I came across an interesting post by a (from what I can gather) Singaporean studying law in Melbourne Uni. It details arguments for why it may be true that Singaporeans are not ready for greater freedom of speech. One reason for this, his writes, is that any opposition to the PAP (Singapore’s governing party) is too immature to put forward a coherent argument. “That is not free speech. That is hate speech. And such hate speech is the anti-thesis of what freedom of expression should be.”
To be sure, there are merits to this very patriarchal view of things, but I am not convinced by his reasoning. I don’t feel like writing at length about this right now, but I just wanted to flag the post.
BTW, are there any American lawyers or law students out there that read this site?
Just watched the closing episodes of the 6th Amazing Race season. While the first hour was good, the final leg was plain boring. I thought season 5 (where Chip and Kim won in a nailbiter) was far better in comparison. I hope that in the next season, which starts in 3 weeks: teams don’t catch up to each other at the start of each leg because a tourist attraction only opens at 10am; there’s a bit more variety in teams than boy-girl model couples; and teams don’t spend most of their time in Europe. I’m also hoping that they travel westwards instead of circumnavigating around to the east but I don’t think that will happen. I love this show.
They are also now accepting applications for participants on the 8th season of Amazing Race. Naturally, it’s open only to US citizens (lucky bastards). Most interestingly, it looks like they will be adding a twist – teams of four, which may include minors. This will make things bloody interesting.
Update: The teams for season 7 look good. There’s a former Iraqi POW/Miss South Carolina team. There’s also a mother/son team (which is a first), and the son is gay. Most cool is one of the teams is Rob & Amber – the winner and runner up in Survivor: All Stars. It’s the clash of the reality TV shows! Excellent! The diversity looks to be a lot better than season 6!
Happy Chinese New Year. Ok, so I’m one day late.
I have to say that CNY (especially went spent in Australia) holds next to no significance for me whatsoever, which has left my parents a little flustered. “But you’re Chinese! It’s significant!” they told me. I was amused that Dad sent me an email today saying, “What, no mention of CNY on your blog?”
Growing up in a western country and knowing nothing but the Gregorian calendar is probably responsible for this. CNY is a day I have little conception of, and I’d argue, a day most overseas-born Chinese know little about as well. Ok, so everyone knows CNY was yesterday and it’s now the year of the Rooster. Perhaps you know that the year is based on a lunar calendar. But I bet most people don’t know what year it is on the Chinese calendar. (Hint: It’s not 2005.) I mean, how can you celebrate the new year, when you don’t even know what year it is? Do people even know what the Chinese calendar looks like? How about its leap years (which include leap months)?
In the western world, a new year signifies renewal (in the same manner it does for the Chinese I’m guessing). For us, a year is significant because a huge number of things in our lives are broken up into years (school, birthdays, anniversaries, etc). It’s a bit bizarre turning in a new year on the Chinese calendar when I have no conception of what the calendar is. I was born in the year of the Rooster, so it’s apparently “my year”. Again, what’s the significance? I don’t pay attention to the western zodiac, why would I pay attention to the Chinese one?
Turns out the Chinese calendar is pretty intricate. Intricate enough that a mathematician at NUS wrote a 39-page paper on it.
It’s sort of like what happens on Labour Day every year. No one celebrates anything, because no one knows what it is, except that they get the day off work.
Solo’s finally posting again. He’s also resurrected Ramblings, evicted its old crew and given the run of the place over to some old e/n folk.
You know the law book you’re reading is old when everytime you open it, the pages release dust or fumes or spores that instantly make you have a coughing fit. I think this book is actually killing me.
I am really amazed at how many people do not know how many states there are in the USA! Do you know the answer off the top of your head? (Americans don’t count for this question.)
iiNet has been busy installing DSLAMs at Telstra exchanges and the result is a bunch of new plans. They all guarantee a minimum 1500/256k connection, up to 8000/1000 depending on your distance from the exchange. The plans basically require bundling with iiphone (their voice line service), and the heavy plan comes with a 40gb+40gb download limit (offpeak limit runs from midnight to 8am) with uploads not being counted. $120/month for the service and line rental seems very worth it.
Darren Johnson got to spend a few hours with Warren Buffet and came across five pieces of advice. You’ve probably heard them before, but to hear them from the world’s second richest man adds that extra sheen onto things. I like point 5: He said that many people talk about how they are going to just work at a high-paying job “for a little while” and then go do what they love – he equated that to “saving up sex for old age.” He said to “never do something that doesn’t excite you or that you dislike.”
I’m guilty of thinking in that way. However, sometimes to afford to do the things you love, you need the money.
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4:26pm (GMT +11.00) tomorrow 