Friday 23 October 2009

What a stupid article....

Check out this link, and read what’s inside.
(http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/20/live-porn-aboard-economy-train.html)

I’ll give you 3 minutes.
One, two, three...
Done?
I took me just 10 seconds to read this article before my blood temperature suddenly hit the high note.
The article was named: Live porn aboard an economy train?
It was about how in Indonesia, in the commuter trains in greater Jakarta, people breastfed their children in public, which the article said would make “.....the group of men ... enjoyed free porn that hot day.”
I think it’s sick to say that opening your blouse to breastfeed your baby would be considered as porn. For God sake, it’s an act of Love! Not porn!
The writer wrote,“How can a baby exploit their own mother’s privacy just to satisfy their hunger or thirst?” Again, she hasn’t done her homework. Don’t you know that that’s the only emotion that a baby knows? Babies are not born with database of emotions you know and of course she can’t TALK or find food on her own! She only knows that if she feels hungry, thirsty, wet, or uncomfortable, then she’ll have to grab her mother attention by... of course ,crying!
She mentioned that ‘guys’ kept watching the event curiously. Well, male commuters will always be watching this kind of incident, since commuter train in Jakarta is usually used by people from ‘that’ education level. We can ask the mothers to try covering up the breast, for example with some cloth, or bring some extra formula/breast milk on bottles. But, if these people could afford the luxury of having a breast-cover or a milk bottle, they obviously will take another mode of better but more expensive, transportation, not some low-key economy train.
Looking from the way she wrote this article, this person, whoever wrote it, has never felt the joy of breastfeeding your child, or maybe even worst, never felt the warmth of being breastfed by her mother.
I also believe that she probably never watched “real porn,” before she used this term in her so -called writing.
Please Mrs./ Ms. writer (yes, the name implied that she’s a woman), don’t be a mother , you’ll be ruining a generation or two by telling your daughter to breastfeed is to perform an act of porn. (Or maybe in fact, God had read this article and noticed that you are probably not capable of being a woman or a mother?). And do yourself your homework by watching Asia Carrera or Miyabi before using the word porn unwisely!
Shame on you, for thinking the way you think right now, and shame on Jakarta Post for publishing this article. Congratulation for creating such a low-quality, stirring up article!

Thursday 8 October 2009

The low Miss Low??

I just got back in Singapore and voila! The first thing on the paper I read - other than stories about Padang - is the blunder in Singapore Beauty Pageant results. Well, not the results, but more on the behaviour of the winner(s), especially the chosen miss Singapore, Ris Low.

She made headlines weeks ago after media found out that she has (on-going?) charges on credit card fraud. Then, when her colleague- the second place winner-made a remark about her support to Low, Low, instead of appraising her, made accusation that her colleague was the one who leaked the her cases to media.

Before that, Low also made stirred up comments during her interview, both during and after the pageant, you can see her interview here.

Not only that, recent news also mention that from now on, a judge on her fraud charges had ordered her not to shop alone anymore, because she had spent 8000 SGD on accessories, bags, shoes, right after her winning. Talk about being a material girl :p

What bothers me is not the quality of Low as a pageant winner, but more on the quality of the juries. I mean... contestants, of course, join the contest to be a winner and believe me, being a pageant contestant myself some 10 years ago; they would do ANYTHING to win. Including faking yourself in front of Juries for example, and I'm sure, this person is really good at that. A contestant certainly would try to conceal her weaknesses and not introducing herself like this: "Hello, I'm Ris and I love credit cards so much, I used up mine and other people's to splurge. I'm sure I can represent Singapore. No? "

Supposed a contestant shared an answer like this: "My quality? Oh, umm. Let's see... I'm easy going, I'm a quick learner and I always pursue my dreams and goals." Well, inexperienced jury might just eat the raw answer, but experienced judges would translate the answer to: "My quality? Oh, umm I'm a wild party goer, I cheat on my exams and I would do anything to win this contest as it has always been my dream." Only experienced and senior judges can differentiate this type of candidate from the real ones.

Then, as I mentioned earlier, how stupid can these Miss Singapore World juries can be? I'm sure she can fool one jury, but to fool a whole panel? It turns even crazier after I found out from the latest news that Low actually is suffering from bipolar disorder. How come the juries didn't get that from their interviews with her? Shouldn't contestant be exposed to at least a basic personality test? And her English.... man... even I can do better. And I started to speak English only when I was 10 or something (on my first trip to Singapore :p). There was also a blunder concerning the English ability of winner of a beauty pageant in Indonesia a couple of years ago. Miss Indonesia 2006 (or 2007), Nadine Chandrawinata came to Los Angeles for the Miss Universe Finale... and she didn't even know how to perform a decent interview. She called Indonesia as a nice "city", and her English was comparable to those of a high school's freshman. BUT, fortunately, physically Nadine is extremely, extremely beautiful. A 6 foot tall statuesque, brown eyes, big boobs, clear skin. And Ris Low? I can tell you she's extremely PHOTOGENIC- meaning she looks pretty after makeup and through the lenses only. But she's no beauty, both inside and outside.

So I presume, from next year on, not only the quality of the contestants should be improved but also the quality of the juries. In the mean time... I have 20 years to nurture supposedly, the future Miss Singapore/Indonesian and her name is Rania :p

Monday 5 October 2009

TURIKE IS BAAAAACCCKKK!!!

Finally, I'm back!!!
In case I forgot to mention, I just got back from Surabaya and Jakarta. I stayed in Surabaya for a week to visit my Mother in law, and then to Jakarta, the place where I grew up.
Surabaya is located near East Java Sea, which made the city humid and the temperature hot, VERY HOT. Just 5 minutes in an open space made me sweat like I had just finished a 5km run in midday. Another 5 mins and my skin would melt and dripped.
Life went slowly in Surabaya, perhaps it was just me? I dont know. But life here started at 5 am, because at 5.30 we would have sunrise already. So at 5pm, the sky was already dark and we would have sunset around 5.30 pm. By 6 we would have dinner, and by 7.... we have nothing to do. At 8, we were alrady in our pajamas. Sometimes I felt that I was in a time machine and it took us back to the 80's where we don't have internet and TV cable. How I miss those times and how I love Surabaya. Can't wait to be back next year!

And Jakarta? Still as crowded and busy as ever! We had only 3 or 4 'days of silence', the days where Jakarta's residents went home to their 'original' hometowns during the "eid Mubarak" holiday. After those days are over, roads were filled again, malls were crowded and people seemed to flood to all the places that I went to.
Rania even experienced something 'interesting' : a black out for 6 hours, because elecicity main generator had blown out.. Cool. Jakarta, how I miss you already.

Still, it's so nice to be back... no, it's not that I love singapore and its ambience that much, but it just feels good to be back on your OWN home. So good to be back to certainties, MRT, starhub, fast internet connection and... my VAIO PC :P