2 seasons of RockStar, and we have 2 crock stars .

What a complete waste of time following this series, when in the end Supernova decides that their frontman should be a garden gnome who sounds like he has a boa constrictor permanently wrapped around his neck.

Admit it guys, you have never entertained the idea of a woman singin for your band. Between Dilana, probably the most 'unfeminine' female competitor there is, with a killer voice and a commanding stage presence, and Lukas, they decided to choose the most suitable male out of the suspect bunch they managed to amass after a worldwide search.

If you had actually listened to the fans like you said before axing Dilana, Tommy, you would have chosen the one who wasn't even in the bottom 3 last night. That lull near to the end of the series was probably just a reaction to Dilana's melodramatics to an issue completely blown out of proportion. In the end, the fans rallied and voted for the best. Lukas isn't even 'right' for their band, if that's the argument for choosing him. He's not rock, he's more like a whiny punk. His stage antics revolves around standing with his body contorted, his head bent to the left [sometimes for a whole new dimension to his routine, to the right] and his eyebrows meeting together to form a perfect upside-down V to house his scrunched eyes. Oh, and Paris wants her glasses and lip gloss back.

I hope JD wins Rockstar. INXS deserves him.

On August 15, a Malay mat wrote in to the Forum page of Straits Times. Here's what he had to say :-

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Made to feel out of place

My wife and I headed down to Marina South to be part of the National Day Countdown, view the fireworks and soak in the atmosphere. We were there at about 11.15pm and some Chinese pop acts were performing and interacting with the crowd in Mandarin. The two MCs were also conversing almost totally in Mandarin.

Later, thankfully, some local acts performed some familiar National Day tunes in English. However, the MCs continued to interact with the crowd mostly in Mandarin.

It was frustrating to feel out of place at an event organised for all Singaporeans to celebrate our nation's birthday.

Rosli Abdullah

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On behalf of Stupidy of Humanity, here's an imagined reply from the organisers of the National Day countdown in conjunction with the Singapore Tourism Board :-

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Dear Mr Rosli,

We are sorry that you feel out of place, especially on the day where we celebrate the hard-earned success of our country on the backbone of our multi-racial forefathers. However, there is a sound rationale behind this *perceived travesty. We were concerned that there might be passing tourists from China who might not feel welcomed if they heard the MCs speaking in English.

As you know, China is one of the upcoming superpowers in the world and we must tap into the increasing awareness of its people of the new experiences that travelling brings. A concerned citizen wrote in to the Forum not too long ago, lamenting the number of puzzled Chinese tourists asking him for directions as they could not decipher our street and directional signs. He proposed putting up signs in Chinese in order not to alienate a big portion of our tourist trade.

We are also negotiating tweaking or changing completely names of popular places like Orchard Road and Little India, and landmarks like the Esplanade to avoid decreased tourist traffic to these areas in case the Chinese tourists find it difficult to pronounce these names to their taxi drivers. It would be a shame for them to miss out on any part of our beautiful country just because we were negligent in not catering to their needs.

A big pull in tourism is the warmth of the people. We are proud to say that Singaporeans in general, are friendly and hospitable. However, there is always room for improvement. One of the ideas being bandied about is the way we can form a bond with the Chinese tourists. If they can call us by our names comfortably, it will greatly diminish the barrier between strangers. We are still in the infant stages of discussing the feasibility of changing (or adding on to) the non-Chinese names of Singaporeans to be more tourist-friendly.

These same Singaporeans would also help greatly the cause of our proudly multi-racial island nation by taking up Mandarin lessons on their own. As Mr Albert Tye Choo Aik pointed out in his letter to us, this is by no means any form of discrimination although the Chinese majority in Singapore are ever so slightly advantaged given that they had picked up the Mandarin language since birth and need to spend less time, money and effort on it than their minority counterparts. Ultimately, picking up Mandarin will only enchance job prospects for the minorities, not to mention enhance racial understanding, as Mr Tye enlightened us.

We need to strongly emphasize that we are not racially-inclined to any particular people in any way. Every move we make is based on strengthening our economy and there are no other motivations. If the next batch of high-spending tourists were to come from Mars, we would advise all Singaporeans to be open to Martian curiosity and anal probings and to be prepared to paint their skins green to make the Martians feel at home here.

We believe that we have clarified our stand on the matter of your concern, Mr Rosli. We hope you come back to celebrate the National Day countdown with us next year when you have bettered upgraded yourself so that you are able to understand our MCs and will also be able to mingle more freely because of your newfound enhanced racial understanding.

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*Below is the letter with the mention of perceived discrimination from Straits Times, Aug 11:-

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Take a leaf from Mr Nathan's book

The article, "President taking Mandarin lessons" (ST, Aug 9), stated that Mr S R Nathan has been learning the language for the last five years, since becoming the second popularly elected President.

This was a pleasant surprise as he is already more than 80 years old. It serves to remind Singaporeans that learning is a life-long journey.

The feat is especially significant as it shows that he is going out of his way to reach out to the masses and strike up a rapport with them. What better way than to speak their language ?

Though President Nathan does not need to be proficient in the language to hold a job, he has demonstrated that acquiring a knowledge of Mandarin is important in the Singapore context. Whether to enhance one's job prospects or for racial understanding, a knowledge of Mandarin will definitely benefit the minorities.

I notice that many Indians, including some from India, are taking up Mandarin lessons on their own but, regrettably, the same cannot be said of Malays.

Shouldn't Malay community/political leaders take the lead and set an example for members of their community in the light of perceived discrimination, as highlighted by labour chief Lim Boon Heng ?

President Nathan's effort is well worth emulating.

Albert Tye Choo Aik

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A response came on the 13th Of August:-

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Use English when among minorities

I refer to Mr Albert Tye Choo Aik's letter, "Take a leaf from Mr Nathan's book" (ST, Aug 11). While it is true that interracial understanding may be improved if more minorities speak Mandarin, the same can be said of more Chinese speaking Bahasa Melayu or an Indian dialect.

Why does Mr Tye single out minorities and let us Chinese off the hook, just because we are the majority race ? The burden of cross-cultural communication should be shared equally in a pluralistic country like Singapore.

In fact, English was designated the official language precisely to facilitate interracial communication without requiring each person to know a mind-boggling number of languages.

While it would be very nice to see more Chinese Singaporeans learning to speak Bahasa, this may be too much to ask.

Instead, could we refrain from speaking Mandarin around those who do not understand it, and use English instead ?

Lim Xiuhui (Ms)

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I've a good mix of Chinese, Malay, Indian, Chinese/Malay, Indian/Chinese pals and we do fine in English. When nyonyas ask me for directions, we make do by pointing and gesturing. Not much of a problem, so far. Final thoughts, in Malay regrettably, as I myself have not picked up Mandarin well enough to effectively summarise my feelings as succinctly as in Bahasa.

To Ms Lim Xiuhui - wa caya sama lu :)
To Albert (kalau kau nak faham, belajar Bahasa sikit) - Pi mampos :B

How could anyone come by and rip off their own flesh n blood GREAT-grandma on the pretext of visiting ? People could apparently. And 'good', 'religious' people too. With all the education he got from someplace remote (the more far-flung n dusty the country, the closer you get to God mentality), earthly things like making money (and doing it by trying to con his relatives) still concerns him. Whatever he was trying to sell, his magnetic bed, mattress or sanitary pad, is of no use. The hocus-pocus about attracting iron in the blood and all, just makes the blood rush to my head. Just because you know molecules exist, and you recite the names of gases in the air, doesn't make your outlandish claims right. The trick with the lighter stinks, save that precious lighter fluid for a rock concert instead. If my parents weren't around, and you were there just with my hard of hearing grandma, I'd smile and nod pleasantly while blasting your pseudoscience theories upside down. Next time you decide to drop by, state your real intentions and twin n me will be all ready to welcome you and your crappy science experiments. When Hari Raya comes around, you'd better stuff my grandma's green envelope with 300 bucks to show that you're still a useful great-grandson, for the tea that my mom served you and for that damned magic pillow.

For the next French Open, I propose that only French players be allowed to participate. Only French umpires. Only French linespeople. And of course only fantabulous French spectators. Only then there can be a French champion.

Flyer distributors. Policy sellers. Promoters. Survey-takers. Door-to-door salespeople. Donation seekers. What do they have in common ? Really annoying jobs that's what. I'm sure they're just as frustrated as the scurrying people they chase after. Don't give a flying frying pan how they feel though when they use guilt, fear or embarrassment to hassle the walking innocent.

Spare a thought for the needy, you heartless wretch. Look you're walking around fully clothed, looking well-fed, toting accessories you don't need and you won't spare a few cents for the aged/disabled/destitute ?! I'm making donations every month out of my paycheck, plonk coins in when they're available and generally give seats to the elderly. (On that note, giving up seats to the seemingly-pregnant can be a minefield. Never know if you'd earn yourself a tight whack across the face for thinking that paunch could be a baby in the making). No need to shove a tin can to my face at the bottom and top of the escalator. (Egghead alert!) If I feel your cause is worthy, I'd give. Most of the time, I take pity on the frazzled tin-can holder, regardless of the logo on the sticker. To those in the school of the sulk-n-shove, the chaser, the frozen statue, better off going to the nearest bank and change your own 5 dollar bill into 5 cents and dumping them all in. To charity organizations out there, please use the tin cans sparingly. Whether volunteering or getting paid, go brainstorm and find more creative ways to help your cause.

Promoters, ladies have enough self-esteem worries. There really is no need to point out that I have blemishes on my face when I'm browsing the skin care/acne section. No need to recommend breast enhancements either, I have the solution for that (har har silvertube), The ads aren't really too convincing either. If I lean down seductively, shove my arms close to the side of my boobs and/or wear a stuffed bra with the bottom half consisting of sponge and air, I'd be posing for Maxim, albeit with a paper bag over my head. Tummy trimmers are the absolute bull in exploiting the fear of being flabby. So spare me that crap too. What's really disconcerting is glancing at the endorser of these products. Fann Wong touting Xando is like Stone Cold touting shampoo. On that note, the promoters look suspect too.

Insurance agents. You could have nightmares consisting entirely of 5 words. DO you have a minute ? DO YOU have a minute ? DO YOU HAVE a minute ? DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE ? I DO HAVE A MINUTE BUT I'D RATHER SPEND IT GRATING MY NAILS ON THE CHALKBOARD !! If I want a policy, I'd ask. If I say I already have a policy, it means I do and if I want to review it, I'd call my insurance agent. They ought to buy an insurance protecting them from irate passers-by but no insurance company in the world would sell that, I'm sure.

Flyers. Waste of paper. Only I tend to take it home and recycle them in various ways. Leads to evil too as they tend to clutter. Never able to use them as fast as they're given out. Sarang tikus syndrome. The distributors aren't picky, thrusting multiple copies at a time on your chest or elbow. It really irks me though, given flyers in a language i can't comprehend. Just really, really noying. What's the success rate of this form of ad anyway ? Maybe I should ask in a survey.

Survey-takers. I've hit jackpot, first prize, plane ticket n villa stay a coupla times already. Lucky me. All i had to do to claim this fabulous prize was follow them to a building, take a lift and follow the narrow aisle to an office with a whiteboard. How'd i know this ? Once on a whim, I followed through cos my prize was a Marche voucher. Now that's worth trailing a stranger with a clipboard to a strange building to. I had to sit for 3 hours to get that 50 bucks voucher. 3 hours of glossy picture books, posters of palm trees, hard-sell, soft-sell and finally surrender. I had earned my prize without parting with money, only valuable time. Well-spent though for it saved me from the hundreds of times later on when I would never again be stopped for any survey whatsoever.

Door-to-door salespeople. I ought to rig the doorbell with a sensor to send an electric shock when any of those are detected within 5 metres. They deserve top-spot in the bottom pits of humanity. Hell, it's their profession by choice. A profession based on harassment, bugging, haggling, pleading, bargaining, false claims, LC demos n tongue-twisting. Unwittingly opening a door to them is like asking which level of hell do I want to take a peek at today ? The only sane and safe way out for everybody involved would be to slam the door straight away. Any attempts at explaining that you're busy/not interested/don't need the product will be met by rebuttals n counter-rebuttals. Whatever they're selling is the messiah you never knew you needed. The latest sucking technology in vacuum-cleaning. The miracle air-purifier that does scientific things like ionize negative particles and vaporize nanomicrobacteria. Or the clincher, I'm not selling anything, I only need to update my records on the update of the record i made 3 long weeks ago on your vacuum cleaner. This ruse only works once, you pariahs ! At least, compile a list of the sneaky ways you get into individuals' homes and tick them off.

To round things off, in order of annoyance, with some thoughts on merit,it would be:-

6) Donation seekers - it's for a cause other than their own, and students are involuntarily volunteered by their schools to do it.

5) Flyer distributors - Ads can be perused at own time and rubbish bins are available close by distributors most of the time. Paper can also be recycled.

4) Survey-takers - They offer goodies sometimes.

3) Policy-sellers - Most smile and offer a thank-you after a brush off.

2) Promoters - Hidden gems might be uncovered if you bought something from them you would never have otherwise thought of touching.

1) Door-to-door salespeople - No redeeming value whatsoever.

He was a drug abuser, an alcoholic and a glue sniffer. Then he jumps out of his flat n miraculously, he did not die. I wonder why God spared him. Now, there's a TV show that glorifies him as having true courage.

You've got to be kidding right? He got himself into such a damn mess. Yeah so what if he got himself straightened out? Big freaking deal. Maybe the jolt that his head received when he landed on the tarmac put his brain on the right-side up.

It's so difficult to find someone truly inspirational here that we have to turn to a recovered punk. What an excellent choice.