DW informed me that Joshua Benjamin Jeyaratnam died today. This makes me sad.
If it wasn’t for him, our generation wouldn’t even be aware that dissent, true dissent, was possible in Singapore. The incumbents really had a problem with him because he was good. The problem was he didn’t believe in the myth — the rest of us apathetically, resignedly accept it.
If he had joined the establishment he would have been amazing, but he wasn’t willing to compromise. One wonders if they will now say anything nice about him.
(Nice job, Straits Times. It’s ‘peddle’, not ‘pedal’. FFS, your sub-editor needs to be fired. For those unfamiliar with Singapore politics, JBJ’s books were never sold in shops — he peddled them outside shopping centres and MRT stations, Neil and I bought some years ago, before we, er, ‘quit’. Heh.)
Earlier posts about JBJ:
I’m sure I’ve got more in my old hand-coded archives.
Shauna’s timely shared item on Google Reader reminded me (although I tend to, sadly, remember every year) that today is the Goss twins’ birthday. Matt (yuck) and Luke (yum) are 40 today.
I bought Push back in 1988. On cassette. I used to think they were way older than me. It’s funny what a couple of decades will do. 12 and 20 is a huge age difference, 32 and 40… not so much.
Thankfully, Luke Damon Goss is not gay. That makes me feel better.
(Just to clarify again and again, I wasn’t crushing on falsetto-voiced Matt, I had a thing for manly masculine drummer Luke. Rawr.)
I have a colleague who sits in front of her Internet-connected laptop and calls directory enquiries for telephone numbers, and she thinks another colleague in Ireland is old-fashioned for getting photos developed.
Singapore says WSJ waging campaign against judges:
Woon, who was appointed as Attorney General in April this year, said that report was “ignorant” and the Bar Association did not understand the Singapore judicial system.
He also said the Western media had an axe to grind with Singapore because they disagreed with the country’s model of governance.
“The problem with the Western press, especially the American press, is that they think their first amendment right applies to them all over the world,” Woon said, referring to the U.S. constitution which guarantees freedom of speech and expression.
Um… I didn’t realise that foreign news publications don’t have the freedom to write about Singapore. Maybe only Singaporeans can write about Singapore. What about Singaporeans outside Singapore? Can we write news articles and profile / interview opposition politicians in the print media? Are we protected by our Constitution?
(Yes, those are all rhetorical and ever-so-slightly sarcastic questions.)
The US Republican Party, the party of small government. By the way, do you think Republicans notice that their principles are paradoxical? Freedom to do business without regulation = good. Freedom to own firearms = good. Freedom to have sex with other adults as long as it’s consensual = bad.
… but I like to share inappropriately.
Do adolescent cliques re-assert themselves now that we’ve found old classmates on Facebook?
We had the cool crew, the wild girls, the bookish ones… we’re all grown up now, but I wonder, if there was a giant school reunion that we all miraculously were in Singapore for, would the groups continue to segregate according to ‘coolness’ lines like they did back then? Some of the ‘wild’ girls I knew back then are happily-married mums now.
(I am really loving Facebook right now for letting me find my old junior college classmates. They are all really interesting people.)
Why can all my colleagues acquire, edit, publish, and market books so damn brilliantly but so few appear able to rinse their crockery before putting it in the dishwasher or change the bog roll in the toilet when the roll runs out?
“The H—”
I can type it, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to utter the word “Husband” anywhere near the word “Neil” just yet. He’s been The Boyfriend for so long that changing that description just seems too weird. It’s been almost three weeks already and I still can’t do it. There must be something in my subconscious that thinks if I address Neil as The Husband, I will shrivel up and die of old age.
Yesterday I was actually chatting with someone and said, “My boyf—I mean Neil,” and that was when I realised I’m a total freak.
Another identifying trait of mine is clumsiness beyond the bounds of reason
How many people do you know can slip and fall on their hands and knees while trying to avoid someone who has slipped and fallen? Granted, I was wearing shoes I tend to slip in, but we were like a comedy duo — the middle-aged chubster slipping and falling on his arse, and me going, “Whoa…”, undertaking the evasive manoeuvre of leaning right with the soles of my feet evading the pavement and my knees not evading the road.
And finally, the granddaddy of weird thoughts I frequently entertain:
Why are females so damned feminine?
I don’t give two shits about handbags or what’s “on-trend” (except to be amazed that women follow this stuff when the stylists and designers tend to wear the same damned things year after year because they know what suits them) or hair treatments or manicures or pedicures or wedding videos or wedding dresses or diets (I am on the classic See Food diet) or anything so many women I know or see on teevee seem really intent on. I’m like Christina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy except I’m not that ambitious.
It also drives me nuts to read about celebrity women who profess to be tomboys but are constantly in high heels and full make up. WTF?!
Who are the British creationists? in the BBC Magazine. As Dr. Karl stated in last week’s Triple J science programme (he is still my favourite doctor, after all my rellies who are also doctors), there is no conflict between creationism and evolution because they are completely different topics. They cannot be compared.
Pasta with garlic, red onion, and Cantabrian anchovies. Shall we say it’s slightly, er, pungent.
A rather scary letter (yet to be confirmed) from someone who purports to have known Sarah Palin for a long time and is not thrilled at the prospect of her being VP of the USA: “They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness.” Just what’s needed a high-profile politician. Unfortunately, the email also describes many examples of her unfitness for that level of office.
Local income tax: ‘The issue will dominate the by-election’
I’m with Neil — let’s scrap all these taxes and levy a flat (and lower) income tax rate on everyone, and impose a GST on everything, no exceptions. So you pay if you use.
Like hell that’s going to happen, so I have questions about the LIT that is being proposed to replace the council tax.
- How will this tax be collected — in a separate bill sent to households, or directly from our pay?
- When will this tax be collected — at the same time our income tax is deducted from our pay or after? If it’s the latter will it be 3% of our income before or after tax?
- Who will collect this tax — will it be HMRC or the local council? What kinds of costs will be involved in adding this new level of administration, and who will pay for it?*
It could get pretty damned messy and, as a result, expensive. So I would be very interested to know what the actual plan is for implementation (one line in the Scottish Government’s programme for 2008-2009 just doesn’t cut it). The MSP for our area is — in a word — useless, so someone has to ask. It might as well be a foreigner so they can accuse me of meddling in domestic affairs!
* The LibDems will do a deal, but they prefer the LIT to be set and administered by each council. Which, I presume, will involve re-training the civil servants who currently administer the council tax.
It’s sad that I’m really, really excited about the new season of Grey’s Anatomy starting on Thursday — and I’im actually wondering what I’m going to do with my nights when it concludes. The UK is getting season four this week, no spoilers please!
How to make ID theft and stalking really easy: lifestreaming with geolocation. There’s something seriously wrong with people (IMHO) who need their online ‘friends’ to know exactly where they are and what they’re doing at all times.
Adding The Crossroads (Niccolo Ammaniti), Hieroglyphics (Anne Donovan), Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks (Alan Coren), The Lieutenant (Kate Grenville), and The Stone Gods (Jeanette Winterson)* to my TBR stack.
My TBR stack seems to grow faster than I can speed-read.
*w00t! A non-work book!!
As you can see, we are much more mature now that we’ve got the whole ball and chain thing done.
More pics on Flickr.
