One of the most talked about person these days – other than Barack Obama – must be Agnes Lin. She gained notoriety because of an infamous Straits Stooge Times report on how unaffected she might be by the recession and how she unabashedly continue her alleged extravagant lifestyle in spite of it while spending her parents’ money. In the report, she allegedly called one of her less fortunate classmate – silly. (You can find the reproduced Stooge Times article in Xtraliciou’s blog post here..

Really, it is good enough to either make you weep or see red after reading the Stooge Times report. And like DK, I had wondered just where on earth did they managed to find this kind of people?!

This, is not yet another post to bash Agnes Lin, since there are already enough people bashing her. It is merely necessary to report that the girl herself has written on her blog that she was misquoted. This is not an attempt to takes sides with her, but rather to present what may not be widely known so everyone can draw their own conclusion whether Agnes Lin is really as hopeless as the Stooge Times has portrayed her to be and whether her parents has spoiled their child by failing to teach her the value of money.

Anyway, if it is true Miss Lin is misquoted, it really came as no surprise. This has happened before to an online friend of mine. Read about Xtralicious’ own experience here.

In Xtralicious’ case, it is a case of omission resulting in her being misquoted. Somehow, I also suspect to a certain extent the same happened to Miss Loi too, in which a detailed explanation on what she meant when she said she would ‘sack’ students from her tuition classes, might have also been removed resulting in that little annoyance on the Stomp forum which was reported here. (Miss Loi has declined to confirm my suspicions, and she mentioned that she did not want more publicity on this matter. I believe she might be concerned that if expressed badly in my writing, it might sour her relations with the reporter in question and also the Stooge Times.)

But Agnes Lin’s case is different. It was not a case of omission. If what she wrote on her blog is true, this is a case of putting words in her mouth. In fact, she claimed that she didn’t even say her classmate was silly!

This is not any worse or better compared to what happened to Xtralicious. However, when I consider that there are many whose only source of information is the Stooge Times, and even Yahoo Singapore would publish some of these articles, I shudder to think of the impact if the credibility of the report is questionable. Consider first the image of our youths presented to foreigners after they read the Stooge Times article about Miss Lin, if it was reproduced on Yahoo Singapore. We can only speculate about the damage this report has done to our national image.

Then, consider the hypothetical situation in which a political figure – especially an opposition one – ends up with words put in his mouth during our General Election and as a result caused him to lose votes or even his parliamentary seat.

Seriously, something has to be done to deal with the apparently rampant misquoting by the Stooge Times. Or will they only do something when people start avoiding an interview by the Stooge Times, or when it turns into permanent damage to Stooge Times’ reputation?

As for the matter of the young taking money from their parents, it is my considered opinion that there is no reasons whatsoever why anyone should be mad with anyone spending their parents’ money. Just because you may not be doing it or having received lesser from your own doesn’t earn you the right to bash anyone. As a Cantonese saying goes: 牛耕田，马食毂。老豆揾钱，仔享福。[Translation: As the cow tills the land and the horse eats the grains from the harvest, thus the father earns the money for his descendants to enjoy life.], it is thus the natural order of things as long as she didn’t threaten them with her life or at gunpoint for them to give her that money.

On top of which, as long as she spends money in Singapore, she will be contributing to GST, and thus our government’s gahmen’s so-called plan to help those in need. On top of which, someone has to paid into the state coffers so some of us can enjoy any gahmen credits there is.

The only sensible thing we should do about this is to find a way to earn the easy money off the ‘Agnes Lin’ reported on the Stooge Times if she truly exists. In fact, the more of them the merrier so some of that wealth can be redistributed. If you feel sorry for her parents, then you can buy something with the money you earn from her and contribute to GST because when the gahmen gives out goodies, they will get something back too.

In other words, stop being self-righteous and stop justifying your indignation already! Just come up with a brilliant business plan to earn that money. And I don’t mind if you share it with me so I can invest in your business too – as it is [allegedly] recession proof as long as the likes of the ‘Agnes Lin’ reported on the Stooge Times really exists.

Comics: