Monday, November 19, 2012

Fidgety Google

I can't understand why Google removed the picture in this post. It isn't pornographic at all. It is just the picture of the cover of E.L. James' runaway best seller, Fifty Shades of Grey, which I took with my phone camera in a local bookstore, displayed in broad daylight. This bookstore is frequented by parents and children as it specialises in school text and assessment books. The book cover had an added label on it warning that it was strictly not for browsing. That was what I was trying to highlight. That's all. I am puzzled that they think it was pornographic. Or was it a case of violation of copyright? Or did Google just relied on their spiders to remove ANY picture in a post which had words like pornography, sex, and such like?

I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will not censor this post. To think that they stood up to the Chinese government by closing their business in China because they did not agree to China's attempts to restrict certain content on Google.

Hmmm...just so that it is all above board, I have taken a screenshot of this post. So if it disappears, it can resurface, perhaps in a freer platform?

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Military might

Photo
I didn't know that the Singapore military drives around  in high end luxury cars like the Audi A4. I thought only the Chinese government did so. 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Mainstream Sex


PhotoFifty Shades of Grey has been scorching Bookshelves and eBookshelves, all over the English reading whole. Singapore is no exception, despite the fact that it has very stringent laws regarding the circulation, sales and possession of pornographic materials. And 50 Shades is as pornographic as it comes. Hey we are not talking straight sex here. It is the kinky variety. In fact, its bondage and SM stuff. But mainstream bookstores in Singapore are stocking and selling them. This picture was taken in Popular Bookstore, a place that many parents shop for school assessment books for their children. You can't argue with money, can you? Morals be damned. And yes, its in the top 10 list, or at least where this photo was taken in a heartland bookstore. Only, unlike other 'straight books', you are not allowed to take off the shrink-wrap to browse. There's that "No Browsing" label. This will work in Singapore. No browsing means no browsing. We are generally a docile lot, though with this increasing  liberal and, dare I say, daring, atmosphere, you'd wonder how long this will last, the docility, i.e. The law be damned too.