Political Blogs: They do get very strange, do they not?

Perhaps it is a satire-themed blog, I do not know. Anyway, I visited the Young Pay-And-Pay Blog which, based on the title of the blog itself, was on hindsight a rather silly act on my part.

Anyway, I left comments on two particular topics. The first:

Don't tell people he is my Prime Minister. Very pai seh!

was a video of a rather embarrassing moment for our PM Lee as he tried to make an off-the-cuff joke that just did not resonate with anybody. I believe I understand the author's point, that we are paying these politicians a lot of money and yet they can get really embarrassing in public. Well, which politician around the world hasn't? You can read my comment there. Essentially, I agreed that LHL sounded silly and offered my personal experience on how many human beings could be put in that spot. The response was rather unexpected ... I don't know how to put it ... you'll just have to read that comment thread. To say the least, I could not be sure if they were a satire site, or they were so hardcore anti-PAP that any hint or perception of "support" was to be attacked. I considered responding directly to the response, but decided otherwise. This is effectively my "response", to myself (and anyone who cares to read about it) for my own records.

The second article was a tad more serious:

新加坡人比猪狗不如的台湾人更加猪狗不如！

The title roughly translates to "Singaporeans are worse off than Taiwanese who are treated worse than pigs and dogs". To be worse than a pig and a dog is part of an old Chinese saying used to describe people who are effectively social outcasts, to be shunned and at best, ignored.

Anyway, I was troubled by it mostly because it drew the conclusion simply from the levels of acceptable melamine (I assume they got their source somewhere) in food products - 0 ppm in American dog food, 2 ppm in Chinese pig fodder, 2.5 ppm in Taiwanese food products and 5 ppm in Singapore food products.

Naively, I pointed out that animals and humans do have different requirements and tolerances in food consumed. I also wondered aloud what international standards for melamine were and did a quick google check. Again, on hindsight, I don't think the author was interested in an intellectual discourse on drawing a conclusion from a poorly laid out foundation. I think he or she just wanted to say Singaporeans are treated badly ... the example used really does not matter. It just sounded good to tie the treatment to any "evidence" linked to pigs and dogs. Strangely enough, the response to my comment on this article was far more civil than the first.

I think this will be my last "blind" foray into posting comments on blogs. Next time I will keep my eyes wide open. At best, this recent incident was an exercise in silliness.