Encounter Of The Rude Kind

So my colleagues and I decided to take the train one afternoon, to a different location for lunch. We were heartily sick of the food around our area and for the heck of it, wanted to try something new.

The train at approximately 1.30pm was PACKED. Fortunately it was only 1 stop, so we just shrugged and boarded the train. There was space barely enough to accommodate the 4 of us. Conversation was mundane, with us just discussing work and what not.

The train had barely pulled out of the station when I noticed that a family consisting of a mother, her 4-5year old kid and grandmother had gotten / stood up from the seats next to the door. My colleagues were pretty absorbed in discussing work and over the clamour of the train, didn't notice the mother's rather abrupt and rude "ExCUSE me!" as she tried to angle for the door with her kid in tow.

However I did and quickly taking stock of the situation, realised that was absolutely no way for us to maneuver anyway. Anyone who takes the MRT would have at one point in time or another understand what I am talking about. You are pressed like a sardine against the door to the point when your hands are almost pinned to the side and any movement on your part had best be executed with ginger care.

I caught the mother's glaring eye over my colleague's shoulder and gave an apologetic smile and said "It's alright, we are getting off the next station." Again, perhaps due to the clamour of the train, she didn't hear me (or want to) and brayed again in an increasingly annoying nasal tone "ExCUSE me!" By now my colleagues had caught on to what was going on. The train however at this point was only at its midpoint in between stations. Given the cramped space we were in, honestly I wonder at what was going through the mind of the annoying mother!

I rolled my eyes at my colleague who was looking at me with a quizzical expression. Now amongst us 4, this colleague of mine H is not local. He's a pretty mild mannered guy from KL with a penchant for polo tees and thick black rimmed glasses. I opened my mouth to tell him, well I dunno what because at this point the annoying mother kinda lunged and tried to shove him aside in a bid to make a break for the door. All she accomplished however was that my colleague was off his balance and pushed into the surprised faces of my other 2 colleagues and instead of facing the door, she was facing all 1.79metres and 80 kilograms of a very cheesed off me (fine I need to lose weight ggrrr). Which to hear it from my colleague was a rather comical sight considering the mother was probably only 1.6m at best.

Ok so I admit it, at this point my patience which was already wearing thin thanks to the hot weather. I bent down or rather, loomed over her a little and snapped at her, "Look woman, what's your problem? We are getting off at the next stop too and the train hasn't bloody stopped! Can't you wait??"

She blinked a couple of times and trained (haha pun!) her sullen glare at me for a couple of moments before retorting "You all are standing there like statues!" to which I arched an eyebrow in a most condescending manner and replied "Well your sour face is enough to turn people into stone too!" I was surprised and mildly gratified at the titters and giggles that ensued around us.

Okok so it wasn't my proudest moment but seriously, I have had it with the increasingly packed shoving masses one finds everywhere in Singapore these days. It's a well known fact that Singaporeans by and large are not known for their social graces and coupled with a rapidly increasing population straining at the seams, you can bet that whatever little civic graces the past few courtesy campaigns have managed to inculcate are vaporizing faster than the flood waters around Bukit Timah after a storm.

So the government wants to further compound the problem by importing another 80,000 foreigners "only" from their initial target of 100,000. The cynical side of me goes "Oh yeah and how many more they gonna bring in AFTER they win the elections to make up for this necessary public relations move?"

Are We All Becoming Pauline Hansons?

Surf anywhere on the local blogosphere, forums and alternative news sites, you'd find an article or more regarding the unhappiness with foreign immigration or as the laughable misnomer by the PAP goverment calls them, "foreign talent".

The government's badly managed PR push to get Singaporeans to welcome these "necessary talent" is met with a rising tide of scorn and cynicism from a populace long assumed to be apathetic or even guileless to the self entrenched ruling parties ham-handed way of pushing unpopular policies through. For years, the smug "men in white" were able and grew accustomed to
steamrolling national initiatives (increase of GST from 5% - 7%, constant revision of public transport fares etc.) with nary a peep or murmur from the usually pliant citizens. But with the ascension of Lee Hsien Loong to the foregone conclusion of Prime Minister-ship and his opening of the floodgates *snicker to allow unrelenting streams of foreigners, particularly the ones from China and India, the administrations usual tactic of issuing positive-sounding-but-devoid-of-substantive-measures sound bites don't seem to be playing out well anymore.

The rising resentment stems from the fact that most Singaporeans have or are realising that these so-called talent are often just a convenient label for importing cheap labour for menial work. The chorus of dissent sings out that these foreign workers are taking up jobs that could and should be filled by a Singaporean. The evidence is as plain as PM Lee's pink shirt during his National Day Rally; foreigners have now taken up work in coffeeshops, retail outlets, bus captains and so many more. A fawning article by our state press helpfully points out all the other menial work currently being carried out by the so-called talent that the government claims Singapore needs in order to grow the economy and create jobs.

Way I see it, call a spade and a fish a fish. Have the balls to step up and admit that Singapore needs cheap foreign labour to take up jobs that Singaporeans have no interest in filling. Cut the crap with calling them "talent". The initial perception of an influx of well-educated and well heeled foreigners here to do some much-needed technology transfer were quickly dispelled when the first of many pei-du mamas started showing up in the press, arrested for moonlighting as "masseuse" and what not.

Next on the resentment list is the fact that these same 'talents' now strain our national infrastructure to the point where it's bursting at the seams. Other complaints point out that these new immigrants evince no interest in learning our language, leading to many a frustrated encounter in local shops and restaurants. Others point out that the practise of offering cheap citizenships to foreigners led to a bull run on the property market and more importantly, the government subsidised housing apartments. Housing prices have soared to astronomical heights. Foreign students are also offered scholarships and take up places in our local schools and universities. The list could go on and on.

The unhappy truth of course (though no one in the government would have the balls to come out and say it) is that capitalism at the end of the day wins. Many companies take advantage of the foreign-worker-to-locals quota wherever possible to hire cheaper skilled labour. All businesses exist for one reason and one reason alone - to make money. To claim otherwise is a crock of bullshit. As they say, money saved is money earned.


So are we in danger of becoming Pauline Hansons with this rising tide of hysteria over foreign workers coming in to steal our jobs, our homes, our childrens' places in schools? Pauline shot to international fame when she espoused a no-immigrants policy when she was running for elections. Her diatribe over "Asians" taking up jobs, homes and places in school now sound eerily familiar.

Truth is, I personally don't believe that the government owes its people long term job security or first priority in landing a job for that matter. It should however be responsible and oversee other factors that makes Singapore a great place to set up business in i.e. office rents, tax rebates. Instead of giving out lame handouts like GST Offset Package, set aside a real fund from which citizens can draw from to further improve themselves via training courses or the like. Grants for a worker to upgrade himself should be accessible to the individual himself, not dependent on a company. Artificially depressing wages by not implementing a minimum wage and making it so easy for a foreigner to find work here is just plain wrong.

That said, I think it sucks that I have to compete unfairly with a foreign worker for a job. But how I choose to deal with it is to make myself the best candidate possible. I do believe in being hired for my skills and knowledge, not because of my nationality. I have had to interview candidates for positions within my team or department before and the appalling examples of ill-prepared applicants are usually the local ones, whereas foreign applicants come across as earnest, hardworking and sometimes eager to please. Coupled with a "lower price tag", how can one blame local employers for choosing to hire "outside" help then?

Following The Bible

Now before you think this is going to be a preachy Christian post by me, worry not. It is a preachy historical post instead. The religious reference is important for the fact that well, modern society these days derived its moral authority from religion, which back in ye olden days provided for a mostly civilized setting for the people back then.

One of the things that infuriate me when it comes to the discourse of any issue is when the person goes into ideological mode and starts to quote the Bible as a justification for his/her very flawed beliefs. From capital punishment ("an eye for an eye") to condemnation of homosexuality, these ostrich-people (cos' they stick their head in the sand) simply parrot back that it's wrong and it says so in that oh-so-very-flawed book.

Well it says in the Bible, Deuteronomy 21:18-21, "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard." 21 Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death."

That is but just ONE example of the many outdated "teachings" from that book. It also says that thieves should get their right hand lopped off, if a woman loses her husband, his brother should take her in along with any surviving children, polygamy is approved of and oh by the way, so is slavery! if one was caught doing work on the Sabbath,

This next one is hilarious. Deuteronomy 22:11 says "Thou shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together."

I believe that the Bible reflected the thinking of times back then and it served its purpose. But for modern day context, a lot of it is just plain wrong. As thinking and feeling humans, to blindly follow the words from a book reproduced from over 2,000 years back is not just wrong, it's intellectual abdication.

And for the fundamentalists who cherry pick and choose which "teachings" they wish to follow and which ones to rabidly espouse, evangelise and advocate, it's moral hypocrisy.

When A Family Has To Plead For A Loved One's Life

Yong Vui Kong's Family Plead for his Life from Lianain Films on Vimeo.

This is a damn heart-breaking video, all the more so because it's shorn of any special editing or effects. It's raw, it's real and it's happening whether we are aware or not.

To be honest, I was one of those who were initially cynical and dismissive over this anti-death penalty campaign. Or any of its predecessors for that matter. "Just another drug trafficker sentenced to die, so?" was my general attitude and one that sums up alot of Singaporeans I believe.

I was idly following the coverage that The Online Citizen provides regarding this affair when a sentence from a speech struck me.

"This is about mercy."

And yes, that's when I realised how far removed I was becoming from my own humanity. To be so innured to the thought of another fellow human being that it doesn't cause more than a moment's consideration or worse, a sneer. Is that the kind of person I have become?

To those who say that he was caught and found guilty of a crime, well let those who knows no sin cast the first stone then. If not, STFU seriously.

So yeah, if you aren't aware of this issue, do find out more and sign the petition if you can.

End rant.

Oh.My.Gawd

If there is any indication of how much of a failure our Singapore education system is, one of it has to be a conversation I just had with a client during a meeting.

Her : "I'm not sure if our selection of The Star (the leading English newspaper in Malaysia) is appropriate for the campaign. Would Sin Chew (The leading cheena paper) have a better reach?"

Me : "Well, the circulation is quite close, but you have to consider your target audience. Since your brand is looking to hit the English-speaking market, The Star would be a better choice, because you don't just restrict yourself to reaching out to the Chinese market only. There are the English-educated Malays and Indians you can target as well."

Her : "Oh I see... but majority of the population in Malaysia is Chinese right?"

Me : "Er... no?"

Oh My Fucking God. How on fucking earth can anyone think the majority race in MALAYSIA is ...

I was speechless for like 10 seconds and my colleague had to cover for me.

Seriously. WTF

Meandering Thoughts

As I'm typing this, my eyes are constantly drawn to a pretty stunning view of Chinatown area from my new office. Despite the rather cramped nature of my workspace, I'm simply delighting in the exuberant creative atmoshphere in my new surroundings.

No more angsty stuffy bitchy lesbians. No more dull-as-yesterday's-milk colleagues who think that mall decorations are so "happening". No more loud ah bengs haggling over the pricing of plywood structures or cheesily blaring tacky polyphonic ringtones from similarly garishly decked out handphones.

Yesterday I saw soemone in the office sporting a Harry Winston for gawd's sake! I've never been so conscious of what I wear to work before in my life hahaha...

In a rather ironic twist, my window looking out from this rather chic steel & glass building overlooks my former tacky office at People's Park Centre. Ha!

Anyway, I'm a little behind the news. I just found out that Albus Dumbledore is gay and I just stumbled across Thio Li Ann's rather passionate speech in Parliament. Good stuff. And here I was just happy that we downed Leotheras last week. (WoW reference, doesn't matter if you don't get it. I'm such a geek)

I gotta say, for all that the Alex Au and Stuart Koe tribe wanna hurl anti-homo labels at Prof. Thio, the woman has some rather compelling points. A huge positive-PR spin was done on her by ST today.

I gotta say, our SPH seems determined to paint her as a lone champion of moral rights, rather Joan of Arc-ish like, while the activitists' camp is looking rather shabby in the public eye. Alfian's email telling her to Eff-off & wanting to pee on her grave didn't help much. Stupid queen. Lol. Stick to writing plays lah.

I do wanna ask all the pro-gay activists out there though, now that the dust has settled and the battle lines are looking faded and rather out of place in the wake of the Govt going "No ass fucking for you", what's next?

It's all nice and cheery to hear cliche lines like "We've raised awareness" or "At least we get to discourse" or even lamer "we're grateful & amazed at the level of support", so what? The law hasn't changed. For all the emotional chest beating and drama, what has changed for the average gay guy in Singapore that wasn't different 6 months ago, or hell, 1 year ago?

I'm just glad I didn't bother to attend some silly rally a friend invited me to. I wouldn't have completed my tier 4 that night then hahaha...

Harry Fucking Potter & The Fucking Convenient Moments

So I finally wasted 53 bucks on the last instalment of the Harry Potter series and yup, J.K Rowling did not disappoint. If the 6th book was trash, the 7th surpassed it.

Before I go on bitching about it, if you are gonna ask WHY do I read it then? Well I can't possibly bitch in the face of the mindless gormless HP fan I meet on the street if I haven't read it first right? I swear the next idiot who tells me in a simpering tone that "oh my hobbies include reading. I read Harry Potter" is gonna get a fucking roundhouse bitch-slap in the face.

J.K Rowling is not an author. She's a fucking soap opera writer. And a bad one at that. Think Days of Our fucking Lives.

Firstly, the entire series has gone to trash after Prisoner of Azkaban. Now why I say after Prisoner, cos' frankly before she hit that stupid reality tv show kinda fame, she had actually written the series up to that point. Yes Prisoner was the last book she had time to complete before she became a celebrity. So she was actually serious about writing back then.

But ever since then, she has taken her writing to a whole new level. Characters are shoved in without a thought, convenient sub plots and storylines are established within a sentence. Glaring loop holes and mis-logic are covered up because she engages in one main and I would say, only form of writing. That of the first person perspective.

Which is such a fucking cop out. Oh she needs something to have happened here but it didn't happen in the previous books! Oh never mind, if Harry doesn't know about it, the author doesn't either and hence you the reader either.

The moment of utter disgust for me came when Harry Potter found Albus Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth.

Who is none other than.. the Hog's Head barman!!! yes, the owner of the very same place that HP & gang chose to have their first meeting of the DA. And how many books it has been since... 3? 4?

And not once was there ever a hint that that was Dumbledore's brother! Cos' why? She didn't think so either! What a fucking cop out!

The rest of the book is utter trash. The whole thing about Snape being secretly in love with HP's mum and all that.. total trite and convenient bullshit. Totally.

I guess that's what you get for writing books in starbucks-like cafes and signing autographs every few mins or so to your hordes of mindless idiotic fans sitting outside watching with bated breath every time you hit a qwerty key.

I can't believe trees were actually killed for this crap. That's the biggest crime of the century to my mind.

Fed Up

I'm just have had FUCKING it with the work politics.

The background...

I'm working in a pretty established and awesome company, doing events planning and management. I have a fantastic GM, and her dad who is the MD is prety nice too. I mean, he got a box of godiva chocs as a gift and proceeded to walk round the office feeding everyone! Lol.

But my peer, who is also the default head of the dept. , is a perfectionist bar none when it comes to work. I won't go into the little office politics she's done yet.

I engaged my best friend. Yes I can hear the choruses of "NOOOO!!!" coming from all you silent readers out there. I know the time worn cliches about "friends can't be colleagues" and all that. I still made the choice and was prepared to live with it. We both know and understand our shortcomings, he knows my temper and how I handle things and for me, I need a good friend in the office to back me up from time to time. He's creative if not derailed, hardworking if not stressed. Well, whatever.

My best friend was hired into a position I myself held 4 years back. I was prepared for him to stumble around for awhile before he eases into it. Despite him having had some background previously, I knew it was not as extensive as this one and I was prepared to make up for his shortfalls come whatever they may.

What I was NOT prepared for nor forsaw...

My fellow peer and manager, aka the Lesbian, making life hell for him. I mean, you put a perfectionist together with a scatterbrain like my best friend and all drama breaks loose. I should have forseen this right? In this case, frankly I'm being made to be the biggest fool of all.

It doesn't help that another colleague, hired into the same position as my best friend, has performed and outstripped him in every way imaginable. She's conscientious, bubbly, cheerful, initiative-driven, takes responsibility for her work, looks out for her manager (the Lesbian) and even takes the car out and drives round for events and such. Essentially, the dream executive one should have hired.

Things are coming to a head whereby reviews are pending. My GM told me expressly that my best friend goes (nobody is the office is wise to exactly HOW good friends we are) only on my say so. On the other hand the Lesbian is pushing to hire a new executive and has already started interviews!

One comment made by the Lesbian which was rather chilling, "He is pulling your peformance down".

I dread coming to work these days. Losing a big account over the weekend didn't help matters, but my boss was very reassuring and told me to overlook it, she definitely does. My position in the company is pretty much stable and I'm being tasked to plan somethig for next June.

But the tension between my best friend and the Lesbian is so palpable, get a headache just thinking about it. I know where she's coming from, she has every right to be as demanding and bitchy as she is. I can't really make a beef about setting high standards and structures. Unfortunately it's often seemed to be targeted at my best friend. And despite his constant assurances that he will do better, it's simply just not happening.

A good friend once commented "If you chose to hire your best friend, you have to face the fact that you have to fire him as well".

Oh My Effing GAWD

This was a conversation between me and a supposedly (posing as, I suspect) industry-pro of a marketing manager for a supposedly established events management company.

Me : "I have a proposal for my client, Singapore Science Centre and they're looking to do a Festival coming March."

Her (in very auntie ah soh buying fish from market voice) : "ah yes. How much your budget?"

Me : "I don't really have those figures yet, I'm currently proposing to them."

Her : "So your event is what?"

Me : "It's a Festival being held by Singapore Science Centre."

Her : "So what kind of event har? Dinner and dance is it?"

Me : "NO, its a FEST-ival."

Her : "So where is this festival?"

Me (sarcastically) : "It's by Singapore Science Centre, where do you think it should be at?"

Her : " In town is it?"

OH MY F**KING GAWD. It should be legal to shoot stupidity like that.

The Rant Post From The Office

Well, for the first time in weeks, I'm bored at work, waiting for clients to revert, waiting for emails to confirm, waiting for the clock to hit 6.00pm, waiting waiting waiting.

Yes, I'm bored. Very.

One thing that has come to mind on and off is that I seem to have fallen off the blogging bandwagon. I still take snapshots with my phone, i've taken quite a number more wth my digicam. Snapshots that upon reviewing were rather nice in their quality or composition, but frankly were too lazy to upload and share.

So here and now in the office, bereft of my own laptop with specially selected pictures (and photoshop ffs!) I shall attempt use my time effectively enough to write an entry that endeavours to be engaging and entertaining in its read.

Yeah right. You very free also hor?

Ok time for random thoughts spewing;

1) Which blinking moron actually thinks Mahatir deserves a Nobel PEACE prize? For someone so obviously antagonistic towards the West, bitterly jealous over Singapore's economic success and rather ham fisted in his oh-so-obvious overthrowing of his former deputy Anwar cos' he couldn't handle the competition (which also sparked off riots in KL), yeah I can see how he is such a paragon of virtous peace making ideals.

2) My god. I know I'm working in a rather Chinese-oriented company but even the enunciation of Shirlyn and Charlene is something most of my colleagues struggle at.

3) I had a rather weird dream last night, where I was a resident in Wisteria Lane, having to plot how best to burn Sarah Jessica Parker's house down cos' she slept with the Blonde Best Friend's friend's boyfriend and someone ended up in jail or something. Yes it's the worst mash up of SATC and Desperate Housewives ever and it only happens here in my dreams.

4) After the recent almost-meltdown I had with regard to working on the 3M pitch, I have come to the conclusion that while being initiative-driven might be an admirable quality, it's mostly a waste of time when you work for a mostly-family-run company.

5) Got an offer to buy a 1Gb thumb-drive for only S$34 bucks.

6) What's more icky than coyly cruising that cutie at a couple of tables away during your company's D&D only to find out that he isn't an undiscovered hottie from the Creatives Department or whatever but he's the cousin of your manager? Ok probably alot more but I backpedaled from making that contact faster than you can say "They're building a WHAT at Mt. Faber?!"

7) What's sexier than knowing that you put on more than 8kg cos' you haven't worked out for like a year and your former FB still finds you hot?

8) I'm becoming used to kopi-O-peng every morning. Not exactly as glamourous as a cuppa ice blended from Coffee Bean every morning but alot more decidedly economical.

9) Just when I think I might have seen/experienced all the levels of queen-dom one could ever see/experience (I did work in a cabaret for over 3 years dammit!), a new designer bemuses me by speaking pseudo-French loudly on his handphone and has to moisturise his hands like 5 times a day in the office.

10) Whatever may happen, I'm gonna spend my birthday this year out of this god-knows-we're-repressed country. I'm also not above accepting donations for this endeavour