Joanna's Singapore adventures

Turn down the sound, the camera picked up a bit of wind noise.

Last time I was here I posted a video that was played in train stations to encourage people to be polite on public transport. They have now updated the video to make it even more strange. Check it out

This is a documentary about Singapore produced in 1938, while Singapore was still a British colony and before much of its modernization. It is fascinating how much things have changed.



Video found at angryangmo.com

This took place a few weeks ago (during Halloween) in one of my lectures. I only just found the footage of it another class member took. I'd been too surprised to take out my own camera.

This would have to be one of the more unique Singaporean musical acts i've heard of. The Complaints choir of Singapore was a choir set up to give a voice to the pet peeves of Singaporeans. If the Singlish and abbreviations are too much, i can translate some of it.

Last Sunday was Singapore's national day. National day is similar to independence day in America or Australia day. National day celebrates the anniversary of Singapore’s independence from Malaysia, this year being the 44th anniversary. The main event is the national day parade. Unfortunately I was not able to attend that because the event is ticketed and I didn’t have a ticket. Tickets are very difficult for locals to get and nearly impossible for foreigners to obtain. We decided instead to head down to the esplanade (an area like Melbourne’s Southbank) to take in some of the other festivities. Down at the esplanade there was some outdoor concerts, a military display involving boats, helicopters and planes. Later in the evening were the fireworks. Heaps of people came dressed in the national colors of red and white. It was very much a family event with lots of kids around enjoying the festivities with their families.

My friends and I did try to get a bit closer to the parade but couldn’t get close enough to get more than a tiny glace of the side of the stage. I did get to see some of the parade on the big screen simulcast at the esplanade. While they call it a parade, it looked more like an Olympic opening ceremony than what you would normally consider a parade to be. The bit I caught included the song I Will Survive. Not exactly a song I normally would have thought of as having patriotic uses. There was some controversy about the use of pole fitness gymnastics (aka pole dancing) in the parade but I didn’t see that part. Of course the event had to have an inspirational patriotic pop song. I’ll include that below. The big moment of the night was the recitation of the national pledge. The pledge was not only being recited there but was also being recited at the same time at other places around the island and in Singaporean expat communities around the world. Many letters to newspapers in the following days declared it to be a very meaningful experience.

Getting out of the area after the event was a bit of a challenge due to the huge volume of people. There were so many people there I don’t think there could have been many Singaporeans left in the suburbs. My friends decided to do something very Singaporean and go trekking across the CBD in search of a hawkers centre they knew of that had good food.






National day song
Electrico- "What do you see"


What do you see MP3

This ad gets played on the screens at some train stations quite a bit. There is also matching posters. I'm showing you it because it shows you some of the different types of public transport and because it is totally ridiculous.