Overrated.

There is a dominance of the US media products. we can all agree with that and they know it too. Therefore, they tend to take full advantage of it and flaunt all they can. Like the recent movie transformers that was recently released, it is not that great but because it is from US, it is over advertised like any other movie from there. They go "oh it this", "oh it's that" but OH it's really not that mag.

When local movies are advertised, sure they are made grand and nice but just not powerful enough to ride over the US movies. The local movie 'I not Stupid' was a hit in Singapore but why was it not advertised in the US???

One of the many other things about dominance of the US media products is that they are given more priority then the other media products. Recently, a new cable box has been introduced into the market which only consists of the US shows and it is compared against one which shows more local. The cable box which consists of the US shows is being more aired than the local one and the advertisement seems to persuade the locals to get the US show cable.

The other thing about US dominance is that the local Television market also tends to promote them more frequently than maybe the Malaysia media market or even the British media market for that matter.

Even though the local drama 'little noyna' was promoted and even shown in cannes, the media just stopped there and it was not taken further. Sure, the locals are trying to air their shows on a larger scale, but are they trying hard enough?

Rain Rain rain. . .

Korean pop star Rain's lawsuit which was published by a media some time back has been published again. This news after being published, was talked about for a while before it died and once again it is talked about but only to tell the outcome of the lawsuit.

As shown in this article, the media tells us about the aftermath of the lawsuit against Rain for canceling his show in Hawaii. The lawsuit started with Click Entertainment suing Rain for canceling his concert last minute and causing the show producers to lose a big amount of money. It went on to say on how Rain did not want to pay for the cancellation. This commotion went on for a while and all of a sudden, it just disappeared. It clearly shows that the people did not care too much about that news after a while as the media just had it over-blown causing it to lose its audience.

Then all of a sudden, the news pop out again and it seems that the media is with the pop star when earlier on it seemed that they were against him. The current article shows a picture of him happy and smiling whereas, the pictures on the previous articles showed him down and distressed. Here, the media is making us believe what it wants us to believe when in actually case that might not be the case. It might just be Rain trying to portray an image og himself such that the public will support him.

All in all, what can we say about the media and it audiences? Is it the media leading and way and the audience just holding its finger and blindly following it? Or the audience misguiding the media and making it seem as tho they have the upper hand?
Can it even be that the media AND audience are working hand in hand? =)

Culture...hmm....

"If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, Society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him."
(John Fitzgerald Kennedy)

Culture is something that we are all thought to value and respect as well as follow. But, do we?
That is a question which is answered by all one way or the other. Yes, we may say "Of course we do, is that even a question?" and as usual, we contradict ourselves all the time. Singapore's culture for example, it says it is a various culture society which lives in harmony. Yet again, that is easily contradicted by the society itself today. For example, the couple who got jailed for passing out material that was against the Muslims.

It is true that Singaporeans do live in harmony with various cultures together. Than again, are they confident enough to say that each culture is accepted by the other? It is something which shows itself over and over again in it's various forms. Children are thrown into different cultural thinking which they carry with themselves as they grow and then pass it on to their next generation. Of course there are generations which tend to break these norms and start to have a whole new perception of the many cultures around them by unlearning the many things that have been passed down to them.

Everyone is narrow-minded to a certain extent and accepts certain things. If one was to be thrown into a hole where only people of his culture exists, do you think he will be able to accept other cultures when he returns to the normal society? OR, if it were the other way round and he had to return to a place from various cultures to one would he still be feeling the same way?


"People can only live fully by helping others to live. When you give life to friends you truly live.
Cultures can only realize their further richness by honoring other traditions. And only by respecting natural life can humanity continue to exist."
( Japanese peace Activist and Buddhist Leader of Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International, b.1928)

He who can't lead shall fall...

With great powers come great responsibility. Sure, we heard that from a movie but nevertheless, it is very true. If one can not lead his group the right way they are bound to give up on him. And, this is what Brown's parliament ministers are doing to him by resigning one after the other as stated in this article.


Brown is so interdependent on his group that the resigning of his ministers is making his position as the Prime Minister a very shaky one. Even though they are known as the labor party, the resignation of any one puts the group in a delicate position and loses the people's trust who voted for them in the first place.

Brown has been making one mistake after the other by not communicating effectively with his ministers. In order for him to have a successful government, he needs the full support of the group which he has not been able to and so they want him to resign. Purnell's decision to quit the government may have been a risky one and he also claimed that "I now believe that your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less, likely. That would be disastrous for our country,"for Brown. This line quoted by him is not taken lightly as he was a potential rising star in the political world.

Chancellor Alistair Darling and Foreign Secretary David Miliband are two such people who measure the rewards that they get from the group. As quoted," Chancellor Alistair Darling and Foreign Secretary David Miliband are keen to stay in their heavyweight posts -- and could cause trouble if he ousts them." This puts pressure on Brown which he has to handle the pressure that he is getting form the remaining ministers now that he has to re-shuffle the Cabinet.


All in all, Brown's hold on his ministers is not very strong, as during the reshuffling of the cabinet, could either prove successful or a bad move for him because due to that, his ministers will make their move. They will either go against him and further force him to resign or give him the support he needs to stay on in the labor group.

According to opinion polls, it is said that the Labor are behind the rest of the parties. Now, do you think it would be wise for him to continue as the PM knowing that the members of his own group want him to resign. OR should he just ignore all that, keep re-shuffling and carry on?
. . . . . .

Signs, signs and more signs...

Signs are seen everywhere and used in our daily lives. These signs show/give a message non-verbally. For example, The "plane" sign. It shows us that the airport is ahead or in that particular direction that we are going to. But, the sign when shown to some who has never seen it before, will interpret it as an airplane as nth else. Many of us understand this sign as it is suppose to mean as it's interpretation is socially agreed upon and thus we just follow it. However, those of us who do not know the interpretation of the sign, will just attach our own meaning to the sign.



Some of the more common signs, as shown above, are those that we use more commonly in our daily lives. These signs are mostly used when we either want to repeat what we have just said or use it as a substitute for what we want to say. For example, when we are asked how we liked something, we say good. But when the person does not hear us and repeats the question, we just repeat the good for a thumbs up and the message is sent to the person. Many a times, when we are just too lazy to use words to say a point, we just substitute those very words into various signs like okay and that way. There are many other such signs that we are creating now a days and also using the same ones for different means.

Sound. Very often used to agree or disagree. Like the following:
Do you want the pen??
"Hmm"
You do not agree do you?
"Hmm"
That is a no?
"Hmm"

The "hmm" could either mean a yes or a no but we tend to interpret it the way want it to be. The way we communicate with a baby is also non-verbal and we use sounds to send message both ways. If the baby is happy with what your doing with him, he smiles. But if you upset the baby, he wails.



Jumping up and down shows that one is happy about a certain thing and sitting on in a corner by yourself shows that your either feeling down or lonely. These body signs are another way of communicating our feelings across. Of all the signs, body language is the one that is the most obvious. It is the first thing that a person sees to interpret you. If your slouching, one would think that you can not be bothered to talk to people and want to be left alone. However, it could also be interpreted as something else.

Various ways to interpret a sign and various ways to show it. Which way is the most important way to bring across a point? Should one sign only have a single meaning to it? Hmmmm....

Santa In Singapore LA!

PHOTO: COURTESY OF SONNY LIEW

This comic is using verbal communication to bring across the message of how Christmas can be bought to those people who live in the HDB apartments. It uses various ideas and opinions on how Santa would be able to go up the floors and into the house of the present recipient. I think it is a very different of bringing across the message of Christmas to the HDB apartment people.

Many of us, are comic readers. Be it comic books or comic strips from the news paper. I am one of those people who likes to read comic strips form the news paper. It makes me want to read more about the news that the comic strip is talking about. It uses language in such a way that it holds the reader's attention no matter how boring the topic of the comic might be. It expresses our emotion in general. The comic strip also uses feelings. Emotion and Feelings that are used in the comics are mostly comedy or tragedy. IF these two things were not used in the comic strip, we might not even be able to grasp what the comic is trying to tell us in a way.

The comics are abstracts of the whole picture. It is kind of like in intro to the whole news that we will eventually read and not try to figure out what is the news all about. Comics are all about using direct language to bring across a certain message. Although, they do tend to be flexible and often use slangs that expresses a particular group like the Singaporeans for example. We tend to use singlish more often then we do English. It is due to the very often used singlish that it gets around and more people start using it even the comic writers. This makes it way easier for all of us to enjoy the comic more. For Example, how the Mass Rapid Transit uses Pua Chu Kang; local comedian actor in their advertisements to bring across the courtesy message on giving way to passengers who are alighting forn the train.

But, would it be okay if we were to start using singlish in our daily lives??

Ex-South Korean Leader Commits Suicide!

Mr Roh's death was a tragic end for the humble son of farmers who never attended college but managed to pass the country's bar exam in 1975 by teaching himself law.

Mr Roh worked his way up from a farming village to the presidency, but in many ways remained an outsider whose bluntness alienated both political opponents and the public.

Now where is the Justice in this world. I am afraid, it's hardly anywhere. Yes, once in a while some people do get the justice that they need but for most i believe it does not exist. The most recent and shocking news was that Ex-South Korean Leader Committed Suicide. This news is looked at from various perceptive. One, being that it is sad news that the leader who made major changes to Korea itself died a tragic death. Second being the allegations that were held against him; accepting $6 million in bribes from a businessman.

The first perceptive that we should consider is that does it seem like he died a tragic death? It does not seem so as he was not pushed or slipped but instead he jumped to his death before which he wrote a letter to say why he did. As quoted,
"I can't imagine the countless agonies down the road. The rest of my life would be a burden for others. I can't do anything because I'm not healthy. I can't read books nor can i write...Don't be too sad. Isn't life and death all part of nature? Don't be sorry. Don's blame anybody. It's fate. Please cremate me. And please leave a small tombstone near home. I've long thought about that."

He was also ashamed of the allegations that were put on him even though he had a clean record. He was the only politician in the country which has a history of corruption. Despite all that, he was drilled by the lawyers as to why he had accepted the bribe. He did take the money from the businessman but claimed that it was a form of investment.

Now all these perceptions raise a question as to why a person who was well respected over the years and did so much for his country be accused within a snap of a finger?
Why was he not given some consideration or leeway for that matter of the allegations that were put on him?
Why was his family dragged into these matters unnecessarily?

Despite all this, he was a good man as far as i can see it from my perceptive. God Bless His Soul!

Miss Carlifornia's Press Conference - No Offense!

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I am sure everyone has heard of the controversial debate over miss California's answer to Miss USA pageant judge Perez Hilton. This was something which really caught the attention of a lot of people and especially now that the gay issue has also been raised in Singapore.

Miss California was also attacked by the media when her obscene pictures were posted online. The video shows how she answers back to all those accusations. while conveying her message, she uses certain communication principals such Kairos whereby she used the opportunity of the occasion to voice out the certain points that she wanted to bring across to the media. She also shaped her speech such that she addressed her audience who were the general public at the start so that they respond to her positively.

She also quoted Trump saying that not only does she have the belief that gay marriage should not be permitted but also the United States president as well as the States secretary hold the same belief. By using the persuasive appeal, she uses the Ethos term by which she uses the president's and the State's secretary's credibility. She very smartly also uses the Pathos by using using her grandfather's name and as well as bringing the hoarseness into her voice which made her seem vulnerable.

She uses the idols of the cave where she is prejudiced against the gays and stands firm on her beliefs. She refuses to acknowledge other theories; thus portraying the cookie-cutter mentality within the narrow understanding.

The one other thing that is portrayed through this conference is that it is a one way communication and does not allow the audience to give any feedback or to throw any questions at the speaker.

Just to conclude this, i disagree with what miss California has state in all of her speech. However, like she said, she has the right to her own opinion. She very cleverly uses various means as mentioned above to prove that she is right in what she is saying and that people should not be against her. But after hearing the entire speech like four to five times, i really am against her now. No offense! =)