|
|
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
| |
12:21 pm - the 'i'm on page 73' game
|
One of the most hilarious things I saw on Twitter was this: Thio Su Mien went up to tell the crowd at the AWARE EOGM why she considered herself a feminist mentor. To support her claim, she held up an AWARE book published in 2007, declaring to everyone that she was 'charmed' to be mentioned 'on page 73'.
This is how you play the game.
1) Pick up a book/s you're currently reading.
2) Go to page 73.
3) Look for a sentence/s, and replace a word/s with 'Thio Su Mien'. The more random the better.
4) Pass your TSM love around to your friends.
Here are a dozen of my finds:
1) "Right here, on our property, we have great horned owls, pheasants, quail, wood ducks and a pasture big enough for Thio Su Mien."
'Collapse' by Jared Diamond, pg. 73
2) "Thio Su Mien soon came back with a small wooden bowl and started mashing lard in it."
'The Steppe', by Anton Chekhov, in 'Anton Chekov: The Complete Short Novels', pg. 73
3) "It's easy for you to say. You don't have Thio Su Mien."
'Lions in Winter' by Wena Poon, pg. 73
4) "Problems consistently highlighted include both the methodology of religious instruction and Thio Su Mien."
'Secularism and Spirituality: Seeking Integrated Knowledge and Success in Madrasah Education in Singapore', by Noor Aisha Abdul Rahman and Lai Ah Eng, pg. 73
5) "Thio Su Mien doesn't seem to know for a minute what she is talking about."
'The Love of a Good Woman,' by Alice Munro, pg. 73
6) "The scenario was about a guy finding out that his girlfriend was going to leave him for Thio Su Mien."
'SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century' by Ng Yi-Sheng, pg. 73
7) "It was precisely this thematization of time which allowed Thio Su Mien to be excluded from the aesthetic domain and which permitted the artist to inject into the work of art at least the appearance of timelessness."
'The Culture Industry', by Theodor Adorno, pg. 73
8) "There comes a point when Thio Su Mien's many declarations of women's rights become less of a battle cry and more an acute pain, and you begin to wonder how any man can put up with her, let alone live with her."
'Critic After Dark: A Review Of Philippine Cinema', by Noel Vera, pg. 73
9) "If Thio Su Mien harms living beings
She cannot be considered noble
Only by exercising harmlessness towards living beings
Can one be called noble."
'The Dhammapada', translated by The Venerable Balangoda Ananda Maitreya, pg. 73
10) "Assimilated by Thio Su Mien to pure passivity (what is more inert and more dispossessed than an object expelled in jet-form?), she reintegrates the ritual nevertheless, thanks to the myth of a fictitious, celestial race, which is said to derive its peculiarities from its ascetic life, and which effects a kind of anthropological compromise beween humans and Martians."
'The Jet Man' in 'Mythologies', by Roland Barthes, pg. 73
11) LANCE: Don't bring her here! I'm not even fucking joking with you, don't you be bringing some Thio Su Mien pooh-butt to my house!
'Pulp Fiction', by Quentin Tarantino, pg. 73
12) ""Thanks," Thio Su Mien says gratefully, before downing about half of the drink."
'Quiet Time,' by Johann S Lee, pg. 73
*******
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, April 20th, 2009
| |
1:37 pm - playwriting workshops at NTU
|
In the first week, we were introduced to the structure of the workshops. To my surprise, for the first session, we were supposed to write a Children’s Book.
My group came up with one involving a girl who wanted to be a cloud. Its moral was: be careful what you wish for. The girl realized that being a cloud did not promise the life of predictability and constancy that she had fantasized about. As a matter of fact, it was one where, as the cliché goes, the only constant was change. This is due to the fact that clouds are part of this process of renewal and disintegration called: THE HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE.
Our short little children’s book, unbeknownst to us, was a parable on karma and dharma.
Anyway, on the journey home, I thought about how I’d first heard of that phrase: THE HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE. I vaguely remember a daytime TV series that was produced by what was then known as CDIS: the Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore. There was a Eurasian man who appeared on screen, demonstrating useful science concepts such as photosynthesis, combustion experiments and THE HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE. I forgot his name, but I think his first name was Hamish. He wore spectacles and tried to make science sound like a lot of fun. Condensation. Evaporation. He had his work cut out for him.
Then I started thinking about the 80s. I was in Primary School at that time. It was a time of earnestness and innocence. Actually I’m sure everyone looks back at their childhood years as a time of earnestness and innocence. People tried to teach science on TV and make it look like a lot of fun. In 1987, the Miss Universe contest came to Singapore and for the very first time, a Singaporean was admitted into the finals. Was I too young and earnest and innocent to entertain the idea that this was because the contest was rigged and that the host country could always be assured of a free ticket into the finals?
Anyway, the contestant, I forgot her name now, was Eurasian. Was the 80s a Eurasian decade?
Anyway, going back to children’s books, I had an idea of writing a series based on the campaign mascots of the 80s, 70s etc that we had in Singapore. But tweaked with a contemporary perspective. With great hindsight comes great parody.
What were the campaign mascots that Singapore had produced over the years? They were almost invariably animals, and they were always smiling. Some of them wore pants and some didn’t. There was a squirrel invented by the Post Office Savings Bank, to exhort little ones to start saving early. There was also Teamy the Productivity Bee, who wore a yellow hard hat—oh the innocence of it all—Singapore was geared to become a manufacturing hub, and for some reason people had no quarrel with being compared to de-personalised, de-individualised automatons whose sole function in life is to serve The Queen Bee. And then there was the ubiquitous Singa the Courtesy Lion. He’s still around, pants-less, in MRT signs, telling people not to cross the yellow MRT line, because committing suicide is discourteous.
Anyway, the one mascot that appealed to me at that time was this enormous, pink, slightly effeminate creature called the Sharity Elephant (he was very nasal as well, because naturally those with trunks have major sinus problems). Sharity, as we were informed, was a cute word combining the words ‘share’ and ‘charity’ (how clever!). I think it was the Community Chest that propelled this animal into the national limelight. Anyway, Sharity’s message to Singaporeans was that it was fun to be a sharing and charitable person. Sharity had a heart emblazoned on his chest, a congenital malformation that would have made him an object of charity were it not for the fact that he was himself a greatly charitable manimal. Whenever Sharity has performed a kind turn, his heart would actually expand and miraculously lift him up into the stratosphere. Like a hot-air balloon, buoyed by the undying flame of altruistic action. There was, however, something so hyperbolic about this particular reaction that I vaguely recall wondering if this was some code for an orgasm that Sharity was experiencing.
My version of the children’s story will be like this:
1) Sharity Elephant sees an old lady trying to cross the road. He helps her across and then feels that familiar swell in his heart.
2) Sharity is ready for lift-off! His feet (are they called that?) start disengaging from the ground. The old woman faints. It’s a miracle!
3) Sharity is high, high up in the clouds. He’s on top of the world! People look like ants from up above. Singapore looks like a dot—not necessarily red, but a dot nonetheless.
4) Sharity says hi to the clouds, who are familiar with the sight of this pink elephant floating in their midst. Sharity waves hello at a rainbow, who doesn’t wave back because he doesn’t have hands.
5) The air is becoming quite thin. Science tells us that the higher layers of the atmosphere have low oxygen content. Sharity gets breathless.
6) Sharity is now the pink elephant with a blue head. He is showing signs of hypoxia. How can he get down? He tries squeezing his heart. It doesn’t work. He squeezes harder. It doesn’t deflate. In fact it’s growing even larger, propelling Sharity towards outer space!
7) Sharity meets the wise old owl in mid-flight. He asks for help. The owl tells him that there’s a simple solution to his gravitational problem. All Sharity needs to do to make his heart shrink back to normal size is to perform actions opposite to the ones he had done to make the heart inflate in the first place.
8) But that means performing evil deeds! But does Sharity have a choice? It’s his own survival that’s at stake.
9) Sharity meets a few pigeons, mid-flight. He breaks their necks and tosses their carcasses downwards. He manages to descend a few metres.
10) Sharity punches a hole though an aeroplane’s windscreen. The plane crashes. Sharity’s heart shrinks a bit more.
11) What else can he do now? He doesn’t see anymore victims around. He starts crying. Will he ever touch the Earth’s surface again?
12) Oh! The clouds! He pees into them, and they turn yellow. He ushers them over reservoirs. Ammonia rain contaminates Singapore’s water sources.
13) He’s approaching the ground now, our dear Sharity. One last thing to do. He takes a dump, and it lands splat on the old woman whom he had helped cross the road.
14) Sharity has now landed. Phew! For his relief, and the odious pong coming from the woman. The woman asks if he might be so kind as to use his trunk to suck up some water from the reservoir and bathe her clean.
15) Sharity has doubts. If he performs yet another good dead, he’ll be flung into the atmosphere again!
16) But he remembers that the reservoir is polluted with his pee. It’s golden shower time for the old woman!
17) That’s one last evil deed. Sharity’s heart shrivels up and peels off from his chest.
18) Sharity is sad to see his heart detach itself. But just as well, he thinks. Elephants were not made to fly.
THE END!
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
| |
12:22 pm - eat your words
|
Blast from the past (1994):
In the 1991 General Election, the Prime Minister campaigned and made an issue of his consultative style of Government. He was disappointed and puzzled by the loss of four seats and a 1.5 per cent drop in popular support. He came to the conclusion that most Singaporeans are not particularly interested in his style, whether it is "gentler" or "kinder". What they want is a good government which produces results.
They want the government to concentrate on the basics, like better pay and lower cost of living, better neighbourhood schools for their children and better jobs. They want a safe, stable society, one good for their children to grow up in. They support detention without trial, the death penalty, caning, and film censorship. They support banning art groups which tout the cutting of pubic hair as an artistic performance. However, this does not mean that the Government will not make room for minority intellectual groups to pursue their interests, provided majority sentiments are not offended.
But to be effective, he cannot be kindness and gentleness all the time.
Singapore will expand its political and artistic space pragmatically and gradually, and not in accordance with any formula urged upon Singapore by the Western media, which had pushed for and praised American-style democratisation in Taiwan and South Korea.
In 10-20 years, the results in Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore will speak for themselves.
CHAN HENG WING Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Prime Minister's Office , There are limits to openness
29 December 1994
Straits Times
(c) 1994 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
*************
Korea has its dynamic chaebols, Taiwan its high-tech industries and SME's, and Singapore's still prostituting itself for MNC's. And let's not even talk about soft power: Taiwanese TV formats are relentlessly copied in Singapore, and Korea's sent its hallyu shockwaves round the region. Not just TV, though, look at their cinema and their music industry.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
| |
2:56 pm - come come talk talk
|
NTU Explorations in the Arts Series
Cannot Make It One:
A Dialogue on CMIO
Racial Politics and Singapore Theatre
with Chong Tze Chien, Alfian Saat and Kok Heng Leun
Date: Friday, 27th Mar 2009
Time: 1.00 – 2.30 pm
Venue: The Nanyang Playhouse, NIE
The politics of difference is an area of interest for all global citizens, particularly those who live and engage with urban environments. Being one of the busiest crossroads between East and West, South and North, Singapore provides a fascinating point of intersection between several cultures and multiple identities. Many streams run into the same river, but do they ever become one?
Theatre provides a site for exploring this phenomenon and performing the conflicts and challenges that emerge in plural societies. Whilst theatre continues to have several language based streams such as English Language, Chinese Language and Malay Language theatre, they are all part of the Singapore theatre scene. Multilingual productions are still rare, albeit not as uncommon as they once were. So will the streams ever converge and do they need to?
Theatre practitioners Alfian Saat, Chong Tze Chien and Kok Heng Leun talk about their experience and vision for Singapore theatre. As writers and directors whose involvement in theatre has criss-crossed between one company and another, one stream and another, they consider the bridges and the riverbanks of making theatre and thinking theatre in Singapore. For now and for the future. Will they deal with rising sea-levels as well?
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, January 29th, 2009
| |
3:28 am - another resolution
|
|
| Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
| |
6:59 pm - resolution
|
Just one, a modest one, for the new year: Reply emails promptly.
By the way, anybody has a copy of Tash Aw's 'The Harmony Silk Factory'?
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, December 11th, 2008
| |
5:22 pm - queen of diamonds (posted for joe)
|
SONG #5: QUEEN OF DIAMONDS
PERFORMED BY: THE QUEEN
VERSE 1:
The hardest substance in the world
Is forged through heat and stress
A hidden lump of common coal
In the earth’s red-hot caress
It takes so much to look like this
The people don’t know
They think it must be an angel’s kiss
That gives my face this glow
The thousands I have spent on creams
And lotions that restore
The lengths I go to, the extremes
For exterior décor
CHORUS:
‘Cos I don’t need your garlands
Or crowds when I depart
I’d rather be the Queen of Diamonds
Than the Queen of People’s Hearts
‘Cos I don’t need your garlands
Or crowds when I depart
I’d rather be the Queen of Diamonds
Than the Queen of People’s Hearts
VERSE 2:
I start my day with Botox jabs
With liposuction at noon
And then it’s off to the doctor’s labs
To make plums out of prunes
I sleep in a chamber of oxygen
And bathe with mineral water
I’ll gladly trade a plastic surgeon
For my own stepdaughter
My teeth are porcelain veneer
And Lasik for my eye
If you delay each looming year
Then death you can defy
CHORUS:
‘Cos I don’t need your garlands
Or crowds when I depart
I’d rather be the Queen of Diamonds
Than the Queen of People’s Hearts.
‘Cos I don’t need your garlands
Or crowds when I depart
I’d rather be the Queen of Diamonds
Than the Queen of People’s Hearts.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
| |
12:09 pm - singalong
|
SONG #3: QUEEN’S INTRO (ORDINARY GIRL)
PERFORMED BY: THE QUEEN & PAGEANT CONTESTANTS
QUEEN & CONTESTANTS:
O-O-O-Ordinary
O-O-O-Ordinary
O-O-O-Ordinary
Ordinary girl
O-O-O-Ordinary
O-O-O-Ordinary
O-O-O-Ordinary
Ordinary girl
VERSE 1:
QUEEN:
You can’t afford my diamonds
Or these exquisite pearls
But even though I am your queen
I’m just one of the girls
This bracelet costs an atom bomb
This ring will ruin you
But apart from these accessories
I’m down to earth, it’s true
CHORUS:
I’m just an ordinary girl
I could be living just next door
My handsome Gurkha bodyguards
I’ll have to ask you to ignore
VERSE 2:
Of course I’m always driven round
In big expensive cars
And I have weekly dinners with
Tycoons and superstars
BRIDGE:
But take away all that
And we’re all just the same
A rich girl with expensive taste
Is not someone you’d blame
I’ll go to hawker centres
And sit with drunks and bums
I’ll even drink some kopi-O
And eat mee Siam mai hum
Mai hum mai hum
Mai hum mai hum mai hum
CHORUS:
I’m just an ordinary girl
I could be living just next door
My multi-million salary
I’ll have to ask you to ignore
O-O-O-Ordinary
O-O-O-Ordinary
O-O-O-Ordinary
Ordinary girl
O-O-O-Ordinary
O-O-O-Ordinary
Ordinary girl!
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, December 4th, 2008
| |
3:14 pm - gala snaps
|
The divine Miss Tan. Who channels Shirley Bassey, Liza Minelli, Imelda Marcos, LKY and Margaret Chan.
And the cast. Sometimes when I see the bunnies dancing I also feel like slipping into a bunny costume myself.
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
| |
3:03 am - snow white reviews
|
Life! - Life People
Smart, with plenty of heart
adeline chia
1 December 2008
Straits Times
English
(c) 2008 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
Wild Rice Drama Centre, Last Saturday
You know it is Christmas all right, when Wild Rice rolls out its annual pantomime. Turning the Snow White fairy tale on its head is playwright Alfian Sa'at, known for his R-18 plays, in his virgin foray into musical-theatre.
His script is smart, sassy and satirical, but comes with enough good, clean fun for the whole family. The result is an enjoyable show with plenty of heart and some inspired musical touches.
The play is set in the Eternal Kingdom, a squeaky-clean country covered with a dome and pumped with air-conditioning. It is ruled by a control- freak Queen who wins the beauty pageant every year despite grumblings from the ground.
Sounds familiar? The parallels between this fairy-tale land and Singapore are obvious and the panto piles it on thick. The adults, clearly, are the ones picking up on the jibes and there are some funny lines. Cinderella packs a picnic to feed wild animals and where has she chosen? 'The most secluded area in the kingdom' - The Speaker's Corner.
In a way, this is a watered-down version of Alfian's political plays, with enough political edge for the grown- ups to feel naughty, but not enough to cause discomfort.
But Alfian also has his eye on the children. In terms of sexual innuendo, it is very kid-friendly. Other than a terrible pun on the word 'petting' and a transsexual dwarf called Jesse/Jessie, the play is surprisingly chaste.
But what I liked about the play was its surprising heart beyond the swipes and how it probes the fatal obsession with beauty and perfection.
In the Eternal Kingdom, all citizens have to undergo an operation called Enhancement to get rid of flaws and Snow White opts out of it. Later in the Outer Limits, where she finds a Barbie Doll, she holds it and says, 'You stop playing with dolls, but they don't stop playing with you'.
Sebastian Tan stole the show in drag as the wicked witch, whose crisp English and penchant for elaborate headpieces brought the house down.
His cool autocratic air and manic cackle was classic pantomime villain material, but his performance allowed for nuance and even a sense of tragedy, especially in the Queen's apparent disregard for love and affection.
The statuesque Tan worked in fine contrast to the petite Snow White, played by a bright-eyed, clear-voiced Elena Wong, who was a likeable and spunky heroine.
The musical component, composed by Elaine Chan, was a mixed affair, ranging from forgettable pop songs and power ballads to rap songs and flamenco-inspired tunes.
In general, the Queen had the best songs, such as the power-ballad Queen Of Diamonds, where Tan sings: 'I don't need your garlands, or crowns when I depart/I'd rather be the queen of diamonds, than the queen of people's hearts.'
Other tunes, such as the Magic Mirror's I Cannot Tell A Lie, could have been cut to shorten the pantomime's running time of 2 1/2 hours.
But director Hossan Leong keeps things moving by steering the panto through its comedic and tender moments, so that the production's rhythm never sags for a long time. Just take the whole family.
Hi-ho, not ho-hum
Mayo Martin
TODAY
2 December 2008
English
(c) 2008. MediaCorp Press Ltd.
WITH a wave of his wand (his pen), playwright Alfian Sa’at has successfully transformed a harmless fairy tale into a tongue-in-cheek modern day Singaporean allegory — while giving adults the perfect excuse to wave hand clappers and toot horns along with the children in the audience.
W!ld Rice’s year-end musical pantomime was a hoot. Helmed by director Hossan Leong, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs proved to be engrossing enough for kids even as it dished out naughty allusions on the country’s political climate left and right.
In this version, the clean, orderly kingdom is ruled by a evil queen with an obsession for cosmetic surgery. Instead of a wicked witch, an old karung guni woman bears the poisoned apple.
As for the seven dwarfs, they aren’t exactly your cuddly Disney types but citizens who’ve been exiled to the kingdom’s outskirts, which turns out to be a landfill instead of a forest.
Backed by an able supporting cast, the main actors out delivered fine acting and vocal performances.
Dwayne Tan was more loveable geek-dressed-as-a-hobbit than your run of the mill Prince Charming, and the lovely Elena Wang — with her stunning voice and a surprising aptitude for comic timing as Snow White — is proving to be local theatre’s best new discovery for 2008.
But our hats go off to Broadway Beng Sebastian Tan, whose cross-dressing portrayal of the Queen proved that yes, evil can be glamorous, snazzy and sassy.
And that was more than enough to make us hum “Hi-ho, hi-ho ... ”
******************
1) This pantomime had to be one of the most painful things I'd ever written. I know people are tired of hearing it already, but I had sleepless nights trying to write song lyrics. I would camp overnight in the W!ld Rice office, (my productivity severely compromised by endless hours reading The New Yorker online and Salon.com), and in the morning I would scare the first person to come into the office.
2) Another problem I had to deal with was form. The pantomime requires an audience-conscious presentational style, but NOT something Brechtian. It was difficult for me, because I had to try to break the fourth wall, without somehow being arch and meta and putting the whole play in quotation marks. I didn't want, for example, to do a Shrek-style iconoclastic take on the very premise of fairy tales. I still wanted pretty dresses, magic to be accompanied by chimes, True Love and Happily Ever After (with no question mark). I wanted innocence. The illusion of the universe created on stage had to be maintained, even if the actors occasionally popped their heads through this tissue of fantasy.
3) Elaine Chan, the music composer, is such a wonder to work with. Only she could have smiled tolerantly when I gave her rhymes like 'nutritiously' and 'judiciously' and 'exaggerate' and 'carbohydrate' and smoothened them out with music. I think lesser composers would have thrown said verses back at me and yelled 'this is a song you CB so many syllables for what?'
4) The reviews don't mention it, but I thought I'd put it on record that Hossan was instrumental in parsing down the musical to its current length. It was about hitting plot points, ushering the action along, and he did an amazing job of underscoring key moments with music. For once I didn't feel as if removing lines had diminished the play.
5) The kinds of ad-libbing liberties the actors have taken with the play are so gratifying. And the children in the audience throw up all kinds of new things each night. I do think they're the unacknowledged stars of the show. Or I'm probably just saying this because I made a few of them cry ('No! Snow White, don't go!'...'Don't eat the apple!' etc) and I feel quite bad.
6) I can't peel my eyes away when: the littlest bunny dances; when the Prince does his solo; when the Queen does her Shirley Bassey number in those magma-red gloves.
7) There is a wishing tree in the lobby. People are invited to 'send their wishes to Snow White'. Some write 'Happy Marriage Snow White!'. I've seen one that said 'I love Santa'. But there's one particular which read 'Please ask God to heal Sarah completely this Thursday.' I don't know if there's going to be a major operation on that day. I would like to believe that Sarah is down with cold and that her family wants her to recover in time to catch the play on Thursday. I don't know Sarah. But please get well soon. You need to find your Prince Charming and have your happily ever after. It is the very least that you deserve.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
| |
12:55 am - new singapore!
|
I get some comments from people who watch Snow White that they're 'surprised' at how I managed to 'get away' with some of the political jibes in the play.
Are we really liberalising? Could this be the New Singapore?
1) First things first, whatever happens in the privileged arena that is the theatre does not necessarily reflect current socio-political reality. It is a fallacy to believe that the theatre is some kind of barometer for social change. The explosions are contained.
2) I don't think I'm pushing any out-of-bound markers. I don't write plays as if they are furtive, guerilla attacks at the establishment. So it's tiring whenever I get called 'edgy' or 'daring'. What is the issue here is the discrepancy between your perception of what is dangerous or permissible, and my own.
3) When people express 'surprise' at 'how far I managed to go', what they are essentially doing is expressing their own internalised fears.
4) I know the paranoia that is so entrenched that one speaks of ISD folders, bugged phones, hacked emails, civil service blacklists, etc. I have wrestled with these issues myself, and it all boils down to: don't they have better things to do? It would be tragic for Singapore if I'm perceived as a threat when there's a supposed terrorist who escaped from our local Guantanamo Bay who's still at large.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, November 28th, 2008
| |
5:04 am - caption this november
|
Winners of November's Caption This! Contest:
3) The lengths some people go to for tongue-descaling.
2) Eve had clearly misheard the serpent's instructions.
1) The deep-throat competition produced a clear winner.
3) Weekly yoga with the Stepford Wives.
2) Workers at the Emperor's New Clothes sweatshop hold up their handiwork.
1) Members of Young PAP chant 'Long Live Great Leader' in robotic ecstasy.
3) Melvin (aka Maung Win) celebrates his 5th year of asylum in Singapore with a prayer for peace.
2) "I am NOT going to wish for my crater to disappear! Where is it? I can't even see it."
1) "So at the void deck I opened my mouth like this, and looked up..."
3) Perineal exercises can be so FUN! Now, CLENCH!
2) After the umpteenth round of super-enthu cheering at the Superteen Camp, he finally managed to message H-E-L-P M-E to everyone on his phone list.
1) Children at a Special School make New Year's wishes a month early.
3) Scientists have discovered a link between contact lens-wear and lesbianism.
2) 'Look sultry' meant different things to different people.
1) It was obvious from the beginning who was going to drop out of tranny school.
3) 3 commercial, 1 couture.
2) "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"
1) Suan Lake.
3) The pugilistic manoeuvres of the Pufferfish Sect were unique, to say the least.
2) The ninja explained his unique attire: he carried out his attacks in mangrove swamps only, waist deep in water.
1) Early rejected storyboard for Kung Fu Panda. (They only kept the Panda)
This is actually a composite taken from four different sources:
From Left to Right:
1) New Light of Myanmar newspaper byline photo, Agriculture Section
2) Outram Secondary School: Lab Technician photo pasted on Staff Movement Chart
3) National JC Yearbook, Pioneer Batch, 1970
4) S-League Newsletter: Dalien Shide imports new China-born midfielder
If you laughed at any of these, you are as much a CB as I am hahaha.
|
|
(7 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, November 27th, 2008
| |
1:12 pm - missing homeland
|
|
| Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
| |
2:51 pm - absolutely amazing
|
From the Straits Times, 26 Nov 2008:
IN DECIDING whether contempt of court has been committed, many common law jurisdictions like England and Australia prefer to adopt the test of whether there has been a 'real risk' of undermining public confidence in the justice system.
Justice Tay Yong Kwang, however, rejected this approach for Singapore in his ruling that found the publisher of the Wall Street Journal Asia guilty of contempt of court.
Singapore's unique conditions, such as its small size, made it necessary to deal firmly with attacks on the courts' integrity, he said.
This was why when deciding contempt of court cases, he preferred to go by whether there was an 'inherent tendency' to interfere with the administration of justice instead of whether there was a 'real risk' that public confidence in the judiciary would be undermined.
Dow Jones' lawyer, Senior Counsel Philip Jeyaretnam, had argued in favour of the latter, saying it was clearer and struck a more appropriate balance between protecting an independent judiciary and the right to free expression.
The 'inherent tendency' test was deemed vague and imprecise, he added.
Justice Tay, in explaining why he rejected this approach, defined a statement which has an 'inherent tendency' to interfere with the administration of justice as 'one that conveys to an average reasonable reader allegations of bias, lack of impartiality, impropriety or any wrongdoing concerning a judge in the exercise of his judicial function'.
He cited two advantages to this approach.
It does not call for detailed proof of what in many cases is unprovable - that public confidence in the administration of justice really was impaired.
This test enables the court to step in before the damage actually occurs.
************************
1) OMG! The 'Singapore is unique because it is small' argument rears its head again! A little bit of exceptionalism rhetoric does go a long way, it seems. Someone needs to factcheck and see if other 'small states' go to the same lengths to protect their courts' integrity. There are at least 45 countries whose populations are less than 1.5 million. What are their court systems like?
2) Well, we can't prove anything, but let's proceed with the case anyway and arrive at a verdict. I mean, who really needs proof in a court of a law? Let's just rely on exegesis by this "average reasonable reader". Can he please take the stand? Oh, no such person exists? He's an idealistic abstraction? Then how do we get our testimonies? Oh, whatever.
3) The court stepping in before damage actually occurs. Wow. We're in pre-cog territory here. The court is making decisions based on likelihood, not actual outcomes. Is it possible to prosecute in the near future for 'inherent tendency' towards criminal behaviour, rather than the act of crime itself?
4) Any act of suppressing information carries within it its own contradiction. This has been called the paradox of censorship: it is always the strongest publicity agent for unpopular ideas. So basically, the Court itself exacerbated the 'damage' by proceeding with the case. In an attempt to clamp down on the right of AWSJ to free reporting, it drew attention to these very articles in question, exposing their content to a much wider readership than what they might have attracted in the first place. And it doesn't really matter at the end of the day whether AWSJ wins or loses, the meme has been circulated, people are reading Chee's side of the story as well as other accounts, and they can make up their own minds, even if they can't publicly articulate their contents, one of the few freedoms one has left on this wretched island.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| |
12:00 pm - i have an inherent tendency to tend towards inherence
|
So the Singapore High Court, yet again, has proven itself to be independent and fair-minded by successfully charging those who accuse it otherwise with--contempt of court.
Sometimes I don't quite understand these cases. Is it even possible for defendants to win in contempt of court proceedings? When he is being tried under the very same system he has supposedly outraged? In any other situation, wouldn't this be known as a conflict of interest?
And what are these rulings supposed to communicate to the rest of Singaporeans? The Court says, it is right. Christopher Lingle was wrong. Asian Wall Street Journal was wrong. International Bar Council's Human Rights Institute was wrong. And who says the Court is right? Why, the Court itself, of course.
In other countries, to deflect charges that the law of libel is used as a political instrument, you show, as evidence, past records that reveal how only a small percentage of libel cases taken against opposition politicians have been successful. And that in most of these cases, the damages paid were not aggravated, going by this supposed idea that reputations can be quantified. (ie, reputation of hawker < reputation of minister)
In other countries, to deflect charges that you practise cronyism, you avoid putting those with close associations with you in top-ranking positions.
In other countries, to deflect charges that you practise nepotism, you take pains to prevent your own son from occupying a position that you yourself once held.
In this country, you take your grievance to the court, and then it gets settled within hallowed chambers, those chambers where the Rule of Law is enshrined, and then bang goes the gavel and case closed. Victors vindicated, losers humiliated (often financially), and the echo of the bang radiates outwards, trying to get into other heads: clear your doubts now, the court has spoken, you're convinced now, aren't you, that we're not in anyone's pockets, oh, but you have to be convinced, the whole issue has been settled with people who are much wiser than you, specialists, in things like justice, who've got the final say, you might have had your doubts but they've been cleared in the court, rehearsed and rebutted, so rightfully they should be expunged from your head too.
In this country, you hitch a ride on a tautological carousel, a snake eating its own tail.
Even though one can't question the Courts, is one still allowed to question a ruling? Or has that particular freedom vanished too?
No marsupials this time. But something bovine (male), and that emission (methane-emitting) from its posterior.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Monday, November 24th, 2008
| |
11:47 pm - under the suicide tree (excerpt)
|
She had long retired, but she was still called Cikgu Hawa. It was a sign of respect by her former students, but even those who had not attended the two schools where she had taught for a total of thirty one years greeted her with that title. She sometimes wondered whether this was becuse it came closest to being called a Datuk or Datin, those honorifics conferred by Sultans up north. Could her husband, a school principal, have received such an honour himself? They lived in a bungalow, but he wasn't a self-made millionaire, or some famous cultural figure. Like Cikgu Hawa, he was a civil servant. And yet, here in Singapore, people pronounced the word 'Cikgu' with reverence, a throwback to a time when teachers held such status in the community, such power--parents would come to school offering her a malicious-looking switch of rattan, saying, 'Do to my child as you will'.
Cikgu Hawa smiled as she thought about how she had left the profession just in time--children had become more unruly as the years progressed, and that maternal way she replied to them--Cikgu? Yes sayang?--become more of an affectation than something which came naturally to her. Sometimes she noticed how calling someone 'love' caused one to shrink defensively, as if dreading an onslaught of teasing, whereas in the past, the one lavished with such affection would blush, while the others grew restless with envy.
Students had certainly changed over the years. They had become more clever, and less innocent. She recalled a time when girls came to school with thick plaits, their hair parted meticulously down the middle--as if this too was homework, something to present to the teacher, the only homework that illiterate parents could assist with. And the boys--she remembered one whose name was the Malay word for a little boy's penis, her confusion when she read it in the class register, and her embarrassment, certainly exceeding his, when he confirmed it was the right spelling. She had avoided, from that day onwards, calling out his name when she marked attendance, instead referring to him as the son of (his father's name). Whatever could have possessed his parents to give him a name like that? Or was it a mistake made by a nurse at the maternity hospital--her deafness, the parents' illiteracy (the Malay phrase was 'alphabet-blind'), conspiring to produce a fateful moment of dictation?
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
| |
7:15 pm - yasmin
|
Met Yasmin Ahmad last night at her hotel room, to watch a preview of her latest film, 'Talentime'.
She mentioned wanting to do a film in Singapore one day. But she also asked if I was able to direct a film myself.
To which the answer is obviously not. I've never seen myself as a director, not even for theatre. But we might collaborate one day. Insyaallah.
The December holidays will be a time to write, write, write. I'm thinking of a short story collection--next year it'll be a decade since 'Corridor' was published. And poetry too. For the latter I just might want to apply for a writing residency in my beloved country, Malaysia.
By the way, Yasmin's film 'Muallaf' will be opening this Thursday at the Picturehouse. On Saturday, there'll be a Q&A with her at the Picturehouse Lounge. Come and support!
|
|
(7 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
| |
1:46 pm - tudung interviews (8)
|
Tudung Interview (8)
What do you want me
To say?
I went to a madrasah.
I was home-schooled.
I studied overseas.
All of the above
Or none at all.
Three others shared my story.
We kept in contact, over
The years. We drifted apart.
We made a pact to meet again
Where one of us would say,
They didn’t want us.
We were the unwanted.
They didn’t like what they saw
Of themselves in us
And claimed
That we were broken mirrors.
What do you want us
To say? Why do you stand
At the door, asking to be let in?
Don’t you understand?
There’s no room for you.
You can’t come in
Until you’ve understood
The speechlessness of exile.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| |
7:26 am - the years
|
|
| |
6:16 am - tudung interviews (1)
|
Tudung Interview (1)
How can they say I have
Imposed my will
On my child?
There is only God’s will
And we who are the willing.
They say the girl
Is too young
To think for herself,
That she is a pawn
In her father’s hands,
As he himself is a pawn
In the hands of others—
To corner the king
On a board
Of black and white squares.
But He above sees more
Than two colours
Infinite the spectrum of His moves
Of which we understand
Only mercy and wrath.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
