It won't happen!

Imagine a couple of happy grandparents proudly walking their first grandchild. The toddler is happily toddling ahead, a step at a time like any child learning to walk does. It is a moment for the photo album. A perfect sight of a happy family. Then out dash 5 rottweilers and they descend on the little toddler. In a flash of second they were tearing away the hands and legs of the toddler apart, right before the eyes of the stunned grandparents. It is so swift and over in a few second. During the aftermath press conference the owner of the rottweiler calmly said it is natural for the big dogs to attack small things. Period. They are prepared to pay the $5000 fine. It cannot be. It cannot happen. Too much dramatisation. Neither can 5 strong young men, strong swimmers, died in an ordinary dragonboat race in a calm river in front of thousands of spectators and helpers. It cannot be. It can't be. But it happened. It is not fiction. It is real. It can be!

It is only natural!

I read some comments in the report on the rottweilers biting the Jack Russel. The silliness of these comments is not surprising. It is someone else that will be hurt. In this case it is a small dog. The dog lover did not want to see the rottweilers put to sleep. The owner of the rottweilers said it is only natural for the big dogs to attack small dogs. It is only animal instinct. So everyone is happy. It is only natural that the dogs will attack small animals, including children. Do we want to see a toddler being torn to pieces before we act? No amount of money and compensation and words of sympathy and empathy can take away the horror and mental anguish of the parents should a child be torn to pieces and ended up as meal for the dog. Please do something before something ugly happens. Animals are animals and they have no intention to kill or maul little children. They did that naturally.

Temper rising

Bus drivers refused to stop their buses for foreign workers. Commuters squeezed their noses when foreign workers approached and gave them a disgusting look. What more? Human beans are human beans. Not many are saints. The little irritation in life can become a big issue to some. Some have higher tolerance level, some are more kind, some more forgiving and some more friendly. But some are more nasty and have very low tolerance. And this will apply to both sides of the equation. Bus drivers can drive off. But they may end up as the punching bag of angry foreign workers. People may squeeze their noses or walk away. One day they may get slap and punch by angry foreign workers as well for being rude. Then what?

Petrol prices up again

This is the second increase in two months. Petrol prices of 95 and 98 are over $2, at $2.006 and $2.080 and premium 98 is $2.246. But this increase is definitely due to external factors and no one can do anything about it. I wonder if there is any exceptional talent that can bring oil prices down. With petrol prices up, all things must go up accordingly as transportation is a major item in many businesses. We will just have to get use to higher prices of everything.

Singapore has a stronger case

In the editorial page of the Straits Times today Andy Ho wrote an article on the legal arguments in Hague. He concluded, like all Singaporeans, that Singapore had a stronger case. With selective hearing and vested interests of course. And this is bad. We owned the islands for more than 130 years and we only have a stronger case to retain it. We should be in a position to say there is no case. A stronger case can still lose and we stand to lose ownership of the islands. I am getting jittery.

The danger of racial strife

The riotings in France and in Malaysia can happen here anytime. What happened in Malaysia was beyond the control of the early leaders of the Malay Peninsula. What happened in France and Britain, were from policies arising from a guilt mindset. After ravishing the wealth of the colonised people, the Brits and French felt guilty and needed to redeem themselves by importing immigrants from their ex colonies. Do we have to voluntarily create more problems for the future? The problems that we are creating will be enormous as our locals could become a minority. In big countries, the immigrants will take a long time to grow to a significant number. Our small population makes us very vulnerable. Why are we asking for it?

More tragedies waiting to happen

The 5 rottweillers are at it again. This time attacking a puppy and injuring the owner as well. When will the rottweillers lay their fangs on a baby or small children before we call for a major board of inquiry like the dragon boat tragedy? If we are to shut up and accept that nothing will happen and let the rottweillers and big dog owners to go the way they are doing, when the next tragedy occurs, people will again all have a lot of questions and clever answers to tell. We told you so. The people who allow all these big dogs to run wild with the potential of maiming lives, the dog owners and the policy makers who think that nothing of the sort will happen, shall be hanged if it did happened. Do something now. Don't have to wait for another dragonboat inquiry to regret. Don't have to hear the wails of grief to feel sorry.

Dragon boat tragedy

Time to blame someone else. There were many letters and comments all over the msm and cyberspace about what should have been done to prevent the tragedy. Everyone is so much wiser after the event. Won't all these recommendations and suggestions been implemented long ago? Why is it now that all the recommendations seemed to be not in place or out of place? Simple. All we have is trust and shut up. We trust that all the clever people will have all the answers. We believe that we must all shut up and let them do the things they are clever at. So after the event, everyone starts to say we told you so. And the clever people do not have all the answers. This will happen to a people that have blind faith and a stupid mentality of not seeing anything beyond their nose bridge. The tragedy is a tragedy. 5 fine young men at the prime of their lives were gone. Did they know how to swim in the first place? I believe they should all be strong swimmers. Any average swimmer should be able to surface and tread water for a few minutes and keep his head above the water. Strange that 5 gone in such a bizarre accident. Ok, who shall we blame?

Concern about survey to regulate cyberspace

Yawningbread and TheOnlineCitizen are making a call to all bloggers to present a common platform to AIMS, the Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society. 'The council was appointed to study the social, ethical, legal and regulatory impact of interactive and digital media.' Alex Au and Choo Zhengxi are worried that the little consultation which AIMS had with a handful of handpicked bloggers may not be representative of the interests of all the bloggers. As AIMS's study and recommendations may form the basis of new legislations that will impact the bloggers, both are calling for a meeting of concerned bloggers to present a command position to AIMS. Making a presentation and sharing our concern as bloggers cannot be a bad thing. What I am concern is that bloggers should not participate in a body to devise ways to tie our hands, legs and neck. The internet is meant to be a free space, a new frontier for freedom of expression. There shall be as minimal an obstruction or legislation to regulate internet other than what are already in existence. There are ample legislation at the moment to take any recalcitrant bloggers to task or face the music. Bloggers should not be a party to introduce more legislations to control what we are doing. Being a participant will mean that we have agreed to abide by what we share in the crafting of new legislation. Let the internet be the free space for all, and all national agencies shall stay clear of this international virtual space. It is no man's land. It cannot be physically defined in any form. It is space like our mind, limitless and free. You can imprison a man, his physical body, but not his mind. Internet and cyberspace are of the same genre of the human mind. Do not put chains around our mind or cyberspace.

Notable quotes - Lee Boon Yang

'the mainstream's (media) future would be assured by its "ability and commitment to provide accurate and credible information with thoughtful analyses and objective commentaries".' Lee Boon Yang Boon Yang also added that msm has 'professionalism and objectivity' in its favour. This is in response to the challenges of internet. How many believe that the msm is professional and objective and how many don't?

Hindraf street protest, a very dangerous move

Though some calm has returned to the streets of KL, the Hindraf street protest is actually a very dangerous thing to do. This ethnic demonstration of force will not be looked at kindly in some quarters. Some may be thinking of staging a counter demonstration to show that they are a bigger force to reckon with. Some may even be thinking of a retaliation. Fortunately the leaders are sane enough not to add fuel to the fire. All it needs is a little spark, like the kissing of the kris, and KL will be flooded by blood. We will have a bigger May 13! It is so close and so dangerous. Cool down guys.

Singapore 9th costliest place in Asia

We are number 9, not number ONE. And that's bad. Some will be unhappy that we are not number ONE, the usual place of glory. Some will say, well, we are not that bad and still have room to grow. Let's try to beat Hongkong first. It is only 4 slot above us. We can start by raising our property prices to compete with Hongkong since ours are still so much cheaper. Then all the others can add up and we will be there. Then we will have another big achievement to crow about.

Charity and mercenaries are incompatible

When charitable organisations are growing too big and becoming big businesses themselves, there is a need for more effective corporate governance. And this cost money especially when professionals and professional agencies are needed in the wake of several embarrassing breaches. So everyone is now calling for big money to be paid for professionals to come in and manage big charitable businesses. Is this the right way to do things? Charitable organisations are meant to do charity using public donations. The people who stepped forward to serve charitable organisations mostly came forward to serve out of compassion and kindness. Accepted that wolves and vultures came along in disguise and started to steal donation money from these organisations, these are due to lack of supervision and corporate governance. If the solution is to bring in highly paid employees whose interest is to do a good job and to demand higher and higher pay, then charitable organisations may end up collecting donations only to pay these professional mercenaries. And they will want to be paid market rates, normally a percentage of the organisation's revenue. Is this what it should be? Collecting money from the public to be paid out handsomely to mercenaries? What the govt could do is to do a little public service. Second or attach a few top notched civil servants to be the guardians, the eyes and ears of the organisations. They can recommend regulations, rules and procedures, good corporate practices, and supervise the financial management of charitable organisations to keep things in order. And their salaries be paid by the govt and not from the donations. As a public service, it is not too much to ask for from the govt. Asking charitable organisations to spend a fortune on professional mercenaries is in conflict of what charity is all about, and a conflict of interest between the objectives of the organisations and those of the paid employees. Let the two be kept separate. There is no place for mercenaries in charity. We must not encourage greed in charitable organisations.

Shut up or move out

These have often been repeated in the net and even in the msm. Singaporeans who complained too much are ungrateful and do not know how good life is here, and should shut up or get lost. They are not wanted nor tolerated here. This is quite similar to the conditions in Malaysia and Myanmar. In the former, the minorities were told to shut up or face bloodbath. The other option is to move out. In Myanmar, the people and the monks were told to shut up. Do we want to become like Malaysia and Myanmar? Where did these cocky people got this notion from? Were they thought to tell people to shut up in schools and colleges simply because people don't agree with them? Or do they learn it from their parents or from our leaders? Where did they become so uptight and narrow in their mindsets that they simply would want others to just shut up or move out? Who are their role models? Is this what we called a first world people.

Should have let the British answer for Pedra Branca

As the legal owner of the islands handed down to us by the British Empire, and having governing it for more than a hundred years, it is quite silly actually, to go to court just because someone wanted to make a claim for it. In 1965, all of Singapore, including Pedra Branca, were in Malaysia. And when we separated, if the islands belong to Malaysia, they would have retained it without returning to us lock, stock and barrel. But they returned everything to us. Period. If there is any case, we should let the Malaysians take it up with the British like the Hindu Malaysians, Hindraf, are doing. Then we can just hold a watching brief. We need only fight the case if the British wish to entertain the Malaysian claim and fight an expensive legal battle with them. And if they lost, then we can come it and fight this battle if we so wish. But we should not. It is ours and there is no need to fight in court with anyone. Just put our Navy there and see if anyone dares to take it away from us.

Is the CPI relevant and meaningful?

From all counts, the people affected by the high cost of living will have little faith in a CPI that does not reflect their plight. When prices of all their basic needs are shooting to the sky and the CPI said it was up by 3.6% is really a mockery and very insulting. If the CPI is spouting nonsense, it should be thrown out or replace by a more realistic and relevant ont. Can someone post the true items of the basket of goods that were used to measure the CPI here and let the people know what this CPI is all about? We would want to know the prices they used and the computation and see if this index is for real.

The crumbling facade of integrity and infallibility

After the NKF, when prominent Singaporeans that were even hosted and feasted in all the high places by the Singapore Who's Who fell into ill repute, we thought it was only a bizarre anomaly. People tend to be very forgiving and life goes on. Then another couple of CEOs of charitable organisations fell foul of the law. One, a full time employee even absconded. Still the people believe that everything is alright. A few bad hats should not blacken the whole community of people held in high esteem. And charitable organisations continued with their fund raising as if nothing had happened. The tooth or the truth will prevail and all honest men will rise to the occasion. Is it? Is this the end or the beginning of more embarrassing tales waiting to be exposed?

Street protest in vogue

Monks in protest and road march in Myanmar against high oil prices and a military regime. Malaysians in protest for a clean judiciary and now Hindraf, fighting for compensation against the British for abandoning the indentured labour they brought from India and dumped in Malaysia. We also witnessed 35 protesters in Orchard Road by Myanmese against the military junta in Myanmar. Street protest seems to be quite fun. And Singapore has its unique brand of street protest. So does other countries. In Indonesia, you can have paid to order protesters by the busloads at will, and at a price of course. You can protest for any cause. Simply pay the price and the protesters will come, in the colour of Tshirts you choose and with whatever logos on it, including headband. Headband means extra charge. Now you know why there are so many protesters that come and go. In Singapore our protesters also come in Tshirts. Black has been used and so is red. The classic thing about the protesters is that they will come, carrying the Tshirts inside their bags. When they are in the designated place, they will then slip on the Tshirts for the few minutes of protests. When the police arrives, they will simply take the Tshirt off and everything becomes normal. Another special characteristic of a Singapore protest is that they will come in less than 4 and mingle around with the shopping or office crowd. And it will be a great achievement if they get anything more than 30 protesters. I think the Black September protest was the biggest though the number was unofficial and difficult to substantiate as it was a protest without a leader and without an identity. Singapore needs to be wary of people who carry more than one Tshirt in their bags. But nothing will come out of it as they will simply take them off when challenged.

Passion of being Singaporeans

We have passionate Singaporeans who stay and passionate Singaporeans who left. But they all share one thing in common, they love the country, feel for the country and are emotionally attached to the country. And they talk and share their views of things that are happening to the country. These are characteristics of a people who belong to a country. They are not sleepers, passengers or visitors, or guests. They are owners and they feel that they belonged here. Whether they have left, or still rooted here, they are still interested in things here, the good and the bad. This kind of attachment and involvement do not come about instantly. Many who have left to be citizens of new countries could not feel so much about their new homes and neither do they talk so much about them. It will take a life time or several generations to belong and call a country home. Not just a swearing in ceremony and the collection of a piece of paper to recognise one as a citizen. Often you will hear ex Singaporeans expressing strong views about the home they have left behind many years ago. But they would not have such strong views of their country of adoption. Or maybe their new countries were too big to feel that one is a significant part of that piece of land mass. Here, one is intricately and intimately interwoven into everything around us and the people, from the top to the bottom. We are that close as a people and that close physically to feel one another. A country without a people to talk and feel for it is not a country. Views and dissenting views are two sides of a coin of a people of a country.

Hongkong MTR efficiency and cheap

Liew Kai Khiun praised the efficiency and cheaper fare of the HK MTR compares to our MRT. Its frequency is 1-2 min against our 5-8 min, its clean and working airconditioning and other facilities. And best, when they merged the Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation with the MTR Corporation, they immediately passed the savings to the commuters by shaving off the fare from 5-10 per cent. Reducing of fares is something unbelieveable in this island. It cannot be done and sinful not to continue to reap the windfall from the commuters. And the saying goes. If you want good service, prepare to pay more. And the commuters are paying more every year while the service standard is still at a standstill. Diminishing returns or it has reached a point where nothing can be improved? Or it is just like the congestion in the express ways. Keep paying and paying and the traffic jams will not go away.