Month: April 2006

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Tick for affordable health care

Just saw the “How to Vote” video on TV.

In my previous post I said that I’ll be putting a tick for whom I’m voting.

Turns out that’s a sure fire way to spoil my vote.

Why you put a cross confounds me. As far as I know a cross is a mistake. Now if a cross is a good thing, I should’ve gotten A’s in school.

Before the “How to Vote” video, there were the official party broadcasts. Each party puts up a representative who gets a chance to have their say on TV.

Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) got something like 2 minutes, Workers’ Party (WP) and Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) got 10 minutes or so, People’s Action Party (PAP) got 20 minutes. The time allotted is based on the number of candidates fielded in this elections.

Now, these party broadcasts always make candidates look terrible. There’s never been a party broadcast that I thought, “my this man/woman is handsome/pretty, he/she has my vote”. Continue reading “Tick for affordable health care”

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Looking in all the wrong places…

It used to be that I was pretty keen on observing the elections. I remember staying up just to see the results. The night that black-faced Lee Hsien Loong blubbered that Singaporeans can’t have their bread buttered on both sides. Next to him, Goh Chok Tong sat, grave but collected. It was also the year that there was much vote re-counting as the PAP couldn’t believe the results. They had won. But not with the majority that they thought they’d get.

I think after that, more and more ministers (read: PAP) started doing more walkabouts and happily carrying resident’s babies.

I used to watch Parliamentary debates, as opposition leaders, struggling with their English, stood up to make points that came out so garbled, the other members of Parliament (read: PAP) would laugh and mock them.

The more the PAP mocked them, the more upset I got. Parliamentary debates were conducted but if it was mooted by the PAP, it was almost guaranteed to be passed.

So over the years, that interest petered out. I just couldn’t be bothered. When GRCs were created, I didn’t care. Ask me if I know who so-and-so is, and my answer will be “who?”

This year it’s different. I have to vote. I’m not even sure which ward I’m in, because the electoral boundaries have been redrawn. But all around me, the wards are being contested, so for sure, I’ll have to put a tick in a box. Continue reading “Looking in all the wrong places…”

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Did you see the sunset today?

Took my Golden Retriever, Rusty out for a walk around 1910 this evening and I saw the most amazing sunset I think I’ve ever seen in Singapore.

Our walking route heads towards the east, so I found myself turning around so frequently, Rusty thought we were heading home.

Finally, I stopped walking and just looked.

I didn’t have my camera. And I wanted to just record that I saw this.

So I whipped out my mobile phone. Just this once, I was glad my mobile phone allows me to do more than just make calls and send SMSes. Continue reading “Did you see the sunset today?”

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20/20

Hindsight is 20/20.

But at least no one needs to know where you screwed up.

But when you direct a show, and watch your editor go through the stuff you’ve done, you really want to knock yourself on the head and ask “Why didn’t I see that? Why didn’t I get that right?”

Suddenly it seems all so clear, everything you should have seen on the day of the shoot. Should have spotted on the shoot. Should have fixed on the shoot. Should have told the actor this and that.

Now you’re stuck with the commitments you made, imprinted on tape and you can’t erase it. It’s got to go on air.

And you pray and hope hard, no one else has 20/20 when they watch what you’ve done.

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Hello World!

Why blog?

What do I have to say that’s so different than what a million other people have already done for many years?

Probably nothing.

So why?

It seemed that before I setup this blog, messed around with the template that I had something to say. Then now it’s all done, it appears I’ve nothing to say.

Maybe I’m being held back now because my name’s on this, someone, somewhere out there will want to track what I say and use it against me one day.

Then why go on?

Maybe I’m attempting to elevate my life from nothing-ness to nothing-ness on an international platform.

Maybe it’s because I thought I could give air to anything I wanted to talk about. But who’d want to read it? If anybody did, I’d be a journalist.

Maybe it’s just to stake out a little hard disk on cyberspace.

Just to prop me up on a little soapbox.

And yell, hey, I’m here! I exist.

Because sometimes, I myself forget.