we're all cool

if you read last sunday's sunday times, you'd probably have seen their feeble attempt at deluding singaporeans to think we're 'hip'. i have absolutely no idea what was the point of that, since we haven't expressed the need to be 'hip', nor said that we weren't.

anyway, is being cool all that important to a country? i don't think so. businessmen would not think "wow, singapore is so cool. let's go do business with them." actually no one cares. the only reason i can think of is that the government made a special request to the news editor to get them to write about us being cool because they feel like we are feeling inferior to the 'cooler' nations. either that or the news people are really free.

besides, the reasons they gave for us being 'hip' were tragically stupid, which again leads to the point that singapore isin't the least bit 'hip'. as the poor reporters struggled to dig out any little 'hip-ish' facts they can, some stupid fuck decided to do one on food and celebrities.

they decided to list the food stalls foreign celebrities visit. which again, is incredibly stupid. if i were a celeb visiting singapore on business, of course i would go eat at food stalls. what else can i do? sit in my room and order room service all day? it's not as if they came all the way from where ever specially to eat laksa or anything like that.

then they listed movies, books and songs that mentioned singapore or is about singapore. and they even had a movie that was made in 1928. wow, so singapore was 'hip' 80 years ago. not any more.

anyone who was 'won over' by that attempt is stupid, since the supposed reasons for which we are cool really demean our intelligence. imagine what a visitor would think. "whoa, singapore is so uncool that they have to write articles about their coolness to make themselves feel better."
not that it matters of course.