Awesome 80s-rific picture. To 22 great years of sibling rivalry… and remember… when we grow up, we're still going buy all the toys we want because we'll have our own ginormous toy store with no adults. There's no stopping us now.

From 鸟不拉屎共和国

This guy writes so beautifully. So succinct. A couple of very poignant points I felt I should share with the 10 people who read this blog.

(刊登于联合早报2006年5月7日)

如果本地真的拥有第一世界的政府和反对党，那么我们是否应该期待一流的政治辩论呢？

或许各政治人物之间的辩论透过电子媒体有稍微地过滤，不过此大选期间从执政和反对党两方的确出现了许多着重于候选人人格或者政党格调的政治辩论。尽管我不 是政治学者，不过我记得自己在大学修读有关辩论的哲学课程时，讲师曾经提到针对人格的辩论最无效，而任何哲学课本都会把攻击辩论者的人格的论点归类成一种 谬论。咱们华人对于这种手法也有种称呼，叫做抹黑。

然而，让我觉得非常讽刺的是双方在大选之前都呼吁所有竞选的候选人针对重要的民生问题提出政治辩论。结果提名日一过，双方仿佛都得了健忘症，把攻击人格的 辩论都搬出来，也把辩论的层次都压低了。难道是因为所有与民生有关的政治课题都是老调重弹，所以政治人物觉得没有必要再重复？组屋翻新、医疗津贴、高涨的 物价、失业问题、外来劳工取代本地劳工的议题，如果各位还留着五年前的报纸，不妨去翻翻看，我敢保证这些议题在上届大选也同样出现。

有关民生的议题都讨论完了吗？面对石油价格在未来飙升的可能，大量仰赖石油的新加坡是否有应变措施？在同样的课题上，即将建好的海水淡化厂也将大量利用石 油，这是否是明智之举，而对自来水的价格是否会有影响？地球暖化的现象将使海平面升高，这是否会对在计划中的填海工程有所影响？对于四面都是海的新加坡， 我们对于此问题是否有任何应对措施？本人觉得这些都将会是在不远的将来严重影响民间生活的重要课题，然而我从来都没有透过媒体的管道听到有任何政治人物讨 论。这不限于这次的大选期间，而是在这几年内都没有听到。是政治人物从来没有考虑这些问题，还是他们认为人民没有必要知道？

提到第一世界 的政府，除了要有一流的执政和反对党外，还需要有拥有一流的人民，也就是对于时事有所了解和拥有独立的思考能力。在一个民主社会里，人民其实也是也是属于 这个政治体系的成员之一，因为我们的每一票决定我们会有怎样的政府。如果人民对于政治辩论的认识必须由政治人物来支配，政治辩论的层次和主题必须由政治人 物来主导，而政府没有办法与人民产生互动的话，那么我不认为本地已经取得第一世界政府的头衔。

然而，一般人民要如何主动主导政治课题的讨 论呢？或许在政治冷感普遍的新加坡，这听起来比做起来更困难。然而，我相信在讯息大量被网际网络传送的时代里，只要每个人把他们想要听到政治人物讨论的议 题放在网络上或者是电邮给有关当局，我不相信各政党会对此置之不理。如果他们真的选择不理会，选民可以利用选票让政党知道我们的想法。

要做一流的人民，并非只是到大选期间才临时抱佛脚，才稍微对面对这个国家的问题开始关心。如果这是人民面对政治的姿态，本地大概永远无法达到第一世界政府的标准吧。

Gasp!

Actual words.

March of the Immigrants

Walking towards Wilshire on Western Ave, you'd see more people leaving than there were people just arriving. It was fairly late in the day so I thought I might be just in time for the closing parts of the march.




























Nearing 7pm, the crowd began to start thinning out. There were more and more people walking along the sides in the opposite direction, still holding their sign and waving flags.









Reached La Brea Ave and I too turned around and headed back. You can imagine just how strong the demonstration was by this picture of the thinning crowd below.

As late as then, I spotted this guy buying some protest gear. Better late than never.


It was almost 8pm when I decided to leave. I was walking along Serrano Ave and there were 3 guys in front of me who look like they were calling it a day too. I figured that because they had on white tshirts like many of the demonstrators did as a symbol of peace. They looked friendly, in a nice-Mexican-guy-who-takes care-of-your-neighbour's-garden sort of way. Not that they're actually Mexicans or gardeners. For all I knew, they could have been bussiness owners or programmers and not Mexican.

Trustigeousness

Thanks to trustigeousness, it's now Colbert 1, Bush 0.

Whoever said C-SPAN's boring, hah!
Fred and I were watching it before it was cool... and during finals too, when everyone else was drinking coffee, we drank C-SPAN. But then again, we never denied that we're dorks.

Here're a convenient link to the awesome-rific thing that should help Bush fans feel better about themselves... until... I don't know, we'll see.
Link

The best stuff's still at Comedy Central though. Apparently after all these years, their trustigeousness is still a standard other major networks aspire to.