Singapore Blogosphere to Become Global Blogopolis

Following comments on the prominent blog "Singabloodypore", the Singapore Government has decided to step in by forming the SBDC - Singapore Blogosphere Development Council, with Ms. Regina Juggs as its newly appointed chairperson.

"What many Singaporeans do not realise," says Ms. Juggs, "is that their blogs are on the World Wide Web and are thus not only subject to local scrutiny and surveillance, but potentially connect to the rest of the world. The SBDC has been formed to ensure that the content, language and style of Singaporean Blogs reflects a mature, healthy identity that is both Uniquely Singaporean and firmly rooted in Asian Values, while acknowledging and conforming to the New Global Economy.

"Mr Mc Dermott's post revealed a worrying trend in Singapore Blogs to celebrate frivolousity and infantilism, topics summed up brilliantly in one of the comments as 'shoes, coffee, toilet paper, catching mosquitoes, or whatever'. One only has to look hard and long at blogs such as Xiaxue to realise that something is very wrong in our community. However, serious social cancers are not our concern. SBDC's concern is solely to clean up the image we present to the rest of the world, in order to maintain global competitiveness and attractiveness to foreign investors.

"Thus, the first initiative of the SBDC will be the 'Blog Good English' campaign, similar to the 'Speak Good English' campaign introduced in recent times. We will send email to the authors of blogs that use excessive Singlish, advising them to revise or delete their posts, and if they do not comply, encourage them to take remedial lessons in English, subsidised by our council. Further campaigns will focus on the content of local blogs, aiming to make them more mature and sophisticated and provide insightful information on elements in our local culture: Food Guides, Examinations (PSLE and GCEs), Issues on Procreation and Marriage, and Reports from 'The New Paper', and politics"

When asked to elaborate on the last element, Ms. Juggs Said "Foreigners have perpetuated the belief that Political Discussion is totally non-existent in Singapore. This is merely another example of the misconceptions that Westerners have towards Asians. In Singapore, Political Discussion takes place, but is considered a private affair, usually confined to the bedroom or taxis, at most within an intimate gathering of Uncles at a Coffeeshop. However, since blogs tend towards the personal, political discussion will leak out into cyberspace and we will continue to monitor the situation to continue the current perception of political blogs as dense and of an intellectual bent; in general, boring and irrelevant to local life. We also plan to encourage such political blog owners to have a petty and implausible outburst at stipulated times, to allow the negative view of their personality to completely out shadow any merits within their arguments. Failure to do so may result in threat of removal. This is consistent with our strategy outside Cyberspace."

Related News: New blog to provide help for parents of primary school children

The members of Bedok Auntie's Line Dance Club (BALDC) has announced plans to create a blog that targets the parents of primary school children. Titled "Exam R Us", the blog will provide a listing of where to find copies of various primary school's examination papers. "I spent two weeks trying to get a copy of the RGPS P6 Mathematics paper," says Mdm. Lim Bee Geok, in Singlish. Mdm. Lim is the founder of the site as well as principal dancer of the BALDC. "I realised that we should all combine power and provide comprehensive information as to where we can obtain the papers, to benefit all our children and help them score better in their PSLE."

The site also plans to provide a forum for discussion on the level of difficulty of each paper, as well as providing a venue for speculation on the questions in the current year's PSLE. Ms Juggs says, "This is exactly the type of mature, relevant content that we hope to see in Singaporean blogs. We will be tutoring the editorial committee of Exam R Us to ensure that they achieve a high level of English usage on their blog."

Despite such praise from a government related official, some people are unhappy about such an initiative. LTC(NS) Ngai Teo See Phyllis, mother of two daughters, says, "After putting so much effort putting my daughters into premier kindergartens and monitoring their grades so as to allow them entry into RGPS, it pains me to see that any neighbourhood school kid can procure the benefits of my daughter's institution."