Our week wouldn’t be complete without a set of jaw-dropping, eye-popping news. This time, it was all about a politician’s statement about sex, female baby circumcision practices in Singapore, the death of a famous cow and other stuff. Here are the top five stories this week that made us go WTF.
You’ve been having sex all wrong
That was exactly what Senior Minister of State Josephine Teo said when she spoke to The Straits Times about young Singaporeans and their inability to start a family early because they haven’t gotten a flat. She even went on to say that the “Singaporean love story has a different arc from that of countries in the West” (that would certainly explain our rotten luck on Tinder!) and proceeded to describe very simply how relationships in Singapore should be like. The Internet obviously jumped on this because it seems like she totally missed the point. Many have commented that it’s not so much about where to have sex, but being financially sound before doing so. It even got the attention of BBC. Perhaps we’ll have Minister-approved places to have sex in future.
Round the clock teachers
Obviously we don’t agree, but this grass roots leader certainly thinks so. She sees schools as service providers, and their students (who need to be watched constantly) and parents as their main customers. Most of these parents are working full time and aren’t able to meet with teachers during normal hours. According to this analogy, teachers should bend over backwards and be at the beck and call of their students’ parents. And you wonder why over 5,000 teachers have left over the last five years.
A rude shock for baby girls
Some Singaporeans were dumbfounded when Thomson Reuters Foundation released a report two days ago about Singapore being one of the countries that still carry out genital cutting of female babies. A representative of women’s rights group AWARE stated that the ritual is carried out here legally, but is usually not discussed publicly. Singapore’s health ministry has yet to comment.
Fame couldn’t save everyone’s favorite Brahmin cow
If you’re one of those nature park goers, then you’ll know of that famous (and apparently lonely) free-roaming Brahman cow on Coney Island. However, you won’t be seeing majestic animal there anymore because it has just passed away, following an annual health check up by veterinarians. It was sedated during the check-up but never woke up after it was over because post-mortem investigations found that the malnourished cow already had “underlying illnesses”.
No one wants to put electric cars on the road
While driverless cabs were the hot topic in recent weeks, the far less out-there electric cars don’t seem to be faring very well. The Singapore-made EVA, which was designed to be an electric taxi (with a driver, mind you), has had a hard time engaging partners. Turns out, no one actually decided to purchase the prototype to put it into mass production and no one partnered up with the Singaporean tech-startup for the next phase. Turns out, we’re slightly less forward thinking than we thought we were.
