The upcoming General Elections has created a lot of buzz on the Internet. Even more so that now politicians are turning to social media to expound their proposed policies. The one politician (if we can really call her that) that has probably generated the most buzz of all has got to be Tin Pei Ling from PAP, who is contesting for Marine Parade GRC. This is mainly because of the image she has portrayed online, through her Facebook pictures, the way she has answered questions at Interviews, and her unexpected behaviour that did not seem befitting for a politician.
Some examples include her cutesy pictures posted on her page, the one which she poses with her Kate Spade bag being the most infamous, how she answered that her greatest regret in life is "not having brought her parents to RWS", and last but not least, saying "I don't know what to say" to a reporter and stamping her foot like a child. Such actions have prompted thousands of Singaporean netizens to criticize and diss her strongly on the Internet.
This brings me to my point, that the Internet allows people to criticize others with no respite and no restrictions. Although the Internet has allowed more freedom of speech and a greater whirlwind of fresh ideas and opinions, it has also encouraged irresponsible speech in many different ways.
Friends and I were debating about Tin Pei Ling on my Facebook wall, and some brought up a point which I would like to highlight on this entry.
"She's been trolled on the internet enough dont you think? The chances of her winning the votes are extremely low after the whole media fiasco, theres no point spitting on someone thats already down and out. Do we really want to push her over the edge? shes young and inexperienced her entire life has changed in the past two months and she practically has no privacy any more. Even britney spears shaved her head and went on a crazy rampage when people did that to her and she was a super star. All im saying is i think the interwebz should back off abit before this girl cracks." - Syed Hyder.
"i dont think the internet has been fair to her. she's been the butt of all the jokes, every one has been just flaming her non stop, for her pictures, to her personal life which honestly, is unfair. Thing is, this lady hasn't said anything smart for any sorta reprieve. im not making fun of her, but her going into parliament like that would be unfair dont you think? i mean, i dont make fun of her, im just judging her based on her virtues and ideas, which honestly, are lacking. But yes, honestly, the internet community is absolutely trolling on PAP candidates." - Ian Toh
Their points prove that the Internet and its users can really be very foolish and merciless as they carelessly air their thoughts online without thinking twice.
I shall end this post with my response to them.
"i think that if you want to step on a pedestal like this and put yourself out for the public to scrutinize, you have to make sure that you are fit for the public to scrutinize. well the image that miss tin decided to put on is that of a bimbotic person trying her best to look less bimbotic, and if that is her decision, she has to be prepared for all kinds of insults that will go her way.
even our dear emperor who has done so many wonderful things for our nation gets backlash all the time. even the most ridiculous insults that have no correlation to the bad or the good he has done. but i'm sure that he understands that because of his social status and his fame, this is what he must endure from time to time.
if miss tin cannot withstand the pressure of mere internet backlash, she really shouldn't be contesting. she should go home."
Inch Chua
1:43 PM
As presented in class one fine day, Inch Chua is a friend of mine who has made it big with the help of the wonderful Internet. Inch Chua is an indie singer-songwriter who used to be in a rock band called Allura. After starting her solo music career, she found fame in less than a year because of the home-made videos of herself playing music that she had been posting on YouTube. The first video she put up features Allura's original song.
And then she did a cover of YouTube sensation's David Choi's song.
From covering his song a year ago, she now works with him and his manager, having played shows with him and toured with him in USA.
Take a look at her first music video.
Recently she went to LA to meet Ashton Kutcher, his company, and other social media savvy youths who have achieved something great with the Internet, to discuss different ways social media can be used to better art, film, and music in time to come.
Snakeweed Sessions
11:17 AM
A couple of musicians and myself have teamed up together to create a series of acoustic music sessions that feature some of the world's best indie musicians and regional musicians. It is named "Snakeweed Sessions" because the recordings are done at Snakeweed Studios, Singapore's renowned indie studio. So far, the acts that are featured on the first season are Villagers (Ireland), Inch Chua (Singapore), Monster Cat (Singapore), and Rachael Yamagata (USA). Snakeweed Sessions was inspired by "Live on Abbey Road".
Here is Villagers' session in which Conor O' Brien plays his hit "Becoming a Jackal".
Here is a sneak peek of Inch Chua's interview. Her sessions will launch on 29th April.
We aim to share these videos on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and Twitter, in hopes that such videos will go viral, just like how "Live on Abbey Road" is very viral. For them to go viral, it is fundamentally important for the material/product to be of a certain quality or standard. In other words it has to be extremely good. There are many forms of goodness. For example, it can be so bad it's good, so funny it's good, or so well-produced it's good. We believe that ours fall in the third category as I have mentioned. We engaged top-notch musicians and film makers for this project, to ensure that the videos will look good and sound good.
Greetings
Hello whole wide world. My name is Esther. I am The Dragon Queen. Nice to meet you all.
Sins
Sushi is king,
Pink is in.
Music is life,
Without it, we die.
