C h r o n i c l e s ...

: ( “Why all the fuss over blogs???!!!” and “From screen to print”

According Yahoo news, the selected word of the year in 2004 was BLOG and blogging on the Internet is a profound activity of writing. Was it mere coincidence then that today’s Sunday papers featured two articles on blogs?

As if in answer to columnist Janatian Devas’s tongue-in-cheek poser, reporter Lee Sze Yong wrote: “If you accept the premise that new writers are likely to try out their wings on the Internet, then the blog phenomenon is bound to grow”.

Where else would budding writers turn to if not the Internet? There is great potential for publishers to operate and maintain an Internet blogging site successfully. The vast majority of media companies have missed the boat and readers are turning to amateurs, people with a deep knowledge about a niche subject, and others with a flair for writing or have interesting stories to tell - hundreds of thousands of bloggers who have become part of the media ecosystem. If the news media chooses to ignore it, it'll lose a connection with readers on an intimate daily basis. If not careful, the mainstream media as we know it will become a bit less relevant with each passing day.

There have been topics covered by bloggers on the Internet which has not seen the inside of a reporter's notebook, let alone prime space in a newspaper. Bloggers go where the traditional journalist fears to tread.

People are going online for news sources rather than purchasing print copies. As a society we are too busy to consistently read a paper. Everything we want, we want on a screen or pod. Speed and convenience will be the rule. We don't want to shuffle through newsprint to get the news all the time. We are heading to being a strictly electronic age of this medium.

What it takes to be a blogger - ABC says it's simply a desire to write, but is that all? Weblogs were allowed to comment on any subject area without facing any repercussions and it’s been said that the difference between journalism and blogging is that the former is prostitution and latter recreational sex. When you blog, you do it when you want it, how you want it, and on what topic you want and hope there is an audience out there to read what you get off on. On the other hand, journalists have a lot of things to prove to people. There's the editor and the company management to please. You're actually writing what your editor thinks is important and do it in the format and manner in which he wants it. He is the most important part of the equation.

The Chilean press has an innovative way of deciding what news they put in their paper. The readers decide. This idea has blogging beat because readers are reading what they want, not what is attempting to be force-fed to them.

In his personal blog, The Lost Remote, NBC journalist Kevin Sites explains his reasons for reporting on the controversial Marine shooting inside a Fallouja mosque. His decision has led many to call him anti-patriotic. Sites writes, "It's time you to have the facts from me, in my own words, about what I saw - without imposing on that Marine - guilt or innocence or anything in between. I want you to read my account and make up your own minds about whether you think what I did was right or wrong." Sites' blog is not affiliated with NBC News.

Blogging is the new wave of the future and is here to stay if you look at the best blogs of 2004 according to The Washington Post.




The comic strip “CHEW on it!” has a way of making pertinent social commentary. And this Sunday's edition was no exception. It depicts a phenomenon that repeats itself every time the train door opens at any crowed station. I have long accepted it as part and parcel of an uncouth society. I'll go mad if I allow myself to be upset every time it happens.

This was the event Mr Chew was recounting to his wife:

The following actually happened at…..
Venue: City Hall MRT Interchange
Date: March 26, 2006
Time: 1.10pm

Mr Chew: “A whole lot of passengers including myself, were getting ready to alight”. His wife listens, all ears.

“When the doors opened, one guy fought his way in… the same time we were getting out”.

Mrs Chew held her mouth tight, in solemn anticipation while the narrator continues.

“Someone shook his head in disgust and made a disapproving “Tsk! Tsk! sound”.

Naturally it piqued Mrs Chew’s curiosity to ask: “Who? One of the alighting passengers?” Her husband’s reply left the wife aghast with gaping mouth, obviously flabbergasted.

“No - that guy who forced his way in!”


It is shocking that people in the wrong should think they are in the right. I myself witnessed such an event at the basement of Raffles Places interchange that almost resulted in a fist fight if not for the fact that the train had to pull off, fight or not fight.

It was peak period. Against the barrage of outpouring commuters rushing out for a connection on the opposite side, a Chinese man who to all appearances was uncouth-looking, elbowed his way in head on. A scuffle ensued between him and an equally uncouth Caucasian in which both were vehemently asserting their respective rights, one to enter and other to exit. They were about to raise fists when the door sounded ‘Door Closing’. One chose to stay in and the other out. (How to fight like that? Commuters were denied a free show).

The ugly Singaporean syndrome manifests itself in other ways too even with the supposedly educated. A widely traveled Singaporean was expected to reciprocate the hospitality of her Hong Kong friend whose country she visited several times. On this rare visit from the visitor, a group of friends planned to treat her out. The woman chose to excuse herself for the reason that she was unlikely to visit Hong Kong anymore and hence the visitor was deemed to be of no further utility to her.

There are many people like her in our midst with a such a materialist attitude. Do I see any benefit in it for myself? Am I getting more in output for my input? What’s in it for me? Such a calculated approach seems to have permeated very facet of our social intercourse, including interpersonal relationships.

In Bangkok, where Singaporeans form the bulk of the hotel’s guests, the hotel workers do not particularly like them. “They’re rude, demanding and impatient,” the hotel staff said. To that, add conceited.

Is the low standard of our social behaviour the result of our single-minded pursuit of material wealth? If so, is it worth it? An ingrained philosophy inherited from the older generation is that nobody owes you a living. While self-reliance is a virtue, it has given rise to the unfortunate correlation that since nobody owes me a living, I don't anyone a living either. Or, since I don't depend on charity, I do not give charity. Hence, the charity that people do give is motivated by greed or reward, i.e. the prospect of a condo or a car dangling as a carrot.

The unparalleled materialist success of Singapore is not matched by a similar progress in social behaviour. No amount of beatification done to the landscape or modernization by way of our infrastructure can hide the fact that we are far behind European standards in social grace. Living in graceful surroundings, we do not know what graceful living is all about. A higher level of education has not taught us sophistication in social behaviour. Instead, our minds remain unsavoury.

We live in a small environment in even smaller confined spaces. Having to constantly rub shoulders with others can get on our nerves so we have the urge to push them out of the way. We want our private spaces. If only we have a magic wand to cause people to vanish or disappear.

Urban materialist living comes with a price when there is there no other consideration than making money so much so that some people think they are worth a lot of money just because they have it. Of course having money is good for the things that it can afford you but losing things that money cannot buy is tragic. A Beatles song laments “money can’t buy me love”. To that add respect, loyalty, friendship and patriotism.

posted by Victor Lai @ 5:45 PM