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Hello delegates,
Welcome to Singapore. Yes, yes all 16 000 of you.
The heat that you feel here is real. The torrential perspiration running down the sides of your forehead and that expensive white shirt of yours unglamorously stuck to your back is real too. You are here in Singapore at last, for the Board of Governors Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group.
Great. Take this red pill. Now, swallow.
Confused by the non-existant greetings of placards wielding activists? That’s only because the activists have dutifully submitted their applications to protest and the Singapore government has turned them all down. Ask Doctor Chee Soon Juan. He can attest.
You remember the cab driver that drove you from the airport? Wasn’t he gingerly showing you his pearlie whites? That’s phony. His smile was engineered via a 4 day training programme. Same difference to everyone else you bump on the streets of Singapore. Yes Singaporeans, stretch those lips! 4 millions smiles we were told
The silence can be so deafening. If this façade of normalcy pales very much in comparison to the previous meetings that u have attended, take the ferry from Harbour Front and scoot over to Batam. There, you will receive a welcome befitting for a hero
That said. Xskew me, can I protest?
"The silence can be so deafening. If this façade of normalcy pales very much in comparison to the previous meetings that u have attended,..."
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Facade of normalcy? So what's the REAL Singapore? One resembling war-torn Beirut?
So noisy like dat izzit?
From:
A Singaporean living in the REAL world.
I think the game is already over for demos - once they said they are doing it in Batam, the potential participants would have decided it is too tough to do it in SG and too troublesome to do it in Batam; even the indoor demos permitted by the organizers will be a washout; in fact, I think the tourism board will have to drum up some demonstrators to fill the lobby; otherwise the poor show will disappoint tourists who turn up to gawk and be bad for SG's future image: it wants "buzz", fun, excitement, some controlled amount of sin...
ReplyDeletehave any foreign prostitutes turned up to handle extra business during the meeting? they went to germany during world cup
ReplyDeletethe organizers should have facilitated this; if not enough pros, should get SPG amateurs to help out; must send the delegates ways happy...
NTUC can act pretender protestors and liven up the mood. It will be a "real" show.
ReplyDeletenow we must have free enterprise doing this, not another PAP branch...
ReplyDeleteI am looking for investors to get this off the ground...
You can still protest in Singapore. It is only that the nature of the protest has to be modified due to govt interference.
ReplyDeleteLocate a few "sweat shops" in Batam — where the pay is low, workers work long hours to turn out goods which are "cheap and good" — i.e. price-competitive in the market.
Get the Batam sweat shops to make "activist apparel" — T-shirts, caps, bags with anti-IMF/WB/Globalisation slogans on them.
Import and sell (for a profit of course) to people in S'pore who want to protest but cannot.
The best way to protest is with a "disorganised" protest. Wear the clothing and just do what you normally do in Singapore — walk around the city, etc... that sort of thing.
This is an example of how a profit seeking entrepreneur can use the free-market to get around "unfair" govt regulation.
Notice how globalisation aids this process.
Globalisation is a real threat to democractically elected governments.
Any threat to democractically installed tyrants and bums to me, that is a good thing.
i only hope the imf delegates who tasgte the delights of sorcharfd towers go prepared, it would be tragic if their little dickies turned yellow and fell off afgter a nhigbht of please with some diseased thai whore. great publicity for the hub of whoreland, and we all know how singapore is need on becoming hub of hubs.
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