Singapore – Why So Serious?

Do Singaporeans take themselves too seriously and lack the ability to laugh at themselves?

Are we so self-absorbed, moody, prudish and so focused in chasing our dreams that we forget to take some time off to chill out and smell the roses?

When I raised this with my friends, some of them replied that Singapore is not the place to “chill” and “smell the roses” but to make money while you can.

We seem to be on a treadmill where we are constantly thinking of earning more money, buying our dream home or car, getting a degree and so on and so forth. Have we forgotten the little things that make life beautiful and liveable? Have we become too serious for our own good?

I ask these questions in the light of some recent news that made our headlines in both mainstream and social media.

The first is the news about a Gallup survey that said Singaporeans are the most unhappy people in the world, more correctly, the least likely to report having positive emotions. The survey polled 148 countries and Singapore fared worse than Haiti, Afghanistan and even Syria, where there is currently a rebellion.

By the way, Panama ranked number one, as the country with the most people who report having positive emotions. The Latin American countries fared very well in this survey, taking 8 out of the top 10 places.

In a similar Gallup poll last year, Singaporeans were also ranked as the least emotional people in world i.e. people who showed the least emotion, either positive or negative. Filipinos were judged to be the most emotional.

I think concert organizers, emcees and “live” show hosts may nod their heads furiously in agreement with the latter seeing how difficult it is to get spontaneous applause from a Singaporean crowd.

There were a spate of other related media events which seem to question the Singaporean threshold for pranks, parodies and satires.

One of them was the Ken Kwek’s film, Sex.Violence.Family Values. The Media Development Authority (MDA) banned the film because one of the 3 short comedic stories which the film was made up of, was racially sensitive. This was later overturned by the Films Appeals Committee and the film was given a R21 rating with edits.

Film enthusiasts and local proponents of greater creative freedom of expression in the arts applaud the move because they feel the film uses satire to highlight a social ill – racism.

Then there was the termination of The Married Men’s increasingly popular morning radio show on Hot 91.3FM.

The show’s popular prank segment called “Kena Pluck” backfired when a listener complained about the DJs going too far in carrying out the prank . The lady who was pranked had applied to do an early childhood degree in a foreign university and the DJs pretended to be consulate officials who were doing a background check on her to ascertain if she was “eligible” to do the course.

They asked her if she hit children to which she denied doing so. The DJs then advised her that it was OK to hit children from poor families because they lacked the financial muscle to sue her in court.

The DJs then asked her if she was willing to do “favours” in order to get her visa application approved, something that is politically sensitive given all the media publicity surrounding government officials caught in sex-for-favours corruption cases.

Fans of The Married Men were obviously unhappy and a Facebook appeal against the ban is currently ongoing. Some of fans actually asked people to “chill” and to not take life so seriously. Sound familiar?

I started thinking about this a little more deeply. I know that there were some people who feel that the “Kena Pluck” segment is not appropriate at all and should never be incorporated into The Married Men’s show.

But if that is so, then why do we have the Just For Laughs – Singapore edition shown on Channel 5? This is basically the Singapore series of the very popular Canadian prank show Just For Laughs. [click on the YouTube logo at the bottom right of the screen].

I think its very funny and some of the pranks are really testing the boundary between humour and humiliation, but those who were pranked always managed to laugh at the end when all is revealed (or maybe it is a case of “what choice do I have?”).

So perhaps it is not so much whether prank segments should be shown or heard in our media but what type of pranks are being played on viewers or listeners. And inherent in this is our ability to manoeuver the OB (out-of-bound) markers i.e. the boundaries that separates what is sensitive (and therefore should not be discussed) and what is not.

Sociologists will tell you that humour is often determined by the cultural context of the area where people live or originate from. Customs, social mores and values determine the thin and often porous boundary between humour and mockery.

Perhaps no other society manifests this dilemma more than the countries in the Middle East.

Can you play a prank on an Arab gentleman or lady without either of them feeling insulted?

We have such a narrow view of the Middle Eastern people’s concept of humour because the popular media stereotypes them as serious, unsmiling, having very strict social rules concerning inter-mixing between men and women.

But Maz Jobrani, an American stand-up comedian of Iranian descent, used this as the subject of his act in Doha, Qatar last year, to great comedic effect. I was certainly entertained as were all the Qatari men and women in the audience.

Check out the TEDTalks video below and you will see how the humour stayed within the safe boundaries of what is acceptable in the Qatari and wider Middle Eastern culture. What I thought was great was the audience was able to laugh at themselves without taking offence because the humour was expertly crafted to suit the audience’s taste.

Humour and laughing at ourselves would not be complete without discussing Mr Alvin Tan and his girlfriend, Ms Vivian Lee. Mr Tan, a Malaysian, was a former ASEAN scholar and final year Law undergraduate at NUS. He had his scholarship terminated for his explicit blogs on sex.

Mr Tan and his girlfriend were unapologetic and proceeded to start their own Youtube channel discussing anything and everything about sex in their own unmistakeably irreverent manner and their own brand of humour.

They feel it is their mission to get Malaysians and Singaporeans to be less prudish and more open about taboo topics like sex and feel more comfortable talking about them.

Some people view their actions as purely fun and harmless. But others feel that they should be socially responsible to their audience and warn them that whatever tips they maybe handing out about sex is only their opinion and should not be taken as expert advice.

Whatever the case maybe, I think Singaporeans, in general, could use a good dose of humour in their lives. It has been medically proven that laughter is the best medicine.

Laughter is contagious. It helps to relieve the stresses in our lives and binds us as a community.

And in the spirit of laughing at ourselves here’s a joke about men (from a woman’s perspective) which my wife and I suspect, many women, just love. And I hope it tickles your funny bone too!

“Men are like fine wine.  They all start out like grapes, and it’s our job to stomp on them and keep them in the dark until they mature into something you’d like to have dinner with.”  Source – http://www.jokes.com/

Racial Faux Pas Ignite Social Media Chatter

Being a sports fan I am intrigued when I read about racism in sport especially when I think about how the sport in itself would not be where it is today without the participation and the contribution of its coloured (read: non-white) stars.

History is replete with coloured athletes who crossed the racial barrier and went on to be truly international stars. Boxing’s self-proclaimed “The Greatest” Muhammed Ali is one and the 4-gold  hero, Jesse Owens, who set the 1936 Olympics alight, is another.

And as racial barriers came down, we saw ethnic African sportsmen and women make their mark in almost every other sport in the world. Soccer, arguably the world’s most popular sport, has its fair share of coloured footballers who have excelled in the biggest stage of all, the World Cup – Brazil’s Pele and Portugal’s Eusebio come to mind. They brought great joy to all who love the sport. Football brings people together and just for those 90 minutes, people set aside their petty differences and raise their voices so that their stars, irrespective of the colour of their skins, can raise their game to bring glory for their respective clubs and/or nation.

So I was understandably disappointed when I saw on TV what happened at the start of the Manchester United – Liverpool game at Old Trafford (Man U’s home ground) a couple of weeks ago. In the customary handshake ceremony before the start of the game, Liverpool’s Luis Suarez refused to shake the hands of Man U’s Patrice Evra, as he was still smarting from the 8-match ban he received after he racially abused Patrice in an earlier match last October.

Then recent reports emerged that Manchester City’s striker Balotelli was taunted by monkey chants when City played against Portugal’s FC Porto in a Europa league match. Balotelli’s team-mate, Micah Richards, said he reluctantly closed his Twitter account because he could not stand the abuse he was receiving on it.

All is not well with English football when England captain, John Terry, was stripped of his captaincy because of allegations of racially abusing QPR defender, Anton Ferdinand. But the one that really enraged me is the racist tweet by a soccer fan who witnessed the shocking and dramatic scenes on the pitch as paramedics tried to revive footballer, Fabrice Muamba, who suffered a heart attack and was literally fighting for his life.

I began to wonder – what is wrong with our world? Sport is the one arena that racism has found it extremely difficult to rear its ugly head, or was that wishful thinking on my part?

And just when I thought the glowing ambers of racism as reported in the media were dying out, the fires were ignited again closer to home. A netizen came across some pictures of UOB employees dressed in traditional Indian garb who painted their faces black and posted their photos on Facebook. She then informed the mainstream media about the photos, expressing her disappointment with the lack of sensitivity and propriety on the part of the UOB employees who, in their defence (weak as it maybe), were simply trying to have fun at their Bollywood-themed staff dinner.

Some bloggers felt that Singaporeans were just raising a hue and cry over nothing. One blogger from popular citizen journalism site, even implored Singaporeans to “Lighten up…get a date and get laid.”

Sorry, I beg to differ.

While context is important in understanding the true intentions of parties in any controversy, it cannot be presented as an excuse to explain away the actions of those who are culpable, like what the blogger in the site tried to do.

The blogger cited Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder as an example of an entertainer who appropriates someone else’s ethnic identity for laughter and says that its done all the time.

He also cited stand-up comedians Russell Peters and our own Kumar (both of whom happen to be of Indian ethnicity) as examples of people who frequently breach racial taboos in their stand up routines while not receiving any complaints from their audience. BUT even Russell Peters refers to Indians as the “brown” people. You see he understands racial nuances and that the world is made up of all types of people of different colours- white, red, yellow, brown and yes…black.

But people who go to watch such entertainment know what they are in for. That’s CONTEXT for you! They are prepared for the racial digs that they know will come their way thick and fast. And people who are not into that brand of humour can choose not to attend or watch.

Those UOB employees are not entertainers and they certainly were not there to entertain. They were in a multi-racial setting and they, of all people, should have known that their action (of painting their faces black) could spark off a furore.

I am often shocked when I encounter how ignorant Singaporeans are when it comes to knowing and understanding the cultures of the 3 main races here in Singapore.

To paint all members of a race with one broad brush(pardon the pun) is perhaps what defines a stereotype and people can always make excuses for living in a world of stereotypes but I would firmly argue that we should start breaking these stereotypes down.

Well, it looks like its going to be a long hard battle. The newest NBA basketball sensation, Jeremy Lin, who is an American (born and bred), of Taiwanese Chinese descent and plays for the New York Knicks, was not spared the racial slurs.

A famous ESPN sports commentator was heard using the word “chink” in an indirect reference to Lin. He was later suspended by ESPN for 30 days. A few days later, his colleague an editor from the ESPN mobile website posted the following headline – “”Chink in the Armor: Jeremy Lin’s 9 Turnovers Cost Knicks in Streak-Snapping Loss to Hornets.”. That was his last headline as he was summarily fired by ESPN within hours of the headline appearing.

Fox Sports columnist, Jason Whitlock, then twittered about Lin’s extraordinary 38 point performance against the Lakers by making a needless and an unfunny remark about his size of his manhood. He then offered an apology by describing his behaviour as “immature, sophomoric”. And to top it, guess what…he blamed it on his penchant for comedy and maintained that he still wanted to be a stand-up comedian, what else?

Why are those guilty of making racial slurs so quick to find refuge under the convenient cover of comedy or “harmless” fun?

I personally know of “friends” who have used this convenient cover to launch sexual and racially tinged jokes at others in the group in a social setting. It is very tough to tell them off as it is couched in humour and if the target of these jokes reacts he or she may be perceived as  being a tight-assed prude.

But when these jokes become more frequent and are targeted at the same person all the time, it becomes tiresome and so unfunny. They are really put-downs and I am really surprised that the perpetrators of this unsavory social past-time are unable to see that they have exceeded the boundaries of decency and proper conduct. The best way to deal with these “jokers”, I guess, is to make oneself scarce around them and reduce your contact time with them.