//beconfused

(Freedom of expression go to hell!)

This is probably the most ironic protestor you’ll ever meet. He says no to freedom of expression. I don’t think he actually understands what that is.

Further reading reveals this protestor upset over the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. It depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005. The newspaper announced that this publication was an attempt to contribute to the debate regarding criticism of Islam and self-censorship. Danish Muslim organizations, who objected to the depictions, responded by holding public protests attempting to raise awareness of Jyllands-Posten’s publication. The controversy deepened when further examples of the cartoons were reprinted in newspapers in more than fifty other countries. (So of course, I shan’t be posting an image of the controversial cartoons.) The poster behind writes ‘kill those who insult the prophet’. (My source is once again Wikipedia)

In Singapore, we don’t really have as much freedom of expression as the United States too. We can’t just stage a protest without getting a licence – yes, you need a licence to stage a protest in Singapore. During the IMF World Bank Conference, protests are allowed in a conference room because all outdoor protests are prohibited. I shall quote Gems Sty guide to how to stage a protest in Singapore.

During the IMF World Bank Conference, the protestors are handed out guidelines to follow. It looks like this:

Some Do�??s and Don�??ts when using the designated area

Please observe these do�??s and don�??ts when using the designated area so as to ensure as little disruption as possible to other activities taking place in Suntec Singapore.

• Do: Keep both your IMF/WB and designated area passes visible at all times.
• Do: Keep the noise to an acceptable level. For this reason, sound amplification systems should not be used.
• Do: Be appropriately attired at all times and respect the cultural sensitivities of all participants to the Annual Meetings.
• Do: Keep all activities within the designated area
• Do: Keep the designated area free of food or drinks.
• Do: Avoid moving any of the barricades marking out the designated area.
• Don�??t: Burn anything as part of the gathering.
• Don�??t: Display anything or behave in a manner that would:
  1. Provoke a breach of the peace;
  2. Cause alarm or distress;
  3. Offend religious or racial/ethnic sensitivities; or
  4. Be prejudicial to the security of Singapore.

Due to safety concerns for persons in Suntec Singapore, we will not allow certain items to be brought into Suntec Singapore. Such items include wooden and metal poles or wooden cut-outs. Upon request and subject to availability, substitute materials will be made available to hold up banners and placards.

Also, you cannot just speak in the public and gather an audience, you will need to do that in a special Speaker’s Corner.

Yeah, so not much freedom in Singapore. And by the way, Singapore is among the safest countries around.

As for religion, Singapore Population of Census 2000 shows:

Buddhism and Taoism, which were traditional Chinese religions, jointly accounted for 51 per cent of the resident population aged 15 years and above in 2000 compared with 54 per cent in 1990. The main shift had been from Taoism to Buddhism among the Chinese. The proportion of Muslims and Hindus remained relatively unchanged at 15 per cent and 4 per cent respectively.

The shift towards Christianity continued but the increase in proportion of Christians was very gradual – from 10 per cent in 1980 to 13 per cent in 1990 and 15 per cent in 2000. The increase was among the better-educated Chinese who were more inclined towards Christianity.

Source: Singapore Infomap

Singapore exhibit good religious tolerance. It’s kinda like you serve your own God, I serve mine; we may try to convert each other but respect for each other’s religion must still be present. After all, religion is still quite a sensitive issue.

Jehovah’s Witnesses (a Christian group) is disallowed practice in Singapore as it opposed to the current two-year mandatory military service (conscription). In the 1980s, Singapore “advised” Christian evangelists to stop distribution of Christian materials in Malay language. Most of the local Malays are Muslims and some Christians are trying to convert over the Muslims. Then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew condemned “insensitive evangelization” as a serious threat to racial harmony. (More information on Religions in Singapore.)

[via Digg]

Round like a shot

Going to bed the other night, I noticed people in my shed stealing things.

I phoned the police but was told no one was in the area to help. They said they would send someone over as soon as possible.

I hung up. A minute later I rang again. ‘Hello,’ I said, ‘I called you a minute ago because there were people in my shed. You don’t have to hurry now, because I’ve shot them.’

Within minutes there were half a dozen police cars in the area plus helicopters and an armed response unit. They caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the officers said, ‘I thought you said you’d shot them.’

To which I replied, ‘I thought you said there was no one available.’

Tony Gladstone

This is just too funny. Don’t try this to the local police though. They will not find it to funny.

Anyway, as for what happen to that man… Well, this is probably a joke. If it weren’t a joke, he’ll be charged.

It is likely that this is taken from British newspaper The Times.

[via Digg]

I found these lightbulb jokes in Reader Digest. I’m quite sick of light bulb jokes actually but these light bulb jokes made me laugh so I’ll share with you guys.

Journalists’ Jokes

Q: How many sub-editors does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: We can’t tell whether you mean “insert a new lightbulb” or “have sexual relations inside a lightbulb.” Can we reword it to remove ambiguity?

Q: How many art directors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Does it have to be a lightbulb?

Q: How many proof readers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: The last time this was asked it involved Art Directors. Is the difference intentional? It seems inconsistent.

Q: How many writers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Why do we have to change it?

Q: How many editors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: It was supposed to be in place last week!

Q: How many publishers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Three.. One to screw it in and two more to hold down the editor.

Q: How many marketing directors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: It isn’t too late to make it neon, is it?

Q: How many advertising directors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: We’re not sure because the client might change it tomorrow. Cut some editorial anyway.

Sent in to Reader Digest by Adeline Loh. Published on page 95 on September 2006 Reader Digest.

You know, you shouldn’t really trust the photographs in your magazines. I have seen lots of pictures of cute girls in Singapore magazine 8 Days or local tabloid The New Paper. They’re on the pages begging you to call them at a 1900 number. You think you’ll really be calling the girl on the photographs? Dream on! You’ll probably end up calling the inconsiderate auntie who hangs her wet clothes outside the apartment above yours. Yeah, she’ll report that she’s sweet seventeen (with a sore throat) or something.

I always wonder if they had gotten those images from Japanese pornography websites. Maybe she’s just a lingerie model or lesser-known celebrity from Taiwan.

_(This photo shows a blond girl next to the slogan: “Deutsch ist Geil!” or “German is Hot!”)_

A german magazine, Objektiv, got into bad press after they feature a photograph of a girl with the text – German is Hot.

German right-wing extremists had hoped to lure teenagers to their cause in Cologne with a new youth magazine. The nationalists even had an ad with an attractive young girl next to the slogan: “German is Hot!” The only problem? The model turned out to be a Czech erotic model.

…the photo in question is of an attractive blond in a tank top and short skirt next to the slogan: “German is Hot!” But in an embarrassing faux pas for the German nationalists, it now it turns out that the Teutonic hottie is actually a Czech lingerie model. So much for offering a “free-patriotic point of view,” as was supposedly the remit of the less-than-objective Objektiv.

Source: Spiegel Online via BoingBoing

See! These people don’t give a damn where the girl comes from. I doubt the local magazines or newspapers bother to check if the models on advertisements are gotten from some teen who regularly jerks off at some Japanese websites.

Well, speaking of images, take a look at this amazingly huge piece of pixel art.

Mr. Miyagi quoted me in local newspaper TODAY. I feel quite excited being quoted, I’m smiling to my CRT monitor now. Thanks for quoting me there, Mr. Miyagi.

(I got quoted in TODAY paper.)

Did you get the numbers right?

Afterthoughts and comments by Netizens about the election

WITH the dust still settling from Saturday’s polls, check out the post-election quips from our bloggers.

On the still-brewing James Gomez saga, blogger “beconfused” (beconfused.com) wondered whether it would be the end of the Workers’ Party member’s career.

“If the PAP are aggressive enough, perhaps it may just be the end of politics for James Gomez. In Singapore, to survive in politics, you will need a squeaky clean image. You wear white,” he said.

Read the whole article at TODAY in pdf or html.

I think this is the first time I’ve been quoted in a printed media, unless I missed it out. I don’t really have the chance to grab a copy of TODAY on most days as I either stay in camp or don’t pass by the MRT station. Thank you, viv, for pointing it out to me. That made my day.

On Thursday’s Today newspaper, the excerpt writes the following.

The guys on _Project Superstar_ may lack the X chromosome – but not the X-factor

Source: TODAY (Singapore) newspaper, published on Thursday, June 2, 2005.

I pitied the men who lost their X chromosome due to the reporters failure to do a little bit more research. At least the men themselves are truly wonderous since they manage to survive till this date with just a Y chromosome.

[While women has 2 X chromosomes in each cell in normal conditions, men has an X and a Y chromosome.]

I don’t know if you guys from Singapore have noticed this – recently there has been numerous news articles regarding bloggers. There was this incident about an A*STAR scholar who written something extra that gotten into trouble. [Mr. Dew had his internship in an A*STAR company.]

The term “got browned” got New-Papered. I onced wanted to make a button that says “got beconfused” but I figured that is a sign of a overly-obsessed blogger and seems too proud. My idea came from another blogger though – Heather Armstrong who got dooced. While I never did make a “got beconfused” button, I shamelessly made link buttons for my blog although I am pretty aware no one would be using them anyway.

Newspapers ran various articles on blogging – how to blog, blogging personalities etc.. It seems like the newspaper editor is obsessed with blog or something. I supposed there would be mixed reactions. There will be people applauding the promotion of blogging and there would be a bunch of people who still cannot accept the fact that their friends are posting things related to them online.

I believed that many people in Singapore are blogging. I am one of them. I don’t have a large fan base like XiaXue, I think she has got 8,000 hits per day and I don’t think I’ll ever reach that amount of audience. She has a legion of faithful readers and I have a legion of search engine crawling around my site only.

I not-so-secretly hoped one day I would receive 8,000 hits too. I need to target an audience though, something that I have always been unable to do. The key to getting more hits is to specialize your blog. If you like to blog about Singapore, blog about Singapore all the way. If your interest is the internet and its bunch of bloggers, keep blogging about those. And if you are just one of those “personal diarist”, keep posting pretty pictures of yourself and your vibrator (just the vibrator alone of course; although I would doubt the male fans would mind much).

My blog is a combination of everything (without the vibrator of course), it’s a true holy location of the internet where all the crap comes together. I like people to read all the crap I posted up. Nafcom calls his blog Nafcom’s Crap Blog!, I think mine probably fits the bill more sometimes. Yet another crap entry. Oh boy, I think it even went out of point.