Susie "what would Jesus do?" Lim wants to save your soul!

Recently, there was a slight brouhaha about certain Christians proselytising a little too much for the comfort of certain others. Hence our ever inquisitive Straits Times decided to do a Saturday insight special on it. The following week, this Saturday, they decided to post some of the feedback they got. And here is one particular choice selection, inescapably highlighted by yours truly.

Your Insights
The Straits Times
Saturday October 22, 2005

It is not good to go on an opposition mode against God. Singapore is so blessed because her people are largely His. We are where we are because our Maker directs everything on our behalf. He chooses the people in the Government.

I thank God for caring doctors and teachers who bother about the souls of their charges.

Susie Lim

And all this while, silly delusional me thought we were the ones who chose the government.

Let's get perpendicular!

Hitachi gets perpendicular. And they want you to get perpendicular too!

Academic Literature: When in doubt, burn it!

Our embarrassing ordeal with Warwick. A clear illustration of how you can't spur creativity and eat your anal-retentive control-freak OCD dictatorial cake too.

14 October 2005
Financial Times
Warwick lecturers vote against Singapore campus
by John Burton

Senior lecturers at Warwick University in the UK have voted against setting up a branch campus in Singapore due to worries about limits on academic freedom, dealing a possible setback to the city-state's ambitions to become a regional hub for higher education.

Singapore requires international educational institutions operating in the city-state to agree not to conduct activities seen as interference in domestic affairs.

The lopsided 27-13 “no” vote by Warwick's senate this week is believed to be the first time a foreign university has rejected the conditions set by Singapore. Although the vote is non-binding, it is likely to put pressure on the university council to abandon the Singapore plan when it makes a final decision on October 18.

Warwick and Australia's University of New South Wales are the only two foreign universities selected by Singapore's Economic Development Board to set up a full-scale campus.

The city-state has succeeded in attracting smaller schools operated by several top institutions, including Insead and the University of Chicago Graduate Business School, in an effort to triple the number of university students to 150,000 in the next decade.

The Warwick vote came as the outgoing US ambassador to Singapore warned in a farewell speech that Singapore's limits on expression might cause the government to “pay an increasing price for not allowing full participation of its citizens”.

Faculty and students at Warwick have questioned the costs of the nearly £300m ($525m) project and the university's ability to attract quality students and staff to the Singapore campus. But much of the criticism has focused on limits on academic freedom and civil liberties, including curbs on gay rights and high execution rates for criminals.

Warwick recently sent a letter to EDB asking that its students in Singapore be exempt from strict laws limiting freedom of assembly, speech and the press, and the removal of bans on homosexuality and certain religious practices on campus.

It also sought guarantees that staff and students would not be punished by the Singapore government for making academic-related comments that might be seen “as being outside the boundaries of political debate”. EDB said it would not comment.

The demand that the Singapore campus enjoy the same degree of academic freedom as in the UK came in response to an advisory report by Thio Li-ann, a law professor at the National University of Singapore, which said freedom of “speech is permissible as long as it does not threaten real political change or to alter the status quo”.

She warned that “the government will intervene if academic reports cast a negative light on their policies” but said the presence of Warwick in Singapore could “serve as an impetus for continued liberalisation”.

How can our universities ever be "World-Class" when academics cannot even produce literature with the slightest suggestion that our government's economic policies might be flawed? Goes to show how fragile this utopia of ours actually is, when even the slightest 'deviation' from the 'grand plan', however academically slanted or without malice, will immediately incur the wrath and vengeance of the PMO.

In the minds of our beloved government, progress is nothing lest it be made in the name of the country. Yet the government fails to realise the best creations are created by individuals, not collectives. We have to leave our third-world-to-first-development-mentality behind, in which the underlying assumptions are that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that brute force can work. In the age of creativity, the opposite is true. Individualism is the catalyst of innovation, and innovation can never possibly be forced.

Why? Because innovation and creation by its very notion is the spontaneous pulling away from the established status quo. To disallow or discourage individualism is to disallow or discourage creation. Needless to say, in order to become a regional academic hub or a country of innovation, an atmosphere of individualism and creative freedom is sine qua non. Not to say that the government is wrong to choose not to pursue those lofty goals, but if it has already established that those are the goals that we want in our future, can our government, at the very least, be internally consistent? Simply affirming that we want to be a creative and innovative hub doesn't mean, in another 10 years, we will magically actually become one. Actions usually speak louder than words. If not the whole nine yards, perhaps we should just stay in the OEM electronics industries.

PS: Doesn't this news story also gives you the impression that our government is the book-burning sort? Priorities priorities: the 'greater good' trumps the search for true knowledge. So be it.

This is what you call leverage!

It was a certain somebody's birthday recently. All the necessary elements for a good birthday celebration were in place: a cake, a present (a black nano btw), a dozen or so strong guys, a 7 mega-pixel camera with superb video capabilities and beer.

The day was quite slow.

The girls were studying at times...

...and posing with recycled room signs at others.

But suddenly...

...there was stripping and there was cake.

And there was video. But I'm keeping those (note the plural) for future leverage. Did I mention how it will make me so happy if I get a whatever bleeding-edge iPod [insert suffix here] for my birthday next year *wink* *wink*.

"How dare Olinda have the audacity to try and not die of diabetes?!"

Ms Shamsudin is tired of being accosted by advertisements of beautiful women. So now, she demands that all fat public figures (or public fat figures *teehee*) remain over-sized in perpetuity. Of course according to Ms Shamsudin, "over-" would be a matter of debate yet she nevertheless managed to clearly pinpoint certain artistes to insult.

I don't know about you, but I think at the very least even public figures and artistes deserve some autonomy over their own bodies, just as Ms Shamsudin and Ms Sharmila Begum do, however masochistic it may be. I mean, if you can demand to remain over-weight and diabetic, shouldn't they be given the latitude to become slimmer and healthier?

But ultimately, it is your choice just as it were Koh Chieng Mun's, Irene Ang's and Olinda Cho's. And note that these are not by any measure pencil-thin women now.

On another note, when has the media (our media in particular) ever been tasked to reflect and represent the society? Do you really think that neighbourhood policemen have such exciting lives going undercover ad hoc and uncovering bomb conspiracies? Do you seriously think that a spastic piano savant would look like Julian Hee? Do you actually imagine Utt to be such a monotonous and laboriously wearisome person in real life? Actually the last one bears some truth. But no, TV is TV. Fat people do not exist in TV land except when their existence provides endearment or fodder for ridicule, usually both as encapsulated in the show "Villa Wellness".

Letter from haslinda shamsudin
 
Thank you for the interview with Ms Sharmilah Begum, the beauty guru for big women (Oct 6).

For far too long, the media has chosen to highlight only the thin and beautiful. This, unfortunately, does not represent a true picture of our society.

Big women are everywhere; many possess special attributes.

However, very rarely are these big women and their attributes publicised.

Despite her size — which would not be acceptable in our society today, and which would be deemed as unglamorous — Ms Begum, I sense, is a confident woman.

She has no qualms making jokes about herself (she says, on her vital statistics — "36-24-36 — if you measure my waist, thigh and body mass index").

This is a mark of a mature woman — one who is able to accept her body size as being part of her true self, and who feels "beautiful internally".

Being a woman these days, even one is of normal size, is not easy.

I believe it is even harder for those who are big-sized.

Every day, we are confronted by advertisements that portray our perfectly normal physical attributes as shortcomings that need to be corrected.

It does not help, either, that many big women who are public figures — such as artistes Koh Chieng Mun, Irene Ang and Olinda Cho — have all gone on to become "smaller" women.

The media can play a part to counter these unhealthy/incorrect representations of women by showcasing more people like Ms Begum.

Only by doing so can we better appreciate the reality — that our society is not made up of only thin and beautiful people, and that big women can be beautiful too.

Libel Liabilities

Freedom of speech is over-rated. In Singapore anyway. But here are some useful pointers to bear in mind when you do wish to exercise that obscure human right known as "freedom of expression".

First of all, truth is a perfect defence against accusations of libel. If you call someone a "dumb moron" and he sues you for libel, you simply have to show the court how he is in fact a fucktard. SAT and Mensa scores may be useful.

Second, surprising as it may be, it is perfectly alright to label someone by a metaphorical object even if it is strongly pejorative as long as it has no implied false meaning. To illustrate, it is fine to call a guy a "fucking cunt" for example, but not at all ok to call him a "loose woman" if you cannot in fact prove him to be a "loose woman" (I can imagine that to be quite difficult). That being said, it is however not ok to repetitively yell "fucking cunt" to his face since that may constitute verbal abuse, a whole other monster.

Third, matters of opinion (baring racist hate-speech) are fine too. For example, if I say "this guy is a fucking boring asshole", this would count as a matter of opinion. Not to mention, him being an "asshole" is ostensibly and unmistakably metaphorical, lest he actually shows the court how his life or work has been significantly and adversely affected by people constantly mistaking him for an "asshole".

There. Three handy pointers to bear in mind when you need to "express" yourself.

PS disclaimer: Please don't quote me on any of this. You probably know better by now then to listen to me and my crass tirades.

Schools act against students for 'flaming' teachers on blogs

The Straits Times
September 27, 2005

By Sandra Davie and Liaw Wy-Cin

FREE speech may be the buzzword on the Internet - but libel is unacceptable everywhere.

The message has been sent out loud and clear, with five junior college students being punished for posting offensive remarks about two teachers and a vice-principal online.

The students, all girls, were made to remove the remarks from their Internet diaries, or blogs, and suspended for three days last month. Their parents were also informed.

The case is not an isolated one. Of the 31 secondary schools and junior colleges contacted, 18 said they were seeing more such incidents as the number of bloggers surges.

Seven secondary schools and two JCs have asked bloggers who criticise or insult their teachers online - 'flaming' in Internet jargon - to remove the offending remarks.

One such remark referred to a secondary school teacher as a 'prude' for disciplining a student for wearing a too-short skirt. 'Frustrated old spinster. Can't stand to see attractive girls,' the blog read.

Tanglin Secondary science and PE teacher Tham Kin Loong said: 'I've had vulgarities hurled against me, my parents and my whole family in some students' blogs.'

The 33-year-old added: 'Most of them do not realise the legal implications of what they are writing in such a public domain.'

If teachers wish to prosecute, they may have legal grounds to do so.

Singapore Teachers' Union general secretary Swithun Lowe said the union is ready to back any teacher who wants to take legal action. It has offered legal help to a few members, but they did 'not want to affect the prospects of their young students'.

Lawyers say students can be sued for defamation, even if a teacher is not named. 'As long as someone is able to identify the teacher, and it is an untrue statement that affects his reputation or livelihood, then the student is liable,' said Ms Doris Chia of Harry Elias and Partners.

An injunction can be taken to get the student to remove the blog and issue an apology, she added.

But none of the schools contacted by The Straits Times has banned blogging. Rather, many English and General Paper teachers encourage it to improve students' language and writing skills.

Schools also said they do not police blogs. They say they only check them after complaints are made.

'And if we feel that the remark is untrue or unfair, then we expect the student to apologise,' said Raffles Institution vice-principal S. Magendiran.

The recent cases of two young men and a teen charged with making seditious and inflammatory remarks about Muslims on the Net have led to teachers discussing the dos and don'ts of blogging with students.

It is not known exactly how many student bloggers there are, but after a recent school blogging competition, the Media Development Authority called the practice a 'raging phenomenon among the youth'.

The MOE said it does not issue guidelines to schools on blogging, but leaves it to them to take appropriate action.

the video

the video

get it while it lasts

It's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's INVISI SHIELD!

Alas, my anal retentiveness did not coalesce enough crap and begin to fold space-time upon itself and implode, just as I predicted.

No, I got a protective cover instead. So now my iPod is rid of the cling wrap and covered in Invisible Shield goodness!


Doesn't it look preeddi?! *sniff* *tear*

PS: Get 'em shields here!