In this piece, NMP Janice Koh laments the govmin is not funding S’pore’s participation in a very “chim” arts festival: Are we intending to backtrack on the last ten years of work in profiling our best artists internationally? Why bother investing millions of dollars in art schools and scholarships to develop artistic talent each year, into encouraging greater arts participation on the ground, if there is no concerted and consistent effort to create a track for our top creative talent to showcase Singapore’s artistic excellence at the most critical platforms? And despite all the rhetoric on wanting to encourage dialogue and engagement, was the visual arts sector and the artistic community consulted at all on this issue before the pull-out?
As shumeone who knows very little of the arts scene here, and who knows many S’poreans who are like me, when the piece was edited from her Facebook post to an online article in an online magazine (not TRE), she should have:
— given more information on government funding for other show case events: is the Venice do juz one of several, some of many, or the only one (If it was the only one, she should say so. If she doesn’t know, why write about it on an on-line magazine?); and
— told us whether the government consulted with the community. This: “And despite all the rhetoric on wanting to encourage dialogue and engagement, was the visual arts sector and the artistic community consulted at all on this issue before the pull-out?” seemed to imply that there wasn’t. After all, if there was, she would have surely known?
Sadly as it stands, S’porans like myself who are not into the artsy, folksy scene, are left wondering whether this is a “rant”, well intended doubtless, by a member or a friend of the arts community, against an action of the government that she and the arts community does not like? It is certainly no critical analysis of the role of govt spending or priorities in the arts.
This point of view is reinforced by the minister’s comments in parly that the arts community were consulted http://blogs.todayonline.com/forartssake/2012/09/10/mica-responds-to-venice-biennale-issue/. He also gave details of the cost of participation in that chim do.
Janice Koh on her Facebook page or even on her personal blog has every right to rant and rave. But Janice Koh (the “arts” NMP — a title she has not cried off) has no such right when writing in a more formal setting, and a wider audience. She should also bear in mind that society has a view, wrong of course, that actress are “air heads”. So she shouldn’t add to that view.
My wider point, is that us netizens have to do more than rant and rave. We got to share facts.
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor 
“My wider point, is that us netizens have to do more than rant and rave. We got to share facts.”
How about making facts available in the first place? Why must you ask questions in the parliament in order to get some facts? (e.g. amount of foreign scholarships.)
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She has to be absolutely the most bo-liao NMP ever!
You have to be absolutely the most bo-liao commentator ever!
No I think Janice Koh bveats me hollow. )))
Not directed at you la
“My wider point, is that us netizens have to do more than rant and rave. We got to share facts”.
LOL… Et tu, Brute?
It’s always easier to see the splinter in another’s eye than it is to see the beam in one’s own.
If you want to take the moral high ground, I suggest you contribute to the fact-finding and fact-sharing mission that you advocate.
You obviously new to this blog. Plenty of info on financial issues. Not fact free like Janice Koh.
So if you have the intelligence, talent and skills, why not contribute to helping Janice Koh?
According to you, she needs the help.
But according to you as well, “netizens have to do more than rant and rave”.
Right now, YOU are ranting and raving about her. So walk the walk and talk the talk/practice what you preach.
I not into the arts,and got no special experience or expertise in the arts. and anyway Janice Koh comes across as a Know all. No interest in helping her. If you bother to read my blog, I try to play my part in keeping netizens informed of happenings in finance and econs, and in how people like Janice try to manipulate them.
So if you are “not into the arts,and [have] no special experience or expertise in the arts”, then why comment on Janice?
Obviously YOU don’t have your “facts”, so this is just a “rant and rave”.
So you are, again, not practicing what you preach and for all your ‘magnanimity’, YOU could be the one manipulating your readers.
Stick to your financial matters.
If there are no facts, as in Janice Koh’s piece, I can comment. On helping her as suggested by you. She didn’t ask my views on becoming NMP, so why shld I help her. And anyway, I don’t like self-promoters.