The mr brown blog containing his popular and satirical Singapore National Education Series and other funny musings on the dysfunctional side of Singapore life.
If you like, you can record your own version of "I am Singaporean" and post it on your blog, and leave a link in the comments in there. You can also tag it iamsingaporean and entitle it "I am Singaporean".
I have been informed that TODAY has suspended my column.
It has been a trying few days for me, my family, my mum and my friends. Thank you all for your emails, letters, calls, SMSes, blogs and comments, I don't know what to say.
If you like, you can record your own version of "I am Singaporean" and post it on your blog, and leave a link in the comments in there. You can also tag it iamsingaporean and entitle it "I am Singaporean".
National Day is coming soon, so we thought it would be nice to record a message for the occasion.
We were inspired by the Molson beer "I am Canadian" commercial (this is the video from Youtube), and for Miyagi, we borrowed the music from the Superman II soundtrack, a track called "Fanfare".
If you like, you can record your own version of "I am Singaporean" and post it on your blog, and leave a link in the comments in there. You can also tag it iamsingaporean and entitle it "I am Singaporean".
If you like, you can record your own version of "I am Singaporean" and post it on your blog, and leave a link in the comments in there. You can also tag it iamsingaporean and entitle it "I am Singaporean".
When a columnist becomes a 'partisan player' in politics
Letter from K BHAVANI
Press Secretary to the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts
Your mr brown column, "S'poreans are fed, up with progress!" (June 30) poured sarcasm on many issues, including the recent General Household Survey, price increases in electricity tariffs and taxi fares, our IT plans, the Progress Package and means testing for special school fees.
The results of the General Household Survey were only available after the General Election. But similar data from the Household Expenditure Survey had been published last year before the election.
There was no reason to suppress the information. It confirmed what we had told Singaporeans all along, that globalisation would stretch out incomes.
mr brown must also know that price increases in electricity tariffs and taxi fares are the inevitable result of higher oil prices.
These were precisely the reasons for the Progress Package — to help lower income Singaporeans cope with higher costs of living.
Our IT plans are critical to Singapore's competitive position and will improve the job chances of individual Singaporeans. It is wrong of mr brown to make light of them.
As for means testing for special school fees, we understand mr brown's disappointment as the father of an autistic child. However, with means testing, we can devote more resources to families who need more help.
mr brown's views on all these issues distort the truth. They are polemics dressed up as analysis, blaming the Government for all that he is unhappy with. He offers no alternatives or solutions. His piece is calculated to encourage cynicism and despondency, which can only make things worse, not better, for those he professes to sympathise with.
mr brown is entitled to his views. But opinions which are widely circulated in a regular column in a serious newspaper should meet higher standards. Instead of a diatribe mr brown should offer constructive criticism and alternatives. And he should come out from behind his pseudonym to defend his views openly.
It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government. If a columnist presents himself as a non-political observer, while exploiting his access to the mass media to undermine the Government's standing with the electorate, then he is no longer a constructive critic, but a partisan player in politics.
THINGS are certainly looking up for Singapore again. Up, up, and away.
Household incomes are up, I read. Sure, the bottom third of our country is actually seeing their incomes (or as one newspaper called it, "wages") shrink, but the rest of us purportedly are making more money.
Okay, if you say so.
As sure as Superman Returns, our cost of living is also on the up. Except we are not able to leap over high costs in a single bound.
Cost of watching World Cup is up. Price of electricity is up. Comfort's taxi fares are going up. Oh, sorry, it was called "being revised". Even the prata man at my coffeeshop just raised the price of his prata by 10 cents. He was also revising his prata prices.
So Singaporeans need to try to "up" their incomes, I am sure, in the light of our rising costs. Have you upped yours?
"WE must not die young, okay? Faith needs us to be alive for as long as possible," the wife said to me recently. "So we must take care of ourselves and be healthy."
I nodded — understanding what was bugging her, although we all know death is not something we can control.
Having children makes you very aware of your own mortality. When you set eyes on your infant child for the first time, the first thing you realise is that this child will depend on you and your wife for many years before she can fend for herself.
Some CNA footage Miyagi videoed off the TV with his mobile phone and uploaded on Youtube.
Mr Miyagi he say I should have tucked my chin down a bit, because liddat make me look atas.
But I tell him, aiyoh, all these reporter shove their microphones, tape recorders, iPods with iTalks all so close to me, I hardly had space to move my head, let alone tuck my chin leh.
(More unflattering shots taken by Mr Miyagi here and here.)
Miyagi-san he say he got more video clips to upload, so I will update when I get it. He swears he did not place the Youtube triangle button on Minister Lee Boon Yang's nose deliberately.
Finish liao. Now to go to the loo. Forgot not to drink too much water before speaking.
The conference was called New Media: The New Frontier In Communications And PR. Miyagi and I spoke on "What Happened To The News? A Case Study Of Net-Empowered Citizenry" (or something liddat), and also as part of a roundtable discussion on "New Media: Will It Be A Case Of "Out With The Old And In With The New?".
All I remember was showing off Faith's page on Youtube.
For years after she started walking, we could not stop her from toe-walking. It is also known as tiptoeing. Faith's sensory issues as an autistic child meant that she reflexively toe-walked in order to feel the floor better.
For the rest of us, getting a sense of the floor and where our bodies are in space is something we learned instinctively from a very young age. For Faith, this was not so.
So, just like I have to teach this mobile phone I am using to blog this, how to spell "autistic" because it is not programmed into its sms dictionary, we had to teach Faith not to toe-walk. If we did not improve her sensory integration, her calf muscles can shorten permanently.
Recently, we noticed that she was starting to walk feet flat without our prompting. Especially if she was out with us, wearing shoes. We've tried getting her to wear shoes indoors before, but she still toe-walked aggressively. This time, she was walking flat for long periods, without us having to press her shoulders down, or say "Faith, feet down!".
You can hear her flat steps as she plants each foot on the ground with deliberateness. It gives her an odd gait, as if each foot forward is an attempt in itself. One step at a time.
But we do not mind. We are delighted. After a long spell of not seeing any improvement in this area, despite all kinds of intervention, therapy, and even alternative treatments like acupuncture (yes, it does hurt if they insert the needle into sensitive spots, like the sole of your feet), we were almost resigned to her toe-walking permanently.
But our firstborn likes to surprise us. And maybe to remind us, that she has her own timetable and pace.
We can provide all the therapy and encouragement in the world. In the end, it is she who takes the steps. They are small, uncertain steps, and the journey is long. And we, her blessed parents, get to walk with her part of the way.
Update: Don't say we never give you choice, ok? There are three versions of this show. There is the regular large 26mb one, and in addition, I also added a mobile phone version (3gp format), and a smaller crappy web version (only 3.5mb). Ok? Satisfied? Not happy go toilet and settle, ok?!
We have to say we were appalled by the toilet fight Youtube video uploaded by one of the kids in said toilet. For one, it was not much of a fight, and for another, the camera work was terrible.
So we at the mrbrown show decided to remix what was an already silly little fight, to see if we could take it to the next level of silly.
Please note that this video requires Quicktime and it is a large file.
Please also note that mr brown does not condone or encourage fighting. mr brown thinks fighting is dumb, not that it would stop kids from doing these dumb things.
Update: Some of you are getting partial downloads, I suspect due to the Monday traffic. Libsyn is undergoing server upgrading this week too (even USA also got upgrading, ok?). Do try and download again for the whole thing. Sorry for the inconvenience.
mr brown and Mr Miyagi went to the market to buy some birds, but found out that some Ang Moh bought them all.
The PNPP team explores the impact of grades and exams on Singapore education. What is a good result? Are students under enormous pressure to perform? What is the new A-star grade?
We put schools to the test to find out.
Special thanks goes out to Torei and Sita for their fantastic Goldenz Horse actingz manz!
No, the roles were not played by Miyagi and myself, but these two talented friends. And in case you're wondering, the sounds of school kids playing were recorded with a Microtrack and a stereo mic, at a real primary school during morning session recess, and not made from a loop. Took me 20 minutes and four takes to get the bit I liked.
Update: If there is enough real demand, we will even do a T-shirt for you guys. Long Live the Tur Kwa!!!
In honour of the hugely popular episode of the mrbrown show podcast, the persistently non-political podcast no. 6, aka Bak Chor Mee episode, we got our good friend Artgerm to do us a little desktop wallpaper.
Political aspirant, Jeff Lopez, the Man and His Ideas, goes for lunch. And finds himself embroiled in a controversy focuses the spotlight on his very integrity and credibility.
This audio podcast does not contain "persistent political content" because that is prohibited during the election period under the Singapore's Election Advertising Regulations. Remember, prison got no broadband!
I tell you, it is not my fault. We Singaporeans have all grown up expecting upgrading in all areas of our lives. Better grades, better jobs, better lifts — these are the things that warm the heart of a true Singaporean. So, can anyone blame me for wanting to upgrade my gadgets, too?
Perhaps one day, they will build a gadget that will do everything for me. I can imagine a product — let's call it The Zeus Tech 3000 — that becomes my do-it-all (or bao ka liao in Hokkien), device. That way, I need never buy another gadget again, because the Zeus 3000 will always meet my needs. The Zeus Tech 3000 can play music, videos, and make coffee. And those are just the basic features.
I hope this letter finds you well. I write to you to explain some changes to current school policy.
With the exception of those with children in the Elite Self-Sufficient Autonomously Independent School Scheme (which are allowed to charge higher fees), most of you have been paying the same school fees for your children all this while.
We wish to inform you that, with immediate effect, all children studying in mainstream schools will pay school fees according to the new means testing scheme.
FYI, there is currently an online petition called "Concerns Over Reduction Of Subsidies For Special Needs Children", started by a parent with a special needs child. Go lend your support and sign it.
Our friends, Stan "Artgerm" and Ryan, also did an "I am Singaporean" podcast. It is in Cantonese dialect (English transcript here).
Audio file for the mrbrown show 7 July 2006: I am Singaporean
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