On the 20th of January, 2009 , there was euphoria when Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America . Five days earlier, the Lunar New Year arrived, heralding in the Year of the Ox. Perhaps there is no guiding symbol more apt for the year than a castrated bull; a work-horse, domesticated, obedient, and non-independent. After all, in this current climate of an economy in disarray, this seems to be a prudent call—"herd together, buckle down, and move in the same direction."

On 1 September 2009, the Control and Disciplinary Body of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) slapped a 2-match ban on Eduardo Alves da Silva of Arsenal FC, for "deceiving the referee" during the UEFA Champions League play-off second leg match on August 26 against Celtic FC. Eduardo was accused of going down in the penalty box, despite there having been no apparent contact with Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc: referee Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez awarded the penalty, which was subsequently converted by Eduardo himself.

In the after-math of the 2009 of the World Jujitsu Championship, the difficult question posed by Luca Atalla still rings strong; ‘should athletes from the same team face each other in competition’? The irony of course was that Sergio Morales and Marcelo Garcia from Alliance decided to close out their division, whilst Roger Gracie and Romulo Barrral from Gracie Barra disputed theirs; this is of course in contrast to the opinions which arose from their respective camps only a short time ago. Regardless of this, one should take the words of Flavio Almeida and Romero ‘Jacare’ Calvacanti with the utmost seriousness, and consider them as such.

At some level it is almost absurd that pornography is banned in Singapore. After all, any self respecting port would measure itself by the number of banks, bars, and brothels; the entire premise of the ‘nation state’ is commodification and trade.

Every year, on the fourteenth day of February, one is bound to hear numerous complaints from just about everyone (besides florists) about how Valentine’s Day is mere commercialism. The ones amongst the nay-sayers who maintain a soft spot for Karl Marx would proceed to call it the commodification of relationships; those who prefer the gods would claim that the sanctity of relationships has been profaned; the gender theorists would note how the fact that males buy the gifts only serves to highlight the unequal power-relation between the genders.

Clearly we have reached a point where the sexuality of the subject, or more precisely, the sexual orientation of the subject in a state is in focus. Hetero-sexuality is the legitimized sexual relationship, whilst homo-sexuality is generally frowned upon, but in terms of state regulation and public opinion. It would be too easy to launch into the standard Marxist analysis (where the subject is alienated from her own body and is now a datum of information) or even open the register of Fascism (where the private and public spheres are no longer separated).

The world-wide condemnation of Josef Fritzl opens up an interesting question: why is it that we are so hasty in condemning this man?  Whilst it is no surprise that a crime that is reprehensible should bring forth the outrage of people, it is also equally surprising how this has become almost a universal pogrom.  One almost suspects that there is the logic of the scape-goat at play here: and just like how the sins of the community are passed onto the goat (which is then sent away to die) have we all passed our sins onto Fritzl such that we never have to confront them?

The Olympic Games or how Stalin was finally proven right

On 8 August 2008, the People’s Republic of China taught the world about Stalinism. 

During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, Yang Peiyi, the voice of “Ode to my Motherland” was literally relegated to the background for having bad teeth, whilst the more telegenic Lin Miaoke took center-stage.  A few days later, as the world was still swooning over that same ceremony, news of this switch-a-roo broke.  The reaction was the usual liberal outpouring of how this is unfair, discriminatory, inhumane and such.

On the evening of 17 August 2008, Singaporeans were faced with a dilemma: do we cheer for the table-tennis girls that are standing on podium at the Beijing Olympics? 

On the one hand, this was the first Olympics medal that Singapore has won for the last 48 years.  On the other hand, many were still skeptical whether these athletes – donning Singapore colours – were actually Singaporean at all: after all, they were born in China and had been acquired by the Foreign Talent Scheme to boost our sporting success.    

The 'unknowable' of Mat Selamat's escape

When Mas Selamat escaped on 28 February 2008, there should have been pandemonium: allegedly one of the most dangerous men in South-East Asia was now roaming with evil intent.  However, what we encountered was ambivalence and even mirth: there were numerous jokes surrounding the escape ranging from his name (Mas Selamat Kan-diri) to how Prison Break should just be renamed Toilet Break.  What these jokes reveal – regardless of their actual content – is a desperate attempt to find a reason for his escape.  They function in exactly the same way as conspiracy theories; bringing us a perverse comfort of knowing that there is someone in charge – some reason behind – all things that happen.

Melamine or the might of the dragon

When Felipe Massa drove off with the fuel-line attached to his Ferrari during the Singapore Grand Prix, effectively ending his challenge for the Formula One World Championship, techno-phobes were up in arms.  Most of them cited the fact that if Ferrari had stuck to the manual signaling system – instead of relying on this newer semi-automatic one – Massa might still be in contention for the title.  In effect, the techno-phobic claim is as follows: if each of the Ferrari pit crew had been independently functioning units, the accident would not have happened; it then follows that this is the danger of over-connectedness and being part of a network. 

The Uniquely Singapore campaign or the perfect defence against terrorism

Whenever one brings up the Uniquely Singapore campaign, (s)he can be assured of howls of derision. It is not so much that it is bad, for that would be a matter of taste (and hence surely you would find someone that actually likes it), but that it is an absurd campaign. The most telling sign would be the fact that the city state is branded as a ‘global city’: whilst there is nothing intrinsically problematic about situation oneself as global, it would suggest that there is nothing unique about Singapore, that it can be like any other city in the world.