my ajumma notes

For various reasons, I was recently thinking about de-Stalinization , something I've not thought about seriously for more than 20 years. A drawing by Niyaz Karim Revisionist thinking is really quite interesting. And a necessary part of life. It is not healthy to just blindly believe in the same old sources, or worse, the same one source. It is healthy to question and look for evidence. For there always is more evidence than you have been told there is. While I was thinking about de-Stalinization, of course I remembered how I handed in a highly nonsensical essay on the topic. Those were the days when I was almost becoming one of the 'full-time hostelites, part-time students' in my hostel, haha. It was so bad that my tutor, Dr Agnew, got me to re-do it, and very kindly gave me a list of relevant references I could look up. As I emerged from his room feeling stupid and sheepish, and filled with well-intentioned thoughts of doing all my future essays properly, I was gre...

My non-expert two cents' worth on the role of the social media in this election. First, we are so behind time. Other people, including our neighbours, were already excitingly into social media at least one election ago. I was surprised to hear a (young) candidate refer to it as 'new' media. Hello, this is 2011, not 2001? Second, social media wouldn't have accounted for a huge number of votes either way. Of course some - or maybe many - may have been influenced but I would think that in general, people wanting to vote for the whites would have made up their minds long ago and those not wanting to vote for the whites would similarly have decided before candidates were even announced. But I think that non-white supporters were more likely to be part of the cyberspace election landscape simply because of the lack of (positive) information about the non-whites in the mainstream media. Third, I still don't get why some people are still so disdainful of what's o...

Cooling off day... ha... I was just wondering how some of the hot buttons, the ones who are now citizens, will vote. There would be the FTs who have been in S'pore for ages, went through our education system, perhaps even went to the army, worked here for years, then became citizens. Then, there are the newer ones who hardly speak English and hardly mix with the born-and-bred people. And then there are those who don't even live here. Are people like Gong Li and Jet Li voting? Somehow, I can't think of really good reasons why the latter groups would vote against the status quo. Will these people be the ones who make the difference?

Shortly after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived at Buckingham Palace, I finished my dinner and went off to Serangoon Stadium. But since it was way past 7pm, this was the best spot we could find. (That, of course, is not me or anyone I know in the picture. The red t-shirt on that boy said 'Myanmar'. New citizens?) I think political rallies should be part of National Education, for both students and new citizens. To be fair, they should be brought to rallies of both sides, or maybe even of a few parties. Just to experience the spirit of things. I really don't mind doing this myself every few years. Only the crowds are getting bigger and bigger each time. And the traffic gets really bad.

'Celebrating' someone's death is weird...