Moons ago, long before Trump’s MAGA slogan resonated among blue-collar workers and white evangelicals, I was surprised to read a parent’s guide mentioning that some American homeschoolers had mixed feelings about using foreign editions of Singapore math textbooks because of the lack of political freedom in the island-state.
No matter how value-for-money Singapore math titles are, or how impressive the “fine” city’s top ranking in both PISA and TIMSS is, some American parents and teachers would have nothing to do with a country that stifles freedom of speech, restricts political freedom, or cracks down on alternative views that often portray the government in a negative light.
Singapore is a partly free country.
This week, we read that in the new normal Singapore has fared worse than the previous year as far as political rights and civil liberties are concerned. If 50 were the passing mark, then the island-state fell short, by scoring a disappointing 48 out of 100 on political freedom.
Singapore’s Freedom in the World https://freedomhouse.org/country/singapore
Selective Internet Accessibility
Less well-known is Singapore’s average performance or ranking in terms of the public’s internet access, especially when both locals and aliens thought they could easily access the internet (except for some banned websites on politics, religion, and sex, or most political blogs that don’t depict the country’s political leaders positively), compared to their counterparts in China, where Google, Facebook, and Twitter are banned.
Singapore’s Freedom on the Net https://freedomhouse.org/country/singapore/freedom-net/2020
Political Freedom: Singapore vs. Others
Although we may not agree on the methodology used to compute the scores, which are calculated on a weighted scale, however, the global freedom ranking of most countries appears pretty accurate.
Let’s look at some freedom scores, by comparing how Singapore fares vis-à-vis some rich or rogue countries.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, in the aftermath of more pseudo-free nations going rogue, or more institutions paying lip service to democratic processes, I remember less than three years ago coining tongue-in-cheek “Make Singapore Free Again.”
The Fear Factor in Singapore
The Fear Factor as a Common Denominator
What are some long-term consequences for math educators living in a politically semi-free milieu? Teachers who need to seek permission from their HODs or principals to start a blog or a Facebook page; or writers who need to consult editors or publishers before they start working on a politically incorrect or irreverent math title.
When I started blogging, I still recall that those who had a say in my pay wanted me to choose a different name that doesn’t include “Singapore Math” as part of the blog’s identity. Apparently, every time they Googled “Singapore math,” they landed on my site, and they’re uncomfortable with that. I refused to compromise because I thought then (and now) that the idea of censoring or threatening me for raising some unethical practices in educational publishing is laughably ridiculous, not to say, mathematically or educationally anti-democratic.
It’s not an accident or coincidence that high-GDP Singapore has probably the lowest number of math bloggers, or the least number of math teachers on Twitter, in the developed world.
For some of us, who look like an odd in a sea of evens, the “fear factor” of speaking up and speaking out is real, even if our audience is outside Singapore. As long as we are a “mathematical or political nobody,” it’s probably safe to say that we’re at quasi-zero risk of being banned or censored, while being aware that a small army of vigilantes are watching us 24/7/365 just in case we go “politically astray.”
POFMA Math
During the lockdown, when a few Opposition candidates appeared to be unfairly targeted for their “fake” comments, I entertained the possibility that soon the authorities would be targeting math bloggers or textbook authors, who poked fun at some MOE directives or policies, by irreverently christening POFMA Math.
What are the odds that Singapore math authors would be the next to be POFMA-ed?
Poverty or Democracy
For decades, the unspoken or unchallenged political message in Singapore for Singaporeans and foreigners is: High GDP or Low Political Liberty. You can’t have both!
Why can’t your say and your pay go hand in hand? The lie that a country’s economic prosperity and political freedom are inversely proportional needs to be debunked at all costs, because failure to do so would only perpetuate mediocrity, economic stagnancy, political apathy, and uncreativity among the citizenry.
For math-anxious or mathophobic folks, mathematics is more terrifying than being attacked by an army of vampires, werewolves, and zombies. For the health-conscious, Covid-19 is a thousand times deadlier than Halloween and Donald J. Trump combined. And for those on the far-left of the political spectrum, Trumpvirus is a googol times more lethal than the product of the coronavirus and Halloween. So, it looks like it depends what really matters to you to rationalize which is more frightening: Halloween, Covid-19, or Trump-45.
For conservatives or evangelicals, who recognize the dangers posed by the dark spiritual forces, Halloween is a festival of the devil, because ghosts or evil spirits are real and dangerous. How do math educators navigate through the occultic maze to leverage on a spookacular festival to promote numeracy and creative problem solving?
When Halloween is a multi-million-dollar fear-and-fun business in secular societies like China, Japan, and Singapore, math educators regardless of their religious affiliations have to recognize that Halloween is here to stay.
Yellow Halloween
When Asians too feel like celebrating a Western fright-wear festival like Halloween—the spooky business worth millions of dollars is too good to give it a miss.
The yellow Halloween provides an opportunity for rich Chinese and Japanese participants to show off their creative elaborate costumes, bringing much joy to organizers and dozens of tailors cashing in on the event.
by MathPlus November 03, 2016
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Yellow+Halloween
Let's look at a sample of Halloween math questions.
1. A Horror Movie
Thou shalt not dabble in numerology!
The screening of Covid-19 v. Trump-45 ended at 1:19 AM. If the horror movie lasted for 1 hour 31 minutes, what time did it start?
A poster outside a Singapore bookstore
2. The Ghostly Time
What is the acute angle measure between the hands of a clock at 10:31 p.m. on Halloween?
3. Horror-scope & Bat-man
#PumpkinSpice from Edel Rodriguez (@edelstudio on 19/10/17)
Today is Friday, and Trump’s numerologist tells him that he will have to drink the blood of a bat 666 days from today to continue to lead a “normal life” after he leaves the White House. What day of the week is Donald expected to do that task?
4. TrumpMath, Anyone?
5. A Grave Calculation
Not all sins or bad habits are treated equal!
Assuming that most people would live up to three scores and ten years, how long will it take before the whole world is covered in gravestones?
6. Operation Vampire
The Power of the Cross
If a vampire were to feed once a day and turn each of his victims into a vampire, show that the entire human population of the planet would become vampires in just over a month.
The Ghost Month and Halloween
Long before the East imported Halloween from the West, superstitious Asians have been celebrating their one-month-long version of Halloween, known as the “Ghost (or Seventh) Month”—a far more scarier festival than a mere evening of horror fun.
My hypothesis is: Halloween is no more than one-seventh as frightening as the Ghost Month, a festival celebrated in many parts of Asia every August or September, depending when those spiritual vagabonds from hell decided to descend on earth.
The coronavirus pandemic and the Seventh Month provide math teachers with new math terms to coin, and allow them to pose a number of deadly guesstimation problems. Below are a few of these Covid-math terms.
On August 8, 2020, @SingaporeLite tweeted the following:
Covid-👿
Corona Math: What are the odds that hungry ghosts from Hell who’d roam Earth during the Ghost or Seventh Month—Aug 19–Sep 16—are corona-proof? Besides instilling fear on superstitious folks, aren’t they also a source of infection? todayonline.com/node/8269421 #Singapore #Covid-19 👿🦠
On July 1, 2020, @SakamotoMath tweeted the following picture and text.
Happy Math-O-Ween! from @MrHonner
Corona Math: Given that the coronavirus is empowered to infect both earthlings and celestial beings, guesstimate the no. of infections among the fallen angels that colluded with Lucifer to challenge the Throne of God in the heavenlies. #Covid-19 #heaven #hell #angel #math #humor
Halloween vs. Coronavirus
Which is scarier to you: Halloween or Covid-19? How are you remembering those who would still be around if not because of the coronavirus? Is fake political leadership responsible for their premature departure to the other side of eternity? #Halloween #Covid-19 #death #leadership (@SakamotoMath on 30/10/20)
Covid-19 Goes Green
The coronavirus doesn’t discriminate against believers, nonbelievers, or agnostics—it infects or kills people of all religions or philosophies with the same intensity.
From Paranormal to Trumpnormal Distribution
Q: What do you get when you cross Covid-19 and Statistics?
A: The Trumpnormal distribution.
A “ghost distribution” from @wilderlab
Political Engineering: Stop flattening and start trumpifying the curve to open up more businesses across the US—more testings and tracings don’t win an election! #statistics #coronavirus #Covid-19 #business #lockdown #distribution #Singapore #math #infection #death #curve #humor
Coronavirus’s Nineteen Names
Just as President Trump has been conferred so many notorious titles, the coronavirus has been given all kinds of racist labels.
7. Not All Corona Prayers Are the Same!
A Shaolin Buddhist abbot can pray for a Covid-19 patient to be healed in 8 days and a Baptist bishop in 2 days. How long would it take them to get a patient who is twice as sick to fully recover, if both leaders prayed together?
Selected Answers: 1. 11:48 PM 2. 129.5° 3. Saturday 5. Over a million years 7. 3.2 days
References
Correl, G. (2015). The worrier’s guide to life. Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing.
Lloyd, J., Mitchinson, J. & Harkin, J. (2012). 1,227 QI facts to blow your socks off. London: Faber and Faber.
Santos, A. (2009). How many licks? Philadelphia: Running Press.
Even if math educators are politically apathetic or have near-zero interest in world politics, they can’t discount lightly the irrational thoughts, words, and actions of President Trump and Chairman Kim, because the very presence of these two world “leaders” is two too many—the world is far less secure with these two fellows around, especially when at the push of a nuclear button, millions of innocent civilians would be heading to the other side of eternity sooner than later.
Being neither a mathematician nor a politician, I’d be the most unqualified “math educator” to hypothesize how numerate or “logical” or rational these two disruptive politicians are. However, my educational hypothesis about math education in both North Korea and the US is that North Korea Math is probably less inch-deep-mile-wide than US Math.
On January 2, 2013, I tweeted in tongue-in-cheek the following:
If North Korea were to take part in TIMSS, would it be a surprise if its K–12 #math students outperform their counterparts in the US? #TIMSS
If we factor in the educational budget of each participating country in TIMSS and their local teachers’ limited resources, a politically incorrect ranking would probably look as follows:
There are no ranking errors: Singapore isn’t in the top ten (with or without private tuition).
The Rocket Man and the Mentally Deranged US Dotard
Which “political unthinking” is more dangerous: “Think like Kim” or “Think like Trump”? Who is a more unpredictable or deadly bully? Is “Fatty Kim the Third“—a derogatory term for the well-fed dictator whose own people are starving in the millions—a mere toothless bully vis-à-vis his American counterpart?
Having zero mercy for your political foes, by torturing them and their family members; and poisoning, hanging, or murdering your siblings and relatives, who you suspect are against you.
Or, tweeting and taunting illegal immigrants, radical Islamists, and the LGBT community, which tends to trigger symptoms of insomnia, irrational fear, anxiety, depression, and trauma—the so-called Trump Stress Disorder (TSD)—which unconfirmed reports suggest that they’re more likely to die sooner of heart attack, or to be victims of racial or ethnic persecution.
Kim’s Digital Murder
Below is a quick-and-dirty e-card I tweeted on August 5, 2018 on dictator-murderer Kim, who had his army of hackers or digital terrorists use Photoshop to “digitally murder” his uncle.
If Kim Jong-Un were a radical Muslim-convert, North Korea could become ISIS’s new HQ! #politics #war some.ly/dCh7Y7b
Mathematical Intercourse between Trump and Kim
Another half-baked mathematical e-card I made and tweeted during the Trump-Kim tête-à-tête in Singapore is the following:
On a nonmathematical note,
and the question is: What do you get if you cross a Trump with a Kim? and the answer is: Nothing. You can't cross a dictator with a murderer.
Or, on a mathematical note,
and the question is: What do you get if you cross a mosquito Kim with an overweight Trump? and the answer is: Nothing. You can't cross a vector with a scalar.
A Bromance of Two Dictators
Singapore as the political matchmaker.
Trump claimed that he and Kim “fell in love” after exchanging letters—it sounds like two egomaniacs trying to outwit each other with their insincere sweet words, by stroking each other’s fragile ego.
Trump-Putin, Trump-Xi, Trump-Sisi, Trump-Erdogan, and now Trump-Kim. It appears that dictators do attract each other! A political hypothesis math educators pursuing a PhD in math education might wish to test is: Dictatorship is quadratic!
From Dictator Putin to Emperor Xi to soon-to-be Pharaoh Sisi, Tweeter-in-Chief or Pinocchio-in-Chief Trump, all these power-hungry men have no limits to controlling more yes-men and yes-women, while expecting blind obedience—those who don’t toe the line are likely to be fired prematurely.
In Trump & Kim We Trust
The Symbolic Trump-Kim Meeting in Singapore
Last June, the Singapore government forked out a wallet-unfriendly $20 million to hold the symbolic meeting between President Trump and Chairman Kim.
A Political Math exercise I tweeted then was: Guesstimate how much on average each taxpayer in Singapore “contributed” to footing the $20 million bill for the Trump-Kim meeting. bit.ly/2sVT6jG
Fire and Fury on Kim and His Gang of Killers
@juche_school1
Unlike his dictatorial and murderous grandfather and father who had longed to meeting a US President while they’re still alive, Kim Jong-un is the luckiest of the unholy trinity in finding a “good friend” in Donald Trump.
Political pundits think that North Korea needs more than trade sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs and the threat they pose to the world. A regime change to deliver North Koreans from the tyranny of the Kim dynasty ought to be in the political pipeline.
Unlike Vietnam which tries to threaten Trump and Kim impersonators to stop their “mocking acts,” it’s rather surprising that Singapore didn’t ban these pseudo-tyrants from walking around in town to have some political fun with both locals and tourists.
Abel & Cain 4.0
Thou shalt not kill thy brother.
On the right is an e-card I wrote and tweeted around the time when Kim Jong Un wanted so badly to exterminate his half-brother, Kim Jong Nam.
And below is an approved entry I contributed on “Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-nam,” which could no longer be publicly accessed online:
Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-namThe modern-day version of the biblical Abel and Cain, with the chances of the two Kims not meeting their late father and grandfather in hell near to zero.Brothers-rivals Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-nam serve as ideal plot characters for a Korean spy movie.
Maybe Kim’s hackers felt that the days of its publication should be numbered.
Obama vs. Kim
Unlike a dozen-odd mean tweets on Trump and Kim, any entries on Obama and Kim were in short supply. One I tweeted about them in 2014 in the aftermath of a racist comment on President Obama is the following:
An Unrighteous Deed, IndeedIf Obama is like a "monkey in a tropical forest," then Kim Jong-un must be a "fat pig in Siberia." #North-Korea (@MathPlus on 27/12/14)
Politico-Mathematica à la Singapour
Below are some politically incorrect “political math” questions that teachers could creatively tweak to pitch to their oft-politically challenged students, by conveying the message that math and politics do mix.
1. Parallelism between Two Irrational Personalities
List a dozen parallels between President Trump and Chairman Kim.
For example, Trump and Kim each have been conferred with high-sounding titles for their “contributions” to mankind.
Please call me “Dr. President Trump.”
2. Modeling with Trump and Kim
(a) Trump’s Tweets—Firing by Twitter
Model President Trump’s tweets, which provide a rich source of comedy, into a little juicy formula, which would predict his tweet-before-you-think posts in coming years (assuming that he would still be allowed to tweet behind bars should he be convicted for some political or business collusion with foreign powers).
(b) Kim’s Murders—Murder by Numbers
Formulate a “wicked algorithm” that would guesstimate the number of political critics or foes the Kim dynasty had ordered to be imprisoned, tortured, or killed every year since the Korean War.
3. [Fake] Nobel Prize Winners
What are the odds that the Tweeter-in-Chief and the Murderer-in-Chief might share the coveted the Nobel Peace Prize, if their peaceful actions are perceived to help avert World War III, which could irrationally or maniacally be triggered by pressing their nuclear button?
If someone like Yassir Arafat, who supported terrorism against Israel, could win a Nobel Prize, it’s not far-fetched that both Trump and Kim might be “honored” for fakely bringing world peace to an already-violent world, made insecure by radical Islamists.
4. Political Math
Below are some politico-mathematica questions I posted in recent months.
(a) Political Math: Guesstimate how many false or misleading claims Donald Trump will make by the time he leaves the White House in 2020 (or earlier if he is impeached and imprisoned)—7546 white lies in 700 days. #Singapore #math #politics #estimation #humor (@MathPlus on 30/12/18)
(b) Political Math: Which event has the higher odds of ever happening: Donald Trump winning the Nobel Peace Prize or being canonized as “Saint Trump”? If Arafat can win it, so can Trump! bit.ly/2IwDuP1 #Vatican #peace #sainthood #North-Korea #Singapore #math #miracle #humor (@MathPlus on 18/2/19)
(c) Political Math: What are the odds that if we had had President Hillary Clinton instead of President Donald Trump, she too would have fired the ex-FBI director James Comey, and that her opponents would now be calling for her impeachment and prosecution? #politics #math #hypocrisy (@MathPlus on 3/1/19)
How Trump Does Calculus
(d) Political Math: What are the odds that President Trump would not seek re-election in November 2020 in the aftermath of his impeachment by the House for colluding with Putin and gang? #statistics #SingaporeMath #math #odds #collusion #election #politics #Trump #Putin #humor (@MathPlus on 30/11/18)
5. Murderous Math
Here are some deadly math toughies that may not be apt for politically or religiously immature souls. Caution: Arm yourself, if need be, if you feel that you may be a victim of some form of “mathematical rebellion” from your hostile audience, who may be on a different political or spiritual wavelength as you.
(a) Murderous Singapore Math: What are the odds that there would be a coup in North Korea when Dictator Kim traveled to Hanoi for another symbolic meeting with President Trump? Is China, Iran, Syria, Russia, or Venezuela keen to take him?
Murderous Zeros: If filthy rich Saudis can buy a morally bankrupt fellow like Donald Trump to keep his silence, guesstimate how many “loyal zeros” he is worth to his murderers. #Khashoggi #MBS #murder #guesstimation #math (@Zero_Math on 21/11/18)
Murderous Math: A World Without North Korea—What are the chances that in the aftermath of a North Korean nuclear attack on the US, the Kim dynasty would cease to exist (as the US and allies retaliate to wipe out North Korea from the map)? #war #North-Korea #apocalypse #math (@Zero_Math on 6/12/18)
6. Food & Dog Diplomacy
(a) Singapore Math: What are the chances that North Korea might have a McDonald franchise before having a US embassy? #McKim #humor (@MathPlus on 15/8/17)
McKim was approved on July 13, 2017, and had since been probably “hijacked” by the hackers of the guardian deity of planet Earth.
McKimThe local burger McDonald plans to offer to middle-class North Koreans once Dictator Kim Jong Un and gang give them the green light to operate their first outlet in Pyongyang.The Trump camp thinks that food diplomacy may be a first step to getting the Kim dictatorship to give up its nuclearization program—they've secretly approached McDonald to come up with a North Korean recipe for McKim.
(b) Dog Diplomacy: Chinese Communists give pandas; North Korean Communists give dogs. bbc.co.uk/news/world-asi… #politics #North-Korea #Communism (@MathPlus on 26/11/18)
(c) Faith in god Kim
Kim’s likely promise to Trump: “I want to denuclearize”—as the sanctions hurt and my dynasty must prevail. But like China, Iran, and Russia, where lying and cheating are in their DNA, can the world trust North Korea & the Kim dynasty? #Singapore #politics (@Zero_Math on 10/6/18)
God Has the Final Say in Trump’s Destiny—Not Men or CNN
Let me end on a positive note on how I re-christened or re-defined “President Trump” on 9/11, the date when he’s miraculously elected in 2016.
How God used an ungodly man to effect political change.
Bibliography & References
Monti, R. A. (2018). Donald Trump in 100 facts. UK: Amberley Publishing.
Pater, R. (2016). The politics of design. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers.
A Creative & Disruptive Math Title Coming Your Way*
*Agents keen to represent publishers confident enough to sell an obscene number of If Trump Were Your Math Teachercould contact K C Yan at his e-mail coordinates. A trumpillion thanks!
