'Made in Singapore, coveted abroad, shunned at home'

Personal Reflection:

This article by Tessa Wong depicts a painful reality of the Singaporean mentality – we’re just not proud of ourselves. When I was reading the article, I was thinking to myself, is there really a brand called Kwanpen? I have definitely heard of brands like Louis Vuitton and Prada – handbag labels that immediately ring a bell to me. But as a Singaporean, being unaware of my country’s own label left me rather abashed.

There are two sides of a coin. Both consumers as well as the brands themselves have their parts to play in this societal debacle. For one, consumers have always had the mindset that foreign brands are more superior than local brands for the simple reason that labels from abroad, most of the time, carry a much deeper history and background that give the brand credibility. On the other hand, brands themselves, as mentioned in the article, are apprehensive of marketing themselves as Singapore brands. This implies that they are naturally filtering out locals in their target audience. Hence, we see a vicious circle – local consumers turn to foreign brands because local marketers turn to foreign buyers, and vice versa.

The solution that is being devised – the Get-Singapore drive, leaves me feeling skeptical. Is this really the answer to our flawed mentality? Is this drive attempting to reverse a collective mindset that has already been comfortably nestling for too long? It will no doubt be an uphill task but yes, it is too easy for me to pass comments. I think a change of mindset is not impossible but it will be a long and winding process that we will all have to be massaged into, slowly.

Begin with supporting local football, perhaps?

newspaper article review

i refer to the newspaper article dated Thursday, March 19, 2009 "Woman gives birth on plane, leaves baby in bin".
i feel that it is completedly absurd that the woman actually had the audacity to dispose of her own flesh and blood, furthermore, she gave birth to it on the plane and dumped it in the bin!
i was so shocked when i read it that i feel very strongly about it. from my point of view, it is wrong to do that and that i am relieved that the mother and baby are reunited. but i have a burning question in my mind. Why did the airline give clearance to her in even though she has the 36-week mark in her pregnancy?

you can find the article at: http://www.todayonline.com/articles/308425.asp

books that i read

Frankly speaking, i have not read many books in the past few years. all that i know is that the books that i read recently were extremely good books that once you start reading it, you cant bear to part with it. The two books are:

1. Kite runner, by Khaled Hosseini
   
2. My sister keeper, by Jodi Picoult

Now, i shall summaries the latter to you.
A girl called Anna was born for a reason. Her sister is diagnosed with leukemia and their parents specially change anna's blood to match her sister's. Anna, who has received countless number of operations even at the age of 13, wants to sue her parents for not allowing her to her human rights.However, in the end, anna dies in a car accident and ends up donating her kidney to her sister, even before the lawsuit was over. so this is roughly how the story goes.
i hope that i can read more books in the future, and i am already starting on a few books.
Hope to finish it by the March holidays!