Today I woke up to read a story about Singapore on The BBC. Charlotte Ashton asks, ‘Does Singapore deserve its ‘miserable’ tag?‘. I didn’t particularly care for it as it mainly consists of a complaint without ever attempting to get at the answer to the author’s question. I disliked it so much that I felt compelled to write the following critique.
Charlotte starts off by describing the lack of misery around her. She, a well off expat who associates with like minded and walleted… Read the rest
I’m not a fan of San Francisco, let me just put that out there. I don’t believe unbiased journalism is possible, I believe in doing the best you can to present the facts and owning up to the biases of your viewpoints, whenever you’re aware of them. Whilst I don’t hate San Francisco as much as San Jose, I do indeed dislike San Francisco.
San Francisco has a lot of faults, from being a homeless haven whilst shunning the middle classes, to having shit public transport and ridiculous hills to just being… Read the rest
Europeans love to tell Americans about American flaws. You can’t spend 1 hour in a Thai hostel without some Dane letting you know that your country is doing everything wrong. Which, can be OK; pointing out flaws from a different perspective can be beneficial. Maybe you’ll see something you’ve never noticed before. But, more often than not, they aren’t looking for a discussion but an opportunity for beratement. It’s not so much pointing out something from a different angle but explaining how everything in your country should be the way it’s done in their country. They know how they… Read the rest
Michael Phelps is not the greatest Olympian ever. Despite what The Guardian or Sports Illustrated brashly declared before the 2012 Olympics even ended he is very far from being “the greatest”. Unlike SI.com I don’t have the misguided hubris to state my opinion is “beyond debate”. Nothing is beyond debate so I will present to you 7 points as to why Michael Phelps isn’t the greatest Olympian.
That’s the crux of it all right there. Swimming is athletic, it is challenging, it’s even sporting in a way but it’s not… Read the rest