On the Do-good Reporting of the Local Media

this is old news by now but its been buggin mi for some time..it seems to mi dat the local media in Singapore can be incongruous n fantasticalli optimistic mani times..especialli when it comes to fawnin over all-things n issues government..they realli set new standards of balls-lickin n apple-polishin

a few weeks ago, i read this report in e Straits Times dat a recent survey conducted by some government department showed dat 6 in 10 Singaporeans felt secure in Singapore inspite of terrorism n felt dat Singapore's preparations against this threat were quite sufficient..

the papers went on to say dat this was a good sign especialli as similar surveys done in countries like Germany, France and e UK showed much higher percentages of dis-satisfaction with govt preparations n unease over security issues...

wat dis report convenientli neglected was firstly, than any basis of comparison must first take into consideration the size of the survey sample..dat is, how many people were surveyed..in Singapore, a survey reflectin our population would be smaller than one dat genuinely reflected the much larger German population for instance...n when survey sizes r smaller, they tend to be a less accurate gauge of people's views because of certain statistical principles..its true..survey 10 people versus 100 persons regardin whether they hav wet dreams n u could get totalli different answers..

second and more importantli, u're onli lookin at one side of der coin..when any country in der world has 4 in 10 surveyed say wat amounts to, "Yes, I'm afraid terrorists will blow mi up along Orchard Road and i dun think our govt is doin enuff to keep mi safe"..its a damnin condemnation dat can bring down a western democracy...40% of 3.5 million people (assumin dis survey is accurate n genuinely reflective of e population) is wat? 1.4 million people!!i dunno about u..but if i were a govt minister, i would be very worried about such a disturbin revelation...

and just to sour the optimism of the local media a little more, 1.4 million unhappy people out of a total population of 3.5 to 4 million spread out over an area less than 600 sq km means a lot more than in France n Germany, which have many provinces and cities dat serve to thin out the ranks of the discontented n uneasy..

oh well, its Singapore n we're special la..onli here does e media put such a natural spin on things n praise instead of criticise..after all, wat can der man on e street expect from newspapers dat consistently rank so low on der the international gauge of press freedom and censorship as to be inconsequential? at least they're consistent...give 'em an award for performin to international expectations!