The recent TIME article is pretty interesting. Why I picked it up from the table out of the 3 magazines there was because of Singapore being on the cover page. So initially, I read the Singapore article which talked about the changing landscape of the city state. As you may have already guessed, it talks about the IRs, the night scene, the development of the current Shenton Way and the iconic ferris wheel just to name a few. There was also this statement from an expat saying how "Singapore is the Lexus of countries." "Lexus could be the most well-made car out there, but it will never be as attractive as a Mercedes or BMW." Food for thought. It was made with reference to the "paternalistic politics and its straitlaced social environment". Aside from that comment, the rest of the article painted a rosy picture of Singapore.
It's the first time I'm reading such a major article of Singapore in TIME. Usually it's reading on other countries like Japan, Kazakhstan, UK, etc, countries that I've never been to so it is sometimes a bit hard to put things in context. Now that they've written something that you have first hand knowledge of, you can judge how accurate and biased (or unbiased) they are in their writing.
The second article that I came across was related to the ongoing war in Iraq. Normally I wouldn't take much interest in articles related to that particular topic because it's been in the news since 2003. I'd still read most of the articles but this one struck me. It talks about how 6 soldiers died in Iraq on the same morning as the massacre in Virginia (the shooting of 32 students).
The first one was a talented jazz player (at least apparently so) who joined because "someone had to do something to stop al-Qaeda". He was 29, a LCP in the Marines, and died from hostile fire. The 2nd soldier died a year after he joined the service. He died a month after being deployed in Iraq. He was riding in the turret of a humvee when he reached to get a low-hanging wire out of the way and was killed by the electric current. Sounds like a silly way but when you read about all the grieving you don't really feel like laughing. The 3rd is probably the saddest for me. He was 26, a sergeat, and had a wife and son. He had re-enlisted in the army to support his family but was shot down by a sniper. This one stands out because of the happy picture of the family of three which they show at the top of the column in the article and because of a line inside which writes "His squad fights on without him". The last three were all killed by roadside bombs.
All of them chose the military path and knew the risk involved. Some had joined the army specifically for the war effort in Iraq but the fact that they chose that route doesn't make the pain any less for their family. In fact, for most of the 6, their parents hadn't encouraged their pursuit. Anyhow, we should really be thankful that our army need not be called into action like the US or people like you and I would be facing the same predicaments as our American peers. Lets just hope logic and diplomacy prevails and less and less fighting occurs in the future.
Word of the day: Paternalistic - Benevolent but sometimes intrusive
It's the first time I'm reading such a major article of Singapore in TIME. Usually it's reading on other countries like Japan, Kazakhstan, UK, etc, countries that I've never been to so it is sometimes a bit hard to put things in context. Now that they've written something that you have first hand knowledge of, you can judge how accurate and biased (or unbiased) they are in their writing.
The second article that I came across was related to the ongoing war in Iraq. Normally I wouldn't take much interest in articles related to that particular topic because it's been in the news since 2003. I'd still read most of the articles but this one struck me. It talks about how 6 soldiers died in Iraq on the same morning as the massacre in Virginia (the shooting of 32 students).
The first one was a talented jazz player (at least apparently so) who joined because "someone had to do something to stop al-Qaeda". He was 29, a LCP in the Marines, and died from hostile fire. The 2nd soldier died a year after he joined the service. He died a month after being deployed in Iraq. He was riding in the turret of a humvee when he reached to get a low-hanging wire out of the way and was killed by the electric current. Sounds like a silly way but when you read about all the grieving you don't really feel like laughing. The 3rd is probably the saddest for me. He was 26, a sergeat, and had a wife and son. He had re-enlisted in the army to support his family but was shot down by a sniper. This one stands out because of the happy picture of the family of three which they show at the top of the column in the article and because of a line inside which writes "His squad fights on without him". The last three were all killed by roadside bombs.
All of them chose the military path and knew the risk involved. Some had joined the army specifically for the war effort in Iraq but the fact that they chose that route doesn't make the pain any less for their family. In fact, for most of the 6, their parents hadn't encouraged their pursuit. Anyhow, we should really be thankful that our army need not be called into action like the US or people like you and I would be facing the same predicaments as our American peers. Lets just hope logic and diplomacy prevails and less and less fighting occurs in the future.
Word of the day: Paternalistic - Benevolent but sometimes intrusive