Centre for Literary Arts and Publishing

Wanna be a writer? You've got to have The Clap. Yessirree, feel like you've got the Rangoon Itch and need to show the rest of the world? Might as well get The Clap! Singapore's obsession with acronyms has really scraped the bottom of the barrel and come up with dirty fingernails now. (A friend once thought IDA (Infocomm (abbreviate some more lah) Development Authority) stood for ministry of Information & De Arts! ) Not only that. The blurb on The Clap's website says: "Welcome to CLAP – Centre for Literary Arts and Publishing. CLAP is the training arm of the National Book Development Council of Singapore, dedicated to upgrading professionals in publishing and the literary arts. CLAP aims to deliver quality programmes that are relevant to the industry. Our programmes are planned in consultation with key members of the industry." [Several National keywords unused: "Grassroots", "Heartland", "Community", "Tripartism", amongst others.] The Clap leh! How like that? Must see doctor or not?