Tags: architecture, art, asia, canon a590is, flickr, food, Photos, singapore.
Categores: Culture, Daily Life.
Two months ago, I posted an entry chronicling a day spent in Toronto with my boyfriend. See A Day in Photos. This time, I will chronicle a night spent in Singapore with my best friend, ID.
6.15PM: From Ritzy Restaurant to High-Class Hawker
ID and I met up yesterday to conceptualize a new layout for our new joint blog/vlog/podcast at ToiletRev.com. We spent many hours scrummaging around the corners of the ‘Net to look for a ritzy restaurant, and finally decided on Makan Sutra at the Esplanade. Turns out that the ritzy restaurant is actually just a high-class hawker in the middle of the city.
Hungry bloggers aren’t choosers, so we stayed and had our fill. As you can see, the hawker had quite an ambiance, completed with earthy umbrellas, fans, seaview and rocky tables. The added ambiance and the prime location also meant that we had to pay premium for otherwise average-tasting, affordable local food.
6.30PM: Dinner at a High-Class Hawker
I had Roti John (left), which is fried bread with beef and onions stuffing. ID had Nasi Goreng (right), which is Malay for fried rice. Talk about healthy
11.20PM: Midnight Walk in a Tropical City
Just in case you were wondering what we did from 6.30 to 11PM, we walked around Raffles City to check out some clothes and stationery. We then worked on the layout at Starbucks until its closing time at 11PM. We then proceeded to McDonald’s, where it was 24 hours. To venture our way there, we had to walk past the luxurious Raffles Hotel, which is one my favorite spots in Singapore. I’m in love colonial architecture; there’s just a certain romantic atmosphere about it.
12 - 3AM: Toilet Humor and Bathroom Design
We spent the first 3 hours at Starbucks throwing out random ideas, and spent the last 3 hours at McDonald’s finalizing a sketch of ToiletRev.com’s first layout. Collaborating on a layout design was far harder than I expected, because ID and I have such different and distinct styles. Of course, ID will be illustrating, and I will coding. We will meet next week to work on the it.
Of course, for such a fun project, all sketches, all ideas, all jokes pertaining to ToiletRev.com will not be released until the site is formally opened to the public. So here’s a spoof of Nanyate?! instead by yours truly.
From the quality of the doodle, I am sure you are all now convinced that I failed art in school. I clearly can’t write, can’t draw, can’t color - by hand.
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To see the rest of the pictures, visit my Flickr account.
Tags: asia, fat, health, japan, law, obesity, society.
Categores: Culture, Opinion.
Japan has recently instituted a new law that fines employers that hire ‘obese’ employees or employees with ‘obese’ relatives. Men are required to have waistlines slimmer than 33.5 inches and women 35.4 inches.
As I read that from the newspaper headlines last month, my first reaction was stunned silence.
What happens to those who are tall? One of my best friends, who is Japanese, is a little more than 6′3″ (193cm) tall. There’s no way his waist would be much smaller than 33 inches. If it is, he would be one seriously underweight, undernourished six-footer. Evidently, this measure has not taken into account of height difference.
What happens to discrimination? Being fat in Asia is already a social stigma. Teens and kids get bullied in school for being fat - many driven to the the point of suicide. Case in point: obese people walking around the streets are usually given the eye of judgment. Will enacting such a law only further aggravate such social stigma? Will enacting such a law only serve to justify bullying and discrimination of the overweight?
What happens to employment equality? By imposing fines on employers, and not the individual man, will employers now seek out slimmer employees, so they can avoid paying any fines? Will employers now require a full-body pictures of the applicants and their families, before considering them for interviews? This brings discrimination to a whole new level. This law is practically forcing fat people out of society; it’s saying that if you’re fat, you’re not allowed to have a job and they will treat you like a fat piece of unemployed, useless meatball, until you decide to slim down.
Yet not everybody is fat by choice. No, I’m not talking about those who eat french fries everyday, and don’t understand the meaning of portions. There are those who truly are big boned. There are also those who suffer from low metabolic rates, as a result of certain medical conditions. These people will have a very hard time losing weight. And even if they manage to shed some pounds, their weight loss will be virtually impossible to sustain because of their condition. I don’t think it is fair for these people and their employers to be penalized for what they have no control over.
Despite all my protests, I’ve learned something new about Japan today: I now finally understand why the Japanese Parliament is called the Diet.
Just kidding. XD