I Spy With My Little Eyes

I was at the airport fetching my mom the other day, due to the delay of the plane, my dad and I was stoning at the arrival hall for close to 2 hours.

Something I notice, all the pay phone in the airport are in the form of phone cards. Nothing wrong to a local, but if I am a traveler, and I want to make a phone call the moment I touch down, do you think I have a local phone card? Uniquely Singapore indeed.

Which brings me to another point; that would mean that travelers would have a buy a SG$2 dollars phone card to make a ten cents call. How economic. So whatever one dollar and ninety cents left would goes into the phone company’s pocket rightfully. No wonder Singtel reports a thirty over percent profit incensement.

On the other hand, I must say, throughout my 2 hours at the airport staring at the phone booths, there was no one person who made a phone call. I think there are 2 reasons for that. A) they knew they need a phone card and therefore do not want to purchase a phone card to make a call. B) With 3 major telecommunication companies in Singapore, they are getting perfect signal from their auto-room.

That said.

Uniquely Singapore number 2: Huang Na’s case.

I laughed my guts out just yesterday looking at the report of the Huang Na’s case. There are 3 issues I see from this case. Firstly, the influences of the media and secondly, how boring Singaporean are and were and finally, how come fund raising shows are always so successful.

Firstly, the Huang Na’s case was just reported as a lost person according to the police. It is thought the media reports of this dude, who have too much time, and therefore printed posters looking for a handful of missing people; stick it on his lorry and parade around Singapore.

I don’t really know what happed in between or after the questioning of the public and media and therefore the police did something, all of a sudden, Boom, this dude Ah Hao appeared. Boom! Huang Na is dead. Boom! They found her body.

Ka ka boom! Huang Na is dead. Her body is rotten in some hill. She’s only 8 years old. Oh poor thing. Boo hoo hoo. The whole Singapore started feeling up sad.

WAIT A MINUITE!

What have this china-ren did to make Singaporean as up sad as the 97 economic crisis? So she died, people die everyday. Okay… she was murder. People get murdered everyday. In the states 5 people get shot everyday. You don’t see CNN and FOX and other networks reporting them around the clock like we did.
To a very large extend the media coverage has bought people interested in this case. However, I am more interested on how the earthquake in Japan, how is it going to affect Asia’s economic and how Arafat's health is going to affect the oil price. Is our media reporting the right stuff? When do we draw the line between pure Hoo Ha and real news? How is the media responsible for public option?

Which beings me to another point.

You know the question about is it because the elephant’s size therefore they eat so much, or is it because they eat so much therefore the size?

Same question here. It is because of the media’s report therefore people are interested, or is it because they are interested therefore they are reporting?

I cannot put my finger on either of them since communication is both ways. But I have to say is that Singaporean get excited easily by very small news. You know the case about Slim 10? If these folks are not celebrities do you think people give a damn? Without the chipping in of the media, do you think it becomes such high profiled? Put it another way, remember the case about the TV presenter who is sue for rapping another lady? He’s not famous, the media covered it, and response was just… “what a cheap man” and no more followed up. Then, the current case between the politicians? No one is interested in politics and even the news paper reported it in such a small headline. My question is, the case of the politicians involved justice and freedom of speech. In the first amendment, it’s a bloody big thing, or at least to the whites. But look, people are outside the Subordinate court about the Huang Na case and no one even bother to be outside the Supreme Court? I think public involvements in government still have a very long way to go in Singapore and maybe the media can do something about it.

Finally, Singaporean is just too kind. People bought gift and what have you for a dead girl. But complained about 1% GST incensement. Singaporean donated 5 million every year to charity but still organizations are complaining that they now have to money but no one to help them.
Those gala charity fund raising shows are always a hit. But to be frank, I am so faded up by donating money and watching charity show now that I don’t even bother. You see them every weekend on the streets, you see them on TV. They call you and they deduct from your bank account automatically. They are everywhere. Don’t my tax covers such things? This brings me back to the first point, the media have a lot of power in influencing people. The brain don’t work when you are watching TV. You follow. “Pick up the phone. Punch these numbers. Thank you that’s fifty bucks.” What I suggest is that next time, instead of getting them to punch some numbers and get some money, get them to punch some numbers to volunteer.

I have one more main point to make, but I think that’s enough for today. Cheers!