Anti-Terrorism Funny Laws

So one of the things I'd miss is ABC TV's programs, especially those like Media Watch. Just love that program. Hopefully, I can still catch some of it online. I think what Singapore needs is exactly the sort of public service function that the ABC, BBC, PBS, C-Span et al. provide. Reasonably free and independent media. In thirty years, maybe... Tonight's short skit on the 7:30 Report is way funny. (Video, source)

INTERVIEWER: Mr Ruddock, than for your time. PHILIP RUDDOCK [Attorney-General]: A very good evening to you, Bryan. INTERVIEWER: I wonder if I could ask you about this new legislation that's coming in. PHILIP RUDDOCK: Yes, this is the anti-terrorist legislation? INTERVIEWER: Yeah. PHILIP RUDDOCK: Yes, that legislation has been on the books for some time. INTERVIEWER: These are amendments, aren't they? PHILIP RUDDOCK: We are bringing in some amendments, yes. INTERVIEWER: And what is the purpose of them? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Well, we will be giving the authorities certain powers, Bryan, the better to defend Australia from terrorism. INTERVIEWER: What sort of powers, exactly? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Well, they'll be able to enter premises, for example, where they think there might be terrorist activity. INTERVIEWER: And arrest people? PHILIP RUDDOCK: And arrest people, we hope they will, yes. INTERVIEWER: And what will they arrest them for? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Well, they might, for example, think they know something. INTERVIEWER: Know what? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Something maybe they shouldn't know, Bryan. INTERVIEWER: Well, what sort of thing? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Well, that's not specified in the legislation. This would be a matter for them. INTERVIEWER: So, they could arrest me? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Theoretically, Bryan, yes, if they thought you perhaps knew something. INTERVIEWER: What sort of thing would I know? PHILIP RUDDOCK: As I say, Bryan, this is not specified in the legislation. This would be a matter for them. INTERVIEWER: But, Mr Ruddock, how do I establish my innocence here? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Well, you wouldn't be innocent, Bryan, if you were being arrested, would you? They are not going to arrest you if you are innocent. They're not fools, these people. INTERVIEWER: How do I get out of this? PHILIP RUDDOCK: You'd have to establish, if you wanted to, Bryan, that perhaps the thing that they thought you knew you don't know. INTERVIEWER: How do I do that? PHILIP RUDDOCK: I have no idea, Bryan. That's not my problem. INTERVIEWER: But I would have to prove that I didn't know it. PHILIP RUDDOCK: That's it. INTERVIEWER: But hang on, isn't that the opposite of the presumption of innocence? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Bryan, this is not a normal situation. INTERVIEWER: Well, in what way isn't it a normal situation, Mr Ruddock? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Someone has come into your house, Bryan, and arrested you because they think you might know something. INTERVIEWER: Yes, and it's up to me and I have to prove that I don't know it. PHILIP RUDDOCK: That's correct. It's not a normal situation. INTERVIEWER: Well, do they tell me what it is that I don't know? PHILIP RUDDOCK: No, they're not going to tell you what it is. INTERVIEWER: Why not? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Bryan, if I came into your house and arrested you because I thought you might know something, I wouldn't be able to tell you what it is without impeding your capacity to argue that you didn't know what it was. INTERVIEWER: Well, perhaps you should, perhaps you should hold off arresting them until you tell them, Mr Ruddock. PHILIP RUDDOCK: We don't want them to know. We're not going to tell them, Bryan. INTERVIEWER: But if you don't tell them what it is, how can they possibly argue that they didn't know it? They don't know what it is, Mr Ruddock. PHILIP RUDDOCK: That's right. I think you'll find we've got them there, Bryan. I don't think they've got a leg to stand on, myself, and they deserve everything they've got coming. INTERVIEWER: When is this legislation coming in? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Oh, after 1 July, when we don't have to trouble the scorer much. INTERVIEWER: And you wrote this? PHILIP RUDDOCK: I'm not alone, Bryan. There were several of us there. INTERVIEWER: Who? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Oh, there was me, Lewis Carroll, a bloke called Esher from South Australia. A few of us. INTERVIEWER: Do you know what I think of this legislation, Mr Ruddock? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Be a bit careful here, Bryan. INTERVIEWER: Do you know what I think of this legislation? PHILIP RUDDOCK: Be a bit careful what you say. ANNOUNCER: Bryan Dawe, to the front desk, please. There are some gentlemen here to see you. PHILIP RUDDOCK: Don't look at me, Bryan. You got yourself into it.

300 MB Free Picture Hosting From Google/Blogger

Google is so bloody close to creating an almost total democracy without barriers to entry on the Internets for free. You can upload tens of thousands of pictures, and can also link them from elsewhere, not necessary Blogger. If they can only allow 300 MB free website hosting also, this thing will really take off... it instantly creates a whole new world of mass media and broadcasting through podcasts etc. The following are pictures from my favourite movie Lost In Translation...

Ode To ACS 'Plagiarised' School Anthem

This one scandal. I read the comments of the previous entry about a song that shares a similar melody with another, and started researching on another example that I knew about, the school song of Anglo Chinese School that has the melody of one of Canada's unofficial national anthems, The Maple Leaf Forever. I spent six years in ACS but never bothered to check up on this, and what I found was quite... interesting. Now, everyone who has a copy of the Student's Handbook would know that the ACS school song is to be 'sung to the tune of The Maple Leaf'. What isn't mentioned is that the lyrics seem to be also plagiarised somewhat from the Canadian song as well (at least the first stanza)!

ACS School Anthem In days of yore from western shores Oldham dauntless hero came And planted a Beacon of Truth and Light In this island of the Main. Here may it stand from year to year Emblem of grand endeavour The regions round echo the sound Of A.C.S. forever. *Sing A.C.S. forever more, our A.C.S. forever. God save our land and heaven bless our A.C.S. forever. Our students hail from China's plains and the Land of Rising Sun. We have many sons from India's strand and the islands of the Main. Our hearts our hopes our aims are one. No discord e'er will sever. We'll stand together for the cause of A.C.S. forever. ~Henry Martyn Hoisington The Maple Leaf Forever In days of yore, from Britain's shore, Wolfe, the dauntless hero came, And planted firm Britannia's flag, On Canada's fair domain. Here may it wave, our boast, our pride, And joined in love together, The thistle, shamrock, rose entwine, The Maple Leaf forever! *The Maple Leaf, our emblem dear, The Maple Leaf forever! God save our King, and Heaven bless, The Maple Leaf forever! At Queenston Heights and Lundy's Lane, Our brave fathers, side by side, For freedom, homes, and loved ones dear, Firmly stood and nobly died; And those dear rights which they maintained, We swear to yield them never! Our watchword evermore shall be, The Maple Leaf forever! ~Alexander Muir

Click here to download the Canadian version by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (available for the next 7 days.) I guess maybe this was acceptable in the old days. Nowadays, get marks deducted for the essay if do things like changing some of the words and submitting it. Nonetheless, I think Hoisington (God bless his soul) did a good job 'sampling' the original (and it probably sounds even better). I suspect most ACS students like our school song more than our country's national anthem LOL. Anyway, I also found this school website that says ACS stands for 'Academic achievements, Christian Character, and Sportsmanship and Service beyond self.' And all these years I'd thought that ACS stands for All Can Swim and Area Cleaning Specialist. I learn something new everyday...

Folk/Traditional/老 Songs

I was listening to some Taiwanese 老歌 in my mp3 collection and was thinking if there's a Singapore equivalent for these types of songs. The first that came to my mind was the lovely 'dayong sampan'. Other than it's about a boat, I don't know much about it. Googling pointed to the existence of a symphonic interpretation for the piece. So that's nice. And it's not available on any file sharing network so I can't enjoy it now anyway! Australia should have nice folk songs too, I like I Still Call Australia home, probably not a dry eye in the house cabin when one hears it on a Qantas flight after years away from home... If culture is artificially constructed, then probably Singapore needs a whole lot of it since she's a relatively new country. Right now, the government wants to eradicate Singlish (probably one of the most efficient languages in the world), but I wonder how else to build culture? Food is certainly one thing most locals are proud of. The airport is another. But things like folk songs are most probably already passe. So what do we leave for future generations? Repeats of National Day songs, probably. hehe So since I'm stuck and can't go further with sampan, and with the aim of improving my Hokkien, this entry is about one old song called 月夜愁 (moon night worry), composed in the 1930s during the Japanese occupation in Taiwan. Here's some background. It's the poignant sort of song... So here are the lyrics. And you can download this file (10 mb) for the next 7 days. It contains three versions by 凤飞飞, 蔡琴 and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. The performance from the SSO is from a 12-CD collection called 中國交響世紀 that features both mainland Chinese and Taiwanese traditional and more recent folks songs. It's really quite fantastic.

月色照在　三线路　风吹微微　等待的人　那未来 (The moonlight on the three-lane road, gentle winds, the man I await, why isn't he here?)

心内真可疑 想抹出　彼个人　啊．．．怨叹月暝 (My heart is suspicious, I want to decipher him... haiz...blame sigh moon dark)

更深无伴　独相思　秋蝉哀啼　月光所照　的树影 (It's getting late and I've no company... pondering alone...the wailing mourn of an autumn cicada...the moonlight cast shadows from the trees)

加添我伤悲 心头酸　目屎滴　啊．．．忧愁月暝 (My sadness is increased, my heart is sour, tears fall...haiz... worrisome dark moon)

敢是注定　无缘份　所爱的伊　因何伊乎　放抹离　 (Has destiny decided we aren't fated to be together? blah blah...)

梦中来相见 断肠诗　唱抹止　啊．．．忧愁月暝 (See you in my dreams...blah blah...)

~月夜愁/周添旺

Some of the translation is a bit 'off', and blah blah onwards means I don't understand it! The three lane road refers to the traffic island between two roads where lovers can meet and walk together. Nowadays, it's too dangerous to do such things LOL

Sophie's TV World

I was half typing and half watching TV with the weird language with subtitles (actually, Norwegian) when it dawned on me that it's Sophie's World! Goosebumps time, like the book going into my TV and producing live characters and with Knox the correspondent reporting the proceedings of the Socrates trial for her! Sublime stuff... Here's Socrates drinking some poison hemlock in prison after being sentenced to death, and saying it's not difficult to avoid death, but "it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death" (Apology 40, from here). It's too bad the this is the first of four episodes, and I won't be around to watch it next week...oh shucks... Up next on SBS at ten, Diary of A Teenage Nudist...

Hong Kong, Perth, Singapore, Taipei Land Area Comparison

So to get a feel for relative sizes of these places, I use the same map scale and line them up.

Hong Kong (population: 6,898,686, density: 6,254/km²)
Perth (population: 1,433,217, density: 203/km², my calculation from here.)
Singapore (population: 4,425,720, density: 6,389/km²)
Taipei (population 2,625,512, density: 9,660/km²)

Redeeming Microsoft

I've been a few days late in following the Microsoft MSN censors bloggers story. MSN Spaces in China is censoring, at least sort of, words like 'democracy', 'demonstration', 'taiwan independence', 'Dalai Lama', 'freedom', 'human rights' in blog titles to obey the orders of Beijing censors. That's like the equivalent of taking out the letters 'd', 'e', 'm', 'o', 'c'... letters out of your keyboard and see if you can continue operating it correctly. The most powerful software company of the land of the free, accommodating and being an accomplice to oppression, the very thing against which it's founded upon. So one day, Microsoft's uber-blogger/employee Robert Scoble defends that decision. Essentially the argument is that they should comply with the laws of the land. Another interesting argument from others is that if Microsoft doesn't comply, they might be dropped from China and that in itself would be far worse because people rely on their Net applications to express themselves and the setback to democracy would be far greater. Read more in Rebecca MacKinnon's blog. Two days ago, Scoble apologised. "My wife says I'm wrong. My son says I'm wrong. My best friends say I'm wrong. My book co-author says I'm wrong. All week long my coworkers have been coming by and saying I'm wrong. Dan Gillmor says I'm wrong. Rebecca MacKinnon says I'm wrong. Now a bunch of Chinese bloggers say I'm wrong. In the face of overwhelming evidence, I admit I'm wrong. Trying to justify the Chinese MSN word blocker is one of the more boneheaded things I've done. Sorry." I think it would indeed be a bad thing if people in Microsoft believe that the decision to do the word blocking is the right one. But Scoble says in the comments section that "not a single Microsoft employee has come up to me and said 'I agree with what you said.'", which is nice, I suppose. There're already too many oppressing other people, no need for democracies to help them along. Luckily, blogger.com doesn't censor 'taiwan independence'. Well, I believe in the one-China policy, preferably the sort of China that has its administrative capital in Taipei! LOL

Elite Is As Elite Does

So the current interesting topic is this 'elite' thing. Wang Zhen has reproduced the newspaper article here.

My application to join the 'elite' club was rejected when I failed to score 4 As and a S-paper distinction. My eagerly awaited interview for the prestigious PSC scholarship never materialised. For the first time in my life, I felt vulnerable. The clouds I had been floating on since my days at Raffles Institution suddenly evaporated. I was hurled back into reality and felt like another casualty of 'the system'... I stumbled through NS like an elephant on stilts. It was an awkward and uncomfortable time, but I saw the real struggles of those who had fallen by the wayside. I realised that far from being a casualty, I was still very much a functioning product of 'the system' - I had an education. I did eventually secure a scholarship that allowed me to go overseas. I was part of the elite again.

Robin Chan contributes his thoughts to the newspaper and proudly announces that after he got a scholarship, he can call himself an elite. First thing that came too my mind was :他怎么好意思在新加坡最受欢迎的英文报纸向大家宣布自己是精英？Anyway, an online journaler I read knows this guy and is thinking of going over and b**ch slap him. I don't know Robin, but I'd love to have tea/coffee with him. I'm looking at this issue from the 'elite is as elite does' view, i.e., what does it actually do to people? What connected the dots for me was reading about the PCK musical a few days ago. Phua Chu Kang Pte. Ltd. is this local TV comedy that has 'bad English' and involves the lives and family of the protagonist, a renovation contractor. So there's this new musical based on the show performed by the cast, and I was reading the official website. There was critical reviews on the front page, three of them from Ministers, and two were the mainstream press. (That's comedy in itself, really.) All of them have nothing but praise, which is nice, I'm sure the cast worked hard at this. The alternative media seems to disagree somewhat. Anyway... the first quote is from the Senior Minister...

"The Phua Chu Kang Musical is a bold and entertaining enterprise by local artistes. It is a commendable creative effort. I find the show fast-paced, hilarious but touching towards the end. Heartlanders will enjoy it." Goh Chok Tong Senior Minister, Republic of Singapore

I did a double take when I saw this. What on earth does he mean when he says that the heartlanders will enjoy it? For those who are not familiar with this terminology, 'heartlanders' are people who:

"...make their living within the country. Their orientation and interests are local rather than international. Their skills are not marketable beyond Singapore. They speak Singlish. They include taxi-drivers, stallholders, provision shop owners, production workers and contractors ... If they emigrate to America, they will probably settle in a Chinatown, open a Chinese restaurant and call it an 'eating house.'"

This is contrasted to the term 'cosmopolitan', those who:

"...speak English but are bilingual. They have skills that command good incomes: banking, IT, engineering, science and technology. They produce goods and services for the global market. [They frequently] use Singapore as a base to operate in the region. They can work and be comfortable anywhere in the world.[Goh Chok Tong National Day Rally Speech, 1999, via here]

So, does Mr. Goh think that heartlanders will enjoy it, and probably other categories of people will also enjoy it? Or does he mean that heartlanders will enjoy it, and probably other categories of people will not? I think I'd give Mr. Goh the benefit of the doubt and claim that he's quoted out of context. Another possibility is that he really doesn't think much of what he said, it's just a harmless reaction. It's probably like me saying, "Oh my goodness! I just watched Les Miserables! What a fantastic musical! Michael Ball rocked! And so did Lea Salonga! You know what? I think the poor among the audience would really have enjoyed it too!" Although there is nothing inherently wrong with categorising and naming people and using the term 'elite' as brought up here by Hui Chieh, even if difficulties defining it certainly exist, I think my point of bringing Robin and Mr Goh together is to illustrate what this sort of labelling does to people. One thing it does is to enable people who feel they are elites to wear rose-tinted glasses, and see though a glass, darkly brightly. Sidetrack: what on earth does the relatively poorer have to do with enjoying the musical? I think it's OK when marketing departments do similar things, appealing to the 'tastes and desires' of a certain 'class'. But it's a little different when a head of state says something like that. Unless, of course, the country is actually a big company, which is what Adina suggests. Going back to the glasses, yeah, these glasses make people think in terms of 'elite' and 'non-elite'. I don't think Mr. Goh meant anything bad when he said that, nor Robin. The concept has been internalised already. It's how the world works. From a product differentiation POV, it's an immensely powerful, and persuasive marketing strategy. It's also very good for those in charge because it keeps them in charge, and it allows everyone to know their place in life. The punchline is: who on earth defines what this labelling mean? There is probably a narrow definition to it (like probably if one has a government scholarship and works for the government). The labelling is irrelevent for most things, except maybe for top jobs. And as such, it doesn't really have a real bearing in life, unless of course, if indeed it's the case that most people subscribe to similar notions of achievement and personal worth. I'm just not sure about this assumption. I don't really have anything against people who choose to believe (or know) that they are beautiful, clever, elite etc. But I do have a problem if an elite uses that 'status' and does something to other people; let's just say, the non-elites in the context of the definitions that elites hold dear to themselves. If it keeps others down, if it marginalises them, if it destroys their self worth, if it enslaves others in bondage, if it subjugates them, if it creates a sense of pride and arrogance though no other reason other than self-created power, then I think these rose tinted glasses are certainly not as grand as they claim to be. And they should be discarded at the earliest opportunity, ironically, to stop the person from seeing through a glass, darkly.

Palm Monday Again

Phew, I just put up a hefty review of the new palmOne device. Nice work, Jon. Since I haven't done much of Palm evangelising around these places, there's going to be a demo next week for folks in Singapore. So watch this space if you're interested...

Singapore Schools Hit By Disgraceful Disease With No Known Cure

Singapore has this national blogging competition for students going on, supported by the education ministry with product placement from the biggest telco Singtel. Although most would probably agree that a 'blogging competition' is a strange and bizarre idea, I'm sure a committee has determined that everything should be a competition in this country, including online diaries/journals/blogs. One benefit from this is that more people will put up their writings on the Internets. I'm from the school of thought that believes that everyone should be encouraged to write, no matter how 'good' or 'how bad' it is. So sometimes, even gems can result from bad ideas, like the following entry on a new disease that threatens us all. (Via Molly the Meek.)

even schools are "infected" Recently there has been coverage in the news of bad English being widely used in signs and notices. Luckily this issue was brought up, i wouldn't have realised it myself. As it is now reported, we are now more aware and conscious about the usage of bad English all over Singapore...

Click here to read the rest of it...

Wintertime

Spring, summer, and fall fill us with hope; Winter alone reminds us of the human condition. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

Winter is my favourite season. It's not just the low temperatures, it's the smell that's in the air; hits you in the nose as the icy feeling explodes inside. I don't know what it's supposed to smell like, but it seems to me that winter (or coldness) elsewhere has the same scent. The moist grass plus ozone scent. The kind that greets me in the early hours when I had the chance to stay at grandma's place at Taipei's Yangmingshang, the same that is perceived in the moist staircase of the local YMCA, and the exact copy from the upward aircon shaft that are really seats at Chiang Kai Shek airport. A remarkable scent, and it tells of the most exquisite quarter of the year. And it just started last week here. The coldness of winter wakes me up, but only when I am first able to wake up in the mornings. Some choose to hibernate, like a bear. Winter makes me want to hug someone, anyone. And I would if not for social norms that might put me in jail for doing so. Winter makes people more human. Winter makes people fat, and cute, because one needs to wear lots of clothing. Layer upon layer. Like the layers of moisture hanging in the air. The dew point is now almost equal to the room temperature in the early hours. The air is saturated with water. And one becomes a dragon that breathes out vapour. But that's only in the mornings. In the afternoons, the humidity dips right back to 50%. But only when it's not raining. Like today, because a high pressure system is trotting up in the next few days. I think Perth is lucky to have the sort of summer and winter that's hard to find elsewhere. It's not like the smoggy sort that I have the impression other places have. It's the clean/non pollution sort of winter. May you have a good winter. And Merry Christmas.

Soundbite Censored

Bloggers like 22-year-old Gabriel Seah think nothing of her lack of inhibition. 'The Internet is a free society, there is no reason why anyone should not do this, because it doesn't hurt anyone.' ~Straits Times/Naked blogger sets Net community abuzz

I know exams are tomorrow, but I really think I want to have tea with Melissa and Serene, the two journalists who wrote the article on SarongPartyGirl (adult material) that appeared in the Straits Times last Saturday. SPG has a nude photo of herself up on her blog, so it's supposed to be a big hooha. As you can see, she has exceeded her bandwidth in two days. Anyway, I would like to ask them out for tea to enquire how's life, and also ask how come they chose to publish Gabriel Seah's quote, only to censor half of it, and regrettably, the more pertinent half. What Gabriel (Agagooga, I presume?) really said in his statement to the press was (via SPG's latest post): "The Internet is a free society, there is no reason why anyone should not do this, because it doesn't hurt anyone. A lot of things that used to be considered bad are now acceptable, so maybe we shouldn't be so quick to judge and condemn." I don't understand it. Is the newspaper afraid of anything? That suddenly everyone would pose nude on the Internets if the second part of the quote was published? (OK, apart from funnyman KennySia (adult material), who actually went ahead and posted a nude picture of himself, much to everyone's delight and chagrin.) Now, I do realise that word restrictions, column width and length guidelines, and so on that might explain this. But could it be because the second part of Gabriel's quote challenges people to think? And perhaps that is not seen to be too good for public consumption? Art challenges us to think. SPG's blog has depth, her pictures are done well, and her writings also challenge us to think, even if one might agree or disagree with her ideas and attitudes. All things considered, however, the article was still fairly unemotional or judgmental. Sigh, used to be the case that interviews were cut into soundbites. Nowadays, even two sentence soundbites have the potential to become even shorter... LOL Edit (!): It seems that Malaysia's The Star has shrunk the ST quote by half! (It's now, "The Internet is a free society.") By geometric progression, the next newspaper to pick up the story would print only two words: The Internets. Edit (!!): Oops, it seems that the Sydney Morning Herald [jefftest, jefftest] has already done that! The quote is missing altogether. Probably the editor thought, "The Internets? I can't run a quote with two words!" Edit (!!!): More from 医学の学生, mrbrown, serialdeviant, MercerMachine, brandnewmalaysian. Edit (!V): messrs brown and miyagi have just gone onto NewRadio 938 to talk about the topic currently in the comments section: privacy, nonprivacy and you. Expect a podcast soon. Edit (V): I take back what I said about the relatively nonjudgmental tone of the newspaper. In a new article published on 18 June, the first line says, "The now infamous Sarong Party Girl has taken down the nude photograph of herself from her weblog - after her parents found out about it." Infamous? Very, very unprofessional word to use in a news article, I reckon.

Sgblogconspiracy? Don't be fooled by the infantile meme

Again, I interrupt my hiatus to address this latest, ridiculous meme from mrbrown. Act like so funny, "Wait. Wait. Stomach. Pain. Stomach. Pain. Ok. I'm ok, now", trying to make a joke out of this whole thing, wishing, for course, for people to brush it off. I can't believe how many people are falling for this. Haven't watched Star Wars III people, still can forgive. Those who've watched, have you understood the moral of the story? The action is not in Episode III! It's in Episode I where Palpatine was paraded at the end of the show! It's all planned right from the start! In case you still haven't got it, let me tell you, how long has mrbrown been criticising the gahmen? How long has it been since he started writing his Singapore National Education series? No, wait, you tell me. Seven, coming to, eight years! Now, all this time, why on earth has the gahmen allowed this to continue unabated? Why hasn't he been silenced? Why hasn't he been taken out? Name me another soul in Singapore who is able to get away with this sort of thing, without threats of litigation, being dragged away in the middle of the night, and most importantly, fear. Yes, fear. Do you ever feel that mrbrown is fearful when he writes those SNE articles? I do not. And that's not right. He should be afraid, but he's not. Why isn't he afraid? Because he's actually in the employ of the gahmen! The whole idea is to let him continue writing his SNE articles without hassle so that he will gain all our trust. So that we will feel that mrbrown is one of us. Just like Emperor Palpatine. He has been running the show since the very beginning, but his real objective is to expose us! With the full knowledge and backing of the gahmen! And now, the cracks are showing. People are starting to see who the real people running the show are. And mrbrown thinks he can get away with it by laughing it all off! Bloggers are not infantile. They understand what Episode III is all about. They will understand what this meme is really about, too. Attend the Bloggers.SG BlogCon at your own peril.