How to abuse terrorism for entertainment

Note: I have nothing against Singapore. If this had happened in any other country, I would have written the same stuff.

Today was the national day in Singapore. Congratulations by the way. They have a parade every year, and this year, it was even broadcast on the internet, so I could watch it from far away, too.




It was basically the same as always: Lots of indoctrination, a lot of "don't ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" kind of stuff. The best part was when a guy said about being a Singaporean:"...to give and not to expect getting anything in return". Yeah... that sums up what it's like pretty well, haha.

The part that made me raise eyebrows was this: All of a sudden, in the middle of a dance scene, there was this news stations update that suggested there had been a terrorist attack, with smoke being visible and everything. It sounded very threatening and serious. Suddenly there was even a bomb squad in the stadium where the celebration was held, there were cars from the firefighters, and police boats in the bay. But it all turned out to be a trick to scare (= entertain?) people. But I can tell you one thing: Judging the tv images, the people in the stadium didn't find it funny at all. The way they looked rather reminded me of September 11th than any celebration day. It didn't work out at all.

In the video you can see how it started. I wish I could show you screenshots of people looking scared to death, but sadly, I didn't find any yet. I also think that the tv station might edit them out for the time when they release it to the public.

The strangest thing is that this happened in Singapore. Singapore is so uptight, they even have problems with homosexuality. But faking a terrorist threat just to excite people? Wow, they are really going the extra mile to do something amazing. And even more pathetic is that this was their excuse for presenting all their military personell and how well they COULD fight off terrorism if it came. Isn't there a mild way of showing off the military? Like just letting them march around the stadium? Duh.... they do that every year so why was it even necessary to do this.

If this happened in Germany on a parade, it would be like this: They would use "the history of Germany" as a theme, and lots of emperors and knights from ancient times would walk into the stadium first. Then people from the Weimar Republic, and then, hurray, people in nazi uniforms, and people representing jews in filthy clothes who are forced to walk into gas chambers. And all the nazi guys are doing the hitler greeting moves with their hands... yay... imagine that. It would be a worldwide scandal.

If only there wasn't so much censorship in Singapore, I bet the media there would bash everyone responsible for this outburst of craziness. I mean, the rest of the parade was okay, but you just don't play with terrorism like that.