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LEADING SINGAPOREAN WRITERS today expressed outrage over the national library’s plans to destroy three children’s books seen to promote homosexuality.
The National Library Board (NLB) late yesterday confirmed it would “pulp” three children’s titles deemed to be against its “pro-family” stance following complaints by a parent and its own internal review.
Singapore’s small but vocal arts and literary community slammed the move as an exercise in “book burning” and censorship, amid rising tensions between religious conservatives and gay-rights activists in the city-state.
The three books to be destroyed include “And Tango Makes Three” – a true story about two male penguins in a New York zoo which raised a baby penguin – and “The White Swan Express”, which features children adopted by straight, gay, mixed-race and single parents.
The third book, “Who’s In My Family”, discusses different types of families, including references to gay couples.
The state-funded NLB is a network of 26 public libraries with a collection of five million books and multimedia items.
Prominent local writer Ng Yi-Sheng bemoaned the NLB’s decision to destroy the books instead of choosing a “compromise solution, such as putting the books in adult lending or even the reference section”.
“I want you to bring up these book burnings in your public events,” he told fellow authors in a Facebook post.
Alfian Sa’at, a playwright, called for a boycott of the NLB network.
“Our stand is precise and clear: We are against censorship, an opaque bureaucracy and the destruction of books,” he said.
Conservative city state
A group of writers scheduled to speak at an NLB event about humour on Sunday also pulled out in protest.
The Singapore Review of Books, an online publication that reviews books from Singapore and outside, said on its website that the NLB’s decision to destroy the books “has crossed the threshold to take on the spectre of a pyre… from which no hope may rise”.
But Singapore’s information minister Yaacob Ibrahim said in a Facebook post today the NLB’s decision was “guided by community norms”.
“The prevailing norms, which the overwhelming majority of Singaporeans accept, support teaching children about conventional families, but not about alternative, non-traditional families, which is what the books in question are about,” he wrote.
The episode comes just two weeks after an annual gay rights rally in the conservative city-state was attended by over 20,000 people, sparking a fierce debate between religious conservatives opposed to the event and Singapore’s growing gay-rights lobby.
Gay sex between men is illegal in Singapore and is punishable by up to two years in jail under a provision in the penal code dating back to British colonial rule.
Singapore officials have openly promised that the city’s LGBT community will not be hounded under this law, but say it must stay in the books because most citizens still do not accept homosexuality.
A survey of 4,000 citizens by the government-linked Institute of Policy Studies earlier this year found that 78.2% of the local population felt same-sex relations were wrong.
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The authorities really need to rein this practice in
If 6500 horses were slaughtered for their meat with Dept of Agriculture approval, where is the market for this meat and is it sold as stated ie horse meat for human consumption so the purchaser is aware of exactly what it is they are buying ,my concern naturally is that it is being sold as beef.Additionally what health record is kept of these animals prior to slaughter, I assume the same standards relating to beef apply and the same age profile of animals ie 36 months at slaughter is also the rule and that these animals are veterinary assessed through their lives.
@Honeybee: horse meat is popular on the continent, that’s where it usually goes from factories here. Horses are to have a record of all medications on their passports, are are listed as either on or off the human consumption lists, depending on the medications and owners preferences. They do not require testing for tb, which is the biggest testing for cattle. No age profile, as this was brought in for cattle due to the instances of bse in older stock.
@Honeybee: fact is that veterinary standards for horses going to the factory is more stringent than that of cattle
@Liam Carlin: are more stringent
Giddy up
Would want to be a very fast horse nowadays not to get eaten.
What’s a microship?
@Doz: A boat
@Peter: A very small ship
@Doz: It’s a small ferry-shaped object used subcutaneously to identify an animal; not to be confused with a microchip, a large silicon wafer used to transport people and goods between islands. Confusingly, microchips sometimes carry animals carrying microships. :)
@Doz: I think they come with pocket battleship.
We’re already eating chlorinated chicken from Brazil, just labelled “Made in Ireland” as it’s cooked, sliced, diced and packaged here.
Shergar burger anyone !!.
@tommytukamomo: A stallion should never be mixed with a scallion
It seems unbelievably crude
That the kindred of Shergar
Could get mixed in a burger
In Monaghan’s Silvercrest food
Why the long face?
Ate the goverment asleep?? And the ESB scandal went unnoticed also
Is there a health risk with eating horse meat?
@Coco86: It’s not great for the horse…
@Coco86: No, if the horse is/has been checked by Veterinary professional at time of slaughter.
@Coco86: yes, in that it’s not traceable and so is not properly regulated.
@Coco86: Yes , if the horse has been on certain medications , the horse is not considered fit for human consumption. Horses are meant to be chipped and if given those meds , that would need to be recorded on their passport .
@Coco86: it was reported on the news that the horses were unfit for human consumption hence the falsifying of paperwork.
@Coco86: ya can get the trots
Springer’s final thought;
Who was supplying incorrectly labelled horsemeat throughout Europe?
Mafia et al.
Who do they need to get rid of?
Lots of people who may negatively impact profits.
What did folk not test for in meat samples?
Human DNA.
Let that one sink in over dinner folks ;)
Well horse, how’s she cuttin’.
What’s with the long face sir? Not enjoying ur burger?
Meat products like certain foods say may contain nuts etc … Should say may contain other meats .
Does anyone actually regularly buy horse meat?
@Hardly Normal: its popular on the continent not so much here.
@Hardly Normal: I lived in Holland around 2003 and someone told me they were into it over there.. I was a vegetarian at the time so I didnt investigate it further..haha…but that’s as far as my horse eating knowledge goes..
@Hardly Normal: the belgians
It appears that the journal.ie don’t want certain establishments mentioned
Free press is certainly not alive and well where these shower are concerned
@builditnow: well let’s just say the biggest restraunt in Ireland
Have certainly brough their chickens home to roost all the way from twiwan
All the laughs and Jokes and many stupid comments above indicate that some people don’t mind if our international reputation is again destroyed and export income is lost and the result of that sort of effect means less money to pay the bills and the social welfare and all the rest of the costs of running this little Republic . Shame on those gangsters whoever They are ! It’s isn’t a laughing matter at all at all.
@Terry Cahill: Just remember that the firm which owned and operated the operation with the rotten imported Polish horse meat was owned by Europe’s biggest beef baron and he used the ensuing stink as an excuse to reduce the price he was paying to his own Irish suppliers AND GOT AWAY WITH IT.
@Terry Cahill: could not agree with you more. Why is there always some b……..ls cropping up every so often, destroying the reputation. And no heads will roll, vets, managers or owners.Saints and scholars…….
@John Mc Donagh: again same old, same old as i mentioed above
To many neigh sayers on this site.
Christ lads if ye knew where mc Donald’s are sourcing their chicken ,you never look at a chicken again
Couldn’t eat a whole one, maybe a fallabella with chips and a Coke!
Ahhh horsesh#t…
Steak Tartare ..
Expensive when you can get it
What are the odds for a bovine only burger.
Must have got the hind leg of a one from ballydoyle last night in the chipper I scorched up the town to back a looser
Is it illegal to eat horse meat?
@sb: Only if you’re an ass!
Neigh,not again
on holidays in France at the min had horse steak twice it’s bloody lovely
Here we go again!
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