absolutum dominium

just as the singapore elections are rolling around and most blogs have decided to stop saying so much politically - and i will too, not because i am afraid, but because i have so much to say tt it will take far too long, and if i don't will have nothing to say at all... so with regards to tt if you want to read very funny political commentary, i recommend you to rockson's "renew my lan cheow okay?" post. it says probably everything i might want to say, but in a much funnier way. and i cannot imagine anyone being able to prosecute this blog in court... what can you probably say? "your honour, the use of the phrase'renew my lan cheow, ok? If they really believe in the new blood, how come still got Lau Lee and Lau Goh still there?' is defamatory to our MM and SM." counsel would first have to prove tt lau lee and lau goh refer to both respectively, and then proceed to explain that 'lan cheow' refers to a part of the male anatomy tt has no bearing on what rockson is trying to say, but is nonetheless and expression tt is possibly libellous nonetheless.

ok so go read tt. today my mildly intellectual (or so i'd like to believe) post of the day will revolve around the topic of public displays of affection. according to the malaysian news, kissing and hugging in public are to be considered indecent behaviour and perpetrators of such acts if caught, will be sentenced to jail or fined. thus was the case with this poor unfortunate couple tt led to the stumbling upon these new laws.

oh well. hey at the very least we can say tt singapore is more progressive coz we don't impose such laws, yet at least. but well, some forum writer to the sunday times decided to share his 2 cents worth on this issue.

"Rein in displays of passion in public

I REFER to the news report, 'KL kissing case sparks debate on indecency' (ST, April 7).

Although we do not have strict laws in Singapore to govern behaviour such as hugging and kissing in public, there is no reason why some of our youngsters should not behave decently when they are with their partners in public.

On countless occasions, I have observed teenagers kissing openly on buses and trains.

It is no holds barred for many when it comes to dis-playing their affection, even in places where their acts can be seen by all and sundry.

They should not forget that their action may offend the sensitivities of the people around them.

What has happened to the Asian values of modesty and decency? Let us resurrect these and inculcate them in our young for the benefit of our society.

Nelson Quah"

anyway i find the forum letter amusing. unsurprising (considering tt singapore perpetuates this culture of narrow-minded inflexibility masquerading as "conservatism" and the adherence to "traditional asian values of modesty and decency", but amusing. and already i have explained my reason for my lack of surprise.

what fuck asian values??? of modesty and decency some more? asian values is a myth perpetuated by the ruling party to justify an [~tmd. stupid ben tay has once again interrupted my train of thought~] assiduity of a paternalistic government tt prides itself on so-called "confucian values" regarding the "gentleman rulers" who are assumed to be noble and upright just because they dress all in white - 7 figure yearly salary nonwithstanding.

asian values has been disproved in asia, what with all the prostitution going on in our asian neighbours like bangkok and china. and don't tell me tt japan with their culture of hentai and teenage prostitution is any less asian? prostitution has been said to be one of the oldest professions in the world, permeating every single country and every single culture, be you western or eatern. and all this talk about what abstinence and the prizing of virginity and sexual chastity??? overrated lah i tell you. just another myth perpetuated by the ruling males in society to oppress females by expecting them to conform to unrealistic standards justified by cultural and religious doctrines. in china the emperor got how many fuck concubines??? what kind of asian values is tt??? the "mandate of heaven" is just a fairy tale tt people believed coz they were uneducated. tt doesn't make it any more right, or for tt matter any thing worth considering great or respectable, in my opinion.

let's face it. with increasing westernisation and globalisation, even we so-called repressed asians are opening up. there's no shame, nor should there be, in expressing affection or love for each other. singaporeans are not sexually-repressed (at least not before marriage. maybe because most people end up marrying so tt they can afford tt downpayment on tt hdb flat, which isn't exactly the best of reasons to get married, and not exactly the most sexually-provocative too). the durex surveys are probably answered by the wrong kinds of people - i.e. those who are so busy working to make money to pay off their housing loan, car loan, taxes, bills, more bills, children's education, okay maybe alimony etc etc etc to have sex -. either tt or durex is biased so tt they can try to get singaporeans to buy more condoms from them and increase their sales here. the rest of us... (whatever of us there are left) are not leh. at least not when you look at the climate of change and what's happening.

even with the many detractors (all the old narrow-minded fogeys), we can't deny tt blogs like sarongpartygirl, and even scandals like the tammy nyp video, are evidence tt singaporeans, at least not young singaporeans are no longer sweet innocent blushing young virgins. okay, maybe some of them are, but it's no point pretending tt everyone still is.

it seems like society is still trying to "protect" the young from so-called "negative" and "immoral" values such as activities like pre-marital sex. i understand and completely support the necessity to educate the youth on things like responsibility when it comes to sex; to use protection to prevent the trasmission of STDs or the incidence of unwanted pregnancies, both of which are very real and troubling problems.

but the idea is to educate and to give the young a choice. we're not stupid you know. we have minds of our own; with all the influences from everywhere from the Western values tt have accompanied Westernisation and the adoption of a largely American capitalist economy and lifestyle, to our own religious values and our cultural perspectives, we have the relevant information to make an informed choice about what we want to do with our lives, including our sex lives. we don't need anyone to come on their moral high horse and tell us tt the ONLY way tt we can prevent STDs and unwanted pregnancies is through abstinence.

yeah, the idea is all well and good, but it doesn't work for everyone. ben says tt this is like telling someone tt if you don't want to fall off your bicycle, you shouldn't even learn to ride one in the first place. and if it worked for everyone, we wouldn't have the problem we have now. we don't need people to turn a blind eye and pretend tt the young are all innocent and tt we are still a conservative repressed society. it's no use pretending; just accept the fact, reserve your judgement, open your minds and move on with your lives.

the imposition of normative moral values on things like sexual education smacks of paternalism all over again; this whole idea of some people who assume tt they have the power and therefore just *know better* (even though their knowledge is probably 40 years or more outdated), telling the youth tt they don't know nothing and should therefore follow blindly. "WAH SI LIM LAO PEI!!!! you must listen to ME!!!"

i cannot take all those stupid christian fundamentalists who come to our schools and tell us what they consider is good sex education. where they spread the myth tt condoms are not 100% effective against stds and pregnancies. they *are* 100% effective. unless proven otherwise (see below).

The evidence for this is clearest in studies of couples in which one person is infected with HIV and the other not. i.e. "discordant couples". In a study of discordant couples in Europe, among 123 couples who reported consistent condom use, none of the uninfected partners became infected. In contrast, among the 122 couples who used condoms inconsistently, 12 of the uninfected partners became infected.
# De Vincenzi I. (1994) 'A longitudinal study of human immunodeficiency virus transmission by heterosexual partners', the New England Journal of Medicine; 331:341-346

they thus deseminate their own version of truth - tt the *only* way to stay stds free, is to abstain from sex. they slap this moral stigma on pre-marital sex and even the concept of homosexuality, saying tt it is wrong or unnatural, simply because they do not understand or relate. and this is the kind of sex education tt we want to see in our schools?

oops. my post is getting too long now. and i am getting severely out-of-point. but the original objective of this post was to disprove the myth of "asian values"; tt they just don't exist, and tt we don't need a bunch of narrow-minded old fogeys to tell the rest of us how to express our affection.

but on the upside, the narrow-minded old fogeys aside, singapore still isn't tt bad a place to be in, at least when it comes to publicly displaying affection. at least it's still legal. maybe if i were in malaysia, i might get caught and sentenced to jail. just a thought.