A tough time to be gay in Uganda

The American evangelical church has implicated itself in proposed legislation in Uganda that seeks the death penalty for homosexuals.

And this.

Protections still needed

A New York Times editorial brings to light some surprising facts. Some basic protections for gays and lesbians are still lacking from American federal law.

Gay men and lesbians still largely stand outside the [civil rights] division’s protection. If a hate crime law covering them is passed soon, as appears likely, the division should use it aggressively. Mr. Holder should also press Congress to pass the first federal law against job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

If you'd asked me to bet, all my money would have said that these federal laws were already in place.

Need I say more...

Took this photo from a car while on Bukit Batok West Ave 5. In case you can't make it out, the sign on the back of the truck reads, "Safety First." Whose safety?

Unlikely writer

A very interesting guy and enjoyable blog here. So, Billy, you want to be a scientist?

Unlikely advocate

This article from the New York Times describes a surprising advocate for same-sex marriage.

I had written about this, too

Interesting that another Singaporean touch also involves the verb "to have". I have noticed that it is remarkably common for undergraduates to use the past perfect tense in a context that requires the perfect tense instead. Both tenses use the auxiliary verb "to have", but the meaning conveyed by one vs. the other is quite distinct.

For example, say a student has just left an assignment in my pigeon hole and wishes to notify me of this fact. More often than not, they will express themselves by saying, "I had left my report in your pigeon hole." What they should have written is, "I have left...". But from what I can tell, for many Singaporean undergrads, the perfect tense (I have left; I have washed; I have written) just doesn't exist.

By the way, I like English grammar. Consequence of getting old, I guess. But I'm no whiz at the nomenclature. I can hear that something is wrong when someone uses the past perfect when they should be using the perfect. But to identify each of these tenses by name? I had to look them up.

I've to write about this

Every now and then I'm reminded of a word-use or phrase that I only stumble upon in Singapore. In the last hour, I've twice come across the use of the contraction "I've" used in a way I haven't seen anywhere else but here or in old English. For example, "The list offers both comfort and security but at perhaps 1/3 or even 1/2 the price I’ve to pay in S’pore."

Certainly in North America, and I'm pretty sure most anywhere in the Commonwealth, this sentence would have been written, "...I have to pay in Singapore." In other words, when "I have to" is being used in the sense of "I must", it is always written out in full. Except in Singapore.

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Well, a quick Google of "I've to" retrieves early hits in Africa and India. I wonder if this represents the independent misappropriation of the contraction in each country, or whether it's a carry over from colonial-era English.