Friday, July 11, 2014

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.

24 comments:

  1. Our Minsters can ban any pro-GLBT books in the National Library but when it comes to internet, what can they do ? They mean to say they don't even know that kids nowadays can google for any "gay" materials in the net ? They mean to say those banned books are more harmful than what can be accessed from the net ?

    Come on, grow up and don't be such ignorant stupid pigs. It looks as if all our Minsters graduate from the Taleban.

    If the conservative members of the society are so pro-family, how about for a start telling them not of stop fucking their own wives when their wifes reach their 40s ?

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  2. I think you got the date wrong. August 1914? Nazis in 1914? Did you mean 1941?

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  3. The shitty times just reported what Big Brother is going to do with censorship of internet by getting the ISPs to stop access to pirate bays, torrent sites etc. Its a small step to block any other sites. You think you have freedom online? Its all under their overview. With the billions of dollars from the "new anti-riot" budget - the same contractors (aka Sonowden's ex employers) who helped the US NSA record every "undesirable" element's entire phone conversation, sms and surfing history, these contractors will "fix you" in cyberspace too and provide the evidence to send you to jail under new regulations from MDA. Read 1984 again. no one will be spared.

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  4. Makes you wonder who are the real DIRTY MINDED people doesn't it? lol

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    1. The intolerant elites call xenophobic those who reject their 3 million new immigrants cock-up. Now they forcefully removed and shred a book from a public library because of two same sex penguins? Ok, spinners, get to work, your papig masters need some damage control before the next F1 event.

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    2. They probably see sex in your every day utility like spoon. The sight of chicken may even set then thinking about geyland

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  5. Hey come on folks!
    How about having casinos and put up ADVERTISEMENTS AGAINST GAMBLING?
    Sinkies are simply daft and ingenious, all at the same time.
    Or some pretend to be daft but, really foxy. And some pretend to be smart but, are actually daft.

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  6. Hang on, folks! To the best of my knowledge, for the last 6 thousand years, "mainstream" society has never factored same-sex unions as a family unit. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I've seen one-man-many wives, one-woman-many-husbands models. Our generation is seeing same-sex models "normalised" for the first time. I think there must be a lot more discussion if this is really what we want. Take men with multiple wives, for example. Except for Muslims, the rest of the world still frowns on polygamy, let alone same-sex marriage. Call me anything you want, but I'm not ready.

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    1. Yes yes. Homosexuality has always been around. Following Talmudic tradition, earliest record is during the time of Noah. We're talking about making it a family unit. That's different. That civilisation (hence 6000 years) has never done. Until now. And I think that society should not target male homosexuality and criminalise it. But we're talking about same-sex unions as the unit of a family.

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    2. i thot we talking abt burning of books non? where in tattler's text hv u read same sex union ? what written history left behind for us, intolerance try to burn off ?

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    3. If you're not ready, then that's your personal problem -- do not to make it everybody else's problem as well. I am not ready for you to impose your views on me for what should or should not be read (same goes for what constitutes a 'family unit' to you) - I can decide that for myself and my children.

      Talking about history - slavery used to be the norm too but it doesn't make it right. So what is historically true, doesn't make it morally true. Lots of people used to think the Earth was flat too and just because the majority are accustomed to monogamous heterosexual pairings, it also doesn't make it right.

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    4. //slavery used to be the norm too but it doesn't make it right//
      Excellent rebuttal - don't forget once upon an awful time, women were not allowed to vote. That was also normal then.

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  7. Its good to see so many Singaporeans speaking up on this NLB reaction to one complaint. A good way to help NLB not repeat this mistake again in the future.

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  8. I read somewhere that 22000 people signed online petition affirming nlb action.

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  9. Not gay but ass bandit...7/11/2014 6:58 PM

    The public should be invited to the pulping.

    Perhaps people with some standing... CEO of insurance companies... maybe.. you know.. to lend some presence??

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  10. Is it true that the National Library is going to destroy & burn the banned children books ? Wah Jialat. By now so many people in Singapore would already have turned to be gay by watching those movies with homosexual content borrowed from our Libraries.

    I think they better destroy or burn those DVDs titles like Desperate Housewifes @ the Esplanade Library labelled "With Some Homosexual Content" . What if the kids watch these series together with their parents who borrowed them at the library and later turned to be gay when they grew up ?

    Then our Keechiu Minister got blamed for allowing our National Library to promote such lifestyle how ? Both the parents turned gay then how about our future kids ? How about totally stop the DVD collection at our National Library because so many undesirable lifestyle against the Bible shown in the movies ?

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  11. Oh yeah it's never too early to learn the meaning of "gay" and "lesbian". Even before sex education. Why not have books that teach toddlers sexuality. I usually am in sync with tattler but this time I feel the NLB is right. They shouldn't push homosexuality or heterosexuality to kids. I am sure there are books on homosexuality in the NLB for older readers. That's where they belong.

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  12. Born this way or social construct? LGBTs can't have their cake and eat it too. Born this way, then let nature take its course. I don't see no albinos holding white dot. Social construct? Ah, then surely they know the power of how important it is to start them young. Then surely, one cannot fault parents for wanting to protect their charges from undesirable 'constructs'. We have all come about because somebody's sperm ( from a man) invaded somebody's egg (a woman's). It is best ( not always possible, but certainly ideal) for a child to have both biological daddy and mummy with him or her. No? And coitus can only take place when Tampines inserts into Virginia. No? And marriage is only consummated when coitus occurs. No? And now, some claim that these are ONLY social constructs,yet try their darnedest to forcefully change the bloody constructs. No?

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  13. Were we expecting anything different to come out of the press conference, that NLB admitted they gaffed and screwed their KPI? I wouldn't be surprised the religious affiliation of most of senior civil servants here belong to that intolerant group

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  14. Why keep harping on gays not reproducing and contributing to population growth?. We have MPs who are not married, and married MPs who can't reproduce.

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  15. Warning to all the prudes and bigots, if you read these books, you will catch the gay disease! Get off your moral high horse and live and let live. Being gay is not a disease, or all about sex alone. If you hold your family values so strongly, what are you afraid of? You can exercise you own rights, and your children's, by not reading them, but don't deny others their rights, by making it a crusade.

    It is truly ironic for bigotted Christians and Muslims to feel threatened by the gay community and their values, when throughout the centuries their own militancy has claimed the lives of countless people. Look no further than their fight against their own co-religionists, Protestants against Catholics, Sunnis against Shias, and against other faiths, the so called "Holy Wars", Inquisitions, Jihads, progroms, witch-hunts, etc. The world would have been, and will be, a better place without religious fanatics and their hypocrisy and intolerance towards other believes or way of live. Some call it Xenophobia.

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  16. donno about these books. Only know there is one type of books that should be burnt or remove from all bookshelves . That is the so called memoirs and Half Truths books by a desperado despot.

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  17. Could we establish the policy first - is there a concept of age-appropriate material, or is that also censorship?

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