Solving the education dilemma by a farcical solution

What is the problem of education today anyway? Pressure, parents under pressure because children could not get to the best schools, not because children not doing well. Children also feel the pressure if they failed to get into the school their parents desired though they have done reasonably well. I think this is the real problem rather than the perceived problem of students not doing well. Those not doing well can be helped up to a certain extent. Those doing well need little help but would still be under severe pressure because they did not get to the schools they wanted.

Scrapping bandings, scrapping PSLE, do away with exam, lesser the work load etc are in some way superficial and could undermine the whole education system. What all parents and students want is to get into RI or one of the top schools. Get them there and all will be happy. But there is only one RI or a few top schools. And the task now is to make parents and children happy, to remove any social stigma of being in less desirable schools, the answer is to put all of them into good schools. And the solution is not so difficult. Really!

ACS has done it but many failed to see it. Establish many ACS schools, independent, international, non independent, afternoon session, etc etc. As long as the students are in ACS, problem solved. Everyone is happy.

The trick is thus very simple. All schools will henceforth be renamed to take on the top schools’ namesake. We can have RI Independent, RI Normal, RI Sports, RI Vocational, RI Wild Cards etc etc. A variation could be RI Bishan, RI East Coast, RI Jurong.... And the same formula can be duplicated for Hwa Chong, Victoria, SGS, Methodist, etc etc. There shall not be more than ten different school names and the subtle difference will be the courses the students are pursuing and their field of studies or interests.

In so doing, no need to scrap PSLE and examinations. 10 percent of the cohort will be RI, 10 percent Hwa Chong, 10 percent ACS, MGS, SGS, Victoria and so forth. No funny sounding neighbourhood school names that brings along a ‘yak’ when mentioned, or too embarrassing to even mention.

Now, would this not make everyone happy and less pressurized? Every top school will now have its top academic students, its top sporting talents, top artistic students, and the potential Bill Gates and Steve Jobs from the Wild Cards. And whatever the MOE is doing now can still continue with a little adaptation.

An ingenious education system can easily be created without the need for super talent’s input. The Ah Beng’s are our equivalent of Gates and Jobs in a way. Thinking out of the box for unusual solutions to unusual problems that no super talents can ever solve or think of is the forte of Ah Bengs. The problems facing MOE today are not genuine problems but perception and psychological problems that have no real solutions. Every new Education Minister will have to change something to give the impression that something is done. Imaginery problems must be solved in the realm of creative imaginations.

Thus, the solution cannot be real but appeasing to the unreasonable demands and expectations of fictitious problems in the minds of parents and students. And the standard and quality of the education system need not be compromised in anyway.

Arab Spring is US awakening

Arab Spring is now US awakening
Updated: 2012-09-19 11:49
By Han Dongping ( chinadaily.com.cn)


Arab Spring is now US awakening

Last week, the world witnessed the largest anti-US protests that have occurred in recent memory. US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and his bodyguards were killed when protestors attacked the American consulate in Benghazi, where not long ago, according to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, he was sent to play an important role in coordinating the rebels'efforts in overthrowing Gadhafi, who ruled Libya for over forty years.

On the surface, this round of protests was sparked off by an American made video The Innocence of the Muslim. But there must be deeper reasons than this.

The video was made by private individuals, who did not represent the US Government, and there was no reason they should to be targeted for a stupid video.

After all, according to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton the US Government has just helped the Libyan People through people like Christopher Stevens liberate themselves from Gadhafi's dictatorship.

Secretary of State Clinton said she could not understand why those who were the beneficiaries of the US Instigated Arabic Spring turned against their benefactors.

It seems to me that the US Government is losing ground in the Middle East by its arrogant foreign policy and hot headed actions in the Middle East and other parts of the world. This round of protests against US embassies and other American interests in Afghanistan are only some of the potential consequences of American foreign policy and action in the third world.

It is time for the US government to pause and reflect on its foreign policy. The US used the attack on September 11, to launch an attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan. We still do not know today in what way and to what extent the terrorists of September 11 were connected with the Taliban and Afghan people to justify an outright large scale war by the US government against the people of Afghanistan.

If the attack on Afghanistan could be justified through the connection of the Taliban with the hijackers of September 11, the war in Iraq, according to the US government's own admission, was based on false information regarding the existence of weapons of mass destruction. For years, the American Government collaborated with Saddam Hussein, and supported his war efforts against Iran. Saddam's military muscle was built with American support, and when he became a little unruly, the US decided it was time for a regime change. It first lured him into invading Kuwait, which gave the US and its allies the moral high ground to drive Saddam out of Kuwait, and use it to decimate the Iraqi military forces.

After the September 11 attack, Saddam, worried about a potential US invasion, decided to give up his nuclear and other weapon of mass destruction programs. But the US Government insisted that he had weapons of mass destruction and invaded Iraq. Hundreds and thousands of innocent and not so innocent Iraqi people paid the ultimate price with their lives in the American invasion. The violence is still raging on there as a result of the American invasion without an end in sight.

The US had many issues with Gadhafi of Libya. Gadhafi struggled very hard against Western colonialism and other Western interests.

But after the death of Saddam, Gadhafi realized that the world had changed, and that without an effective balancer, the US could defy international law and forcefully bring about a regime change in those countries it wished to do so.

He began to reconcile with the West, and the West also began to embrace him. However, the US and the West manipulated the protests in Bengahzi, as Secretary of State Hilary Clinton revealed in her speech when she mourned Christopher Steven's death.

Because the US desired to replace Gadhafi, the US supported the two former colonial empires, Britain and France, to bomb Libya in the name of protecting the civilian population. Gadhafi was killed, and Libya's infrastructure was decimated.

Hundreds and thousands of innocent and no so innocent Libyans paid the ultimate price for Western involvement in their country. More importantly, the US, the French and Britain did not bomb Libya for free. The price tag of the bombing was over 50 billion dollars, which equals the next 50 years of Libya's oil revenue.

Hosni Mubarak of Egypt collaborated with the US for over thirty years. His collaboration with the US generated tremendous popular anger with the Egyptian people. But when Mubarak faced the pressure of popular protest in the wake of the Arabic Spring, the US abandoned him. Mubarak went down the same way as many of his predecessors, like the Shah of Iran, Marcos of the Philippines, Suharto of Indonesia, and Saddam of Iraq, being used and abandoned by different US administrations.

The people of these countries must have realized what role the US Government played in the fate of their countries. The government of these countries must have learned what effect an American embassy could have in their country. In the eyes of the government and people in these countries, US foreign policy has used the claim of spreading democracy and human rights as a facade to further their own less honorable interests.

In doing so, the US has toppled governments and destroyed entire infrastructures. And in the end, it is the common people in these countries who have had to bear the consequences of the destruction and the cost of reconstruction. The people in these countries will wake up one day. The protests that have occurred in the past few days could symbolize just such an awakening.

It is time for the US to pause and reflect on its foreign policy in the Middle East and other third world countries in general. President Obama personally needs to live up to the expectation of the Nobel Peace Prize. That prize was to make peace, not to make more war in the world. The military surge in Afghanistan, support of the French and British bombing of Libya, involvement in the Syrian civil war have disappointed many Americans as well as many people in other countries.

Yes, Obama is subject to the pressure of many different political interests, and needs to worry about getting reelected. But if he is reelected this time, I hope he has the courage to be true to his word for once, and end all US wars overseas. Instead, he should fight a war back home against poverty, inequality, and unemployment and other important domestic issues.

The author is a Professor of Warren Wilson College in the US.

Of Japanese dignity and honour

This is the gist of William Choong’s article on the China Japan dispute over Diaoyu/Senkaku Island. The Japanese could not back down because of dignity and honour. What is so dignified to invade another country by creating false incidents as a justification for the attack? What is so honourable to seize another country’s islands by war of aggression when the other country was weak and poor? What is so dignified and honourable to commit rape and massacres of women and children, of forcing other nation’s women folks as prostitutes for the Japanese soldiers, and looting national treasures?

And what is so dignified and honourable to conduct a sneak attack on the American Navy in Pearl Harbour with no declaration of war and fabricated a story of miscommunication? The whole Japanese act of war, looting and murdering of the people in the invaded countries during the Second World War was nothing about honour and dignity. It was a vicious attack on its neighbours by military force.

And the aids given after the war was no compensation for the honour and dignity of the invaded countries. No amount of compensation is enough for invading another country. And don’t forget the loot stolen from the invaded countries. And in the case of China, the war reparation inflicted on a bankrupt country was even more disastrous than the war alone. It broke a country’s financial resources to look after its people. It humiliated the conquered countries, the colonized countries, destroyed the pride of the people and their dignities and honour.

What is so fucking great about Japanese dignity and honour? It is the greatest farce of the Japanese and the stupidity of those who believe in these two words. Throwing babies into the air for bayonet practice, slitting the tummies of pregnant women to drag out their babies! Head chopping and hanging the heads on display in the streets! They were the meanness, inhuman and barbaric invading forces East Asian and Southeast Asian countries have ever known. Only morons could be apologetic to the Japanese war crimes in this part of the world, and to its people. There is no honour or dignity to talk about in what the Japanese had done, unless you are a Japanese, where your self preservation at the expense of other’s suffering is your top most interest. Stop being silly.

Myth 232- Shattering the elitist myth

Elitism and the elitist class have been bundled and sold to the non elite masses as the cure all for all the ills in the country and society, and that the elite hold all the answers to the well being of the people. That followed a couple of decades of elitism pays, and the elite paid themselves handsomely like they were the gods of the day, or at least some openly compared themselves to the immortals. And be very grateful to the elite.

The first shock wave came with the admission in the fallibility of the elite, that the elite made mistakes. This was, for many years unheard of and inconceiveable to even mention it in official statements. The elite know best and admission of mistakes is simply undermining the myth and against the well being of the elite. This was a very successful facade built around the elite that they became unquestionable, godlike. But when mistakes piled up to a small mountain, there can be no denial, and no where to run and hide.

The next shocker came from the Law Society, the learned people who know the law, the defenders of justice, when certain members of the council put themselves in the limelight of public scrutiny and scorn. Now the members of this elite society are asking questions, unhappy with the ridicule they have to face up with and are calling an EGM to iron things out. This group of elite being caught in an embarrassing position in the public’s eye is more pertinent given the fact that they are a primary source of our political leadership. And questions of impropriety are going to make the public very uncomfortable with them.

The other highly regarded group, the medical profession, also came under the spotlight with the country’s top surgeon being questioned by the Medical Board for questionable pricing. The case ended with a single medical professional being found to be in the wrong was understandable as long as the profession and its coterie of highly regarded individuals are still respected and trusted by the public. Fortunately only ONE is found to have done wrong.

It would be dreadful if the Council of the medical profession, the highest body, is in question. And that was exactly what happened in Sunday’s headline. The judges of the Court of Appeal chastised the Singapore Medical Council with a number of ‘scathing comments’ that would put a big dent to the elite halo. This came after the Council took another medical professional, an aesthetician, to task for applying untested beauty treatments and excessive billings.

Some of the comments from the judges include, ‘unjust that the council chose to pick on one doctor, when many others were doing similar treatments, …hauling up a doctor for treatments done a year before guidelines were issued, and it was wrong to punish a doctor retrospectively,…the council for not knowing exactly what it wanted to punish the doctor for, and for not providing the necessary evidence, making the whole process “legally embarrassing”.’ Legally embarrassing!

Such comments led MP Lam Pin Min, Chairman of the GPC for Health to say, ‘MOH and SMC really need to relook and audit the SMC’s processes, to ensure that it lives up to its professional and ethical accountability to the medical community and the public.’ He added that ‘as professional watchdog, it “needs to be impartial, just and aboveboard in its dealings with patients and doctors”. Just read in between the lines.

Such public dressing down of professionals that are the elite of this elitist society has never been done before and will continue to chip at the infallibility of the elite. The impeccability of the elite, in govt, in law and in medicine, three of the highest paid professions, is now shaken. The elitist myth has now been brought down to earth from it rarified ethereal realm of existence. And many are being queued to face punishment at the courts for personal indiscretion.

The case of the Medical Council could prove interesting and many could and were asked to seek a second opinion or for redress for cases dealt with by the Council whose ‘professional and ethical accountability’ are now being questioned by the highest court of law in the country. Susan Lim may have a case to retrieve her honour.

First bad news from the National Conversation

Heard over the news that Sinkieland can take up to 6m people and anything above that could be tricky. This means we have room for another 700,000 heads to fill up every corner of the island. After that no more growth. Our local population is 3.5m and if the growth rate is 1.5%, we could self produce about 52,000 annually. This plus another 25,000 FTs, in less than 10 years we will be filled to the brim.

As the economic growth rate of the island is tied to the increase in population, in ten years time we would likely to go into a recession unless there is continued population growth. It looks like in ten years time we will be facing serious economic growth issues unless the citizens relented and allow the govt of the day to continue to fill up the island with more people and bear with the congestion. The good thing, other than economic growth is that their ageing HDB flats will still have a chance to appreciate in value.

Many would probably not be around by then and may not be witnesses to the new prosperity of the day when HDB flats would be $2m and Sinkies will be the undisputed richest people in the world. The caveat is for the citizens to agree to more growth and more people in the island. If not, things can go tumbling down, including property prices and lesser jobs for the people. So it will no longer be a matter of choice. Bring in more people or sink.

The people must be wise for their own good to think further and bigger, that the population should not be held at ransom at 6m. Think 10m and 20m and more for continuous economic growth. It must not stop and cannot be stopped at 6m or any million.

Between a chit chat and a global dialogue

The ST has two interesting articles yesterday which I believe should qualify as something serious and worthy of reading than about some little girl’s diary or how I shampoo my dog. The first article was about a chit chat between two very senior gentlemen about to be hit by dementia or senility. Fortunately, at the ripe old age of the nineties, their minds are still lucid and functioning as fine as they could be. The other article was about a dialogue between middle age intellectuals with big titles but ended up more like a TV commercial repeating stereotype views and ideas that lack depth and insight to the evolving geopolitical scenario that is being played up in the Asia Pacific region.

In the chit chat, the issues were more about the dominance of civilisations and their roles towards humanity and the progress of human beans. It eventually narrowed down to the western missionary zeal to teach the world how to live and what is good and right. And there is the trigger happy righteousness to intervene into other nations to save the pathetic and the uncivilised. Genocide was briefly touched on with questions about the missed opportunities or the right or wrong to intercede in the events at Chechnya, Rwanda, Kampuchea and even Tiananmen Square.

The wise men simply grouped them together as matters of genocide. Were they? What is genocide? I think there is no need to define what is genocide as the answer is simply obvious. Tiananmen was a political uprising, a people’s grievance against a govt and its policies, nothing about genocide though it was put down forcefully with military force.

Chechnya is genocide, and so is Rwanda, and so is the holocaust of WW2. But conveniently no one would like to remember the greatest genocide of human history, the termination of the Red Indians. In all definition, the killing of 100m or there about of a civilisation of people by virtue of their race, for whatever reasons, political, economic or religion, must be genocide.

And should there be an intervention by any powers, it should be the savings of the Red Indians that were brutally and systematically put down. And there are still a few that are living and waiting to be saved but conveniently forgotten by the greatest human rights provocateur among nations. Or is it that the violators were the human rights provocateurs themselves? This is history or western history’s biggest hypocrisy.

In the dialogue, it was clear that the world exists only for the Americans and the Americans or the Empire decides what and who should be placed where and at which pigeon hole. Any country that dares to challenge this status quo, called the balance of power, in favour of the Empire is evil and must be put back into his respective hole, exceptions like Israel, Japan and the allies with the Empires blessing. The Americans spoke like there is only one world view, or one view that counts, and that is the Empire’s.

China’s rise as an economic and military power is seen as a challenged to the status quo and not permissible. It can only be allowed and accommodated if the Empire said so. And so are the other smaller countries. Those that tried would be brutally put down by military intervention in the name of human rights and regime change. Their enemy Number One is not China but the Muslim World that lives by a religious order that is in direct conflict and opposed everything the Empire stands by. But this has been well taken care of, and the Muslim World is torn and tattered and would be kept at least 50 years behind the rest of the world in all spheres of development.

Having taken care of this enemy, the Americans see it their right to shift all its military assets to the Asia Pacific to prevent the rise of China, as a ‘friendly measure’ to maintain peace and for the progress of the region. And all believes that this is true and a right thing to do.

According to the top proponent of the Empire, he said that ‘China was widely perceived in the US and the region as behaving in unusually assertive fashion.’ The Empire needs only think about what it perceives of others. Does the Empire ever think of what the rest of the world perceive of its behaviour, its aggressiveness, war mongering and assertiveness in intervention and regime change? No, doesn’t matter, immaterial? Yes, the Empire does not care two hoots what it does and how it is being perceived. That was exactly how the woman from the White House felt so shock when its ambassador was killed in Libya. How could that be? How could there be so much hatred against the Empire? Never mind, only a passing thought. The Empire will get down to business as usual, formenting dissent, inciting, conniving and starting wars.

Why the need for more wars? The Empire’s emissary admitted, ‘the US had done so far, moving its assets from other parts of the world to the Asia Pacific region, had reached the end of its usefulness and that there was a need to spend on new weapons.’ He added that the Empire ‘should maintain spending at 3 to 4 per cent of GDP’ on new weapons. This is perhaps the most clearly stated reason for the Empire’s action, to profit from more arms and weapons manufacturing.

Between the two pieces of works, I find the chit chat between two senior gentlemen having coffee and a puff, without the trappings of power and title more enlightening that the Global Dialogue that it was called. The stereotyping of views is so pedestrian and more like MacDonald’s hamburger commercial.

CHEATING EXPOSED BY SULTAN of Johore.

'Defence Ministry Acquisition of Rapid Intervention Vehicles Wednesday, 12 September 2012
  
 The reprimand by the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ismail on the acquisition of Rapid Intervention Vehicles (RIVs) at exhorbitant prices highlights the malaise in the Ministry of Defence procurement exercises
 
Tony Pua
 On Saturday 8 September 2012, the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ismail asked that “nobody should take advantage of the situation for personal gains when acquiring equipment for the Special Forces,” adding that recently four Rapid Intervention Vehicles (RIV) were purchased for RM2.76mil or RM690,000 eachby the Ministry of Defence
 
Sultan Ibrahim then displayed one of the RIV vehicles and another personal vehicle that he purchased for RM150,000.
 
“Which of these will be your choice? I do not understand why government purchases involve exorbitant charges that do not make sense,” Sultan Ibrahim, who is also a Colonel in the Special Forces, was reported to have said.
 
The above acquisition follows a series of controversial procurement of defence vehicles by the Ministry of Defence that have raised major question marks over whether the tax payers are getting value for their money….'

I received the above attachment in an email that is circulating around. What I posted is only a small part of the article. The original included purchases of helicopters, naval vessels, weapons, etc, etc..

What is interesting is the accompanying comment that our Brompton Bikes were chicken feat compare to the value of these purchases. I dunno if that is something we should be proud of. What is wrong is wrong, and there is no comfort for a pot to calling a kettle black.

This revelation by the Sultan is like the returning of a kindness by the royalties to the govt. The royalties were shamed by the Mahathir govt for similar accusations and now they are reciprocating the niceties to redeem themselves.

Agreeing with William Pesek

This western journalist has an article deemed worthy to be published in the Today paper yesterday, titled ‘Why outrage over islands full of goats is crazy’. He is of course referring to the tension between China and Japan. It is a little piece of wasteland, why quarrel over it and threatening to go to war? Simply foolish. At least the British were smarter to fight over the Falklands, somewhere in the Antartic, thousands of miles away from civilization. But Falkland is a bit bigger, with human beans instead of goats.

And he could envision a few Japanese being dragged into the streets in Shanghai, beaten and killed. The bigger picture could be lynching by mobs in white robes and silly conical hats, or simply gunned down like the Wild Wild West in the streets.

China and Japan should end this silly row now, he added. I fully agree with his perception of the pettiness in this quarrel. The British had long stopped quarrelling with the Americans over the North American continent. That is a very meaty piece of pie. And so have the Red Indians. They too have given up for good reasons, even for a piece of land the size of a continent. The aborigines in Australia too have given up fighting for their continent. And the Maoris too have given up fighting for New Zealand and happily sharing the islands with the Europeans. No need to fight over goat land right.

China must think big like the Europeans. If they want to fight a war, look for something big, like the Americas, or at least the Middle eastern countries, or north Africa where there are plenty of oil. That’s what the Europeans and the Americans are doing. And what is happening to Japan, trying to fight with China over a piece of rock when they were coveting for the whole of Asia at one time?

And Willaim Pesek suggested that the two countries should bring their dispute to the USA and let Obama be the broker, to divide it between them. By the way, who was the asshole who took the Chinese islands and handed it to the Japanese? And why is this asshole not coming out to explain why they did it in the first place? Remember, they wanted to return the islands to Chiang Kai Shek but that man had his hands full fighting China and told the Americans to hold it in trust till a later date.

Did the Americans, while fighting Communism, had anything to do with the handing over of the islands to Japan with the agreement that the US be allowed to build a military base on the islands? Would the Americans explain the legality of such an act, handling over another country’s territory that America was not the legal owner, to another country was not the legal owner?

And would Pesek be living happily with his neighbor for cutting away a corner of his garden for keeps sake?

Mother Nature the Painter神画(22 Oct -21 Dec 2012)

A unique exhibition of paintings by Mother Nature, the Painter, is available for viewing for the first time. 40 pieces of work in pigment colours on archival paper will be on show at the NUSS Guild House at 9 Kent Ridge Drive, University of Singapore.  The work, a collaboration between the Painter, Mother Nature, that conceived and created every painting, and the Photopainter, Chua Chin Leng, is brought to life using a photography technique called The Art of Reflection and Refraction(RAR).

The work of Mother Nature is never found on canvas or on a medium convenient and recognizable by the mortals. In this exhibition, the artistry of Mother Nature as a painter is finally on display in a form never seen before.

The public may need to be accompanied by a member of the NUSS Graduate’s Club, or can contact me, email redbeansg@yahoo.com, for a convenient time to view the paintings.

Chua Chin Leng

A preview of some of the paintings in digital image can be seen at my Art of RAR Gallery. The link is on the right. Click on the purplish abstract painting.

The title of this piece of rar art is called The Inner Consciousness or The Third Eye. It is a face within a face. The original face opens up, right in middle from forehead to the upper lips, to reveal another face or the inner consciousness. This inner face has two eyes, one open, one close. The closed eye is the normal vision that would retire when the third eye is opened and seeing at a different dimension or plane of existence.

This piece is totally conceived and created naturally, by Mother Nature. This piece will be at the exhibition.

I support ISA, I don’t support ISA…

This new controversy now has four members in the ring, Function 8, Maruah, the Catholic Church and the MHA. Apparently the Archbishop had sent two letters to Function 8 and Maruah in support of abolishing ISA sometime in June this year before the small rally in Hong Lim. Now the Archbishop’s letters, content not disclosed yet, is mentioned in the open by Alex Au after the former retracted his letter, and presumably the support for the cause. One side is saying that the Archbishop was pressured by MHA to withdraw. The Archbishop is saying that he feared his letters could be misused for the wrong reasons or causes.

Now we have a new dispute on top of abolishing the ISA. What is happening behind closed door that is leading to this controversy? I believe the truth would slowly creep out and there will be more red faces.

The main issue is the ISA. Is there a need for the ISA? I think so then and now. There are elements that can wreck havoc and threaten securities and safety of people and country. The question is how to deal with them and play by their rules instead of being constrained by the slow pace of the legal and policing systems? I think the ISA per se is not an issue. Abolishing it will see a new transformation, a new tool be invented to take its place and the problem will just recycle itself.

The main problem of the ISA is the fear and the perception of it being misused and abused for the wrong reasons, for the wrong purpose. The ISA is seen as a draconian and outdated tool of oppression by some quarters. Why does it acquire such a bad reputation? Why should it not be seen as a necessary and respectable tool for the govt to use for country and people?

The ISA is not the only govt instrument that can acquire such an infamous reputation. The other apparachiks of the govt like the CPIB, the IRA or even the Law Society, if not carefully managed, can also acquire equally offensive and evil reputation. So, is the abolishing of the ISA a solution? I don’t think so. It is how the tool is being applied, being misused that matters. And this boils down to the operators, the intent and the authority. If the authority is seen to be applying all the instruments of power fairly, justly, for the good of country and nation, if the operators act professionally, all the govt instruments will be highly respected and regarded.

It is not the ISA alone, look at the HDB, the MOE, MOM, all can be viewed with mistrust and disgust too. Should they all be abolished? This will bring things back to square one. Why is an organization seen as a bad organization and some people wanting it to be abolished and some people seeing it as an instrument of fear or of ill repute?

Living for the moment or living for the future?

The Americans are best in living for the moment, spend now, with future earnings and be happy. Sinkies are told to save and save and save for the future. Have a lot of money in the savings and never mind if today got no food to eat, or no money to pay the medical bills. Tomorrow, the future, is more important than now, the moment.

And the govt is more or less guaranteeing that the futures of our children will be a pot of gold. Their savings will definitely be enough for retirement. I am not so confident about that even if I set aside 50% of my income, to think that the real value of money will still be there in the future and the money would not be worthless. I am no God.

But it is good advice, prudent, to keep saving for the bright future. But I rather be one that is collecting millions today and spending like a dude now and living life like in paradise. Who cares about the future when tomorrow is also not guaranteed? Who is sure that he will wake up tomorrow morning? But one thing I think I can guarantee, the price of HDB flats will continue to up and up till the lease expires.

I thought saving for the future is with spare cash available and not by forgoing one meal and to go hungry now so as to have some to live on in the future.

Abolishing this and that, ISA, PSLE, death sentence….

Are we entering a phase of history in the making when the mantra of the day is to abolish everything, or slaying everything? Maybe it is good huh, destruction is the mother of creation.

A couple of days ago there was this big news calling for abolishing the PSLE. Why don’t abolish examinations altogether. Why must there be winners that are so happy about their achievements and losers that feel so sore and painful even in sports? Give prizes to everyone and make sports a game for happiness, no winners and no losers. Give every child a degree of his choice. Won’t that be wonderful?

Today’s big hit is the withdrawal of a letter by the Archbishop Nicholas Chia of a letter to a group called Function 8. The letter was purportedly in support of the abolition of ISA. And it seemed that the Archbishop had had several visitors and invited for tea before he changed his mind and withdrew the letter.

What is really important about the ISA and the PSLE or for that matter, the death sentence? They are all instruments that are invented for some purpose, presumably good. They were useful before and could still be. Should they be abolished or replaced, and replaced by what? If they have a purpose for their existence, abolishing them would only see something else cropping up to take their place.

Actually these are neutral tools and in the hands of the good and wise, can do a lot of good and save a lot of lives. In the wrong hands, in the hands of the wicked, in the hands of people who think about their own vested interests first, these instruments, or any instrument, could be misused to do harm.

What really matters is a good heart, good intention and a little wisdom. Without them, even a simple thing like building homes for the people can become a big problem, messing people’s lives. Or an excellent savings scheme can become a pain to many, a farce to many. Without good intention, even the civil servants or the soldiers/police who are there to defend country and people could be turned against the people.

Stop beating around the bush and barking up the wrong tree. It is the people in control, applying the rules and laws that matters. Do you people believe the rules and regulations for purchasing of inventory for the civil service is so flawed? Or is it the people that are flawed?

Can a banana think?

Someone posed me this question, ‘Can a banana think?’ The answer is quite obvious. A banana does not even have a head. It does not think, nor is there a need to think. A banana does best is to act as a sponge, just absorb and reproduce, parroting. That is a very easy thing to do. And when they believe the media, especially the western media, is a source of authority on anything, especially warped political views with hidden agenda, while some do not see any need to hide their agenda, the banana just choose the convenient and easy path, just say what the media say. It is so easy, no need to think. Let others, the media or reporters, think for them.

The continuing barrage and attack against China for violation of human rights like it is in their genes never seem to slow down. And the banana is the most vocal about it, forgetting that they share the same gene with the Chinese. If anyone would to ask for proof, they would simply point to the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen Square Incident. They somehow could not remember the genocide of 100 million Red Indians, millions of African slaves and the slaughtering of natives in the name of God across the world. But those were histories and even people with a normal brain would have difficulties remembering them, can’t really blame a banana can we?

But what about the slaughtering that is going on today in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and the infamous Gauntanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib? The innocent fathers and mothers, the children and babies, the oldies, and the murdering of two dictators and their families? Hey there was a big war against WMD that was proven to be false and so many died for it, and a country invaded.

The common catchphrases of the banana are, China is a human rights violator, China is a threat, to who?, North Korea is mad, abject poverty, oh recently I even read that Chinese or North Korean leaders would often seek to assert their control of the military by conducting wars against their neighbours. The Chinese leaders launched wars with India and Vietnam just to consolidate their positions in power. And Kim Jung Un is going to do so too. It was all their faults and their private agenda. There were no external provocations or threats. When the Americans and the West conduct war, it is to save mankind, for human rights.

Would any banana open their eyes to look at the human rights violation in the Middle East, the fermenting and support for dissidents to start civil wars and the countless unnecessary death of the innocents? Or would they want to know why East and Southeast Asia are facing more tensions and threats of war? Oops, I forgot again. Not only banana has no brain to talk about, they don’t have eyes to see too. But they could read whatever was printed in the western media as gospel truths and sing the same song, would be very safe and very right. The conventional western wisdom of the day can only be right. It is written in the media, the authoritative source of news and information.

Mitt Romney - The fake politician

Mitt Romney has always come across as a fake politician. The latest gaff he made revealed it all and there is no where for him to hide. He is as good as finished in the presidential race. And this is what he said in private to his close aides.

‘There are 47 percent who are with him(the President), who are dependent upon govt, who believe that they are victims, who believe the govt has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to… you name it.’

Now what did Romney meant when he said that? This is what he said of this group of people, ‘my job is not to worry about those people.’ I think this is going to be very costly for Romney. He is trying to do some damage control which is really beyond him now. No matter what he did, the votes have gone from him.

He has now confirmed that he is a political opportunist, and a politician who said one thing in public but has a very strong disgust for the voters.

Protection against QE3

The printing of the greenbacks continues unabated. More American dollars will be flying all over the world and definitely some will land here, to gobble up some of our choice properties. Actually it is like exchanging banana currency for our real assets. It is not surprising that many of our good quality properties would be exchanged for going to be worthless paper currency called the greenbacks or the American dollar.

What is the govt going to do about this development? The Americans could just keep printing and buy up everything here. And it is not just the greenbacks as the dollar is linked to many other currencies and all will be bloated.

One thing the govt can do is also to print money Sinkie dollars to buy up more valued assets overseas, not junk stocks or bankrupt companies. And this could spare the need to fall back on the savings in the CPF. Just print like the Americans do. They buy up our island, we buy up the American continent.

Today I have done the unpleasant but necessary

Of late there were more comments filled with vulgarity for the sake of vulgarity that were simply unwarranted. Though I am very tolerant to some swear words here and there, but some bloggers appeared to be only comfortable to spice their comments with crude and naughty words. I hope they were not doing them with some private agenda, to tarnish the reputation and tone of this blog. I suspect that the intention was unfriendly.

I hope all bloggers take note that there are bloggers of all ages here and too much of the saucy stuff may be a bit uncomfortable to some. As for me, I would not want my blog to be infamous for all the wrong reasons.

Please bear with me and not to turn this blog into a smelly longkang. For those who are used to the use of naughty words and do not want their posts to be deleted by me, you are welcome to post in blogs that share the same interests and style of commentary.

Thank you.

Redbean

Opportunity for SWF to buy another fire sale company in Indonesia

“The Jakarta Post, 18 Sep 2012

Following its recent controversial verdict declaring PT Telkomsel insolvent, the Jakarta Commercial Court is asking liquidators to supervise the nation’s largest cellular operator’s assets.

The court has appointed Feri S Samad, Edino Girsang and Mohamad Solihin as liquidators to assess the company’s books and to enforce court orders to settle the company’s debts.

The court declared Telkomsel bankrupt on Friday after it failed to pay Rp 5.3 billion (US$557,000) to PT Prima Jaya Informatika, the company’s top-up voucher distributor.

Telkomsel, which is 65 percent owned by state-run telecommunication company PT Telkom and 35 percent owned by Singapore’s SingTel, has total assets worth Rp 58.72 trillion ($6.2 billion) and booked net profits of Rp 12.82 trillion in 2011.”

This is another good buy. Cheap, cheap and cheaper. Can turn around and make many times more. SWF must be queueing up to buy over this company. The dumb investors from Thailand and Holland will be looking at buying over APB and F&N and paying a high price for them. They did not know how to look out for bargains.

First world city infested with third world bed bugs

The invasion of FTs comes with the invasion of bed bugs. The notification and request for help to get rid of these pests are getting more frequent. And hopefully bed bugs are not the only pests sharing the homes of HDB flat owners. They crawl up and down the walls of flats and the flats next door. Wait a minute, heard that they are commonly found in bus seats as well. Now, what about the airline seats they flew in from?

What about hair fleas or lice? This one hops around and the closed proximity in the trains and buses are idea environment to share them around. The thought of fleas/lice already makes my whole body feeling like they are crawling all over me. We may need another few decades to make it to first world as we consolidate our gains of third world FTs living among us, including bed bugs and fleas/lice. And TB is also making an appearance in greater number.

Maybe with more integration we will get use to them and be more like them. Our population has actually grown many more millions of bed bugs, fleas and lice are included. Welcome to the new Third World city, once First World. I was joking earlier about returning to the past, to the Third World. Now it is not a joke. We got rid of many of these unhygienic pests and bragged about a clean and green First World city. It is going on a rewind down memory lane.

Buckingham Palace angry with press freedom

The Buckingham Palace is furious with the news that naked photos of Prince William and Kate will be in the printed media. They are threatening to sue the press publishing them.

Funny, what is so funny about a few naked photographs. They were quite decently taken, not pornography stuff or lewd acts. Why so much anger and protest? Having seen those photographs and the video on the Innocence of Muslims, which is worst?

The Western media are claiming press freedom to make that video and make it available as infortainment. What is so bad about a few naked photographs then?

Double standard, different moral values for different people?

My worst fear in Education becoming a reality

After removing the banding of schools, there are suggestions from the govt elite that PSLE should be scrapped as well. This is front page news in Today’s paper. With the scrapping of O level in the through train scheme, and with this, the only examination left is the A level. And with all the emphasis and pressure left on this last remnants of the old system, it may also be scrapped. We will then have the most stress free education system in the world, replacing the best education system we have at the moment but found too stressful and still not producing good students.

Sinkieland would become another kind of paradise for school children, no examination all the way to universities. It is possible if the parents continue with the pressure and some unthinking govt elite will just bend on their knees and say ok, ok. The past philosophy of making tough decision is discarded and a new culture of pleasing the parents and voters is emerging. The past mindset of the govt knows best is changing to one that the voters know best or make the voters happy. Talk to the voters, ask what they want and give it to them.

Many many years ago when I was a young undergrad, we asked the lecturer how he graded his students. He said it was simple. Though he had hundreds of papers to mark, it only took him a few seconds to do it. He drew two parallel lines on the floor, threw all the papers into the air. Those scrips that fell on the left will get B. Those on the right will get C and those in between the parallel lines will get A. The number of A grades will depend on his mood and how far apart he drew the two lines. This could be re introduced when examinations are scrapped totally and all the happy students took a ride on the through through train to universities.

We are progressing. Many parents and students will be in cloud nine. For those parents who insist on having examinations for their children and stubbornly wanting to put pressure on them, the govt can offer schools that have examinations. Freedom of choice is important. This way, the parents that do not want to have examinations will be happy. Those who want examinations will also be happy.

This is a good start for the National Conversation.