A little whisper in the dark

The New Paper

In the midst of looking further afield for a university that offered a reasonably decent degree that I could afford, doing what I aspired to do, an out of the blue Nanyang Technological University envelope was an intruiging prospect.

A few new courses they want me to be aware of, but most relevant to me would be the "Top 5% of polytechnic graduates with certificate of merit may apply for any course(s) at NTU regardless of their diploma".

Mmmm, tasty. Ever contemplated a career change?

For such a large university in the western part of Singapore, there sure is a remarkable dearth of courses that barely pique my interest; at this stage, I am pretty sure Math will always be my Achilles Heel, yet of the 12 lab-based degrees, 10 are Engineering degrees. Not so hot.

B. Communications Studies (Hons.) sounds interesting. Videography, photography, journalism, writing. Hmmmm.

The very next day, still mulling these new developments, I walked past a newstand and the New Paper's front page grabbed my attention, just as it was intended to.

"Singaporean girl has 50 bikinis."

And that is front page news? Well, maybe. I am sure I don't have 50 swimming trunks, or even 50 t-shirts. I might, however, have 50 pieces of clothing if I combined all that I regularly wear, footwear included.

Is this where local reporting and writing is at? I would strongly suspect that in the paper-chase society that is Singapore, the writer is probably a university graduate, and the headline is probably his brainchild as well. I'm not keen to waste my time and money to be educated to such a level.

A tabloid, then, perhaps we should classify this newspaper. Along with "News of the World", with its regular alien, Elvis, and scandalous sightings. The problem about New Paper, is that its in good old staid Singapore, and so instead of fantastically sensational newsbites, they make do with mundane stuff like bikinis, aunties petitioning to save a department store, the like.

A good friend of mine emphatically stated:

"Any newspaper that's too small for my dog to poop on, is a tabloid."

Its so bleeding obvious, no truer words have been spoken.

posted by Chung Leong @ 4:13 AM