Sunday 27 January 2008

Singapore stops foreigners from singing

Singapore's Media Development Authority (I am always wondering what they are developing except for narrow-mindedness) banned the Complaints Choir from singing as long as there are foreigners amongst the singers. The 60-member "complaints choir", a concept that originated from two Finnish artists, was scheduled to perform at a weekend festival but authorities granted a performance licence on the condition that the foreigners would not participate. I must admit that I never heard about the concept of a "complaints choir" but it is a wonderful idea that I would like to see here in Amsterdam, too. Enough to complain about! In the mean time, Singapore's Censorship Board once again managed to make a mountain out of a molehill and attracted worldwide negative attention. Will they ever learn?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually the MDA was quite co-operative with the Complaints Choir... the one to complain about is the Singapore Police. It was the police, not the MDA, that put the restrictions on the Complaints Choir, MDA had, in fact, gone so far as to approve the choir's lyrics!