Humanities & Social Sciences Library

From Malaysia to France, there is an increasing spotlight on hymenoplasty, an operation to restore a broken hymen. This can be a life saving operation in certain conservative societies, where a woman’s virginity can be a serious matter concerning family honour.

The issue was reported in the New Straits Times on Monday, and has been reported on again by the New York Times. The matter raised is the same, and there are striking parallels between the concerns of the women interviewed.

One commentator believes the rise of hymenoplasty operations to be a result of young women caught between their conservative home societies and the more liberal attitudes of Western societies.

Read the article from the New York Times here, and the article from the New Straits Times here.

A criminal trial of two suspects in Australia has been suspended by a judge after five members of the jury were found to have been playing Sudoku during the trial proceedings. There is usually a total of 12 jurors present.

The jurors were discovered when it was noticed that the jurors were writing ‘notes’ vertically rather than horizontally. What is disturbing is that the trial was for drug offences, which carried potential life sentences for the accused.

The jurors in their explanation said that they found it difficult to follow the evidence presented, which could be rather drawn out. However the fact remains that such inattention is disturbing, given the gravity of the trial and the potential sentences which could be meted out. This also calls into question the ability of the jury to understand complicated evidence, such as scientific evidence.

However this does not mean that there are advantages to a jury trial. Juries have been known to refuse to convict a person despite the evidence, in a process known as jury nullification, or jury equity. This could be done if the jury felt that a law was unjust, or if they felt there were strong mitigating factors, despite the evidence presented. Of course this also means that it is possible to win trials using emotional appeals to the jury.

The trial itself has been scheduled to be reheard after a new jury is selected. Read the full article here.

An article by the International Herald Tribune has reported on the intricate relationship between the people and the monks. The monastery is often especially important in rural areas, as it can be the only institution which offers the rural villagers an education or spiritual comfort.

This bond between the monks and the laity is reported to be strengthening due to Cyclone Nargis, which has devastated the Irrawaddy delta. The monks are reported to be at the forefront of providing aid to survivors of the cyclone.

In separate news, Singapore volunteers have spoken of their first hand experiences in the delta. They reported that their trip was smoother than expected, possibly due to the presence of a respected monk with them, namely Venerable K Gunaratana. The volunteers reported that they experienced no problems with roadblocks or with taking pictures.

This article thus suggests that the position of the monks continues to be highly respected in Myanmar, despite the recent military crackdown. The respect given to the monks appears to be strengthening instead.

Read the full IHT article here. The ChannelnewsAsia report is accessible at this link.

Dr. Chee Soon Juan and his sister Ms. Chee Siok Chin have both been given jail sentences for contempt of court, at 12 and 10 days respectively. The defamation damages have not been decided (if they are granted).

It is interesting to note the (generally) negative public reaction to Dr. Chee in the Asiaone forums. One forum poster even criticised Dr. Chee for wasting the time of the Prime Minister.

It is even more interesting to compare the generally negative local reaction to Dr. Chee, with the articles written by the New York Times, which seems to view Dr. Chee in a more positive light.

This can be viewed from the title of the New York Times article, which is “Power and Tenacity Collide in a Singapore Courtroom”. The word “tenacity” usually carries a positive overtone.

Read the Asiaone report here, and the forum commentaries here. The New York Times article is available here.

It is unusual to find articles on Singapore in the New York Times, or in the BBC news.

The New York Times has a strong bias towards reporting on American news, and on Middle Eastern news. However there have been a pair of articles commenting on the state of Singapore politics, such as J.B Jeyaretnam’s proposed establishment of a new political party.

More recently, there has been an article written on Dr. Chee Soon Juan’s debate in court with M.M. Lee and PM Lee. The foreign interest paid to politics in Singapore is slightly surprising to this blogger, although the different viewpoints are interesting. For example the quotes taken by the New York Times from the courtroom debate between Dr. Chee and MM Lee are quite different from that of the Straits Times, in its own commentary.

However, one suspects that the writer of the New York Times articles, Seth Mydans, is not entirely neutral with regard to his views on Singapore politics.

Read the articles here and here

The state of California in the United States has just become the second state (after Massachusetts) to legalise gay marriages, after a Supreme Court ruling. This decision willtake effect in 30 days, barring legal challenges.

In a marking of how contentious the issue is, California’s Supreme Court was heavily split (4-3). The decision was opposed by religious and conservative groups.

Coverage of the decision is available at the New York Times.

The annual poll for the strangest book title has just ended. This year’s winner is a self-help guide entitled If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs.

The close competitor for the honour was another book titled I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen.

A selection of other strange titles in history include :

The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification
Highlights in the History of Concrete
Re-using Old Graves

The last title may not seem so strange if it was published in Singapore.

Read the full article from the BBC here

Related titles on land use in Singapore are:
Four decades of transformation : land use in Singapore, 1960-2000
Call number: HT169.S55W872

Future of space : planning, space and the city
HT169.S55I59

Both are available in the new HSS Library.

A new university will be opening its door in Singapore, namely the Curtin University of Technology. The university is expected to begin accepting students in December this year, with an initial focus on business and technology courses.  The campus will be located at Balestier, at the former ITE campus there. The expected initial student population will be 900 students, although some of the 900 will consist of current students. The university expects to grow to a population of 3000 students over a period of time.

Read the full article from Channel Newsasia here.

In related news, the population of Vietnamese students in Singapore has been reported to have increased dramatically recently. The education scene in Singapore thus appears to be getting much bigger, and much more diverse. The implications of these changes are yet to be fully understood.

Read the full article from Asiaone here.

In an insightful article, a young American woman comments on the problems of standing out. In her case, she is unusually tall, 6 feet 4 inches.

This translates to around 1.93 metres!

However the writer also points out that humans can be picked on just for standing out. The young woman is commented on because she is tall, but others could easily be perceived as different (and bullied) because of their skin colour.

Read more about her here

Disgraced New York governor Eliot Spitzer has resigned following the expose that he contracted the services of a sex worker, after he campaigned against it himself. However a commentary from the New York times argues that monogamy is surprisingly rare in the animal kingdom.

Apparently many animals do raise a young together, but biologists have discovered that 10-70 percent of a certain brood of young may have been sired by another male. Paying for sexual favours is also not unique to humans: this behaviour has also been observed in birds!

This does not mean that animals approve of such philandering behaviour however: male and female animals have been observed to fly into jealous rages when infidelity was discovered.

Read the full article from the New York Times here.

Tip: Not sure what a word means? Double click on it (in the New York Times) to bring up an instant dictionary reference. Checking a Collins or Oxford dictionary is still better of course.