Second Coming in Singapore

It might even be rapture, depending upon the calling plan prices. Local availability of the Jesus phone, so called because of the worshiping of Apple fans, has been announced by SingTel and Apple as part of the worldwide announcement of the iPhone v2.

One enterprising chap has already posted on Craigslist that he is taking pre-orders for network unlocked (jail broken) iPhones priced at S$420 (£156) for the 8 GB model and S$550 (£208) for 16 GB one. That might be a bold move considering the new iPhone software hasn't been released yet, let alone jail broken but it's a fair bet it will be by the time punters come knocking.

SingTel is also taking pre-orders and as usual you have to give them lots of marketing information. If you balk at an actual order (probably not legally binding on either party given there's no price stated) you can elect to be informed of developments. That requires to answer the following questions:

• Name
• NRIC/Foreign ID
• Age
• Gender
• Address
• Postal Code
• Email Address
• Mobile Number
• Which is your mobile service provider?
• Are you currently contracted to your mobile service provider?
• When did you last sign a mobile phone contract with your service provider?

There are more questions; those are just the mandatory ones. It's a fact of life here that the state and commercial institutions demand and get very detailed personal information. Locals don't bother to fight it and (legal) foreigners like me probably just grumble. I might have to give in and pre-order because there's likely to be a big queue.

Race, the final answer

As part of my Singapore PR application, my race is coded as European, again. They must have copied it from my original Employment Pass (EP) but I quizzed the chap taking my thumb prints and I could have had Caucasian but also English is in their official list.

It also shows my religion as Free Thinker, but that's another story.

Race (Redux)

I've written before about my quandary over what to enter in forms for Race:. Where locals would just enter Chinese, Indian, Malay, and so on, I'm left with no obviously correct choice.

My latest perspective on this is the explicit acknowledgment that my Western origin should be exploited for its difference, diversity and ability to impress (!). Examples include a recent conference where I was told "we need people like you to come to Singapore" and at work where my boss wants to "capitalise on my ethnic background".

I feel special, but not in an entirely good way.

What I have noticed is a settling out of where I try to fit in and where I am happy to stand out as different. I haven't gone as far as wearing a bowler hat to customer meetings but it would be an interesting experiment. And as for the forms? Perhaps I should just put Different and go ahead and exploit myself.

Sexual Timidity

I've just had to fill out another form asking for my Gender and as usual I am allowed to respond with Masculine, M, Feminine or F. As a nit-picking pedant with a scientific background this never fails to irritate me and cause me to cast aspersions of ignorance or timidity on the source organisation.

In writing this entry, I researched whether I was wrong in thinking people have a Sex, and words have a Gender. I'm not, and Lynch, Guide to Grammar confirms my understanding, talks about how feminists started the newer usage and has the following comment

"It's probably unwise, though, to allow gender to edge out sex altogether. Once gender began to be used to describe people, it became first a synonym, and then a substitute, for sex. The word sex still provokes giggles, and I can understand why people who prepare questionnaires would be glad to see it disappear after finding the "Sex" blank on a form filled in with "Yes, please" for the jillionth time. Still, using gender to refer to biological sex should be avoided, except where it avoids confusion or ambiguity."

So I'm right, but will probably lose the battle.

Singapore inherits the Chinese repressed attitudes to sex. It still goes on, I assure you, but anything lewd is shunned. Singapore used to have a nude revue club, the Crazy Horse, which was in the news recently as announcing its closure. Not enough business. I wondered with a colleague if this was because it was too much for local tastes and his take was it was way too tame, standing in the fallow middle ground between acceptability to a prudish (license granting) elite and the wider market for lively adult entertainment.

State Race

Maybe I'm being dumb but what race am I? I've been asked this question on several forms and struggled to think of an appropriate response. The forms are of little help, although one offerred "Chinese, Malay, Indian or Other (please specify)". So I'm clearly an Other, but what?

I considered Caucasian, but even after a whole childhood of Starsky & Hutch, The Streets of San Francisco and even Hill Street Blues, I'm not confident enough to use it. My main issue with Caucasian is it's one of those technical words that America seems so good at finding and exporting (Homocide [Murder], Hydrate [Drink], Deposition [Statement], Extreme Prejudice [Violently], Extraordinary Rendition [Moving Prisoners]). Did you know that at US airport security checkpoints, you empty your pockets into Divestiture Bins [Plastic Trays] and get everything back at Composure Tables?

Apparently even Caucasian would be dated as American law enforcement are switching to European American (mirroring African American). I settled for European which was accepted, probably proving it wasn't important, rather than correct.

I pointed out to an HR lady that the Chinese were lucky in having an easily identifiable race for such situations but she didn't seem relieved at this stroke of collective fortune.