Oops! Former Navy Seal poster in a bit of bother!

[PNGMK]

I liked the part where "the judge was not having any of that shit."

That's added by the coconuts website

It's got a nice ring to the story though .

In my imaginary version of Singapore, Singaporeans have a sense of humor and the authorities are badass.

They're getting closer to it. As people like my son move into the various gahmen branches I can see that happening. Broad minded, secure in themselves = sense of humour.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Tis true, that.

[JR8]

They're getting closer to it. As people like my son move into the various gahmen branches I can see that happening. Broad minded, secure in themselves = sense of humour.

The 'feel' has changed a lot in the 20 years I've witnessed. Back then there was a tangible feel of paranoia re: going about one's daily business. Perhaps the evolution and birth then of public access to media (internet, non-state TV etc) required a swift response that was impossible to be unaware of. It could be pretty in your face (like the day you learned that all your phone calls were passively monitored, or, the day you learned your album (you'd had for years and innocently brought in from abroad) by The Prodigy, or Rage Against The Machine was illegal) but then as a rich and small country perhaps the likes of home-internet and a globalised media came to SG early. We now know that such monitoring exists to varying extents in even countries that are considered the freest of the free. [Perhaps for reasons of scale and political sensitivity the latter simply responded to it more slowly, and so had the unintended advantage of being able to implement such controls more subtly?].

I think there is acceptance now of this new-normal. And the controls are much more in the background, less in your face, than they used to be. Old habits die hard though, there are (more mature) SGn households I know where discussing 'serious things' like politics is still taboo. And when it very occasionally happens it is done in a whispered, assumed to be subversive, manner; even if it is entirely innocuous. Sometimes I find local social events unrewarding in this respect, in 'the West' we get used to discussing such things, in fact it can be socially expected/polite* to engage in such conversation. I still get a sense that there is something deeply ingrained in many SGns, 'current affairs' is still pretty taboo - 'we're here to have fun, let's not bother about this [serious stuff] haha'. That said it is now nothing like it was 20 years ago. It reminds me of trying to get a Japanese person to reply 'no' to a question; it is so ingrained such that 95% can't and won't.*2

* back home, any typical visit to friends or esp. family will require some level of ritualistic 'righting the world' political sparring. It's not so much learning about or changing the views of others, it is much more simply enjoying the errr... technical art of winning a debate; 'it's fun', and it invariably is. Pity my SGn wife visiting my parents She is modest and understated as a good SGn usually is, she doesn't come equipped with strident opinions to be argued over. But she makes a special effort for them and tries, as not doing so would be to 'not play the game'

*2 to the extent we had one of those brief and passing social office games of 'trying to get the JPnese person to reply 'no' to a question'. So the fun was to intentionally frame a question as best as one could to which the only possible reply was 'no', and then observe how that reply was circumnavigated around [Silly I know, we were young...]

[nakatago]

They're getting closer to it. As people like my son move into the various gahmen branches I can see that happening. Broad minded, secure in themselves = sense of humour.

The 'feel' has changed a lot in the 20 years I've witnessed. Back then there was a tangible feel of paranoia re: going about one's daily business. Perhaps the evolution and birth then of public access to media (internet, non-state TV etc) required a swift response that was impossible to be unaware of. It could be pretty in your face (like the day you learned that all your phone calls were passively monitored, or, yackity, schmackity, blah, blah, blah...have a glass of OJ, son...

I'm sure the change would be apparent by the time you finish typing your responses...

[ecureilx]

I'm sure the change would be apparent by the time you finish typing your responses...

I was going to ask for an abstract of the previous post

[sundaymorningstaple]

ksl would be proud of his successor.

[the lynx]

I'm impressed that Addadude remembers!

[Addadude]

ksl would be proud of his successor.

Very true!

[JR8]

.... I'll have to write a 10-page Ritalin prescription for the New Twitterpore Generation

[aka pi$$ off ]