beautiful disaster

Prawn lovers protest usage of prawns in national exam.

Mrs. Lee Swee Khng, a housewife, was stunned this morning when her regular seafood supplier at Bukit Timah Market told her that all 200kg of prawns he normally stocked had been purchased by rotund middle-aged man and a tall young lady with exceptional fashion sense earlier that morning.

"This is ridiculous!" she says. "I was planning on cooking prawn mee for my family today! It's not every day that I do that, you know."

The normally sullen-faced seafood man, who declined to give his name, was, in contrast, flashing a toothless smile as he said in Hokkien, "Normally it takes the whole day to get rid of stock. But today, these two people come up to me just when I'm opening the shop at 5 am and ask to buy all the prawns I have. Of course I'm happy!"

That was not the only incident of people in Singapore being deprived of their prawns today. Miss Lily Ng, a counter staff from the McDonald's at King Albert Park, had to turn away many an enthusiastic customer asking for McDonald's new Prawn Wrappers and Prawn Burger due to the shortage of prawns. "There was nothing we could do. Our usual supplier told us he could not pass us the agreed amount of prawns due to some complications this morning and we just had to accept it."

Mrs. Tan Xing, a patron at McDonald's, had been one of those turned away. "I made it a point to come down to McDonald's today to try out their Prawn Wrappers. To think they ran out of stock even before it was noon! Somebody should do something about this!"

A check back in the Ministry of Trade and Information yielded no results; they were just as puzzled about the shortage. However, news of the prawn shortage got to the Ministry of Education, whose spokesman quickly supplied the answer.

"Today is the GCSE O'Level Biology practical paper and Cambridge required a very unusual apparatus this year--one dead, uncooked prawn for each student observe and draw. Schools all over Singapore have been buying prawns in bulk for the paper."

The biology practical, which accounts for about 30% of the entire biology paper, is widely regarded as the hardest practical as it requires almost as much studying as the main paper.

This is the first time a prawn has been used in the paper.

~The Shrimp Times (28th October 2004)

jac was here with you 10/28/2004 06:24:00 pm

Comments: Post a Comment

My Destiny
Psalm 46 (NASB)
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.

There is river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered;
He raised His voice, the earth melted.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has wrought desolations in the earth.
He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
"Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold.