Looks like the Australian election, whenever it is they happen, is going to be super duper fun:
A day after an emotional plea to “lay off” his family, Mr Latham said his reference in 2002 to former Liberal Party president Tony Staley as a “deformed character” was justified because Mr Staley was a public figure.
And newspaper columnists Janet Albrechtsen and Piers Akerman – who the Labor leader branded respectively a “skanky ho” and a drug addict in a speech to Parliament – should also expect to “get some back” if they criticised politicians, Mr Latham said.
In Singapore, I expect the headlines during the next election to be full of terms like ‘skanky ho’ and ‘drug addict’. I’m also looking forward to reading about all the ‘uneducated weasels’ and ‘traitorous scum’.
Pelletiere says the United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report following the Halabja gassing, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need- to-know basis. ”That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas,” he wrote in The New York Times.
From The New Yorker in March 2003, however, is an interesting quote:
Attempts by Congress in 1988 to impose sanctions on Iraq were stifled by the Reagan and Bush Administrations…
Why is that? Could it be (back to the Inter Press article):
Soon after the attack, the United States approved the export to Iraq of virus cultures and a billion-dollar contract to design and build a petrochemical plant the Iraqis planned to use to produce mustard gas.
The inquiry revealed details of the British government’s secret decision to supply Saddam with even more weapons-related equipment after the Halabja killings.
Former British foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe was found to have written that the end of the Iraq-Iran war could mean ”major opportunities for British industry” in military exports, but he wanted to keep that proposal quiet.
What a time warp we’re travelling here, eh. I still find it hard to be sympathetic to a government’s assertions that a dictator they helped to arm and supply with weapons capabilities had magically become, Good Golly, dangerous.
Remember this? Bush made a statement in September 7, 2002, asserting:
I would remind you that when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied — finally denied access, a report came out of the Atomic — the IAEA that they were six months away from developing a weapon. I don’t know what more evidence we need.
I’m sure the people would like to see this evidence now, please. Especially since they’ve had more than a year to find it.
The video “is a very, very sophisticated part of Zarqawi’s information campaign, stamping him as the star of the new global jihad inspired by Osama bin Laden,” said Mr Ware.
…
“This is their power, it’s what they often say to me, ‘Our great advantage over you is that you’ve got the technology and you’ve got everything you want, but you are afraid of death and we are not’,” he said.
Hearts and minds, eh. Are you convinced that the events over the past year have made the world safer? I’m not.
In Bush and Blair’s grand plan to save AmericaGreat Britainthe world Iraq’s people from Saddam Hussein, something has gone dangerously, terrifyingly wrong. It could be argued that it was to be expected, that those who were already terrorists (and their sympathisers) would make things worse before they got better, but surely having more Muslims cross the line into the ‘insanity’ category was not an outcome they were hoping for.
Osama bin Laden must be coming in his shorts (robes?), knowing that he’s inspired a new global jihad, recruiting men who are now not afraid of death, if only to bring death on to others.
What a mess. What a clean up job this is turning out to be.
The doctor who blew the whistle on China’s SARS epidemic has been detained for writing a letter to the party leadership, urging them to admit that what they did at Tiananmen in 1989 was wrong:
The security officials have forced Jiang to write daily statements and watch videotapes as part of the indoctrination process, sources familiar with the situation said, and they have scrutinized his datebook and other materials for information to use against him. One source described the process as a milder version of the high-pressure, sometimes violent tactics that Chinese security agents have successfully used to force members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement to give up their beliefs.
On June 15, several hours after CNN broadcast a telephone interview with the couple’s daughter, Jiang Rui, and the Associated Press moved an interview with their son, Jiang Qing, the authorities released Hua. She immediately urged both children to stop talking to reporters, saying she had been told that Jiang’s fate would depend in part on their silence, sources close to the family said.
Hua did not return phone calls to her home. One person close to the family said the 72-year-old retired research doctor is terrified and appears to have been traumatized by her experience. Military officials visit her every day to remind her not to speak to reporters, the person said.
Yesterday, I linked to a rant claiming China’s faboo and all the bad press it receives is out of jealousy. I find it hard to locate a motivation for making this up. Maybe the evil West is jealous that China attempts brainwashing with a better success rate.
When, oh when, will these deluded attitudes change? I don’t refer specifically to the US bashing the author indulges in, but the screaming assertions that China is a great country, ruled by great people with the full, informed support of the population, and innocent as the driven snow, but always attacked by the evil West because they envy her goodness and astounding progress.
My favourite paragraph displays a contradiction so glaring I wonder if the author had to shut their brain down in order to type it:
Rule by the majority, not rule by the small or limited vested interest, for China is a huge population and must be ruled by the majority, to do less would be criminal in itself.
All foreigners in China will, at some point, encounter Old China. Old China is an anachronism. Old China must go. But I guess they have to finish trying to intimidate Taiwan and making themselves feel they have big willies first, what with the military exercises off Dongshan and ranty posturing in the media.
I did a loosely-translated running commentary on a teevee programme Neil and I saw when we were out to dinner. It involved a Chinese current affairs journalist reporting on the latest from Taiwan. Mainly:
Taiwan is horrible. Its economy is failing.
Taiwan is horrible. Its government is messing up and people are protesting (oh, the irony).
Taiwan is horrible. There is a huge disparity between female and male population numbers (I don’t even know where to begin).
… as the 84-year-old retiree walked past the library in Toa Payoh Central, a long-haired woman, all dolled up, approached him and said: ‘Lao bo, wo dai ni qu wan.’ Translated, it means: ‘Old uncle, let me take you out to play.’
His amused reply: ‘I’m not a three-year-old but over 80 years old. Play for what?’
She wasn’t put off. ‘She followed me all the way to the interchange before giving up,’ he added. ‘I tried to walk quickly but it was of no use.’
Professional beggars can also keep up the pace in China as you try to get away from them. Some of the limping old ladies and men suddenly start power walking when you speed up.
Other solutions suggested by the MPs include: more frequent police raids, increasing the number of designated red-light zones so that such activities can be confined and regulated, and public education for Singaporean men.
Hong Kah MP Ahmad Khalis Abdul Ghani wants immigration officials to track visitors with suspect travel patterns. Mayor Othman says the women caught should be blacklisted and barred from returning. Yet, all of them caution against being ‘unfriendly to our friends from China’.
Singapore recently relaxed restrictions on visitors from China, granting visas valid for up to 30 days, up from 14 days previously.
Increasing ‘designated red light zones’ will do jack. These carry a stigma, suburban hooking is less obvious. More raids and immediate jailing of culprits (and pimps) would be good. I’m curious to find out what kind of public education for Singaporean men would be effective — “Don’t talk to Chinese women, especially if they want to show you a good time?”
Yeah, I can see that making a big difference. The Chinese women who live in Singapore, who are there legitimately, are not happy about this turn of events.
While Singapore’s government is happy to be extremely, unreasonably strict with Indonesian and Filipino domestic workers, they can’t be ‘unfriendly’ to China. What a fucking joke.
Announcing the arrival of the latest Lim in my cousin’s household, a boy weighing in at 3.19kg. He was due on June 24, but had to be persuaded to finally make an appearance at 1839 hours on July 3.
The proud parents haven’t told us his name yet, so I’m going to call him Raisin for now.
Raisin’s older sister, Emma, is looking distinctly unconcerned with these latest developments.
Congratulations to my cousin and his wife on the birth of their second child! I hope to see all of you soon. Emma’s a beautiful wee girl, and I’m sure once Raisin becomes a Grape, he’ll be dead cute, too.
These are known among the expatriates as xiao jie cards. They offer ‘Thai style massage’, the classic euphemism for prostitutes on call. This one invites all horn dogs too lazy to try to pull girls who aren’t for rent (50RMB per hour) to call Mr Liu or Miss Chu Chu to arrange an appointment; apparently, their facilities are next to the Minnan Hotel.
Good to know.
I have no problem with prostitution — if it’s completely voluntary. It’s only really sad that it’s necessary, and don’t get all moral wih me and claim it isn’t. Without demand, there wouldn’t be supply.
I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew it was about school shootings, a fictionalised account of what happened in Columbine. The movie told me that the reason the boys went on a shooting spree in their high school was because they could. Not because they were tortured individuals who were misunderstood, but because they valued their own and other people’s lives so little that destroying lives was all in fun. Teenagers so emotionally immature can harbour fantasies of being cold-blooded killers, and they can act these fantasies out.
Is there anyone to blame? In this movie, would we blame the violent first-person shooter game they played? The fact that they appeared to buy weapons online, with no security checks whatsoever? Beethoven? Or is it just that some people are violent, and easy access to mass-murdering weapons makes them so much more dangerous?
I don’t think guns should be banned, but they shouldn’t be so easy to buy. Neil said he saw guns for sale in Wal-mart for less than US$200. That’s just nuts. People who are responsible and can be responsible for their possessions should be allowed to buy a weapon if they decide to. But that’s it.
My grandfather moved from China to Singapore when he was very young. As a result, he’d always felt nostalgia for a hometown he never really knew. It was only when he was much older that he got a chance to return, wife in tow. When he got back, it was ‘Amoy this’ and ‘Amoy that’.
Yes, my grandfather is from Xiamen, so living here does mean something to me. Usually, it means: is this person sitting next to me on the bus a relative? We kind of look a little alike.
I imagine he thought Xiamen was so wonderful because when he was there, he was a guest. And it wasn’t as though he was a manual labourer in Singapore, toiling daily and wishing for a simpler life back home. He was an artist and worked in an advertising agency in Singapore for a long time. He was quite the cosmopolitan man about town, as much as was possible in colonial Singapore.
To my grandfather, Amoy was the place to be.
I met someone recently, who also thinks China is the place to be. As usual, I got the “Where are you from?” question from my taxi driver, and after I told him, “Singapore”, he asked if Lee Kuan Yew was the leader. I said, No, not anymore, although he remains in government. Our current prime minister is Goh Chok Tong, but he will be stepping down in the next month or so, handing the reins over to Lee Hsien Loong, the elder Mr Lee’s son.
“Your next prime minister is going to be Lee Kuan Yew’s son?” he asked.
“Yes. This is Singapore, that’s the way our politics work,” I replied.
“Will there be an election to choose him?”
“No.”
“Now, see, China’s government is fairer than yours. Our leaders are not related by blood.”
One thing I’m trying to do as an aspiring writer / observer is to shut up and let people talk. Even though I wanted to defend my country (however weakly) it was important I listen to his point of view. Right? This is a taxi driver, perhaps the Every Man of Xiamen, ready to enlighten me with his take on China’s politics and what it means to be a citizen of this huge country. I did need to ask one thing, though:
“China doesn’t hold elections either, if ever. What makes your country different?”
“China is a big country. If we did hold elections, it’d be chaos, anarchy. We’d never get anything done. China is not the place for free elections.”
This is the reality in China. Yes, there is a desire among human rights and democracy advocates for more freedom in China, for elections, for a free press, for an open and accountable government — but most citizens are just trying to make a living. They’ve never lived in a free society, or even one that resembles it. All they know is their government does whatever it is they do, leaving them to eke out a living, and maybe they might make a little extra money so they can make their own lives a tad better. The freedom, ‘chaos’, and ‘anarchy’ will just disrupt it all, and they don’t want that.
Will the Chinese government allow the development of a sizeable middle class? In order for the country to sustain growth, it needs to distribute its income more equitably. Right now, the rich are very, very rich, and everyone else isn’t. But once the populace is no longer worried about earning enough all the time, their minds will turn toward other topics — such as freedom. Is that something the Chinese government, as it stands, wants? To continue exercising the level of control they do, they are ultimately going to stifle their own country’s growth, but to encourage China to develop further, they will lose power in the end.
One thing our top politicians / world leaders have succeeded at — beyond their wildest dreams, I’m sure — is polarising the public to such an extent that disagreement in politics is now tantamount to treason / censorship / saying very unpleasant things about your mother.
You disagree with me? You’re a twat and must purged from existence! I will insult and shout over you, and (in the case of weblogs) ban you — because that makes a huge difference to Bush, Blair, Howard, Chirac, Allawi, Schroeder, et al.
Someone here cannot believe that I keep up with the news on a fairly regular basis and, still, cannot support Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. Well, mate, the world news has done nothing but make me even more in favour of opposing unnecessary war. There’s no point arguing about all this stuff — the way the world has gone, you can shout and be sarcastic and talk down to me all you like, but we will never agree. We all say we like to debate, but when someone comes along to challenge our beliefs, look out for the outrage. People on the ‘Left’ read what they want to read, people on the ‘Right’ read what they want to read, cognitive dissonance doesn’t occur, and we emerge with very differing views of the current state of affairs.
And spin? Good Lord. I could make a fortune writing for political titles, if I only had enough conviction (and a decent CV) to go hard Left or Right. In the political world, there may be plenty of room for Left or Right of centre, but on the Internet? No chance. You either think George Bush and his pals or John Kerry and his pals are the devil incarnate (and stupid. And too rich. And boring. And dangerous. And inconsistent).
Maybe it was a good thing when I had no interest in politics. Politics and those who indulge in its fumes are angry, coarse, crude, insulting, sarcastic, rash, and passive aggressive.
Enthusiasts in the Southeast Asian city-state trace the phenomenon back to the late 1990s when a Japanese dance instructor introduced line dancing.
Pshaw. When I was in school, line dancing was a required activity on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Right after rousing renditions of the national and school anthems, and hand-over-heart recitations of the pledge, we had to get dancing to, I guess, wake us up for class. This would have been in the late 80s, early 90s.
(I wonder if they still make the classes choreograph dances for competition. Poor girls.)
Routine is everything in Singapore, critics say, and line dancing suits Singaporeans because it emphasizes conformity and reflects the city-state’s fear of risk-taking. “I think there’s a certain security in having your movements prescribed to you, and it seems very Singaporean to be playing ‘follow the leader,’” says Yong Shu Chiang, a culture critic for Today newspaper.
I doubt the dancers are following the leader because they think it’s less risky — control of public behaviour in Singapore is not always so overt, people are not always this paranoid. Line dancing suits (some) Singaporeans because, yes, it’s easy to follow the leader, and lots of Singaporeans like country and western music (God knows why, it’s not as if we have a long tradition in cattle farming and horse roping or something) — who can remember Matthew and the Mandarins ?
Neil and I saw Powder on DVD last night. I first saw this in the cinema, and I remember coming away feeling quite positive about it. Neil’s pronouncement was ‘corny, but quite good’.
One thing I’d not remembered about the film: some of it would now be considered inappropriate, very unPC. The scene where Jeff Goldblum touches Powder and caresses his face? Homosexual paedophile alert! I don’t remember being at all offended by that in 1995 — how times have changed.
(Turns out that the film’s writer and director, Victor Salvo, is a convicted sex offender. He also directed Jeepers Creepers, which I saw on DVD in 2002, and quite enjoyed, too.)
I liked that it was quite restrained, it could have been a lot more sappy. And I especially liked that not everything was explained in detail, if at all. As a result, please do not watch it with Phenomenon. That film makes you want to smack John Travolta for trying to tug your heartstrings that much.
Announcing the arrival of the latest Lim in my cousin’s household, a boy weighing in at 3.19kg. He was due on June 24, but had to be persuaded to finally make an appearance at 1839 hours on July 3.
Raisin’s older sister, Emma, is looking distinctly unconcerned with these latest developments.
