Selling Your Singapore

With this new brand name called Your Singapore being brandished as a catchy tag, our representatives will soon be spreading out to the world to sell Singapore as a tourist destination. Let’s try to imagine how other people will react to this tag. First stop is likely to be China. I can imagine the Chinese asking, ‘How much?’ They would be keen to pay for it if it is for sale. It’s neighbour the Japanese would probably frown and say, ‘Can we have it back?’ It belonged to them for a while back then. Further to the East, the Americans would likely to give an approving nod and saying to themselves, ‘We had it in our pocket for so many years, didn’t you know that?’ As for the British, they would thank you for reminding them of their glorious past. They may regret for having giving it away to us on a silver platter. Our Indonesian neighbour may say don’t try to tempt us. Up north, they would not take it too kindly and give our representatives two black eyes for inviting them to ‘Your Singapore’. And hopefully the representatives would not be foolish enough to ask what was that for.

Your Singapore!

My first impression is distaste. How’s that for a logo to be viewed across the world, the message from Singapore? I don’t know how much they paid for this gimmick? When I started this blog, I had this little task of giving it a name. MySingaporeNews, or YourSingaporeNews were my initial choices. Both were quite meaningful. I wanted YourSingaporeNews for everyone to post their news here. MySingaporeNews also has the same meaning when ‘My’ means everyone who post their news here. I chose it as it is shorter by two alphabets. Your Singapore News has since been adopted by CNA and inviting forumers to contribute their news to the station. I have no quarrel with My Singapore or Your Singapore, as it is about Singapore and Singaporeans writing about Singapore. I feel rather offended by telling the world that Singapore is theirs, Your Singapore. Haven’t we have enough of foreigners here thinking that they also own Singapore? Haven’t we been selling every inch of our precious land to foreigners who came here to snub at the poor Singaporeans? And now we officially tell the foreigners that Singapore is their Singapore for the taking. Is it ours or no longer ours? Does Singapore belong to Singaporeans, for us to call Our Singapore, or to tell the foreigners, Your Singapore. All you need is money and you can buy it. Of course the promoters and advocates of this catchphrase meant different things. They are telling the foreigners that they can design their trips the way they want it, to see what they want to see. And definitely not to think that they can have Singapore as theirs, if they have the money. Your Singapore sure does not sound good to the already unhappy Singaporeans seeing their private space being invaded and taken away by foreigners. And for those who are chasing their little homes and cannot afford it, they will be more pissed off to hear this message. It is Our Singapore, not Theirs. Your Singapore can be demeaning to start from this angle. It is like an attempt to sell out. Telling Singaporeans that this is Your Singapore is different from telling foreigners this is Your Singapore. Just try telling the foreigners here that your home is their home.

Oh, what a beautiful name!

I have never heard of this expression for a long long time. The new reaction when a name is introduced is a kind of a blur. Uhh, what’s dat? Bikina. Oh, uhh, could you spell it out. Oh, cute. Never heard of that. Lee Wei Ling and Colin Goh both wrote about the trend in naming. And the raison de tre ranges from a colonial hangover, trendiness and being unique or cute, or for showbiz. It used to be trendy to be John or Michael, or Kevin or Edwin or Edwina. But they have become so common that everyone is a John Michael or Michael John that it is no longer fun anymore. The colonial hangover is fading away as the new generation grow up blind to that hideous and humiliating past. Yes, there was a time when being a little more angmoh meant one is of a different and better social class. It was much better to hear an angmoh shouting over his beer mug with a hi John than a hi, Ah Kow! Many illiterate parents were guilty of this demeaning act of naming their precious children as Ah Kow or Ah Ngeow or Ah Gu officially. Today we have another kind of apparition. I would not call it inanity. This affects the Chinese most with the presence of different dialects and words sounding quite different though written the same. Choo Keong, Chee Kong, Zhi Qiang, though similarly written to mean to be able to stand on one’s own or independently, could mean different things when spoken in different dialects. Chee is often made fun of in a negative sense in various combinations. Then you can have Sai Chwee or Sai Tang, or Kah Chui etc etc. The individuals are often caught in a not very amusing situation. The convenient way is to give one another name for a social setting. Some would change their names officially. Many names were given today for more innocuous intent. Some may have a chip on their shoulder to want names to mean certain things, from aspiration to aloofness. Whatever the case names will evolve just like our taste for things and trends. I briefly look at the names of a few cute babies in the Sunday Times this morning and they were called Afeef Shahid, Theeksha Shivani Suhanthan, Athrin Gan, Tan Yu Qi Jaslyn and the more mundane Gerrard Lim Wen Han. The latter is a combo of Hokien and Mandarin. I think Tan Yu Qi is also of the same mix but I am not too certain as Tan can be totally different in Mandarin. We will have varieties in names as we are Uniquely Singapore. What goes to a name has a good reason or many reasons, right reason or wrong reason, or simply just a name.

Motor Insurance Taskforce Recommendations

After one year of in depth study, the Motor Insurance Taskforce has come out with a series of recommendations to arrest the runaway cost of motor insurance. I am not sure whether it will make any difference, but definitely not going to affect those who have to pay for this protection money this year. Anyway I couldn't wait, and luckily did not bother to wait, and have found my own solution. Hmmm, saving about 50% shouldn't be bad. Now I need not bother with all the shit that is going around.

Quality education doesn't come cheap

The quality of university education in Singapore has just gone up by 4% to 10%. The three state universities have just increased their fees by that amount for the Singaporean students in the next intake. If the quality goes up annually by 10% or bi annually, soon the quality will increase by 100%. I think a monkey could even become a Einstein at that rate of improvement. Singaporean students got one more thing to celebrate other than better quality education. They can feel comforted that their fees are subsidised to a tune of 50% or more compare to foreign students. I am not sure how to put it, a discount or a subsidy against market rate? One thing for sure, they are affordable. For you would not expect anyone demonstrating at the increase but grateful parents and students for the quality education that they are getting.