I'm definitely not a fair representation of the typical Singaporean as I've always been somewhat... different. And I take things far easier and less seriously. I complain like all singaporeans, but the difference is I take active steps to address the issues and I am all for change.

An icelandic musician friend who visited me likened my homeground to 'uptopia' in Huxley's Brave New World and she asked how could a creative person survive in an environment like that? Change is an impetus to create and the best creations tend to come from chaos. In a perfect capsule like the pore, there is no need for change, there is no need to create. In any case, creation is dictated by the government, which is an irony in itself because creativity cannot be forced or structured.

So here, apart from campaigns to matchmake graduate couples, now the younger generation has an appalling skewed perspective of relationships and love. They need to read more self help books instead of signing up for these courses.

Cross posted from my personal blog:


Lessons in seduction for Singaporeans

An 18-year-old mechanical engineering student, Isabel Seet, told the local Straits Times newspaper: "My teacher said if a guy looks into my eyes for more than five seconds, it could mean that he is attracted to me and I stand a chance.


i certainly hope she is not a fair representation of our population today.

Last week government minister Yu-Foo Yee Shoon warned young people not to put their career before establishing a family "because if you wait until then, sometimes it'll be a little too late".

well, with no career minded people, wouldn't the economy collapse?

I knew from a young age that I wouldn't want to live in the city (thanks to hollywood films, sweet valley high and great european literature), i started plotting how to get out since i was 8, to break free from the nation's blueprint the government had set aside for every citizen. The plan was that i was going to marry a foreigner and live in a foreign place and never have to be punished for being different and having a mind of my own.

it took me 25 years to get out, when i won a scholarship to italy. Lots of luck and maybe alot of hard work; i messed up my GCE A levels, otherwise grand plans to go to university in the UK would have gone through if i won a scholarship. I didn't. Later, I got rejected from various universities in France to do my masters. Then, one day someone told me about Fabrica - some creative haven. Surely, I wouldn't get in. I was quite used to reject letters by then. And then i did. The rest is history.

In 2010, maybe I'll be back in Europe, doing odd jobs, waiting in cocktail bars, reading, writing and going to cool exhibitions and enjoying Freedom, a word or concept for which most of my life held no meaning. But, people make choices, things can always change.