I Love SPAM! Don’t you?

There has been a lot of talk and newspaper reports in recent weeks/months about the issue of ‘Spam’ or ‘unsolicited electronic commercial messages sent in bulk’. Yesterday I went for a seminar on this type of spam by my ‘soon-to-be-boss’.

But of course this is not the kind of spam I’m referring to in the title (I’d be crazy to like, let alone love, to receive spam emails and/or text messages!). I’m referring to the ang moh-rican (American) luncheon meat by the same name. The name ‘SPAM’ (they ask in their website that we make a distinction between their product and the annoying messages by using caps when referring to their products) originated from its use in a Monty Python skit which featured the product (I love them too! They were these British comedy group that were well-funny! I actually bought the whole set in DVD! LOL! Of course each of them are really brilliant too, all Ox-Bridge grads! I guess you have to be brilliant to be a really comedian.. okok, I digress!). So the term was coined and also trade marked (I don’t as yet know when exactly and I can’t be asked to check it out!)

This year, 2007, marks the 70th year of the product’s existence. Its also the Chinese year of the ‘pig’. Coincidence? Freaky! LOL!

I would venture to say that nobody has not heard of SPAM (although I suspect that the majority of us would buy the Chinese branded stuff because its so much cheaper) or has not eaten it. But its been one of those brands that, because of its circulation, has been inducted into popular culture with tee-shirts and various other merchandise bearing their name and TM being worn all around us. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the owners are ‘making a killing’ in this area (as I believe the majority of SPAM merchandise are fakes!). SPAM is so popular that they even have a museum open to visitors and fans! Of course its in the US and admission is free! (To be brutally honest I fail to see the appeal of the museum. I’ve been to the beer, Guinness, whisky, even Coke museums and they let you drink – do I really want to eat loads of SPAM?! I like SPAM or at least luncheon meat, but not that much!)

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The Genius Sperm Bank
Sunday 7.30pm
27 May

I saw this on the Channel News Asia website and thought it was interesting (will probably catch it is I remember).

This documentary is about how a Millionaire optometrist Robert Graham believed that many intellectuals were dying childless, yet less-intelligent people were constantly reproducing (talk about elitism!). I guess in an effort to ‘save the world’ from being saturated with stupid people (aw, so philanthropic and altruistic don’t you think?), he established a Repository for Germinal Choice - a sperm bank stocked full of 'donations' solicited from some of the world's most brilliant men – beginning with Nobel Laureates (er.. who?). He wanted to bring thousands of geniuses into the world to ensure the future of the human race. So this is where we can trace the foundations for modern sperm banks to.

As I read the synopsis of the programme I couldn’t help thinking of another comment I read in a UK newspapers a few years back. The ‘High Priestess of Feminism’ Germaine Greer wrote in the papers that we as a society do not need men. According to her, women can do all the same jobs, and of course she think women can not only do them, but do them better than men. And most significantly, society does not need men because we have sperm banks! I don’t know about you, but I do have some problems with her line of reasoning, not least because I’m a man. Erm, how do you propose to get the sperm in the first place? I’m not a scientist, but from what I know you kind of need men for that. And even if they have really huge stocks of sperm currently available, I’m sure you still need men to ‘keep the stocks up’? Come on, Ms Greer (to borrow a phrase from Phua Chu Kang, ‘Use your blain’!)

On a side note, going back to first principles, the purpose of a sperm bank being to ensure the survival of the human race by first ensuring that brilliant people will regenerate, I guess there just weren’t enough of those around in Britain, because they are generally quite stupid! (of course the whole idea does assume that stupid people have more sex and children, so I guess that the simplest come back).

Anyways, getting back to the programme, I think that sometimes people miss the whole point. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that your intellect has absolutely nothing to do with the way you were brought up (e.g. the environment you were raised and the educational and other opportunities that you were given) and that its all in the ‘balls’, would it affect the child’s intellect if the woman was one of those ‘less-intelligent’ people he was trying to save the world from? If so, did/do/can they restrict the use to only brilliant people? How do you even go about doing that?

Another point which I find interesting is how is it that these ‘supposed’ geniuses were able to have their own kids? I assume that the problem is social and not physical (like bad sperm) because if it was physical then no amount of sperm being donated to sperm banks is going to be of any use.

So, are geniuses necessarily social misfits? If so, is it also ‘in the balls’? And if so, aren’t we going to continually have the same problems?

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S'pore, Netherlands to make film about 1950 racial riots - Nadra: History in the making

There were 2 reports today about Singapore signing a deal with the Netherlands (Holland) to produce a film, reportedly budgeted at S$10 Million, on the story of Maria Hertogh. For those like me who do not know who this person is and why it is significant (I had to look it up in trusty wikipedia – you can follow this link) she was a Dutch girl living in Singapore during the time of WWII. Her father, a sergeant in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army, was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army and sent to a POW holding facility in Japan, where he was kept till 1945. During that period, her mother (a Eurasian of Scottish-Malay descent brought up in Java, in the early 1930s) was persuaded to allow Maria to go and stay with a local Muslim lady for a few days.

When the time came for her to collect her daughter, the mother was arrested by a Japanese sentry and sent to an internment camp. Upon their release, the parents made numerous attempts to find and reclaim their daughter which culminated in legal proceedings after the Muslim lady claimed that Maria was given to her for adoption. When the courts gave judgment in favour of the biological parents and rejected an appeal to the Privy Council (the UK House of Lords – the highest court in the UK and correspondingly the highest appeal court for Singapore at the time too), riots broke out in Singapore leaving 18 dead, 173 injured and many properties damaged – the worst incident of its kind ever witnessed in Singapore. Of course it did not help matters that the biological parents were Catholic and (as already mentioned) Maria’s carer was Muslim.

I do think that this movie is significant, timely and relevant today.

I remember attending the various political rallies during the last Elections in Singapore with my dad. I was quite surprised by what I heard from the people (members of the parties) that I spoke to. Of course hearing people complaining about the state of things in Singapore and the political climate is not particularly new, but after spending so many years overseas, I’ve come to realise that things are really not at all bad in Singapore. The problems was were raised, perhaps genuine, were/are present in every country in the world. And if we really considered and did our research on them, I would venture to say that they would be to a greatly degree worse in those countries as compared to Singapore.

We constantly hear references being made by the ‘Old Guard’ to the past and how far we’ve come. The problem is that we are so disconnected with that past. I would even suggest that many of those who were alive during that period would themselves not be able to remember what it was really like, much less those of the younger generation (hmmm.. may I place myself in this category too? “young” I mean.). We may read about those perilous and difficult times, but they are merely abstract concepts and pictures to us. We’ve never experienced anything close to it, and are way too comfortable in the current peaceful and prosperous political and economic climate. The present government (with younger ministers) also do not really have the ability to quotes those times as they were not the ones who ‘got us out of it’ – very few of the ‘old guard’ remain. So if nothing else, this movie will hopefully be able to put us in touch with the kind of strides we have taken as a nation and the significant contributions of the ‘juggernauts’ of Singapore’s politics).

So bravo! (I just can’t wait to catch it)

The movie is titled “Nadra”. Filming is expected to start in mid-2008 in Malaysia, Singapore and the Netherlands.