Besides me having to take my A’ levels, 2008 is also a year which will definitely be remembered for its newly set records, catastrophes, and of course, scandals.
My 2008 started with a blast, sort of. The blast of thought of needing to get back to school the next day was bad. I vaguely remember sitting in my parents’ room while watching a countdown programme on cable TV. Fahrenheit sang, and they were lip-syncing. Like, WTH?
Some big issues to start with:
The worldwide recession that came about after the massive inflation. Just when Singaporeans have finished spending the bonus they received last year from the budget surplus, everyone is tightening their pockets again. Thank you America, one sneeze from you can indeed pass a cold to the whole world. High oil prices led to high food prices, inflation climbs in, accompanied by silly low interest rates and kaput, recession. Budget deficit amounted to US$1 trillion. Oh, Lehman Brothers, how can we forget you guys? A simple bankruptcy crashed Wall Street. Minibonds anyone?Environmental woes. An issue often brought up and debated upon with hardly any actions done. People have indeed became more concern about the earth in 2008, but again, nothing’s ever enough.
Jan 2008 – USA Presidential campaigns. It started running before we even knowing. First, there was this competition between a Black (Barack) and a Woman (Hilary). Then it became a Black (Barack) versus an Old (McCain) and another Woman (Palin). Issues discussed in my GP lessons were all suddenly brought to life, we have Racism, Feminism, Ageism, and of course, simply Discrimination against the unpopular.
22nd Jan 2008 – Brokeback Mountain actor, Heath Ledger found dead. Most noted for his role in Brokeback Mountain, Ledger’s death was due to an ‘accidental toxic combination of prescription drugs’. Ledger’s last performance for his audiences was ‘Joker’ in The Dark Knight, Bat Man series. This role won him the Best Actor International award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards, for which he became the first actor to win an award posthumously, and, also posthumously, the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor. I bet you 8 out of 10 who watched the movie watched it because of Ledger, 1 out of 10 watched it for Christian Bale, the the others watched it to see of Edison Chen really appeared only for 2 seconds in the movie.
25th Jan 2008 - Snowstorm in China. Although not many people remember this incident (as the Chinese media and authorities did deliberately kept this a low-profile thing), the damages were indeed significant. The worse snowstorm experienced in 50 years, hit many parts of China during the festive season. Millions of people had lives disrupted after more than half the country went short of electricity due to the storm. The ecological system had also been badly damaged; experts say that it will take the eco system more than ten years to get restored again, and costs of damage was estimated to be around 90,000,000,000 yuan, that’s 9 billion by the way.29th Jan 2008 – Edison Chen photo scandal. Thousands of intimate and private photos of Edison Chen together with various female actresses including Gillian Chung, Bobo Chan and Cecilia Cheung circulated around the Net. The scandal then continued to reign over news headlines for weeks.
11th Feb 2008 – Gillian Chung of Canto pop group Twins admitted that she is one of the characters involved in the Edison Chen photo scandal. So silly, so naïve(好傻好天真). Yah, we so believe.
19th Feb 2008 – Hong Kong comedian, Lydia Sum, also known more affectionately as Fei Fei (肥肥), dies of liver failure.
21st Feb 2008 – Edison Chen made a public apology for being a wrong example to kids. He also said that he would "step away indefinitely" from the Hong Kong entertainment industry. Hollywood, watch out for him.
27th Feb 2008 – News of an escaped detainee broke out only 4 hours after the escape. The infamous Mas Selamat is really Singapore’s most famous of 2008, even making to a full one-page article on Newsweek magazine. And, he’s still at large! How cool is that?
10th Mar 2008 – Tibetan Unrest. “Free Tibet” became a hot topic, and “Dalai Lama” was at everyone’s lips. Violence, riots, bloodsheds, burning, looting! Amitabha~ who knew that monks fight too?
April 2008 – News of an Austrian man who imprisoned his daughter in a dungeon at the basement of his apartment for 24 years made it to the headlines. Josef Fritzl admitted to locking up his daughter, Elisabeth, in a small confined area in his basement and raped her repeatedly, fathering seven of her children. What a bastard.
2nd May 2008 – Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. Category 4 cyclones are no jokes, they come, they destroy, and they kill. Our Burmese friend, on the other hand, is a joke. They turned down international aid and refused to inform the rest of the world about the latest situation they are facing. The other nine members of ASEAN came together and had meetings about relief efforts, and the only guy MIA is the Burmese. Fatalities estimated= 146,000 and damages were estimated to have cost US$10 billion.
12th May 2008 – SiChuan Earthquake that registered an 8.0 magnitude. Just ten days after the catastrophic Myanmar cyclone, China experienced one of its worse earthquakes ever. This mega quake killed around 69,000 and left around 4.5 million homeless. Around 17,000 are still MISSING; logical sense will then tell you that it means around 86,000 are dead. Just three months shy of the Beijing Olympics, torch relays were delayed and put aside for relief efforts. The entertainment industry also did its part where singers and artists came together and held concerts to raise funds or even donated for the relief efforts and rebuilding of schools and homes. For three days from 19th to 21st May, the entire country went into mourning, and all sorts of entertainment were put onto a halt, even television programmes were shown in black and white.
15th May - Taiwan sends its first-ever direct humanitarian aid flight to China. It said the charity charter ''will be a milestone in cross-strait ties as the first-ever cross-strait humanitarian charter flight...and will display the Taiwanese people's love and care to China.''
20th May 2008 – Taiwan welcomes its new President, Ma Ying-jeou. Just on the 19th, President Ma was still doing his part for the Sichuan quake, answering calls of donation inside a TV studio.
29th June 2008 – Apple launched its wonder-packed touch screen mobile phone, the iPhone.
30th June 2008 – Taiwan allows direct exchange of Renminbi and Taiwan Dollars.
July 2008 - Crude oil prices attained a record high of US$147 per barrel in July 2008. Economists even said that prices might surge to US$200 per barrel before Christmas, but as uncertain as economics can be, prices fell back to around US$35 on Christmas Eve. The crazy depreciation of the US dollar is another memorable happening in 2008, when else can we feel so sinless buying our way home online from Forever21? Hehheh. It was at its lowest at US$1.38 to S$1.
8th August 2008 – Beijing Olympics 2008. The opening ceremony certainly awed the entire world, the consistency, the accuracy and the magnificence of it. Of course, not forgetting the fake fireworks, and lip-sync-er Lin Miao Ke. A total of 43 new world records and 132 new Olympic records were set, and China athletes bagged 51 gold medals in total. Oh, Yao Ming is cool, though he didn’t win. And Liu Xiang isn’t, cos he didn’t even try. Other athletes who shot to fame include Michael Phelps, who appearantly became every women’s dream man after winning 8 gold medals himself, and Usain Bolt, the latest fastest man in the world. One World, One Dream. London, catch that!
8th August 2008 – Russia attacks Georgia. But I don’t think anyone remembers this, everyone is too busy watching Phelps and his two-metre arm span in the pool.
September 2008 - Chinese milk scandal. White Rabbit sweets anyone? 290,000 and 51,900 children have been hospitalised and 11 suspected deaths due to consumption of tainted milk.
11th September 2008 – Reports saying that North Korea’s dictatorial leader, Kim Jong Il is at the brink of death. Pictures of Kim from North Korea surfaced and were sent for ‘research’ to determine the authenticity of the photos. Rumors have it that the ‘Dear Leader’ has already died, and the photos are very likely to be tempered with. Who cares anyway? Reports of him being dead date back to 2003, so, so what if this bogus dies?
28th September 2008 - Singapore Grand Prix. The first Formula One race held in Singapore, is also the first Night race ever. Spanish driver Fernando Alonso of the Renault F1 team won the Singapore race despite clocking in last in the first night. The race costs S$150 million in total, and will continue to be held in subsequent years.
25th Oct 2008 – Jennifer Hudson’s family members found dead. The American Idol contestant and Oscar-winning actress loss her mother, brother and nephew in a freak murder. The murderer, later confirmed to be estranged husband of Hudson’s sister, shot the adults to death and kidnapped the child who was later found dead too in a car.
4th Nov 2008 – My sister’s birthday, but that’s not very important. What’s big is… Barack Obama is US’s 44th President! Woohoo! Bye Palin! Go be a happy hockey granny in Alaska!
10th Nov 2008 – Chinese actress Gong Li spotted in Teck Ghee Community Club and received her Singapore citizenship certificate. Welcome to Singapore! Ha, but bet you didn’t expect your fellow country mates to brand you as a ‘traitor’.
19th Nov 2008 - $2 COE!!! THE COE premium for small cars plummeted to a record low $2, from $10,455 just a fortnight ago. This kind of ridiculous things does happen in Singapore, huh?
25th Nov 2008 – Debut of Little Nyonya. A 34-episodes serial drama about the Peranakans (Straits Chinese) in Malacca and Singapore. Everyone watches it.
26th Nov 2008 – Mumbai terrorist attacks. A series of ten coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by Pakistani terrorists killed at least 173 people and left more than 300 injured. Singaporean lawyer, Lo Hwei Yen got killed after being held hostage in Oberoi Hotel, Mumbai.
15th Dec 2008 – First commercial direct flights between Mainland China and Taiwan. It now takes 90 minutes, compared with two and half hours previously, to fly from Shanghai to Taipei because the distance has been shortened from 1,900 km to 950 km.
15th Dec 2008 – An Iraqi reporter hurled his own shoe at President George Walker Bush during a news conference in Baghdad. Surprisingly, Bush managed to duck out of the way and even joked that “All I can report is a size 10”. The next day, many online games featured a Bush caricature hiding from shoes.
17th Dec 2008 – Thailand changes its Prime Minister for the seventh million times this year after unrests and unrests. Okay, I mean four times. Will Abhisit stay long? Or will he beat the 74 days record set by Somchai? Let’s wait and see.
18th Dec 2008 – Twilight movie opens and the nation steps up its love towards vampires.
19th Dec 2008 – Mediacorp Artist Chew Chor Meng announced that he is suffering from Kennedy’s disease, an incurable disease where his leg muscles will gradually waste away. It’s indeed sudden and saddening news, but, Don’t worry, be happy! We will all be there for you!
19th Dec 2008 – I went to watch Fahrenheit’s concert in Singapore Indoor Stadium and became even more in love with Aaron Yan. Haha
23rd Dec 2008 - The Singapore Flyer stopped moving and trapped 173 passengers for about six hours due to a short circuit and fire in the Flyer's wheel control room.
24th Dec 2008 – Christmas was not a joyous event for a family in America. Bruce Jeffrey Pardo went to his ex-wife’s house dressed in Santa suit with a totally different plan in mind. He went to kill. Nine died, including Pardo himself who got burnt to death when ‘his Santa suit melted onto his body’.
27th Dec 2008 – Gaza Strip air strikes. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict never ends, and has even escalated to new heights just a few days ago, despite UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon ordering the violence to cease. Come on, if what the Sect-Gen says will be taken in, the bloody conflict would have ended 60 years ago.
30th Dec 2008 – MOE announces that there will be more than 7,000 teaching and teaching-support jobs available next year. Which means that unemployment rate will go down, which means that the economy may revive, oh yeah!
Piece of trivia to start 2009:
News has it that 2008 has a total of 366 days and one second. It’s a leap year with an extra second added to keep in pace with the earth’s slowing down of rotation.
Happy New Year!
AH! So CUTE!!!