Election by Facebook

Serene is up early to prepare for the election returns. 7:57pm
I had actually woken up at 7.00 Singapore time (6pm EST) and opened up the laptop in eagerness. Then I realized that polls probably hadn't even closed yet and promptly went back to sleep. It was fitful sleep though and I woke up half an hour later, had a proper breakfast, made myself a large mug of coffee, open up the laptop again, and planted myself in front of the TV for CNN 'live'. This was the beginning of a rapturous 5 hours.

Serene is getting emotional watching election returns and she can't even vote. She can't imagine if she had voting rights. 8:53pm
I think there was just something about watching CNN's projections, parts of maps turning blue and red, percentages going one way or another that got to me. Plus watching it with Jude's mom and talking to her about what we were seeing made me realize that Jude and I have been more invested in this elections that I had thought.

Serene says "Go Ohio!!". 9:34pm
Ohio goes blue! This made me so indescribably happy, I literally yelped! srah's status, "You're welcome!" made me smile even more :)

Serene is becoming intimately acquainted with U.S. geography. 9:44pm
Between watching John King's fancy gigantic interactive touch-screen map and the many different maps I had open on the laptop, it was like I was receiving a crash course in American geography. Eric put it best when he commented, "Nothing like a highly contested election to get you familiar with county names in states you've never visited in person!"

Serene thinks we might see Obama sailing past 300 electoral votes. 10:04pm
With PA, OH, and NY in the bag, and none of the West Coast votes even counted yet, it didn't take a genius to do the math and realize that once you throw CA into the mix, 270 would be a cinch, and 300 an almost sure thing. Final electoral vote count for Obama: 349.

Serene never thought she'd hear the words, "Coming to us via hologram..." in a real-life non-ironic context. 10:51pm
It was a bizarre Star Trek moment when we saw will-i-am "beamed" into the CNN newsroom via hologram. Fancy interactive touch-screen map I dig, hologram on the other hand, now that was a little freeeaky...

Serene is tearing... Long-distance euphoria! 11:07pm
CNN calls it! I literally started weeping. I think I updated and deleted my status several times until I felt I captured the right emotion. And still I don't think words were capable of expressing the true euphoria. No one was at home for me to shriek at/to/with so I ended up just sitting there, starring at the screen in a puddle of happy tears.

Serene Everything about that was wondeful, from the speech to how loving they are to their wives. And a puppy!! 12:20am
It was a beautiful speech. Moving, gracious, humble; that call to service, rousing. And every man should describe their wives the way he talked about Michelle Obama. And a puppy for the girls! Come on... When Joe Biden came out at the end with the two wives, it was a wonderful picture of promise and hope. And if there was ever such a thing as political happiness, I think I felt it then :)

[Compare this all to our sentiments exactly four years ago.]

And because this deserves to be played over and over again:

Yes you did!

[click for the defining video made for this campaign]

Enough said :)

Up with people!!!

As Election Day finally approaches tomorrow in the U.S., we thought this might be an appropriate song to play for all our friends out there who are voting. As newcomers to the U.S., we sometimes don't feel comfortable speaking out about politics in person or in electronic form. But we do strongly believe that these are critical times and it's an important decision and right that the folks in the U.S. are exercising.

And so since we're not in the thick of things right now, we thought this might be an appropriate track to dedicate to all you voting folks out there. We think Lamchop's slightly obscure lyrics do not betray partisanship; rather, it's an uplifting track with chant-able lines like "Up our lives today!!" and "Come on progeny!!".

So as we count down to tomorrow, we know you guys will vote wisely, thoughtfully, and justly. Come on progeny... up our lives today! :)

-Jude & Serene

10 Suckin' Years!

Ever since The Daily Show came back after the writer's strike began, Jude and I have been seeing subtle differences in the format of the show- guests stay and chat a little longer, Jon Stewart works the crowd a little more, the correspondents have more air-time compared to before when Jon Stewart did most of the "news" delivery, and the tenor of the show is just that little wobbly, and not as incisive as before. But Thursday night was just pure genius. Pure genius, people... And it featured my all-time favorite Daily Show correspondent, the absolutely inspired John Oliver :)


I have to say that the mock aggrandizing of the Monica Lewinsky scandal is simply not as funny or half as precious as the wonderful comic chemistry between the two guys. You see two men, confident and at ease with their wit and each other, having just a ball of a time! Jude and I are convinced that the entire exchange about the flashback to 1998 Jon Stewart was completely improv on the spot, which explains why they could barely contain their own laughter... We watched this on the first run on Thursday night, again yesterday when it re-ran, and I'll watch it again and again. It's a classic!

"That's great, it starts with an earthquake..."

Two years before Billy Joel gave the world a crash course in American history with "We Didn't Start the Fire", R.E.M had released a better precursor to this kind of stream of consciousness, rapid-fire, half-spoken, half-sung vocal style. One of my favorite R.E.M songs, "It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" came out in 1987 and was reputedly written by Michael Stipe after he dreamt that he was at a birthday party where all the other guests had the initials L.B., hence the references to Leonard Bernstein, Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs in the song. I think it's a little eerie how prescient the lyrics are, and how, after 20 years, the irony of the song still resonates with so much of our reality today.

So anyway, I saw this on YouTube yesterday and was reminded that Boing Boing had posted something on this late last year. Who figured President Bush as an R.E.M fan?



Apparently, he loves U2 as well... :)

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane- Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn- world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock, speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height, down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the Furies breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population, common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning, blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh, this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mountains sit in a line. Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs. Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic, slam, but neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

(It's time I had some time alone)

- R.E.M., "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

OMG, I'm bleeding heart politcally liberal, economically left-leaning, social progressive!

So the Michigan primary is in a couple of days. And having never voted before, I thought that I should see where I stand in the event that I would be able to vote. I found this nifty little Electoral Compass that allows you to see which of the presidential candidates best represents your beliefs and opinions. It's a neat little web app that "measures" your political stance through questions on "hot button issues" like the Iraq war or abortion rights. Based on your responses, it charts a visualization of where you stand in relation to the presidential candidates. (see image above).

I've long suspected that I am a little lefty, but this proves it once and for all ;) (although, I have to say that I haven't been impressed with any of the candidates in the televised debates and the shenanigans they get up to while on the campaign trail.) I guess this means if any of them wants my vote, they're going to have to advocate a radical re-distributive tax system, introduce universal health care, rejoin the Kyoto protocol and do something about global warming, revoke the Patriot Act, re-direct money from the war to improving America's schools, and invest in alternative fuel sources. Not too much to ask, is it? ;)

Singapore Media Development Authority (MDA) video - WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??? **MUST WATCH

This video has been produced as a PR effort to highlight the work that the MDA does - to nurture a local media industry and develop Singapore into the next media hub. All the top dogs of the MDA appear in this video and express their "with-it-ness" by rapping, dancing and chiming words like "y'all".

Very brave of them to do this. However, I have to ask ... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!!! If any privately-owned company were to employ a PR effort like this, can you imagine the damage to the company's image this video could cause? However, because this is an arm of the government, they might actually get lauded for "thinking outside of the box".

Perhaps this video draws inspiration from a previous effort to show Members of Parliament's "with-it-ness" ... by hip-hop dancing. See below:



One wonders ... are they trying too hard? Hipness and Edginess are qualities that perhaps can't be engineered, unlike the other aspects of society that the government so famously claims that they can.

And as we now all know, the U.S. isn't immune from manufacturing the "cool factor" as well:


















MC Rove

So my question: what's with bureaucrats and rapping??

It's important to rescue the frog

Except for math exams when I was in secondary school, I've never been terrified of charts. Until today. Watching that red line go up the axis, I literally felt my heart in my throat and something akin to shortness of breath...


We just saw An Inconvenient Truth, and I have to say, it was both uncomfortable and devastating to watch. Al Gore relates rising CO2 emissions to a whole host of environmental crisises- from the splitting of the ice shelves in Antarctica to the bleaching of coral reefs. I've never considered myself an environmentalist, but after watching the video, I'm actually rethinking installing the air-con for the summer and whether we should be driving to the grocery store instead of walking or biking.

Some people have criticized the movie and Al Gore's entire endeavor separately as 1) a vanity project, 2) a launching pad for a shadow campaign for the 2008 Presidency, and/ or 3) an attempt to stir up mass hysteria. Some have even incomprehensibly compared him to Hitler (????) Ermmm... excuse me, whatever the grounds for comparison, Hitler wanted his followers to massacre an entire race of people; Al Gore wants us to... save our planet.

Politics aside, watching the movie- or his presentation more accurately speaking- makes you realize that conserving the environment has truly become a moral and ethical imperative for our generation. And it doesn't have to be hard. I'm not expecting to jump on a Greenpeace ship to protest against deep-sea drilling, but I might bring my own bag to the grocery store the next time I go. Or read my notes online instead of printing them out. And start buying energy-efficient bulbs. Choose your way.

Because it's important to rescue the frog.

What We Call the News

A hilarious but painfully accurate reflection of the state of news media today, and how the powers that be have deemed it more important to ceaselessly debate the paternity of Anna Nicole Smith's baby than to report on the genocide in Darfur...

What We Call the News | Send To Friends | Funny Animations at JibJab

Blue eyes vs. brown eyes

Watching the TAL video Jude posted below was both delightful and a little sad at the same time- the artless candor of children on the one hand, but also how vulnerable and impressionable they can be. Which then reminded me of something else that Jude had shared with me recently: this PBS special, A Class Divided is a arresting look at how one Iowa teacher in 1968 taught her third-grade class a devastating lesson on prejudice and discrimination. It won the 1985 Emmy for Outstanding Informational, Cultural, & Historical Programming and is also one of PBS Frontline most requested programs ever.

I won't say much about it except that it's almost like Schindler's List and The Stanford Prison Experiment, but in primary school. I STRONGLY urge that you watch it- everyone should- but make sure you have a box of Kleenex next to you and that you're sitting down. Be cautioned: it's very powerful, very uncomfortable to watch and I wish there was a better way to teach this lesson to children. It also shows you how children are more politically and socially aware than adults give them credit for. Some of the sentiments articulated by these eight-year-olds are more honest and insightful than you'll ever hear from the most learned adult. And the fact that something so fundamental to human existence even has to be taught in the first place makes it even more heartbreaking. I don't think I could bear to watch it another time without breaking down again.

There are originally five parts to this series; here are YouTube links to the first two, and they're also the most powerful ones. You can see the rest of them here.

Home, sweet home

So the thing about doing my research on something like national identity is that I've been paying a much keener attention to news related to issues like immigration and what it means to "belong" to a nation. Just in the last week alone, I've come across two Singaporean news articles related to this: one was about how the new expatriates who work in Singapore today are no longer the same as the ones who came a generation before (see "For new expats, integration may not really work"); unlike some of our forefathers who were running away from abject poverty and harsh conditions in their homeland, and who intended to remain in Singapore, many expatriates today fully expect to return to their home country after they've made enough money. Singapore may give them incentives to stay- they are after all, "foreign talent"- housing rebates, education rebates for their children, or simply monetary incentives, and these expatriates will gladly accept. Who wouldn't? But they will not stay. For them, Singapore is not a potential home, it is a marketplace. The writer of the article concludes that in this day and age, rather than attempt to integrate these educated foreigners into our fold and hoping that they will help to diversify and expand Singapore's talent pool, we should instead adopt a revolving-door policy with regards to them, and concentrate on "building and growing a core of people who believe in the soul of this nation".

But the other article seems to contradict the lofty ideals of this dear writer. In "Singapore is leaking talent", we find out that Singapore's Senior Minister is well aware of the statistics which show that some of our bestest and brightest citizens are staying away from our fair country, choosing instead to work and make a life for themselves and their families overseas. He laments the loss of this talent and talks about how, "This is a very big problem for us because if we lose the top 0.5 per cent from the next generation, Singapore will have a much lower 'peak'. The world is now competing on human resources and talent."

But our Senior Minister has a solution. To make up for this loss of local talent, Singapore will simply look for workers and citizens elsewhere. We will attract them to Singapore, get them to work here, encourage them to raise their children here, buy property, and magically, we can turn them in Singaporeans. Easy. Q.E.D.

Or is it? I'd like to think that difficult problems like these don't always have such easy solutions. Instead, why not also think about what keeps the Singaporeans who make up the "top peak" from coming home? Admittedly, encouraging steps have been taken to make sure that Singaporeans abroad will always have a tether to home; the Prime Minister's Office set up the Overseas Singaporean Unit specifically for this purpose- to engage and connect with Singaporeans working and studying abroad. In his last National Day Rally speech, the Prime Minister also made sure to talk about the Singaporean diaspora and what the country needs to do to maintain strong links with her citizens overseas.

And yet, the bulk of the rest of the speech as well as much recent public rhetoric suggest that an aggressive immigration policy is still primary when it comes to solving the brain drain issue in Singapore. Yes, we have always been a multicultural nation, a nation built by immigrants, and we're proud of it. I am proud of it. This is what has given us the unique identity few other Asian nations possess. But simply courting more immigrants and hoping that they can be easily transformed into Singaporeans, rather than spending more time thinking about how to bring home the Singaporeans who have been born and bred on our sunny island seems a little myopic. It's easy to pick a couple of thousands of people from faraway lands, give them a bunch of rebates and turn them into one of our own. It's harder to figure out carefully how to inculcate a grounded yet thoughtful notion of citizenship and national belonging in the 4.3 million we presently have.

Consider the reasons why increasing numbers of Singaporeans move overseas completely, why those who are already abroad may not want to return home to raise their families, and then do something about it. Rethink the stifling competitiveness that defines our nation. Take pains to reconsider our education system and how hard it is for so many of our young children. Re-evaluate hallowed notions of power, control and expression. It's not just about playing catch-up and making sure that our economy can compete with the biggest and baddest boys in the game. It's not just about numbers and reaching that tipping point in our population in order to produce a Nobel Prize winner. We need to be guided by principles of rootedness and memory, belonging and identity. We need people- citizens and immigrants alike; they are our resource. But more importantly, we need Singaporeans- they are our soul.

"Where numbers mean nothing..."

It was breathtaking. And watching it in its IMAX version meant that we heard every whizzing arrow, every piercing spear, and every single bellowing Spartan war-cry. And it was awesome.

Critics are going to be divided as to whether 300 as a film is all CG-wizardry and spectacle but no soul, or whether it has any real narrative resonance. Scholars are going to argue over the historical accuracy of the events and characterizations (here's a nice article to put things in perspective a little.) I personally thought that as a story, it was stronger than other ancient epic adaptations like Troy (silly), Alexander (even sillier), or Gladiator (ok, I'm not even going to go there).

Perhaps there is something about the David vs. Goliath nature of that battle at Thermopylae, its purpose, and the whole Spartan myth of the citizen-soldier that just resonates more strongly with me than massive empires rising and falling. It doesn't matter whether the narrative is historically accurate- that's not what myths are. Myths are essentially stories we tell ourselves (or allow ourselves to believe in) that perpetuate a certain vision of history and to some extent, the present. And that got Jude and I talking after the movie about what it means to be patriotic. Spartans believed that to defend their homeland was their destiny from birth, that to die for Sparta was the most honorable death possible. Do Americans/ Singaporeans, or citizens of any nation feel that way today about their country of birth? Do leaders of countries have to tap into or even engineer an imagined myth of their own in order to vitalize these feelings of fervent national belonging and membership?

My dissertation research is moving towards this direction- the role of schools in the political socialization of young children, particularly their development of national identity. Which is why this movie has been on my mind all day. What does it take to develop a citizenry as devoted and committed to a nation that to die in her name is preferable to kneeling in submission? Or perhaps patriotism in its traditional sense has become archaic, a thing of the past in this age of globalization, trans-migration and multicultural populations?

One of my favorite quotes from the film:

...only Spartan women give birth to real men.
-Queen Gorgo

History that we forget all too easily

Some advertising for a friend's talk. Sounds really interesting. Pop by if you are in the vicinity at that day and time.

"The University of Malaya Socialist Club and the Fight for Singapore Independence"
by Michael Fernandez, Loh Kah Seng and Lim Cheng Tju

15 January 2007 (Monday), 3.30 to 5.30pm

Venue: Conference Room, Institute of Policy Studies, 29 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, S 119620

In the 1950s and 1960s, the University of Malaya* Socialist Club played a crucial role in the struggle for Singapore and Malaysia's independence from the British. The club, which counted major figures such as Tommy Koh, Lim Hock Siew, Edwin Thumboo and Wang Gangwu,
among its leaders, was instrumental in helping the People's Action Party obtain mass support and in pushing for a free, democratic and non-communal Malaya.

This talk is based on research for a book being written by the speakers.

Register by emailing to Catherine_Lim@ips.org.sg

* In 1959, the University of Malaya had two campuses, in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. The latter became the University of Singapore in 1962.

About the speakers:

Loh Kah Seng is a Ph.D student at Murdoch University, Australia. He co-wrote with Michael Fernandez aa chapter for the forthcoming book "Path Not Taken" on the history of trade unions in Singapore from 1945 to 1970.

Lim Cheng Tju is a masters degree graduate in history from the National University of Singapore and works in the Ministry of Education.

Michael Fernandez is a former union leader who was detained without trial for nine years between 1964 and 1973

The various Englishes of Singapore

I know that I've gone on ad-infinitum frequently about the use of English in Singapore. But only now have I found a humourous clip that best illustrates what I've been trying to convey.

This clip comes from the Talking Cock in Parliament event, which is an evening where local celebrities come onstage in the old Parliament chambers (which has been transformed into a performing arts venue) to deliver speeches in the style of how our government does its business. It's a rather daring venture and is perhaps another sign of the increasing liberalness of the country.

In this clip, Ruby Pan, a trainee teacher, takes on the various forms of English spoken in Singapore in voices that all too familiar - the American accented radio DJ, the crisply enunciated, British-sounding newscaster, a local teenager speaking in the vernacular, and a Filipino migrant worker. She's actually very good and drew the most laughs at the event.

We haven't decide yet if this clip makes us homesick or not... :)

Creature comforts and the war on terror

Like Serene, I always knew there was more to Nick Park and Aardman Animations than a bucktooth Englishman man, his tea-making canine, overgrown vegetables, and a larcenous penguin.

This is priceless!...

A letter

Dear governments of the Middle East,
I cannot confess to know enough about what goes on in your region to pass judgement on who is right or wrong. I am sorry that things get complicated when maplines do not always correspond neatly with nation-lines. I admit that I find it hard to fully comprehend the tragedy of a conflict where history, culture, race and ethnicity collide in such a complicated and cataclysmic fashion. And I cannot even begin to fathom the kind of trauma and anguish that must plague both sides of the conflict.

And so if you believe that blowing each other up is the only way to solve the problem, I can say nothing. If you are convinced that your region can achieve peace only by first imploding from this scorching devastation and destruction, I cannot judge.

But leave the children out of it.

What sick mind would want to sear in their children's psyches memories of "signing" missiles before launching them across enemy lines? Why make them write messages on weapons like they were presents to be delivered to their closest friends? When adults willingly and consciously dedicate their lives to a cause they believe in, I applaud them for their courage. But when children are made to commit themselves to a position they know little about except what you have told them- whatever that may be-, that is cowardice because you dare not tell them the truth in order to let them choose, lest they choose the wrong side.

[AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner]

Can you not let our generation be the last to know the kind of unrest and destruction your region has known for the last 50 years? Leave your children a legacy of understanding, hope and reconciliation. They deserve homelands they can embrace with peace of heart and mind, not ones they have to vengefully and angrily protect at someone else's expense.

News link

Sometimes you think that the events are unfolding like an absurdist play

Just when you think that you've heard it all. This has to rank up there with the position created at the school I used to teach in. The position was S.H.I.T (Subject Head I. T.). Who in their right minds would want that shitty position :) But I digress.

Found in Digg today is the following transcript:

"Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President said we continue to be wise about how we spend the people's money.

"Then why are we paying over $100,000 for a 'White House Director of Lessons Learned'?

"Maybe I can save the taxpayers $100,000 by running through a few of the lessons this White House should have learned by now.

"Lesson 1: When the Army Chief of Staff and the Secretary of State say you are going to war without enough troops, you're going to war without enough troops.

"Lesson 2: When 8.8 billion dollars of reconstruction funding disappears from Iraq, and 2 billion dollars disappears from Katrina relief, it's time to demand a little accountability.

"Lesson 3: When you've 'turned the corner' in Iraq more times than Danica Patrick at the Indy 500, it means you are going in circles.

"Lesson 4: When the national weather service tells you a category 5 hurricane is heading for New Orleans, a category 5 hurricane is heading to New Orleans.

"I would also ask the President why we're paying for two 'Ethics Advisors' and a 'Director of Fact Checking.'

"They must be the only people in Washington who get more vacation time than the President.

"Maybe the White House could consolidate these positions into a Director of Irony."

The Civil War comic series speaks to Americans of the divisions

Cheng Tju (or CT Lim as he likes to be known) used to write with me for M3 magazine (while they were still around). We had some good times interviewing people and getting freebies while on the music journalism beat. Highlights of our stint together were interviewing Sonic Youth and Lori Carson. We had some good times together.

CT has since gone on to bigger and better things. Most prominently, he's finished a Masters degree exploring the history of woodcut political cartoon from Malaya and he's also started writing for prominent publications like the Straits Times and The Comics Journal. He's given me permission to re-publish what I think is a thought-provoking essay on how popular culture can be reflections of wider political and social occurrences.


COMIC SUPERHEROES' CIVIL WAR'

BY LIM CHENG TJU
For The Straits Times

AFTER more than 40 years, Spiderman has decided to unmask himself and reveal to the rest of the world that he is Peter Parker. What could be seen as a publicity stunt by Marvel Comics, publisher of the Spiderman comic books, for its annual summer crossover event (meaning you have to buy various series to get the whole story) is actually a clever usage of popular culture.

The revealing of Spiderman's secret identity is part of a larger storyline called Civil War. In this, a fight gone wrong has led to the American public turning against the superheroes. The government quickly calls for the registration and unmasking of all heroes and vigilantes. Battle lines are drawn, with the heroes split into two opposing camps. On one side, you have those in favour of the enactment of the Superhuman Registration Act, seen as the way forward for heroes - led by Iron Man - to do what they have to do. The other side, led surprisingly by Captain America, is against government control of heroism. They start an underground resistance movement. You can guess which side Spiderman is on.

Granted that this is not a new concept in comic books as it has been explored before in Kingdom Come and even the X-Men series and movies, Civil War's take on this 'brother-versus-brother' theme is timely. The only thing more exciting to comic fans than a slugfest between the good guys and the bad guys is a slugfest between the good guys and the good guys. For example, who is stronger - Superman or the Hulk?

Of course, the Civil War series is a throwback to the American Civil War of the 19th century, which forged a new destiny for the United States. It is also a reference to the public divide created during the McCarthy era of the 1950s. But closer to our times, Civil War speaks to Americans of the divisions within their society over the actions of the US government both at home and abroad. A more explicit statement against America's interference in the Middle East is found in The Ultimates, where the tables are turned on the heroes after they cross the line to invade a rogue state, expanding beyond the jurisdiction of what constitutes 'homeland security'. Indeed, in The New Avengers, the bad guys are the government agency for national security. Popular culture has the ability to entertain and reflect public sentiment in the most interesting and accessible manner. Sadly, we see less of that in Singapore.

Last week, as the media was awash with news of Spiderman's unveiling, I visited the Fiction@Love exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum. The show is said to explore the 'concerns related to the satire and fantasy of love' through the contemporary medium of 'Animamix Art' - that is, a combination of comics, graphic design, animation, manga and anime in art. But it didn't quite work. The tension between high-brow art and low-brow pop culture remained in the works displayed. Whatever the message was that the show attempted to convey, it is doubtful if the audience grasped it. Nothing was more telling than the interactive tour, which featured a reading of the exhibits using the texts of Neil Gaiman and Hermann Hesse. No one in the audience of about 20 had heard of either of these authors. This disjuncture between how popular culture is reinterpreted in the Singapore Art Museum and how a popular medium like comic books is used to reflect public sentiment in America provides much food for thought. Recent discussions on Singapore's culture and identity have not considered the role that can be played by contemporary pop culture of films and graphic images. As Spiderman has reminded us, pop culture can be expressions of not just who we are but of what we are thinking about.

What you don't see on the news

What you never see on the news
Originally uploaded by Yun-shan.

So, Singapore just completed its general elections. And as usual the incumbent (and omnipotent?) ruling party, the People's Action Party, was ushered back into power. This is nothing new. What is new though is the rising public interest in the opposition parties that have contested in this elections. I have not seen such large crowds (see pic) at political rallies in Singapore before. Perhaps it is because we were encouraged to be apolitical when growing up and that getting involved in politics meant 'rocking the boat". I am rather surprised at my fellow countrymen's willingness to be present and make apparent their intentions to get involved in this year's elections. It was heartening to hear that, despite the brusque dismissiveness of the citizenry by the powers that be, the opposition parties made a strong showing. This diversity in politics, I believe, is something that will stand the country in good stead in the years to come.

On a work-related note, I have been using various blogs and discussion sites to keep track of what's happening during the elections. The mainstream media(MSM) back home is completely useless for any sort of objective reporting. Take a look at the following comment that I came across on the blog of a fellow singaporean in the US:

A friend, Ivy League graduate and scholar, and now a journalist with the national tabloid, wrote an email to her friends a few days ago. She signed off with the following words:

"…help spread the word that a lot of us in the Straits Times are sorry that we can’t do the job we want to. It may not mean a lot to you, but it sucks for us that with every day that passes, and with every pro-PAP election story that we write, people’s opinions of the Straits Times are falling. Many of us in the election team are putting our names on stories that we don’t want to write, on views that we don’t believe in, and on headlines that make us want to throw up.”

The government back in Singapore has traditionally been very insecure about the media and has sought to stringently control the various outlets for expression and opinions. In fact, during the elections there was a blanket ban on podcasts of a political nature. However, despite the ban, the great number of individuals have resorted to using the internet to disseminate news, pictures and opinions that you will not see in the MSM. And I think that this alternative source of information on the internet is making its effect felt during the elections. You know that this is the case when the ruling party is calling for a review of new media like blogs and podcasts and their effects on the views of the citizens. Channelnewsasia reports the following:

Impact of Internet on General Election likely to be studied after polls

SINGAPORE : The impact of the Internet at this General Election is likely to be looked at by the relevant ministry after the polls.

Information Communications and the Arts Minister Dr Lee Boon Yang said this is to assess the scale at which the new media, like blogs and podcasts, were used to influence views and shape opinions.

Dr Lee said this after his Jalan Besar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) team toured Queen's Street market as part of their campaigning on Friday.

The People's Action Party (PAP) team said it was looking forward to good support from voters, because of its track record over the past five years.

It's going to be interesting to see what the conclusions of this review will be. Maybe there'll be a job for me back home after all...

Notable blogs to read about the elections:
Mr Wang Bakes Good Karma
Talk Rock
Air-conditioned Nation
SG Rally

Guantanamo: Habeas no more ...

Habeas Corpus: "You have the body" (Latin)

"A writ of habeas corpus is a judicial mandate to a prison official ordering that an inmate be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not he should be released from custody."

I know that it is unlikely that many of the readers of this blog would have a spare couple of hours to spend listening to a streaming radio show and lecture. But I feel strongly enough to blog about this and suggest that listening to these 2 streaming boradcasts would be well worth your time.

- the first is a 58min NPR broadcast of This American Life called "Habeas Schmabeas" that actually interviewed a couple of Guantanamo detainees. This is the first time I have actually heard directly from any detainee from Guantanamo and the show does an excellent job of discussing the status of the detainees I found via BoingBoing. What was eye opening for me were the personal testimonies of Badr and Abdullah (sp?), two Pakistani men wrongfully detained as terrorists. (What kills me is the sense of humour that these 2 detainees still had despite being incarcerated in Guantanamo). The show also delves into the historical background and reasons for the presence of Habeas Corpus in the law.

- the second is a streaming broadcast of Noam Chomsky's lecture "Illegal but Legitimate: A Dubious Doctrine for the Times" which he delivered on Oct. 28th 2004 at the University of Michigan's Law School. I think that Chomsky's lecture provides a highly insightful account of the long documented account of states developing legitamacy for taking unilateral action. While this is interesting, the part of the lecture that pertained to the NPR show is when a student asked Chomsky what he thought about Guantanamo. To paraphrase Chomsky's reply, "Ask yourself what we are doing in Guantanamo in the first place."