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Princess from the Planet of Venupitarius

Blog EntryOct 12, '08 12:23 PM
for everyone
Ever since the opening up of the Speakers' Corner in September 1st this year, Hong Lim Park had never seen such a huge crowd like it did yesterday.

More than 1000 people showed up at an event organised by former NTUC Chief Executive Tan Kin Lian yesterday, most of them angry investors who were affected by the recent credit crisis which saw them losing a substantial part of their savings which they used to invest in the various financial structured products. Prior to this event, I was informed that something had been organised and a petition will take place. I was also told that there were many unhappy investors who were approaching Mr. Tan for advise. However the crowd really did caught me by surprise.

I reached the place at about 5.45pm along with some members of the SDP as well as members of the civil society. I did not know what went through their hearts and minds as the sight of the huge crowd came upon their sight but I remembered exchanging a brief utterance with Ms. Chee Siok Chin about how the topic of money can conjur such an emotion in some Singaporeans to the extent that they appear at Hong Lim Park to support an event - an action still seen to be a taboo by most despite the recent opening up of the place.

Sadly, compare this to most other events related to other issues such as censorship, human rights as well as vigils, nothing beats the power of money. Is money the only thing that most people are solely concerned about? Is the issue of censorship, human rights and the memory of J B Jeyaretnam unimportant and trivial compared to the loss of money incurred by self willing risks taken by the investors themselves? It makes one wonder if this is a global attitude or could it just be limited to only certain countries, one of which is of course, Singapore.

Oh dear, have we really gotten that far ahead in materialism that nothing else matters?

Honestly I find that pretty sad.
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suicidalcoholica wrote on Oct 12, '08, edited on Oct 12, '08
Perhaps an evidence to show that the people is indeed more concerned about their money than political discourse.

Censorship - Psst
Lack of Democracy - Psst
Money - Hey what's the big idea?!

Cheers
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rachelabsinthe wrote on Oct 12, '08
Yuppers and may I add with sarcasm,

"Welcome to Singapore."

Ok yes I know it might not just be something that is uniquely Singapore but then again in other parts of the worls, people are indeed a little more concerned about their rights than us.

Oh well anyway, let's see what the recession brings. This is just the beginning.

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