The NKF Story

INSEAD Alumni Association
PresentsThe NKF Story - News Reporting or Advocacy?

You've probably been keeping yourself updated about the unfolding of the National Kidney Foundation story in the media, and how thousands of people in Singapore reacted to the story.

Now, get ready to hear the untold story: how the media covered the NKF story and what people think about the coverage.

This discussion is for all, whether or not you're related to the NKF or the media. If the story affected you in one way or more, you have a story to tell. Come, be a part of our untold story...

FOR MORE INFORMATION & TO REGISTER FOR EVENT, CLICK HERE

Be there (and maybe bring some peanuts)!

What lies beneath

in response to Random Voyeur's request for what went deeper in the NKF saga... well... it raises a few questions. exactly why these questions are raised... you will have to go find out for yourself. not too difficult, just read a little about the history of NKF, think about why there was a need for NKF and how it was possible for it to become such a big entity.

some of the issues are:
1. when would the ends stop justifying the means?

2. if a company is incorporated and has IPC status, should it be audited and under the jurisdiction of MCYS?

3. are people in Singapore too comfortable, taking far too many things for granted and believing everything we say?

4. have we, as a people divested the responsibility to think, to find out to someone else?

5. the role of the media in it all (for more, find out here)

6. Lord Acton's adage: power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. who is the most absolute power in Singapore? what are the possible consequences?

these were some of the questions that arose out of a discussion about the NKF saga that i had with a group of really interesting people. these are just the questions. i have my own views on these issues and questions. but my views are in no way suggested by the way i phrased the questions and issues. you go think about them and come to your own conclusions and how you act upon your conclusions is your own responsibility.

Street Art

from Geylang to the Fullerton, the Flab Four strikes again!



Quote of the night: i sucked at my oral exam and eventually blew it. Had to do it very quickly and under cover.

it was a great night. conversation was well greased by the choc induced high. covered a whole spectrum of topics, from sex to politics, from education to subversion, from clubs to society.

i'm thankful for my friends. :)

Uniquely Singapore

they say you pay peanuts you get monkeys. so what does that make TT Durai?

where else in the world would peanuts cost $600,000? only in Singapore.

learnt that the whole NKF thing goes a lot deeper than what is discussed in the media and parliament.

if you want to know more (and are not an agent of ISD), we can meet for dinner and i shall share with you what i've learnt.

and apparently, a lot of tea has been drunk. where else in the world would 'drinking tea' be such a big deal? only in Singapore.

Tongue in Cheek=Thorn in Flesh?

Tin's blog had this song:

Sing to "We are Singapore"There was a time when Richard saidThat TT Durai didn't do it, but he did
There was a time when Richard said That NKF didn't do it, but they did
They built NKF, strong and rich, reaching out together
For more and more money

Chorus 1:
It is our money, it is our blood,
It is our kindness, it is our tears,
Don't take our money, to be your bonus
Don't cheat Singapore, Singaporeans

Tin felt that, though creative it is inappropriate because it is a national song. i disagree. i am of the opinion that a matured people, a matured society is one that doesn't take itself too seriously and can laugh at itself.

have you heard the things that the brits and americans do to their own national anthems? and yet, they still sing their own national anthems with such pride when the occassion calls for it. why? because their pride is something that is so ingrained in their collective psyche that it is almost innate in each of their individual nature and so parodies of their national anthems are seen as superficial jokes and they don't lose sleep over it.

so the issue is not whether people write parodies of our national song, but whether, despite of all these tongue in cheek fun, do people fundamentally have pride in their nation such that we are willing to sing these songs, at the appropriate occassions, with pride and gusto?

the same goes for racial harmony. as Cherian George writes in "The Air-Conditioned Nation":
"With Singapore becoming more cosmopolitan and porous to information and influence, multi-racialism can only be sustained if it is embedded in the instincts of each individual, rather than imposed by authority."

is pride in being Singaporean embedded in the instincts of each Singaporean? do we, at the bottom of our hearts, love Singapore? if we do, then we should be able to make fun of ourselves and not let such superficial jesting get to us.

Playlist

my current playlist:
Tong Hua
Be Strong (Delta Goodrem)
Collide (Howie Day)
Untitled (Simple Plan)
Qing Fei De Yi (Harlem Yu)
Hong Dou (Faye Wong)
Superman (Five for Fighting)
100 Years (Five for Fighting)

i am so masochistic.

Shit Night

didn't manage to get to eat any durians last night. but that was not the reason why that night was a shit night. it was more because, for some reasons, we kept talking about shit. like how shit like me hang around jeremy. now what would that make him? an ass! and what would that make Jos and Jas? considering their physical proximity? nuts! alas, Brandon wasn't there. otherwise he would have been the last of our close neighbours, Dick.

but yar. i can't remember what else.. but we did talk a lot of shit last night. it was quite fun. of course then i had to leave the 3 J's to meet Zhaoru. man... the speculations that started flying as i left. but that was nothing compared to what happened today. cos there was an event at Taman Jurong CC today. and i suggested to Bernise that she should come along to see. and so she did. and guess what... people started asking whether she was my girlfriend. first it was Khim, then Xinghui, then i don't remember who else. luckily, it was Dharm who introduced Bernise to Jane. otherwise... Jane would probably have started speculating too.

school starts tmr. another chapter of my life begins. kind of happy, kind of not. but that's my life anyways.

sigh. so many things have happened in the past couple of years. particularly in the past year. so so many things.

ah well... once more unto the breach.

Crap... and Serious Crap

i think i had too much garlic in my diet. see right... my mom loves to put garlic, tons of it, into her cooking. and she cooked beehoon today. and as usual, there is a generous dose of garlic in it... it was quite tasty and all... but i think it caused much flatulence today. and when i went to shit, my shit smelt of garlic...

anyways... enough of my crap. on to something slightly more serious.

now that China has devalued its currency, i wonder whether CNOOC will be able to buy over UNOCAL. though i can understand the concerns that the american lawmakers have. considering what a strategic resource oil is. in fact, our modern economy cannot function without oil. take away oil and i'm sure all us soft nancies will die.

at least that's probably true for quite a lot of the younger singaporeans (i.e. Singaporeans my age or younger). take away our broadband internet connection and we feel lost, take away our handphones and we kau beh kau bu, no air-con and we all die of heat stroke. or at least will complain damn loudly. i think there is some veracity in the older generations charge that we are too soft. i read in the papers today this whole list of letters regarding training safety in the SAF. it's no wonder that one of my brit friends think that the SAF is not training soldiers but merely babysitters, that soldiers in SAF are all himbos. i mean, you don't hear so many people dropping like flies in the past. perhaps people of a generation ago are indeed made of tougher stuff. i wonder why that is the case though. perhaps we in this generation are really too comfortable, being given everything that we want, so much so that we take things for granted, that we have lost that sense of discipline, to endure hardship and fight for what we want.

it seems that my generation (myself included) might have grown up with a mentality that everything should be in place for us, that it is our birth right to have an easy life. and when reality hits us, when we realise that we actually have to fight for our livelihoods, our ideals, we grumble, we complain, we blame everyone else but ourselves.

i suggest that parents should stop being so concerned with academic grades and focus more on the character of their kids. once they settle that, once they inculcate fighting spirit, discipline, team spirit, selflessness, respect for self and others, then the academic grades will then follow. merely forcing a child to get good grades is really putting the cart before the horse.

but really chewren nowadays har. some times really feel like smacking the living shit out of some of them. but then again, sometimes i feel like smacking the living shit out of other people too. like whenever i was in NS and made to rush to wait and wait to rush, i feel like smacking the living shit out of the people who did the planning. no... i jest. i understand why sometimes things don't go always as plan. but the sheer paranoia that leads to us having to rush to wait and wait to rush does get quite irritating.

i read another article about this rush to wait syndrome. apparently, for the IOC session in Singapore, because we are so damn bloody kiasu, the organisers factored in buffer time for travelling and all. but they factored in too much buffer time, resulting in the members usually arriving too early (i.e. 30-40 minutes before what they were supposed to be there for). of course, these people are dignitaries and hence are always entertained while they waited. at the very least, they were comfortable. but for poor NSFs, or SAF personnel (because it is the case for any SAF event, the grunts are always made to rush to wait...), we just wait in the sun, in the rain, in much discomfort. and i think it just goes to show that we are actually quite inefficient. but of course, the people who matter, the powers that be don't see it. they just see things happening the moment they get there. of course things start on time, because everyone else has been there waiting for the last aeon. and all that time could have been put to better use.

well... i'm off to bed. durians tmr. the last time i ate loads of durians, my shit smelt like durians. honest. i kid you not. :)

Babble

doing my daily trawl of blogs and discovered a really interesting blog. it belongs to Dominic Soon, a friend of mine whom i've not really kept in touch with. his blog is really good quality commentary on very many things. and as i read his blog, i realise how platitudinous and pointless my own blog is.

but then again, as my own life philosophy goes, life essentially is pointless. whatever point it has is what we want to give it, what we make of it. so perhaps i shall go on being blissfully ignorant, encapsulating myself in my own bubble and keep sharpening my pencils. get the point?

Semper Fidelis

which is latin for "Always Faithful". it also happens to be the motto of the US Marine Corp. just watched a show about USMC Bootcamp. it's not like Full Metal Jacket at all. it's deliberately made as one of those feel-good-suceed-after-overcoming-obstacles kind of show.

much as i hate the military and all that it stands for, i think that there is value in putting a group of people together and artificially creating situations where this group of people suffer together. i remember amidst all the "kanninah" and "die you cheebye fuckhead!!!" that we keep spouting in OCS, the mental and physical pain does indeed build a certain resilience, a certain strength of character.

and if the show was anything to go by, when a group of people suffer together, they tend to be closer. one of the reasons why semper fidelis is the motto is becuase the marines are supposed to be there for one another, always. there was a part where the gunnery sergeant (i.e. instructor) asked his recruits to imagine taking a bullet for his platoon mate, or jumping on a grenade to save fellow marines and telling them that one day, it may come to that. i wonder whether any Singaporeans will give up our own lives for our fellow Singaporeans. will we give up our present for the future? will we accept the supremacy of the state over society and of society over the individual? or will we rather forget the past, ignore the futre and focus on maximising the immediate gains of the individual?

towards the end of the show, the gunnery sergeant asked his recruits (who by that time have received their Eagle, Globe and Anchor, i.e. the USMC badge) what the United States is? whether it is a nation that gives them things? to which the men reply, "No! It is a nation that we serve!" the gunnery sergeant then asks, "what is the Marine Corp?" to which the men reply "We are the Marine Corp!"

the same questions could be asked of Singaporeans. What is Singapore? it is a nation that we all serve. but who is it that we serve? us, all of us, as a collective. We are Singapore.

Semper Fidelis. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Sweet and fitting it is to die for the greater good.

Perfect Vision

i was just looking back at some of the things that i've written. hindsight is always 20/20 isn't it?

i think the things that i wrote a few months before are a lot more interesting than the banal crap that i churn out these days. and i know why. and those of you whom i'm closer to would know why as well.

in any case, yah... if you are new to my blog (are you sure you want to read my blog? don't you have something better to do with your life?), i suggest you skip the more recent posts and to the more decent posts of april and may (perhaps those would justify your use of time better... but then again... my sense of 'better' is quite warped... so... perhaps you should stick with the more recent posts... though honestly... methinks the posts in april and may were more interesting.)

i wonder though, what sort of impression about me would someone get by just reading my blog. would it be an accurate description of who i am? for a fact, i know that there are things that i consciously do not write about on my blog, certain darker, more painful aspects of my life are, and perhaps will always be, hidden in the deeper recesses of my mind (it's not a pretty place in there...). and i'm sure, as Zhaoru very astutely pointed out, that is only natural, that everyone have deep dark secrets (Zhaoru: yes... that is how it is spelt. i ran spell check on that word...)

so it begs the question, how well do we know anyone if there is always this little bit about that person that we shall never know? does it matter?

if i were to have some special powers, i want to be psychic, i.e. be able to read people's minds, feel how they feel, see and hear what they see and hear, know what they know and most importantly, to be able to control all that and be able to control my own powers, turning them on and off at will. how cool would that be? it would definitely make my plans of world domination a lot simpler...

right. i've spent the better part of the day sleeping. and now that it's night, i don't really feel like sleeping. so what shall i do tonight? what i do every night: Plan to take over the world!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

i think that that was Brain's problem. all he does is plan to take over the world, without actually doing it. true, fail to plan and plan to fail, but just plan don't execute and you become NATO. nevermind, where Brain failed, i shall suceed!!!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

i'm actually sleepy... perhaps i might go and sleep.

MWAHA ah whatever... :)

HP

so now my body clock is more screwed than it already was because i spent the whole of last night reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. in case you are going to be reading it... let me warn you... it ends with a sort of a cliff hanger. it leaves you with a burning desire to find out who the hell is... nvm. shall not spoil it for those who have not read it. but ya. after reading it, it really made me want to read the last book.

on another note about another HP... i think my laptop battery is screwed (my laptop is HP). can't leave it on for more than 5 minutes unplugged.

and the half blood prince actually is... kidding kidding. won't spoil it for you who have not, and plan to, read the book... :)

FANTASTIC!!!

i watched the Fantastic 4 movie today. can you imagine if it was a not a movie but a play instead? then i would be saying "I watched the Fatastic 4 Play today" play what? :)

the show wasn't really that great. but Jessica Alba was hot!!!

hmm... it's late. and i'm hungry. food? or just go to bed?

i've been starting to have snacks just before i sleep again. that's really not doing much to help my waistline. sighz.

Silly Leather Jackets

read something on Jasmipoopz. i saw some of those people in those leather jackets at city hall mrt station.

while i am defending to death the right of people to wear leather jackets, i think that they looked absolutely stupid. not that they are stupid in anyways, but their appearance(in those leather jackets) was stupid, completely impractical and not aesthetically pleasing at all. they were so completely uncool (cos they just seemed like they were trying to follow something that they didn't understand, but simply doing it cos they have some weird, misguided notions of what wearing those leather jackets might do for their image...)

and gee... i wonder how much money they spent on those leather jackets? money that could have been better spent somewhere else. i mean, how many plates of chicken rice could they have bought if they didn't but those jackets? and all those plates of chicken rice could have fed so many malnourished children in third world nations. or they could have given that money to go build a hospital in Aceh. or they could have used that money to buy some provisions for the destitute in singapore (yes, there are destitute in Singapore. they can barely eke out an existence in modern Singaporean society, given the cost of living in Singapore). or they could have saved that money to pay for their own education in the future. or they could just have given that money to me. :)

but that is just my personal opinion. of course, they can choose to think that my opinion is a stupid one and go ahead and continue wearing those silly looking, impractical, probably very expensive and uncomfortable, leather jackets.

Mental Blog

i was at blog con today. the first thing that struck me was the turnout. it was a great turnout, considering that it wasn't really that mass publicised. the other thing that struck me was that some of the people there were very outspoken, very expressive. the next thing that struck me was B's fist in my face, cos i was gawking at some really cute girl. no... that didn't really happen. but there were quite a few very good looking ladies in there.

i think the blog con revealed a very interesting development. i feel that the bloggers' community provides for a viable germinating place of a healthy and vibrant civil society. it is, in my opinion, the most likely successful space between the public and the private (i.e. the people sector). the sheer fact that the bloggers con managed to get funding from both the government (Shine grants from MCYS) and private sector (Microsoft) and being able to tell both parties that the organisers will only verbally mention both of them is testament to how potentially powerful a force the bloggers' community is.

though there was one thing that i didn't quite understand about the bloggers' community. some members of the community seem to be rather anti-establishment. to a fault. so much so that when they realised that there were reporters from the press at the conference, they sent some not so nice remarks to the online chat forum (that was displayed at the conference). of course, those remarks might just simply be in jest. if it was, then perfectly fine. if not, then perhaps we must ask ourselves, why are we suspicious of the press? do we really believe that it is controlled by the government. even if it is, so what? is it because we are think that the government is using the reporters to spy on us and then potentially invoke ISA and detain those of us who dare to say things that are vaguely out of line?

does that mean that we are afraid to stand up and take ownership of what we say? but then again, why is that the case? unless of course we don't believe enough in what we say. or we were not being responsible when we blogged.

it brings me to the other issue that i have in mind. one of the lawyers at the bloggers con said something very interesting, freedom of expression doesn't mean you are free to say anything you want. the ability to write and express is a very great power. and in the immortal words of uncle ben, "With great power comes great responsibility." even if you don't think of it as a power, but as a right, with rights come responsibility. an irresponsible remark might open up some social fissures, cause tremors along societal fault lines and prove damaging to self and to society at large.

now question will be whether the people around are prepared to discern irresponsible remarks, rational enough to point them out and dismiss them logically, or would gut feelings take over causing the problem to escalate out of control? do we have a society that can independently, without any centralised authority, self-regulate? or does the government, in the guise of MDA, have to come in?

speaking about MDA, i was at the Local Media Taskforce meeting thing (see my previous post for more information). and there was this doctor from Bombay who feels that the government should have a tighter control over the media. there were also other members (all representatives of the People sector) who seem to feel that it is perfectly fine for the government to use the media as a tool for social engineering. and i believe that there are many more such people around. however, these people tend to be the not so youthful (i.e. above 35). and you have the younger people who are clamouring for the media to evolve naturally, for the government to not control it, for there to be freedom of expression, etc. however, one must realise that if the government doesn't control it, the markets will naturally step in. and between the government and the market (i.e. those big evil corporations)... it's like the devil and the deep blue sea... but i'd go with the devil (i.e. the government). at least i trust that this government, for all its faults, still have the interest of the people (i.e. the greater good) at heart. heck, the devil you know is better than the devil you don't.

of course, it would be best to have a healthy mix of all 3P's (i.e. Public, Private and People). and of these 3P's the people sector is, in my opinion, the most important. a very very intelligent and wise friend of mine said, "the best safeguard of a society is an enlightened populous." now the million dollar question, who's role is it to enlighten the populous? the government? or the people ourselves? i'd say the onus is on us, the people, to raise oursevles by our own bootstraps. not possible you say? would you rather have the government do it? or would it be best to again adopt the 3P's model?

well well. it's late and my mom wants me to accompany her on some exercise thing that the Residents' Committee organises every Sunday morning. i think i should get more involved in all these RC organised events. cringeable as they might be, it is after all things that are happeninng in my own neighbourhood. it is really time to get to know my neighbours and fellow residents better.

it's so cold and comfortable. now all i need is an all natural, soft, huggable heater next to me, who is hopefully pleasant looking. sighz. alas, alas...

War of the Worlds

you would have thought that a super intelligent alien life form would have done its homework researching the environment of the planet it wants to conqueor before landing. but no... not those in the war of the worlds... smart enough to invent death rays, but not enough tactical sense to realise that little microbes in the Earth's atmosphere might actually KILL THEM!!!

i'm sure there were some other scientific inconsistencies in the show, but... i'm too tired to think about them. it was fun watching humans getting vaporised by those death rays. i want one of those death rays... *evil maniacal laughter*

one thing that struck my mind as i watched the show... civilisation as we know it is so dependent on electricity. lose control of our constant streams of electrons and we are useless. take out our power supply and civilisation collapses.

and what is our main source of electricity? oil. one day, that is going to run out (or so some people tell us...) and even if it doesn't, the effects of producing power using oil is going to kill us sooner or later. either that or the struggle for oil. or the struggle between the economic haves and have nots.

so the war of the worlds can actually be seen as a struggle between the world of the haves and the have nots. or the clash of civilisations, people existing on the same planet but living in different worlds, divided by their culture, race, language and religion. and the people who should win, who have the right to live are those who are most technologically advanced. and have the common sense to ensure that they are properly immunised against microbes. but of course, there are certain metaphorical microbes which are harder to immunise against.

enough of rambling. need sleep...

Neighbourhood scene

so i was at eunos, around Jeremy's neighbourhood, having dinner before aikido. i noticed that there are a lot of cats there. jeremy commented that he's not seen many pretty girls around. and i just had to add in, "but there are definitely a lot of pussies around... cats that is..."

then, when we got back from Aikido, just before Chris (Jeremy's cousin, who gave us a ride back) drove off, he said, "At most I use your rod lor."

now it begs the question, what rod was Chris referring to. but actually, they were talking about a fishing trip and chris doesn't have his own fishing rod, and might need to borrow Jeremy's.

and when i was talking to Jasmine online after that, i told her about this. and she asked:
"is his straight?"

now i really wouldn't know. but apparently, it was a typo error, what jasmine wanted to ask (as she corrected herself later) was "is he straight?"

right. off to scam some money off some people.

Transparency

the biggest issue that i have with the NKF case is not so much that the TT Durai earns that much money. it is that he was not transparent with how much he earns.

Davinder Singh puts a good case that the money that he earns comes from public funds. and hence the public have a right to know how much he earns. it is the same thing with how much our politicians earn.

the only conceiveable reason why he refuses to disclose how much he earns is if he feels that somehow, the public is going to think that he cannot justify earning that much money.

but i think that the public (i.e. people who donated) have only themselves to blame if they felt cheated. they should have done their research, finding out how the organisation they are donating to uses its funds, rather than just donate because of some smart marketing gimmick or some stupid charity show on TV. however, it would seem that this is too much work for most Singaporeans, resulting in money going to places which do not really use the funds most efficiently. and the people who suffer are those who are actually in need of these funds.

in other words, public education is very important in ensuring that we get the biggest bang for the buck when it comes to funds that we donate to charity. perhaps it is time for people to start learning more about the various charities and social services around.

on another completely unrelated note, i think Shaman King is quite a good anime. not as great as Kenshin, but good enough.

Sad Day

Garota was speculating that the bombings might be linked to the anti-poverty movement. i don't think they were. if they were, then the people who planned the bombings must have been really really stupid. because now, instead of coming up with concrete efforts of poverty alleviation and environmental conservation, the summit will probably concentrate on counter-terrorism. and another golden opportunity to solve the problems that humanity already faces will be wasted trying to fight the fear and terror that these extremists have caused.

it is a sad day indeed. not only for the people of London, but for all the poverty stricken in Africa.

it is a sad sad day. i need a hair cut

POG

why can't we just be like ants? or bees? or develop some kind of a hive mind? perhaps a gaia model (a la Isaac Asimov's Foundation series).

but seeing as that won't happen in the near future, perhaps the challenge of any society would be: how to go about pursuing the greatest good (defined in the widest sense, materially, spiritually, intangibly, etc etc) for the largest number of people, while protecting the rights of the minority at the same time. and if you throw in international relations, and take into account the world as a whole (i.e. environmental issues which affect the whole world), then well... it's a damn complex mess.

so in the pursuit of democracy, let's bear in mind that it is an exercise in governance. and governance is complex. can't always let people have their say (seen monty python's life of brian? watch it and you'll know what i mean...). but must still let people have their say when possible.

so who wants to govern? who wants to fight for a better world? best be damn sure you are wise! (that naturally excludes me...)

p.s. POG=Principles of Governance

Mambo Jambo

i went Mambo last night. the music was pure cheese... which was fine by me. but there were far too many guys... i went because i decided that i should at least experience it once in my life. it's like one of those icons of Singapore and i feel that if you haven't at least experienced it once, you can't really call yourself Singaporean.

and guess who i saw at Zouk? it was quite funny. i saw this girl in the distance, then she kind of smiled at me. so it was like, OMG, an unsolicited smile from a quite good looking girl! To me! now that has never happened before! then i realised that she looks suspiciously familiar. then SHE WAVED!!!! AT ME!!! so what do i do? do i go up to her and ask her, "You look really familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?" But that's like the lamest pickup line right? i'll probably get a slap in the face. but i decided, ah heck it. why not. i probably do know her from somewhere. so i did. and guess what?!! i do know her. she's Bernise's sister!

and then my friend got picked up by a girl (Jeremy: real smooth!). decent looking one at that. sighz. so that left me to be the odd one out. see... i know no one would find me desirable. not even with alcohol goggles. that's how sad i am...

though i've noticed something. see right. there was this one girl in my group (she eventually hooked up with another guy in the group...) and she was going around dancing with random girls that she didn't know. and then talking to them and all... so it dawned upon me. girls talking to girls, grinding with girls, that's perfectly fine. so... if only i can have a female friend do that, and then go on to introduce her new found friend to me... that will greatly increase my chances of expanding my social circle... but... i don't think i know any female friends who would be that kind. unless... Jasmine!!!! Yo Jasmine! you there? you want to help me?!!! or or...ya... Bern, when you get back! Or... Joselin! Or Samantha! anyone?!!

ah well. i think i shall go be a monk. shaolin sounds fun.

finally, a word of advice for guys who want to pick up girls, watch the throat and the feet. big ugly feet, your lady friend's probably a "SHIM". dead give away, the Adam's apple (THANK GOODNESS Adam ate that damn apple!). don't get me wrong. i've got nothing against transsexuals. i just don't want to get too intimately involved with one. and i suspect that that's the case for most people.

Politics and the Humdrum of life

This post is actually a comment that I left on Garota's post (which can be found here)
"However, the vast majority of constituents – oh how I hate the word; they are humans with dignity and voice, not political commodities – do not relate to the politics nearly as much as they do to the pragmatics of representation and advocacy. People need to see the tangibles."
I thought that you would have realised this some time ago, coming from Singapore. It's something that I've come to realise as well. That to interest Singaporeans (or anyone for that matter) in politics, one must make politics relevant to the humdrum of their daily lives, rather than as some abstract notion of civil liberties, etc.

"inasmuch as it may be an inevitability in the course of delivering the real product: advocacy."
I think you are putting the cart before the horse. Have we wondered why we want advocacy in the first place? Just for its own sake? Then it is useless.

IMHO, advocacy, freedom of speech, etc, is so as to reduce the possibility of having anyone being left out, of being marginalised, of being oppressed. How do we measure oppression? I suggest using tangibles. If everyone in a society is fed, clothed, housed, free to choose, etc. then I'd say that that society is free from oppression.

But such an ideal society will never be. To be free from oppression of poverty, Singaporeans forsook the freedom of expression. Perhaps to have the freedom of expression would end up consigning a sector of our society to poverty. Is that what we want?
My point therefore is that while we spread the idea of advocacy, of human rights, of liberal democracy, we MUST always be conscious of the welfare of the people. In pushing for all these lofty ideals, we must be sure that it indeed does bring about TANGIBLE benefits to the PEOPLE. Or at least be able to create a future where the PEOPLE will be able to reap the TANGIBLE benefits of the realisation of these loft ideals.

I guess we should all think about this: What use is advocacy and democracy if not for the TANGIBLE benefits to the lives and future of ordinary PEOPLE? Hence the real product that we should be delivering is not advocacy as you have mentioned, but rather the TANGIBLE benefits to the PEOPLE. (or, in the real world, to as many people as possible...)

From here on, it's no longer part of my comment on Garota's post:
Incidentally, I realised the above while working on the Political Development Feedback Group's paper (we are still working on it). We realise that political development cannot be for its own sake or for the sake of some lofty ideals of freedom of expression, democracy, etc. That will fail in Singapore. It will only work if the people realise that having the ability to affect decisions and policies while they are being made will directly impact their lives, and that engaging the government (i.e. getting involved in politics, not necessarily party politics) can lead to better lives for them and a better future for their children.

And it is indeed the case. In this day and age, the government no longer has a monopoly of wisdom (that is if they ever had...). Increasingly, the complexity of the world means that the government has to co-opt more people to generate ideas. This is not surprising as Singapore develops into a Knowledge-Based Economy where the generation of good ideas is the key to growth.

Good ideas are only generated if firstly ideas are being generated. Then we need to create an arena where we discuss these ideas, finding their antithesis, picking the best, or amalgating a few into the best idea and picking that one. In other words, we need to create a Millian marketplace of Ideas. And I see Political Development as one crucial step in the creation of this marketplace, insofar as Political Development being people's willingness to engage the government and one another in the formulation of policies and the making of decisions for the Greater Good.

Nip it in the Bat

went out yesterday with Jeremy and Jasmine and Mingshu and her bf. Jeremy wanted to ask Elizabeth along, but Elizabeth say that she would be too tired after her hip hop lessons. my immediate response when i heard that was, "But how can hips hop?"

after dinner, we went to lounge around in none other than the.... *drumroll* LOUNGE AREA of the Hotel Intercontinental *Fanfare* :)

it was a nice place. and there was this particular waitress who is really really really gorgeous. man. i kept fantasizing about her the entire day. no... i didn't really. and so we spent a good part of the conversation talking about her. i can't remember what we were saying exactly (i drank alcohol... so can't really remember much...), but it must have been along the lines of safe sex and all, cos i said, "well... I just want to have the fun, not the bun." to which Jeremy and Jasmine (Mingshu and her bf were happily lost in conjugal isolation...) just rolled their eyes and laughed in exasperation.

but Jasmine's comment took the cake. we were waiting for Mingshu and bf at the MRT station and started talking about movies. Jas said that she just watched Batman Begins and didn't like it. and the clincher came when she said that Katie Holmes should wear a bra. in the most romantic, most serious part of the show, you see her nips sticking out like sore thumbs. this prompted Jasmine to comment that nipples seems to be a must-have of Batman movies. and since they can't have it on the Batman costume (following violent protests by more conservative audiences), they must have decided to just have Katie Holmes show hers through a diaphonous dress. i'm sure that must have sat well with audiences of all ages and cultures.

it was an enjoyable evening last night. :)