about our country's silly love for acronyms. But I'll leave it here for now. *roll eyes*

Talk To Her Uncaring Hand

I'm not sure if you have heard of this recent issue, about a certain Miss Wee Shu Min, daughter of Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Wee Siew Kim, making totally insensitive, derogatory and insulting remarks about a Mr Derek Wee in her blog.

In her entry, which I won't elaborate but you can read it here.

It blew up over the local blogging community, so much so that her father was forced to make an apology that so was NOT an apology.

Frankly, I don't give a shit. If poeple took this long to realise that there ARE social elites in the country who truly look down upon them, who treat going into areas like coffeeshops and HDB estates like they are doing charity work, then they deserve the rude shock coming to them.

So why am I posting this?

'Cos during lunch I was of all things, called up by a reporter for MY reaction to this whole bunch of bullshit. Why my reaction? Well if you don't know why then I'll leave you to figure it out but I was relishing the irony of asking me. The pesty reporter was from none other than my "fave" trashy tabloid of the nation, TNP, of course.

I was mostly silent for the phone conversation after saying "Hi" and affirming I was who I was on the phone, I listened with a growing sense of deja vu as she rambled on and on about the issue. Then came the moment I was actually waiting for, which sprung to mind while her irritating whiny voice was talking.

TNP Reporter : "So what are your views on this, especially with how MP Wee referred to his daughter's behaviour?"

Me : "Frankly, I think he's a hypocrite, but then again he's a politician. Coming to think of it, I think your call's kinda hypocritical too. Now you're spoiling my lovely lunch so I'm gonna hang up. Ta!"

Geez, the fucking nerve of asking ME.

Anyway, here's a pic of that "biatch". Me wonders, does elitism have a certain "look" ? Cos' she sure resembles another pudgy complexion-challenged stumpy girl I know with pretty much the same attitude. :P Perhaps the Best Friend can shed some light. :P

Haze In Singapore

Warning - Picture heavy post!

Decided to link this to my other blog instead of reproducing en bloc.

The Cask Of Amontillado

If you are a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, the above picture is a very refreshing take on the classic, The Cask of Amontillado.

As a kid, I read this story and was morbidly fascinated by the idea of being walled up alive. Truth to tell, I was rather fascinated with various forms of death that were long and drawn out. The macabreness of one's realisation of the impending end yet impotency to do anything about it, sends a chill of horror and titillation down my spine. Much as we homo sapiens behave like we control the world around us, the fact is we control very little indeed. If indeed I could choose which forms of death I would not want to experience, it'd be;

1) Being buried alived.

2) Being walled up alive.

3) Drowning.

4) Suffocation.

I used to list falling from a great height amongst those but I read somewhere your neck snaps mid fall and you're most likely dead before you ever hit the ground so that eliminates its eligibility from "Long drawn out deaths I wouldn't wanna gro through" for me.

Happy Hallow's Eve.

First They Came

First They Came ~ Martin Niemoller

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, it seems with recent times its easier for a state to be overrun by facism than ever. Recent events displaying the callous disregard for external sentiments and feelings not pertaining to what the Government wants sends a silent chill down one's spine if you choose to take a step back and consider it.

Fascism isn't an overnight revolution. It starts insidiously, slowly. The collection of authority and power into the hands of a select few. It stacks up over time like a pile of stones, until one wakes up one day to find a mountain of errors and "its always been this way" excuses and by then, it might be too late.

What *is* facism? According to Wikipedia, it states that "Fascism is a radical totalitarian political philosophy that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, extreme nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism." Another consideration of facism is that "Fascism is also typified by totalitarian attempts to impose state control over all aspects of life: political, social, cultural, and economic".

Cheem siah...

I'm not saying that we live in a facist country. We don't. But we could. The political apathy of the majority of the population attests to this. The complacency of the people to leave decisions up to the policy makers paves the way for this. An election system that sees a party largely returned to power before polling even begins & regulations favouring the incumbent allows this. The lack of credible debate and discussion avenues that affects policy BEFORE it is implemented shows this. The crackdown on dissident voices, opposing views and alternative opinions proves this.

The greatest harm often come of the greatest of intentions. It doesn't take evil men for evil deeds to happen.

The problem is, not many Singaporeans can be bothered about this. There is so much wrong about our systems in Singapore, from;

1) a judicial system that presumes guilt before proven innocence.

2) a collection of government watchdogs that claim to plan for "open-ness" but clamp down hard on any form of alternative-ness other than their own.

3) a one party government that has presided over an ever increasing income gap between the rich & the poor and is so out of touch with real life issues yet gets re-elected thanks to its monopoly on the media.

4) a standard of living that rises every day and every year but minimum wages that hasn't risen to suit.

5) an economy that sees its people working to feed the government multi-national companies that virtually controls every facet of life we partake in.

6) a National Pledge that recites "regardless of race, language or religion" but sees its government persecuting Jehovah's Witnesses, depriving the entire gay community of any form of recognition or expression and recently, even helping a foreign government persecute Falungong activists trying to drum up support for their own plight back home.

7) a government so confident of its own authoritarian rule that it even puts the facade of inviting debate on the casino issue & then steamrolled ahead with its implementation plans anyway and politely telling the World Bank & IMF that it wants it business but it'll ignore their views on allowing peaceful demonstrations outside its meetings.

The list goes on. But it gets more and more depressing if I were to write on. Did I mention that suicide rates are up too? I kid you not.

So what are we to do? The MDA's favourite tag line recently seems to be "give us solutions" (especially over that silly Mr Brown incident) but frankly, what can an average guy like me do when everywhere you turn or whichever corner you round, you are actively blocked, governed and basically conditioned against speaking out?

Pri-f**king-orities!!???

Of late it seems this seems to be the buzzword - Priorities.

If anyone is following the news OUTSIDE of our state-run media, one would know of the embrassing backlash from the WB-IMF over our government's communist-like handling of the civil activists and their attendance of the Singapore 2006 meetings. The rain of criticism included chortlings of the American media, mostly along the lines of "They're barbaric, they cane people what do you expect" to downright criticism by the WB Chief, Wolfowitz himself.

But while everyone in the know have been deriding the government for their less-than-savvy management of the entire debacle, our local media truly showed themselves to be the mouthpiece of the government solely, by glossing over the international hue & cry over the affair, as well as downplaying the SDP's ongoing attempt at a protest rally & march.

These brave (but foolhardy in my opinion) souls are really trying their darndest to give Singaporeans a chance at a voice of their own, though what do they really expect the WB-IMF to do when our government doesn't even respect their own accreditation criteria really beats me.

What's even more amusing is the blatant attempt at propaganda by the media. From a crowd of over a 100 supporters the media applied for a creative license and whittled down the truth to only 20. But what else can you expect from CNA & the Strait(-Jacket) Times huh?

So it truly seems like our government's main priority at this point is to continue slathering the WB-IMF delegates with bile-inducing Eden-like facts of our (police) city-state while brave (but foolhardy?) activists sit out in the sun & rain for 4 days & 3 nights. Anything to save face, our Singapore Government is.

On the work front, I'm dealing with a Boss who puts unrealistic project goals & income over staff welfare. At times I'm really close to losing it, what with the 4A.M phone calls and emails, constant changing and restructuring of marketing efforts. Meanwhile since our supposed Finance & HR manager was fired in a fit of temper by my Boss, the little things that take care of staff to make sure things operate smoothly has got to the nuthouse.(I say supposed because he never did do what his job scope implied) From irritating facts like a lack of paper to non-existent water in the cooler and a pantry in name only to even an underlying fear that paychecks may not be cut on time to a really really staff-shortfall, I'm beginning to feel the dread of going into work these days.

So with all the wrong priorities happening all over the place, I can't help but wonder why fucking bother!!!

The SG Media Are Bloody Hypocrites

Even as they happily laud the fact that Singapore has been ranked amongst the top 5 of corruption free countires around the world, the silence on their non-reporting of the recent backlash from the World Bank - IMF over our government's rough shod banning of civil activist delegates to the upcoming meetings has been D E A F E N I N G.

Joint Statement From World Bank And IMF On CSO Participation In The Annual Meetings In Singapore

The WB-IMF protesting our government's banning of accreddited NGO reps. In other words, our government thinks its standards of deciding which people to allow to attend the meetings, or not, is waaaaay better than an International body like WB-IMF.

Singapore Under Fire as World bank-IMF Protest

Yay. Now we're publicly being laughed at. way to go marketing Singapore. Wasn't it only recently that some minister was boasting and urging one united brand of Singapore? Well there you have it.

Dictatorial Singapore

Authoritative Know It All Singapore

"We Ban Ya Ass" Singapore

Those press releases or reports (compiled by AFP too, if you notice) has been out for at least a day or 2. But not a single peep from our docile media. No no cannot let Singaporeans know that we are not being as friendly or wlecoming as our government keeps brain washing us to think we should be.

All that bullshit about wanting to attract foreign talent, investors and making this a fun filled creative place. Yeah fucking-bloody "right".

Jailed ST Reporter in China

Ching Cheong, acknowledged by the Straits Times as their Chief China correspondent, was jailed for 5 years today, in China on supposedly trumped up charges of espionage.

Amidst all the furore of protests and petitions drummed up by his wife, Reporters San Frontiers (Reporters Without Borders), human rights activists in the US and Hong Kong, a resounding silence resonates from the country which is his country of residence and his place of employment offers a mere mewling token protest. Given the outright glee which they handled the NKF saga, their enthusiasm for this particular affair seems quite lackadaisical I think.

But it's not really that surprisingly. A line from BBC's coverage states "The government does not allow any challenge to its authority and keeps a tight rein on the media."

Ouch. But before you think it's a slur on our supposedly fine Republic of Singapore, it's not. It of course infers to the draconian state laws of the communist People's Republic of China, long known for its persecution of freedom-loving right-wing activists and religion practitioners of dubious faiths.

But why I say "it isn't surprising" is because that simple statement is probably heartily endorsed by the Lee regime here in Singapore itself. Reading that, a recent post-election ticking off by the elder Lee definitely comes to mind. :P

Preference Vs. Racism

I made this as a comment on a blog.

"I guess more than anyone else has cause to, I have gone over this whole racism crap a bazillion times.

And my main conclusion is this. No one likes rejection. No one likes being excluded. No one likes being left out of the "In" group and no one likes being told "you can't".

Before you jump to your guns, let me finish hor.

There are alot of circumstances that one can't control/influence/have much say over. However when it comes to preference vs racism, oh boy you can bet you can find more advocacy groups for either sides than you can for volunteers to help starving children in Africa!

Why's that so? 'Cos from history's precedent, you can always find holier-than-thou/ more-pious-than-art /more politically-correct-than-you or simply put, anal retentive people who have nothing better to do in their lives than to take up arms in a cause that frankly, doesn't affect their lives overwhelmingly one way or another. And I am not talking about apartheism here, that's another can of worms altogether, I'm not lumping these 2 issues together.

And what better pedestal to mount than the "you're racist" platform? It confers the accuser a cloak of morality, gives the feller the right to vent his own self-hating vitriol against a group/minority/community of people he doesn't understand. I often find that bigots are foremost amongst those to cry "racist" than anybody else. You'll find such people very much blind to the contradicting, conflicting, paradoxical actions in their very own lives too.

**Note - this thought occurred to me the other day while watching a Will & Grace episode that was digging fun at political correctness. And I thought to myself, "I think alot of people are more thick-skinned than we give them credit for and frankly, have better things to do than to raise a hue & cry over every racial/national/gender dig that someone makes. Could it be that the political correctness advocates are guiltier for harbouring truly racist/sexist/classist/ageist thoughts deep down than the average ah tan who serves his national service, enjoys a cuppa kopi with his friends and treats his non-chinese friends with real respect i.e respecting the differences without making an issue out of them?"

On a personal note, I rarely date malay guys. I have dated ONE malay guy, have had a huge crush on another. Since then, well I haven't metanother who presses my buttons quite the same. Never did a white guy nor an indian guy either. But do I have friends of those races? Definitely. Do I find excuses not to associate myself in public with them? Definitely NOT. Am I turned off by their culture? No way. But just cos' I choose not to sleep with them (and never have I uttered that, just that I haven't met one who made me want to), I'm "racist". Sometimes I wanna grab them by their Gap-labelled t-shirts' neck and show them my collection of porn. And tell me I'm racist then. :P

I'm just waiting for the day when maybe I am dating say a malay guy, and a chinese wants to make out with me and I reject him cos' he aint my type and i get the "you're racist against your own kind" type of comment or remark. Now *that* would be a hoot and sadly, in Singapore, not a very un-probable happening.