Trump-Kim summit: 3 things that weren’t right
Now that the dust has settled, allow me to share 3 things related to the Trump-Kim summit that weren’t quite right. No, they had nothing to do with the organisation of the summit which went swimmingly well - thanks to the wonderful efforts of our overworked, hard-pressed officials. They relate instead to the actions of certain parties on the periphery.
The first was MediaCorp’s inclusion of the views of so-called body language experts in their news bulletins. Their surgical dissections of every muscular tics of the two leaders as indicative of who was more superior, confident or simply at ease was nauseating to say the least. I can understand if the panel covering the summit ‘live’ did that because these poor souls had to fill the y-a-w-n-i-n-g gaps between the unfolding events. But surely not airtime-precious MediaCorp bulletins!
The second was the (early) unsolicited celebration of President Trump’s birthday by our leaders just when they were Trump-eting Singapore’s neutrality to the world. Whoever proposed the idea of a birthday cake for Trump wasn’t being very savvy or sensitive. What would the Chinese think? Probably this: “If it was President Xi Jinping's birthday, would he have gotten a cake?” The gesture was both unnecessary and inappropriate.
Finally, a certain opposition politician took time out to make a video to excoriate foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan for saying that Singapore was there to “serve tea and coffee”. That wasn’t just a waste of the politician’s time, it was also unfair. The minister was using those words to indicate the trust that we enjoy as honest and neutral host in the eyes of the world. For the record, this was what he said in The Straits Times: “I am confident we will do our best as hosts. I tell both North Koreans and Americans that we are there to serve tea and coffee”. No right-minded person would take his words literally to mean that he wants Singapore to be the tea lady of international diplomacy. Bottomline: We can be critical but we should also be fair.
The main show is the Trump-Kim summit. Watching body language, offering a birthday cake and serving coffee and tea are all insignificant but entertaining anecdotes. The whole world is glued to their tv sets waiting for breaking news. At the same time, it allows people to surmise whether Trump or Kim is the true alpha-male; whether buying a birthday cake is included in the $20 million budget and whether VB was speaking tongue-in-cheek.
ReplyDeleteEmpty vessel makes the most noise. Children should be seen and not heard.
ReplyDeleteTwo men who flip & flop can have the greatest showbiz agreement and it will mean nothing. The world is caught up with a waste of time summit of form.& zero substance, when my word is not my bond leaders take the center stage.
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ReplyDeleteRight vs Wrong
ReplyDeleteRight or not right is a matter of personal perception and personal interpretation.
Personal perception and personal interpretation are based on personal knowledge and experience.
Personal knowledge is based on how much knowledge one's brain has accumulated, retained and remembered, and able to apply whenever the need arises.
Personal experience is based on how much exposure one has in life and how much repetitive hands-on practices one has managed to carry out in the past.
All these formed the foundation of personal bias towards certain perspectives and meanings.
In addition, one's interpretation of events, people and things is dependent upon one's mental capacity and capability, flexibility and rigidity, limitations and constraints, emotional quality, analytical ability (width and depth of analysis), intelligence and wisdom.
Above all those factors are time, historical background, cultural development, accepted norms and tradition and environment. These other factors also affect and influence one"s perception and interpretation of events, people and things.
So, you see, the biases inherent within each and every person's perception and interpretation are always there.
That's why there is the saying:
One man's meat is another's poison.
simple minded.is the only term i can come up.
ReplyDeleteSinkies paid for the bill and they enjoyed first class service. No free lunch? LKY better eat his own words. WTF.
ReplyDeleteThe whitewashing has begun on MSM. Everything about the $29 million is worth every penny.
ReplyDelete'Own self praise own self' has been perfected to an art.
From Anon 10.57
ReplyDeleteSorry, typo error. Should be $20 million, not $29 million.
My apologies.
I was watching the YouTube Livestream enjoying my coffee break when I nearly fell off my chair when the TV presenters introduce "body-language ex-spurts". Who's fucking dumb idea was that? Also while certain "tells" in body language are biological, there are enough which are cultural which lead the ex-spurt to arrive at a wrong conclusion (i.e. Type 1 & 2 errors) from observation.
ReplyDeleteThere are also individual traits like "ticks" or automatized behaviour, like swing legs when sitting down, humming, fidgeting... These are default or baseline states, but if the ex-spurt doesn't account, they can mistakingly conclude that "Oh, he seems agitated...he's trying to hide something". Bzzzt! WRONG!!
You have to establish a BASELINE if you expect to read body language more precisely (Google that shit!)
The media is supposed to be the 4th estate...the people who are supposed to ensure the good citizens don't get fooled by BULLSHIT. It is indeed both sad and dangerous that the MSM in Singapore (never mind the world, our media is supposed to look out for US!) falls well short of its purpose and function.
Trump's Birthday: Taxpayers should be outraged at The State firstly performing such a blatant act of Arse Licking and deploying taxpayer CAPITAL for such frivolous nonsense.
Re: freedom of expression and speech done peacefully: 100% Allowed to be Aloud. Make the fucking video. Fuck Vivian lah.
The whitewashing has begun on MSM. Everything about the $29 million is worth every penny.
ReplyDeleteฮวงจุ้ย