Two recent events, Netizen Malik’s arrest for inciting violent and public disorder and an NSMan questioned about his blog have some in Singapore wondering where things are moving towards. Exasperation and unhappiness about what’s happening can be found easily over cyberspace and here are some of my favourites:
- Police arrests Singaporean netizen over YOG remarks: Time for chilling effect to take its course
- Vivian and Ser Luck put up “smoke-screens” to obfuscate YOG fracas and demonize critics
- Young Democrats call for support for Abdul Malik

What jumped out at me was this from the Young Democrats’ post …
“During our meeting Mr Malik revealed that, on top of the questions pertaining to the issue, the police had asked him questions such as whether he had joined any political party and what were his political affiliations.

How is Mr Abdul’s political affiliation relevant to the issue at hand, which is about the YOG and his comments in the Facebook group set up to take issue with the Government’s handling of the Games? Is the Singapore Police Force going to decide on its course of action based on the blogger’s political affiliation?”

It seems having any opinion that is different from what is officially sanctioned and approved is not only discouraged but might possibly land the person in a spot of trouble.

Given all that’s happening, one wonders if Singapore will soon see an election similar to what happened in Malaysia in 2008 where opposition parties won 36.9% of parliamentary seats, while BN only managed to secure the remaining 63.1% marking the first time since the 1969 election that the coalition did not win a two-thirds supermajority in the Malaysian Parliament required to pass amendments to the Malaysian Constitution.

A key thought I’d like to share is taken from a barrage of response to TOC’s FB link regarding the questioning of the NSMan … “We sigh, we discuss, we complain, but in the end nothing changes. Until one day we realise we have completely lost all our rights. Vote wisely.” (see highlight below)

Love children? Or simply looking to support a cause? We welcome you to join us in making I LOVE CHILDREN a success.

A little about I LOVE CHILDREN:
It is an independent, non-governmental and non-profit organisation led by a group of passionate individuals.

Perpetuating the celebration of kids and the joy they bring, I LOVE CHILDREN has recently launched Maybe Baby – A one-stop online portal that provides parenthood-related information. Its comprehensive content includes pregnancy, fertility, intimacy, finances, work-life balance and other lifestyle issues.

It is also supported by organisations such as Abbott, Canon, IKEA, HITACHI and NTUC Club to name a few.

Learn more about Maybe Baby here. http://www.maybebaby.sg

To this end Paprika is helping with a Facebook Page for Maybe Baby (http://www.facebook.com/MaybeBabyS) and we invite you and your friends to join us.

Participate in their current activity and stand to win $50 Sakae Sushi vouchers!

There’ll be more exciting activities throughout the year so “Like” it to receive useful information and alerts about other prize-winning opportunities!

Log on to the Facebook page for more details. http://www.facebook.com/MaybeBabyS

Please do share the news with your families, friends and colleagues!

This is posted from my close friend Alan Seah’s FB note. Please do sign the petition supporting a rating system instead of censorship.

We need to say ‘no’ to censorship.Share
Today at 01:43
The censorship of the media and the arts that our country wields so heavy-handedly doesn’t just muzzle our artists, but also implies that Singaporeans are unable to distinguish between right and wrong. Closer to home, it assumes that we as a people are not able to recognize that gay men and women are ordinary human beings – capable of experiencing true love and happiness.

Yes, censorship in Singapore is particularly cruel towards the gay community. Positive portrayals and positive mention of our lives are banned. Yes folks, unless the gay character in the movie comes to a tragic or bitter end – it usually can’t be shown. Meanwhile on Singapore TV, any mention of gay rights gets insidiously snipped from Academy Award speeches as if they were never uttered and gay characters in TV shows have their sexuality erased. In the Arts, theatre companies like Wild Rice get their funding cut because they supposedly put on too many gay plays.

Now many in our community may say it doesn’t matter so much. After all, we can download or smuggle in any movie we want to see, catch the full speech on youtube and we all know Wild RIce will continue to soldier on.

But it’s not right. And it’s NOT ok. Especially when there are people working so hard to make a change.

The Arts Community in Singapore has recently released a position paper on censorship http://sites.google.com/site/artsengagesg/home. In a nutshell, it calls for regulation (a ratings system), not censorship.

And all they are asking is that you sign it http://sites.google.com/site/artsengagesg/signpaper to show MDA that we aren’t the dumb-asses they think we are.

The deadline for signing is coming up soon in mid-July. So don’t miss your chance yah?

Pink Dot 2009 - that's me

Last year, the organisers counted about 2,500 people who came together to show solidarity for the right for people of any sexual orientation to love. (press only reported between 900 – 1,500 pple)

This year, Singapore hopes to do it again. Come make PinkDot on 15 May 2010 at Hong Lim Park.

Doesn’t matter if you’re gay, straight or lesbian, out or closeted. All it matters is if you support the freedom for anyone to love.

To find out more visit: http://www.pinkdotsg.blogspot.com/

Help spread the word about PinkDot and bring your friends down to Hong Lim Park on 15 May 2010, 5pm.

Singapore has been pranked! Shan and Rozz’s spat on 987FM and Ris Low as a DJ was an April Fools’ prank and it’s not real.

From BK’s FB Page:
Boomz!!! Happy April Fools’ Day! Shan & Rozz’s spat on 987FM was NOT real. It’s all a prank by BURGER KING®. For all the great fun we all had, BURGER KING® is offering you $1 Angry WHOPPER JR.® with every purchase of medium COKE on 2 Apr 10!

See their FB Page here.

So, what’s stopping you? C’MON, GET ANGRY!

Burger King Angry Whopper Jr Promo

Soon-to-be Radio DJ Ris Low tries proving to her haters that she can do the job.

Can she cut it as a DJ?

Watch her try things out at a studio and see.

There’s a poll on the site too asking if you think Ris Low can make it as a DJ.

Ris Low on ClickNetwork TV

The following was written by my dad who also wrote Singapore’s first geography textbook. This article was published in the Straits Times on 5 August 2006.

Aunty Ying And My Dad, Jerome Toh

English is used by over a billion people today and barely a quarter of those speak it as a mother tongue. Of the 2,700 world’s languages, English is the richest in vocabulary. The Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words and a further half million technical and scientific terms remain uncategorised.

English grew from a minor Germanic dialect in the fifth century to its position today as the world’s first truly global language. Along the way, it took on elements of Latin and Greek, French and Saxon, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, and an American adoption.

Today it continues to be shaped by the ways of life of its diverse speakers, and takes on more variety of expression and more local colour.

The dynamism of English is echoed by Melvyn Bragg in his book, The Adventure of English – The Biography of a Language. He wrote “A characteristic of English throughout is the ease with which it can borrow or steal words from other languages.” Unlike any other language, 80% of the ever-growing vocabulary of English is foreign-born.

From its early humble beginning, English has grown to be a big family of many regional varieties – 104 territorial varieties of English as tabulated by Tom McArthur in “The Oxford Guide to World English.”

Among others, are the English variety of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, United Kingdom, United States, India and Singapore.

The many varieties of English reflect regional differences in the form of accent, dialect, vocabulary and minor grammar variation. Such differences are too found in the British, Irish, Scottish, American and Canadian varieries of English, and it is such difference that characterises Singaporean English.

The indigenization of English in the form of local language influences (Gaelic on Scottish Highland English and Irish on Irish English), has led to first language speakers like Scot, Welsh and Irish speaking their own distinct variety of English. Singaporean English shows many features comparable to indigenised Scottish and Irish English. Singaporean English sits on a spectrum of local language influences notably from such Chinese dialects like Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese, Malay and Tamil.

The indigenization process is unavoidable; it is the influence of the customary way of speech, thought and conduct of a nation of people. It is this part of Singapore that shapes and influences Singaporean English. We are second language speakers. For us, English is not a native but a learned language.

English was used in Singapore for a hundred and eighty years, and it was made an official language when it became independent. After all these years, a recognizable Singaporean English or Singlish, with its own accent, vocabulary and idiom, has emerged.

I take Singlish to be the Singapore variety of English and not the pidgin form of the language, which is found in other global varieties of English too.

Singlish is growing and developing despite much efforts to discourage it and root it out. Melvyn Bragg in The Adventure of English – The Biography of a Language, explains this by writing “Some scholars believe that Singlish indicates the way in which future Englishes will develop.

In so many ways, it fits the tongues and the traditions and the vocal rhythms of the people of Singapore much better than official English and could threaten to replace it. And is it not another dialect of English?”

To Melvyn Bragg, words such as makan, cheem, ang mo, blur and kiasu are now being used as part of Singapore Standard English and they will change it greatly. He further adds that phrases like ‘You go where?’, ‘She so pretty’ and ‘Why you so stupid?’ are easily comprehensible to more traditional English users, often full of bite and wit and energy.

Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil in their book, The Story of English, have this to say of Singlish, “ … and Singlish phrases like ‘I scold like mad but what for?’. None of this is hard to understand, nor is this extract from another Singlish writer, Catherine Lim:

Yes, Madam, quite big family – eight children, six sons, two daughters.
Big family! Ha! Ha! No good, Madam. In those days, where got Family
Planning in Singapore.”

Like other varieties of English, Singaporean English consists of a range, with an international standard variety at one end and a pidgin colloquial variety at the other.

The international standard variety is used in writing and in more formal situation, while Singlish is used in more casual interaction. Many Singaporeans shift from a standard usage to the more relaxed and local style of Singaporean English, comfortably and often effortlessly.

It is heartening to read what Tom McArthur has to say on the future development of Singaporean English in his Oxford Guide to World English, first published in 2002:

“It seems very likely that its social flexibility will ensure that English becomes more and more firmly grounded in Singapore, and its range of usage from ‘broad’ Singlish to the standard language will make it, in twenty years or so, very much like any other English-speaking nation.”

Language is an important nation building-block and history has shown that language alone had held a nation together, as it did for the English when Norman-French threatened to overwhelm it.

Singaporean English is our heritage and an essential part of our history and should command the respect and gratitude of Singaporeans.

Just as Brooklyn English speakers will feel at home with the pronounciation ‘erster’ for oyster, and Australian English speakers with ‘as scarce as rocking horse manure’ and ‘garbo’ (garbage collector), feelings of home will be evoked and my heart will light up when I hear “ This is too cheem (deep), I cannot understand” spoken on a street in Vancouver.

Jerome Toh
Richmond BC Canada