Notable quote by Obama

'We cannot continue down the same dangerous road we've been travelling for so many years, with costs that are out of control.' Barack H Obama Obama was referring to the high medical cost in American and his health care plan to cut it by US$2 trillion. And we are happily plodding along the same path, with the US as our reference point. As long as we are cheaper than the US, we are ok. Our health care is affordable.

If there was no Thio Su Mien and Josie Lau...and gang

Yes, Thio Su Mien and Josie Lau and gang were booted out of Aware. Everyone clapped. Everyone happy. The majority have spoken. What if this event did not happen? Would the Aware CSE curriculum still be taught to the school children?

Year 2025 - A wedding

Now it is year 2025, and I am still alive. All my friends are still kicking around too, not mati yet. And I got a call from my anonymous friend. Hi Redbean, my son is getting married next Sat. You are invited. OH congrats. He must have found a beautiful bride. Ahem, not like that man. My son is the bride. And the groom is a tall and handsome Greek god, bronze in colour man. Wow, that must be exciting. So, you aren't planning to be a grandpa? Not really, they said they will adopt one from Kampuchea and one from Mamiya. So I will have two grandchildren. And I am truly happy to see them together. My son is so happy when he is with him. It is all about finding true happiness man. Great. So is the event formal or informal? Redbean, you are really 'swa koo'. This is year 2025, where got formal or informal. OK, then I will come in my tux top and jeans bottom. Would that be cool enough? Just come in whatever you like lah, as long as it is pink. Ok, no problem, I will just bleach one of my red shirt overnight. That shall do the trick. Oh, just for your info, the wedding is approved by the govt. How so? What has the govt got to do with the wedding. You son or son in law must be somebody important huh? It is like that lah, they are holding it at Hong Lim Park. Anything held there is approved by the govt. Oh, that's true huh. So clever. I am really looking forward to the wedding. I have been shooting orchids and dragonflies all my life. Now I have something real exciting to shoot at. Will be there. The above could be the reality of the future generations. Don't pray pray.

What are MOE's and Aware's positions?

The MOE had investigated and had banned the Aware CSE programme for the time being and is reviewing the contents from all the service providers of these programmes. MOE has also made its stand clear, that it follows the govt's policies of promoting healthy lifestyle with the family as the basic building block of our society. What the MOE needs to do is to clarify how the CSE programme was given the go ahead to be taught to school children. Was it an oversight or was it approved initially as acceptable until parents complained? As an oversight, it can be corrected by doing more due diligence. What is worrisome is that MOE could actually support such contents. Parents need an assurance that it is not. And MOE owes the parents who don't approved of the undesirable contents an explanation on how it came about. What is the true position of MOE on this? Similarly, Aware needs to publicise its position on the teaching of such material to school children. The Aware's content promotes homosexuality, anal sex and pre marital sex as normal. Is sodomy normal? Would Aware clarify where it stands on these issues? Is it for, against or neutral?

Mas Selamat – The Superman

We have heard it over and over again, Mas Selamat is a Superman. Not only that he could slip out of a heavily guarded detention centre, right under the noses of officers and guards, in broad day light, and disappeared for more than a year, terrorist experts are heaping praises on him, that he is an expert in terrorist acts, in making bombs, a determined man, a highly intelligent operator and what ever you can make him out to be. Basically he is smarter and more intelligent than any of the security officers we have in service. He is Superman! His latest exploit was to swim across the Straits of Johore, using improvised flotation gear. From what we read in the media, it was very likely that he strung together a pile of plastic bottles, tied probably with raffia strings or lallangs, and swum across the strait that was heavily patrolled by the coastguards in search of him. Ok, swimming across the 1.2km strait is no problem as school children could also do it easily. I definitely can’t. In the case of Mas Selamat, his comrade disclosed that he was a bad swimmer. Added to that, he has a bad leg that limps. So how could he swim across with such disabilities and handicaps. The obvious answer is that he had the help of some kind of propulsion. I think all he needed was to fart all the way and for an hour or so. That would take him across the strait. The only precaution he needed was to ensure that his farting was not too loud to be heard.

More transparency and less hostility

We have all heard calls for more inclusiveness and homosexuality is normal. It is also normal to teach children that homosexuality is an alternative lifestyle, and sexuality is normal, including pre marital sex. I have ventured into Catherine Lim's blog and read her article which suggested that parents should not imposed their values on their children. But is the Aware CSE programme imposing its values on children? The general impression I got is that many sophisticated adults, with many years of experience and widely read and travelled, assumed that children, in the early teens, are smart, well informed like them, and mature enough to make life choices on value loaded issues like sexuality, premarital sex, etc. And in her blog, there was one Beka who claimed to be a youth and very knowledgeable about such things, implying that all children are as knowledgeable and well informed as him/her. I asked him/her for his/her age as a 'youth'. From her post, I believe he/she will be a youth in her late 20s or 30s or older. There is no comparison to a child in her lower teens or pre teens. At those tender age, they are very vulnerable. Anyway, I got a few presumptious responses for my post in Catherine's blog that were clearly hostile and arrogant. Of course they called me presumptious, arrogant and ignorant. And I can clearly see where they are coming from. To be fair, to be transparent and open in our discussion over such 'normal issues' it is better that we know the background of the person speaking. I mean just the person's sexual orientation. This will help to make one understand why things were said in such a manner, and the values and experience that formed the basis of the positions taken. I am straight and hetero. I am normal. I do not feel ashame or any need to hide this information. And if the homosexuals do believe that they are normal, than they too should not feel ashamed to reveal their orientation. Then we can have a healthy discussion, with a better understanding of why the other is taking such a position. And this is a discussion between mature adults, not between arrogant and demanding individuals who only want others to see their points of view as the only right view. Homosexuality and heterosexuality are not something that we can ascribe right or wrong to them. Let's talk about them with some civility without getting emotional as if one who does not agree is an enemy and going after the other's lifestyle.

The Aware Saga and homosexuality

I do not want to belabour this event to give it too much credit. But I just want to touch on one aspect that the media and the white shirts would not want the people to see. The issue that most people have come to remember this episode is a Christian group gate crashing into a secular organisation, taking control of it and tried to impose its Christian values on the organisation. Is this what it was all about? Many unthinking people will believe so. And they rallied to this message to fight the 'Christian Talibans'. I didn't coined this phrase. And the church also dissociated itself from this group of Christians. The rest is history. Is this the real story or is this the whole story? One major aspect of this struggle that was swept under the carpet is the issue of homosexuality. This was scantily mentioned or ignored completely by the media and even the church and all the religious organisations. What is the stand of the media on this? What is the stand of all the religious organisations and civil organisations on this? Silence....No one bothers to talk about it either. The religious organisations, especially the church, has no stand, no view or opinion on homosexuality and imparting such values to our children in schools. This was not an issue at stake and not an issue for discussion. Now that the 'Christian Talibans' have been removed, would this homosexual fad be a topic worthy of discussion in our media?

Mas Selamat - A staged escape?

I am pondering over this theory, that the whole thing was staged. Ah, unbelieveable, far fetched? It is just a theory and let me piece the facts together including some possible reasons that this could be the biggest, carefully managed escape of our history. When Mas escaped, there was a confluence of mistakes or events to facilitate his disappearance. The gurkha soldier and the ISD officer appeared to be like school prefects, so amateurish to the point of being clumsy and inept. I would have very strong reservation to place my trust on these people to look after our security. They are professionals and professionally trained. So on these points, I don't believe that they were what they were made to look like. Secondly, the detention centre is not a school compound without any security or security officers guarding them. The so called slips and a CCTV system that was not functioning at the precise moment left much to wonder. The search after the escape was another laughable episode. I think officially they only found out that Mas had escaped long after he was gone. And mounting the search party was also long after he was gone. The search party arrived to search the wrong area, in the residential area and left out the MacRitchie Reservoir corridor completely. No tracker dog was deployed. So much for all the misses that could put a big dent on the credibility, capability and intelligence of our security personnel. I too don't believe that our security people are so silly. So something must be missing here. And the damages, the credibility of ISD and the reputation of Kan Seng were at stake. Were these a good price to pay for to stage such an escape? What could possibly happen? A chip was planted in Mas Selamat. So he could go no where and could be brought back at our pleasure, time and place of our own choosing. The benefits, to test how efficient such a chip works, and all the movements and contacts Mas could lead our security people to. Imagine watching him and his JI members in action like watching mice in a controlled lab environment! Then there were exercises that could be mounted, mobilising the people and security personnel in a situation that was as real as it could get. The gains of staging such an escape are tremendous. Now after more than a year watching him and seeing how he operated, and before he gets too dangerous, and with his contacts exposed, it is time to bring him back. By now, the whole JI operations could be an open book to the security people of Malaysia, Indonesia and us. Worth it isn't it? There are many clues that this could be staged. The April 1 arrest of Mas Selamat screamed April Fool. Possible? Just allowing my imagination to go wild. Let's wait to hear Mas Selamat's story.

Mas Selamat Arrested!

This is the front page media news today. Finally Mas is back. Finally we can put to rest all the speculations that he was dead. Now, with him back, can we have Selamat's version of his escape? This is first class Hollywood material! We can now confirm if the toilet rolls were placed there to break his fall and what the gurkha soldier did while he was in climbing out of the toilet window. We will also know if his escape was a one man act caused by a confluence of mistakes or a congregation of accomplices. We will know which route he took and how he got out of Singapore. The public must be very hungry and eager to know the tooth. Oops, I mean the truth.

From tolerance to acceptance

As we slide down the scale between black and white, the black will first turn to dark grey, grey then to light grey before becoming white. An instant switch from black to white is too harsh and unacceptable. But if we slide it down bit by bit, over time, no one will know the difference or how the change took place when black is being accepted as white. The recent debate on whether homosexuality is neutral is akin to such a slide. In the past, there was no two ways. Homosexuals were not accepted in society. The effiminate males may be tolerated, but not the men who lusted for another men, or women for women. Today we have come to a stage when the general public have accepted these anomallies and accommodated their existence as just another human bean. Even then, explicit or overt homosexual acts are not accepted and still forbidden by laws. There is another section of the population that is very active in pushing for homosexuality to be accepted as normal, as an alternative way of life. If this quest is to be successful, we will eventually see boys dating boys, marrying boys and having sex among themselves. And the girls will do likewise. It could become a fad, a trend, something to be cool about. And the loud and trendy will set the mood and trend. What will happen to the boys dating girls or vice versa? Being impressionable and weak to peer pressure or so call fads and fashion, would these normal boys and girls succumb and feel that they are queer? Would they be ostracised by the homosexual boys and girls and bend backwards, to cease dating the opposite sexes just to be in the in group? Should such a day arrive, the normal will become abnormal, the heterosexuals will become the queer and the homosexuals the straight. We are seeing some of the silent majority speaking our in the letters to the media. If they do not, their reticent will be seen as consent just like what had happened in Suntec City last weekend, when 1414 women set the tone and direction of Aware. Is this what the majority wants? The MOE was very sure about the CSE programme but has now back tracked after some protests from the parents. If there were no protest, no complaints, the CSE programme would still be taught to the children as normal and appropriate. The majority must speak up for their own interests, fast. Failure to do so may turn their normal hetero children into queers for being hetero in the future.

Oh my god, MOE suspends Aware's CSE programme

'Our aim has always been to help students make informed and responsible decisions about their sexuality in the context of values taught by their parents.' This is a response from an Aware spokesman. Then how could MOE suspend their CSE programme? And MOE found some information in the instructor guide inappropriate but 'Aware spokesman said: "We stand by our CSE programme." She emphasised that the guide is "a confidential document used strictly during the training of the CSE instructors".' Oh my god! Does it mean that no one is supposed to know its content because it is confidential but could be taught to students? Oh my god, MOE suspends the CSE programme in less than a week after investigation when it was officially deemed that the programme was acceptable a week ago, no complaints, fine. What is happening huh? You mean all this while some of the CSE programme were too explicit, inappropriate and promoting alternative lifestyle, were used to educate our young children and only with vehement complaints and an Aware saga that this was found out? Are we looking at the relevant facts or it was just an emotional response without facts? Oh my god, oh my god!

In praise of homosexuality education

I read several letters in the forum praising Aware for teaching homosexuality in schools. I agree that this is a subject that cannot be swept under the carpet. What I hope the MOE will make certain is the credentials of the instructors and be mindful of those with wrongful intentions that may lead the children down the wrong path, or even harbouring homosexual intent on the children they are teaching. A thorough vetting must be carried out to ensure that instructors are carefully screened. Not that I have anything against homosexuals, but I think gays and lesbians should be banned from teaching sexual education. Let the straight teachers do this job. I know that some may argue that homosexuals should be the best people to teach homosexuality because of their personal experiences on the subject. I choose to defer. Anyone got any views on this?

Was David Widjaja murdered?

This is a very serious question to ask. The family of David is protesting at the Singapore Embassy in Jakarta claiming that he was murdered. This is a big shift from the position first made known in our local media that he committed suicide by jumping down the building. How could his family be so certain when our professionals covering the case, they must be equally certain, that he committed suicide? Even the statements made by all the important people concerned pointed to the suicide road. What would be the truth? A suicide or murder cannot be so vague and grey that two parties are so certain of their opposing positions. Our forensic experts must be able to pin point the cause of death in this case with a high level of certainty. I certainly hope the truth will see the light to vindicate that justice and the rule of law are what our system stands for. And for David to rest in peace and his family appeased.

Abusing professional integrity

Yeo Toon Joo, an ex senior journalist, wrote a passionate article on the role of journalists and the media during the recent national crisis when two women groups fought for leadership in Aware. Details are in www.littlespeck.com. I can understand his disgust and anger over the state of journalism here. We have perhaps the best crop of talented reporters and journalists schooled in the best universities and returned with first class honours degrees. With such able and capable talents, it is a big waste if they are not assigned to cover more meaty and worthy news than the Aware catfight. OK, I accept that this catfight may be an issue of national proportion to some. But I have my reservation on the importance of this, as Vivian has described it most appropriately, 'petty politics'. Looking across the professions, such abuses of professionalism are quite prevalent and did great harm to the professions as well as the integrity and self worth of the professionals. Many could even compromise their moral principles to deal with things that they should not be doing as an honourable individual. I don't see any pride if the whole system and machinery are harnessed to chase children wearing T shirts screaming, 'Shut up and sit down'. I don't find it funny if senior management were to take buses just to prove that the transport claim put up by his/her subordinate is $1.10 and not $1.20. I don't find it funny if nonsensical reasons were given to justify nonsensical decisions. We have not gone down this road yet. But it will be a very sad day if such things happened. I feel terribly sorry for the professionals if they were to compromise themselves and their professional integrity to do the unsavoury. I am waiting for the day when talented journalists and reporters were assigned to write about gossips of aunties and uncles, about who is sleeping with who, who wears what and eats what, or who did not brush teeth. Would that day come? If it does, it would be the reason why our journalists are unable to excel in what they do, unable to optimise their talents in creative and investigative writings on real substance and issues of great importance. But I may be wrong, as what is important or not is just a subjective personal interpretation.

Just a thought

If a deviant sect that is banned or not accepted by society to form its own organisation officially, would it be nice to sneak into another organisation and make that organisation its front organisation? By quietly getting all its members to join an organisation, in no time, that organisation will, unconsciously become the official organisation of that sect. This is a thought that just came to me after meditating for hours on the unfolding of recent events. It can happen right? This is not much different from money laundering.

I asked 'Who won?'

Obviously the red shirts lost. And it is easy to think that the white shirts won. Let me take a different look. What do you get when you mix red and white together? Pink of course: ) There are good things and bad things coming out of this episode. For one, Singaporeans are not prone to riotings and burning down buildings today. Singaporeans are sensible and responsible people that will abide by the rule of law and settle their big differences over tea. The women have proven that all the fears of granting permits to Singaporeans to hold parties are unfounded, or at least need to be re examine. I still think that all the education and prosperity did not go to waste, that we have progressed as a people, no longer third world mentality and prone to violence. Can we then examine our heads and ask whether we still need all the controls, and to release freedom of expression in drips and draps to be safe? I was there to take a look, with my camera ready, in case violence broke out. I was disappointed. And I hardly see the presence of the police except for the Cisco guards inside the conference hall. The women have vindicated that Singaporeans are civilised.

The Aware Battle - Who won?

From an obscure little association of 300 members, it's membership has swelled to over 3000 in a matter of weeks. The association must be the biggest winner in this battle. The old Exco has been returned to power and the new Exco booted out. The new Exco did not stand a chance the moment the church cuts off its support from the group. Otherwise, what is 3000 members, they could get 30,000 or more if they were together. And the voting was all about the composition of the new Exco, that it does not reflect the racial and religious realities of the country. They were seen as being too Christian and too Chinese for a secular organisation. The homosexual agenda was a non issue. Is it that it was a non issue or it was swept away by the forces to remove the new Exco for the way they invited themselves to a party? Apparently, from the lack of interest in discussing the homosexual issue, one can interpret that homosexuals are now an accepted and welcome reality in our society. Their presence was greatly felt in the EGM in great numbers. The homosexuals should take some comfort that they have been accepted by all as part and parcel of our way of life, not queers. They no longer need to feel paranoid about themselves and hide in the closet. In fact, other than a few small groups that have very strong views of homosexuality, no one bothers about whether one is straight or queer. With this issue settled, will the curriculum of the CSE need to be revised, or should the investigation by MOE continue? The EGM has in a way confirmed that what Aware has been doing is what the Aware members want, or what the supporters of the old Exco want. A new chapter of the Aware movement has begun. Or the old chapter will continue to be written the way it was written.

CSE - No complains means OK?

Minister of State for Education, Iswaran, told the public to get the facts right on sex education in school. 'Get your facts right on what is happening in Singapore schools when it comes to sex education, and do not base comments on "innuendo or information receive on the fly". The schools' sex education programme is based on "the guiding principle that the family is the basic building block of society". 'In a letter, the MOE said the schools "found that the content and messages of the sessions(CSE) were appropriate for their students and adhered to guidelines to respect the values of different religious groups'. And there has been no complaints against the programme, so far. So the MOE has done the necessary vetting and the parents are happy as they are not complaining. I presume that MOE must have consulted the various religious bodies or have religious representatives saying that the programme is acceptable. The latest is that some parents have started to complain about the CSE and MOE is starting an investigation. What is interesting is that though the content of the CSE is posted everywhere, no religious body is coming out to comment on its appropriateness. All adopting a politically correct stance. And a bishop has spoken to distance the church from the new Aware Exco. But where does the church stands on homosexuality? To stand at a distance on the ground that the new Exco is mainly a Christian group gatecrashing into a secular organisation is one thing. Taking a stand on homosexuality and sexual conduct is another. One wrong does not make the other wrong. It will be interesting to see the facts of the MOE investigation and the comments of the NCCS. They are going to be very embarrassing for sure.

Understand the important issues at stake

My fear of the mindless and unthinking hoards descending onto the Aware EGM is beginning to crystallise. I have scanned through several of the blogs and read the comments of the pro and anti factions to the Aware episode and what came through is that the moral issues were ignored or escaped the interests of the commentators. The issue is now of a Christian group taking over aware in a high handed manner, and this is found offensive. I can only hope that these comments were actually posted by the activitists who have their own private agenda to push and not simply by innocent people taking sides without understanding what the real issues were. There is nothing wrong with a group of activists taking over an organisation within the rules of engagement as long as their intent is honourable. The new exco won the election fairly, or unfairly to some, but this is due to the complacency of the incumbents. No fault of the new exco. They played within the rules and this should not be an issue of contention. The ousted exco can always fight back in the next AGM in the same way, legitimately. By crying foul and bitching around on other issues only reflect badly on themselves. There is no justification whatsoever for the new Exco to resign from their posts. The second issue is that it was a Christian takeover. For those who are less favourable of the religious connotation or have misgivings of Christian groups, this may be offensive and unacceptable. If we are prepared to set this aside, taking the Christian background of the new exco as incidental, and look at what they are standing for, there is another picture to consider. The new exco is awared of their Christian background but has failed to distinguish this from the issues at stake. They should make it categorically clear that it is the issues, secular issues and not Christianity in question, and that they are not there to push a Chrisitian agenda or Christian values but simple human values that transcend all culures, race and religion. What are the issues? Sexual promiscuity and the promotion of certain sexual behaviours and preferences as being normal and healthy. interested parties must look at the content of the Aware CSE curriculum that was taught and adovocated to school children and ask themselves if these are values and behaviours that they are comfortable with, that this is where we should be heading. Some of the things that are taught as normal behaviours are homosexuality, pre marital sex, anal sex, virginity etc. We are a liberal society and many old practices and values relating to sexual conduct and relationship have changed with time. Many things that were forbidden in the past are no longer so. The question is how far are we willing to go as we walk down this path of moral misconduct? Do we want to encourage our children to change the values and all their thinkings and accept the new way of life? Or do we want them to still observe or retain some of these things, or be more discreet about them? To be a little conservative or to be totally liberal about such things is not an issue of absolute right and wrong. And there are preferences by different interest groups and individuals on how far they want to go. What is at stake is, as a society, how far do we want to promote sexual freedom, freedom to choose sexual partners of the same sex, as something normal and acceptable? These are the issues at stake, not how one group took over another group in an association or the colour and creed of the the group. What is important is the agenda and whether the new Exco is promoting their religious righteousness or just some common and universal values. I declare that I am not a Christian or practitioner of any faith. And I am just a normal healthy person.

The power of women

This catfight has hijacked every single issue that we have been discussing. Even the Swine Flu has to play second fiddle to the women and their agenda. See how powerful they are? And everyone, like it or not, interested or not, have been lambasted with this Aware fight. The govt said they did nott want to be involved, but they are involved with the comments of several ministers. The church too is involved indirectly when a Bishop has to come out to make a stand. While the issue is simmering and the pressure building, let's recollect what were the hot issues before this thing erupted. Oh, there was a series of write ups on all the great salary earners, all earning millions as employees. I was wondering what was the agenda, to tell people that it is acceptable and admirable to earn that kind of money? Or to tell people that something is fundamentally wrong, that earning that kind of money as pay is simply atrocious? Or is it paving the ground for more people to ask for more and bigger pay packages? Or is it to say that we are still earning peanuts compare to those big earners in Wall Streets? What is the moral behind the high pay stories? What else were hot? The high HDB prices priced according to the market demand. Now that the private housing prices are tumbling, are we seeing any sign of HDB lowering their prices? No. HDB is not price takers or price followers. HDB is the real market price maker. It determines the prices of public and private housing for the masses, at least 80% of flat owners. HDB is the one that determines the price of public flats and the lower level private flats. All the crap talks about HDB pricing its flats according to the market and private sector is all bull. It is time for HDB to return to its past policies of building affordable flats for the people. Affordable should be defined using the premises of the past, not the current premises when one needs two pay packets and a life time to pay up the mortgages, and for smaller flats. The people shall not be made to pay for a small little space in the air with a big chunk of their income. This is not quality living. In fact the quality of life is declining in terms of space for the family for the money they can buy. The money can be better spent in other areas. Will we see a change in the policies for public housing? Will the people make their feelings on this issue felt in the next General Election?