Before I get caught up with the happenings this week, I thought I would reflect on some news from last week that caught my attention. No sorry, not the World Cup. Didn't quite follow the World Cup this time. Congratulations to the Italians though.
Newsy news #1:
You know how I detest lavish show-off weddings. Well, this one takes the (wedding) cake!!! A $10m Indian wedding in Singapore between the only son of a Calcutta millionaire and the eldest daughter of a couple that runs a worldwide steel supply chain. The wedding took place at the Ritz Carlton where the groom arrived on a white horse and 300 guests were flown in from India and stayed at the hotel courtesy of the bride's family. The bride's mother said that she had been setting aside money for the past 10 years for the wedding so that they would not end up having to pull together the money at the last minute. I hope she also saved enough to pay for the wedding of her other daughter.
So anyway, I was reading about this wedding and wondering how on earth it was possible to spend $10m on a wedding. And of course I was thinking what a waste of money it was... oh how sinful... blah blah. And then I realised that hey these are the people that stimulate our economy!!! Because they spend, people have jobs, incomes, money to spend.... yes I almost forgot - money makes the world go round. We should be thankful for these rich people and their free-spending ways. In fact I think it is their social responsibility to spend money and not hoard it. This is what you call redistribution of wealth.
Newsy news #2:
This 2nd piece of news also involves money. Two months' earnings to be precise, that a fresh graduate of the Singapore Management University, Darren Lim is giving away to a scholarship named after his parents. This nice boy just started work and wanted to give his parents something special and also wanted to thank his university and hence the scholarship worth $4,500 which is about two months of his salary. And he will be supporting the scholarship every year for an indefinite period of time. I imagine that most fresh graduates would be happily spending their first pay check on themselves thinking they deserved it having studied so hard all those years and here you have this nice boy who gives his first pay check to a good cause and in his parents' name. His parents must be so proud of him!!!
Also in the news:
This last piece of news I found most troubling. The fact that it didn't feature very much in the news made it doubly so. A Today columnist who goes by the moniker Mr Brown had his column suspended by Today editors. The editors didn't want to comment on their action but it was in relation to an article that Mr Brown (his real name is Lee Kin Mun) had written about Singaporeans being "fed up with progress". The article was written in his typical satirical style. Unfortunately, the Gahmen did not take too kindly to it and got one of their guys to write a letter to the newspaper's Forum page chastising Mr Brown and boy they really didn't mince their words. And we are not talking about a trouble-maker here. Mr Brown's column is meant to be a humorous and light-hearted take on Singapore life. His other pet topic is his family, particularly his autistic eldest daughter. If this is the Gahmen's attitude towards a humour columnist, imagine what they would do to more serious writers.
So of course the Gahmen linked newspaper I suppose had no choice but to show their support for the Gahmen and perhaps it was also their way of apologising for allowing the article to be published in the first place. While there has been a strong show of support for Mr Brown online, there's hardly anything about it in the papers and no letters from readers. No prizes for guessing why this is so. But at least they did report in today's papers that a group of people gathered outside City Hall MRT wearing brown T-shirts to show their support for Mr Brown. They were just gathered there, no chanting, not carrying any placards or anything, and yet the police said "they are looking into it". Crime rate in Singapore too low izzit?!! Nothing better to do than to investigate a bunch of people dressed in brown!!! It really is a wonder how Singapore could be a first world country and yet still be in the dark ages as far as some basic freedoms are concerned. When will our people be truly free?
3 comments:
News#1: I'm glad you're seeing things in the right perspective. If all the millionaires keep their money and don't spend lavishly, bad for distribution of wealth for country and the world.
News#2: The boy certainly is a filial son. Since his parents are wealthy enough to live without his financial support, he's found a good way to show his filial piety.I'm sure his parents are just as proud of him as I am of my children.
New#3: S'poreans should know by now that our gahment has no sense of humour whatsoever!!! Perhaps, all humorous columnists should in future add this disclaimer atop their column, "This article is meant only for laughs. The writer has no intention of offending or ridiculing anyone. Anyone who feels offended do so on their own accord and the writer is not to be blamed."
I don't think ever lor...
I like Tan Tarn How's take on this concerning how the govt manages the mainstream and fringe media. Very perceptive. If you haven't read it, it's in Tomorrow's.sg.
kongkong:
So i should console myself that the tens of thousands i will be spending on renovation is a redistribution of wealth.
Heh heh i don't think the gahmen cares for disclaimers!
sesame: Maybe they are more "tolerant" of fringe media because they can't go after everyone online, just too many and also too difficult to establish their identities. I heard that certain anti-PAP websites were jammed by the Gahmen during the election period so people have difficulty accessing those sites (i heard this from a friend whose tech savvy relative did a check and found that the ISPs contributing to the heavy traffic were the gahmen's) so they may not be as tolerant of fringe media as they may seem to be.
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