For the past year or so, Singapore has been pursuing a goal. The goal was to aquire a national identity. One that would stand out from the rest of the world and would be like what samba is to Brazil and Big Ben is to England. And so the government went for it. The Esplanade was a non-starter. We concocted our own perfume and even christened our own sailing ship with the name "Uniquely Singapore". In my opinion, these really were not the answers the government was looking for.
For me, there is only one thing that would be the ultimate 'Uniquely Singapore" identity. It has been around for decades and has been widely discussed, conversed and debated about. We cannot see it but it lingers around our ears and mouths. Yes, it is Singlish. For many years now, the government has been dissuading the people from using the language as it is not a proper form of language in the first place! They set up Speak Mandarin/Good English campaigns and even banned movies which use dialect as their main language. What we, the citizens, got were Jack Neo films which made no comical sense in mandarin. Singlish cannot and should not be eliminated. Instead it should be preserved as the national identity which we have been looking for.
Where else in the world can you find people using phrases like buay tahan? In case you did not know, buay tahan means 'cannot take it' in Singlish. It is a cross between Hokkien and Malay, 2 of the most widely used languages in pre-war Singapore. In fact, Malay is the national language. Another prime example would be the use of kena sai which literally means 'to collide with/get hit by faeces'. Now, were else have you heard this phrase being used? Nowhere else. Uniquely Singapore.
Alternatively, we could consider using the Speak Good English and Speak Mandrin campaigns as something that is uniquely Singapore. After all, we are the only country that I can think of which has to educate its population on the use of proper English and Mandarin.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Thursday, June 16, 2005
back from church camp...
spent the last 5 days at the resort beach in desaru... the theme was on missions and the guest speaker was rev klass from the netherlands...
this camp was the first for many things... for starters, it was the first time that i joined the adults for their programme... and it really wasn't a good first experience... discusions were much longer than usual and the questions were more "cheem" than those the youth programme had to offer... theirs were actually extremely simple with fill in the blank type of questions... the questions were ok... the problem was that the people were so eager in giving answers that the discussions kept extending past the allotted time-slot... the worst thing that this was limited to my group only... there was once when we were discussing question 2 out of 6 when another group ended... when we started on question 3, the rest had already gone... not a good experience... luckily bee kiat will be looking into this so i hope it won't repeat itself next year...
this was the first camp where i did not play a single form of card games... there was no tai tee, no bridge, no anything... guess that was cos i didnt have much time to play because of the group discussions...
this was the first time at camp where we had movie screenings using the lcd projector... being the av person has its advantages... one of which was the freedom to bring the av equipment wherever i wanted... and germain's room was one of these places... screened a couple of movies there on the last night...
this camp also had memories... memories of the most obnoxious person i've ever met... his name is yau-ming (ym)... and here is his story when in camp...
day one went without a hitch... the trip up to desaru was smooth and without incident... ym was on my bus with his room-mate adriel... we reached at 5 for the briefing and checking in... and soon, it was lights out... according to adriel, ym woke up in the middle of the night and turned off the room air-con without adriel's knowledge... so with the windows closed, the heat crept in till adriel got up and switched on the air-con again... the room cooled again.. but ym got up again and turned the air-con off... gosh.. he sounded like the complete b*sta*d when i found out... and so the story continues...
the next day, ym complains of sinus problems and does not attend the talks... instead, he goes swimming, saying that it would help him clear his sinus... people attend camp to participate in the activities... so if you don't why bother even coming? sheesh... the night came and ym told adriel that he wanted the air-con off with the windows closed and practically told adriel to buzz off... adriel approached bens and i who took him in for the night as we were his neighbours...
day 3 and things weren't much better... he managed to attend a couple of the talks and discussions but he pulled off a bigger stunt... mid-afternoon, adriel goes back to his room to get something and guess what he finds? the air-con was howling away with the windows open and ym no where in sight... just to put things in perspective, we were on the 1st floor and the window was a full height one which opened to a patio and the pool... at the last moment ym once again complains of sinus and tells adriel to head over to our room and bunk with us...
day 4 was the second last day... i hoped that it would be flawless... but noooooo (russel peters watchers, u'll get it)... once again ym leaves the room without closing the windows and leaving the air-con on... over lunch, he makes a smart-assed comment and says that somebody (he doesn't specify who) should go get rid of all the rocks along the beach as they get in the way of swimmers like himself... those who were there nearly choked on what we were eating... after the camp concert was over, the yaf people ajourned to my room where they played bridge... i, being a little tired, watched tv with adriel... the practice was showing... a few minutes later, ym drops by... he looks at the clock and declares that "carnivale" was on hbo and that we should watch it... he takes the tv remote of MY room, pointed it to MY tv and switches from channel 5 to hbo right in front of MY eyes... i had it... i promptly tucked myself in and pretended to sleep... adriel got a litle fed up and left the room... so ym watched the tv alone while the yaffers played bridge and i 'slept'... half-an-hour later, ym scanned the room and spotted the pack of chips that ben and I bought... he reached over and grabbed it... all of us expected him to open the chips and share it with the rest... but noooooo... he takes the chips, says he was going back to his room and waltzes out, chips and all... we were stunned... back in his room, adriel was sleeping already... ym enters and switches on the tv to watch "carnivale"... he turns up the volume really loud that it wakes adriel... ym's justification was that the bridge players over in my room were noisy and he couldn't concentrate on the show... those who play bridge know that it IS a rather peaceful game unlike heart-attack... sheesh... what a drag...
i expected the last day to be without problems... but again, nooooo... at the singapore customs when we were about to board the bus for the 2nd time, he comes up to ben and tells him to load his luggage while he goes to the toilet... basket... the bus was like in front of him... he just leaves the bag and goes... half-way to church, he asks if anybody loaded his luggage... bleddy bugger...
bleah... what a camp...
spent the last 5 days at the resort beach in desaru... the theme was on missions and the guest speaker was rev klass from the netherlands...
this camp was the first for many things... for starters, it was the first time that i joined the adults for their programme... and it really wasn't a good first experience... discusions were much longer than usual and the questions were more "cheem" than those the youth programme had to offer... theirs were actually extremely simple with fill in the blank type of questions... the questions were ok... the problem was that the people were so eager in giving answers that the discussions kept extending past the allotted time-slot... the worst thing that this was limited to my group only... there was once when we were discussing question 2 out of 6 when another group ended... when we started on question 3, the rest had already gone... not a good experience... luckily bee kiat will be looking into this so i hope it won't repeat itself next year...
this was the first camp where i did not play a single form of card games... there was no tai tee, no bridge, no anything... guess that was cos i didnt have much time to play because of the group discussions...
this was the first time at camp where we had movie screenings using the lcd projector... being the av person has its advantages... one of which was the freedom to bring the av equipment wherever i wanted... and germain's room was one of these places... screened a couple of movies there on the last night...
this camp also had memories... memories of the most obnoxious person i've ever met... his name is yau-ming (ym)... and here is his story when in camp...
day one went without a hitch... the trip up to desaru was smooth and without incident... ym was on my bus with his room-mate adriel... we reached at 5 for the briefing and checking in... and soon, it was lights out... according to adriel, ym woke up in the middle of the night and turned off the room air-con without adriel's knowledge... so with the windows closed, the heat crept in till adriel got up and switched on the air-con again... the room cooled again.. but ym got up again and turned the air-con off... gosh.. he sounded like the complete b*sta*d when i found out... and so the story continues...
the next day, ym complains of sinus problems and does not attend the talks... instead, he goes swimming, saying that it would help him clear his sinus... people attend camp to participate in the activities... so if you don't why bother even coming? sheesh... the night came and ym told adriel that he wanted the air-con off with the windows closed and practically told adriel to buzz off... adriel approached bens and i who took him in for the night as we were his neighbours...
day 3 and things weren't much better... he managed to attend a couple of the talks and discussions but he pulled off a bigger stunt... mid-afternoon, adriel goes back to his room to get something and guess what he finds? the air-con was howling away with the windows open and ym no where in sight... just to put things in perspective, we were on the 1st floor and the window was a full height one which opened to a patio and the pool... at the last moment ym once again complains of sinus and tells adriel to head over to our room and bunk with us...
day 4 was the second last day... i hoped that it would be flawless... but noooooo (russel peters watchers, u'll get it)... once again ym leaves the room without closing the windows and leaving the air-con on... over lunch, he makes a smart-assed comment and says that somebody (he doesn't specify who) should go get rid of all the rocks along the beach as they get in the way of swimmers like himself... those who were there nearly choked on what we were eating... after the camp concert was over, the yaf people ajourned to my room where they played bridge... i, being a little tired, watched tv with adriel... the practice was showing... a few minutes later, ym drops by... he looks at the clock and declares that "carnivale" was on hbo and that we should watch it... he takes the tv remote of MY room, pointed it to MY tv and switches from channel 5 to hbo right in front of MY eyes... i had it... i promptly tucked myself in and pretended to sleep... adriel got a litle fed up and left the room... so ym watched the tv alone while the yaffers played bridge and i 'slept'... half-an-hour later, ym scanned the room and spotted the pack of chips that ben and I bought... he reached over and grabbed it... all of us expected him to open the chips and share it with the rest... but noooooo... he takes the chips, says he was going back to his room and waltzes out, chips and all... we were stunned... back in his room, adriel was sleeping already... ym enters and switches on the tv to watch "carnivale"... he turns up the volume really loud that it wakes adriel... ym's justification was that the bridge players over in my room were noisy and he couldn't concentrate on the show... those who play bridge know that it IS a rather peaceful game unlike heart-attack... sheesh... what a drag...
i expected the last day to be without problems... but again, nooooo... at the singapore customs when we were about to board the bus for the 2nd time, he comes up to ben and tells him to load his luggage while he goes to the toilet... basket... the bus was like in front of him... he just leaves the bag and goes... half-way to church, he asks if anybody loaded his luggage... bleddy bugger...
bleah... what a camp...
Sunday, June 05, 2005
the week has passed once again... another sunday gone just like that... work tomorrow... i need rest...
the whole world has to know one very important fact... and this is it... shelby hates star wars ep3... ok... that was it...
anyway, besides the corny lines and crappy acting by natalie portman and hayden christensen, the show was pretty good... especially the cg fight scenes like the space battle at he beginning of the show... the ultimate turn-off were the dumb lines that padme and anakin said... and the worst of these was: anakin, you're breaking my heart!... omg... couldnt the script writer come up with something more original and less dumb... sheesh... lucas is really screwing up... luckily he's not making anymore... i'm glad the saga ended...
the whole world has to know one very important fact... and this is it... shelby hates star wars ep3... ok... that was it...
anyway, besides the corny lines and crappy acting by natalie portman and hayden christensen, the show was pretty good... especially the cg fight scenes like the space battle at he beginning of the show... the ultimate turn-off were the dumb lines that padme and anakin said... and the worst of these was: anakin, you're breaking my heart!... omg... couldnt the script writer come up with something more original and less dumb... sheesh... lucas is really screwing up... luckily he's not making anymore... i'm glad the saga ended...
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