...of Road Accidents and the New Year

I would imagine our multi-million dollar government to approach the current issues somewhat like this...

CNA Teaches You How NOT To Use The Word 'Immolate'

I always thought the word immolate meant to set oneself on fire but apparently Channel NewsAsia knows better. In a report (reproduced below) mildly entitled 'Best friend unable to stop woman from taking own life' - when the fact of the matter is that a desperate old lady who was saddled with debts due to her gambling (addiction?) committed suicide - Shaffiq Alkhatib wows us with his command of the language by bombastically inserting the line "...shortly before she self-immolated".

Unless the poor lady made 'a deliberate and willing sacrifice of herself by fire', it should be just 'immolated' which, at the simplest interpretation, means killing oneself by fire. Mind you though, even using the word 'immolated' is a bit of a stretch as the connotation of the word is that some form of sacrifice was involved - unless the woman was sacrificing herself to the loanshark gods.

Typically, a situation where the word 'self-immolate' would be appropriate is when a devotee sets himself on fire for his god. And whilst we may see people commit suicide by setting themselves on fire, not all is self-immolation. An abused wife who can no longer take the torture and burns herself is different from a wife who burns to exonerate herself from an accusation of adultery (both types of cases do exist in South India).

Well, coming back to the story itself, I wonder why the gambling issue is being glossed over yet again. Whilst CNA focusses on the non-issue of the woman's friend not stopping her from committing suicide, the Straits Times chose to (obediently?) focus on the loanshark problem - i.e. illegal money-lending (where the government doesn't get a cut of the market). At least, Kushwant Singh of the ST had the guts to call it as it is - 'Gambler sets herself ablaze'.

Suicide Note But No Reason?

In today's issue of TODAY, an article reports on the sad case of a man who committed suicide at home (reproduced below).

source: TODAY

Apparently, a suicide note was found but the report claims that the cause of the suicide is unknown. This is rather confounding as the man admitted to his gambling habit in the suicide note. The fact that any half-wit would naturally make the connection between gambling and money woes, combined with the ease with which the mainstream media here often make ludicrous leaps of logic to make a host of misleading assertions, raises an eyebrow (two even) towards the contradicting headline.

If a suicide note is not to offer some semblance of a reason, then I don't know what is. Quite obviously, the man in this case was a gambler in money trouble, out of a job in these uncertain times - and it is not difficult to make such a suggestion in the report. When one considers how sensationalism drives our mainstream media, it is a surprise that such a suggestive angle was not employed in this article.

On closer inspection though, it seems the fact that a suicide due to gambling would be negative publicity for the soon-to-be-unveiled Integrated Resorts - which would explain the ambiguity in clearly alluding to the cause. Again, we notice selective reporting from the mainstream media that serves propaganda.

On a separate note, the reporter for this story, Ansley Ng, seems to have been watching too much American sports programmes - there is no 'had beat' in British English, only 'had beaten'.

Comic Strips on Singapore Politics

Thought about a few issues that have plagued Singaporeans for years and came up with these...

Article on Speak Good English Not Walking The Talk

It's always interesting to spot mistakes, but priceless when the context makes them so much worse...

source: Straits Times

advice [ədˈvais] (noun)

suggestions to a person about what he should do

advies نَصِيحَه съвет rada råd der Rat συμβουλή consejo nõu(anne) نصیحت neuvo conseil(s) עֵצָה, ייִעוּץ सलाह savjet tanács nasihat ráð, ráðleggingar consiglio 助言 조언 patarimas padoms; konsultācija pandapat advies råd porada conselho sfat совет rada nasvet savet råd คำแนะนำ öğüt, tavsiye 勸告 порада; консультація نصیحت lời khuyên 劝告

advise [ədˈvaiz] (verb)

1 to give advice to; to recommend adviseer يَنْصَح съветвам radit råde raten συμβουλεύω, συστήνω aconsejar soovitama نصیحت کردن؛ توصیه کردن neuvoa conseiller (de) לְייַעֵץ, לְהַמלִיץ सलाह देना savjetovati tanácsol menasehatkan ráðleggja consigliare 助言する 조언하다 patarti dot padomu; ieteikt nasihat adviseren råde, tilrå radzić aconselhar a sfătui советовать radiť svetovati savetovati råda ให้คำแนะนำ öğüt vermek, tavsiye etmek 勸告 радити(ся); консультувати(ся) نصیحت کرنا ، نصیحت دینا khuyên 劝告

2 (withof) to inform

source: The Free Dictionary

Comic Strips That Make You Think (Hopefully)

Bear with me as I perfect my material and please offer your valued feedback, thanks...

First Attempt at Creating a Comic Strip

Discovered a good piece of software today called Bitstrips that facilitates creating comic strips online - including unique characters, and started playing around with. Well, here's introducing the Singapore Skeptic then....

Debuting in a brand new comic strip, the Singapore Skeptic gets a taste of democracy, Singapore style...

Disclaimer: I was more preoccupied with creating the comic strip than thinking of a witty storyline!

Anyway, please provide feedback and share your first impressions with me, thanks.