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.