just to lighten the mood
Aware EGM: I saw my hair flash before my eyes
By S M Ong
May 11, 2009
WHEN the Aware old guard beat the usurpers at the EGM earlier this month, it was a victory for pluralism, diversity and tolerance 鈥?and I鈥檓 just talking about the hair.
Basically, the people with the craziest hair won, and let me tell you, I know first-hand about crazy hair.
On the scalps of the 3,000 who swarmed the Suntec event was an eye-popping variety of coifs in unexpected styles and colours.
The scary thing is that I鈥檝e had every one of those hairstyles at least once in my lifetime. It was like seeing the life of my hair flash before my eyes.
Take for instance Ms Alex Serenti, an Aware volunteer who was featured in The New Paper last Monday. She is botak.
This was the look I sported when I was a fresh army recruit like so many other Singaporean males at the then Infantry Training Depot on Pulau Tekong.
It was possibly the lowest point of my life 鈥?apart from last month, when I ate some bad Indian rojak.
Bowled over
At the Aware EGM was another volunteer who has so far only been identified as 鈥榳oman with loud hailer鈥?
This could be because it would be rude to identify her as 鈥榳oman with extremely unflattering bowl cut鈥?
My mother forced me to have this haircut when I was in primary school, and I haven鈥檛 forgiven her since.
Oh, is today Mother鈥檚 Day? I鈥檒l send her an e-card 鈥?even though she doesn鈥檛 have a computer. Ha! Revenge!
And then there鈥檚 Ms Zaibun Siraj, a former Aware president, with that purple streak in her hair.
If I were a middle-aged woman with a matching outfit, that was exactly what I looked like back in the early 鈥?0s as a fan of all those great New Romantic bands from Duran Duran to A Flock Of Seagulls.
Yes, I ran... I ran so far away.
The only difference was that my streak was blue.
Purple reigns
My theory is that the old guard won simply because Ms Siraj frightened the bejesus out of Ms Josie Lau and company with her purple hair and matching outfit.
'Did you see the scary woman with the purple hair? She looks like The Joker. What chance do we mere mortals, who believe that a neutral stance on homosexuality is tantamount to a tacit approval of gay lifestyle, have against a super villain like that?鈥?p>Hair today, gone tomorrow.
This is Alexandra Serrenti -- the writer of the letter to the ST Forum.