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Monday, September 18, 2006
Some excellent photos of the Saturday protest here.
Posted at 10:48 pm by gaylegoh
 | | | One PAP
September 22, 2006 03:56 PM PDT
Gandhi Ambalam's Speech at Speaker's Corner
Gandhi is former PSC scholar, chief Editor at TCS who is now part of the SDP. Smart Guy.
Really Good Speech, Please take a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-vaNPFzk6s | |
| | | whybegay
September 20, 2006 04:47 PM PDT
Gayle, I think you need to see this.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=IMF&id=231272
Title : Activists not convinced S'pore-bashing Paul Wolfowitz on their side
By : Jasmine Yin, TODAY
Date : 19 Sep 2006 1348 hrs (GMT + 8hrs)
The irony is that he is normally the target, not the man on the high horse.
When World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz took it upon himself to champion the cause of the civil society organisations (CSOs) - by taking a swipe at Singapore - he did not convince too many activists that he was on their side. On the other hand, he has managed to irritate a number of Singaporeans.
When Singaporean authorities wanted to keep a number of activists at bay for the duration of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -World Bank meetings here, Mr Wolfowitz publicly termed the move "authoritarian".
He went on to say that a lot of damage had been done to Singapore and that much of it was "self-inflicted".
While a compromise of sorts has been struck on the activists issue, some Singaporeans are outraged by Mr Wolfowitz's public comments.
Said Ms P L Tay, a manager in the tourism industry: "I found it rude and I feel very sad because the amount of preparations that we put in was humongous, be it retailers, the police, hoteliers or the airport staff. We literally closed down the country for you. You're a guest and you can be diplomatic even if you are not happy about something."
Echoing her sentiment was law graduate Siow Jia Rui, who felt that it would be naive to think that the IMF and World Bank officials were unaware of Singapore's strict stance on protests.
He said: "The IMF and World Bank are in a position whereby they know their personal safety will not be in doubt and they look good when they say they want to engage the CSOs, but their hands are tied because, 'Sorry, Singapore does not want to let them in'."
The delegates are able to breathe easier this year because unlike at previous meetings, whereby they "get slammed left, right, centre", a lot of CSOs are firing their salvos at Singapore, which takes some heat off the delegates, he argued.
According to local media reports, World Bank officials are said to be privately "very happy"with the arrangements by the S2006 organising committee for the meetings.
Some observers also found it hypocritical that the World Bank, which is now stressing its liberal image, had picked an unobtrusive site for the protests even though Singaporean authorities had offered it more prominent venues.
So was Mr Wolfowitz right to criticise Singapore?
Ms Sandy Krawitz of ActionAid International said bluntly: "When it comes to democracy, the World Bank and IMF are no experts."
Describing Mr Wolfowitz as the "architect of the Iraq war three years ago" and touching on the controversy over his appointment to head the World Bank, as well as the anti-democratic manner that the IMF and World Bank hammers out economic policies for developing countries, Ms Krawitz argued that the two institutions knew exactly what they were getting into when Singapore was picked as a host venue in 2003.
Also, the two institutions should have started liaising with the Singapore authorities "way ahead" of this month's meetings if they were keen on engaging the CSOs.
Added Ms Krawitz: "I think that when you point your finger at someone else, you're pointing the other four back at yourself."
Ms Shalmali Guttal from Focus on the Global South has reason to be bitter. She is one of the five activists who will not be allowed into Singapore. She would like an explanation for that.
Even so, she does not buy the World Bank's efforts to ingratiate itself with the CSOs, when it is a target of much of their ire. Besides, she says she has nothing against Singaporeans.
"Singaporeans have been so nice," concurred Ms Krawitz. "I really do understand the Four Million Smiles campaign." - /ra TODAY
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| | | whybegay
September 20, 2006 03:41 PM PDT
So, what else are presents for foreigners? Besides the ugly banners, the printed t-shirts, the nice flowers for them at the airport and on the streets?
You make the protest sound so hypocrite and self-centred, no wonder so few Singaporeans supported the protests, since the protest is *about* foreigners and not about Singaporeans welfare.
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| | | whybegay
September 20, 2006 03:35 PM PDT
Oh? Says who? | |
| | | whybegay's poor humor
September 20, 2006 03:29 PM PDT
whybegay, the banners are meant for foreigners, not you | |
| | | whybegay
September 20, 2006 03:08 PM PDT
I was actually getting to my constructive points before the interuptions.
I believe my theory states that homosexuality is caused by suppressed needs to connect and relate effectively to people. It is parallel to the failure of protesters to communicate with people, which led to their physical protests to communicate.
Similar as homosexuality culture, physical protests utilise body languages such as physical actions and motions to attempt to communicate and connect with others.
But one would question whether the protesters are attempting to communicate to the protestees or are they trying to connect to the people who support their cause in order to gain more support?
I believe physical protests are like mini forms of war. And wars are caused by the failures to communicate interests properly beforehand. This point can be refered from Queen Amidala from Star Wars. It was a movie series about diplomacy, politics and wars.
So, in a way, physical protests are like crude forms of using body language to communicate to others.
Having said all these, I do not personally believe in the effectiveness or logic of physical protests, when there are many other channels and forms to protest a view, such as using logic and constructive language.
A physical protest whether it is violent or peaceful, only hopes to use large crowds of people to intimidate others to succumb to a view.
It is no different from bullying and intimidation.
So this is the relevance of homosexuality as a body language culture to this blog post, so how do funerals have got to do with protests?
btw, do direct any personal grievances anyone may have at *my* blog http://whybegay.blogspot.com, instead of disrespecting Gayle's blog by talking about out of point and unconstructive topics and wasting her blog space. I'm sure Gayle would greatly appreciate any civil co-operation of the matter.
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| | | whybegay's lost conscience
September 20, 2006 11:16 AM PDT
whybegay
So I guess this whole bunch of irrelevent and misinterpreted side talk means you have nothing relevent of interest to *constructively* contribute to the topic? | |
| | | whybestraight
September 20, 2006 11:13 AM PDT
whybegay,
What has your amazing THEORY of why homosexuality happens got to do with this thread that Gayle posted, protests, banners and the comments that comes after it? | |
| | | whybegay
September 20, 2006 06:16 AM PDT
btw I forgot to add, please state any grievances anyone may have, otherwise my theory that homosexuality is caused by suppressed needs to connect and relate effectively to people would prove itself to be true once again. | |
| | | whybegay
September 20, 2006 05:57 AM PDT
Sorry, I'm not taoist. My funeral doesn't need banners. But I would like white orchids, the smell of french vanilla. | |
| | | Whybedumb like whybegay
September 20, 2006 03:13 AM PDT
Whybegay,
Request denied? It's ok.. I promise I'd do a nice and colourful banner at your funeral. | |
| | | whybegay
September 20, 2006 01:50 AM PDT
Sorry, request denied. | |
| | | whybestraight
September 20, 2006 01:30 AM PDT
whybegay,
Why don't you show us what a pretty and professional looking done up banner looks like? And make sure you go to Hong Lim Park to display it for all of us to see how an expert do it. | |
| | | whybegay
September 19, 2006 11:26 PM PDT
I have never seen such horrendously amateurish banners in public before. But I think Singapore is slowly gaining a reputation for advocating with t-shirts haha. | |
| | | w
September 19, 2006 04:39 PM PDT
Lucky Tan
I do not consider him brave. The brave demonstrators are those in countries in which you risk being shot to death.
He is to me a rabble rouser if he ever comes to power will lead to the economic decline of the country and the dissapointment of all but his hardcore supporters similiar to Chen Shui Bian.
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| | | Lucky Tan
September 19, 2006 08:06 AM PDT
Thanks for showing us pictures of the world's smallest democracy march.
Where are all the people who were suppose to be EMPOWERED by this march? They are busy using their buying power at Best Denki.
CSJ and gang are VERY BRAVE. They are the ONLY people who are BRAVE. The rest either can't be bothered or are scared.
See what a great nation we have after 40 years of PAP. We have a great nation of shoppers in Singapore Inc.
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| | | teh_si
September 19, 2006 01:53 AM PDT
you can find some excellent pictures of day 1 happenings here:
http://s96.photobucket.com/albums/l197/sg_harrass/march06/?start=all
pictures taken by me (day 1-3):
http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n192/edmundkhor/
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