Listening to: The Oprah Winfrey Show
If you know me by now, you would know that I’m pretty fascinated by this American talkshow.
Anyway, today’s episode revealed this alternative lifestyle called Freeganism. In a nutshell, it’s a lifestyle that denounces consumerism. So how does one live this lifestyle? Well, through going to the rubbish dumps to look for discarded furniture (okay, at this point, some SIngaporeans actually do this right?)…but what was most interesting to me was that Freegans look through rubbish bins/dumps for… FOOD. Before you shout “Gross!”, the episode showed these freegans rummaging through garbage and coming up with pretty decent-looking food! like fruits (whole, not half-eaten), boxes of frozen pizza (within expiry date and still sealed in plastic etc).
If you’re interested to know more, you can go this website: http://freegan.info/
Listening to: …
There’s plenty to read in the papers. Let’s see what you could have read just by reading last Sat’s papers (Aug 23):
1. Ban on political films to be eased (in Singapore) – Prime Page 1
- No longer realistic to disallow all forms of party political films, says Government
2. Baby perks vex smaller firms (Prime, pA4)
- They say it’s an extra burden to find and train temps when staff take longer maternity leave.
3. Matchmaking in Asia (a look at matchmaking in China, South Korea, Japan and India)
China: Pa and Ma play Cupid at the park (A12)
Japan: Even bosses play a par
India: Marriage is a family affair
4. Chen’s US$20m ‘betrayal’ (Chen Shui-bian, C1)
- confession regarding his wife’s sending money overseas goes against his earlier campaign ad
5. Japanese minister goofs up (C6)
- He describes consumers who are worried about food safety as “nagging”
6. Opium fields back in season (in Thailand (C8)
- Poverty and high prices have fuelled cultiavation of banned plant
7. Tibet desperately seeking tourists (C10)
- The authorities are giving travel agents $20 for every traveller brought in
8. Saudi woen may get to drive finally (C18)
- Signals from the top and the media suggest that support for the ban in on the wane
