It's a Small World Afterall

When I first arrived here I was told that Singapore is a very small place. Coming from a city with a similar population, I understood it but didn't read too much into it. Over a few drinks in Holland Village yesterday my friends and I bumped into a girl from our work. She was with a group of her friends at another bar. As they were leaving our co-worker came over and said hi. I introduced myself to her friends and one of them turns around and remarks that she knew me. I looked her up and down, racking my brain, thinking "oh God, please let this not be an embarrassing thing". But no. She said I was sitting next to her in a restaurant a few days prior and I said to the person I was with how good her food smelled. And indeed, I had said exactly that at a Taiwanese restaurant a few days earlier. Granted I didn't recognise her in the slightest but it was a strange coincidence nonetheless.

Will boycotting Carrefour and KFC send any kind of proper message to anyone other than CEOs and shareholders of the above corporations? Having spoken about this very issue yesterday, this article provoked a bit further thought on my part. Nationalism is a powerful force particularly when a country feels that they have been slighted by another country/countries. In this century alone we've seen the Americans react strongly on a national level to (unequivocally) a tragedy. Now we're seeing it again with China. Though this is not quite on the same scale as the first example, the end result is much the same - people are incredibly upset, people are making wild assertions based on zero evidence and diplomacy between the countries involved is icy.

It's a complex issue because as Westerners we believe our media is a far more reliable source than one directly controlled by the government in a country where everything from blogs to YouTube is censored. So we have a situation where one party feels that they know the truth (and I happen to be a member of that camp) and another party who have total faith in their government and have been raised on an edited historical record since birth. Therefore, to them, that history stands as truth. As Westerners we question our media, often obsessively and this is where blogs have actually become an integral and powerful part of the media dialogue in our countries. Obviously, that's a dangerous thing when you are trying to control the media outright. Just makes you wonder how widespread this all is. It was only recently that a Singaporean politician warned of the possible advent of rampant anti-Western sentiment in China because of these torch protests.

Having lived in Shanghai for a period, is it just me who thinks it's odd that a country which has very little in the way of wheelchair access and facilities for the disabled is currently hailing a disabled athlete as a national hero?
And yes, obviously I think it's a disgrace that protesters would attack someone that is disabled.