Posts

• May 13, 2011

  Faceless Tumbling

  When I first started mini-blogging on my Tumblr, I thought that I no longer had much to write on this blog anymore. After all, all thought and observations can be posted on Tumblr right?

  I was wrong. Tumblr is, in many ways, handicapped. It promotes a viral distribution of content among the community but it does not encourage a 2-way discussion and interaction with content owners. A quick stroll down the Tumblr lane exposes Tumblrs that consists of nothing but “reblogged” posts from other Tumblrs. There is little curation. Even less are opinions being formed. Too many people are parroting information, but to who and for what?

  I’ve decided that opinion pieces are best blogged while linked-list items are best left on Tumblr as it allows the title of the post to be set to the linked site. Hence, I shall migrate a few opinion pieces from Tumblr to this place to get the ball rolling in reigniting this blog.

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• May 10, 2011

  Can They Deliver?

  Imagine when applying to an institute of higher learning, would the application form ask if you’d be a dean’s lister? Would the undergraduate admissions office require applicants to be 1st-class honours degree holders? I’d think that such questions would undermine the credibility and reputation of the university.

  Yet similarly, I’ve heard, through my interactions with various people, questioning of the ability of the opposition to deliver on their promises. Akin to the analogy cited above, it sounded ridiculous.

  A more appropriate question would be, “are they qualified to serve the people?”

  Within the A-teams of the contesting opposition parties, with the exception of the Reform Party, I can see that almost all candidates are more qualified that the ruling party’s marine parade GRC candidate, Ms. Tin.

  Given the robust selection process of new candidates within the ruling party, as they have claimed, is it really that difficult to find qualified people to run for public office? Is she the best the ruling party can offer as its weakest candidate?

  So the most appropriate person to answer the question of qualifications would be Ms. Tin. Wouldn’t you think so?

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• May 10, 2011

  The Manifestos

  A shockingly common refrain that I’ve seen in the comments section of YouTube videos of opposition speeches are insinuations that the opposition have no plans for Singapore when elected. I hope these are their personal thoughts and are not parroted phrases from disinformation sowers. Either way, comments of such effect reflect extremely lazy and sloppy mental faculty.

  Concrete plans (Manifesto) by each opposition party are available on their individual websites. It scares me that they can’t even be bothered to find out before screaming that they have no plans. This ridiculous expectation of being spoon-fed reflects very poorly of our education system. With the rise of the Internet and Google, is it that difficult to lift a finger to access each party’s manifesto and read?

  More annoyingly, for those that just parrot arguments without thinking over their merits, deserve to be shot on two counts. One for propagating misinformation and two for being intellectually dishonest and lazy.

  Another common refrain pertains to the details of the manifestos. Most often, they will claim that the ideas presented in the manifestos are “too vague” and are thus “unreliable” and “non-credible”, and hence they should support the ruling party.

  This line of logic puzzles me as the manifesto produced by the ruling party is even more vague, complete with sentences that anybody can come up with. For the calibre of the ruling party they claim to be, I’d expected more. I’m insulted that the skimpy manifesto of theirs is actually produced by the group of the most highly paid ministers in the world. Surely they could have put in a little more effort? Or at least, stop claiming that the opposition lacked concrete plans, and that their manifestos require more scrutiny. In fact, there’s nothing in the ruling party’s manifesto to even scrutinise to return them their favour.

  Quoting their favourite gauge of merit, the “track record”, I believe that the various parties’ manifestos are good representations of it. Any party in or out of parliament can produce one, as long as they put their hearts and minds to it.

  Based on this gauge, how does the ruling party fair compared to the opposition parties? How much effort and thought can you see and feel from it?

  If you were a teacher and you’ve tasked your students to produce a manifesto of what policies they would like to introduce in Singapore, what kind of grades would you give the various submissions?

  So really, voters of Singapore, voters for our future, please exercise critical thinking and do a little bit of homework before believing everything that the ruling party claims, especially the press and media. Don’t be lazy, physically and intellectually. Think and find out.

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• Jun 6, 2010

  Blogging, mini-Blogging and micro-Blogging

  The problem of content sharing has never been a new one but the recent influx of content sharing options and platforms have given this problem which was once solved an added dimension.

  In the beginning, the only way for a user to share content to the public, be it a link, thought, or a joke, was to do so via his own website. This was a complex procedure that only the very tech-savvy was capable of pulling off.

  Then, push-button publishing, popularised by Blogger, came along and it made sharing content with the public a whole lot easier. Still, some degree of technical compentency was needed but not as much as before.

  Now, Twitter popularised the concept of micro-blogging where users can publish content not longer than 160 characters. Tumblr came along and extended it to mini-blogging where users are encouraged to share short snippets of contents that have trouble fitting within a tweet.

  Facebook, determined to be the social site, started emphasising on sharing features within the Facebook community. This community however is a walled garden where only authorised friends are allowed viewership and comment on users shared content. Worse, the ability to search through past shared content is almost nonexistent. It’s almost perfect for sharing short links due to the convenience but with limited reach.

  I have been a lot busier over the past month and have fallen into the trap of using Facebook as the primary way to share interesting content. Given the reasons above, I’ve decided to share short content via my Tumblr instead, leaving longer and denser posts for my Blog. This way, my blog won’t be cluttered with numerous short shared content pieces.

  So, follow my Tumblr for content that used to be shared on my Facebook profile only, Twitter for status updates, and this blog for longer posts.

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