Of course, most have heard of our legendary founder, Lee Kuan Yew, who despite everything, built a progressive nation single-handedly.

I rather enjoyed reading this, cross posted from danwei.org, filed under the category of 'corruption'.

"And let's hope the Chinese government does not learn their sense of style from Singapore's elder statesman, who has this to say:

News gets out: “We are dull.”

Now, we are not dull, we are quite cool. We're going to have reverse bungee, all-night dining by the river and by the marina, two integrated resorts, Formula One. How do you explain that?"



ha. i found it really funny.

I find no meaning in my job. I can't wait to leave it. I donated most of my money to the disasters. I wish i could do more to help. i wish i was a doctor. the only thing i can do is act as an interpreter, should medicin sans frontier and red cross foreign doctors needs translators, but i might end up being a hindrance on the spot, given that i'm not the calmest person.

Speaking to Yang yesterday made me want to cry. He lives 90km from the epi centre. As we speak the ground is trembling beneath him. at least 1000 aftershocks in a day. His neighbours were sleeping in cars outside, but he decides to sleep at home. He can't really tell me more, but he was stuck in the lift when it occurred. Thank god he and his family are alright.

There is positive news in the overall gloom. China's response to quake is unusually open and Aid has reached the people in need as of the latest news.

Last night i was at a sustainable development forum meeting like minded green folks. There is hear say that the forces of feng shui are at play and there is a lake in China that has marked the important events by drying up in 1949, 1976 (tang shan earthquakes taking the lives of over 200,000), 1989, and this year 2008. Monday was the 88th day before this year Summer Olympics set to open on August 8 2008, the dates chosen for it's auspicious numbers. I have the really interesting "earthquake omens" here and the lake that dried up. all 80 tons of the water...

I wish I could do much more and I am controlling my intense emotions from taking control of my life as these events are completely beyond my control. I should think about doing a nursing course, brush up on one of the south east asian language, maybe learn malay so i could be of some use in times of disaster in the region.

I'm sorry this entry is so low. Here is a nice animation to lift the spirits.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

We had a gorgeous saturday, it reminded me of spring in venezia and treviso. Plenty of sunshine (as opposed to smog and poor visibility), cool breeze and a lovely temperature of 20degrees celcius. Then yesterday it rained and today, it's been forecasted to rain. I personally like the rain since i grew up in the tropics.

I wonder if the silver nitrate induced downpours are any harm to our health in the long run? Who knows these things anyway. oh well, We'll all have to die some way or the other.

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.

The current events are inspiring different forms of representation, which has given a twist to design.

While the torch relay is being disrupted around the world, i have mixed feelings about it and am also confused because i don't have a fair representation of the issue at hand given the lack of access to information. My colleagues have vehemently defended the position of China and reiterates that tibet is china and that it will never change. As far as i understand the issue was never about independence, but rather autonomy.

Anyway, i felt that this article had something interesting to say... i remember in history classes, the 19th century opium war with the british and traces of history marred by western colonisation in China.

"The Chinese don't see the pro-Tibet protests as well intentioned criticism. They regard them as a hypocritical denigration of China by a Western culture with a history of colonialism, which condones armed intervention in places like Iraq or Chechnya and practises waterboarding in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, while preaching about human rights."

there is truth in this. All the hypocrisy. While i believe all the aggression has to be addressed, I also think that it's unfair to mix politics and sport. Athletes train for years for this event and it's unfair for them to wait another 4 years to compete as they suffer the backlash of political implications... well about the air quality, that is another matter altogether.

With all my chinese friends and colleagues having (love CHINA) on their msn and skype handles showing their patroitism, pledging their support for the olympics.

I too don't agree with boycotting the olympics, the implications will be far reaching in the long run and will not in any way resolve the pressing issues on hand.

Living in Beijing has helped me to confront my own roots, since I'm largely chinese with javanese blood and I look more South East Asian than the northerns. Some people mistake me for being an ethnic minority. Although I grew up with traditional values, I'm largely westernised by the literature and media i've been exposed to, given that I grew up in a developed country like singapore, without the harsh implications of a cultural revolution, communism and more.

I was reading about journalism in China the other day and really, this is where all the stories are since journalism is essentially about people. There is an old man that drives me to work daily and he was a tank driver in '89 (i hope this blog doesnt get deleted for this sensitive content).

So anyway.. this was a conversation that i had with a taxi driver..



[insert loads of chinese swear words like silly cunt etc etc] as he swerves round a cyclist that came out of nowhere.

Taxi driver: you silly cunt, im going to knock you down. (speeding up and swerving more)

me: woah! shifu! slow down! you’re going to kill that man!

Taxi driver: it’s ok, dont be afraid, i have run a man over before. i just went to jail for a few years, it’s no big deal. (well of course, in chinese it sounded alot more disturbing.) 没事，我以前开车撞死人， 只是座了几年牢！

Me: ………………

Hello Beijing, good bye sterile pore. Being here for close to 9 months, i am becoming less porean by the day. I love it.

My chinese is getting so much better, i am even arguing with shop vendors like a true blue DLM. i just have to master riding a bicycle in this traffic. till then, i am one step short of being a veritable dalumei.

Sorry it's been a while. I can't seem to log onto blogger at home even though the ban was suppose to have been lifted, but we never really know in China since things change overnight and contents have been banned and unbanned several times over. Well, at least we get wikkipedea.

The only way to access the world is via the work german server, so here I am. As I've lagged way behind in sharing information on my side of the world ever since moving to beijing 9 months ago, I'll cross post some entries from my own blog.

The weather is heating up and i'm beginning to feel the pollution, how will athletes survive the summer olympics? I will tell you when i find out.

So amongst the mighty architectural spaces shaking the notion of design and aesthetics, a new entertainment complex media space powered by solar energy look sreally amazing and I'm going to check it out this weekend.

The Xicui entertainment centre