niblets from the National day rally | cranky

"we hope to change the mindset.. and convince Singaporeans to have more babies, for themselves, for the country.." [paraphrase]

It struck me, in a passing way, that convincing people to have babies for the sake of country isn't very successful. You have a hard enough time convincing them to stop littering for the sake of country. Putting more bins might be more effective, then telling them they owe it to country. If people did things for country, you wouldn't have to pay MPs that much to prevent corruption. In any case, there was an interesting ARI study where number crunching suggested that people were more inclined to have babies in dragon years, and were unresponsive to any number of government incentives, including direct pay-offs on production of Singaporean niblet, and subsidies for choosing a HDB residence near prospective niblet's baby sitters - aka grandparents.


However, this part amused me:

c. How we get to know one anotheri.
Previously face-to-face
(1) Lim Kim San hated email – preferred to meet people
ii. Now young people are now making friends through the internet, e.g.
after exchanging photos on MySpace
iii. Some even get married through the internet! (I don’t recommend
it)

..because of this report on the BBC that came out the same day..

A zoo in the Netherlands plans to set up a webcam to help its orangutans form long-distance relationships with potential mates in Indonesia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4794279.stm

Just saying.