Links - 21st May 2018 (3)

Commentary: Not Singaporean enough? Are we expecting too much from Crazy Rich Asians? - "I’m not sure why I would expect a Hollywood rom-com to be able to represent Singapore, much less care about doing it faithfully. Am I crazy and rich? (Answer: Bitter laugh.) It does not mean the movie is about me just because it is set in Singapore. The title itself already signals that this is not a film concerned with verisimilitude. It is an over-the-top freak show spectacle, as viewed by an outsider who is passing a value judgment. Hollywood is making a film for Hollywood, not for Singapore... “Are we allowed to cast a half Chinese, half some other ethnicity person in a Chinese role? Are we allowed to cast a Korean as a Chinese person?” he said. “Because with other ethnicities, we have British people playing US soldiers or Spiderman which is an all-American thing…”... Needless to say, this film, and the hype about “representation” surrounding it, says much more about Hollywood than it does about Singapore. So, when I read the comments and tweets by people who had felt let down by the trailer, I was heartened by what these clearly indicated: That Singaporeans were mature and discerning enough to be hungry for stories about Singapore told by the people who know Singapore best: Singaporeans. Er, but, hang on a minute. Don’t we have those? I mean, there are cop thrillers on Vasantham. There are heartland family dramas on Channel 8 and Suria. There are soap operas on Channel 5. Some wonderful films have been done by directors such as Royston Tan and K Rajagopal. There’s a Singapore-made web series, Perfect Girl, which was picked up by Netflix, Viki and Naver TVcast. And there are Singaporean actors who have given a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice... And then I read some of the comments from Facebook users about the Star Awards 2018... Until someone ’splains it to me, there’s only one thing I know with any measure of certainty: The good folks at the tourism board have already hit their KPIs for the year to come. Because when it comes to marketing, things don’t have to be representative in order to sell."
The same people who say you can't keep SJWs honest on their Facebook pages because it's their turf demand the media follow their whims and fancies

Friend Of Singaporean Elite Explains How 'Crazy Rich Asians' Isn't As Far-Fetched As It Seems - "My friends at school ate $30 lunches daily at nice restaurants, age 13; vacationed in private islands with royalty, age 15. I was an outsider in this world."

Is this really Singapore? Crazy Rich Asians trailer stirs debate - "“It represents the worst of Singapore. Erases minorities. Erases the poor and marginalized. All you get are rich, privileged ethnic Chinese.” Some might argue that’s perhaps the point of the movie, and Kwan’s books. Forty-two of the 50 richest in Singapore are of Chinese ethnicity, according to Forbes... The Singaporean love interest, played by Golding, speaks with an posh British accent – not unusual for rich Singaporeans educated overseas... @JeffYang: "But “diverse representation” doesn’t mean including everything in every story—it means uplifting a range of stories from places that are broadly invisible. #FreshOffTheBoat wasn’t the last word of Asians on TV, but one of the first. #CrazyRichAsians will be the same for film.""
Anything less than perfection is unacceptable. This is why we can't have nice things, and why "progress" is so hard

A&W confirms return to Singapore next year due to popular demand - "With a Singapore leadership team already in place, A&W CEO Kevin Bazner explained in a media press release on Friday (Jul 7) that their comeback was largely due to "the daily requests via social media and other channels to bring the brand back to the Singapore market". While customers can expect the signature favorites like coney dogs, curly fries and root beer floats, Mr Bazner said that the Singapore flagship store will have exciting menu innovations which will cater to local tastes
Yet in North America they don't have curly fries

American fast-food chain A&W to return to Singapore next year: CEO Kevin Bazner confirms - "As of [June 2017], A&W Restaurants had nearly 1,000 restaurants globally, with outlets in the United States, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Italy, Japan (mostly in Okinawa), Malaysia, Qatar and Thailand. About 30 per cent of all its restaurants are in South-east Asia."

The Real Reason Why A&W Is Making A Comeback In Singapore Lies In A Much Grander Plan - "This year will be the first time in 11 years that A&W will be opening more stores than it is closing, while also taking in a revenue increase for the first time in a decade... Let’s just hope they don’t pack up and leave for the second time like a certain Wendy’s."

Here's Why A&W Tastes Better in Canada Than It Does in the US - "Back home, the Teen Burger is a revelation. Flavorful and juicy with a hint of peppercorn, it’s far superior to anything offered at any other chain, even looking a little like the picture. And whereas the U.S. onion rings feel like oily, spongy handcuffs, their Canadian brethren are crisp life preservers."
Somehow the Teen burger (normal range) at A&W Canada was better than the Montreal Spice Burger at McDonald's (signature range)

Hungary plans 'Stop Soros' laws amid refugee row - "Hungary published details Thursday of tough anti-immigration laws named after "public enemy" George Soros... Hungarian-born US billionaire Soros has been called "a public enemy" by Prime Minister Viktor Orban who accuses the 87-year-old of orchestrating migration into Europe since the refugee crisis began in 2015... The proposed measures include entry bans on foreigners and restraining orders stopping Hungarians approaching the border areas if they are deemed to be "supporting" or "organising" illegal immigration, according to the draft legislation published on the government website. A 25-percent tax will also be levied on foreign funding received by organisations that support illegal immigration to help pay for border defence... Although Soros is not mentioned by name in the bills, Kovacs accused the financier and philanthropist of destabilising Europe's future by "wanting as many migrants as possible" to arrive"

The Cabinet Official Who Has Kept Silent On Whether Trump Said 'S***hole' Now Sets the Record Straight - "Have you noticed that the media has spent more time on President Donald Trump’s alleged comments on Haiti and African countries than it actually spent on the Clinton Foundations’s actions that left Haiti in a bad way? More time then on a truly historical event like the protests in Iran, a fight for freedom that everyone should encourage? This despite the fact that Trump himself has denied he made the comments as reported and despite the fact that Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue have said definitively they were not made... “I take a little bit of offense to the comments and suggestions that the president is racist. What he’s looking at is the exact merit-based system we have in Australia and Canada, and I am sure that we are not any of us suggesting that Canada and Australia and their leaders are racist.”"

Face, Meet Palm: Trump Accusers Astonished to Find Out What POTUS Quietly Did for Haiti - "Paul disputed calling Trump a racist. He said he knew personally about Trump’s care for Haiti and for Central America because before Trump was running for president, he was a “large financial contributor” to those medical mission trips that helped Paul, an ophthalmologist, to perform 200 cataract surgeries in Central America and 200 in Haiti to help get their vision back."

Briar MacLean reprimanded for stopping a knife-wielding bully at school - "Ms. O’Donnell was politely informed the school did not “condone heroics,” she said. Instead, Briar should have found a teacher to handle the situation. “I asked: ‘In the time it would have taken him to go get a teacher, could that kid’s throat have been slit?’ She said yes, but that’s beside the point. That we ‘don’t condone heroics in this school.’ ”... What are we going to do if there are no heroes in the world? Running away, tattling usually just make things worse. Students need to learn how to handle bullies on their own and how to help each other. “What are they teaching them? That when you go out into the workforce and someone is not being very nice to you, you have to tattle to your boss? You’re not going to get promoted that way,” she said."

‘Eco-colonialism’: Rift grows between Indigenous leaders and green activists - "they’ve had enough of activists invading their lands, misleading them about their agendas, recruiting token members to front their causes, sowing mistrust and conflict, and using hard-line tactics against those who don’t agree... He wanted better benefits; the activists wanted the project to fail... “And the very presence of these arguments will overturn the expectations of many who think they have liberal views, but actually have ongoing paternalistic views that assume First Nations always need protection from development.”"

Opinion | Why Concerns About Net Neutrality Are Overblown - The New York Times - "These incidents are troubling for anyone who wants on open, neutral internet. But keep two things in mind. First, these are rare examples, for a reason: The public blowback was fierce, scaring other providers from following suit. Second, blocking competitors to protect your own services is anticompetitive conduct that might well be stopped by antitrust laws without any need for network neutrality regulations... The internet did not start out as a neutral invention. Instead, neutrality was an organic outcome of a competitive market. In the early days of the commercial internet, AOL and @Home had “walled gardens” of content that users could get to more easily, but over time service providers stopped favoring sites and just gave customers fast, neutral internet connections. No government policy created that outcome."

People want the Spanish word for black changed because they think it’s racist - "There’s currently a debate raging as to whether a teenager should be allowed to call her dog Negro. Actually, some people are so annoyed Twitter user @rebeca_macias18 named her missing hound the Spanish word for black they have suggested it should be changed. But the anger towards her seemed a bit unfair as she’s from Mexico, so speaks Spanish, and was not trying to offend anyone."

Oxford University is giving students extra time to finish exams because women are 'adversely affected by time pressure' - "The University of Oxford has added extra time to maths and computer science exams because female students aren’t performing as well as their male counterparts. Students sitting maths and computer science exams last summer were given an extra 15 minutes to complete their papers because “female candidates might be more likely to be adversely affected by time pressure”"

‘If you’re unable to react, it's ok’: How to handle public harassment - "In her post, which included videos and has since been made private, Ms Tan detailed how, for 15 minutes, a man on the train stared at her incessantly and moved seats twice to get closer to her. She also said he had his phone camera directed at her. Ms Tan made a police report after. "Very often harassment is wrongly perceived only as non-consensual physical touching, like in cases of molestation," said Ms Anisha Joseph, manager of the Sexual Assault Care Centre at AWARE. "This could be an example of visual harassment that falls under the Protection from Harassment Act.""
Gaze rape! Now men can't even look at women without being criminalised
Curiously the Protection from Harassment Act only covers "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour" or "threatening, abusive or insulting communication", but they can always hit men under offending the modesty of a woman

Asia Minute: Singapore’s Unusual Medical Marijuana Research

Underage? So what? - "Jane added that she is proud she does not have to ask her parents for money. Her parents, who are in their 40s, work as cleaners and live in a three-room flat. In Jane's mind, it is no big deal putting her body up for sale because she needs the cash for parties. She said she spends about $200 each time she parties... Because she is still underage, she avoids going to budget hotels for sex. Instead, she would ask the men to go to her flat and they would do it at a staircase landing at a nearby block, as she said the place was usually quiet. She said she does this as she does not want to spend money on transport, adding almost nonchalantly: "It's just sex... The New Paper encountered a total of 10 girls offering sex in exchange for cash in the same chatroom. And half of them claimed to be 17 years old... the girl, who claimed to be from a secondary school in the eastern part of Singapore, said she offered sex "in school uniform" in exchange for $200... "No one is forcing me to do this. I just need the cash. If the men get caught, they should really know better.""

Why Guys Get Turned on When You Orgasm — and Why That's a Bad Thing - "It's not enough that men are already having more orgasms than women. To make matters worse, a new study published in the Journal of Sex Research found — aside from deriving pleasure from their own orgasms, obviously — men also derive a specific sort of masculine pleasure from making female partners orgasm. The researchers in the study, Sara Chadwick and Sari van Anders, refer to this incredibly predictable phenomenon as a "masculinity achievement.""
Presumably women never feel happy when their men are happy

Is the United States one of seven countries that ‘allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy?’ - The Washington Post - "The group analyzed abortion laws in 198 countries and other independent or “semiautonomous” regions with more than 1 million residents. There are 59 countries that allow abortion “without restriction as to reason,” or “elective,” or “abortion on demand.” These are countries where the letter of the federal law does not impose specific eligibility requirements for women. The other 139 countries “require some reason to obtain an abortion, ranging from most restrictive (to save the life of the mother or completely prohibited) to least restrictive (socioeconomic grounds) with various reasons in between (e.g., physical health, mental health),” the report says. Only seven of the 59 countries allow elective abortions after 20 weeks, the group found: Canada, China, Netherlands, North Korea, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam... most developed countries allow elective abortions, but have a gestational limits (generally up to 12 weeks)... research from both sides of the reproductive rights debate confirm this figure"

Not Everyone's Internal Clock Is Set for the 9-to-5 - "humans didn't always work 9-to-5 or sleep eight recommended hours at night. Anthropologist Carol Worthman describes the sleep patterns of hunter-gather societies as having huge variations across different tribes and cultures. While for some tribes, sleeping at the same time was a social activity, other tribes slept whenever they could or felt like it. A good deal of research suggests humans aren’t made to sleep eight-hour stretches. The 9-to-5 workday started as a movement in the 1830s... people who work flexible hours are more productive and more likely to stay with their company because they are happier and healthier"

Dare we make a case for colonialism? - "I was able to find documents that attested to the positive impact of colonialism in Nigeria. There were many injurious cultural practices like the killing of twins, albinos, human sacrifices, and female circumcision that colonialism helped to eradicate. It was on record that colonialism brought education, and men and women were given equal access to education"

Barack Obama tells Africa to stop blaming colonialism for problems - ""Ultimately, I'm a big believer that Africans are responsible for Africa. "I think part of what's hampered advancement in Africa is that for many years we've made excuses about corruption or poor governance, that this was somehow the consequence of neo-colonialism, or the West has been oppressive, or racism – I'm not a big – I'm not a believer in excuses... "The West and the United States has not been responsible for what's happened to Zimbabwe's economy over the last 15 or 20 years. "It hasn't been responsible for some of the disastrous policies that we've seen elsewhere in Africa. And I think that it's very important for African leadership to take responsibility and be held accountable.""

Skepticlawyer » The founding falsities of postcolonialism - "'whenever when I see the word ‘post’ before anything then that raises a flag that it’s bullshit. So post = bullshit; postmodernism, postcolonialism, post-structuralism'... Plenty of Europeans were the victims of imperialism by European states (the Irish, Highland Scots, Welsh, Bretons, Basques, Catalans, Corsicans, Slovenes, Slovaks, Czechs, Croats, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Ukrainians …). Hardly surprising, as imperialism is what states do, not races... race is a counter-productive rhetoric for imperialism to adopt, as it seriously impedes incorporating the conquered into the imperial project. Racial conceptions of imperialism–compared to, say, religious or cultural ones–generate a much sharper contrast between conquerors and conquered while obscuring the nature of imperial conquest, turning it from a state action into a race action... There is considerable scholarly evidence that pre-colonial patterns and institutions have continuing effects on contemporary human societies... there is an obvious importance gain for postcolonial studies to talk up the effect of colonialism on previously subject peoples. Which leads to what we might call the Wiped Slate Effect: treating colonialism as if it was by far the dominant moulding experience of colonial societies and that experience as unrelievedly negative. Clearly not true–Afghanistan (until the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979-1989), Iran (apart from the brief Anglo-Soviet occupation 1941-6) and Thailand were never subject to European territorial occupation, yet are hardly profoundly different from their neighbours, who were subject to such occupation."