Coincidentally, the Straits Time Digital (pp 10-11) published a piece "More Netizens Open up to Blog Scene" today, and made a mention about Singapore Angle as a group blog. Two months ago, together with Kevin Lim, a prominent video blogger and social media researcher, we have produced a short twenty minute video and introduced the socio-political blogosphere in Singapore. …

The image of a helicopter lifting off from the rooftop of the US Embassy in Saigon is indelibly associated with the US's most serious defeat. Nonetheless, it also highlights how the US did eventually extract its forces from the Vietnam quagmire and how its massive physical capabilities in air and sea lift made it possible. Experience of that event must have been a formative …

'So if you can find me some more vets like [Dr Lee Boon Yang, Cheng Tong Fatt, Chin Siat Yoon, Ngiam Tong Tau], please tell me. I will invite them to tea.' Speech by PM Lee Hsien Loong, at the Parliamentary Debate on Civil Service Salary Revisions, 11 Apr 2007.Heavenly Sword once described how he hoped that his personal blog would be a pleasant place where guests could come …

'I don't believe in developing an alternative politics in Singapore. The way forward is to stop the motor of the world. John Galt is dah man.' This was the gist of what a friend and ex-colleague told me in a recent conversation, over coffee and cake. That statement encapsulated two major competing paradigms as to which is the best way to contest the PAP's hegemony in …

With the announcement of his resignation, Tony Blair's legacy will almost certainly be clouded by the Iraq war and the erosion of domestic civil liberties; both these themes are soundly captured in Mark Wallinger's State Britain, currently on display at Tate Britain and has garnered a nomination for the Turner Prize. It celebrates the efforts of a single man, Brian Haw, who …

James Scott in his treatise on Weapons of the Weak: Everyday forms of peasant resistance (1985), spoke of the everyday covert forms of resistance taken by peasants in Malaysia in the 1970s. These acts included foot dragging; theft of chickens of pro-elite households; burning of mechanized tractors that threaten their livelihood as manual workers; implicit collective …

It turns out that the KTM is big kay poh and he is interested in all kinds of random things, so he goes and finds out about them and ponders about them. One of the most fascinating systems that the KTM has ever come across is the appraisal system for the Singapore Civil Service. It seems that there is a great deal of interest in how this mysterious thing known as CEP and …

1. Singapore Angle bids a regretful farewell to Speranza Nuova, who has tendered his resignation from the group blog over the weekend. This is what he says:...My [work] commitments are likely to increase again, and I expect things to be very hectic for the foreseeable future. This will leave little time and energy for blogging--or for fulfilling the obligations of a Singapore …

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew once remarked that Singapore has a better chance for survival than Hong Kong in the long run. Unlike Hong Kong's fate which is tied to China, Singapore has more sovereignty and power to chart its own path. However, with the successful conclusion of the election of the chief executive in Hong Kong, one wonders if Hong Kong really has a poorer …

Apparently everyone has something to say about the Budget. PAP MPs are falling over each other praising the Budget and praising the current Budget as the best thing since sliced bread ("The Budget is so good that .... when I heard about the Budget, I gave birth to twins on the spot ah and I was not even pregnant and I am a guy... :-P " - Mr Brown Show). The Opposition is …