26 May 2012:
Things have been interesting.
In case you're not aware, there's a storm brewing in Singapore's blogosphere with Xiaxue's post. I personally think it's very interesting and support her.I don't know why these people are so extreme. The general election was last year, this year there's a by-election because of special circumstances. Why are people still harping on these things?
Like what Xiaxue said, these people have really spoilt the image of Singapore's opposition. I believe that not all opposition are like the commenters on Facebook, cos then perhaps I might turn to PAP, since all these people can only flail around.
Just because you don't like PAP, it doesn't mean you should attack every single thing related to it. I do disparage them and their policies or actions, but I won't resort to slamming people who support them. I might debate with them to further enlighten both parties, but I would not force them to change their mindsets. If one is so extremely against PAP and thinks that only opposition should rule Singapore, aren't you no different from the PAP, whom you accuse of being domineering and authoritarian?
Also, I really don't know why so many Singaporeans are against Xiaxue. They say that she's a bimbo and all that, but how much do they know her? (Granted, I don't know much about her as well.) However from her blog, she claims to be married to her only boyfriend (who is angmoh), never had underage sex, and came from humble backgrounds.
I don't really think she would lie about these things, since her blog has high readership, and readers can easily sieve out untruths. People slam her because she's married to an angmoh. Would they do they same if it was, say, a Vietnamese man? (I just used Vietnam as a random country; no special meanings.) People automatically assume that she goes for angmohs because they are superior and she wants to rise above the ranks as well. But what if this angmoh is the genuinely good kind guy that's she lucky in finding? Wouldn't that be a great injust to her? Besides, so many other girls get married to angmohs as well; why no complains?
The thing with her having plastic surgery is controversial. I personally won't do plastic surgery (even though I am nowhere near good-looking and it's always nice to have looks) because I don't see a need to. However, I won't stop anyone who has plastic surgery for a few corrections, unless they go overboard and splurge on plastic surgery. A few nips and tucks here and there won't hurt, will it? Yet, I don't know why so many Singaporeans are so against it. Is this part of being conservative?
Back to the photo, what if in the photo, it was someone else instead of Xiaxue? Say, a middle-aged woman (of course not with all that cute makeup) showing her support. Would the criticisms be toned down? Would less people call the woman a prostitute?
These commenters are just mean. Why would you call them prostitute just because they support PAP? Do you have any common sense at all? From the Oxford Dictionary,
prostitute
noun
a person, typically a woman, who engages in sexual activity for payment.
The PAP is a political party. How does this link to sexual services? Just like what Xiaxue wrote with sarcasm: "... because well, you know, PAP supporters are all prostitutes". I'm sure these people have elderly parents who probably support PAP because of past reasons. Do they qualify as prostitutes? Would you think of your mum and dad as prostitutes because they support PAP? #nolink.
... These people are simply uncouth, to put it simply. Attacking people because of some differences online is simply wrong; I learnt it the hard way last year. Xiaxue was right: politics really does divide people. This is especially so when you have extremist sources like Temasek Review. Last year during election period, I tried finding out more from the opposition's perspective cos mainstream media was still quite controlled by the ruling party.
I visited The Online Citizen and a few other sites. But Temasek Review struck me as too extreme, and so did one or two more. In the end, I relied on The Online Citizen since they are balanced while being anti-establishment. (It's a pity they received lawyer's letters previously.)
Okay, okay, enough of this issue. Today's voting day for the Hougang by-election. Let's see the results later on.
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I got my report book back yesterday. This time it's a nice 991. It's a big improvement but frankly speaking, I could have done better on subjects like Chemistry. My class got highest for Chemistry; I think I might be one of the lowest then.
With Mr Y leaving, we would have a new History teacher. Most probably it's gonna be Mdm L, and I've already heard stuff that her teaching is not good, or that she's more suited teaching Social Studies. Oh well, I shall experience her teaching for myself. But of course if what I heard is true, then I'm probably doomed for History.
Ms K is leaving as well. She really did a lot to help my Social Studies. G, JL, and I pestered her quite a bit before the exams; she was still so willing to help us. It's not that Mr Y is no good, but being a new teacher, I suppose he doesn't really know how to engage us in his teaching. Also, his use of sarcasm is not as polished as Mr Y. (Gosh, initial confusion here. You'll know who I'm talking about if you know them.) So while the older Mr Y is able to leave us tongue-tied with all that wit, the younger Mr Y leaves us with a bad taste in the mouth. That certainly doesn't help to make us more interested in learning SS. By the end of the lesson, most of the class is in synchronised sleeping.
The previous SS lesson was interesting, though. We tried marking others' scripts to further understand how come our scripts would get such marks (generally low ones). I hope that SS lessons would continue to be interesting, so does History. Mr Y will be 'helming the lectures' (his exact words) on the final frontier of O-Level History (okay some exxaggeration here), which is the end of the Cold War. Such a significant topic to be taught by such a wonderful teacher; I must say our batch is lucky enough. The next batch would have to settle for other teachers then. Or perhaps, with the new syllabus, they won't even study this.
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An interesting tumblr that I have been
That's about it for today.
TTFN.