
Have a safe and happy holiday season!
I thought Christmas was commercialized in North America, but wandering through Orchard Road yesterday we saw the strangest of Christmas scenes; the nativity scene, commercialized. Crowds of people rushing through the streets of Orchard Road to see the display, "Bethlethem: 0 to 5 BC), with statues, angels and wisemen. People even took photos with their fmailies, inside the nativity scene. Unfortunately no pictures of this yet...I'll leave it to your imaginations.
Have you ever seen Chinese wisemen in the nativity scene? How about a Chinese Santa Claus?? I almost died laughing; really something I had never thought about. And if you Canadians think our malls are crowded at Christmas time, check this out...not to mention the Singaporean government's warning against high voltage Christmas trees!
Dear Sex & the City Fans,
You won't find your beloved show here in Singapore. Seeing as Hall 11 at NTU has only one tv, which has only one working channel, I am completely clueless in tv world, and will be for the while. (I miss Prison Break!!) However, an Australian colleague couldn't find the show on tv. Naturally, DVD's are the next best thing, so she looked for the Sex & the City DVD set at the HMV on Orchard Road --the most touristy, non-Singaporean part of town. The response she got "We don't sell that in Singapore; it's censored". . Which lead me to think, what else is censored in Singapore?
Reporters without Borders ranked Singapore 140th out of 167 countries for freedom of the press; here's a handful of censored items:
So, like most shoppers looking for DVDs, clothes, gum, or real newspapers, my Australian co-worker went to KL--where she found the real, legitimate ENTIRE DVD set (yes, all 6 seasons, all 94 episodes, almost 50 hours of tv) cost $300 SGD. Might have to head to that movie store before I leave!
(Thanks, answers.com)