It's All About Censorship

Even Archie is not spared

They disallowed the satellite dish for private installations because ownership will mean access to unfettered broadcasts from the skies. The advent of the internet made nonsense of their control of the air waves.  Still they are doing their darnedest best make sure we read, hear and see the right stuff.

Theatre educator T Sasitharan, former journalist Romen Bose and Yale-NUS College Professor Robin Hemley are upset with the the National Library Board (NLB) and said that they “cannot in good conscience” continue to be judges for the non-fiction category of the Singapore Literature Prize. Other prominent literary figures are boycotting NLB-related events such as the Singapore Writers’ Festival and talks organised by the NLB.

In a letter, the trio lamented that NLB’s move is “censorship that has no place in any free and democratic society”. The mainstream media preferred to pitch a battle between fundamental conservatives and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) crowd. It's the old Brit tactic of divide and rule, so that attention is diverted from the important abuses of our life savings. Gay or straight, all are affected by the mismanagement in housing, transportation, health care and employment issues. Add the continuing influx of foreign elements, and you can see the cauldron boiling over with a toxic mix.  Even Isetan now has a religious card in play.

Don't be seduced by Hri Kumar's contrarian position of poo-pooing NLB's pulping exercise. He is simply being realistic about the 26,000 votes that could come in handy during the next election. Censorship was always top priority for a political party hell bent on perpetuating their rule ad infinitum.

The Elusive Truth

Dark clouds gathering over the Vatican

Italy's La Repubblica daily quoted Pope Francis as saying 1 in 50 clerics is a pedophile. The figure represents about 8,000 priests out of more than 400,000 worldwide, according to the latest statistics from the Vatican. A figure which includes priests "and even bishops and cardinals." A figure which includes priests in Singapore who are supposedly strongly pro-family. And we are worried about penguins?

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the quotations in the newspaper on the existence of pedophile cardinals did not correspond to what the pope actually said. According to the BBC, off-the-cuff statements made by the pope often lend themselves to ambiguity.

But our ministers were not speaking off-the-cuff, either in or out of parliament, when they continue their spiel on the unholy mess of the Central Provident Fund (CPF). Even the local rag put out an ad to reassure the doubting Thomases that "With CPF, working Singaporeans do not have to pay for the retirement benefits of those who have retired. Every dollar saved in CPF will benefit you and your loved ones". That last sentence can't be correct. If you don't have to pay for others who have retired, the number should not include "your loved ones" - latter will have to bear their own burdens. If the pope has a credibility problem, what more the propagators of a flawed retirement system?

Myths Busted

Real generals like Patton are famed for their tank busting exploits. Lesser warriors like Tan Chuan Jin have to settle for myth busting. Not that he is doing too well on the battle front of the Central Provident Fund (CPF) wars.

One of the "myths" he set his sights on: the minimum sum is a shifting goal post. In his warped mentality, the number changes only with the cohort affected, therefore no change is involved. The kind of perverse logic that broke the original promise of releasing the retirement funds at age 55. Nothing has changed, so he says, only the rules have changed. Poor Dr Toh Chin Chye must be rolling in his grave.

There is one myth that is really propagated: the CPF is our retirement package. Firstly, it cannot be ours by any definition in the English language since we are hapless to the twisting of the access rules without our consent. Then, there are the millions siphoned to the secretive "reserves" portion of the public housing pricing, which has resulted in the anomaly of the Singapore asset-rich cash-poor social phenomenal. Don't even get started on the returns from the CPF - the only guys guaranteed a cushy retirement at the Bahamas are the fund managers. The sickness has now spread to the Medishield Life sham. Opposition members have asked on our behalf why Medishield needs such a large reserves account, a similar question once levied at the National Kidney Foundation board. As in the case of the NKF fiction, there was no credible answer.

Oh, there is one other myth being perpetuated. Paying millions to the ministers is necessary for sustainable government. I see they are now encouraging Singaporeans to start walking, just the nudge we need to start voting with our feet.

Non Pro-Family Images Under Threat

Male and male together - mana boleh

Two women - also tak boleh

Book Burning The Next Step

On August 25, 1914, the German army ravaged the city of Leuven, deliberately burning the university's library of 300,000 medieval books and manuscripts with gasoline. The first exhibits one sees on entering the KU Leuven library is the burnt out remains of priceless literature salvaged from the attempt to wipe out a cultural heritage. We didn't photograph the charred fragments, preserved painstakingly in plastic cases, because book burning has to be thing of the evil past, has no place in the modern day and age.

One parent in Singapore did organise a bonfire of assessment books after his kids cleared their final examinations. That was a pretty dumb thing to do, fire hazard and all, but nothing serious to be riled up about.

The National Library taking off books from the shelves because of one bigot's input is a different matter. It's a slippery slope from there to the conflagration of literary archives. In a literal sense, it's the next logical step from the minister's directorate to "read the right stuff".  The kind of move that makes a laughing stock out of Singapore, the equivalent of the ban of chewing gum. The joke that comes right after Singapore being a fine city. Makes you wonder why the millions are splurged on the F-1 night race or the youth olympics to put the little red dot on the world map. What we don't need is for neo-Nazis to create more adverse publicity, and throw more mud on our faces.