"It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it." - Henry Allen
***
A few weeks ago, I was at a seminar on Malayness organised by the Asia Research Institute (ARI) (available as a podcast).
One of the speakers, A/P Syed Farid Alatas (from NUS's Department of Malay Studies), was lamenting that Muslims in Singapore don't take a critical approach to their holy texts and history. This is not just an academic way of how the community thinks of itself and others, but has serious implications.
Muslims in Singapore accept the dominant interpretation, but there is no critical discussion of problematic aspects of their faith. They accept as true Hadith and Sunna which go against common sense and logic; one story has the Prophet massacring 600-900 Jews when only <300 people were killed over 2 decades of his life, and is resulting in growing anti-Semitism in Singapore.
Another dubious story goes that in one night the Prophet visited and had sex with all his wives in a few hours, since Allah gave him the strength of 17 or 30 men. This despite the fact that it is unlikely that friend, Companion or wife of the Prophet would repeat this story, and the Koran saying the Prophet was an ordinary man blessed with revelation but not a superman.
The Muslim community in Singapore doesn't discuss these things, even behind closed doors, and this leads to problems in contemporary society.
These problems can be seen in Indonesia also, but at least there there is debate and discussion. In Singapore and Malaysia these issues are not discussed; they're swept under the rug and not seen as problems.
A/P Alatas concluded that this imbalance of law, spirituality and an uncritical approach to religion, then are problems that define the Malay community.
During the Question and Answer session, one person said that he/she was more worried about extremism in Malaysia/Singapore than Indonesia because there is no debate in the former countries. In Indonesia there is a sophisticated debate going on, and even Malaysia has more debate than Singapore, though it's not sophisticated.
I think it is uncontroversial to note that the public paranoia about religious discussion in Malaysia (and even more so in Singapore) is why we see these problems, and the lack of discussion means no one knows what Muslims here are thinking. The very laws and public paranoia meant to protect certain religious communities actually ends up harming and impoverishing them. Even if one were to avoid the traditional free speech angle, this is a compelling realpolitik argument for, even if not giving religious discussion the same restrictions that other forms of speech have (ie less than at present), then at least clearer signposting about governmentally-declared "acceptable" forms and modes of religious discussion and debate.
When you can't live without bananas
Saturday, October 06, 2007
"All power corrupts, but we need the electricity." - Unknown
***
Jap in Arts stole their First Aid Box from BTC.
"Beautiful dresses". How modest. Bah.
People lose so many things at the Business library that they have categories in the Lost and Found board.
The trend to install CCTVs is seeing them going up all around Block ADM. Maybe they want to stop people coming back at 4am to make out.
"Join us in celebrating the break of fast this Ramadan"
They look so eager to eat. I'm quite sure this impatience goes against the spirit of fasting.
"Photo session for 1st class honours students only"
Tsk, so elitist!
Cute NUS golf ad. But why are we becoming like SMU?
George W 'Dubaya' Bush asked this guy if he was Iraqi
Me with the Kamikaze headband I got at Narita and wore to my midterm. For some reason many people thought it was a "Bi Sheng" one.
Claire asked me to do a Sadako.
I bet SDU paid for this.
Satanic Tree consuming a ritual sacrifice (Care Bear)
Tupperware makes mooncakes too. Gee.
Meiyi's Threadless spree order sheet.
The area circled in pink is the orders that came from me. That is to say, I was responsible for more than half of the orders. Yet, only 3 of those are mine. I was buwwied for the rest :(
"The 7th MC's vision is... *blah blah*. eloquent, yet sufficiently vague. Always a good thing in a 'vision'"
Whoever wrote that is a person after my own heart!
"Please clear all food packages, drink cups when you leave the room" (SR 5)
They seem to have given up on banning food and beverage consumption.
Horribly mixed iScream Yogurt. How many layers can you spot?
The most novel way of sunning keropok I've seen - in a parked car.
"Swipe. Pinch. Break in. Jail. Snatch. Nab."
Ridiculous file-sharing hysteria. They might as well add "Kill. Rape. Treason. Sedition."
"MediaCorp. No choice."
Sweet Ring. Maker of Bad Donuts since 1967.
Starhub contest form. This must be the first Singaporean form I've seen that lets you put "Prefer not to say" as an option under "Race".
***
Jap in Arts stole their First Aid Box from BTC.
"Beautiful dresses". How modest. Bah.
People lose so many things at the Business library that they have categories in the Lost and Found board.
The trend to install CCTVs is seeing them going up all around Block ADM. Maybe they want to stop people coming back at 4am to make out.
"Join us in celebrating the break of fast this Ramadan"
They look so eager to eat. I'm quite sure this impatience goes against the spirit of fasting.
"Photo session for 1st class honours students only"
Tsk, so elitist!
Cute NUS golf ad. But why are we becoming like SMU?
George W 'Dubaya' Bush asked this guy if he was Iraqi
Me with the Kamikaze headband I got at Narita and wore to my midterm. For some reason many people thought it was a "Bi Sheng" one.
Claire asked me to do a Sadako.
I bet SDU paid for this.
Satanic Tree consuming a ritual sacrifice (Care Bear)
Tupperware makes mooncakes too. Gee.
Meiyi's Threadless spree order sheet.
The area circled in pink is the orders that came from me. That is to say, I was responsible for more than half of the orders. Yet, only 3 of those are mine. I was buwwied for the rest :(
"The 7th MC's vision is... *blah blah*. eloquent, yet sufficiently vague. Always a good thing in a 'vision'"
Whoever wrote that is a person after my own heart!
"Please clear all food packages, drink cups when you leave the room" (SR 5)
They seem to have given up on banning food and beverage consumption.
Horribly mixed iScream Yogurt. How many layers can you spot?
The most novel way of sunning keropok I've seen - in a parked car.
"Swipe. Pinch. Break in. Jail. Snatch. Nab."
Ridiculous file-sharing hysteria. They might as well add "Kill. Rape. Treason. Sedition."
"MediaCorp. No choice."
Sweet Ring. Maker of Bad Donuts since 1967.
Starhub contest form. This must be the first Singaporean form I've seen that lets you put "Prefer not to say" as an option under "Race".
Post ID: 5615657693754656518
"The best doctor in the world is the veterinarian. He can't ask his patients what is the matter-he's got to just know." - Will Rogers
***
"facebook
Someone you barely know was farted on by someone else’s Mistress Vampire!
Some Twatty Vampire was attacked by another cunting Vampire and they seriously ‘put some hurt on someone else. like you care, They won an additional 5 Vampire points
Because they have nothing better to do with their time. Seriously.
Your Mother is taking a big steaming dump.
Updated: Someone you hate and Someone you’ve never met added the PissUpThe Wall application.
Updated: Everyone joined the group We were better off at MySpace.
1 tranny trivia invitation"
(Courtesy of MFM)
***
Someone you barely know was farted on by someone else’s Mistress Vampire!
Some Twatty Vampire was attacked by another cunting Vampire and they seriously ‘put some hurt on someone else. like you care, They won an additional 5 Vampire points
Because they have nothing better to do with their time. Seriously.
Your Mother is taking a big steaming dump.
Updated: Someone you hate and Someone you’ve never met added the PissUpThe Wall application.
Updated: Everyone joined the group We were better off at MySpace.
1 tranny trivia invitation"
(Courtesy of MFM)
Post ID: 8569351913610663132
Cambodia Trip
Day 4 (26/9) - Phnom Penh (Part 2)
Cambodian power sockets are very friendly. The 2 pin ones are all like shaver power sockets - they can accommodate any 2 pin plugs.
Probably the sole administrative hiccup of the trip came when no one met us at the jetty, so we all took Cambodian pseudo-tuktuks. Unlike in Thailand where they come in one piece, Cambodian tuktuks consist of a motorcycle with a cabin attached.
Joyce in pseudo-tuktuk
Some people got a car. Cunning Linguist is on the right.
Meishi Hurhur playing with the cute dog at the hotel
Erectile dysfunction pamphlet for old Ang Moh men and their Cambodian 'girlfriends'
"Butcher. 'Meets everybody's needs' *picture of sunbathers*"
Gah.
"U & Me Massage & Spa"
For lunch we went to this place that took really long to give us our food.
They had 2 types of vegetable soup: "Mixed vegetable soup, no meat, For vegetarian" and "Truly Vegetarian". Maybe the first used meat stock and so wasn't "Truly Vegetarian".
They also had an "All shake" on the menu, which Gabriel F had.
Gabriel F having the "All shake" - a special order from the kitchen
While waiting interminably long for our food to come, we amused ourselves looking at a tourist pamphlet.
"Bopha Bar. I'm looking for a husband... Friendly, pretty hostesses"
They zoomed in on her cleavage.
They were very inefficient. We'd ordered Tom Yum lobster but they told us they didn't have it - after an hour. Perhaps this inefficiency was part of Cambodian culture and we shouldn't have complained.
Cunning Linguist: "He's staring at her boobs"
I'd been considering visiting the National Museum so I could enjoy it at leisure, but lunch had taken too long (over 2 hours and we still had to cancel one dish) so I wouldn't have been able to do much anyway, so I went to one Market with some of the rest (from the descriptions and my memory, I think it was the Psah Chas - old market).
Even in the developed area beside the river in Phnom Penh, the largest city in the country, there were naked kids running around.
Moving through the market
The central part of the market was housed in a cavernous hall that reminded me of a railway station. A lot of watch vendors were in there, for some reason.
At 5+, the power in the building suddenly went off. At first I thought it was a brownout, but it turns out to have been a signal that it was closing.
Zhnged car
We then moved on to a shopping centre behind the market.
"Vedan. Made from real meat"
This did not inspire confidence in the quality of food there.
The damn shopping centre banned photography. This stupid disease has spread far and wide. It must be to prevent the Copyright Police from cracking down on them.
There was a Swensen's in there. Luckily it didn't have the Sign of the Evil Eye.
One reason why the shopping centre banned photography. If you don't get it, look at the left of the picture, then at the right.
"That's damn cute. You get the best of both worlds"
Unsurprisingly, I saw Malaysian mannikins in the shopping centre.
One shop sold an analog watch with Hun Sen's bust, in military uniform, on it. Uhh.
Intriguing punishment for shoplifters in the spirit of the CWO.
They were offering WiMAX in Cambodia!
Seen: a schoolbag reading "The Princess and the Pauper", with Disney's Snow White, Cinderella and a girl in read (whom I was told was the Swan Princess) on it. At first I thought this was a pirate's mistake, but I've since found out that there is a Barbie video called that. Nonetheless it has nothing to do with the Disney Princesses!
I didn't see any Heely's or Crocs in the shopping centre.
I saw a girl in a red shirt whose sleeves read "Rag and Flag 2006". The back said "Engin". We were trying to see what the text above her breast said, but her hair kept covering it.
I saw an ad for a Cambodian bank account offering a 9.6% interest rate. Damn, I know where to park my money now!
Playing with the cute doggie
Cute doggie
For dinner we went to FCC (Foreign Correspondents' Club). Like many Cambodian joints, they saved on electricity by not air-conditioning the place, and doubtless would call it atmosphere if asked. I was still full from the late lunch, so I shared something with Rebecca.
As you can see, when we arrived we were practically the only non-Ang Mohs there. A few more came in later.
Enwei and his Roma Calzone
Amusing FCC picture - Peace sign on a rifle
Taboo restaurant - I'm not sure what the taboo was.
After dinner, despite initial reluctance, I got peer pressured into paying a strange woman to grope me for pleasure. 3 people went up to the private room to have their whole bodies groped (actually, just their backs and the back of their legs, since 2/3 of them were sunburnt) but I stayed downstairs with the rest.
![]()
Happy endings
"10 hands massage". Someone suggested getting 4 friends along for a 10 hand massage.
Interestingly, they practised Just In Time manufacturing - they had to cart in 1 girl on a pseudo-tuktuk to service me.
Unfortunately they only did the feet and calves, when it was my thighs that needed it most.
Complementary back massages. The neck massage was the only bit I found painful.
There was a place offering a $2 manicure and a $1 pedicure.
Internet cafe - "No Porn Site Please". Yeah, who needs porn when you can go to a bar and get a Cambodian "girlfriend"?
The cafe was quite scummy. Internet use was 2000 rials per hour, but using your own laptop would cost 3000. Gah.
Quotes:
[Me on sunglasses: I can see myself in your sunglasses] [Female student:] Good. Can you see where my eyes are looking? [Me: No. You want to check out guys without them knowing right?... [Female student 2: I don't need sunglasses. I just stare at them.] [Me: That's okay. When a girl stares at a guy, she's curious. When a guy stares at a girl,] [Me and Female student 2: He's a pervert.]
[Female student on my drink:] Papaya milk makes your boobs bigger. Let me try. [Me: You need it, you need it.] Yah, I need it.
[On teaching] I like scolding them.
What does 'congenital' mean?... We were looking at it. There's a 'genital' there so it has something to do with the genitals... Whenever I see a strange word I will look out for the root word.
Day 4 (26/9) - Phnom Penh (Part 2)
Cambodian power sockets are very friendly. The 2 pin ones are all like shaver power sockets - they can accommodate any 2 pin plugs.
Probably the sole administrative hiccup of the trip came when no one met us at the jetty, so we all took Cambodian pseudo-tuktuks. Unlike in Thailand where they come in one piece, Cambodian tuktuks consist of a motorcycle with a cabin attached.
Joyce in pseudo-tuktuk
Some people got a car. Cunning Linguist is on the right.
Meishi Hurhur playing with the cute dog at the hotel
Erectile dysfunction pamphlet for old Ang Moh men and their Cambodian 'girlfriends'
"Butcher. 'Meets everybody's needs' *picture of sunbathers*"
Gah.
"U & Me Massage & Spa"
For lunch we went to this place that took really long to give us our food.
They had 2 types of vegetable soup: "Mixed vegetable soup, no meat, For vegetarian" and "Truly Vegetarian". Maybe the first used meat stock and so wasn't "Truly Vegetarian".
They also had an "All shake" on the menu, which Gabriel F had.
Gabriel F having the "All shake" - a special order from the kitchen
While waiting interminably long for our food to come, we amused ourselves looking at a tourist pamphlet.
"Bopha Bar. I'm looking for a husband... Friendly, pretty hostesses"
They zoomed in on her cleavage.
They were very inefficient. We'd ordered Tom Yum lobster but they told us they didn't have it - after an hour. Perhaps this inefficiency was part of Cambodian culture and we shouldn't have complained.
Cunning Linguist: "He's staring at her boobs"
I'd been considering visiting the National Museum so I could enjoy it at leisure, but lunch had taken too long (over 2 hours and we still had to cancel one dish) so I wouldn't have been able to do much anyway, so I went to one Market with some of the rest (from the descriptions and my memory, I think it was the Psah Chas - old market).
Even in the developed area beside the river in Phnom Penh, the largest city in the country, there were naked kids running around.
Moving through the market
The central part of the market was housed in a cavernous hall that reminded me of a railway station. A lot of watch vendors were in there, for some reason.
At 5+, the power in the building suddenly went off. At first I thought it was a brownout, but it turns out to have been a signal that it was closing.
Zhnged car
We then moved on to a shopping centre behind the market.
"Vedan. Made from real meat"
This did not inspire confidence in the quality of food there.
The damn shopping centre banned photography. This stupid disease has spread far and wide. It must be to prevent the Copyright Police from cracking down on them.
There was a Swensen's in there. Luckily it didn't have the Sign of the Evil Eye.
One reason why the shopping centre banned photography. If you don't get it, look at the left of the picture, then at the right.
"That's damn cute. You get the best of both worlds"
Unsurprisingly, I saw Malaysian mannikins in the shopping centre.
One shop sold an analog watch with Hun Sen's bust, in military uniform, on it. Uhh.
Intriguing punishment for shoplifters in the spirit of the CWO.
They were offering WiMAX in Cambodia!
Seen: a schoolbag reading "The Princess and the Pauper", with Disney's Snow White, Cinderella and a girl in read (whom I was told was the Swan Princess) on it. At first I thought this was a pirate's mistake, but I've since found out that there is a Barbie video called that. Nonetheless it has nothing to do with the Disney Princesses!
I didn't see any Heely's or Crocs in the shopping centre.
I saw a girl in a red shirt whose sleeves read "Rag and Flag 2006". The back said "Engin". We were trying to see what the text above her breast said, but her hair kept covering it.
I saw an ad for a Cambodian bank account offering a 9.6% interest rate. Damn, I know where to park my money now!
Playing with the cute doggie
Cute doggie
For dinner we went to FCC (Foreign Correspondents' Club). Like many Cambodian joints, they saved on electricity by not air-conditioning the place, and doubtless would call it atmosphere if asked. I was still full from the late lunch, so I shared something with Rebecca.
As you can see, when we arrived we were practically the only non-Ang Mohs there. A few more came in later.
Enwei and his Roma Calzone
Amusing FCC picture - Peace sign on a rifle
Taboo restaurant - I'm not sure what the taboo was.
After dinner, despite initial reluctance, I got peer pressured into paying a strange woman to grope me for pleasure. 3 people went up to the private room to have their whole bodies groped (actually, just their backs and the back of their legs, since 2/3 of them were sunburnt) but I stayed downstairs with the rest.
Happy endings
"10 hands massage". Someone suggested getting 4 friends along for a 10 hand massage.
Interestingly, they practised Just In Time manufacturing - they had to cart in 1 girl on a pseudo-tuktuk to service me.
Unfortunately they only did the feet and calves, when it was my thighs that needed it most.
Complementary back massages. The neck massage was the only bit I found painful.
There was a place offering a $2 manicure and a $1 pedicure.
Internet cafe - "No Porn Site Please". Yeah, who needs porn when you can go to a bar and get a Cambodian "girlfriend"?
The cafe was quite scummy. Internet use was 2000 rials per hour, but using your own laptop would cost 3000. Gah.
Quotes:
[Me on sunglasses: I can see myself in your sunglasses] [Female student:] Good. Can you see where my eyes are looking? [Me: No. You want to check out guys without them knowing right?... [Female student 2: I don't need sunglasses. I just stare at them.] [Me: That's okay. When a girl stares at a guy, she's curious. When a guy stares at a girl,] [Me and Female student 2: He's a pervert.]
[Female student on my drink:] Papaya milk makes your boobs bigger. Let me try. [Me: You need it, you need it.] Yah, I need it.
[On teaching] I like scolding them.
What does 'congenital' mean?... We were looking at it. There's a 'genital' there so it has something to do with the genitals... Whenever I see a strange word I will look out for the root word.
Post ID: 8033871862665602692
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