"My toughest fight was with my first wife." - Muhammad Ali

Random Playlist Song: Asian Prince - 25 Years

"In a fit of anger, I just started to freestyle on the mic. I was angry because I had a bad hair day, which is extremely rare. My hair wasn't being fluffy, like how it usually is. I went into my home studio, hit the record button, and started to freestyle. Afterwards, I decided to add a beat to the recording. Also, sorry for the angry tone in my voice." - Official site

In this, the first of 3 songs by Asian Prince (aka Wo-hen Nankan aka Tuan Anh) that I shall review, he does a funky rap in Vietnamese, presumably to commemorate 25 years in the music industry.

The rap starts off with a great deal of energy in his voice and a catchy beat. Simple tones are then added in - nothing too elaborate to detract from the silky quality of the artiste's voice, but interesting enough to add texture to the rap.

(I am not familiar with the terminology of modern music, and so can't say anything about the high tones and the low ones, though the latter remind me of someone plucking on a double bass)

***

Speculations on the drug policy in Singapore from Young Republic:

"Cannabis is not a dangerous drug, There are no proven health risks if used in moderation. It is not physiologically addictive. Cigarettes, which contain the highly-addictive nicotine, cause lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in men in Singapore. Yet they are freely available at your nearest petrol station. Cannabis causes brain damage when used over a long period of time in large amounts. But again it is not physiologically addictive so if you decide to use it that is fully your choice. There has been no documented case of someone dying for cannabis overdose.

Therefore, to mandate death for trafficking cannabis is grossly disproportionate and therefore immoral. And I suspect the reason for it is that the govt couldn't be bothered to think of a proper drugs policy so they just said, oh never we can kill traffickers that will do."


On racism verus preferences:

"> Even from primary school,
> it's pretty much observed that children tend to congregate in clusters
> together with their own racial group, even if they are primarily
> english speaking. It's got nothing to do with racism, or prejudice.
> More likely, it's some in-built xenophobia within human's minds, which
> reject anything which is not familiar to them. For the same reason you
> don't see many Indians congregating in Chinatown (with the exception
> of the temple there), you don't see many Chinese congregating in
> Little India.

I shall put this down to the influence of National (mis)Education but I think you should recognise that overt racism of the 'yuck get away from me your dark-skinned nigger' sort is rather different from a desire to mix with ppl of your own race. The latter may simply to do with the fact that ppl like cultural familiarity. Ppl who prefer to mix with ppl of their own race do not necessarily *exclude* ppl of other races from their company. And they certainly do not explicitly diss other races as inferior or unwholesome."

People will always have preferences; is it fair to blame them for possessing them?

Racism is best defined as irrational prejudice - a preference that has a foundation in fact is not racism. And as He Who Must Not Be Named, who has once more vanished into the night, points out, it's possible to dislike groups of people but still like individuals.

As I am wont to say, stereotypes exist because they are often true. They serve as a good guide for expectations, but when the specific product is not what you expect it to be, then you should change your views. If not then you're racist.

70 year old Caucasian grandmothers who draw Social Security pensions don't commit crimes, but 20 year old, unemployed black youths with tattoos do. Is targeting the latter unfair racial profiling? Go figure.

There is also the matter of there being a difference between possessing racist views and acting on them. About the former, it must be asked: is it a thoughtcrime to have racist views? Do we want to send elite squads in to brainwash racists until they attain enlightenment, or send them to re-education camps because we believe we hold THE TRUTH?

***

Decoded at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the world

"Scientists begin to unlock the secrets of papyrus scraps bearing long-lost words by the literary giants of Greece and Rome... in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.

... The previously unknown texts, read for the first time last week, include parts of a long-lost tragedy - the Epigonoi ("Progeny") by the 5th-century BC Greek playwright Sophocles; part of a lost novel by the 2nd-century Greek writer Lucian; unknown material by Euripides; mythological poetry by the 1st-century BC Greek poet Parthenios; work by the 7th-century BC poet Hesiod; and an epic poem by Archilochos, a 7th-century successor of Homer, describing events leading up to the Trojan War. Additional material from Hesiod, Euripides and Sophocles almost certainly await discovery."

w00t!

Mr Masters in Classics: "oh fuck. no!
there's enough to study already, and more???
some of these writers are dead boring

but there are writers that even we classicists thank the gods that their work survive in fragmentary form. prolix and bad bad bad"

***

Damn! One of my favourite comedy sites has been blocked by the Powers That Be :(

Attempts to access Chick Publications gave me this message: "The website you are trying to access has been blocked by SafeSurf."

However, routing my requests through a proxy (a list can be found at http://www.atomintersoft.com/products/alive-proxy/proxy-list/), I was successful.

HOW CAN THEY DO THIS TO US?! I love Jack Chick; it's so damn funny!

[Ed: As of 6:11pm on 20th April, Chick.com works again for me. Maybe too many fundamentalists in Singapore complained about being unable to access one of their favourite sites.]

***

Another comment sent in without a return address:

"Eh you got notice that Sensei Master's assistant in Power Rangers show on Saturday is now a presenter on Singapore tv? That american chinese guy who looks like he always just woke up from bed that one. Ah yah how come you never notice? Feature him leh can? Ask him things about Kimberly. Ask him also to demonstrate some kingfu fighting moves. Maybe he got memorabilia from the show? Terror!!!"

Cam Watanabe is played by Jason Chan. I highly doubted he had come to Singapore to be a presenter, and anyway don't watch TV, so I had to dig around.

technoJoy: A Jason Chan Fan Site says that he was born in Malaysia in 1971 and is trained as a doctor. But he doesn't look that old! In fact he has a kind of boyish charm about him - CBTH (Cute, Boyish, Tanned, Handsome).

Meanwhile IMDB informs us that he is featuring in a 2005 movie called "Stealth", and appears in a 2005 TV show with 2 episodes (totalling 90 minutes) called "House of Harmony" as a "Michael Lee". Incidentally, that show features Fann Wong, but otherwise is produced and stars foreigners.

Plot description: "A beautiful Chinese girl, Meiling, has a forbidden love affair with a young American man in Singapore. He leaves Singapore and never returns. Meiling gives birth to their Eurasian daughter whom she names Perfect Harmony. When she grows up, Perfect Harmony journeys to America to search for her father."

Trailer (hosted on the MDA website): http://www.mda.gov.sg/wms.ftp/mobjvid/hoh.wmv

More information from a Fann Wong fansite: "Shot on 16mm film, it will be broadcast on German television in the third quarter of next year. While there is no confirmed date for the show's broadcast in Singapore, there are plans for it to screen here by the end of next year." (I'll probably forget by then)

***

Some Malaysian joke I don't get:


The objective of STPM is to pass people?

How do you explain the fact that 87% of the students passed the examinations of the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) recently? When during your grandfather's time only 10% would have passed?

Are students getting smarter? Or are STPM questions getting easier?

Let me put things in their proper perspective.

During your grandfather's time, they would ask exam questions like:

In what year did Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka?

The correct answer was "1402", and they found that only 10% of the students managed to answer the question correctly. This didn't go down too well with the authorities, because the objective of the exams was to pass people.

I mean, what's the point of having exams if people fail?

So later, they found another way to ask the same question:

Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka in the year:
(a) 2001
(b) 2004
(c) 1986
(d) 1975
(e) 1402
Tick the correct answer.

The results were better in that 20% of the students passed. But it was still not good enough, so the authorities tried a different tact a few years later.

Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka in the year1402. True or false?

Well, half of the students guessed "True" and the other half guessed "False". Fully 50% passed. The results were getting pretty acceptable by now.

Most other countries would be satisfied with a 50% passing rate, but not us. We are a better country, because we are a boleh country.The authorities then cracked their heads and then came out with this one:

Read the following sentence carefully.
"Parameswara, the cousin of Proton-Iswara, founded the kingdom of Melaka in the year 1402."
Underline the name of the person who founded Melaka.

60% underlined "Parameswara", 30% underlined "Proton-Iswara" and 10% underlined "1402". Hooiyoh......60% managed to pass! So krever!

But for some reason, the authorities were still not contented.
So last year, they came out with this gem:

One day in the year 1402, Parameswara founded the kingdom of Melaka. Then he went home to have dinner. What did he eat?

13% handed in blank answers, 57% wrote "Maggi Mee", and 10% wrote "Kentucky Fried Chicken", and 20% wrote "Tree bark". The official answer was "Food" of course! After the marking was over, it was found that 87% of the students had passed. 87%............now that's pretty impressive!

So it's true. The students are indeed getting smarter.

***

SPASTIC - "the Society for the Preservation and Acknowledgement of Subjunctive Tense In Communication"
They must be making fun of mentally disabled people! Arr. Time to send in complaint letters.

My customised SAF Singlet has surfaced on the HardwareZone forums under the thread "SAF new Tshirt ..". Ho ho.