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Saturday, June 08, 2013 - 23:34 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

High Keys

Song of this ICT:


Always did like the flute the most [Lyrics, another song]


Recovered the Japan cough, likely from all the dust that got blown up while ensconced in a mobile oven, but that at least came under control with two packs of Fisherman's Friend lozenges (the idea first came from a campmate; previously, the eleven Hacks for fifty cents worked some, but not much)

One thought that struck me was the contrast between 开心 (happy, lit. open heart) and 关心 (concern, lit. closed heart). Can they then exist simultaneously? Well, probably yes, though entanglements eventually weigh - hence the expression "carefree", i.e. Mr. Ham's simple philosophy of not giving a flying f**k. Still, maybe I've shut it for too long.


Laying On The Media Smackdown

[Minister for Communications and Information] Dr Yaacob added that the new criteria would ensure "that when Singaporeans go onto online sites, when they read the news, they know that what they read from online sites is the same as what they read from mainstream media"

- well, now we know why (first seen on Facebook via df)


In Feburary, it was mentioned here that the authorities will be unable to moderate social media. While that remains the case, they have made their move by seeking to regulate popular online news websites, starting off with ten outlets. However, it is quickly noted that nine of them are under the SPH/MediaCorp umbrella, i.e. are utterly defanged anyway, leaving the multinational Yahoo! News the odd one out.

Yahoo! were probably targeted for having the gall to hit issues squarely with striking (true) headlines like "Singapore population half foreigners by 2030: govt". As the quote above appears to indicate, the powers that be are simply not that comfortable with any viewpoints other than the standard nation-building honey syrup being given an airing. So much for developing a thinking new-economy population.


Ideal response from citizens to all policies, according to authorities


A bit of history here - the media in Singapore has traditionally been tightly controlled, with newspapers from neighbouring countries banned (reciprocal, but still), and publications of probably higher prestige periodically clamped down on (e.g. FEER and The Economist) for pieces that would in most first-world countries be seen as just part of the cut-and-thrust of the free press. I daresay that this continued tight-arsedness has not helped us in developing breadth of thinking, nor our journalists in the art of witty persuasion.

Then came along the Internet, and after several decades of zero caricatures in the official papers, those wishing to do so can laugh at figures that look curiously like our dear leaders (but are in fact completely unrelated) plastered all over the place. Of course, one of the artists got hauled up recently, but the point is that there is no viable way to stop their spread.

I mean, what can they do? Install a Great Firewall of Singapore (actually, perhaps they might have regretted not doing so from the beginning...)? It's far too late for that, all the more if the website is not hosted locally. They could try to block the domain, but it is trivial to mirror the content elsewhere, and the intended audience will find it. Indeed, the biggest threat to a website would be its own popularity leading to its servers being overloaded.

The true power of the Internet might be that it allows people with similar interests to congregate oh-so simply. Previously, let's say that one is disaffected. He could encounter a few others like him in real life, but even that could be hard - how many reveal their true thoughts to near-strangers in public? He could print handbills and distribute them... yeah, right.

Online, all these roadblocks and fears dissipate. With the most cursory search and click, he can get right to what other individuals are really feeling (for an example, look at the Yahoo! News comments sections). It may be that discourse is dominated by those who bother to shout the most, but that's still something beyond the spoonfeeding we're expected to endure - "you can have any opinion, as long as it's ours".

While yet another protest (and blog blackout) has been organized, I personally think that it is all a bit unnecessary, for the simple reason that the authorities can do jack all about the big picture. It would be one thing if Singapore were a quasi-slave labour economy where the workers would be just as productive whether or not they were kept in the dark like mushrooms, but the only way forward for us now is information - deny that, and I can't see the faintest hope of us retaining our value, and guess who has the most to lose?

This is not to say that the mainstream media has no value - they have been coming up with some thoughtful critiques of late - but they have to recognize that they do not have a monopoly on, or are the final arbiters of, good ideas.


Procrastination

I should really be finishing some stuff, so I'll end by mentioning that a super-budget US$347 3D printer has been developed locally, even as more (niche) uses are found. However, as to how big the industry can get... I'm not so sold on it. Looking about my room, I don't see too many objects that I would conceivably print for myself (other than maybe once for the novelty). Drawing pins? Toilet paper roll holder? Book stand? And this doesn't even include most consumer electronics.

I suppose it's the same with many people having printers, but very few using them for more than the occasional report, with publishing of any scale at all still done by an established press.

Final note: I had always thought that a post-apocalyptic rendering of local scenes would be cool, and it seems like someone has gotten around to it.



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