So what’s new. The Thai political circus is seeing bosom friends declaring war against one another and former enemies embracing, sandwiching thorny roses between their bosoms. Meanwhile, millions of dollars are being offered to persuade allies not to change their minds. Any fool will know that such relationships never last but we often play the same games in dealing with “social problems”. A Thai tour guide once remarked cynically that the king’s divine image is so powerful that flashing it can turn a sulking face into a smiling one, a hard-nosed, eagle-eyed cop into an unobservant one.
That’s OK when we are dealing with people we don’t care about, but what happens when our close friends and family do the same thing and lose their temper with us when we cut allowances and other forms of aid in these difficult times. It really takes a crisis to bring out the devil in everyone. Some fortunate people have genuine friends and family who will ride it out with them. With the same values adopted by Thai politicians, some friends and relatives would jump from a ship with the slightest leak. You can change your friends, but changing your family is not so easy. I guess these unfortunate folks can only pray that they’ll never need to go through a crisis.
Many talented foreigners have made it big in Singapore. Let’s be more specific. Talent is usually defined very broadly in most countries. In fact, we shouldn’t be too surprised to find a foreigner “mistaking” talent for artistic talent instead of the “normal” definition of foreign talent in our media. In Singapore, the talent refers to trade and commerce-related capabilities.
What about the artists? Watching 超級星光大道 on YouTube caused my jaw to drop. It had never occurred to me that Singapore’s most talented singers are competing in Taiwan and not in our substandard local programmes. Watching our substandard competitions will lead one to conclude that there are no good singers in Singapore. Fortunately, we just have to venture a little beyond our shores to find many outstanding performing artists.
Take 黄靖伦 for example. Embedded above is his very own world class music video. I admire our paraolympians, but this young man really made me feel proud of Singapore. The daring young man skipped his exams to take part in an entire season of a reality singing competition in Taiwan called 超級星光大道, naturally not on Singapore TV. Well, 黄靖伦 turns out to be as talented (in singing) as he is gutsy. I was pleasantly surprised that we have such great talent in dull and sterile Singapore. Many people may not even believe that he is Singaporean.
黄靖伦 pitted himself against some of the best singers from the region and won the competition. An amazing feat for “talent-scarce” Singapore. The kiasu and kiasi may ask: What if he didn’t win? Not just the kiasu and kiasi, that question must have crossed the mind of anybody who has the stomach for adventure too. The difference is, to these folks, it may be important to have Plan B in place, but they also decide that life should not be dictated by “what ifs”.
With his singing career set to take off from Taiwan, 黄靖伦 seems set to lose his Singaporean identity. Already, he is talking like a Taiwanese. But Huang will never become Taiwanese. Taiwan’s music scene is only open to the best of the best. Those who have seen how Huang battled his way through the weeks of competition would have seen how rough the road to victory has been for him. Some sympathetic fans even thought that the judges have been overly strict with Huang. He passed the most stringent tests and Taiwan is now preparing him for stardom. He now enjoys all the Taiwanese media attention that he deserves. He has gone through the baptism of fire and is effectively a Taiwanese celebrity. I have no doubt that he will succeed.
Meanwhile, in talent-scarce Singapore, our talent-seeking policies and programmes have yielded the following results:
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