The number of hits I got made me a little curious. It turns out that there's an election coming up later this year, and even though it's not expected to be a fair election by international standards, the opposition's still hoping to finally (and against all odds) win a significant number of legislative seats. The ruling party's had a near-monopoly since independence, so this would be a real political earthquake if it happened. And the stakes are higher than just who runs a small island in SE Asia for the next four years. Dictators around the world have tended to see Singapore as a sort of pole star, a successful alternative to Western-style democracy. It'd be great to be able to turn that around and show that despotism always loses out eventually.
So now I feel guilty about just dissing the place out of hand the way I did. I don't claim to be an expert on the intricacies of local politics over there, but here are a few Singapore political blogs and blog entries I came across:
- Singabloodypore is not a pro-government blog, which you could probably tell from the name.
- A post at veni vidi blogi
- Words of the Lionheart asserts that one-party rule in Singapore is due to voter apathy, not an authoritarian government.
- A post at Diary of a Lucky Singaporean is titled, optimistically, "Brace yourself for the Opposition Onslaught!!!!"
- Chemical Generation Singapore, another political blog. There's a sidebar with list of more Singapore blogs, as well.
I naturally have no idea who was looking for political blogs about Singapore, whether they're curious citizens or government censors. If it's the latter, and they decide to ban this blog in Singapore, I'll take it as a mark of pride, and a sign I must be doing something right.
While I'm at it, here are a couple blogs and blog entries about Dubai. I haven't changed my mind about the ports deal or anything, but I also don't think it's healthy to see anywhere or anyone solely in cartoonish, stereotypical terms.
- Dubai Drama Queen
- Dubai Sunshine. Seems that Kool and the Gang was performing at the Dubai Jazz Festival last week. (!)
- I A!nt Askin U, I'm Tell!n U !
- Dubai Consumer Mirror has a post about colorful local con artists.
- A post about Dubai at Gridskipper
- A post about visiting Dubai at Beirut Notes.
- One Big Construction Site
And now, more "Next Blog" pseudorandomness:
- My Jokes & Funny Stories
- Heatstroked - Miami Heat fan blog
- Bar a Barraca (In portuguese)
- W 101 in 1001. Not that W.
- Principles of Interaction Design Sec 3_bbrenot
- Aphrodite Cont. Text only, but possibly not safe for work.
- Senza Fine (also in portuguese)
- Serenity. Not the movie.
- Katie the Scrapbook Lady
- Googlibrarian
- Monkeys & Keyboards? - a photo blog with some nice pics of Costa Rica and Peru.
- clever title
- Luxe Sex. That's (mostly) just the title, and the blog's about all manner of things. The top story right now features a cute chinchilla.
- Turn Off the Lights, and I'll Glow
- DynamicStability's l337h4x0mg - geekish blog about coding for Nintendo DS.
- به بوسه داغ خوش آمدید (in Farsi, I think)
- Avalanche Hockey. A couple posts about the ongoing goalie circus in Denver. I sure miss Patrick Roy, and I bet everyone in Colorado does, too.
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