Verbatim from the "To Do" pages in a booklet for overseas visitors at a conference:

"... visit the Night Safari; ride on the animal swings by the lake and laugh wildly to the animals of the night, an especially perfect endeavour during the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the Chinese gates of hell are open for the spirits to have a holiday on Earth..."

"... order for a breakfast or two at the Singapore Zoo with the resident Orang Utan..."

"... hungry for a local lunch, alight at the 12th bus-stop after the Mandai Orchid Garden, along Upper Thompson Road & wave for a taxi & say Sin Ming Road, Block 22, please! Visit Rong Chen Bak Kut Teh & taste a popular Singaporean dish where you enjoy a bowl of pork rib soup with rice... this hawker is rated DIE DIE MUST EAT by the Makan Sutra. Their stewed pork trotters (Read: Tur Car) & pig liver are quite sought after as well..."

"... Peranakan group is a unique ethic group in Singapore where the husband and wife comes from two different ethic group – Chinese and Malay..."

"...One Rochester can definitely allow you to have a real experience of having a meal in a Singapore family..."

"... Perform a Malay-to-British transition as you stroll down Beach to Raffles Hotel...you could at least get a photograph with the signature turbaned Singh who opens the doors of Raffles Hotel..."

A further challenge to my ability to comprehend plain English comes from the Straits Times (Friday, June 29, 2007) which in an article on mainstream media versus and the internet highlighted what was termed as "problems the Internet is causing to society." The write-up briefly examined how Internet users gravitate towards only like-minded users online, and claimed that "even the Internet's staunchest supporters acknowledge this issue." Activist Alex Au was cited as saying, "Gay sites.. are basically gay ghettoes... the fact is, people seldom access sites with interests and opinions different from what they already subscribe to."

A following paragraph went: "To argue that heterosexual surfers, particularly homophobic ones, would visit these sites and be influenced by their content, would be far fetched."

To my tarred and feathered brain, the statement by Mr Au seems to say, 'Sites (and presumably other media) with gay-targeted content are highly unlikely to change the minds of gay-haters or lure straights into homosexuality.' But as no further commentary was offered, it's probably that my understanding of these words goes way beyond sanctionable semantics and worse, suffers from an incongruity with the demands of majoritarian presumptions.    

Comments

[Evie]

Good copy =) The tourists will be in for a great shock..

(btw it's ethnic, not ethic)

[budak]

they wrote 'ethic' la, baby. :)

[acroamatic]

The copy is an embarrassment.