Singapore Idol Madness ... Traffic Obstruction

I was swarmed today, literally. Came back to Toa Payoh at bout 4 plus in the afternoon, from school. Went up to the Post Office at the HDB Hub, and what do I see before me? Bodies and heads. Lots of them, all jostling for that inch of space to walk. And there was this not too soft continuous booming sound from the plaza centre where they usually hold events. It was a most ugly form of spoken English, loudly droning about something, which in its monotonous and rambling pace, I had no idea what it's all about. Must be some big event, since there were more bodies crowded just off Cake History. Alright, I decided to simply ignore that and went up the escalator, and made my way towards OCBC bank outlet.

Then I saw the crowd. All three sides of the 2nd level railings, facing the stage, were lined with people in their saturday best - t-shirts and berms. And the crowd was 2 to 3 people deep.I would consider myself quite tall, and even I could not really see above and beyong these people to find out what's going on at the stage. But now, I hear the term 'Idol, Singapore Idol' being tossed about carelessly and continuously, by the not too competent emcee, who obviously thought the best way to rouse up the crowd would be to keep reminding them about when they would next see Singapore Idol on TV, and who they would see next on the stage. Right, so it's a road show. From the noise, there's obviously a large crowd amassed in front of the stage.

I decided to seek refuge in the shops. So I whiled my time away in a DVD shop, before I finally made my way back again to the giant Watson store of HDB Hub. And I have to pass by the stage area this time.

It was terrible. Wrong timing. Going to Watson was bad, but coming back was worse, because it apparently was when one of the more popular contestants arrived. And the entire linkway between the Hub and the carpark, just by that Chinese Medical Hall and the Samuel and Kevin store, was suddenly jammed packed with fast moving screaming shouting young girl fans, some of them not too slim either, all rushing towards their idol. Could really feel the ground shaking from this stampede of bulls. And we couldn't breathe. We mere pedestrians had to wait while the herd stomped past. I gave up, and decided to just push forward. It worked. The rest also pushed forth. Great minds, I guess. And the fans herd stopped in its track, while we finally got to go about the real business of life.

I guess that was the last straw. I felt sick in the stomach. It was bad. I mean, this idol madness, of bringing it onto the road and letting it descend into this kopi-tiam kind of travelling road show, is definitely not in character with its original hollywood class. It was supposed to be a Dream, a classy dream, but it has now become more of a nightmare, for me today, at least. I have had enough of this idol thing. How shallow can we get, and how shallow are we descending ourselves into? Alright, I do not mean to offend, but seriously, when it starts affecting and obstructing the normal course of life, and when we have screaming fans yelling their heads off and their hearts out after would-be singers would can't really sing or act, generally .... I mean, if they are real good, I would definitely go running after them too, haha, but this ...?? Right,
I definitely have no patience for idol today, and I make no apologies for that.

Frankly, Mediacorp has never really gotten many things right. I mean, indirectly supporting the destruction of an entire generation's ability to speak standard Mandarin and English, instead perpetuating and popularising Singlish via the 10-odd years run of GaoXiaoXingDong by Jack Neo and company ... accompanied by all their baser and crude jokes. Frankly, I should not be too surprised by Mediacorp's ability to reduce the sophistication and class of the American Idol and Pop Idol (the original British version) productions to the spectacle I witnessed today. Or should I blame the fans only, those Singaporean youths I saw today, who have totally and completely lost sense of propriety and decorum. And we are perhaps the only country with the idol show that shamelessly and consistently votes the best singers off the show. Says much about the ability and desire of Singaporeans to recognise and value quality. So much for all the Singapore Quality Class hype. Perhaps, we should have a quality class education programme for our youths, haha...

Then again, on a more lighter note - Singapore Idol is the perfect vehicle for National Education! It will be the most effective, reaching and glamorous spiced up means for inculcating national identity and pride in the youths. All right, I might perhaps have been a trifle too enthusiastic. But, with Minister announcing the revamp to a more hands-on National Education in school, perhaps Singapore Idol can be a subtle yet truly hands-on medium of National Education. Afterall, the main supporters are youths. Then, there's the local element in it, and it's about seeking the Singapore Dream, and about competition and survival, about polularity votes and branding, and finally, it's about chest-thumping and idol-chasing... It will be the definitive shared common experience and memory of many of this youth generation, and invoke in them a shared bond in their lives in this nation, a shared commonality.

But before that, we just need to bring more class and sophistication into the show.