09 September 2005

Global Voices Online

Mr Wang is mentioned on Global Voices Online again!

This time, the person citing Mr Wang is Jose Manuel Tesero, an ex-Asiaweek journalist now studying law at Harvard. Well, it is nice to know that Mr Wang's blog appeals not just to Singaporeans, but also to people like Filipino Jose and Malaysian Jeff Ooi.

Jose was interested in Mr Wang's interview with gay poet Cyril Wong and also in Xenoboy's thoughts on the matter.

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"Hey, did you know that I write books too? Click here to see my book on Amazon!" - Jose Manuel Tesero.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

are u gay?

Anonymous said...

Me again. Came to see if you have started giving out your goodies or prizes.

Mr Kwong Says So sounds better than Did Mr Kwong Say So? So I didn't change my identity.

Wonder why you change to your wierd-sounding title. Anyway better than Mr Wang Farts.

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

Anonymous

No. I do have good friends (male & female) who are gay and I am happy to acknowledge them as my friends.

I do hope that it is not my discussion in the preceding post (about AFA) that leads you to ask the question. AIDS is not a gay problem. AIDS is a problem for anyone who leads a promiscuous lifestyle.

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Mr Kwong! I changed my title because of feedback from my dear readers like you. But I didn't change my identity. "Mr Wang Says So" is still "Mr Wang Says So". Only the blog title has changed.

Anonymous said...

I disagree.

I am not against your gay friends. I have friends who are gay as well. But Aids is a gay problem. Of course it is not the single most significant factor, as there are other forces at play here (such as straight people leading promiscious lives), but you are naive to think that it is NOT a gay problem.

In some cities, aids is a significant gay problem. Question is whether the govt has the guts to acknowledge and address it. But, you know sometimes to win votes, we cannot call a spade a spade.

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

Well, if it pleases you, yes, I could agree that AIDS is a gay problem.

If I proceed on that basis, I would have to say that it is also a heterosexual problem, and even more so.

That's because the number of heterosexual AIDS patients will always be a lot greater than the number of gay AIDS patients.

How could it be otherwise? Gays, to begin with, are a minority in the overall population. And AIDS can hit anyone with a promiscuous lifestyle. Since gays and straights can just as well lead promiscuous lifestyles, and since there are many, many more heterosexuals than homosexuals to begin with, of course there will always be many more heterosexual AIDs victims than gay ones.

But to me, the point is really redundant. I see AIDS primarily as a health issue. From a scientific point of view, the fact that you're gay or that you're straight does not make you more or less likely to get AIDS. For example, you could be a gay virgin or a heterosexual virgin.

The key point is whether you're promiscuous. You could be promiscuous as a gay who frequents gay nightclubs in Bangkok, or you could just as well be promiscuous as a heterosexual who frequents the brothels on Batam and Bintan or at Geylang. Or you could be a gay in a committed, faithful relationship; just as you could be a heterosexual in a committed, faithful relationship.

As a policymaker, if you apply the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule), you would apply your efforts most vigorously to the biggest cause of the problem. That is why Balaji's recent efforts have, in my view, come across as quite misdirected.

First he focuses on gays, and next he wants to make AIDS testing mandatory for ALL pregnant women in Singapore?!

What he really needs to do is to impose AIDS testing for Singaporean men whose passport records display a high frequency of visits to places like Batam, Bintan and Bangkok.

For example, he should aim for a scheme whereby the Health Ministry has access to the Immigration Department's records. If a male Singaporean has been travelling to Batam two or three times a month every month for the past six months, the government should have the right to question him on why he's been going. If his answers are not satisfactory, the government should have the right to compel him to undergo AIDS testing. And if the tests are negative, he should be asked to come back for further tests every six months or so.

Just as effective would be stationing public officers outside Geylang or Desker Road brothels, and having them issue summonses to the men walking out of those brothels. Summonses to compel them to go to a public hospital and get themselves tested for AIDS.

IMHO, we should be focussing on what really causes AIDS - promiscuity - and not on peripheral or irrelevant factors like sexual orientation. When we get distracted by the peripheral things like sexual orientation, we run the risk of allowing the mission to fight AIDS to be hijacked by people with other agendas - eg anti-gay people; or Christian groups pushing their views on virginity etc.

Anonymous said...

The health ministry should get bloggers who lead promiscious lives like sarong party girl who go nude in the blogs haha

Anonymous said...

hey what happen to the last talking point about aids -- the one that you proclaim it is permissible for aid HIV counsellors to have some dangerous liasions with their HIV infected patients because it is not the same thing as a senior mentor having a go at young girls in their groups.

i sure hope that it is not that you are looking bad with your half baked ideas that you went to delete the topic and its thread. That would really be pathetic on your part. All you have to do is acknowledge that you made an error in judgement and all of us accept it, instead of treating it as if you did not say it. Come on, I expected much more from you.

Truly disappointed. Now I know sorry is really the hardest word to say.

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

Ah, no. See latest post.

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

So sorry to disappoint you. Oh dear, are you going to terminate your subscription and stop paying me money?

Haahaaaha. You're funny, Cat. Not happy, go away and read Xiaxue or Mr Brown, lah.

You must be new around here. Regular readers know I have a habit of revising, deleting posts etc frequently. See for example Wows' comment back in June.

Sometimes I even delete posts just because I think the funny picture wasn't very funny. My apologies to readers whose senses of humour are more easily tickled than mine.