Regime change & Holidays

I awoke this morning to discover to my great surprise that during the night a coup d'etat had taken place in Thailand. Now I was supposed to fly to Bangkok this Friday for the weekend to visit friends before continuing to Cambodia for a few days during an upcoming school vacation. I presume that a normal person would seriously consider canceling in light of an armed revolt by the military. For those of you who haven’t caught on, I never did “normality” very well. What I did do however was call the airline and ask to get on the next available flight, which is tonight (Thursday), so I will be off to Bangkok to see what’s going on.

Seeing as Singapore is quite boring (did anyone say IMF protests?), I look forward to a little intrigue. Having lived in the Middle East, I seem to get antsy when the greatest risk is getting a $5000 fine for spitting on the street.

I started a little tradition a few years back, to do something exciting (preferably in the form of travel) for my Birthday. This year, assuming I make it out of Bangkok, I will be going to Angkor in Cambodia, which is apparently one of the worlds greatest sights to behold. I find this the best form of birthday present, besides perhaps cold-hard cash, since it gives me something to look forward to, a reason to continue with the drudgery of life, for one more year. So far it’s been going peaty well….

I will post picts when I get back, so you have something to look forward to.

And now for something completely different

As some of you know, I spend a lot of time suffering the web. YouTube has proven to be a great companion during those long dull chapters about the pathologies of international organization zzzzzz

Here 2 things i came acorss (2 for a balanced opinion)

A funny Iranian doing standup. I think all middle-easterners have similar experiences in the US…



You see, this is why the British managed a sustainable occupation, they can sing and dance!! No water boarding, checkpoints, just dancing. That will scare off any resistance



Enjoy!!!

And now for the NGO’s turn…

As I posted earlier, the IMF/WB meeting is taking place this year in Singapore. As the local authorities have been less then welcoming towards the civil society community, several NGOs have organized their usual meeting in at the nearby Indonesian island of Batam. They held a 3 day conference over the weekend before the IMF meetings. I went over for the 2nd day of discussions to see what’s what.

In my last posting I was critical of the Singaporean authorities, now it’s the NGOs turn. I will start with the caveat – I was only there for 1 day and did not participate in all of the meetings (since they overlapped). Those discussions I did participate in didn’t give me great hope, not just for the regional NGOs who were the bulk, but for the entire community of int’l NGOs. What I encountered there is symptomatic of a greater problem in the NGO community, and not a problem limited to those who participated.

Even the local cops were interested....

Such meetings of diverse, critical, caring and talented people hold within them great potential. Unfortunately that fizzled away. How did this happen? NGO type people, and I speak as one of them, have a tendency to preach. Sometimes they get so used to preaching they cant seem to stop, even when they are surrounded by other NGO people who know and AGREE with all their arguments. This doesn’t happen very often, and I understand them. But when sucha rare forum does take place, it seems to me a waste of time to spend hours in meeting after meeting whinning about the evil & corrupt practices of International Finance Institutions (IFIs) and Developed countires. Yes, I know, as does everybody else in the room. The question is what are we going to do about it?! Sorry, no time for that, we need to hear another hart-wrenching story about a fisherperson (turns out ‘fisherman’ is no longer PC) who cant make a living anymore because Shell stuck an oil rig next to his island.

With all these clever and energetic people congregated in one room, I think a real discussion of tactics, methods, and strategic planning in order to fight for change is called for. But no, let’s turn it into another pointless feel-good narrative sharing exercise in collective masturbation. Sounds harsh? Well it is. Anybody who has been to one of these knows exactly what I’m talking about. The time for networking and story telling is at night over several pints of beer, not during 3 days of group talks.

If the NGO community wants to actually achieve something, they must act. They need to stop reacting to what the “forces of evil” are doing and initiate action, let them react to us. How can this be done? First by stop waddling in our own indignation. After we do that, we can get the great minds within our community to work together towards common goals, instead of running around like headless chickens in tie-dyes. Then we can start producing positive suggestions. We should be telling the IMF what they should do instead of yelling at them to stop what they are doing. The one advantage the “forces of evil” have over us, is that they got their act together. Until we get ours together we wont succeed in bringing them down.

IMF and stuff

As many of you have heard, the upcoming IMF/WB meetings are to be held next week in little ol` Singapore. One of the many little ironies that exist in the universe, is that a central theme of this years IMF/WB meetings is “Good governance and Social Accountability”. Let me remind you that this is taking place in a country where a public gathering of more then 4 people is illegal, unless 1) they register for a permit 30 days prior 2) it is organized by the gov’t itself (did I mention that its been the same party in power since 1965?).

To show the world that they are not really bad guys, the benevolent Singaporean authorities have allotted an air-conditioned indoor space for civil society organization (CSO is the local equivalent of NGO) to protest. Oh yeah, the “Hall” is 8 by 8 meters, and all participants need to register and identify themselves before they can get in…

So basically it’s a big sham. I would define the reaction here as somewhere between martial law and a paranoid farther of a teen-age girl on prom night. You know who I feel bad for? Believe it or not Singapore. Why? Two reasons. 1st, Singapore is a nice place to visit and apparently a good place to do business. 2nd, they set themselves up for a PR disaster. Even if the IMF meeting ends really well for the world poor, apologizes for past mistakes , and promises to try really hard to make up for it (which of course it won’t) no one will talk about it. All that will be remembered is the crackdown on dissenting views.What the Singaporean authorities should have done, was let the foreigners have their protests and make into a non-issue, instead of turning it into the central issue.

I doubt that this would have a significant affect on local politics, and definitely wouldn’t cause the Singaporean masses to pour unto the streets. Unfortunately the political awareness here is still far form that. Instead their crackdown has only acted to consolidate local dissatisfaction with their gov’t, and increased international awareness of the screwed up reality here.

The best explanation I have heard so far for the gov’ts actions came from a local activist who said "It represents a certain blindness on the part of the Singapore government toward matters of public opinion, which can be traced to the fact that they are so used to ignoring it.” Such wide criticism of public policy is just something that doesn’t exist here, and after so long I guess the politicians just stopped believing it exists. I hope this fiasco serves as a wake call for the Singaporean leadership to finely initiate political reforms that will give voice to people they rule. I think by now Singaporeans have earned it, even if it take international attention to remind them of that.

9/11 reflections

I like this guy, opinionated, coherent, and ranting. Just my type....



enjoy!!!

9/11

Tomorrow is 9/11, and I thought this clip is a great reminder of why the Big Apple is the best town around.

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If you’re interested in a new perspective on 9/11 try “Loose Change”, a low-budget ($6000) nearly home made movie has been going around the net.

Uniquely Singapore

I haven’t written much about Singapore itself in the blog, and I believe its about time. The official tourist slogan here is “Uniquely Singapore”, and many ex-pats use in a tongue-in-cheek manner to explain the locale eccentricies. To clarify, when I speak of Singaporeans, I mean the general population and the dominate atmosphere, not individuals. I have met some amazing and courageous individuals here, who recognize many of the phenomena that I will point out below, and try to change it.

For the most part, what I find frustrating is the total lack of out-of-the-box thinking. Singaporeans seem oblivious to the existence of the box itself, and are confused when one (usually me) points out that something may not be the best/most efficient way to do something. Another thing I noticed here is the high level of control. This is felt benignly, but felt none the less. While there aren’t storm-troopers and secret police all over, there is a sense of control (at least one that a paranoid lefty like me feels). The clearest manifestation of this are the crazy signs everywhere that tell you how things should be done. In the bathroom stalls there are signs to remind you to flush, on the sinks a sign to remind you to dry your hands with a towel (so that the floor remains dry, and nobody slips and dies), on the tress reminding you not to smoke, on the subway explaining that the 40,000 CC Tv’s are for your protection etc. etc. lets see some….


they do stink somthing awful


i think i need to pay


fair enough....


it realy is...

There is also a serious deficiency in humor, irony, and self-jest. Now of course there is the outside chance that I’m not funny, which is why people look blankly at me when I make a crack here. Yet the foreigners who happen to be there get it, and think its funny, so I’m pretty sure it is Singapore. You decide....


even the dead get finned here


What?!!


tell me this isn’t a giant phallic....

This is all without mentioning the upcoming World Bank/IMF meeting to be held without a single protester, who have all been neatly put on a neighboring island (Bintam), that just happens to be in a different country (Indonesia). And this strikes no-one as weird... Like I said, uniquely Singapore.

Live from the UK

I have been meaning to update my Blog sooner, but have been busy with school here. 6 courses, with each professor thinking that they are the only class on earth assigning 3 books a week…. Crazies. Well I did ask for it, my workaholic tendencies took over me. I was always bad at keeping a diary, but I’m trying…

Feeling bad for me? Don’t. Last week I flew last minute to the UK, to participate in my cousins wedding (congrates Nikki & Darien!!). Emerits airlines was great, and I even got upgraded to Business class!! The wedding was amazing, the weather great (nice to be cold again), and fun tremendous. Not to gloat, but my family knows how to have a good time, as many drunken uncles and cousins can testify too...


Me & th Uncles Nikki & Darien


Me in Regents Park

On my last day in London, prior to an 18 hour flight back, I went to the Notting Carniville. It was good fun, in sharp contrast to Singapore!!!


Me and the cousins at Notting Hill