"Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not? But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision." - Penn Jillette

***

Stuff from Sprinter (Singapore Press Releases on the Internet):


SPEECH BY PRIME MINISTER MR GOH CHOK TONG AT THE SWEARING-IN OF THE FIFTH PRESIDENT AT THE ISTANA ON WEDNESDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 1993 AT 8.00 PM

"Mr. President, I steered through Parliament the constitutional amendments which gave life to the concept of Elected President. I am convinced that for Singapore to sustain its growth and well-being, it needs not just good and honest people in the government but also an institutional system of checks and balances. Trusting the electoral system always to throw up the right people for government is naive, for honest men may not always win popular elections...

I said that I was putting my money where my mouth was because I was subjecting my Government to the new checks and balances. We were prepared to have our powers audited by a President and a Council of Presidential Advisors for the good of Singapore. I added that, in doing so, my Government would in fact be clipping its own wings.

I believe it is right to restrict some of the powers of the Executive in the long term interests of Singapore...

I do not intend to bring about a situation which will give you cause to exercise your veto powers. I have no doubt, however, Mr. President, that if you are ever in disagreement with what my Government proposes to do in the areas spelt out in the Constitution, you will not hesitate to exercise your constitutional authority. Indeed that is your duty, as the people have elected you to safeguard their interests.

Mr. President, you and my Government will have to work together to give effect to the letter and spirit of this new system of checks and balances. I pledge to you my fullest support and co-operation and that of my Government."

[Ed: This speech was given at the swearing in of the late Ong Teng Cheong.]


PRIME MINISTER'S NATIONAL DAY RALLY 21 AUGUST 1994, 8.00 PM, KALLANG THEATRE

"Recently Straits Times carried an advertisement showing a boy saying: “Come on, Dad. If you can play golf five times a week, I can have Sustagen once a day.” I found the language, the way the boy speaks most objectionable. Why put an American boy’s way of speaking to a father into a Singaporean boy’s mouth? Do your children really speak to you like that these days? These advertisements will encourage children to be insolent to their parents. Many American children call their fathers by their first names, and treat them with casual familiarity. We must not unthinkingly drift into attitudes and manners which undermine the traditional politeness and deference Asian children have for their parents and elders. It will destroy the way our children have grown up, respectful and polite to their elders...

Michael Fay, back in America, got drunk and when his father protested, he tackled the father and wrestled him to the ground. I cannot imagine a Chinese son, or any other Asian son, physically tackling his father. But that may happen when sons call their fathers by their first names and treat them as equals. Familiarity can breed contempt.

In Confucian society, a child who goes wrong knows he has brought shame upon the whole family. In America, he may win instant stardom, like Tonya Harding the ice-skater who tried to fix [Ed: Emphasis mine] her rival. The difference is stark between what traditional Asians demand of their children and what many Americans now allow theirs to become...

Singapore is still a conservative society. Few children are born out of wedlock – 1 in 100, compared with 1 in 3 in US. I was dismayed that Sumiko Tan, a Straits Times journalist whom I know to be a serious-minded young lady, could publicly reveal that she had once entertained the thought of having a child out of wedlock. Japan, despite its wealth is still conservative, with only 1 child out of 100 born out of wedlock. Japanese women feel ashamed to have illegitimate children, and quite rightly so."