i arrived in singapore a few days prior to national day parade 2000...you know, the year of the "baby bonus scheme"...by the way, whatever happened to that scheme? anyway i measure the amount of time i have lived here by national day parades. this year is the third that i've seen...ergo...i've been here two years.

and this year would have to be the worst. tanya chua's "this is where i know i belong rah rah rah" effort last year wasn't bad as far as idiotic musical outbursts of patriotism go...hell, at least she can sing.

what makes me sigh and wonder for the umpteenth time what the hell i'm doing here is the sight of gurmit singh, haney hadad and sharon au doing something that can diplomatically be described as the chicken dance's less fortunate cousin while singing "remember the day...something something together as one..." and the icing on the cake is that the whole shebang is called "fundance"...fundance??? is the national day parade commitee dominated by ah bengs this year or what?

anyway...this national day parade comes amidst one of the nastiest recessions singapore has seen in a while, and some jobseekers say companies are taking advantage of employees and potential employees during these troubled times. are they just whingeing or could they have a point? angeline tan investigates here.

recession or not, there are two things i think are unforgiveable during whatever time - cruelty to children and cruelty to animals. disturbingly, statistics indicate the latter is on the rise...kavitha darshini looks at what can be done to stop this here.

and speaking of unexplainable phenomenon...if you've ever wondered what goes on in the day to day work of an embalmer, cecilia ho has gone and found out for you here. you'll never look at a dolled up corpse in the same way again.

enjoy this month's issue as you hang out your s'porean flags and avoid the telly for fear of being bombarded by THAT song...but seriously...happy national day...

n.