My Conman in Tokyo clips site is coming back up, albeit with 3 of the least funny and crappy clips excised.

So now it's unashamedly promoting the slapstick moments ;)

Or it will be when Web1000 lets me register.

Update: It's up!

Flubtitles For: Conman In Tokyo [Hk Version]


Bollywood Reviews!


A few days ago, we all got "Shoulder to Shoulder - Our National Service Journal. Bonding our people, defending our nation"

As Propaganda goes, it's very well done. I can feel them trying to brainwash me. It seems in recent years, the soft approach has been gaining credence, as they realise that going on too hard will alert people to their game. Instead of lies, they now deal in half-truths ;)

Indeed, what is written inside is quite true, but inevitably, they leave out the dark side. The dark, unknown, reviled side. Which is why they need the Official Secrets Act :)

I was most stimulated by the letter at the end, of a father to his son, composited from what many NSmen and NSFs said their fathers said to them, and what they would tell their sons. I might write a letter like this, and of course add an addenum. Among other things, advising him not to backstab his fellow soldiers, not to let NS warp him, not to pick up drinking, smoking, gambling, swearing or prostitution, not to get injured (ie don't try too hard), to Pray fervently, not to kill or maim himself, to expect to be dumped if he was attached, to enjoy the sweetness of not being shackled before enlistment and lots more besides. Oh, and conceivably most importantly - to hate the System, not the People.

Another perspective (Circa July 2002):

"it serves to create a subservient population. it's part of an overall conditioning package.

*shrugs*
it provides you with an outlet to vent your feelngs on -
which is how the system works
providing minute things for you to fixate your energies and hatreds on - specific micro issues(like COEs being too high or all the things you think of to get off days for NS)

but ultimnately it enmeshes you deeper within it - til you're a part of it
even your army bitching becomes just part and parcel of being a loyal singaporean male

no.. you don't hate the system
you simply focus on the symptoms (NS) as opposed to the disease(the entire paradigm of loyalty and subservience and social engineering that singapore is)

[Me: which distracts you from the root of the problem? brilliant.]

exactly
you spend two years focusing your energies on evading and beating the system
then once you get out, what do you do?
you become a productive, HDB-dwelling, CPF-paying, middle-income-class professional"