Own Time Own Target

It was actually quite funny, though perhaps a little towards the slapstick side ... '"So, what would you like to to say about your men?" "They are a bunch of chee ... ... ampions."' But it seemed to capture so much of the NS atmosphere ... a mixture of coarseness, sian-ness, cock-ups, petty sqabbling and good old camaraderie.
It would be quite sad if Singapore's top brass really were but a bunch of work-avoiding, know-nothing goofers, or if the media were as muzzled as it was made out to be in Full Tank ... but it's probably just exaggeration for a good purpose. The intent of satire is after all to correct by exposing to ridicule.
Watching Botak Boys, on the hand, was a little like watching my own life from a different perspective, although the plot focus wasn't entirely on BMT per se. It's a useful thing, and not the least uninteresting either, to look at the same things you see every day through different eyes sometimes. You notice things you usually might not, or things just appear in a new light, different relief. In this case, I think the most salient point was how arbitrary, and sometimes dehumanising, BMT can seem to recruits; and hence the importance of conducting it in such a way as to diminish or counteract this impression ... and to think BMT instructors had once been recruits before too. Strange. It's almost as though empathy doesn't extend through time ... or perhaps it is just far too weak against the combination of the demands of training and sheer laziness.