Saturday, July 18, 2009

Uncontroversial issues

Over the years, starting from the old Sintercom forum, which was shut down in 2001, and soc.culture.singapore, I've been involved in numerous online arguments with people. While I find some of the issues to be thought-provoking and interesting, many of them should have been decisively settled by sheer weight of logic and evidence. I am tired of arguing over the same things again and again, so I will be starting a series of posts to discuss some uncontroversial issues on which I have very strong views. I consider them uncontroversial because it is no longer possible for a well-informed rational person to sustain an argument over them. This does not mean that they won't touch some raw nerves. Nevertheless, arguments will continue because some people will hold on to their positions for irrational and emotional reasons.

In some sense, the series of posts will be a repository of arguments that I have used for nearly a decade. In my opinion, my arguments are still good and I have not found the need to change them.

Here is a list of uncontroversial issues that I will like to discuss:
  1. Mother tongue and ethnicity
  2. Foreign students in Singapore universities
  3. Gender equality and national service
  4. Homosexuality and the consequence of legalizing it
  5. The scholarship system
  6. Promoting bilingualism in Singapore
  7. Racism in Singapore

Hopefully, I will like to finish discussing all of them before the year is over.

2 comments:

AcidFlask said...

I've long thought of running a FAQ on some of these topics as a way to lay out my views definitively on topics that I've considered settled. Good to see that you plan to take it up instead. :)

twasher said...

Looking forward to them!