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Singing Singapore's Praises
The media have been dazzled by the so-called Asian tigers and largely failed to anticipate the problems now afflicting that region. Classic FM, for exmaple, once devoted a whole week to the theme of Singapore, with on-the-spot reports from a gushing Susanna Simons interspersed between the usual programmes which featured Singapore performers and composers or in other ways tried to make links. Classic FM's treatment was straight out of the National Geographic school of reportage. Yes, there might be one or two dark spots (gentle reference was made to some authoritarian acts by the government) but that's the price of progress, folks, and look at all those shining skyscrapers, bustling streets and all the consumer goodies on sale in the shops. Ms Simons even commented that there was the odd nature reserve to be found within the borders of this booming metropolis. Like so much on Classic FM, the line between editorial and advertising is thoroughly blurred. Glowing reports of some aspect of Singapore, the playing of a Vanessa Mae track (murdering some innocent composer like Bach), and advert from Singapore Airlines boasting how their planes are cleaned by robots, plus the usual diet of super competitions and special offers all intermingle, creating one effect, namely that the world is a jolly nice place, full of charming celebrities, dazzling performances, wonderful inventions. In this cloud cuckoo land, there is neither discord (except when Nigel Kennedy assaults The Four Seasons) nor discomfort. Even the station's record review show-where Keith Shadwick and Robert Cowans dared to suggest that some new CDs might be rubbish)-seems to have disappeared into the ether. (apart from the occasional charity item about some good cause in need of support but, then, nice people must know when to spare a copper or two). To be fair, there is the odd charity item about some good cause (well, nice people should not totally ignore those less fortunate) and the news programmes have not quite sunk to the level of Stalinist Russia where only good news about socialist achievement was reported). But the whole culture of Classic FM is resolutely smug and shallow. So, true to form, Singapore was represented to listeners as a model city, a testament to progress, a dream come true. The thought that this economic powerhouse can only exist because it is parasitic on other peoples and places within and especially beyond its borders, both for resources and for waste disposal or that its whole economy is an engine of destruction cannot be allowed to disturb the airwaves. Singapore only survives because other lands are not like it. Were they too to emulate its way, Singapore would come crashing down just like any castle built on sand.
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