laremy.sg

“Precisely because we have been mollycoddled for so long, the catching up has to be faster-paced. In short: be bold.” – Yawning Bread rocks.

‘Many Singaporeans will be caught out. They can’t afford to buy, they can’t afford to rent. They will park themselves with their parents or in-laws, and defer marriage and/or childbirth.

A few years later, PM Lee will stare at his charts and numbers, and lament once again about how come Singaporeans are getting married later and later, and why are the birth rates falling lower and lower again.

Then in his great wisdom, he will conclude, “Oh we need to import more foreigners.”‘

“Then I imagined. I imagined if Sunshine’s boyfriend or ex-boyfriend was at the drowning. To all of a sudden notice the absence of your loved one and then suspect he is drowning, to frantically look around but not finding, to know that he is drowning yet you cannot find him, to be helpless and not know what to do, to wish that you could be his substitute, suffer in his place but you cannot–that must be one of the greatest pain of all. And then to be someone’s lover and yet not to be acknowledged a proper status in his family.”

Singaporean men are such dicks!

“Most fascinating is a feature that would make any journalist tremble. Tuyuca requires verb-endings on statements to show how the speaker knows something…. English can provide such information, but for Tuyuca that is an obligatory ending on the verb. Evidential languages force speakers to think hard about how they learned what they say they know.” – I guess The Temasek Review would come crashing down like a house of cards if they were forced to write in Tuyuca.

Yawning Bread demonstrates how alternative political parties might present alternative policy schemes to those already in place through the example of negative income tax.

“‘We aren’t providing realistic social models to young people. We need a healthy cohabitation program … [and] healthy relationship education,’ Dr. Santelli said. ‘We just say how wonderful marriage is. Abstinence programs are aimed toward getting you married at 20, not supporting you and helping you make healthy and smart choices as a single 20-something.’” – That’s true for Singapore too.

“In 1957, the leadership of the PAP, wishing to have tighter grip of the party, decided to change the original democratic constitution. The organisational inspiration was said to come from looking at the Vatican. There the Pope appoints the cardinals, who then appoint the Pope. It has lasted the church 2,000 years.”

“The SRS is nothing new – it was introduced about a decade ago – yet many Singaporeans do not seem to know about it. Briefly, it’s a voluntary government scheme which gives you tax benefits, in order to encourage you to save and invest for your own retirement years.” – Mr Wang explains the SRS.

“Hilarious Irene Ang was the host and she played [Don't Forget the Lyrics]. She asked what line followed these in the song “Little Drummer Boy”:

Come they told me
Pa rum pum pum pum
A new born king to see
Pa rum pum pum pum
Our finest gifts we bring
__ _ _ _ _.”

LOL!

What to do/how to eat sushi when you’re in a sushi bar.

According to David Boey, the 2009 death tally of servicemen in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is the highest since 1987 – but that’s based on the number of press releases the SAF has released.

Petting a pet can supposedly boost your immune system.

Sharing this link because I think it’s important for everyone to know where to find this info, just in case.

I felt quite touched by the story of how the late SSG Lee’s colleagues chipped in to help his children receive an education, so I thought I’d share it with everyone here.

Silences (or what isn’t said) in stories are sometimes the most telling feature of narratives.

I quite agree that the report seems to be sensationalising matters quite a bit.

“…whatever the method of flirting it just doesn’t work with most men, claim researchers.

The male brain, it seems, is hopeless at picking up “come-on” signals…. This leaves men impervious to the seduction techniques of the opposite sex.”

Read the comments too as they provide a broader perspective of the argument. (via http://gssq.blogspot.com/2009/12/three-oclock-is-always-too-late-or-too.html )

“A growing workforce, Malthus explained, depresses wages, which tends to make people delay marriage until they can better support a family. Delaying marriage reduces fertility rates, creating an equally powerful check on populations.” – Sounds like Singapore.

I agree with Yawning Bread in that:

1. If the act was consensual, isn’t it unfair that the girl has not been charged as well? She has, after all, also been engaging in sex with an underage male.
2. On that note, should we even be using the law on children in matters like these?
3. On that note, ‘underage sex’ in a modern context seems like an archaic notion, IMHO, especially when it is consensual. Is this law even up to date then, to make allowance for consent to be brought into the picture?

“It just boils down to one word: Respect for your food. And being a bad cook is really just disrespectful, because it perverts what should have been tasty into something that is not.”

“Which is why I seriously detest mind-numbing drama series like those (yes, including the few I’ve acted in myself). The poison the minds of housewives everywhere. Not that they need more poisoning. People who watch these shows and enjoy them end up developing a worldview that is quite particular, where things are black and white, and stupid family values like clinging on to an obviously fucked up marriage and truly evil family members are endorsed.”

SO SWEET!

“If you had seduced ninety girls with ninety poets, one a week in a course of three academic years, and remembered them all at the end—the poets, I mean—and synthesized your reading into some kind of aesthetic overview, then you would have earned yourself a degree in English literature. But don’t pretend that it’s easy.”

Great concept from JC kids, but the text was a let-down.

“Introducing political education in schools is fine, but it should not be one-sided. We need to have media literacy programmes, and also teach a clear and undoctored political history that is not dictated by one source, but contains different accounts.”