In Continuum.

Press Freedom

Surfing through the net aimlessly has become a rather enjoyable,and at the same time fruitful activity every afternoon for me.I mean,you would expect such things to be pretty mundane,and requires minimal amount of brainpower.Well yes,if you are surfing through it and scanning the texts without actually processing it.But ive came across some pretty interesting information,some of them actually surprised me a little bit,while others merely proved my point about certain things.Well,here's a little something i discovered over at wikipedia.org today,and it's right out of the oven and still warm.

You look around the streets of Singapore,and it is not difficult to come up with a few things Singapore actually lacks.For example,we are in desperate need of land space,that is evident enough.We are also lack of cool weather,and that is of course not taking the monsoon season under consideration.Then there are the places to read a book,to study,to hang out with friends.Instead of saying the places,i think i should rephrase by saying,that there is a lack of the variety of places that people can actually go to hang out with each other over a cup of tea.There is the obvious lack of chewing gums,due to the banning of it a couple of years back.I still find that rather ridiculous,but the government doesnt seem to think that way.Then of course,the lack of sensible people on the streets.Dont get me wrong,Singapore does have it's share of smart,intelligent population.But they are rather rare here,in my opinion.

Every country lacks something,and you wouldnt expect a country like Singapore to lack this thing.This thing that i am talking about,ladies and gentlemen,is the existence of the freedom of press.

You see it all the time,the way the news always broadcasts yet another achievement made by the citizens.The biggest this,the longest that.The best airport and the most efficent harbour,whatever.The best in everything,number one in whatever things.You seldom hear them tell you how bad they are doing in certain aspects.Sometimes you even wonder if the things they tell you on the news are even true or not.

For example,the Ministry of ManPower was on the television giving an interview tonight,and i happen to chance upon it.He claimed that for every cohort of students in Singapore,statistically speaking,about 50% of those goes to University.Now that's just bullshit,because only about 20% goes to Junior College.Im not sure which part of his brain managed to calculate that 50% of the whole cohort actually goes to University.And if you do a little math on the number of people in the Universities,you'd know that that's just plain bullshit.

I wonder if people actually notices little things like that,the way they try to tell you that Singapore is such a advancing,forward moving country with great prospects.If you watch the news close enough,you'd notice that a lot of the news from around the news are pretty negative,or rather the majority of it.This country has a case of famine,that country is suffering from civil war,or the way the people of this country are killing each other just because they dont like their faces.Then they will bring the news back to Singapore,and you see a bunch of happy PAP members hugging babies and cheering on propaganda vans.

It's strange that i have decided to go all political on my blog,but as JiaYing said just last night,i think we are at the age where we should give a shit about what's happening in our bloody parliament.If you come from a family like me which subscribes to the morning papers,and reading a whole bunch of tabloids in camp,you'd notice the drastic difference in the content between the two.The morning papers are usually filled with happy faces,the way this school achieved a certain result for their examination,a certain bad guy who stole from a poor old lady in the elevator was caught and jailed for good.Economy of our country is on the rise and you see happy businessmen giving the cameraman a thumbs up and smiling,the widest grin you've ever seen in your life.

Turning to the tabloids you see death,death,raping and perhaps cheating of money.You start to wonder if they publish these kind of stuff in the morning paper at all,and why the morning paper readers are not allowed to read such issues.They are real,arent they?These things happening within our society,these stealing,these stealing,these raping,these killings?So why arent we informed about such thing,or are we supposed to believe that we live in big safe bubble blown by our government?

What i am saying is that,we should question the amount of press freedom that we actually have in our country.Of course,you can always argue that a country with absolute press freedom would eventually plunge into chaos and madness.That is true,however when you are beating countries at press freedom like Iran,Iraq and Pakistan,it is not something to be very proud of,my dear Singapore.

Press Freedom Ranking

The above is a little link to the wikipedia.org page i found.Check out where Singapore stands on the global press freedom list,and be surprised by exactly how restricted our media really is.Think about it,what is the use of our media.To spread messages,to tell people the truth about things,arent they?I mean,if not for media how are we then,to know the truth about things?What then,if the government has control over these information,doesnt that mean that they can bend it however they want to?

Numbers speak volumes,and you cannot deny that ranking at a pathetic 140 is something to be very proud of.I wonder if this little piece of information would ever find its way to the news on 5,or is it going to stay in the archives of wikipedia forever.

I met a neighbour of mine a couple of days ago in the lift,and when i asked who she voted for she placed a finger to her lips,and as she whispered through her teeth she said,"Cannot say!"

What,so now whoever you vote for,or rather didnt vote for,has CCTVs around the island to check out who did not vote for them?Dont worry dear neighbour,according to probabilities and statistics,it is highly unlikely that a person like you is going to be assassinated by government agents any time soon.You are one vote,and i dont think that vote holds any threat to the life of the country,believe me.

My mother was having a little conversation with a friend of hers,and he's sort of like a business partner/friend of my parents.So they were talking about the election the other day,and my mother asked him who he voted for.He said,without a doubt,PAP.When asked why,instead of claiming that he supports their idea,he mentioned that every vote that you collect at the voting booth has a certan serial number to them,and whoever claims those votes obviously has a serial number attached to them.In this case,every voter of a certain election is in a way,marked.The government will know voted for who,and who didnt vote for who.As a businessman,like himself,if he were to say ask the government for some sort of funding next time,or buy a house or whatever,if the government were to do a check on his past voting records,he is going to hit a wall fast and hard.

This is the world we are living in now,the way it seems safe and yet it is not.Should we stand here,and wait for somebody to blow up the parliament so that we will finally wake up from this illusion,that our country perfect and safe?Hell,im not even a bloody Singaporean and i am actually worried for YOU guys.Wake up people,the morning sun is baking your ass and everybody else is mocking at your burning ass.