TR EMERITUS

One of the most amusing things to come out of the Singapore General Election, comes from Singapore’s most (in)famous blogger, Ms. Wendy Cheng, who blogs under the name of Xiaxue, locked the blog that made her so famous. The story and the reasons for locking the blog that made her so (in)famous can be found at: [LINK] You could say that I have jealousy issues when it comes to Ms. Cheng. Her daily readership is probably more than what I’ve achieved in a decade and while I struggle avoid being turned into a digit in office land so that I can blog without worrying about advertisers, Ms. Cheng earns from advertisers what I can only dream of from winning the lottery. It goes without saying that she is significantly better looking and I guess people would rather look at a young girl with a halfway decent figure than a tubby bald man. Call me a snob, but despite her “success,” she writes drivel designed to turn on the lowest common denominator or white men (who as a rule of thumb have strange taste in Asian Women) Just as my fellow writers on TREmeritus and Independent Singapore take on the Singapore Government and its supporters, Xiaxue has famously taken on foreign workers for having the audacity to be on Orchard Road (because they might molest our girls – which in this case should read the Chinese variety) and the disabled (especially those who have the audacity to take issue with the able bodied taking what is theirs – things such as specially reserved parking lots. – Ms. Cheng even got herself published in the Today newspaper by writing a piece on the joy she got taking a piss in toilets reserved for the disabled.). In short, Ms. Cheng is a little like a non-political version of Trump – awful but strangely addictive. Even people who loath her can’t help reading the stuff she writes. Her commercial success is in part thanks to her awfulness. It draws people to her blog like flies to shit and traffic in turn leads to greater interest in advertisers. Having said everything that I have just said about her, I think of Xiaxue as I do of Donald Trump -chemotherapy. Her very existence is actually representative of something good in Singapore – namely greater participation in the public discourse. When Xiaxue says something, people react – even if it is to take a view that is contrary to hers. In Singapore, we’re a little obsessed with “harmony.” Sure, harmony is on balance, wonderful. However, when officialdom is given the power to define harmony, it becomes open to abuse. Harmony is often described as anyone who disagrees with the official version of what life should be – no matter how mild that disagreement may be. I take myself as an example. I’ve been bashing out pieces for public consumption for the last decade or so. I don’t consider myself particularly extreme in any shape or form. Nor do I consider myself anti-establishment. I am, on the whole, quite OK with PAP as the government. I don’t think they’ve done enough to “lose elections.” However, I have disagreed with policies that various governments have come up with. I don’t think the government’s handling of Covid-19 was a disaster (immediate comparisons being with the US and Brazil) but I took issue with their handling of issues involving home based businesses and more importantly their refusal to take a closer look at foreign manpower. Yet, despite not being terribly political, I have been told by close friends whom I’ve worked with that I am a “political writer” and “anti-establishment.” Why would that be? The problem here is the fact that I’ve disagreed with certain policies, made my stance relatively clear and therefore disrupted “harmony.” The second problem with harmony is that it leads to complacency. When you don’t have problems to deal with, you don’t think. Life will be fine. I think of Mike Tyson, once the most fearsome boxer on the planet. In his biography, Mike Tyson admits that he took winning as the natural state of affairs to the extent that he never bothered to train. Buster Douglas on the other hand trained like a madman and so, Buster Douglas won. The same applies to harmony. Too much of it has unintended and unhealthy side effects. Xiaxue is funnily enough healthy because she disrupts us from our harmonious slumber. She says something about migrant workers and we react. Suddenly, we start thinking about the issue, because she’s said something about it. While I generally don’t encourage mob rule, I also think that there’s something positive about cancel culture. I see cancel culture as a sign that people care enough to react to something. I know that there are arguments against cancel culture: [LINK] However, I believe that cancel culture helps brands think. In Singapore, its been too easy for big brands to disregard opinions as irrelevant to the larger picture. I remember the Straits Times once ran a piece on how big brands didn’t need you the insignificant consumer. Cancel culture shows that this is not true. Consumers have the right and the power to tell brands who they want them to associate with. People do buy according to values and this can only be a force for good it forces brands to behave. Xiaxue, will no doubt find a way to survive. While there are advertisers who will abandon her, there will be those who continue to support her. While she may not be pleased with being on the wrong end of cancel culture, its clear that the good that she’s done for Singapore is being enhanced by her being part of cancel culture.   Tang Li *Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able meet people who have crossed borders and cultures. I’ve befriended ministers and ambassadors and worked on projects involving a former head of state. Yet, at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of befriending migrant labourers and former convicts. All of them have a story to tell. All of them add to the fabric of life. I hope to express the stories that inspire us to create life as it should be.      Read More →

With Singapore planning to encourage local tourism. Vietnam is a lesson to be heeded. Covid-19 loves crowded spaces. Vietnam has been lauded as a success story, having acted early to close borders and enforce quarantine and contact tracing. It recorded just over 400 cases and no deaths. (Related post: Covid-19: Ang moh runs up US$85,000 bill) Nearly 100 days after its last locally transmitted case in April, four new cases emerged in Vietnam: all from a tourist attraction. Vietnam had been encouraging local tourism to help the economy. Vietnam has closed the city of Da Nang to tourists after four new locally transmitted coronavirus were recorded. No tourists can enter the city for 14 days and extra flights are being laid on to fly out up to 80,000 visitors. Restrictions are also in place in the city.   Cynical Investor Cynical Investor blogs at Thoughts of a Cynical Investor .    Read More →

Why is the People's Association (PA) allowing itself to be prostituted like this? Public funds should be used for the public good, not for promoting a PAP candidate rejected twice by voters. The PA has used public funds in its promotional materials for a National Day event, from online posters to physical banners hung in the constituency, all of which bear the name and picture of the twice-losing PAP candidate in prominent fashion. The PA also makes this loser-PAP candidate the euphemistically named "Host Adviser" to the National Day event in the constituency in which he lost twice in the elections. The executive director of the PA, Brigadier-general Lim Hock Yu, should explain to Aljunied voters and Singaporeans why he is allowing this. This is not only unfair, it is also morally & ethically perverse, and insults and disrespects all Singaporeans who cast their votes in the general elections. This blatant abuse of public funds should disgust all Singaporeans.   Andrew Loh      Read More →