Singaporeans are no good at dating? Who's opinion is that?

Singaporeans are a funny bunch. Even if they don't know it. I've been here for a couple of weeks and I was lucky enough to catch 2 important events. Firstly was Singapore's first medal since 1960 at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and secondly I was witness to the funniest Prime Minster's address ever. There were some issues that were important policies disguised in a way that catered to the common Singaporean.These included better welfare for mothers to support more pregnancies in Singapore's waining population and important steps to improve freedom of speech but there was one part of Lee Hsien Loong's speech that should have been left out.

In his speech, that was published on the internet in text and video the Prime Minster basically spends time to tell his fellow Singaporeans that they don't know how to date. Sure this is related to the falling number of births in the country but a little more tact would not have gone astray. He first sites a case of a woman in her30th's who has worked all her life and is finding it hard to find a mate.

Relate conversation one matchmaker had with his client
Q: What do you usually do after work?
A: Go to the gym
Q: How about the weekends?
A: Stay at home with family
Q: Do you go out?
A: Yes, bring nieces and nephews out to play
Q: Have you met any new friends in the last week?
A: [Dead silence]
Q: How about the last 1 month?
A: [Dead silence again]

To add insult to injury, Mr Lee's speech proceeds to further examine that even when Singaporeans go on a date, they are ill prepared because"their social graces aren't up to scratch" and they have unrealistic expectations.

Unfortunately sometimes their social graces are not up to scratch
i. e.g. dating agency arranged for a guy to meet a date
ii. Setting was a romantic dinner at a nice restaurant
iii. But he showed up wearing slippers!
(1) Asked why he did not dress up for the occasion
(2) His reply – this is me, this is how I am
(3) After some tactful grooming advice, he made progress and learnt tokeep a pair of shoes in the car, and put them on before dates
(4) The couple are now happily married

And then proceeds to actually imply that Singaporeans cannot separate real attraction from movie romance.

f. Also need to have realistic expectations
i. Have to make an effort for the relationship to work
ii. Easy to get carried away by romantic images in the movies
(1) Meet someone of your dreams, instantly fall madly in love, get married, live happily ever after
iii. But we are ordinary people in real life
(1) May not have instant sparks on the first date
(2) But take time to discover the person for who he or she is, nurture the relationship, and love may blossom

All of this of course he sites independent research...from where you ask? Dating agencies! Somehow I don't think that these organisation have taken the steps to ensure that their research is impartial. By using these cases, at least to me, Lee comes off like a salesman for them. He even goes so far as to naming a number of them. I am sure that these agencies will experience a spike in business after this National Day celebration.

The most damning part of this speech though is that the leader of a nation is presenting this like a stand up comedian. A bad one at that. The audience laughs half heartedly at his anecdotes and in the end he spend 6 minutes not only airing to the world that Singaporean women are socially inept, but that Singaporean men are ill advised when it comes to courting and are interested in women half their age.

The Singaporeans I know don't fit this mold and it is a shame that, although his intentions are good, he didn't leave this strategy to schools, social workers or a well crafted public service media campaign and decided to include it in a speech for the Republic's anniversary. Happy birthday Singapore. Don't fret too much. There's someone out there for everyone.

Posted by email from Dedric's posterous

Singapore Snapshots

I have been to Singapore so many times but this weekend I actually managed to be tourist for the first time. Here are some of my photos.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted by email from Dedric's posterous

Now my trip to Singapore is complete.

mmmmmm. Curry Fish Head, Butter Fried Prawns and Kai Lan & Oyster Sauce. The perfect meal at the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club.

Freedom of Blog - Will Blogs lead to the downfall of individual freedom?

Last month I read an article that reported that a man in Singapore was arrested because of racial comments post on his blog*. Initially I felt outrage that the police could come knocking on your door, confiscate your computer and arrest you for publicizing your thoughts on the Internet. However, I found that this was not an isolated incident and in fact in 2005 a precedent had already been set* when one Singaporean and 2 Malaysian youths were arrested for posting racist comments on a BBS.

The first image that came into my mind after reading this article was of an H.G. Wells Utopia where everything seemed peaceful and ordered during the day but in the cover of night the citizens are like the Eloi (human cattle) who are controlled, manipulated and eaten by the Morlocks*. Of course that is a gross exaggeration of the topic at hand but as with most discussion about freedom vs. oppression, the conclusions are never definitive but instead raise more questions about where we should draw the line.

The other question that arises is whether this really an infringement of freedom of speech or of the press. Wikipedia states that "freedom of the press implies that all people should have the right to express themselves in writing or in any other way of expression of personal opinion or creativity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers"", however it does start that definition with "In developed countries..."

Similarly, Wikipedia also defines "Freedom of speech is being able to speak freely without censorship. The right to freedom of speech is guaranteed under international law through numerous human-rights instruments, notably under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, although implementation remains lacking in many countries. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes preferred, since the right is not confined to verbal speech but is understood to protect any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used." but then continues to commence the second paragraph with "In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country..."

You would think that these qualifiers to the definition to the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press were referring to small underdeveloped nations or nations that gave no illusion of democracy like China or Russia but this debate has been going on since the the enactment of the First Amendment of the US Constitution which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."*, and to fully understand this debate in the context of blogs there are two hurdles that must be overcome.

First of all, the US Constitution does not have global jurisdiction and secondly even in the US, the First Amendment is subject to interpretation as outlined in a blog by Scott Cleland* when Google/YouTube was instructed to remove terrorist or terror inciting video's from YouTube.

The concept of speech or press not being protected by constitutional freedoms if they incite violence or revolt is not a new concept. In fact as far back as 1765 Sir William Blackstone commented about the English system

"Where blasphemous, immoral, treasonable, schismatical, seditious, or scandalous libels are punished by English law the liberty of the press, properly understood, is by no means infringed or violated. ... Every freeman has undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this is to destroy the freedom of the press: but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequences of his own temerity."

Which basically means, you have the freedom to publish but we the Government have the freedom to punish.

Since then, the media has been mostly self regulating and most publications with a wide circulation have generally been careful to publish only what society will accept but in the last five years or so, the concept of blogging has become somewhat of a phenomenon. Through the web, anybody with an internet connection has the potential to share their opinions, feelings, thoughts and misguided beliefs instantaneously to the globe. We are not talking about just those people who actually read blogs but more so, the wider public is exposed to these opinions through micro-blogging services like twitter, search engines like Google, instant messaging and even mainstream media like CNN often derive their stories from internet chatter.

It is now possible for a "reclusive nobody" to gain instant global recognition from the basement of his mother suburban bungalow. For Governments, who must consider public security, safety of citizens, domestic unrest and general mob mentality, their only option is to move away from individual liberties. It is said that "the pen is mightier than the sword" but in these times of "hyperconnectivity" as suggested by Mark Pesce recently, is giving anyone with an opinion (misguided or otherwise) the nuclear option.

Bringing this back to an individual perspective, the 17 year old kid, with the police at his door simply because of what he wrote on a BBS seems a little Nazi, but considering the shift in power, one begins to understand that Democracy and Authoritarianism are not actually opposite ends of a political spectrum but in fact share the same goal of keeping the masses under control. The difference is that Democracy uses the power of compromise and engagement to keep the sheep in the pen and Authoritarians utilize oppression to maintain control. The frightening reality (being realized now through the impact of blogs) is that although the Cold War existed on this difference of opinion between Communism and Democracy the global political challenge today is not about ideology. This next war will be against an Anarchy that powered by a decentralized global bullhorn.

As more governments and citizens realize this, you will see more and more controls on the internet, more and more oversight on content and greater restrictions to interconnectivity between different systems. Enjoy what you have now because I believe that we may be the only generation to experience this level of internet freedom.

Additional Readings:

• http://snipr.com/2eigf Freedom of the press - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [en_wikipedia_org]
• http://snipr.com/2eigh Freedom of speech - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [en_wikipedia_org]
• http://snipr.com/2eig8 AsiaMedia :: SINGAPORE: Policeman who nabbed racist blogger gets award,
• http://snipr.com/2eig3 AsiaMedia :: SINGAPORE: Blogger arrested for racist post ,
• http://snipr.com/2eifq Channelnewsasia.com (from 2005. Kids arrested for anti Malay blogging and BBS posts)
• http://snipr.com/2eihn Morlock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [en_wikipedia_org]
• http://snipr.com/2eiip Cato-at-liberty » Freedom of the Press and Venezuela [www_cato-at-liberty_org]
• http://snipr.com/2eij9 Rights of the People: Individual Freedom and the Bill of Rights [usinfo_state_gov] http://snipr.com/2eik2 Theres no constitutional free speech protection for inciting terrorism; Google-YouTube and NYT are off-base | The Precursor Blog by Scott Cleland [www_precursorblog_com]
• http://snipr.com/2eiks First Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [en_wikipedia_org]

Pics from my phone

It's 2am and I am just to lazy to reorganize these images from my current trip to Singapore that I took from my phone in chronological order.


Attention to detail. At Changi Airport they actually organize and separate the trolleys so you don't have to yank them from each other.


Picture taken with my Nokia 6120 Classic from a moving bus. I am amazed at the speed of the capture since to the naked eye, that flag was a blur.


Since they no longer allow any lighters into the airport departure terminal at Pudong Airport they have now chained 2 disposable butane lighters to the wall of the smoking room. Obviously since there are far more smokers than there is butane they have instructed you to use the lighters sparingly. So please do not reheat your tin of luncheon meat with them.


Pudong Airport again at the Hopestar Coffee and Cate. I wonder which one of them is Cate.


Hmmm delicious "Pig Organ Soup & Kway Chap".

Fatty Rice

Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken, Egg Plant and Beans. mmmmmmmmm

Clinic - Clarke Quay

Caught up with Nick tonight for a couple of drinks at Clarke Quay. We came across this fantastic theme bar called Clinic. Hospital themed complete with "Sex on a drip" and other cocktails in syringes and baby bottles and wheel chairs.


Seated outside in something that looked like a cross between a hospital bed and a couch, Nick and I became an instant tourist attraction, as tourists and backpackers stopped to take photos with two guys sucking a green liquid from a blood bag.

Brilliant!