My Blog Hymen Grew Back Hmm, and I thought, since I had not posted for nearly a year, that this blog might actually have disappeared.Pleasantly surprised.If you're wondering why I suddenly so "eng" to blog, it's because my poor sweet baboo has the worst lung infection ever, caught from our adorable and very infectious five year old. Symptoms include 40 degree fever, spiking every 4 hours, body chills, vomiting and severe body aches. Duration: 7 days.So I am home although I had originally intended to attend the Festival of Praise at the Indoor Stadium because one of my favourite heroes is speaking: Dr Ed Silvoso, author of the book Women: God's Secret Weapon, utterly brilliant and anointed man.So I'll just have to get the CD. I really should be starting on Christmas play because I will have two women (one also pregnant) after me in a matter of days for the first draft. It will be great - if only I could get it to write itself or Bill Gates could come up with something like a mind translator where I just need to put on a pair of headphones and think all the brilliant scripts in my brain and the manuscript is done in an hour, voila!But first, a shower. It's promising to rain - but there are still obscene wet patches from under my pregnant boobies and I'm not even breastfeeding yet... My Blog Hymen Grew Back Hmm, and I thought, since I had not posted for nearly a year, that this blog might actually have disappeared. YOU MUST SIGN THIS! .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } the bright future of Indonesia, originally uploaded by thebigdurian. Children are such beautiful creatures of God. Anyone who has a son or daughter will tell you that their laughter rings in the corners of your heart even days after you've heard it.That anyone would take one of these bright, innocent children and sell them into a brothel, and that a Singaporean man would come in, pay money, take off his pants and enter this little child, tearing her tender flesh, if that doesn't make you feel like throwing up, I don't know what will.WE CANNOT STAND HERE AND PRETEND IT IS NOT HAPPENING. WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING BECAUSE THIS NEEDS TO STOP.I urge you to sign this very important petition to urge our moral and good government to live up to its reputation and pass the law that will prosecute the beasts that commit such an act against humanity.Then get 500 of your friends to do it!We want to hit thousands of signatures -- we know our country is filled with people who want to make a difference and who want to do right. Our deadline is 12 Oct to hit 5000 signatures.Help us make it happen.POSTSCRIPT: An excellent argument for/against/for/against legislation can be found here YOU MUST SIGN THIS! .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } the bright future of Indonesia, originally uploaded by thebigdurian. Children are such beautiful creatures of God. Anyone who has a son or daughter will tell you that their laughter rings in the corners of your heart even days after you've heard it.That anyone would take one of these bright, innocent children and sell them into a brothel, and that a Singaporean man would come in, pay money, take off his pants and enter this little child, tearing her tender flesh, if that doesn't make you feel like throwing up, I don't know what will.WE CANNOT STAND HERE AND PRETEND IT IS NOT HAPPENING. WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING BECAUSE THIS NEEDS TO STOP.I urge you to sign this very important petition to urge our moral and good government to live up to its reputation and pass the law that will prosecute the beasts that commit such an act against humanity.Then get 500 of your friends to do it!We want to hit thousands of signatures -- we know our country is filled with people who want to make a difference and who want to do right. Our deadline is 12 Oct to hit 5000 signatures.Help us make it happen.POSTSCRIPT: An excellent argument for/against/for/against legislation can be found here shorebreak .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } shorebreak, originally uploaded by astrocruzan. wowwwwww ... this is the kind of break I like to take. shorebreak These Women (and men) Made A Real Difference! It's taken me a coupla days to recover from Women Expo (last Thurs through Sun) -- mainly because I had ignored so many things last week while at the Expo that they all avalanched on me these 3 days!The Expo was great! Even though we did not hit our target of 250 t-shirts sold we did nearly half that and it was good! 120 T-shirts sold in 4 days was pretty darn good work, but the real satisfaction came from meeting and working with the passionate volunteers (who were multiple-time customers too! They were calling friends to take orders, it was just great!) and meeting and talking to women who heard about the cause and were so moved they gave donations (all of which will go direct to UNIFEM). This auntie with her daughter said, "I don't have much money, but I want to give." Her $10 was the biggest gift of the day -- I was moved to near tears.Similarly with two young women who were helping out at a spa booth, who were so shocked by what they read and heard about child sex tourism, that they scrimped and pinched and gave up lunch money to buy the Kids' T-shirt (because it was cheaper than the grownup t's and these ladies were so small they fit into them!) I took a picture of their sacrificial giving:Our celebrity friends helped a lot! Karen moved many. Eunice was inundated with women and children wanting to take pictures with MP but it was good because she engaged them in a conversation about the cause.Nanz Chong, my sweet dear friend, did a spot-on job, picking on the audience as she spoke (particularly 2 men hanging at the back in shorts looking like they were waiting for us to screen photos of little children being abused -- SICKOS). Nanz sold quite a number of T-shirts indeed, and many women came looking for her to find out what she had been up to.On Sunday afternoon WMD had a lovely surprise: GLENDA CHONG came to help! She wasn't there as officially "newscaster" or the station would not be happy, but she was a WMD volunteer. What an amazing show of personal conviction to the cause!!! I was very touched. Glenda and my buddy Judith stood at the front of the hall giving out flyers -- many people came to the booth, and one said "Hey, was that Glenda Chong who just gave me a flyer?!!!!"Yes, now buy a T-shirt!Glenda sold to one great guy, whom we call Mr Anonymous, who bought a T-shirt but didn't want to leave his name. He pledged he would never ever indulge in sex with underaged girls in any country. Now, to get another 2 million pledges...To my volunteers -- what amazing girls -- thank you for your hard work and most of all your heart. Every bit counts. We WILL make a difference because we choose to.And for Tomorrow.Sg and all who read this post and supported us -- thank you from the bottom of our hearts.Next up for WMD: a live discussion of the horrors of child sex tourism, 22 September, NEWSRADIO 938, 10am. These Women (and men) Made A Real Difference! It's taken me a coupla days to recover from Women Expo (last Thurs through Sun) -- mainly because I had ignored so many things last week while at the Expo that they all avalanched on me these 3 days! Star-Studded Sexpose! Today was a HIT! Praise Omnipresence!!!The pure presence of celebrity was the draw to our humble booth, manned by my mannequin without panties. (Come back here tomorrow for a photo). It is wearing our pink T-shirt and my sweater to keep it from being too distracting. (By the way it's a grown mannequin)When actress Karen Tan (my oldest bestest friend through 4 kids between us ...) showed up, there weren't many people in the audience. But as she spoke, more ladies (and some men) came to hang around and watch and listen. The Expo turned off the sound so all anyone could hear was the clanging bell of "DON'T HAVE SEX WITH YOUNG GIRLS!!! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO THEM, YOU SICK PERVERT?!"Well, not so dramatic but from the ashen faces of not a few men we knew the point hit home. A few came to sign up as volunteers after that, which was very touching. Many said they were moved by what she said -- moved enough, I hope to do something about it and not just say "So poor thing hor?". That's Karen's "WOW this is a bigger audience than some of the performances I've done!" face. How can you not love a face like that?!Eunice Olsen, formerly Miss Singapore and also the Vanna White of Singapore, now powderful Nominated Member of Parliament (she is SUCH a cool girl) walked into the hall and suddenly I feel as royalty has entered the room and I am the official cupbearer. She's saying hi and waving to everyone because they are just GAWKING. Helps that she is awesomely beautiful and very funny. I'm going to write her a part in my next play. That's fat old me sitting next to Girl Wonder.Anyway there were many hiccups because I am a technosaur and donno how to expand the video screen! But Eunice did a great job and was inundated with people who wanted to take pictures with her and women who said "HOW CAN I VOLUNTEER?" Which was music to my ears.Tomorrow Nanz Chong will speak. She is going to be great -- I cannot wait! She's fun and loud and she is going to be selling T-shirts!But the REAL stars of the day were all the people who put their names down to volunteer, everyone who bought a T-shirt, and MOST OF ALL MY FANTASTIC VOLUNTEERS!!! Janice, Pam, Cherlynn, Rain, Vera, Melissa, Pei San, Meixuan, Sook Wei, Chantal — you guys are the real deal. Star-Studded Sexpose! COME SUPPORT WMD AT WOMEN EXPO!! Finally WMD's getting some action going and I wish I had 5 clones of myself so I could have done some publicity before today!WMD is at Women Expo today through Sunday (9-11 Sept) at Singapore Expo Hall 5B! We are selling our pink T-shirts (first 10 customers gets a free Shape water bottle) for $38 (women's and men's) and $25 (kids). But the REAL attraction (apart from our beautiful booth display which I spent all afternoon yesterday putting together and which was inspired by Pam Ho, writer and cheerleader extraordinaire) is our CELEBRITY GUESTS!!Yes, come and meet live the following lovely ladies:• KAREN TAN, stage actress and Theatre Awards Winner last year for Best Actress in Iron. She's also my best friend! She will be educating the public on the horrors of child sex tourism and trafficking, and also sharing her views as a mother and media personality. KAREN SPEAKS AT 4.15PM TODAY (FRIDAY)• EUNICE OLSEN, NMP and pianist extraordinaire! She will speak on the need for law to be passed to prosecute Singaporean men who go to Batam and other places (VIetnam, Cambodia, south Thailand) for sex with underaged girls (and boys). EUNICE SPEAKS AT 7.15PM TONIGHT (FRIDAY)• NANZ CHONG, entrepreneur, trainer and former founder of ONE.99shop, will talk about what businesses can do to help women and children in poverty. Nanz is a superbly dynamic and really funny speaker who can get a crowd going! NANZ SPEAKS AT 12.30PM TOMORROW (SATURDAY)And we have a "SECRET" celebrity news anchor coming to sell T-shirts on Sunday afternoon. She is VERY BEAUTIFUL, VERY TALENTED, and VERY BRAINY, and is currently on the cover of a respected women's magazine, and is recognised through Asia.All these women will be happy to talk to the public about the cause and also autograph any T-shirts bought.PLEASE PASS ON THIS MESSAGE AND COME SUPPORT US! (And there are lots of other great deals, free facials and many laughs in the Expo hall, so bring lots of friends)WMD AT WOMEN EXPOSINGAPORE EXPO HALL 5BBOOTH D5811AM TO 9PM DAILY, FRIDAY 9 SEPT THROUGH SUNDAY 11 SEPT COME SUPPORT WMD AT WOMEN EXPO!! Finally WMD's getting some action going and I wish I had 5 clones of myself so I could have done some publicity before today! The Day My iPod Died It has been one of those days.1.15PM: ELDERLY MAN REFUSES MY SEATI got on the train at Tanah Merah and sat down. Usually I do this so that by the time we get to Bedok or Eunos there is usually one old person or one mother with kids to give up the seat to. One of these days I will mount a campaign to photograph people who do not give up the seats with the sign "PLEASE GIVE UP THIS SEAT FOR SOMEONE WHO NEEDS IT MORE" — pretending to sleep doesn't cut it. I have woken up many many many people before.Anyway, today, there were a bunch of people who got on at Bedok and stood in front of me. Then on climbed this dude who must be like, 80, more wrinkles than a bulldog. But I should have suspected he is in denial because his hair was coloured CARROT.Anyway, I was sitting 4 seats away from the door, and Mr Carrot came in and hung round the door. There were 2 slouchers standing in front of me and the minute I took my bag one of them actually positioned his bum in front of me so that as I pulled away he can reverse into the parking lot. Incredible.So I half-hung my bag on the seat, got up, climbed over the extended legs of this teen girl next to me and reached the object of my kindness.Who looked at me and shook his head like "What? Do I look like I'm pregnant?""不要“　he said.I looked at him incredulously and nearly said something that hasn't exited my lips since 2003.I wish he got on at BUGIS, one stop before I had to get off so at least my humiliation would be only one stop long. An old angmo saw all that transpired and snickered at me. And Mr Parking Ass got the seat.4.00PM: WMD T-SHIRTS INFESTED WITH TERMITESUNIFEM calls up and says that some of our fundraiser T-shirts were in boxes and that the boxes, together with a lot of other boxes, were infested with termites.So many thoughts flashed through my mind I thought I might explode. Anyway, I went to check out the damage and they had rescued two boxes (thank God). But there was one remaining box that was beset with the nasty buggers. As my able helper commented, "I thought termites had gone out with the '50s."There was police tape around the area that had been visited by the pestbuster company, and I was not allowed to touch the boxes for fear that the termites might still be alive and would spread.All this just before Women Expo which opens on Thursday — we were hoping to sell all the extra T-s there. Now there are no M's and L's to be sold.Very very bad mood. Former cusswords appear in the window of my mind, but I resisted uttering them.9.00PM: MY IPOD CALLS IT A DAYJust when I thought I would just come home from a terrible day, drink some diet root beer and watch CSI, I take out my iPod to charge and notice that it had gone deathly still. "Just needs to be charged," I told myself. But it had passed away, quietly as this horrible day drew to a close.I just realised it's been 3 years to this day that I first bought it: 6 Sept 2002. Farewell my sweet friend, you who have been with me on countless flights, through the streets of Chicago and Salt Lake City, you who have accompanied me on countless days when I rode the train to see my mom in hospital and in the hospice ...I'm going to sleep, and when I wake up, I pray it will be a termite-less day, and I might find the funds to get a new iPod somehow ... (yeah I know the grave ain't even cold yet, but I can't live without my white knight). The Day My iPod Died PERVERTS WATCH OUT! This morning on Tomorrow.Sg there was a link to this GREAT site run by a vigilante after my own heart. She entraps married men on IRC who try to pick her up, and sometimes she poses as very young girls.The danger our daughters face on the Internet is a very real one. How many cases have there been of girls 13, 14 years old who have gone to meet these men and been raped? And the ones we read about in the papers are only the ones that have been reported. It's very likely two or three or four times that have NOT reported heinous crimes inflicted upon them.Many of us girls have grown up with at least one horrible sexual abuse experience and by this I mean from the VERY terok one (like incest or child rape) to being molested or flashed. We grow up scarred in many ways — some decide it's better to be with other girls, others fly off the handle and sleep with every man who can stand up, and others just stay away from all physical relationships altogether. For me it was only when I discovered the Truth that it set me free, and I don't want to see this harm come upon young girls today.The girl who runs this site is doing what the press really should be doing. At WMD we also would love to start a Shame and Name Campaign against the men who go to Batam and Hat Yai to have sex with little kids. To those men who solicit sex from underaged girls — whether on the Internet or in Batam:IT'S SICK.YOU ARE A PERVERT.LITTLE KIDS ARE NOT FOR HAVING SEX WITH.YOU ARE A RAPIST AND MURDERER, BECAUSE YOU KILL THEIR LIVES.YOU SHOULD GET CAUGHT AND PUNISHED.AND YOU WILL. PERVERTS WATCH OUT! This morning on Tomorrow.Sg there was a link to this GREAT site run by a vigilante after my own heart. She entraps married men on IRC who try to pick her up, and sometimes she poses as very young girls.The danger our daughters face on the Internet is a very real one. How many cases have there been of girls 13, 14 years old who have gone to meet these men and been raped? And the ones we read about in the papers are only the ones that have been reported. It's very likely two or three or four times that have NOT reported heinous crimes inflicted upon them.Many of us girls have grown up with at least one horrible sexual abuse experience and by this I mean from the VERY terok one (like incest or child rape) to being molested or flashed. We grow up scarred in many ways — some decide it's better to be with other girls, others fly off the handle and sleep with every man who can stand up, and others just stay away from all physical relationships altogether. For me it was only when I discovered the Truth that it set me free, and I don't want to see this harm come upon young girls today.The girl who runs this site is doing what the press really should be doing. At WMD we also would love to start a Shame and Name Campaign against the men who go to Batam and Hat Yai to have sex with little kids. To those men who solicit sex from underaged girls — whether on the Internet or in Batam:IT'S SICK.YOU ARE A PERVERT.LITTLE KIDS ARE NOT FOR HAVING SEX WITH.YOU ARE A RAPIST AND MURDERER, BECAUSE YOU KILL THEIR LIVES.YOU SHOULD GET CAUGHT AND PUNISHED.AND YOU WILL. Tomorrow.Sg: My Favourite Newspaper .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } The Spikey Fruits, originally uploaded by my form of procrastination. It's Sunday and finally I have some breathing time to catch up on reading. I know I said that I started buying the Straits Times again to look for things to comment about (also to keep track of what progress we're making in the child sex tourism fight -- which ain't much ... more on that later).BUT I find despite the wide array of dailies before me, I still find the freshest, most honest reporting in Tomorrow.Sg (true or not, must ownself investigate — see, interactive news!) and also it has the biggest section of Laughs.My favourite stories browsed today:Inexplicably illegal storage of durians by unauthorised consumer in white fridge My fridge also looking mighty empty ... feel like some durians ...Filmmaker made to surrender film made about Chee Soon JuanThis kind of CBL thing the police can get involved in. Catching men who rape children in Batam, they can't be bothered. Can we have some justice here please?Taking driving lessons and how to choose a private instructorClose to my heart because I have given in to the "system" and registered with Comfort Driving Centre (yes yes, the shame is out: I cannot drive — yet!). Last lesson I only drove up the kerb TWO TIMES. I can fly!.Clever commentary on the blatantly distrustable nature of corporate blogs"Hi, I'm the boss of IPOS and I'm really a very nice guy. Just to show you how nice I am, I am providing a download of Madonna's latest single 'I Ate My Horse' at a low low price of US$109.99. Remember, putting songs from your CD into your iPod is ILLEGAL. Love, from your friendly IPOS friend, XYZ" Looking for travel writers who surf and dive! .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } surf, originally uploaded by nirav1. I'm working on a new magazine yet to be revealed -- and I am looking for good writers who are seasoned travellers, don't mind travelling and who can surf, dive and take photos.Email me if you are interested, and if you have a blog or website with your writing and pictures that would be ideal.Oh, and you'll get paid too!Pass this message on, okay? Excuse, Ricky Martin fights my cause hor! You know ah, a long time ago I think I really had my nose stuck in my Prada bag.Life was a long series of:"Who am I lunching with today, Dior or Chanel?""Isn't it time for my friend to be back in Singapore from Milan with my Sergio Rossi snakeskin shoes that are illegal here because it's made from a nearly-extinct species of snake from the jungles of Brazil?""Ack -- don't show me another SKII ad!""Hmm, I think my middle is too thick. Time to smoke cigarettes and drink coffee."Life beyond my material goods, bubble of fashion friends and skinniness was inconceivable.Now that I am a convert to activism, some people make it like I really downgraded. "You're an activist now?" Like, please don't bring your smelly cause anywhere near my Gucci slippers.I think in fact I have definitely upgraded. My attitude is up, my life is up, my joy is up, the number of people I make a difference to is up ... definitely more ups than I used to have. In fact, it took a new lipstick or a $1200 new bag to give me an up last time.I sold much of my material possessions on eBay (and made money to live off for quite a while, actually — in fact eBay sales gave me my iPod. I sold a Gucci dress that made me look like a hairy lollipop to a girl in the UK, and bought meself a $680 iPod way back in 2002 — yes you may grovel at my shrine of divine coolness. Denise Keller bowed to me because mine's a G1 and hers is a G2.)Anyway, back to activism. To be honest God changed my heart. He made me hurt for kids that have been abused, so badly abused they are sold by their own parents to be beaten up, starved and made to give their little bodies up for sex to feed their pimps. I think back at my extravagance before and it really kills me to think that if I had not spent all that money on clothes, shoes and countless issues of Vogue, I would already have been able to open and sustain a shelter in Batam for a year!!Is it so unglamorous to be an activist? I'm not anti-fur, and that's the last glam campaign I've really seen the fashion people handle. After which all of them wore fur (Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Linda E ...) Breast cancer sort of is quite glamour, being the Estee Lauder choice of social cause, but you don't get the REALLY A-list people supporting it — though Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren etc have given their design talents to the cause.A good friend of mine who is a show producer pointed out to me last week that RICKY "Shake Your Bon Bon" MARTIN fights exactly the same cause as WMD! He has a Ricky Martin Foundation and he has been travelling the world for years to speak out against child sex tourism and trafficking! Isn't that just very cool?! Suddenly, I feel quite glam today. I also decide I will buy every Ricky Martin CD there is (since RIAS is being so strict about music sharing, which is plain silly). Oh and yes I promise not to upload to my (nearly empty) iPod. Right.So here I am wearing my Dior T-shirt (4 years old) and my Export Shop cargos ($20), not worried anymore that the people formerly known as my friends think of me as a downgraded social cause fighter. I can now say I am Ricky Martin's comrade, and that's more than anyone I used to know can say. Kids Tug The Darndest Strings Two Saturdays ago I had the privilege of checking out Mr Miyagi's gymnastics for disabled children, for a story I was writing for the papers.I didn't quite know what to expect, and honestly thought it might be a little more than stressful to observe autistic children freaking out with freedom ("fun" for them, stress for the teachers and parents). What I saw instead were 7 brilliantly happy kids and 7 parents who were having (suspiciously MORE) fun than their kids I think! I've been writing a column on disabled children for a while now, and it's just opened up an amazing world for me. It is so humbling to meet parents who have more courage than I could ever summon, and so joyful to meet special needs children who are thriving on the love of their mothers (mostly mothers, apart from Papa Extraordinaire Mr Brown ).To get a high five from a little girl whose hands are webbed due to Apert Syndrome, to get a cookie from an autistic boy ... these moments make my heart soar with joy and my eyes fill with tears. I've been writing a long time, but this is the best job I've ever had the honour to do. KISS KISS! This is for the sweet people who emailed me to volunteer with WMD after reading this post!You guys are amazing. Let's have fun doing this! Darn Moody! WMD NEEDS HELP! I'm really bummed out.After one month of sales at 77th Street we only moved 71 T-shirts (no fault of 77th Street's). Over at Skin I think we moved about 20 in 2 weeks with no promotion.Like this how to save the children? The shelter can't even afford to keep its doors open at the rate we're going!!I sent press releases to ALL the major media.- URBAN gave us a nice coloured listing -- thank you URBAN- Her World gave us a little blurb with a picture of Denise Keller, Sun Ho and Eunice Olsen - thank you HER WORLD- Style is coming up with an interview with Kit -- thank you Style.Other than that we have pretty much been .... quiet.Anyone with any ideas on how we can hit our target of 900 T-shirts? (Now 809 T-shirts to be exact)I wish there were 100 women's groups or women CEOs with a heart to take 8 pieces each. It's not a lot, is it?Each day I think about these kids that are thinking about running away from the brothel.Each day I think about how the poor NGOs and shelter managers are struggling to cope with housing, feeding and counselling them.Then I walk down Orchard Road and our kids are dressed in fine clothes, eating Haagen Daaz and going home in their Mommy's MPV ...There MUST be a way to help. There's just gotta be ... What's Worth Queuing For? Over the weekend I invited Mr, Mrs & Faith Brown to the Festival of Praise at the Indoor Stadium.The queues started at 1pm on Saturday and Sunday. Many were turned away -- WE NEED A BIGGER STADIUM! Next year maybe they can play at National Stadium! The sound wouldn't be as good but they could make a lot more people happy.Mr Brown blogged live from the Festival while we were bopping to Delirious - what a magnificent band! I read some of the comments on that post and it actually surprised me that Christians weren't prepared to queue for the worship event of the year. I mean, people are willing to queue for mere autographs by a group named after a mountain (okay, one digit short of a mountain) -- K One, as posted on this hilarious Haro Singapore blog.I'm always astonished at the kind of things that Singaporeans queue for: $20 iPods (definitely worth it) and $10 gift bag with every purchase of some women's magazine at those road shows (hurray, no longer part of my existence!). Of course there are those that queue for NDP tickets and then those that queue for their kids' primary one registration...I think the longest I ever queued for anything was 3 hours at a Bruce Springsteen concert in Chicago. They let the first 50 into the pit. I think my hubby and I were #64. But still we were 10 metres from The Boss so it was still worth the 3 hour wait.Queuing 6 hours to worship the Lord with 10,999 other on-fire Singaporeans is definitely more worthwhile than that. I think now that I'm a believer I wouldn't queue so long for Springsteen but I would if it meant I could be in the presence of the Lord for a few hours -- there's nothing quite like the spinetingling sensation of being in a room where there is an actual body of Christ with one voice. The weekend felt almost like what I imagined being in heaven would be like -- all day worship, all hearts focused on just one person: the Lord Jesus.Amazing. Queue on! Bloggers On The Isle of Wankin I don't know about you but I'm tired of all this Press Vs Bloggers rubbish that's filled both column inches as well as precious bandwidth.The Press will always keep Bloggers at arm's length because they will always be a little scared of the unfamiliar.The Bloggers will always hantam the Press because that's what intelligent people with opinions are wont to do.And then there will always be a symbiotic relationship as both media get story ideas from each other. I find myself now buying the Straits Times every day to see what I can comment on! So they got a new customer (previously I only bothered to read what scraps were lying around at Coffee Bean/McDonald's/my husband's briefcase).Okay, so topic over, let's talk about something else: Are Bloggers Winkers (I cannot say the word because it's against my religion but I didn't have a better word)In my opinion all writers are Winkers. We like to show off and we like people to laugh at our jokes or cry at our turns of phrases. Come on, you know it's true. I admit, I love it when people read My Special Child (every alternate Wednesday in Mind Your Body) and feel like breaking open their piggy banks and giving all their money to the poor kid and mom.Is being a Winker necessarily bad? I don't think so. We only call it Winking because we don't have a POSITIVE term for it. When someone is given a talent, the worst thing for that person to do is bury it. He will be frustrated and the world won't be benefit from it. Can you imagine if Oscar Wilde decided it was immodest to quip as incessantly as he did? Neither can I. Who else could have said the immortal words: "Either this wallpaper goes or I do"?So Bloggers should Wink away. So should journalists, if they're gifted (not all are, as not all Bloggers are). But everyone has a right to express themselves. If you don't like what you read, just don't go back to the page. It's not like it's being SMS'd to you every minute.Okay so we're all good? Good. Mail Order Brides: Human Trafficking There's a link on Tomorrow.sg about the questionable practice of Vietnamese mailorder brides. Is this a business of human trafficking, squeezing in via a loophole?I'm sure there are genuine cases of men who fall in love with the person whose picture they picked out of a book. I'm sure in some cases language barriers are broken and these men actually treasure and look after their foreign wives.But there will be cases where these women are brought in under the pretext of marriage, are rejected, and find themselves in a brothel because they have nowhere else to go as they are technically "overstayers" and can be arrested. In the US there have been a number of documented cases of Filipino women who go to the US as mail order brides only to be hacked to pieces by the men that bought them.This is part of the fight Women Make A Difference has taken on -- sex trafficking and tourism. Trafficking is when women and children are smuggled to affluent countries and traded like meat for usually sexual purposes. Tourism is when sickos come to their country to abuse the women and children. Either way it's WRONG and should be punishable.Human life is so precious. Yes circumstances may be so bleak that prostitution might even appear to be a good option vs doing nothing and starving to death. But the price you pay is human dignity — once lost, it's lost for generations. Depressing stuff to sleep on... 10 MAJOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ME & SUMIKO TAN! A list for Cowboy Caleb to prove once and for all that I am NOT Ms Preparation H.1. Sumiko Tan is single and hating it.Theresa Tan is married and loving it. With children. One maid. And parents-in-law she loves.2. Sumiko Tan helped to write Lee Kuan Yew: The Man And His Ideas.Theresa Tan bought it. I think.3. Sumiko Tan used to get on planes with former PM Goh Chok Tong to cover political stories, and was reportedly his absolute favouritest reporter.Theresa Tan used to get on planes to interview Sting, stalk David Duchovny, chat with Gabriel Be-Still-My-Heart Byrne, and stare at Madonna five feet away from her.4. Sumiko Tan has a niece.Theresa Tan has two knees.5. Sumiko Tan has hemorrhoids.Theresa Tan has sympathy. For Sumiko Tan. Even after 2 kids I have never had hemorrhoids, praise the Lord.6. Sumiko Tan is the product of a Japanese mother and a Chinese father.Theresa Tan is the product of a Teochew mother and a Teochew father and a psycho grandmother who claims to be Peranakan.7. Sumiko Tan has a column that talks about her.Theresa Tan has a column that talks about disabled children.8. Sumiko Tan is insomniac and tries to sleep by licking sleeping pills.Theresa Tan can sleep through an earthquake, no pill licking required.9. Sumiko Tan's dog died. It ended a chapter in her life.Theresa Tan's mom died. It started a chapter in her life.10. Sumiko Tan is hot.Theresa Tan is mostly warm. "Blogs Are Like, Hot And Funky!" I'm busting a gut reading Mr Miyagi's post on Sumiko Tan today!!!Sumiko is a right babe. Has been since I first saw her when I was interning at the Straits Times and she was cooing pet names into the phone, pet names that rewrote the dictionary on "shame". So I can imagine Mr Miyagi's disappointment at being unable to engage the luscious Sumiko (keep trying dude, and write nice things about her in your blog).Sumiko's petrified of the Blogosphere because it represents chaos vs the orderly world of journalism, yet it has so many of the elements of journalism. Someone commented that perhaps traditional press is afraid blogs will take over -- well, I doubt it will happen soon, because Singaporeans still prefer news that they can touch and see. Still, blogs offer what the newspapers can't-- people's true feelings and opinions, without fear that they will be judged or worse, EDITED, or taken out of context.Is it masturbation? Maybe.Is it free speech? Mostly.Is it a bunch of lies and vicious rumours? Only if we're having PMS. And if it's about Sumiko (hahaha -- KIDDING)It's really funny how the parallel universes of the Blogosphere and Newspaper Journalism exist in a totally codependent relationship — they're totally into each other one day, and totally p*ssing on each other the next but they can't live without each other.What really makes me laugh is Mr Miyagi's comment about the New Paper's feature on blogs: "I think because there wasn't enough soccer to cover, the nation's top tabloid decided, hey, you know what? I have a brilliant idea, let's talk about blogs! No one has done it before! Blogs are so, like, you know, new and hot and funky, like, new and hot and funky, like?"(I laugh because that's EXACTLY what they think!!! We used to have like, a tank of "ideas" where we tossed story ideas for "later", and I guess TNP pulled out "Blogs" a year later than most ...)URBAN, which I mostly like reading, does a silly chart every thursday where it's supposed to give the lowdown on what's in and what's out (such charts by the way, are waaaaaaay out).Here's mine:URBANE: Mr MiyagiSUBURBANE: Ms SumikoURBANE: BloggingSUBURBANE: SloggingURBANE: Freedom Of Speeh SUBURBANE: Fear Of Free SpeechURBANE: Real MenSUBURBANE: Pretty BoysURBANE: Cowboy Caleb's Almost Daily AudioramaSUBURBANE: URBAN's Urban-Suburban Chart! About Face: Mom's Story - Final Chapter Yesterday afternoon I interviewed a mom with a little girl who has Apert Syndrome: it's a genetic disorder in which the face appears to be sunken in the middle (so the forehead protrudes and looks too big). The little girl is bright, cheerful and so beautiful a person -- I can say she's much better behaved than a lot of normal kids I've met (including my own!). Tonight as I researched further about Apert Syndrome I came across this beautiful blog by a girl Vicki who has Apert too, and here she shares a story her mother wrote about having her. I'm in tears -- our God is a great God. Hard to fathom at times but He never makes a mistake. No one, no matter how disfigured to our fleshly eye, is a mistake. About Face: Mom's Story - Final Chapter 我爱新加玻！ My son's tuition teacher (GORGEOUS woman in her 40s, looks 22, has 3 kids including 2 teenagers) soundly chastised me for not speaking Mandarin to my children.Gorgeous Tuition Teacher: “你应该跟他们讲！”Me: "Huh?! Jialat! 我的华语每次讲错的。。。"Georgeous Tuition Teacher: "You must try!"Me: "They will fail!" (read: "I pay you for what?!")End of conversation. I pay the Georgeous Tuition Teacher.I would dearly love to speak Mandarin. I was a good student you know. I tried very hard you know. But in my household my parents spoke English (to us) and Teochew (to each other when they were complaining about us). We played Beatles and Abba in our cassette tape recorders, not Fei Yu Qing or what's that lewlian lewlian lewlian guy's name? Anyway, what I mean to say is that my bro and I did not have an ice-cube's chance in hell of learning Mandarin.I only started having Chinese tuition when I was in primary 3. My tuition teacher was a Taiwanese lady, lovely, but the lessons were so booooorrrrrinnnnngggg ... I sat through every Wednesday and Friday just so I could go and play with her daughter after that. My Chinese aural test marks from P1 to Sec4 was a fabulous row of F's, except for the D I got in Primary 5 that totally ruined the landscape.(This is why my kids are having tuition at 6 and 4 years of age, so that they hopefully won't get a row of F but maybe B's or C's. I can live with that)Anyway, my whole point really was that every time I speak Mandarin I feel like a Singaporean. Especially with the lehs and the lahs and the hors. I used to love travelling with my friend Grace, the 6" tall editor of Nuyou, who is effectively bilingual. We would speak Mandarin in the cabs and restaurants of Paris: ”臭男人！" (referring to the taxi driver who would take us up every rue and boulevard to get to one spot 50 yards away) “很难吃！”　(referring to the half-cooked lamb served at some chichi restaurant) So thanks to Grace I practised my vocabulary of Mandarin complaints. I could open a complaints department. So even today, when I do speak Mandarin to make people laugh, I am reminded of the fact that Singaporeans have a very crude patois of Mandarin that always spells home.Ondine was just commenting yesterday about her friend's American fiance who loves our new National Day song. I have yet to meet a Singaporean who loves our new National Day song.To be honest I have not heard it but the complaints range from "Wah lau who is that charbor on the MTV? Her face make me want to slap her." (from my bitchy gay friend who is on Atkins, which is turning up his Bitchery Level to 15 out of a possible 10), to Packrat's rant about the DANCE: "It's the dance that they created for it. Reminiscent of the great Singapore workout, it is officially called, and I kid you not, Dance No. 40 (which comes with it's own instructional video). So much mocking to do, so little time/bandwidth."(I fear to say it but I'm gonna: my mother did the Great Singapore Workout in her bedroom for many many many many years. She was in great shape -- except she died of cancer 2 years ago. But she was beautiful to the last)I feel proud when tourists come to Singapore and join in our parades! I love it when they stop me at the traffic lights and ask what must-see part of Singapore they must go to before they head back to the airport.I love the way my to-be-sister-in-law, who is a strawberry blonde from Melbourne, looks in the turquoise kebaya I gave her before she and my bro returned to Melly.I feel proud that we have Singaporeans in Hollywood (Nixon Fong who's in all those bank advertisements drawing animated geckos, who did the animated opening for the IOC recently). I feel proud when my friends abroad ask me for recipes for laksa, hokkien mee and chicken rice which they tried while they were here.I think our government is for the most part, wise and kind. Just talking to my maid yesterday made me realise you may have a country with so many resources like the Philippines, but with poor and corrupt government you have nothing. Can you imagine if your husband was shot and killed on the street, and your village code of conduct is that the police close one eye if the murderer pays off the family of the murdered? I believe God loves Singapore. We may be going through some growing pains (40 is always a tough one to face, haha) and we may make mistakes along the way, but we have been spared so many of the disasters of our neighbouring countries that it makes me wonder if it's all a coincidence or has Singapore been lifted up for such a time as this? I believe this country is and will be more and more a shining beacon in Southeast Asia. We will have the will and the means to help those countries around us. That's how I feel about WMD's role in this — we Singaporean women have so much to be thankful for. We have a safe country, we have no lack of work, our children don't have to be sold off or sent to work in a factory or overseas in goodness-knows-what places. So just looking at our neighbours and the troubles they go through, we have the means to help them. We only need to activate the will.So bring on the cheesy dance, the corny lyrics, the flypast (which I LURVE!), the fireworks, the procession, the mistake-making commentators! 我真的爱新加玻leh. My first school presentation I've never actually spoken in front of students before. Staff members yes. Public yes. But young minds that are in the process of being moulded, no.When Siti from Unifem's Youth Wing called me early last week to "say a few words about gender stereotypes in the media" to a class of media students at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, I thought why not? I like young people, but I've had some bad experiences mentoring a few who fell to the cliche that in order to look smart they gotta give the teacher lip.Then again I was not the nurturing type till I turned 31 anyway.A speaker from Unifem went up to the podium first to present a video (made in the hilarious late 80s, the days of Duran Duran and Miami Vice, so there were short skirts, high heel pumps and cheesy big hair all around), and then discuss why the Evil Mass Media are responsible for brainwashing people from a tender young age so that boys learn to beat up girls, and girls learn to take it.While I can appreciate the angry sentiments (haha) behind it, I am not a feminist in any way, and do not agree that Man Bad, Woman Good. If not for Woman, Man would still be in the garden of Eden.Anyway, that's a discussion for another post. My Unifem counterpart took to admonishing the noisy students and then to calling them out by name to answer questions. I don't think it went down well. Then again I've never been a teacher and I wouldn't be try to discipline a bunch of near-adults.My section was representing the Evil Mass Media. As a former editor of 2 women's magazines, I took the liberty to reveal a bunch of insider secrets to these young people. I guess I thought entertainment might cut it -- these people had hauled ass to school on a SATURDAY and were being tested on the topic (or so I gathered), so the least I could do was provide a coupla laffs.It went down well, particularly the beautiful pictures of Gisele Bundchen who is the only authentic supermodel of this modern time, who has had no plastic surgery and who eats burgers and not cigarettes and coffee for lunch.I also revealed the wonders of Photoshop, which can shrink thighs, waistlines, cheeks, remove wrinkles, cellulite, underarm dingle-dangle and many other faults. Who needs Marie France when you've got Photoshop?Women's magazines DO do some harm to the mindset of women. I was just watching an episode of Madeleine on the Disney channel about how her schoolmates wept at night because they did not own clothes that carried the designer label of Madame Cliche. Girls ARE at a young age encouraged to dress pretty (it's a privilege, really), and I am guilty as anyone of putting my babies in Dior, DKNY, Ralph Lauren and other designer labels (but not anymore, it's Bossini for the uns now!).But above that, there is a value women ascribe to looks: sleek straight hair, flat stomachs and curvy hips, bigger boobs, whiter skin ... and it's actively encouraged by women's magazines.Does it mean women shouldn't care about their looks? NO! What I mean to say is that women here need more of a unique style. I see very few women who instinctively know what to wear, who wear not what is trendy but actually start trends with what they wear. Their items aren't expensive, but it's the way they put it together. It is a bit tiring to see, in a sea of people, long, gold-streaked locks, hipster jeans, jeweled thongs and an empire-cut top every 3 degrees you move your head. But I digress: things ARE changing. Women ARE getting tired of traditional women's magazines. The spiralling circulation figures prove the market just ain't big enough for too many mags, and that women DO have half a brain in Singapore, and they DO look for things that feed the soul as much as the skin.Oprah Winfrey's magazine O is the best-seller among women's mags in the US (and I read once, the world, but I need to verify that). Her magazine does not have a lot of skinny grumpy women with too much makeup on. Her magazine features her: a not-skinny, black woman on the cover. It is the antithesis of everything women have grown up expecting of women's magazines, but it is sincere, genuine and it touches a cord in women's hearts.Locally DARE magazine (which I write for but this is not a plug, promise) set out to achieve that, to create a magazine for women with soul, and they've hit upon the highest natural subscription I've ever seen in my 16 years in magazine journalism in Singapore. All this I shared in the lecture. Last night I bumped into one of the NAP students at church and she said I made her laugh.That made my day (yesterday AND today). I look forward to the next opportunity I get to speak and hopefullly bust more myths.