Anal about pronounciation

Overheard on BBC the other day, a blip that a newscaster made when pronouncing the name of Singapore’s Prime Minister and ‘state fund manager’.

Dropping the ‘s’ in Lee Hsien Loong, he pronounced PM Lee’s name as Lee Hien Loong. Temasek – pronounced as Termasek – became Timasek.

Now in between his blips, the newcaster managed to interview an analyst (based in Singapore I think!), who to his credit, managed ‘Termasek’. Yet, he had stubbornly insisted on Timasek after the interview.

For all you know, one day the stubborn Brit may prevail, judging by how Asian newscasters have been tailoring their intonations to fit in with the west. On Channel News Asia, the news channel which prides itself on covering news in depth in Asia, Beijing is Beijing (jing as in jingle bell). And although I wasn’t in town to catch the CNA reportage on tsunamii, I’ve got an inkling these folks have also followed the western style in dropping the ‘t’ and pronounce the word as sunamii.

It’s not my intention to berate these newscasters for not pronouncing these words correctly. I’m quite sure the BBC newscaster wasn’t quite sure of the correct intonations for Lee Hsien Loong or Temasek. But it irks me to have to put up with how the CNA have intentionally customised their accents and intonations to fit the West (American).

When oh when could we have good old Beijing back without the jingle bells attached? Or the Japanese ‘tsu’ attached to ‘namii’? What’s the point of doing things the American or French way, when we are all in Asia afterall.

The invisible poor and disadvantaged

One year ago, a friend and I happened to drop by Tiong Bahru estate while on the way to the once famous and now revamped hawker centre for lunch. We chanced upon this old lady who’s busy stuffing some newspapers into a plastic bag. The sight of her shrivelled body in the slightly oversized New Paper Big Walk T-shirt made me wonder aloud about the plight of the poor and/or aged and misplaced Singaporeans. I couldn’t help but highlight an observation to my friend at that point in time, of the increasing number of ‘scavengers’ and people who seemed to be out of their mind I’ve come across ever since my return to Singapore from overseas studies. And this is in spite of our booming economy back home. My friend, who had just returned six months earlier than me to Singapore from overseas studies recounted an incident, which further disturbed me. Whilst she was hanging out at Holland Village – where the young, hip, trendy and some would say ‘atas’ people would congregate – an old lady was going around the tables to ask for two dollars to a buy a meal. No one really took notice of her, but when she approached my friend’s table, my friend did not hesitate to fork out a ten dollar bill and asked the old lady to keep the change even while she’s still unemployed at the moment. But the old lady did not take advantage of the entire situation. She took the ten, went to get a nasi lemak for two bucks and came back to return my friend the change. We were both appalled at how the yuppies in Holland V could turn away from a helpess old woman who is just seeking help to fill her stomach. What has become of our fellow Singaporeans?

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A couple of weeks back, I came across a report about a local-run cleaning company being fined for housing four foreign employers in a public toilet located in Waterloo St.

The four foreign labourers had reportedly cooked, eaten and slept in the public toilet. But what is even worse is that 116 employers were found in breach of the foreign work permit conditions to provide suitable housing for their employees.

Food and shelter are the most basic in the Maslow hierachy of human needs. In Singapore where the government used to pride itself of providing housing for its citizens, it is unthinkable how a human being – regardless of his or her nationality – has to put up with living in public toilets. Lest we think every Singaporean does indeed have a roof over his or her head, let’s take a step back to reflect on the invisible homeless whom we hardly ever come across on the streets – save, perhaps the dubious beggars who tend to invoke more doubt and cynicism in the average Singaporean than sympathy. Here again I have to quote a news report which was published on Straits Times (I believe) in the distant past. The journalist took a stroll along the poorer quarters of Singapore one night with a bunch of law enforcers who were out to nab the homeless sleeping in the streets. He/she came across this lady who seemed out of her sorts and who had menstration stains on her clothes. Although there wasn’t any photo to accompany the story, it is not difficult to picture the very disturbing scene. Perhaps we should thank these law enforcers for cleaning our streets of the ‘vagrants’. But it also really begs the question whether they erased the average Singaporean’s consciousness of the plight of the poor and disadvantaged.

Of course, we still have the charity shows such as the now defunct NKF annual fund raising event or its successor, the Ren Ci Charity show to remain us of the importance to be kind towards the less privileged. What is worrying, however, is that the growing cynicism towards such charitable organisations and events – after the NKF saga – would have influenced our attitude towards the poor and the disadvantaged. How often do we walk past a street beggar ignoring his/her pleas for token sums of money? Indeed, some would say it is wise for us to do so, but what does it do to the moral health of our society? Should we rethink our approach towards poverty?

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A few days ago, the question of the poor in Singapore popped up again during my conversation with a fellow colleague. Both of us have spent extended period of time overseas – either working or studying or both. And both of us felt strangely insulated here by the bliss surrounding middle-class Singaporeans especially with the upturn of the economy. Armed with a decent degree, blessed with rather comfortable jobs and the pleasant company of friends leading similar lifestyles, we are so emersed in the self-indulgence of middle-class Singaporeans that it takes quite an effort to remind ourselves that we should not take what we have for granted.

Indeed, my colleague was sharing with me how she was reminded by her occasional direct or indirect encounters that the less fortunate do exist in Singapore. These are often the faces either of the old or disabled who usually reside in the one or two room public housing in the older estates (here I generalise). And she would only come across these people when she passed by these districts or on a very occasional news coverage – alas! she doesn’t read Chinese papers and so reduced her exposure.

The situation is made worse by the optimism of the economic upturn, which seems to inundate all our news coverage these days. Almost every other day if not everyday during the last week there were reports on private estate owners benefiting from enbloc sales – sales of a whole private residential development. The only news that seem to challenge the norm is of course, the climate change, which seems to dominate the global agenda. Granted climate change affects all human kind, but what about who will be the most effected? Are these going to be the swinging overnight millionaires or billionaires who just sold their condominiums for handsome sums of money? Or, should we be looking at the aged who can’t get decent-paying jobs to feed themselves, let alone going green and caring for the environment? Are they not affected by climate change? But of course they will be! These are the people who will lose the most when the crunch times come. But speak to them about climate change when they can’t even feed themselves? I think not.

Some will also argue the developed nations are looking to help the poor now, particularly in the Africa – now that is the pet agenda of the now ex-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. And it also merits a mention in the new UN Secretary’s Ban Ki Moon’s first address. However, I would also like to remind us, the Singaporeans who are enjoying the fruit of labour of our hardy ancestors, there are also some poor people (often old folks) around us, who have contributed their fair share of their lives to the building of our tiny red dot. They are now left behind in the rat race, struggling to catch up with the younger and more IT literate Singaporeans. And they are often ‘invisible in the public sphere’. Their sufferings often warrant insufficient coverage in the media vs the number of new condos we could be expecting or the number of plastic bags we should be cutting down in supermarkets. Is it not time to take a step back from our daily rush to reflect on how these people are and will be doing in the increasing frenzy for more personal wealth and well-being? The poor in the poorest country may be suffering, but the poor in the richest nations may not be any better if their compatriots choose to ignore their plight.