A recent edition of Singapore's Straits Times newspaper features an essay by a former writer of that paper who has moved to London to pursue a doctorate in ethnomusicology at the School Of Oriental And African Studies. Her focus? The folksong of Taiwan's aborigines.

"And why are you going to ang moh London to study Asian music?" Tan Shzr Ee asks herself rhetorically. "I HAD to go to London because I couldn't study what I needed to study in Singapore itself." Singapore is blowing academic and touristic opportunities, she explains:

Today, contingents of gamelan enthusiasts bypass Singapore and flock to Australia instead as 'the gateway to Indonesia'.

Meanwhile, at home, well-meaning 'gamelan conductors' at Singapore Youth Festival competitions continue to urge their students to mangle Javanese gongs with the Forrest Gump Theme transcribed for 'an Indonesian orchestra'.

Hmm... Call me sick, but I'd rather like to hear that!