#410 Vice

having read quite abit of responses from others in the papers about vice in singapore.. i have refrained from making my comments in the web portals of local papers and choose instead, to publish my views here..

vice, also known as the world's oldest profession, if its a profession at all, is no secret in singapore.. say geylang and you are more likely to refer to prostitutes and streetwalkers more than the beef horfun, durian and in better days, the tau huey..

a deeper look into prostituion will reveal a few segements.. much like a marketing analysis.. traditionally, geylang houses the girls in rooms and entertain walk-in customers, such establishments will therefore also have operators or pimps.. and this arrangement is apparently legal as the workers are required to attend health screenings while the operators are somewhat licensed..

skipping the marketing channel of pimps, we have direct marketing on the other end of the chain, streetwalking prostitues engages with anyone seen as a potential customer and the deed would usually be done in a nearby budget hotel, the client's car or a dark back alley(yeah rite, where do u find that in singapore? haa..

so looking at the problem that the papers are highlighting, the prostitutes are appearing in the heartlands (kovan) due to the presence of budget hotels.. joo chiat was the first real example of a campaign to flush out vice in the neighbour, and efforts back then were somewhat successful, for joo chiat residents, but not for singapore on a whole..

with their home ground flushed, streetwalkers still need to get about their business and they "moved" into other residential estates like ang mo kio, toa payoh, chinatown.. this creates yet another social problem that have public writing to various papers to raise their concerns that their fathers, husbands or even kids can be negatively influenced by the presence of the prositutes..

there-in lies the questions, should budget hotels be allowed to operate in heartland areas such as joo chiat and kovan?

the customer profile for budget hotels that offer transit rates remains diverse.. no doubt that those engaging in vice remains the most high profile.. for example, if you see me one day walking out from hotel 88 at kovan, you will start thinking what i could be doing there? its pretty normal to assume that i have engaged in a vice activity.. likewise for scores of other men and ladies who walk in/out of such hotels.. but of course, we are missing the point about consenting adult couples who need privacy away from their place of residence.. so lets list down some of the non-vice reasons for people using budet hotels with transit rates:

1) Consenting adults (married or not) who require privacy away from home

(away from family, kids?)
2) Travellers who require some hours to rest/deposit their bags before their flight (e.g flight is at 11pm while hotel(good ones) checkout time is around 12noon
3) People who had too much a drink and choose not to drive home or are deposited into budget hotels by friends/colleagues
4) People who need to stay away from home (spouse/family abuse, noisy renovation work, nephews or nieces crying)
5) Friends who are watching a football game together (popular during world cup years)
6) People who are working too late (a night's rest at the hotel is cheaper/same price as cabbing home)
you get the drift..

so other than the usual vice activities that goes on in these rooms, there is another market that is keeping quiet among this arguements, not standing up to support this rooms (i mean, which couple will make noise now and tell the whole world then use the rooms for their private moments away from home right?)

Streetwalkers aside, therein lies another source of vice in modern singapore.. internet based pimps who advertise through blogs and other websites, the only area of operations, to this effect, would be transit rooms whereby their prostitutes would be able to meet their respective clients.. its kind of a remote control transaction where the pimp actually hides before the monitor and the risk of raid would have little effect them

Like two sides of a coin, vice has its place in singapore.. the question is, is the darkness creeping in the light, or has the light pierced into the darkness?

#409: Merit Eh?

#409 took awhile to come, but there goes:

It's me talking about politics again.. perhaps, many of us that have stopped schooling or are too distant to people with kids in primary school might not have paid attention to this piece of news, in fact, i too have grossed over the details, i only know how that the government has decided that is it necessary to tweak the PSLE weightage for Mother Tongue downwards..

Quite obviously, this creates an impression that Mother Tongue is less important and thus pale in comparison to more important subjects like the english language, maths and science..

Now then, if the arguement that reducing the importantance of mother tongue helps deserving students who are disadvantaged due to their weakness in thw language..

then is this being fair?

so the MOE claims that reducing the weightage of mother tongue helps students..

It will allow those stronger in mother tongues, but weaker in other subjects, to go into streams that are more suitable for them.
-reported by Jessica Yeo, 26 Apr 2010, CNA

So its not the english speaking elites that we are trying to help here? That reducing the weightage for those STRONG in mother tongue actually helps them? How so?

Then for someone like me that sucks at math, wouldn't reducing the weightage help me instead of helping those who are stronger in math to go into streams more suitable for them?

MOE's position holds no water.. what have the policy makers done now?

Meritoracy is skewed

Meritoracy is screwed as well, hope my son don't get the brunt of this crap when its his turn to take the PSLE..