In the CBD, at Raffles Place, where my office is located, the free newspaper Today is given out every morning at the MRT. In addition to the more mainstream Today, there is also a paper called The Epoch Times (it was one of RONG's fav words!). I first picked it up in the first week of 07 because the 'headline' was 'Falungong Leader Wishes All A New Year!'.

Now for the ill informed, the Falungong is a sect, which translates into my mind as Scientology, minus the big bucks, plus meditation. The Falungong is also a group which is heavily persecuted in China. We all know that China is still a Communist State by principle, which has of late adopted rather Capitalist measures to survive in the 21st Century Economy. The Economy is booming, people are getting richer by the second, yet socially and environmentally it is still very much a backwater state. This also includes things like political persecution.

Basically what makes Falungong a persecuted sect in China from my understanding is because within the group, the leader claims he/she (can't remember) claims they're God/Jesus/Allah/Buddha/Insert Some Other Religion's god here. You get the idea. Of course as a 16 year old I have vague understanding of WHY this would warrant persecution, so I won't say anything.

So anyway in Singapore they're persecuted too. Why? Because Singapore kisses ass. Singapore kisses everyone's ass, they have too! We're a small time country and if we don't kiss ass and offend other countries, we'll get OUR asses kicked. Machiavellian, but totally understandable. Well, minus Malaysia of course, Malaysia is the only country Singapore tells to kiss it's ass. In this instance, it's China that Singapore's ass is kissing. (Like you couldn't already figure that out)

Anyway I pick up the paper every week and I get a HUGE kick out of spotting some anti-China article in the entire paper. About a week or two ago there was this massively huge article, like about 1/2 the broadsheet size, on 6 Falungong members in Singapore being arrested for giving out flyers in Orchard Road in Nov of either 2005 or 2006. Anyway they're being politically persecuted here and bla bla bla.

For the past few days I have been in court the entire day listening to this industrial estate dispute. Today around 5:20, we were standing outside the sub courts when I saw this woman carrying a placard protesting Singapore's persecution of Falungong. Natually me, being me, and doing things before thinking, pointed at her and went "Ohhh Alia! Falungong!" Then she saw us and I was like 'SHIT', and quickly turned away, but too late! She was headed for us and gave our entire group flyers about Falungong. It had seriously gruesome pictures of forceful organ extraction from Falungong members in China, which I had first read about in The Epoch Times.

Keep in mind these people hand landed in court for handing out flyers in the first place, yet this woman was blatantly giving out Falungong flyers to us outside the Subordinate Courts, where members of her group were being charged. Completely feckless and mad of course.

Of course the main reason for writing this is that I really want to state how much I admire these people, not for their beliefs, but for their constant striving for free speech. Hell, I think Falungong is nutty as hell, but you just have to admire them for their perseverance and guts.

This entry also has another selfish motive. Tomorrow is D day. Results day. OMGWTBBQ! Anyway in writing this, I have used up my brain's capacity for thinking, so I'm not so worried because I was too busy concentrating on this article! Woooo. Hahaha.

God bless us all :/