There's been lots of talk about Tin Pei Ling, the 27 year old upstart to get into the political scene in Singapore. Heralded publicly as the gahmen's tactic to get young Singapore more politically involved, Ms Tin's foray into the limelight has inevitably raised questions about her inexperience and ability to lead.
Pre-reveal, Ms Tin has put on cute antics on YouTube videos and had a shot of herself on her Twitter profile (@tinrina), presenting not quite the straight and narrow private image to the Internet-savvy public. Ironic for someone who wishes to reach out to Singapore's youth via new media, her Twitter account is private. It is a personal account so we may be premature in lambasting her motives, but she follows politically-aligned twitterers so it may not be so personal after all. Someone also has published photos of Ms Tin with her supposed ex-boyfriend and raised silly gossipy crap about her leaving him to be with her current works-for-the-PM hubby. Finally, some tabloid worthy political nonsense out of the little red dot.
(Something that bothered me somewhat was her response to questions about her commitment to duty if she had a kid. She replied she would keep tabs on her work during her time away. Can't mums just be mums and raise their kids while on maternity? Are we so hung up on our paycheck that we can't commit 100% to raising kids right? Well, that response pricked at me for a while. It's over now)
There is little doubt that Ms Tin will get into Parliament, mostly because she happens to ride on the coat-tails of a GRC constituency where votes for a party get all the members of that team regardless of how each member performs or has performed. The true democratic process perhaps lies in the single member constituencies which simply put is each man for himself in the eyes of the voters. Ah true democracy. (An island full of SMCs would be a quite a fun ruckus wouldn't it?)
Personally, I think the gahmen is trying to present a fresh, new face to what they believe is a less-than-mature, not-so-connected public. Not quite right there. My peers are asking why they would vote for a 27 year old. Online talk the day after Ms Tin was revealed was robust, both superficial and intellectual. Amazing I'd say. And they say Singaporeans are politically apathetic. No way, we just like to hide behind the Net.
Well good luck Ms Tin. May the public be kind to you.
Wednesday 30 March 2011
Tuesday 29 March 2011
An Opposition Triumph
Here's the letter I sent to TODAY yesterday (ironic):
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Looking forward to truly universal suffrage
There has been much talk about the motives of Singapore's opposition parties and we've been reminded to think carefully about our choices for the future by our current leaders. While a realistic plan to see Singapore through uncertain times is important, I think Singaporeans would already be thankful if opposition parties are able to contest all SMCs and GRCs - so that for the first time since 1965, all eligible citizens are able to participate, and understand their responsibilities in a democratic process of electing a government. I am looking forward to truly universal suffrage for my fellow people.
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Not sure if many people get how pivotal this upcoming election is going to be. If we all get to vote, we can all for once say we all voted. That simple act of democracy hasn't quite lived up to its pervasiveness as much as hoped it would have. Till now, perhaps. It also seems that has taken about one and half generations to finally get people of calibre and balls to come forward and stand up to be counted. It's awesome. We should celebrate the whole thing, a truly democratic election. Since the current powers that be haven't been able to give all its people this one simple gift, I credit the opposition for this impending success.
-----------
Looking forward to truly universal suffrage
There has been much talk about the motives of Singapore's opposition parties and we've been reminded to think carefully about our choices for the future by our current leaders. While a realistic plan to see Singapore through uncertain times is important, I think Singaporeans would already be thankful if opposition parties are able to contest all SMCs and GRCs - so that for the first time since 1965, all eligible citizens are able to participate, and understand their responsibilities in a democratic process of electing a government. I am looking forward to truly universal suffrage for my fellow people.
-----------
Not sure if many people get how pivotal this upcoming election is going to be. If we all get to vote, we can all for once say we all voted. That simple act of democracy hasn't quite lived up to its pervasiveness as much as hoped it would have. Till now, perhaps. It also seems that has taken about one and half generations to finally get people of calibre and balls to come forward and stand up to be counted. It's awesome. We should celebrate the whole thing, a truly democratic election. Since the current powers that be haven't been able to give all its people this one simple gift, I credit the opposition for this impending success.
Monday 28 March 2011
Digitalis Horribilis?
Had an interesting discussion on the value of CDs with friends on Friday. One particular friend is of the opinion that CDs are redundant slivers of plastic and metal when all the music he needs is online. (Digital is now and the future, ahem!) He's ok to pay for music but didn't want 142 x 125 x 10 mm offensively plastic cases with unncessary rounds discs in them cluttering up his home. He would however also pay for the only other thing one receives with an actual CD purchase - the booklet. He (and his wife) cringed when I gave a Hossan Leong Show CD fo Christmas last year and responded "Where do I play this?". Apparently he has no device at home that plays a compact disc. I reminded him of his MacBook and he HMPFed at my accurate answer.
Digital, digital, digital. MP3s and AACs. All artworkless. I still buy CDs and yes, then I burn the contents into 320kbps MP3s to listen to on my iPhone. (I am thinking of getting the largest iPod to become the defacto music container for my listening pleasure.) It may sound weird that I do this but it stems for a respect for artistes and their work, and sometimes that work spills over to the artwork and designs and sometimes fragrance of the booklets in CD cases. I agree that buying MP3s does not mean one does not respect the musical talents of So and So. I just don't. I have some free MP3s I downloaded. The music is good but there's no feel lah.
After the few beers we had during this discussion, I announced that some artistes only release on vinyl even today. My friend gagged and choked or so it seemed. "Who has a vinyl player these days? You? You?" Myself and the other unfortunate participant in this intellectual oral threesome denied possession of such a device. "They say there is a warmth to the sound of vinyls. Gilles Peterson even does whole 2 hr session playing vinyls only!" I exhorted to more chagrin. Yes, vinyl are like retro cool. One has to commit and go forth and collect. Pricey they are but since artistes like Four Tet, Thom Yorke and Burial are releasing vinyl-only singles for their collab this week (UK release of Ego - it's brilliant!), collectors have heart, Your passions are not to be trundled upon by the digital music messiahs.
It's another channel lah, that's it. So chill and let it go. We enjoy the way we want to. The bigger problem I have is that suddenly a lot of people think music should be free. Napster started it all with everyone passing music around as if it was costless and copyright-less. It's not. Artistes today have had to change their expectations of the millions they may have yearned to earn, especially the pop cookie-cutter ones. That may also be why some recording artistes venture into clothes, perfumes and other collectibles for revenue. The whole package. Scam the fans while you can, eh.
Well, the Internet may be the great leveller and information provider but we should take art for granted. Music comes from talent, and some talent needs to be acknowledged and rewarded, whether one buys a CD or a digital download.
Digital, digital, digital. MP3s and AACs. All artworkless. I still buy CDs and yes, then I burn the contents into 320kbps MP3s to listen to on my iPhone. (I am thinking of getting the largest iPod to become the defacto music container for my listening pleasure.) It may sound weird that I do this but it stems for a respect for artistes and their work, and sometimes that work spills over to the artwork and designs and sometimes fragrance of the booklets in CD cases. I agree that buying MP3s does not mean one does not respect the musical talents of So and So. I just don't. I have some free MP3s I downloaded. The music is good but there's no feel lah.
After the few beers we had during this discussion, I announced that some artistes only release on vinyl even today. My friend gagged and choked or so it seemed. "Who has a vinyl player these days? You? You?" Myself and the other unfortunate participant in this intellectual oral threesome denied possession of such a device. "They say there is a warmth to the sound of vinyls. Gilles Peterson even does whole 2 hr session playing vinyls only!" I exhorted to more chagrin. Yes, vinyl are like retro cool. One has to commit and go forth and collect. Pricey they are but since artistes like Four Tet, Thom Yorke and Burial are releasing vinyl-only singles for their collab this week (UK release of Ego - it's brilliant!), collectors have heart, Your passions are not to be trundled upon by the digital music messiahs.
It's another channel lah, that's it. So chill and let it go. We enjoy the way we want to. The bigger problem I have is that suddenly a lot of people think music should be free. Napster started it all with everyone passing music around as if it was costless and copyright-less. It's not. Artistes today have had to change their expectations of the millions they may have yearned to earn, especially the pop cookie-cutter ones. That may also be why some recording artistes venture into clothes, perfumes and other collectibles for revenue. The whole package. Scam the fans while you can, eh.
Well, the Internet may be the great leveller and information provider but we should take art for granted. Music comes from talent, and some talent needs to be acknowledged and rewarded, whether one buys a CD or a digital download.
Monday 14 March 2011
The Earth And The Moon
The Japanese earthquake, awful isn't it? I first got news about it from Twitter then the BBC. And I think it's the first time someone could turn on the TV and see destruction and obliteration on such a massive scale in real time. The helicam shots of the tsunami sweeping across Sendai was mind-bending. The wave must have been traveling at hundreds of miles an hour as it simply fanned out across fields. Terrifying. Maybe we have seen too many movies about world disasters and Armageddon to fully appreciate the magnitude and power of the tsunami - that's in the first 30 seconds. Then it hits - this is real and those are cars, lorries, trees, houses and people. Terrifying.
Watching the news in bits over the weekend, I gathered the worst was yet to be revealed. Whole towns seemed to have been wiped clear off the Miyagi prefecture coast. 10,000 were missing from a town of 17,000. Then the nuclear plants started to make headlines and in the most dramatic fashion, with a steam explosion beamed across the planet. Radiation leaked and more people were moved to a safer radius away from Fukushima 1 station. 170,000 people.
The scale of this quake and its effects are enormous. 8.9 on the Richter, waves 10m high traveling at 800km/h, affecting the whole span of the Pacific with 53 territories were on alert, hundreds of aftershocks. The 2004 Christmas Sumatra quake was equally massive and would perhaps remain the most destructive in recent history but the images and news came in days after (though I remember the number of reported dead was increasing by 20-30 thousand each hour back then). The instantaneous way we got updates about Japan fuelled the news frenzy and fed the info-hungry masses. The pictures and videos are still making their way out, each more tragic and stupefying than the next.
The channel 5 news guy on the ground at Sendai said there was 'stoic calmness' among the Japanese people. There is a certain strength about Japanese people in times of adversity isn't there? I suppose it's the impact of highly localized social fabric knit over millennia. There must have been countless natural calamities that these islands faced, disasters borne by the same thread of people, a regular genetic hardening or strengthening of character. The word tsunami is Japanese anyway, perhaps an indication of their broad acceptance of a certain destiny.
There is a famous Japanese haiku by Ryokan:
The thief left it behind:
the moon
at my window.
It's about a thief stealing things from the home of a monk when all that mattered to the monk was the view of the moon from a window, something the thief could not take away. Detachment, a teaching common to Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism (at the least). A concept very hard to stick to in this age of materialism, judgement by facebook status and one's 30s of fame. Perhaps it is the Buddhist background of the Japanese that helps them through adversity and change. For come what may, they still have the moon.
May we have the strength to let this go.
Watching the news in bits over the weekend, I gathered the worst was yet to be revealed. Whole towns seemed to have been wiped clear off the Miyagi prefecture coast. 10,000 were missing from a town of 17,000. Then the nuclear plants started to make headlines and in the most dramatic fashion, with a steam explosion beamed across the planet. Radiation leaked and more people were moved to a safer radius away from Fukushima 1 station. 170,000 people.
The scale of this quake and its effects are enormous. 8.9 on the Richter, waves 10m high traveling at 800km/h, affecting the whole span of the Pacific with 53 territories were on alert, hundreds of aftershocks. The 2004 Christmas Sumatra quake was equally massive and would perhaps remain the most destructive in recent history but the images and news came in days after (though I remember the number of reported dead was increasing by 20-30 thousand each hour back then). The instantaneous way we got updates about Japan fuelled the news frenzy and fed the info-hungry masses. The pictures and videos are still making their way out, each more tragic and stupefying than the next.
The channel 5 news guy on the ground at Sendai said there was 'stoic calmness' among the Japanese people. There is a certain strength about Japanese people in times of adversity isn't there? I suppose it's the impact of highly localized social fabric knit over millennia. There must have been countless natural calamities that these islands faced, disasters borne by the same thread of people, a regular genetic hardening or strengthening of character. The word tsunami is Japanese anyway, perhaps an indication of their broad acceptance of a certain destiny.
There is a famous Japanese haiku by Ryokan:
The thief left it behind:
the moon
at my window.
It's about a thief stealing things from the home of a monk when all that mattered to the monk was the view of the moon from a window, something the thief could not take away. Detachment, a teaching common to Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism (at the least). A concept very hard to stick to in this age of materialism, judgement by facebook status and one's 30s of fame. Perhaps it is the Buddhist background of the Japanese that helps them through adversity and change. For come what may, they still have the moon.
May we have the strength to let this go.
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