The white mice syndrome

The famous white mice lab experiment is turning into reality in jam packed Sinkie land. This was an experiment on communal living and how a crammed environment could lead to the inevitable violence and mice eating mice.

A number of mice were introduced into a caged environment. They got along well when there were lesser mice and more space to move around, and more food available. As the population of mice increases, personal space for each mouse gets smaller, and food gets scarcer. At a point when living together becomes a competition for food and space, the mice became violent and even started to eat one another.

The increasing violence in the trains and buses is testimony to the findings of this experiment. The Sinkies are getting more irritated and agitated in the crammed environment and would grow increasingly intolerant and violent. Fighting for seats and space in buses and trains will become a more common daily encounter. Thanks but not thanks to this unthinking drive for growth through the addition of more people into this piece of rock.

Is there no other better solution than this ‘one and only’ solution of increasing population for growth? Is this why the people pay out of this world salary for this out of this world solution? Is this the solution that the people want or reject? Should it be time to find better talented people to run the country with alternative solutions? If there are no better people to lead, and no better solutions other than this ONE solution to solve all problems, this is the beginning of a downward spiral into the abyss.

There are definitely many more talented Sinkies available in this island.

My Holy Order

This is my Church, this is my Holy Order. I run my Church the way I run my Church. I spend my Church’s money the way I spend my Church’s money. Who dares challenge or question what I do with my Holy Order?

Apparently this appears to be the way the Holy Order was run and who dares challenge will be sued and disgraced. One did, was sued and was disgraced.

But time vindicates the righteous. Or is it that there is a bigger God who will take his time to deal with the abusers of power? When time is ripe, Holy Order or whatever, time to go. Time waits for no man.

Which Holy Order will be next to face the maker, the final arbiter of righteousness? Only God knows.

My apologies for the sermon. I am not religious and do not subscribe to any Holy Order.

A decent lawyer, a decent plea….

And a decent man. Some may disagree but that is a matter of opinion.

Howard Shaw pleaded guilty for having sex with an underage prostitute. That’s it. And this is his lawyer’s statement to the court, “Mr. Shaw is not asking for any special treatment” given his family background, said his lawyer Harpreet Singh, who asked the judge to impose a fine instead of a prison term as he had made a “honest and reasonable mistake” in believing the girl was at least 18 at the time of the offence.

Howard knew that his indiscretion had infringed the law and would accept the punishment for it like a man.

Welcome to Sin City

It was a joke, a pun, to call Singapore Sin City. It is no longer a pun and neither joke. The newspapers are splashed with news of corruptions in high places, and sex scandals. They don’t have enough space to write about them.

The clean and green and squeaky prude city is passé. The streets are dirty with litters. The trains smelt of human stench. The monks and priests and those wearing white robes are tarnished and stained.

Sin City is getting more vibrant and colourful. We have achieved as the City of happenings, fun and excitement.

No place for Sinkies

We have enough land and properties to accommodate 1.5m foreigners. And we are encouraging more to come, with open arms and red carpets. But sadly, we don’t have enough land to build a few nursing homes for the aged and the handicapped.

The reality of having nursing homes for Sinkies in JB is now a reality. Is this something to be proud of? Is economic cost, pragmatism good enough reasons to justify sending our useless and hopeless aged to some foreign land to die? What kind of values are we imparting to the young, from the govt? And we bragged about the billions and maybe trillions in our reserves. For who’s benefits? Whose money is in the reserves?

If there is any prioritizing, the first group to go should be the dead. The half dead, undead and waiting to be dead, are still alive. We treasure the dead more than the living with spacious land allocated to them when what is needed are a few blocks of HDB flats.

And everyone spoke as a matter of fact, without emotions, as if there are no better solutions. Bring in another 100,000 foreigners, we have all the land and housing for them. Now you know why the poor grandmas and grandpas would have to be abandoned to JB?

City Harvest Pastor Kong and 5 arrested for CBT

Five members of City Harvest Church (CHC), including its founder Pastor Kong Hee, have been arrested early this morning for alleged criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts of the church.

The other four arrested were John Tan Yee Peng, Lam Leng Ham, Chew Eng Ham and Sharon Tan. It was also reported that 3 other board members of the church, including Ho Yeow Sun have been suspended from duties.

The five will be charged tomorrow. This seems to be an endless list of cases involving prominent people and celebrities in the island. City Harvest is probably one of the most successful new church in the island and the news is going to be shocking.

Tee ah, this country does not belong to you, you know?

The govt leaders think this country belongs to them and they can do anything they want, bring in as many foreigners as they want, and issue as many citizenships as they want.

Did they ask the citizens if this is what the citizens want, to flood the country with foreigners and new citizens? The citizens elected them to be the govt for only 5 years, not forever you know. Don’t forget and think they own this country.

This is not your grandfather’s country.

The humanitarian and disaster centres are in place

With all the humanitarian and disaster centres in place, the Americans and its allies are ready to create a few disaster and war zones in Asia and Southeast Asia. Vietnam and the Philippines are all ready and eager to have a go at it by testing the military might of Chinese in claiming Chinese islands as theirs. This simple recipe for war and disaster is well tested everywhere, with American backings of course. With the Americans in the dark, these two countries would think they can pull the whiskers of China with impunity. China has made it clear that such nonsense will no longer be tolerated and is prepared to go to war with anyone, including the US.

In the north, the US and the South Koreans are provoking the North Koreans practically on a daily basis with war games on the North Korean borders. If there is a war between the two Koreans, the South Koreans deserved to be destroyed by the North. The beneficiaries of such a disaster would be Japan and the US. But the South Koreans can be comforted by the presence of US humanitarian and disaster centres to pick up the South Korean refugees.

Asian and Southeast Asian countries should take a closer look at the pathetic plight of the Arab countries and how they are constantly fixed by the US and European countries to be at war perpetually. The human tragedy of the Arab and Middle Eastern world should be a grim reminder to the rest of the world of what they could become if they allowed the western powers to subvert their national interests and ended fighting among themselves, and dragging their people to the stone age.

East Asia and Southeast Asia are at the brink of becoming another flash point, mired in conflicts and warfare, egged on, and under the tacit support of western powers. The regional culprits that are willing to go along will be the two semi colonies of the US in South Korea and Japan, and the newly crowned semi colonies of Vietnam and the Philippines. Would Asean and other Southeast Asian countries be sucked into such stupidity of self destruction against their will and national interests?

War is fun, full of opportunities for the rich and powerful, and full of opportunities for the ignorant masses to be maimed and to die for.

Singapore is a welfare state. Period.

I totally disagree with Tan Jee Say and his Lord Butler for thinking that Singapore is not a welfare state. And many people will believe in them. The official position of the govt is that it is against welfare state and adamantly said that Singapore will not become a welfare state. Really?

In reality, Singapore is a welfare state of the extreme kind. It benefits the elite with state welfare that puts many welfare states to shame. Think about it. Who is getting the most from state welfare by the millions?

Our welfare is not meant for the low down jobless, cleaners or poor retirees. Agree or still puzzling? Just look at who are the recipients of our state welfare and how these are being disguised to look like something else.

Funny isn't it? You need to be somebody to qualify for such expensive welfare payout.

Is there still a need for NS?

‘Mr Lee(MM) goes on to say that the economy and defence are closely interlinked and “without a strong economy, there can be no strong defence. Without a strong defence, there will be no Singapore.’ Rajiv Chaudhry

I was thinking about this same issue when I read Rajiv Chaudhry’s article. Rethinking of Singapore’s Defence Needs. He came to the conclusion that Singapore was overspending on defence and also there was no need to defend Singapore for its wealth. He also repeated the point that Singapore was indefensible and thus it was all a futile attempt and a waste of valuable resources to build up a huge defence force.

My earlier view coincides with the establishment’s view, that it is necessary to build a capable and effective defence force to protect country, people and our sovereignty. My views have since changed with the new developments in our national policies. We used to have something to defend and die for, our country, our national wealth, our sovereignty, our way of life, the future of our children. All these are passé, no longer relevant in current context.

Our military is to defend the country from foreign aggression, preventing foreigners from coming in to occupy our land. This is irrelevant today when we open our doors to invite foreigners to live with us and help themselves with everything we got, and with the citizens having to compete against foreigners in a playing field that is tilted against the citizens. Why waste trying to defend something that is already given away? Why defend something that is no longer a right or a special privilege as a citizen?

What about our national wealth, our national reserves? Another illusion that is no longer of any meaning to the people. What national wealth? It is only hearsay, like our CPF savings, a statement to feel good but benefitting who? Who is being paid in the millions from our savings? Even our own savings in the CPF, in a sense, are no longer our savings. So what is there to defend when it is no longer yours?

Our national assets, strategic assets, land and properties, even islands, could possibly be put on sale when the price is right. Who knows, Sentosa will be on the auction table and going to the highest bidder one day. What is there to defend?

Our way of life is no longer to be treasured. It is being adulterated, diluted by the worst of the new immigrants. And with so many here, the call for integration of migrants to our way of life could be the reverse, the locals integrating into the migrant’s way of life.

The rationale for NS is no longer valid with the new circumstances and economic situation. Some may still remember that one of the reasons, other than defence, was the flood of employable young men and women coming of age. The British were withdrawing and the economy was still very backwards. There was a big problem of employment and a way must be found to delay these young people from entering the job market. NS could absorb and delay the males for two and a half years, taking the pressure off for a while.

What we are facing today is exactly the opposite. By keeping the men in NS, we are causing more shortages and strains in the supply of workers to the economy. There is no need to hold them back anymore, and rightly they should be released to the job market instead of crying father and mother that there are not enough workers available and we need to import more. When the need to defend the country is no longer there, no longer necessary, when everything can be sold, when foreigners are invited to share our wealth and our land, NS has outlived its usefulness and no longer needed. What is there to defend when there is nothing to defend? The only thing left worthy of defending for the average NS men will be their HDB flats and the wealth and properties of the rich, including foreigners. The foreigners need not pay or contribute to our defence. They got a free right at the expense of our NS men.

It is so strange that we have arrived at such a scenario as a nation, a country, when we are no longer a nation, a country, but a hotel. A hotel only needs to employ security guards like the Gurkhas. At best we are just a city state for citizens of the world.

Time to ask the NS men what do you think, or what are you defending?

The Briton and his victim, who is the racist?

When news of the Briton being bashed by his victim for racist slurs, I read some comments that the Briton is not racist because he married a local girl. Is that good enough a factor to clear him of the racist tag? Maybe indeed he is not a racist. Maybe he did not even know that he is a racist. Maybe racism is just part of him and is unrecognisable.

The fact is that this young Briton carried with him hundreds of years of European history and racism. These have probably be in his blood, in his history lessons in schools. How else would a young Briton told a Chink, anyway, to all westerns, Sinkies look no different than another Chinaman, the racist joke of being laundryman and asking him to go back to his laundry shop in China?

This racist discrimination of Chinaman and condemning them into lowly trade like cooks and laundry men, was enshrined in the American Constitution in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Other than tagging the native Red Indians as savages and good for the slaughter, and the enslavement of African human beast of burden, the Exclusion Act is the third most hideous crime against humanity committed by the Americans. Thank God Sinkie Chinks are not Chinaman and can laugh at this Act or simply ignored it as nothing to do with us. I take exceptions to this kind of denial.

Back to the Sinkie Chink that was taunted by the Briton. A commentator posted that the Briton was not racist because of his Chinese wife and it was his victim that played the racist card. So insulting him with the laundry tag on his expensive designer shirt was not racist. Calling him a laundry man was also not racist. Telling him to go back to his laundry shop in China was not racist. Now where did this Briton hide this part of Chinaman/laundryman in his memory for instant recall, to be used against Chinaman?

What did the victim did that was racist? For beating up the Briton for passing all the friendly and innocent laundry man remarks? Maybe the Sinkie Chink could not appreciate Brit humour, or got no sense of humour. Since the end of colonialism, not many former subjects of the Empire would want to appreciate deprecating racist humour from their colonial masters anymore.

How could someone called a Sinkie Chink racist when he spoke and dressed and behaved like a westerner and enjoying every bit of it in a western establishment, a pub. And if you read him carefully, he even called himself Alexander Lincoln despite his parents giving him a Chinese name. Or maybe the Alexander Lincoln was given to him by his parents too. Would this fact be enough to say that Alexander Lincoln is not racist, or at least his parents too were not racist as his name speaks of their aspiration to be more like angmoh?

In my view, if the Briton, Richard Jonathan Mills, would to invite him to his table, Alexander Lincoln could be so grateful for such an act that he would probably buy the Briton a drink to drink to that. The Brit was too full of himself and to me, deserved to be beaten by the Sinkie Chink for not knowing that his racist slur was no longer acceptable even to Sinkie Chinks who would not associate themselves with the term China man. It was double insult really. Sinkie Chinks despised China man and would not want to have anything to do with them. They might even agree and approve the Chinese Exclusion Act as something necessary and the right thing to do.

The frightening tags of the past

There was a time when the British tagged the nationalists as terrorists or insurgents to put them in prison. The tag was changed to communist after the war. The communist tag was very dangerous even after we became independent. It was a tag of death or life imprisonment. Reading or holding a piece of communist literature or listening to communist broadcast was serious enough to have the tag pinned on for a life behind bars.

There were other tags like chauvinist, racist, religious bigots etc etc that were used in the past. Even anti govt or anti establishment tag can be dangerous. Was there an opposition camp tag?

Then, with the resurgence of terrorism, the terrorist tag became the new fearsome one. They are useful and important in genuine cases when terrorists are tagged correctly and kept from mischief and destruction. The concern is if someone is mis-tagged or wrongly branded for the wrong reasons.

There are signs of a new tag appearing. The xenophobia card is being waved furiously these days. Would this become the new tag to be pinned as a badge of dishonour and for more sinister things to come?

Branding is so easy a thing to do.

Are Sinkie smug or daft?

Over the recent furore of xenophobia as claimed by the media and people in high places, it has somehow added fire to feed the anger of Sinkies towards foreigners. There were many comments by bloggers in TRE showing contempt for foreigners for not being able to speak English.

Language has become the latest kid for bashing. Foreigners coming here must speak English and nothing else. Hindi, Tagalog, Thai etc are not acceptable. Sinkies refused to speak to them if they can’t speak English. What is laughable or obnoxious is that they even rejected Mandarin as a language of Sinkies. What’s happening?

The immediate question is whether Sinkies are daft or smug or both. The next question is that our education system and our national policy on bilingualism must have failed miserably. These Sinkies, true blue Sinkies, not newly minted type, did not know that Mandarin is one of the four official languages of Sinkieland. Cannot speak, refuse to speak Mandarin, feeling hurt, insulted when foreigners speak to them in Mandarin! And sadder still, many knew how to speak Mandarin but refused to communicate with the foreigner in Mandarin. The foreigners must speak English.

What is the justification? Sinkies will not bend backwards to accommodate foreigners by speaking to them in the foreigner’s language, which happens to be one of our official languages, and deliberately making things difficult to the foreigners by demanding to speak in English and nothing else.

Other than creating four official languages to level the playing field, other than having the mother tongue as a social ballast to keep the westernised Sinkies rooted to their own culture, language is simply a tool for communication. The basic aim of bilingualism is to arm Sinkies to be able to communicate with East and West, which is one of our strength. Now jokers did not want to speak anything else except English to spike foreigners. Jokers refused to acknowledge that Mandarin is one of our official languages. Maybe some jokers don’t even know of this fact.

It is not funny.

Untitled - A piece of RAR Art

More of my RAR Art pieces can be viewed at www.artofrar.blogspot.com

The innocence of scrapping estate duty

Many rich Sinkies were over the moon when estate duty was scrapped. Now they could hang on to their assets and inheritance forever, and not just one property but unlimited number of properties, assets and cash. This is extremely good for the old rich and the super rich. Even the HDB owners were in a way happy with it as they too were hoping that their flats would be worth millions in the future. And this is not far fetch given the way things are moving.

What people failed to see is the impact of abolishing estate duty on inflating property prices. Without estate duty, no one needs to be concerned about how high the prices of properties can go. The higher the better, $50m, $100m or $1b, it is okay, very good indeed, for the owners. Govt too need not be unduly concerned once this is taken out of the equation. It is no longer a source of revenue for the state.

Seriously, it is this disregard to the high property prices that is directly affecting property prices here. Everyone, from owners, speculators and developers would want the prices to go even higher. And this will trickle down to all other property prices.

And unthinkingly, the people that benefited most from this no estate duty affair are the foreigners. They could come and buy up everything, as investments or to park their money, which in turn drives up prices even higher. And the foreigners are benefiting more than Sinkies as they have much more money to invest in real estates. They need to park their money somewhere. And we don’t have enough properties for them to acquire. If we are blind to this fact, it is only a matter of time when foreigners would own all the properties they are eligible to buy up. The number of rich foreigners is unlimited and so is their wealth.

Another sordid tale of foreigners dumping their money here is that some are ill gotten gains. Unintentionally or intentionally, our property market is turning into the biggest and legal laundry machine for such black money. There were many tales of foreigners buying anything at any price without bargaining or batting an eye lid. They need to wash their dirty money and where else allowed them to do so so freely and easily.

For those who are pissed off by the unfair advantages foreigners are enjoying here, this is another point of contention. Foreigners are taking full advantage of this situation, to exploit the property markets for huge benefits. They are talking in terms of tens and hundreds of millions, not the few millions which Sinkies are talking about or the few hundred thousands of our HDB millionaires.

When property prices are in the tens of millions and hundreds of millions, it is big money for the state in estate duties. Why are the super rich and foreigners given such great privileges to multiply their wealth which in turn fuelled the property bubble at the expense of the average Sinkies?

It may be time to reconsider reintroducing estate duty to tap on this very rich gold mine of properties in tens and hundreds of millions. Considerations can be made to allow Sinkies to continue to enjoy a tax free property at $5m or $10m. Anything more is reasonable for the state to impose an estate duty on them, a tax to defray the country’s expense, and to curb the uncontrollable escalation of property prices. And why not tax on the ill gotten gains of foreigners and also on them to pay for pushing up property prices here. They must be made to pay for the pains and sufferings of those who could no longer buy what they wanted to buy because of them.

The scrapping of estate duty is not so innocent after all and have very wide implications and consequences.

Ah Kong kenna fined for protecting his family

My hero, Ong Long Hock, broke the jaw of a gangster and was fined $3000. He could have been jailed if not for his age and for self defense.

The gangsters, three of them, harassed his daughter in law, whacked his son and he as well when he tried to protect his son. They ran when the daughter in law called the police. Luckily or unluckily, Ah Kong and son caught one of them and that’s when Ah Kong gave the gangster a broken jaw.

Then the law took over. The law is the law. And Sinkie law is the most civilized and kind of all laws against gangsters. When gangsters beat you up, you must be careful not to hurt the gangsters in self defense. Ah Kong forgot, and in the heat of the moment, after being beaten by the gangsters, and seeing his son being beaten, gave it to the gangster. For beating the gangster, Ah Kong kenna fined $3000. Well done, prosecutor. You have done your job well. Justice is blind. The symbol of blind justice is on the front façade of the court.

The gangster has yet to be charged and his two accomplices are still at large. But they need not worry. The law will be kind to them. Poor Ah Kong, kenna hit still want to hit back. Didn’t know how civilized our laws are. Cannot anyhow hit people lah, even if they are gangsters who hit you!

By the way, if I were in the Ah Kong’s place, I would not break the gangster’s jaw. I would break both his hands and legs as well. And let the court sentence me to jail, for justice to prevail. The law is the law. The law is to protect the citizens from harm, including gangsters and provocateurs.

Xenophobia, bloggers jump into action

Several bloggers are concerned about the rising trend of xenophobia and are setting up blogs and forums to try to foster better understanding between the foreigners and locals. Really? How many foreigners have been beaten by the locals for no reasons? Nay, nigh, not even one. The latest report of a Briton being beaten up by a local was because the Briton passed racist taunts at the local in front of his friends. In this case, it was more a self defense, or a reaction to a provocation.

The locals are timid, faceless and self debasing creatures in the presence of superior talented foreigners. All foreigners will swear that they were treated extremely well in all service outlets, starting from SQ. Foreigners are treated as best as they could to make them feel good. And in public places, foreigners would always get all the help they wanted if they asked a local. Of course there are some exceptions when foreigners think they were some royalties and demanded to be treated that way. Then they would only piss off the locals.

What’s happening here is the frequency of foreigners bashing the locals at their whims and fancies, and some just for fun. It has been reported in the media very frequently and the locals, when bashed up, would be told to take up a civil suit against the foreigners at their own expense. And the locals are not supposed to hit back or they will be charged in courts for retaliation. Just stay calm, avoid the blows as best possible. And if landed in hospitals, then engage lawyers to sue the attackers.

As for foreigners, in the case of the Briton being beaten by Abraham Lincoln, the beater was charged in court and fined $4000, four times more than locals who made false reports to the police. This is how civilized our laws in protecting the one who provoked or started the beating.

There is a rise in Sinophobia, a unique kind of reverse xenophobia in this island, where there is contempt for the locals, where the foreigners seemed so at ease in making locals their punching bags. Why are there no local bloggers feeling any discomfort about such a pathetic state of affair and wanted to do something about it? Sinkie land is the only country where foreigners feel so at home, so comfortable, that beating the locals is a past time, really. There is no other country in the world where foreigners would feel so at ease to beat up the locals. Many would feel a fear of the locals and would behave very decently so as not to provoke or anger the locals when in contact with them. Why is this not the case in Sinkie land, but the other way around?

The act of the bloggers is a manifestation that beating up locals is an acceptable thing, but being rude or speaking up to foreigners is bad and unacceptable. And in the work place there have been many complaints that the foreigners ganged up to bully locals. And when they are in charge, they will employed more foreigners to replace the locals. And they have good reasons for it. The foreigners are definitely cheaper to hire.

For economic reasons, for business competition, I fully agree with this trend. All local companies must gradually replace all the expensive locals with foreigners. Start with the top. Once the CEO is a foreigner, the change will be easier. And from the industries, this can be replicated in the civil service and the govt as well. The savings in monetary terms will be tremendous. If we can replace the govt with foreigners, the cost could be down to 10% only. Definitely good value for money.

Oops, I digress a bit. Can I call on bloggers to think about how to plead with the foreigners to be nicer to locals and stop using them as their punching bags or telling them to go back to China or India? Please be kind and gentler to the meek locals. They all wear spectacles and weigh 50kg. A strong breeze would have blown them away. Be gentle with them, especially the taxi drivers. Some are grandfathers trying to make a living.

I am not PRC

I read this article about a Sinkie complaining that a PRC waitress would speak to him in Mandarin for his orders. This is not the first time Sinkies felt offended when spoken to in Mandarin. Am I surprised? Is speaking to another Chinky, oops, I mean Sinkie Chink, in Mandarin an offensive thing? Isn’t Mandarin one of the four official languages of this country?

But I can understand why Sinkie Chink did not like PRC Chink to think that he is also a Chink. There is a difference of course. Sinkie Chinks are westernized, modern, sophisticated, with good manners, unlike PRC Chinks.

I think I have a solution for this agonizing dilemma faced by some Sinkie Chinks. And since it is not possible to ask the Sinkie Chinks to dye his skin white, have his slit eyes rounded, or his flat Chinkie nose sharpened, the next easiest thing to do is to wear a head band to say, ‘I am a Sinkie Chink.’ Then all the PRC Chinks would have no problems telling them apart and may take the hint to speak to them in English, the mother tongue of Sinkie Chinks.

And they should wear the head band overseas too as the PRC Chinks are everywhere, and richer too, driving Ferraris and Lamboghinis in New York and London. The Europeans are finding them so common and so numerous that any Sinkie Chink could be mistaken to be a poorer version of the PRC Chinks. So bring the head bands and wear it everywhere to be noticed and to be known.

When Rome burns

When Rome was burning, Nero was fiddling on the roof. Why was that so? Why did Nero have all the time to play his fiddle when Rome was burning? He had too much time on his hand. He had appointed a cabinet of very talented ministers to run the empire for him. They were the best the empire could find. He was happy and at ease that he had all the able men in his team. And he spent his time in his favourite past time, fiddling on the roof.

Nero presumed that all his ministers were hard at work. So there was nothing to worry about. And that was why he was alone at the top, on the roof. Unfortunately he did not know that his ministers were either busy making themselves richer or on holiday with all the wealth they had accumulated. But aren’t they supposed to do their parts. These were very able and talented men. They knew that they could not do their jobs. They were not trained for them. Some were experts in deciphering the Dead Sea Scroll. How on earth would they be able to know what was happening in defence, in finance, in education? Or how much would a physician know about engineering, trade, building the country’s infrastructure. Because they were smart enough to know of their limitations, they outsourced their jobs to super talents, even imported talents. They had the money to buy the best talents.

So all the ministers needed to do was to buy talents to do their jobs. And they could sing song all day long or go on vacation. The super talents were supposed to know their stuff. Did they? Or were they snake oil sellers? Very likely, for Rome was burning under their charge. Did Nero know, or did the ministers know that Rome was burning? Nero did not. The ministers either did not know, or did want to know, or hoping that the super talents knew their stuff and the fire was temporary. But most chose not to know, making more money was their main preoccupation.

But the citizens knew that Rome was buring. So were the firefighters. Why didn’t the firefighters fight the fire? They were waiting for orders. They were waiting for someone to raise the alarm. No orders, no alarms, no action. And they all sat on their fat arses watching Rome burnt. They were paid handsomely and no need to sweat or work or think, if no one asked them do.

And Rome continued to burn while Nero played his fiddle on the roof, oblivious to what was happening. Everything must be fine as no one was there to tell him.

Would Nero wake up in time to save Rome, to put out the fire? According to history, he did not and Rome was burnt to the ground. Could he have save Rome if he knew that Rome was burning? He might, if he started to ask a few relevant questions, called up his ministers who would question his super talents about what was going on, about the fire. But these might not happen as the ministers knew nothing about what was happening and were fully dependent on the experts who turned out to be snake oil sellers, and who actually started the fire and did not know how to put it out.

Raising the alarm was useless for many reasons. For one, no one was listening, or no one wanted to listen. Everyone chose to hide their heads in the sand, didn’t want to hear, didn’t want to see, didn’t want to know. They all had options to move out of Rome with their wealth, or to rebuild a new Rome after the fire.

There was a fire, and the fire was burning. And everyone was looking the other way, with Nero on the roof top having a blissful time.

PS. Many would be guessing what is this all about? That is a good sign. Those who know will know what I am talking about. Those who don't, never mind, ignorance is bliss. Just hope that Nero knows, or at least interested enough to want to know before it is too late.

Faisal Wali wrote: Cherian George, Stop Pontificating

In his reply to the pontification by Cherian George that netizens need a code of conduct, Faisal quoted him as saying this, ‘Cherian wrote that the kampong spirit that we Singaporeans are cultivating is kay-pohish petty-mindedness, a small-town mentality that tells us that no event is too trivial to turn into a national issue.’

Hmmm, kampong spirit is small town mentality and pettiness. Now who in the right mind would want to promote such pettiness as a way of life for Sinkies? I fully agree with Cherian that if kampong spirit is all about small people and petty mindedness it is better to dump them into the dustbin man. Or would any super talent think that kampong spirit is something worthy to preserve, or think that kampong spirit is more than pettiness?

Anyway I walked up Mount Faber last night hoping that God would show himself and give me 10 tablets. Then I can command the sinners to obey me and abide by what I think they can or cannot do. I am the messenger of god. And I know what is best for the sinners. Even if god did not issue me his commandments, I will know what they are. Prostrate before me, for I am the one to tell thee on what is good for you.