Did you read the latest ranking released by Freedom House?
Singapore's The Straits Times* is the only "first world" (i always wonder why people refer to Singapore as first world - more like First Reich) press to rank at 154th out of 195 countries for press freedom.
Singapore's The Straits Times* is the only "first world" (i always wonder why people refer to Singapore as first world - more like First Reich) press to rank at 154th out of 195 countries for press freedom.
(*the ranking includes all newspapers in Singapore - I take the Straits Times to be my representative whipping boy)
I think it's a huge embarrassment for a newspaper (which self-respecting newspaper has an ex-minister and current MP (Tony Tan) as its chairman?!?) that likes to tout itself as some premier prestigious national paper. (And former and current spies as journalists?!?)
But I think the bigger embarrassment is reserved for Singaporeans, especially those who ingest the Straits Times' daily drivel and propaganda and end up regurgitating its embroidered offal ad nauseam infinitum. I'm sure we've all met such citizens - their entire trove of opinions are formed from scanning the Straits Times' headlines ("Singapore the Garden City"; "Singapore ranks #1 for competitiveness"; Singapore busiest port for 5th year"; "Singapore best blah blah blah"), without a shred of critical, original thought, and they inadvertently speak like robots. And that's the point - the overall objective of the PAP-controlled Straits Times is to engineer a dumbed-down economically-productive ever-consuming human-prototype called "A Singaporean" that lives to serve its political master.
That's why I cringe whenever I hear Singaporeans talk about being first in this and fastest in that and their sole claim to national pride is that the country is very rich and all they can show about Singapore is some snazzy snapshot of our 3 CBD skyscrapers taken from the top of the Swissotel (has it changed its name yet again?) at sunset.
I think it's a huge embarrassment for a newspaper (which self-respecting newspaper has an ex-minister and current MP (Tony Tan) as its chairman?!?) that likes to tout itself as some premier prestigious national paper. (And former and current spies as journalists?!?)
But I think the bigger embarrassment is reserved for Singaporeans, especially those who ingest the Straits Times' daily drivel and propaganda and end up regurgitating its embroidered offal ad nauseam infinitum. I'm sure we've all met such citizens - their entire trove of opinions are formed from scanning the Straits Times' headlines ("Singapore the Garden City"; "Singapore ranks #1 for competitiveness"; Singapore busiest port for 5th year"; "Singapore best blah blah blah"), without a shred of critical, original thought, and they inadvertently speak like robots. And that's the point - the overall objective of the PAP-controlled Straits Times is to engineer a dumbed-down economically-productive ever-consuming human-prototype called "A Singaporean" that lives to serve its political master.
That's why I cringe whenever I hear Singaporeans talk about being first in this and fastest in that and their sole claim to national pride is that the country is very rich and all they can show about Singapore is some snazzy snapshot of our 3 CBD skyscrapers taken from the top of the Swissotel (has it changed its name yet again?) at sunset.
If you can't imagine how foreigners view us thus, just think how you'd view that smug classmate whose sole claim to excellence and superiority over you is that his/her parents went from coolies to tycoons in one generation and that bugger just can't stop yakking about his/her latest purchases and shoving them into your face.
Is that all there is to Singapore?!? Of course not, our achievements run the gamut from the ingenuous to the inspiring and we're so humble we seldom mention these mentionables that produced and maintains our first world economy:
We have the world's most efficient state-organised killing machine - our judiciary! In the words of our former chief justice, "condemned prisoners can be disposed of by the prison authorities in about six months." Never mind that due-process is compromised. Never mind that that guy might be innocent. Never mind, dispose quickly and all will be well.
Is that all there is to Singapore?!? Of course not, our achievements run the gamut from the ingenuous to the inspiring and we're so humble we seldom mention these mentionables that produced and maintains our first world economy:
We have the world's most efficient state-organised killing machine - our judiciary! In the words of our former chief justice, "condemned prisoners can be disposed of by the prison authorities in about six months." Never mind that due-process is compromised. Never mind that that guy might be innocent. Never mind, dispose quickly and all will be well.
Sometimes I wonder if Singapore's low crime rate's due to the death penalty - not that it deters; if the death penalty is an effective deterrent, by logical reasoning, there'd be no more heinous crimes by now and therefore no more death penalty need be meted out. The fact that the death penalty exists is a proof of its failure as a deterrent. (Don't give me that shit about what if that person killed my mother or grandmother - that person might kill your entire family but that doesn't give you the right to take that one life - that's revenge; not justice.) All the more condemnable that this is state-sponsored, systematic slaughter. Sometimes I wonder if our low crime rate's due to having them wiped out (but no, refer to above).
So you see, living in a country with the death penalty (one of international abnormalities) can be quite harsh. No wonder we need to have courtesy campaigns and have prime ministers urging us to be a more gracious society, especially when we have a looming ageing population that one can't just simply send to our Changi gallows that's obviously giving our brilliant and brilliantly-paid civil servants and politicians lumps in their throats:
"We have to be realistic. There is a limit to how much re-training we can do for some workers, so we have to look overseas. Look at my generation, more than half of them didn't even complete primary school education. What are we going to do? They are not going to conveniently die off..." [Bilahari Kausikan, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 10 May 2006]
"We have to be realistic. There is a limit to how much re-training we can do for some workers, so we have to look overseas. Look at my generation, more than half of them didn't even complete primary school education. What are we going to do? They are not going to conveniently die off..." [Bilahari Kausikan, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 10 May 2006]
So after much consideration, a solution is found for our uneducated, un-train-able, ... inconvenient senior citizens:
"our land is expensive. But we have nearby neighbours in Johore, Batam and Bintan. The elderly want to reach their doctors within half to one hour. So retirement villages in neighbouring countries is possible, barring the cross-border hassle. It is best to find cheap land on short leases" [Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan, 17 April 2007]
"our land is expensive. But we have nearby neighbours in Johore, Batam and Bintan. The elderly want to reach their doctors within half to one hour. So retirement villages in neighbouring countries is possible, barring the cross-border hassle. It is best to find cheap land on short leases" [Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan, 17 April 2007]
Like how the British Empire founded Australia to house its hardened convicts it couldn't be bothered to kill off, rich and prosperous Singapore does not dissimilar to its old and infirm - ship them to Johor and Batam.
There're also (in brief summary) our much-vaunted meritocracy (in such good schools like RI, ACS, SJI etc), pragmatism (like supporting the US invasion of Iraq, corroborating with Burmese drug lords, North Korean money laundering syndicates, assorted arms smuggling etc), materialism (24/7 indoor/outdoor advertising seducing you to Orchard Road for the latest gadget/fashion splurge, ERP (that causes more jams, and revenue), mass housing aka HDB (civilian barracks), homeless cardboard-collecting aunty (but the government says there're no homeless and they're helping the poor) and her multi-millionaire minister (because if they don't get S$2.5-$3 million a year they'd be corrupt and Singapore's economy would perish and our women would be sent abroad as maids!).
Singaporeans have so much to be proud of!
And now, there is one more accolade Singapore can achieve! - The Best State-Controlled Newspaper in the World! If you look at Singapore's past record:
2003: 144 out of 166
2004: 147 out of 167
2005: 140 out of 167
2006: 146 out of 168
2007: 141 out of 169
2008: 154 out of 195
We have been consistently ranked at the lowest percentile of press freedom, along countries we love to despise - Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, China etc. In fact we even slipped from being initially 'partly free' to the current 'not free' status. So given that achieving press freedom is almost a lost cause (as impossible as voting the PAP out of power), we could aim to be the best at the other end.
Come on, Straits Times! You're only 39 places to top prize! Buck up! I'm sure your PAP masters will reward you greatly when you bring that honour to Singapore!
So, how does the free world outside see Singaporeans? - brought up to regurgitate slogans and platitudes from its #154th press, cruising along in its self-satisfied smarmy contentment occasionally writing an angry letter to its 154th press about its latest petty, trivial eating/shopping/generally splurging tribulations ("I was at XYW restaurant at this time and date and I order this and that but how come I never get this, this, and this service and on top of it the manager so rude and obnoxious I'll never return again but I want to demand compensation and may I remind everyone including myself that Singapore is a cosmopolitan first-world country with a highly-educated English-speaking population that has one of the highest GDP/GNP/foreign reserves and I am shocked that this has happened and will the relevant authorities please look into the matter?").
And now, there is one more accolade Singapore can achieve! - The Best State-Controlled Newspaper in the World! If you look at Singapore's past record:
2003: 144 out of 166
2004: 147 out of 167
2005: 140 out of 167
2006: 146 out of 168
2007: 141 out of 169
2008: 154 out of 195
We have been consistently ranked at the lowest percentile of press freedom, along countries we love to despise - Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, China etc. In fact we even slipped from being initially 'partly free' to the current 'not free' status. So given that achieving press freedom is almost a lost cause (as impossible as voting the PAP out of power), we could aim to be the best at the other end.
Come on, Straits Times! You're only 39 places to top prize! Buck up! I'm sure your PAP masters will reward you greatly when you bring that honour to Singapore!
So, how does the free world outside see Singaporeans? - brought up to regurgitate slogans and platitudes from its #154th press, cruising along in its self-satisfied smarmy contentment occasionally writing an angry letter to its 154th press about its latest petty, trivial eating/shopping/generally splurging tribulations ("I was at XYW restaurant at this time and date and I order this and that but how come I never get this, this, and this service and on top of it the manager so rude and obnoxious I'll never return again but I want to demand compensation and may I remind everyone including myself that Singapore is a cosmopolitan first-world country with a highly-educated English-speaking population that has one of the highest GDP/GNP/foreign reserves and I am shocked that this has happened and will the relevant authorities please look into the matter?").
oh yes... our golden child of national identity, Singaporeans' precious pride and joy, the nation's shimmery and infinitely poetic, elegant, erudite... Singlish....
How does the outside world see us indeed ... I don't know, I'm not supposed to have a mind of my own what. Will the relevant authorities please comment, and our 154th press come up with a slick headline?
___
But the two 12 year-old Australian kids who wrote the following article do seem to have their own minds, and good hearts too. When a country's children ask such questions and think such thoughts, I think that country has some hope. The world is (and always has been) in deep shit - it's these young people that'd make the world a better place.
Lose the shiny plasma TV and find your community
Sydney Morning Herald
___
But the two 12 year-old Australian kids who wrote the following article do seem to have their own minds, and good hearts too. When a country's children ask such questions and think such thoughts, I think that country has some hope. The world is (and always has been) in deep shit - it's these young people that'd make the world a better place.
Lose the shiny plasma TV and find your community
Sydney Morning Herald
by Imogen and Freya Wadlow
May 1, 2008
It's Friday afternoon and everyone is talking about what they are going to be doing at the weekend. Sometimes it's sleepovers or parties, but mostly it's hanging around at home, doing nothing but playing on PlayStations, texting absolute drivel or going on msn.
In the school holidays, we became aware of just how damaging this is to our society. For National Youth Week Baulkham Hills Shire Council organised free activities, including a chance to learn about the bush, plant trees and have a sausage sizzle.
We went along and were disappointed to find no one else turned up. It was even more disappointing for the rangers and volunteers who had given their time to run the day.
We walked from the car park into a magical green grove where volunteers had worked tirelessly to clear introduced species. Everything was 100 per cent Aussie - otherwise it was spotted by the eagle eye of a volunteer and ripped out. We saw the work that these people put in behind the scenes.
Another Baulkham Hills event, a treasure hunt at Rouse Hill, had a prize of a PlayStation Portable. Two kids turned up but couldn't be bothered with the actual activity, so the prize just sat there unclaimed. What a waste. We'd love to get our hands on such a prize. But, then, we don't have parents who buy us whatever we want. (We only got a PlayStation at Christmas and Mum takes it from us when our rooms are messy, so we don't get to see it a lot.)
It seems that people are so pre-occupied with sitting at home watching their big plasma televisions they have forgotten how to live in a community. Parents have forgotten that "going shopping" isn't a true family activity and that even teenagers like to be included in stuff.
This kind of slothful behaviour is very disappointing, and damaging when you consider that to be part of a vibrant, friendly community you need people who are interested in other people and who say, "what can I do?" rather than "it's too much bother".
We offered to go in and teach children at a local school about the environment and to help them adopt their local park and save the endangered Red-crowned Toadlet, which lives there. We tried and tried but the school wasn't interested. If the teachers can't be bothered, then how will the students learn to care?
We letterbox-drop about 300 houses twice a year to get neighbours to help with our Save the Trees Day. Out of these 300 families, about 10 turn up. Those that come work hard and learn all sorts of interesting things.
Seeing privet removed and lovely gum trees grow back is wonderful - but there are too many who are happy to stand by and watch others work. Are you one of those? What's your excuse? Too many excuses!
We are rapidly becoming a "checkout community". "How are you today?" we ask, but there is no eye contact and we don't really care.We all have the daily grind of going to school or work, but that's not really living, is it? You may as well just sit and wait for your coffin to be delivered.
If you want to add value to your life, you have to put the effort in.
So read the local paper and see what you can join, chat to someone at the shops and invite them round for tea, get together with neighbours and clean up a park, and shape the future by being a living, breathing example to them.
Identical twins Imogen and Freya Wadlow, 12, run the Planet Patrol website for kids, located at: www.planetpatrol.info.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/lose-the-shiny-plasma-tv-and-find-your-community/2008/04/30/1209234954729.html
___
Now compare young Singaporeans with these two kids... and we sorta get an idea of what Singapore would be like the next 30 years on. (unthinkable.)
May 1, 2008
It's Friday afternoon and everyone is talking about what they are going to be doing at the weekend. Sometimes it's sleepovers or parties, but mostly it's hanging around at home, doing nothing but playing on PlayStations, texting absolute drivel or going on msn.
In the school holidays, we became aware of just how damaging this is to our society. For National Youth Week Baulkham Hills Shire Council organised free activities, including a chance to learn about the bush, plant trees and have a sausage sizzle.
We went along and were disappointed to find no one else turned up. It was even more disappointing for the rangers and volunteers who had given their time to run the day.
We walked from the car park into a magical green grove where volunteers had worked tirelessly to clear introduced species. Everything was 100 per cent Aussie - otherwise it was spotted by the eagle eye of a volunteer and ripped out. We saw the work that these people put in behind the scenes.
Another Baulkham Hills event, a treasure hunt at Rouse Hill, had a prize of a PlayStation Portable. Two kids turned up but couldn't be bothered with the actual activity, so the prize just sat there unclaimed. What a waste. We'd love to get our hands on such a prize. But, then, we don't have parents who buy us whatever we want. (We only got a PlayStation at Christmas and Mum takes it from us when our rooms are messy, so we don't get to see it a lot.)
It seems that people are so pre-occupied with sitting at home watching their big plasma televisions they have forgotten how to live in a community. Parents have forgotten that "going shopping" isn't a true family activity and that even teenagers like to be included in stuff.
This kind of slothful behaviour is very disappointing, and damaging when you consider that to be part of a vibrant, friendly community you need people who are interested in other people and who say, "what can I do?" rather than "it's too much bother".
We offered to go in and teach children at a local school about the environment and to help them adopt their local park and save the endangered Red-crowned Toadlet, which lives there. We tried and tried but the school wasn't interested. If the teachers can't be bothered, then how will the students learn to care?
We letterbox-drop about 300 houses twice a year to get neighbours to help with our Save the Trees Day. Out of these 300 families, about 10 turn up. Those that come work hard and learn all sorts of interesting things.
Seeing privet removed and lovely gum trees grow back is wonderful - but there are too many who are happy to stand by and watch others work. Are you one of those? What's your excuse? Too many excuses!
We are rapidly becoming a "checkout community". "How are you today?" we ask, but there is no eye contact and we don't really care.We all have the daily grind of going to school or work, but that's not really living, is it? You may as well just sit and wait for your coffin to be delivered.
If you want to add value to your life, you have to put the effort in.
So read the local paper and see what you can join, chat to someone at the shops and invite them round for tea, get together with neighbours and clean up a park, and shape the future by being a living, breathing example to them.
Identical twins Imogen and Freya Wadlow, 12, run the Planet Patrol website for kids, located at: www.planetpatrol.info.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/lose-the-shiny-plasma-tv-and-find-your-community/2008/04/30/1209234954729.html
___
Now compare young Singaporeans with these two kids... and we sorta get an idea of what Singapore would be like the next 30 years on. (unthinkable.)
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2 comments:
Very true.
woah mr tan you hate Singapore?
you are critizing Singapore in almost every post >.<
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