hi all the anonymous bloggers

i am getting quite a number of bloggers using the nick anonymous, and often i am confused with who i am talking to. for easier reference, could you fellas use some nicks, anything. call yourself sun, moon, stars, flowers etc. it will make chatting easier. many thanks. and welcome cherche and alex. thanks for the views. we are all hear to chat and all of us have different views. some very extreme, some funny, some unique, some cheekly, cynical, etc etc. that's how to make a blog interesting. lets have more varieties and differences in looking at things. it adds colour to our discussion. because of the nature of blogs, sometimes i may miss out posts that were too far back. i apologise for that if i did not reach them and reply. that's the reason why i started www.redbeanforum.com. it is easier to retrieve messages as new post will be pull up and easily recognised. please feel free to post there as well.

myth 11

'Citizenship is attractive. We treat our citizen well.' Below is posted by anonymous which i reposted here. i'm sure many of you have heard the story of the shepherd tending to his sheep when a storm intrude and the shepherd and his flock seek shelter in a cave laden with food for such an emergency. in came a few lost goats and the shepherd gladly took them in and fed them with the only food he had and calmed them when they were afraid of lightning. after the storm, when no one came to claim the lost goats, the shepherd decided to make them his but the goats refused. the shepherd was angry and denounced them as ungrateful. the goats replied that they were grateful to the shepherd for taking care of them but they do not want to be a part of his herds saying:"you took good care of us and gave us your only food but you did not take care of your own flock. therefore, we do not want to be a part of your herd." i think the above story says it all. to attract foreigners to take up citizenship, we need to demonstrate that citizens are valued about foreigners. when citizens, PRs and foreigners are treated equally, is there any reason to take up citizenship?

corruption in malaysia? where got?

Corruption in Malaysia? Where is the proof? Stab in the back According to Musa, the former premier’s vocal criticism only serves to benefit the opposition and nobody else. “During Mahathir’s era, there were allegations of corruption. Mahathir asked, 'where is the proof?' Now, Mahathir is alleging corruption but where is the proof?” he said. The above is extracted from Malaysiakini. An interview with Musa Hitam. What is preposterous is that corruption is everywhere, flowing out from the ears and nose. But Mahathir was asking for proof. No proof means no corruption. And the music plays on. We are corruption free. That is Mahathir at his preposterous best.

mahathir hitting badawi below the belt

Mahathir's latest salvo at Badawi was below the belt. He made it public that Badawi was not his number One choice, attempting to insinuate that Badawi was not good enough. It was very fortunate that Badawi won a landslide victory to confirm that the people were behind him and supported him. Now all the cabinet ministers too came out to defend him. That is good for the time being. But they cannot keep on defending and allow Mahathir to attack unrestrained. In order to take on Mahathir effectively before being hurt as the constant attack will eventually lead to a change of mind in the people, Badawi must go on the offensive and attack Mahathir's mistakes. Hang up his dirty laundry to dry as well. And for this he will need a charismatic orator to deal with Mahathir. The current batch of cabinet ministers is not in the class of Mahathir to take him on. And none will dare to do so.

permanent US bases in Iraq

Iraq war bill deletes US military base prohibition By Richard Cowan Fri Jun 9, 4:59 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans killed a provision in an Iraq war funding bill that would have put the United States on record against the permanent basing of U.S. military facilities in that country, a lawmaker and congressional aides said on Friday. The $94.5 billion emergency spending bill, which includes $65.8 billion to continue waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is expected to be approved by Congress next week and sent to President George W. Bush for signing into law. As originally passed by the House of Representatives, the Pentagon would have been prohibited from spending any of the funds for entering into a military basing rights agreement with Iraq. A similar amendment passed by the Senate said the Pentagon could not use the next round of war funding to "establish permanent United States military bases in Iraq, or to exercise United States control over the oil infrastructure or oil resources of Iraq." The Bush administration has said it does not want to place any artificial timelines on a U.S. presence in Iraq and that it wants to begin withdrawing troops when Iraqi security forces are better able to protect the country. But it has not ruled out permanent bases in Iraq. The above extract confirmed what the Iraqis and the Arab nations were afraid of, permanent US presence in Iraq and the occupation of Iraq. What it means to the war in Iraq is that it will continue in greater ferocity. Now the fight is against foreign occupation and colonisation. It will become a war of independence.

myth 10

'Staying Together, Moving Ahead' Today's announcement of the lift upgrading programme tells all. After casting the vote for the opposition, you belong to the opposition and deserve to be left behind.

staying together, moving ahead?

After reading the Sunday Times this morning I must say that it is confirmed beyond any doubt that too much power will lead to arrogance and delusion. The issue of upgrading has been thrashed out during the election rally and why the people is so pissed off with the unfair application of tax payers money to serve partial politics was obvious. I thought the message has sunk in. And if not, the slogan, 'Staying together, Moving Ahead' would be a reminder of what remaining united as a nation and people means after the politiking is over. Even Hsien Loong called for a closing of ranks and be one people again. The announcement that upgrading will still be preferential and favoured constituencies that voted for the PAP is totally against staying together as one people. It is divisive politics and petty. It smacks of hypocrisy to ask the people to set aside political differences and work together as a people. What is important, and short sighted people failing to see, is that the split in voters for and against the ruling party is about 60:40. This means that in constituencies that voted for the PAP, 40% voted against. On the contrary, in opposition constituencies, there were 40% PAP supporters. This upgrading policy actually benefitted the 40% of opposition supporters in PAP wards and victimised the 40% PAP supporters in opposition wards. At a national level, when opposition only occupied two small single wards, the benefits of this policy to people who voted for the opposition is much greater as a population. And 60% of two opposition wards is insignificant. Would such a mindset bring more votes for the PAP in the next election or bring more anger and be seen as distasteful, thus causing more votes? Is the policy arrived at to win the hearts and minds of the people or a tit for tat boyish tactics, you don't vote for me, no sweet for you?

language: more leeways in spelling

We have problems with Singlish. Some got quite uptight with SMS messages. But language is alive and will evolve to suit the needs of the moment. Different adaptations and corruption of languages may happened, intentionallee or unintentionallee, in different circumstances or in glee. In the internet forum, a new kind of spelling has appeared inadvertentlee, initiallee for a leettle fun and subsequentlee people start to use it funnilee. Whether subtlelee or boldlee, it may take root quite easilee as users find more leeways to apply the new spelling cheekilee. The sun has risen and shining brightlee on a Sunday morning, and it is quite relaxing writing casuallee and easilee. I am posting onlee as a non native speaker and this is not meant to be taken seriouslee.

myth 9

'Making money is difficult in Singapore.' This has been the painful claim by many Signaporeans, that doing business and making a living here is tough. But statistics have proven otherwise. The number of Singaporeans becoming millionaire is getting more every year. And many people are calling this place a land of opportunities. And this is definitely true. I have heard from this guy telling his wife that every now and then he is happily shocked to see tens or hundreds of thousands deposited into his bank accounts. He has many bank accounts for good reasons. And he has lost track of where and why are so much money are going into his accounts. He has forgotten about all the directorship he is holding and all the directorship fees he is collecting. Too many that he cannot keep track with. Isn't that a happy problem? For those Singaporeans who are still whinning, they should approach the millionaires and ask them how they made the money so easily.

nkf and corporate governance

The latest twist in the NKF saga is like the tale of the 3 musketeers. One for all and all for one. Why should only 3 directors be name and be held responsible for all the problems created? Every member of the board of directors is equally responsible for the conduct and actions/decisions of the board unless he has put in his objection. Perhaps this is the most correct thing for the accused to do, to drag along all their peers to face the music. This is what corporate governance is all about in Singapore and found wanting. Being a director of a corporation is not just collecting directorship fees and drinking tea and having a party. There are responsibilities and accountabilities. Otherwise every donkey will be so happy to grab as many directorship as possible and laughing all the way to the bank. And when some failings appear, quickly resign and disappear from the scene. Not seen, not heard, and forgotten only to reappear in another board of directors. It is good that the Stock Exchange is tightening on the rules and regulations governing corporate governance to make a point that work and responsibilities come first before directorship fees. Directorship is not free lunch.

entrapment

Dabbling with drugs is a social problem and made a criminal offence as it is a habit of choice. The pinky stuff can also be a habit of choice. But some are due to a biological complication, a mutation of sort, that they become different in their sexual orientation. Then some are psychologically wired wrongly. The bottom line is that not many have such sexual orientation out of choice. It is no fault of theirs and society must accommodate their existence and a place to live. Sexual preference as against sexual perversion are two different things and understandably, sometimes the line is quite blur. Child sex is obviously unacceptable and men preying on young boys, even if it is a natural or biological disorder, will not be accepted by society. Putting the black and clearcut cases aside, the pinkies should not be entraped into a situation and turn into criminals. Let them go about quietly in their own world without any glorification. Their sexual life, just like those of normal people, are private matters. Or shall we instal micro cameras to see whether adults or married couples engaged in foreplay or oral sex without intercourse?

a little bird flu rumour

Just something I received in the mail. "Bird Flu" Do you know that 'bird flu' was discovered in Vietnam 9 years ago? Do you know that barely 100 people have died in the whole world in all that time? Do you know that it was the Americans who alerted us to the efficacy of the human antiviral TAMIFLU as a preventative. Do you know that TAMIFLU barely alleviates some symptoms of the common flu? Do you know that its efficacy against the common flu is questioned by a great part of the scientific community? Do you know that against a SUPPOSED mutant virus such as H5N1, TAMIFLU barely alleviates the illness? Do you know that to date Avian Flu affects birds only? Do you know who markets TAMIFLU? ROCHE LABORATORIES. Do you know who bought the patent for TAMIFLU from ROCHE LABORATORIES in 1996? GILEAD SCIENCES INC. Do you know who was the then president of GILEAD SCIENCES INC. and remains a major shareholder? DONALD RUMSFELD, the present Secretary of Defence of the USA. Do you know that the base of TAMIFLU is crushed aniseed? Do you know who controls 90% of the world's production of this tree? ROCHE. Do you know that sales of TAMIFLU were over $254 million in 2004 and more than $1000 million in 2005? Do you know how many more millions ROCHE can earn in the coming months if the business of fear continues? So the summary of the story is as follows: Bush's friends decide that the medicine TAMIFLU is the solution for a pandemic that has not yet occurred and that has caused a hundred deaths worldwide in 9 years. This medicine doesn't so much as cure the common flu. In normal conditions the virus does not affect humans. Rumsfeld sells the patent for TAMIFLU to ROCHE for which they pay him a fortune. Roche acquires 90% of the global production of crushed aniseed, the base for the antivirus. The governments of the entire world threaten a pandemic and then buy industrial quantities of the product from Roche. So we end up paying for medicine while Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush do the business. ARE WE CRAZY!!? OR ARE WE IDIOTS!!? AT LEAST PASS THIS ON SO THAT IT CAN BE KNOWN!!!!!!!

educating foreign nationals

Many have spoken about our generous contribution to the education of foreign nationals by granting them scholarships to study here. And many of these students have left our shores after benefitting from our generosities. Would there be some statistics on how much this project costs, how many have been trained and stayed and how many have taken us for a ride? If the numbers do not support that this programme be continued, by now the trend should be quite evident, then it should be scrapped and the money put to better use by training our own children. We do not have to be the international Santa Claus. We are too small to play that role. We have many children of citizens who are more deserving for such financial assistance. We need to be more charitable to our citizens than to foreign nationals who have no reason to want to be with us to deserve us throwing money at them. Would we see a report on this? Would our well paid investigative reporters take up this cause and do some research and analysis on the cost benefits of this programme?

myth 8

'Singaporeans are not creative.' First let me qualify this statement by saying that it is a generalisation and some section of Singaporeans can be very creative. I will prove that later. But overall we are not very creative. Just look at the shapes and colours of HDB estates will be enough to tell anyone that conformity is the key. One shape or thing that is deemed good or ok, just duplicate. Entering some HDB estates is like entering Legoland. Now this is little contradiction. Lego bricks are creative bits for children. Yeah, for children. But when adults are good at Lego bricks and build flats like Lego bricks, then can't be too creative in that. Where then is Singaporean most creative. Numbers. Singaporeans are absolutely fantastic with numbers. They used numbers so creatively to explain things. From complicated and difficult to explain issues, all these can be reduced to a few simple numbers and appear to be reasonable. Let's look at the accusation we heard everywhere that govt salaries are too high. How can it be when it is reduced to say a few plates of kway teow? Looks so cheap isn't it? And this can be further reduced to say 10c per citizen per day. Now that will make it even cheaper. Definitely affordable by everyone. Even a school children can set aside 10c a day for a good govt. Why didn't other countries think of using this formula? They can't. In third world countries, their leaders are mostly gangsters or unschooled soldiers. So not much grey matter to think of such clever ideas. Why not America? But America is run by a president that would probably be in the normal stream of our education system. Can't expect miracles from him either. If only the American president could persuade his people to pay him 10c per person daily, that's $36.50 a year multiply by 260 million population...wow, it is in billions! No need to covet the oil in the middle east. If this is not creative what else can be? So Singaporeans are not creative is a myth.

myth 7

One of the most talk about myth is perhaps this, Myth 7. 'Corruption is rampant.' Many have talked about corruption in Singapore either openly or in their whispers. They said you can feel it, or scratch it a little and all the ugliness of corruption will surface. Some political parties and individuals have also been attacking the govt on corruption. Unfortunately, all these are just accusations and wild accusations. So far none has been proven. Now there is a world of difference between accusation and proving it. Unless proven, one is innocent. Then take the case of NKF. Where is the corruption. No, there is no corruption. And that is why the authority finds it so difficult to pin a charge that can stick. The charges that finally came were more in the line of negligence, not doing due diligence, poor management judgement or oversight, or errorneous practices. It is lucky that these charges can be framed. If not, maybe they will have to look at over claiming bus fares or taking paper clips for personal uses. Then there is the infamous website against a minister. If the evidences are all there, as claimed, why didn't they take it to court? Our justice system is world best and manned by men of unquestionable honesty and integrity. Sue whoever for whatever wrong doings. Let the impartial court of justice decides. But they could not or dare not. They have to post the site from overseas and it becomes a rumour mongering machine. We are first world and must deal with issues like the first world. Facts, evidences, proofs, courts of laws, justice etc are what matters. If one cannot prove it, then it is all gossips and rumours and libellious allegations. Why are facts so unbeliever than fictions? This Myth 7 is one of the greatest Singapore myth.

myth 6

'People who voted for the opposition will be penalised.' The evidence so far is that no one has ever been penalised for voting against the PAP. And also everyone, from the govt to the opposition, is saying that the vote is secret. Well, it seems that this myth is advantageous to some and disadvantageous to others.

Telling the truth like they never did before.

Lately I can sense a shift in the way truth is being generated in the media. Our local press are now churning a different kind of truth from the west after a series of rubbish from the Robert Kagan type. Today there is a shift, a paradigm shift of a sort, from Tom Plate, who once used to churn up Kagan type of craps. He wrote a piece in the Straits Times looking at the American hang up over an emerging China. He was equally appalled and astonished that the Americans did not know why the Chinese have a need to beef up their military capabilities while the Americans kept on 'warning regularly, through periodic reports and episodic statements, about its(China) relentless ferocity.' And he pointedly say it in no simpler terms why the Chinese need to build up. "What precise theory of exceptionalism would allow the US to forge ahead militarily, spending far more of its national treasure on arms both proportionately and aggregately than other countries, but would also forbid other nations from doing the same?....Is it that it is okay for the US to possess a vast stockpile of weapons but it is not okay that others have them, precisely because the US would never use them but the others might?...Guess which superpower has consistently refused to offer the world a 'no first use' policy?( ie first to use nuclear weapons)" His final statement, a simple advice to the American leaders, is "If we want others to build down their forces, then we have to downsize ours too so that we can then righteously insist that others follow our lead." He should have asked the Americans to revisit the SALTs they had with the Soviet Union in the 60s and 70s, and the underlying principle behind the SALT talks.

defiance in cyberspace

What was not said. What was not heard. The loud applause and chest thumping. Yes, there was an open defiance of the authority during the election. Podcast and video streaming were banned. But they continued to cast and stream, with not regard to the ban. Bloggers were told to register. But none did. Though MICA's late statement that only those who were told to register only need to register, I doubt any blogger did. This is quite a challenge in cyberspace against the authority. Taken in the wrong light and under different circumstances, woe will befall those who dare to disobey, to ignore the law. Now the govt's position has soften. It is a triumph of a sort. The cyber citizens have defended their ground well. They have protected their right to freedom of expression in cyberspace. A freedom that rightly belong to every human in every corner of the world. Well done bloggers, forumers and podcasters and videostreamers.

da vinci code. a follow up discussion

Below is a follow up to the above discussion posted in redbeanforum. Unless it is such an excellent lie that the average guy could not see truth from fiction, the censors should let it pass. As both of you agree, there is so much hogwash, so much fiction that people cannot mistaken it, then the human race will be hopeless if we fear that our children cannot see it that way too, and believe it to be truth. If we do not expose thrash to our children, how would they know what is thrash? If we do not think our children are well brought up to be able to discern truth from falsehood, then the whole education system and ourselves as parents have failed miserably. Then we do not deserve the honour to bring up our children. But the book or movie itself, I will treat it as a very good piece of entertainment. And it forces people to take notice of things, to be curious and to want to know more. The other day there was a documentary on Opus Dei. And they admitted that there was a rising awareness of what Opus Dei is all about and a lot of interest to want to know more. And I think it also affects various aspects of the faith and believers were forced to read up more to clear their doubts. On this ground alone, the book and movie have done a great service to broaden the knowledge of people who are interested in the subject.

myth 4 and 5

Myth 4: We are better than our neighbours. Contributed by Darth Revan. Myth 5 Fortune cookies can win elections. The SDA tried it this time. And they got Potong Pasir but not the rest. Again, it is the half full or half empty theory. Those who believe in it will say it works. Those who don't will say it doesn't. Some may say fortune cookies not attractive enough as an inducement. Upgrade it to say a sweat band. Anyway sweat band serves a purpose as opposition candidates are made to sweat a lot. Or better still, have a party quartz watch with party logo on it as a souvenir or collectible. It is quite cheap to produce and can charge with a little profit as well. Along this line of thinking, many things can be given away without falling into the bribery trap. Next election will be souvenir galore time.