By I-S
staff | published
Nov 24, 2011
Words have
power. That’s the message behind next weekend’s SlutWalk, the local
edition of a phenomenon that began earlier this year in response to
some distasteful comments by a Canadian police officer, who
recommended that, if women wanted to stay safe, they “should avoid
dressing like sluts.” To which the founders of the SlutWalk
movement said, approximately, “Hell no!” and set out to reclaim the
word. These, though, aren’t the only folk looking to subtly shift
the connotations of a word. Others have been busy, too.
Service. Restaurateurs
in Singapore have worked tirelessly for years to convince patrons
that “service” is a dirty word, a trivial concept that should be of
no concern to anyone. Labelling all those who fixate on service as
“self-hating foodies,” a Mr. Way Ter recently warned of a city-wide
lock-out if service staff were not given freedom to express their
talents for idleness, ill-discipline and insults.
Integration. Time was
when “integration” meant peace, love and cooking curry with your
Chinese neighbors. But, after almost two years of boom times, it’s
clear the most valuable form of integration here is that at the
Integrated Resorts. Hats off to MBS and RWS for having totally
redefined the word. We can now demonstratively assert that
Singapore is a successful model for integration! Casinos, luxury
brands, sky bars and underemployed gondoliers really can co-exist
in harmony!
Capacity. A word that
once meant the potential headcount a space could accommodate has,
thanks to a steady dripfeed of promises, timelines and positive PR
from the SMRT, slowly morphed into an arbitrary figure that bears
no correlation with reality.
Cemetery. For the
longest time, “cemetery” meant a sacred place, a place of rest for,
well, the longest time. But definititons don’t rest, and meanings
wait for no man! What to make of plans to build a road through
Bukit Brown? The only conclusion can be that our understanding of
the word was wrong. Evidently, cemetery never meant rest, it meant
restaurants. It wasn’t about peace, it was about pieces of prime
real estate. Bury the old definition six feet under!
credit: http://is.asia-city.com/city-living/column/wry-definition
