Archives 2009

Abbreviations are explained in the column on the right of the screen.

Month	Title, etc		Relevance
Dec 2009	Two oppositions, and why in the long run, they may not matter at all, part 3 - they may not matter because power is for the PAP to lose, not for opposition parties to win		Pol
Dec 2009	Two oppositions, and why in the long run, they may not matter at all, part 2 - opposition politics depend too much on dislike of the PAP, but let's face it, most Singaporeans do not dislike the PAP that much		Pol
Dec 2009	Negative income tax - what is this and why is it worth considering?		Pol
Dec 2009	Two oppositions, and why in the long run, they may not matter at all, part 1 - why is it important to abjure civil disobedience? What does it tell us about ourselves?		Pol, Soc
Dec 2009	What we don't read about casinos and Rwanda - too much gushing in our mainstream media obscures reality		Pol, Med, Hom
Dec 2009	Stone-age sex law hidden in plain sight - boy has sex with girl; who gets prosecuted?		Law, Soc, Med
Dec 2009	Tough getting elected if gay - of course, we know that already, but here’s news from the Philippines, Houston, and Britain where an election of a different kind took place.		Pol, Hom, Oth [Entertainment]
Dec 2009	Churning cities - now immigration is affecting the Malay-Muslim community; what I saw in four cities		Soc
Nov 2009	Away again - preparing for a trip, I had to run around looking for vaccine and a good bank		Per
Nov 2009	Fogged lens - the story behind Maruah's screening of Burma VJ and other resistance documentaries		Pol, Per
Nov 2009	Film censorship correspondence, part 2 - follow-up replies from the film censors of MDA as to why text stills were not allowed		Pol, Med, Hom
Nov 2009	Sucking demigods' toes - our Law minister, chief justice and the Straits Times commit unnatural sex		Pol, Law, Soc, Med, Hom
Oct 2009	Burma VJ to be shown again - an award-winning documentary about citizen journalism in extreme circumstances		Pol, Med
Oct 2009	Tough tests serve a positive purpose - parents complain that the Primary 6 exam math paper this year was too difficult		Soc, Oth [Edu]
Oct 2009	Throwing fish - Singapore joins the Myanmar regime in making Asean human rights and civil society engagement a farce		Pol
Oct 2009	Sam Schwartz and the police, part 1 - falsely accused of running a massage parlour; what happened to due process and presumption of innocence?		Pol, Law, Hom
Oct 2009	Sam Schwartz and the police, part 2 - raided, whacked, then falsely accused of biting someone		Pol, Law, Hom
Oct 2009	Third-rate television for a Third-world country - four young people asked about local television; all four think it sucks		Pol, Soc, Med
Oct 2009	Another teenager caught, set to hang - one more awful case in a long campaign that has only just begun		Pol, Law, Soc, Kno
Oct 2009	More thoughts on the 'Not a procession' judgement - the judge told defendants: You should have applied for a judicial review. Ah but....		Pol, Law
Oct 2009	Non-discrimination is nothing if not gray - how far do we wish to push the non-discrimination ideal? Thirty test scenarios		Soc, Hum
Oct 2009	Education ministry looks like it has something to hide - poet and playwright Ng Yi-Sheng axed as arts mentor		Pol, Hom
Sep 2009	UBS survey shows Singapore slipping in standard of living - relative to our Asian nighbours		Pol, Oth [econ]
Sep 2009	Mama to police: "Help, my son is prostituting himself!", Part 1 - background to the case of six men and a 16-year-old boy		Law, Hom
Sep 2009	Mama to police: "Help, my son is prostituting himself!", Part 2 - sentences, ephebophilia and age of consent		Law, Soc, Hom
Sep 2009	Singapore buskers are really bad - because they're not really buskers but beggars		Soc, hum
Sep 2009	Fix that sign - Stomp is running a contest to spot bad English around Singapore		Soc
Sep 2009	Today's kindergarten, tomorrow's world - increasing number of families speak English at home; what about the linguistic future of Singapore?		Pol, Soc
Sep 2009	Film censorship correspondence, part 1 - MICA's reply to my complaint about their censorship processes		Pol, Med, Hom,
Sep 2009	Anti-gays' new online platform launched - Singanews would be a voice for "mainstream family values", said its CEO. Where else do we find such codewords?		Soc, Rel, Med, Hom
Sep 2009	Mainstream media here continues to hold ground, said minister - 75 percent consider mainstream media "preferred source" of news, but what does that mean?		Pol, Med
Sep 2009	Proscribing seditious and hate speech - offensive speech is not the same as hate speech, so what is hate speech?		Law, Soc, Rel, Kno
Sep 2009	Send in the clowns - Singapore's two-party system, past and future		Pol, Med
Sep 2009	Why I went AWOL, part 2 - I needed a worker to help me finish my home repairs		Hum, Per
Aug 2009	Queering the bookshelf - two new gay anthologies launched, plus a chapter in a book about the Goh Chok Tong years		Soc, Hom
Aug 2009	Film censors behaving like bullies - what happened when I sent a film to the MDA for classification		Pol, Med, Hom
Aug 2009	Singapore government takes notice of Christian extremists - the prime minister  draws a line in the sand in his National Day Rally speech		Pol, Rel, Hom
Aug 2009	Why I went AWOL part 1 - there were more urgent and desperate things than maintaining this site		Hum, Per
July 2009	India decriminalises gay sex, Singapore shown to be a fool - Delhi High Court legalises homosexuality		Pol, Law, Hom
July 2009	Remember or forget? The 1987 "Marxist conspiracy" - Martyn See organised a forum on the 1987 detentions without trial known as "Operation Spectrum"		Pol, Law, Hum, Med
July 2009	Extortion rackets as a symptom of political malaise - tourism income falls, government weak, why not make some extra money with good old extortion?		Pol, Law, Soc
June 2009	Singapore fights Mexican flu with authoritarian efficiency - we're in the world's top ten; my brother-in-law was a suspected case		Per, Oth [health]
June 2009	Economic Strategies Committee in safe hands - out of 25 members, nine are government ministers		Pol, Oth [econ]
June 2009	The right to offend - if freedom of religion is important, then so should be the freedom to offend		Law, Soc, Rel, Hom
June 2009	Gay film banned; wives cry - Filipino film 'Boy' is accused of "normalising" homosexuality, but when only heterosexuality is allowed to be "normal", what happens to wives?		Pol, Soc, Med, Hom
June 2009	Local media can write about gay pride events in China, not Singapore - news about gay activism in Beijing and Shanghai is carried in Straits Times and Zaobao		Med, Hom
June 2009	Speaking of those who've gone before us - the different kinds of tidying up we do when someone has passed away		Soc, Med, Per
June 2009	Another stupid name for a metro station - some station names are bound to cause confusion		Oth [urbanscape]
June 2009	HIV tide rises, Singapore still building sandcastles, part 1 - homosexual transmission accounted for 33% of 2008's newly discovered infections		Soc, Hom, Oth [hiv]
June 2009	HIV tide rises, Singapore still building sandcastles, part 2 - as a state and society, we're far from ready to deal with HIV		Soc, Hom, Kno, Oth [hiv]
June 2009	Penguin feelings hurt; ignored by conservatives - Singapore's interest is not served by having too many people with conservative personality traits		Soc, Hom, Kno, Hum
June 2009	Singapore Petroleum sold to PetroChina - why did Temasek Holdings and Keppel Corp agree to sell? Why did the Chinese want to buy?		Oth[biz]
June 2009	Justice for workers, not quick fixes - same company, different batch of workers, same self-praise by the Ministry of Manpower		Pol
June 2009	From the dating frontlines - what Romeos get up to and put up with; Vietnamese women now selling for discounted prices		Soc, Hum
June 2009	Lady Bracknell admonishes Temasek - losing £500 million with Barclays after losing more than US$3 billion with Bank of America		Pol, Oth [Fin]
June 2009	Secular fundamentalists are oppressive, says Thio Li-Ann - she wants the secular state to let down its guard re religious views		Pol, Rel
June 2009	Should opposition parties reject the enhanced NCMP scheme? - a majority from an online poll seem to think so		Pol
June 2009	Singaporean apathy and red tape on display at Aung San Suu Kyi rally - the vast majority of Singaporeans aren't interested in foreign affairs		Pol, Soc
May 2009	Gay nuptials: suing, voting and feasting - California's gay marriage ban; meanwhile gay wedding feasts in China, and a Singaporean makes a fool of himself		Law, Soc, Hom, Kno
May 2009	Fifty years of PAP rule - Saturday 30 May 1959 was when the PAP first won a general election		Pol
May 2009	Latest electoral changes only treat the symptoms - the structures that maintain a culture of political timidity need to be dismantled		Pol
May 2009	Minimum nine opposition MPs from now on - some GRCs to be smaller, nine NMPs every parliament		Pol
May 2009	An ill-judged and irresponsible scoop - The Online Citizen ending up hurting migrant workers' interests		Pol, Med
May 2009	Winning over conservatives - what do conservatives want to conserve and why?		Pol, Soc, Kno
May 2009	Shoes take me places - a ramble through a neighbourhood shop, the global economy, race and religion		Soc, Per, Oth [econ]
May 2009	What 'secular state' should mean - few Singaporeans can describe what a secular state should look like		Pol, Soc, Rel
May 2009	Detainees' poetry launched in Kuala Lumpur - and failing to make a political point of it		Pol
May 2009	Libel is an enemy of free speech and civilised society - NMP Siew Kum Hong was right to make a police report		Pol, Med, Hom
May 2009	Parliament now faces "gay test" - will Siew Kum Hong get a second term? Will there be a gay NMP?		Pol
May 2009	Archiving J B Jeyaretnam's papers for posterity - to value the man we must value the material		Pol
May 2009	A great city? Making it, failing it - has Singapore what it takes to be one of the world's great cities?		Soc
May 2009	Pink dot, 16 May 2009, 4:30 pm - Hong Lim Park will witness a fun-filled first		Hom
May 2009	Education Ministry suspends AWARE's sexuality education program - our own educators are wallowing in ignorance and muddled thinking		Pol, Hom
May 2009	Lessons for the PAP from the Aware EOGM - questions of style and leadership are applicable to a broader political canvas		Pol, Soc
May 2009	The rosary woman and other head-shaking tales - Jackie Chan said Singaporeans have no self-respect		Soc, Per
May 2009	Flyers and flying laws - Singapore Democratic Party leaders' trial for distributing flyers continues		Pol, Law, Med
Apr 2009	Identity mobilisation - a threat to society - why the tactics of Thio Su Mien and the Church of Our Savior cannot be tolerated		Pol, Soc, Hom
Apr 2009	Migrant worker problems must be tackled at roots - another 200 Chinese workers protest at Manpower ministry		Pol, Soc
Apr 2009	Couldn't get past the pig - worrying news from Mexico about a flu outbreak, when the economy is already so weak		Med, Oth [Med]
Apr 2009	Bloggers' maturity demonstrated in Aware saga - very little of irresponsible, rabble-rousing, untruthful speech that the government had said characterised the internet		Soc, Med, Hom
Apr 2009	Pirate mother ship appears on horizon, guns blazing - Thio Su Mien reveals herself to be the mastermind behind the putsch at AWARE		Soc, Hom
Apr 2009	Pirates ahoy! Gay netizens and the AWARE hijacking - was AWARE ever a pro-gay organisation?		Soc, Hom
Apr 2009	DBS Bank's public hanging - why did DBS admonish Josie Lau so publicly?		Hom, Oth [biz]
Apr 2009	Gay marriage: Sweden, Vermont and Iowa - three more jurisdictions cross the bridge		Law, Hom
Apr 2009	Reinforcing containment - the Films Act is amended and a new Public Order Act passed		Pol, Law, Med
Apr 2009	Running and lifting - two tales from the gender twilight zone - in Kuala Lumpur recently, I witnessed policemen chasing cross-dressers		Soc, Rel, Hom, Hum
Apr 2009	Abhisit declares emergency in Bangkok over Red Shirts - a rapidly deteriorating situation in Thailand after the Asean summit fiasco		Pol
Apr 2009	From now on, be wary of AWARE - an anti-gay group has seized control of the women's rights organisation		Pol, Rel, Hom
Mar 2009	Why arrested persons shouldn't have lawyers - we're so backward in the way we allow scope for police abuse to take root		Pol, Law, Soc
Mar 2009	A heady mix: homosexuality and the net - the Youtube frontier		Med, Hom
Mar 2009	Manifesto checklist - what I'd like to see in a party manifesto		Pol
Mar 2009	One thousand - Liberalism and Yawning Bread		Per
Mar 2009	What really happens when gay boys get intimate with men - the Bruce Rind study contradicts the popular image of victim and predator		Hom, Kno
Mar 2009	Jail as a solution for age-discrepant sex - is moralistic hysteria resulting in witch hunts and overly harsh sentences?		Law, Soc, Hom
Mar 2009	Confess or we'll throw 377A at you - police and prosecutors still threaten people with Section 377A of the Penal Code		Law, Hom
Mar 2009	Seven months' jail for a kiss and a lick - the details of a case under Section 7 of the Children and Young Persons Act		Law, Hom
Mar 2009	Beautiful, wonderful creatures make disappearing act, part 2 - wrapping up the story about the censored Oscar ceremony		Med, Hom
Feb 2009	A new world after this economic crisis - the US market will not recover the same preeminence		Pol, Oth [econ]
Feb 2009	Beautiful, wonderful creatures make disappearing act - the film "Milk" won two Oscars and the censors got to work		Pol, Med, Hom
Feb 2009	The great hunt: One year on - what has happened in the year since Mas Selamat Kastari escaped from detention without trial?		Pol, Med
Feb 2009	Preachers, pests and usurpers - evangelical Christianity's push to capture souls and states meets resistance		Law, Soc, Rel
Feb 2009	On community moderation of internet content - the discussion in the mainstream media so far is completely off-track		Pol, Med
Feb 2009	The hermitage is no solution - why can't gays lead their private lives without worrying about the law?		Pol, Law, Hom
Feb 2009	Sec-gen issues open invitation to participate in Asean community building - at his briefing session, I registered our concern for human rights and other issues		Pol
Feb 2009	Is a general election this year now confirmed? - Mediacorp is already preparing its election website		Pol, Med
Feb 2009	Nathan fluffs his reserves explanation - the president gives an unsatisfactory press interview regarding the unlocking of the state reserves		Pol
Feb 2009	Naked straitjackets - politicians and triathletes cramped by moralistic hysteria		Pol, Soc
Feb 2009	366 detained without trial in last 5 years - and not even for anything to do with terrorism		Pol, Law
Feb 2009	Female teacher admits to sex with boy aged 15 - an interesting mirror case to that of six men and another 15-year-old boy		Law, Soc
Feb 2009	No need to know how President uses his second key, says government - the Finance Minister rebuffs calls for more transparency		Pol
Feb 2009	Opposition unity still illusory - report and commentary on the forum "Opposition - where to" organised by the Singapore Democratic Party		Pol
Feb 2009	Behind Today's Lui story - I think I gave the reporter from 'Today' newspaper a hard time		Pol, Med
Feb 2009	Six men charged for sex with boy aged 15 - but why was it necessary to use Section 377A when another law was at hand?		Law
Feb 2009	A political tourist in Kuala Lumpur - politics, race and religion never far away even as my friends and I did the tourist thing		Pol, Soc, Rel, Per
Feb 2009	Shield us good, mock us bad, says Lui - junior minister said community moderation of online speech has failed		Pol, Med
Feb 2009	Half-million is the new benchmark - US President Obama is capping executive pay at companies that use taxpayer money. Aren't our ministers too paid with taxpayer money?		Pol
Jan 2009	Saving jobs, savaging filmmakers - two major announcements in Parliament this week		Pol, Med
Jan 2009	Obama White House uploads its gay agenda - anti-gay rightwingers like to use "gay agenda" as a sneer to suggest some kind of illicit conspiracy, but the new US President has one too		Pol, Hom
Jan 2009	Move on, shut up - civil servants must not flash their wealth and dissenters must not have access to the streets, says the government		Pol, Law
Jan 2009	Muddy Singapore swallows China workers, part 4 - the big picture why we have such terrible foreign worker abuses in our midst		Pol, Soc
Jan 2009	Muddy Singapore swallows China workers, part 3 - what finally happened to the six workers?		Pol, Soc, Med
Jan 2009	Are our economic priorities right? - why, when bust comes, we bust so badly?		Pol
Jan 2009	The pretty boy barber - will Singapore eventually be part of China? Race, language, politics and trades.		Pol, Soc, Per, Hum
Jan 2009	Independent investigation needed over Tang's kidney transplant - why was hanged prisoner Tan Chor Jin's kidney given to wealthy businessman Tang Wee Sung?		Pol, Soc
Jan 2009	Why there mustn't be an election this year - it's hard to believe that there's even talk of this		Pol
Jan 2009	Singapore government rejects AIMS' key recommendations - except for tiny amendments, political films to remain banned		Pol, Med