MH370 – The most wicked hoax of the century

The search for MH370 is coming to an end and not a trace of the aircraft is found. The optimism and confidence of some jokers that the aircraft would be found and was in the southern Indian Ocean have proven to be the biggest hoax of the century. Many precious time and effort were wasted in this futile expedition to a God forsaken corner of the Ocean, misled by a bunch of wicked people to distract the attention of the search parties from looking elsewhere with their false confidence and maybe even fabricated technical data. Great effort was made in this elaborate hoax by several parties to make it look feasible and playing on the desperation of the victims’ families and countries.

While the families of the dependents were desperately hoping for some miracles to happen, it was very difficult to call the hoax at its initial stages even when there were so many false and questionable assumptions. The only bit of supposedly genuine technical data of satellite pulses were the straws that the search parties were falling for.  Now that everything is proving to be a fruitless exercise in vain, it only confirms the stupidity of the expedition.  It was wild hope that were led by wicked people who were either guessing or have some evil intent. It also raised doubts as to the authenticity of the satellite pulses or to the mischievous analysis and what it meant.

Where are the aircraft and the passengers? Are they dead or have they been turned to dust?  There is absolutely no evidence to confirm that they were dead and gone. Serious, there was no aircraft wreckage to prove anything, no bodies to prove anything. The only conclusion is that the aircraft and the passengers were missing. No one could confirm beyond reasonable doubt that the passengers are dead. They are assumed dead though the possibility is very high. Until some evidence is found, it is NOT conclusively proven to be so. Where is the evidence?

Would the wicked people fabricating all the stories that the aircraft had been flown to the Indian/Antarctic Ocean own up to their lies? Would they own up to say they did not know and were told to say so, or for whatever reasons to say so?

MH370 is still a mystery waiting to be solved.

Amos Yee dangerous?

This is a matter of relatively surely. How dangerous is Amos Yee cannot be viewed in a vacuum. There must be some reference point for comparison. Let’s take the case of those foreign thugs that were allowed here to enjoy our hospitality that keep on beating up the old cabbies and refusing to pay their taxi fare, are they more dangerous than Amos Yee?
What do you think?

In the case of 29 year Swedes, a 6 foot hunk beating up a frail 60 year old cabby claiming that he felt threatened and unsafe, what the fuck, and he got only 12 weeks jail. Would this be adequate? And many of these trash got even lighter punishments. How would such punishment going to help to correct their violent behavior? Should they be given more severe punishment to teach them a lesson, to reform them? Should they be considered for 18 or 30 months of reformative training so that they can be turned into good residents and stop beating up old cabbies?

Why is Amos Yee so dangerous compares to these foreign thugs? Did Amos Yee hurt anyone, beat up anyone? Actually Amos Yee was himself a victim of assault. Is he really do dangerous to public security? And why were these foreign thugs not required to be sent for reformative training?

Singapore’s superb education system firing blanks

The revelation that 12 year olds are being sent for leadership training like Tanjong Katong Primary offers a glimpse of how intensive, comprehesive and extensive our children are being educated and trained to be useful adults and leaders of tomorrow. And Tanjong Katong is not even a top elite school. You can imagine what those children would be put through in the top schools? Our education system is about producing the best students not only academically but also holistically, wholesome, all rounded in the arts and humanities, sports and yes leadership, and everything you want in a person that is as close to a superman or superwoman. They are going to the champions in life. This is how thorough and impressive our education system is designed and programmed to be.

No one can doubt the quality and how expensive our nurseries and kindergartens are, with the best teachers and facilities. Our primary and secondary schools are the best there is, and our world best universities. The products from such an expensive education system have to be the best or the bestest.

Compare to what our students are exposed to and those from the 3^rd world education system, it is like comparing heaven and hell. Could any of the 3^rd world education system offer what we are offering to our students? Not by your wildest imagination. We are the best, no such thing as second best. Look at the risk the primary schools are putting the children through, climbing mountains, travelling round the world, to learn and be educated. Some even lost their lives in the process of pursuing the best education money can buy. The students of 3^rd world countries don’t even have the chance to leave their little villages, no mobile phones, computer systems and all the modern day gadgetry.

What happens when come to adulthood and employment? The 3^rd world creeps are here dismissing our graduates as dull, daft, not creative, lazy and no skills set. On the contrary the 3^rd world village graduates are the best, talented, clever, innovative and creative and have all the skills sets needed to be top management material.

Is this not puzzling?  Would I be wrong to assume that the products of our superb education system must be the most sought after by the employers? They are all trained to be the best, some even perished at 12 in the pursuit of excellence. Isn’t that so? We can’t be spending so much money and indulging in adventurism to produce useless duds can we?

Let me give you a dose of reality. Our world class education system graduates should count themselves lucky if they are even hired and to work under these 3^rd world creeps. The more unlucky ones could even be working under 3^rd world fakes and cheats that may not even qualify for their 3^rd world average universities or have no degrees at all.

And what do you know? Our world class graduates would not know the difference and would accept when told that they are daft and useless by the fakes and cheats and the 3^rd world average university graduates. Despite all the great training and education, they could not think or question why they were no good or no better than 3^rd world fakes and cheats. Many even think the fakes are really better than them. They would not dare challenge the creeps telling them that they are NG, have no doubts that the creep could be a fake or a substandard product from substandard universities. How could first world metropolitan city folks be conned and cheated by 3^rd world fakes is simply mystifying. And till today, no one bothers to do a stock check to rid the country of all the fakes and cheats and choose to pretend there is no such problem.

Why do we put our students through such a complex and mind sapping education system to be the best only to become unthinking duds, knows nothing and don’t even have any common sense or survival skills? They don’t even believe in themselves and in the fact that they have gone through the best and most expensive education system in the world.

Actually cannot blame them. The most sickening thing is that even our so called worldly wise adults do not have faith in our local talents from our world best system. Everyday, every moment they will cry for more foreign talents. This is now second nature to them. If you don’t believe, just wait for any top management position to fall vacant and see what they would do? They would not bother to look for another Singaporean and would not hesitate to get a foreign search agency to look for a foreigner that they presumed must be a talent, better than a Singaporean. They would go for the unknown foreigners and would not question their certifications, degrees and diplomas and testimonials. They believe the foreigners are all honest and talented people that would not lie or cheat.

And we are ploughing so much money and so much hope in our world best education system to produce supermen and superwomen only to turn out misfits, no skills set graduates, or at best unthinking robots fit only to be taxi drivers.

At 12 years old they are already selected and trained to be leaders. At 18 they are no longer good enough for anything. By the time they get into the job market, they are unemployable, worst than 3^rd world fakes and cheats.

There is hope but also a confirmation that our education system has failed. They have realized that the products of our superb education system are not good enough and are looking forward to train them to be top management material in 30 years time.  How are they going to train and educate them I dunno?  The 12 year old climbing mountain programme is part of the superb system that churned out duds. If they don’t change the system that produced duds and washouts, in 30 years time would the products still be the same as today?

 

George Yeo – Reversal of economic trends

I was reading George Yeo’s observation of the bigger economic trends in the region. It took just about one generation for the economic trend to go one full circle and for the trend to be reversed. Rewind the clock to 1980, Singapore was at its peak in manufacturing and looking for a qualitative change in its economy, from labour intensive manufacturing and low wage economy to high value added and high wage economy. Remember knowledge based economy(KBE)? China was opening up and needed all the jobs it could get, low skills, low wages were all gratefully welcomed by China to create jobs for a hungry economy. Singapore was happy to transfer the low wage manufacturing industries to China and China was grateful for it. MNCs also moved and we hollowed out our manufacturing economy.

Just past 30 years, today a new trend is emerging. China has grown so much that it is thinking and planning to move up the skills level to high value added industries. China is planning to move out its low skill labour intensive manufacturing industries to Southeast Asia! What, what?  And the countries in the region will be benefitting from the relocation of low skill manufacturing back to the region. China is moving up the economic ladder to provide higher skill and higher paying jobs. It is returning the low skill and low wage industries and jobs to the region.

Singapore is going to be a beneficiary too. We are so well prepared to absorb all the low skill and low wage jobs once again. Now you know why we need 6.9m and then 10m population. We have topped up our labour force with plenty of low skill labour hungry for any jobs and any pay. Singapore can become a low skill manufacturing hub once more with plentiful of cheap labour available. China would be most happy and generous to return the favour.

Singapore could look forward to a new phase of low skill manufacturing activities. We don’t have enough cheap labour then, today we have plenty of them. If this is not enough can always import more workers from the region. 10m should be a good number to start with to cater for the manufacturing boom coming our way. 

Singapore is going to get a new lease of life as a low skill manufacturing hub and more economic growth.

Mount Kinabalu or kena balu – Any lesson learnt?

Mount Kinabalu or kena balu – Any lesson learnt?

Kinabalu or kena balu, is going to be a big lesson for many people. The survivors learnt a very painful and frightening lesson for being saved from the jaws of death. The victims did not live to retell the lessons they have learnt. Their parents would have to live a life time with a void in their lives and must have regretted letting their precious children to take up the challenge. They have to bear with the painful longing for a child that should be still with them but no longer.

I would not want to comment whether the MOE and the teachers have learnt anything. From some comments in the media, obviously many have not learnt anything and are clamouring for more children to take up this challenge to prove they could be better children when it was totally unnecessary at this tender age.

The only sensible people that have learnt something are the wise ones in the Malaysian govt in Sabah. They could see the danger and the ridiculous nature of 12 year olds climbing Kinabalu.  For what?  They did not think the climb was suitable to their more rugged children. But our city folks disagree and think our children are fit to take up the challenge and that this is a good thing. There is a saying ‘die’ also dunno how to write. City folks are cleverer?

All I can say is ‘to each his own’. Those who think this is a good outing to mould their children to be better adults, to become leaders over a weekend, please do as you please. The MOE, the principals and teachers who also agree that this is a good and exciting thing for 12 year olds, please do as you please and organize more trips.

Parents please think doubly hard on the value and the risk involved and decide yourself what is best for your children’s good. Yes, you decide. It is your child and you have to live with your decision for whatever outcome.

Intelligence cannot substitute for wisdom. Wisdom is often acquired from painful lessons experienced by self or by learning from events like this. The daft will never learn.

Kena balu tau.

PS. You don't need another earthquake to create a downpour of stones and rocks. Any severe weather could turn the mountain into a treacherous obstacle course.

Grabtaxi – another hell in the making

A taxi driver called Ah Tan posted a Grabtaxi application form in TRE and highlighted that application is open to foreigners. This is his short post,

 

‘My primary concern is why even “foreigners” are allowed to apply to be grabcar driver. This Driver Apps similar to Uber X is employing “Foreign Trash” to run parallel private car services as opposed to Taxi Co, PA, PB plate drivers…

Most of the PMET already downgrade to become taxi drivers and now these “FT” will very soon eliminate us for good…..

I lost hope of writing to “authorities” and our “MSM” and that’s why I write to you people here.

Can anyone in the community help to highlight and investigate these issues?

Thank you very much and hope to see more beautifully written articles published by anyone in this community as I am just another dropout from school.’

 Ah Tan the Taxi Driver

Ah Tan is concerned about the PMETs losing their jobs in this protected vocation once it is open to the foreigners. What is more serious is the unknown devil in the foreigners. Are we going to let these unknown unknowns drive our wives, girl friends and children and be at their mercy? The thought of them being driven around by psychopath and sex fiends is unimaginable.

This is a highly dangerous development and must be killed immediately. I hope this is not the case and the govt must not be caught sleeping and allow this to happen.

Protect our citizens and our loved ones. I know many are in love with foreign shit. And this is the type of foreign shit that we don’t need. This is definitely not foreign talent that the govt is talking about. Foreigners driving taxis is unacceptable. Period.

The people must demand that the govt put a stop to this. The govt must respond to this matter urgently to inform the people if this is happening and what the govt is going to do about it. This is a matter of national, personal and social security. We cannot afford to have foreign unknown elements participating in this vocation.

Lui Tuck Yew, the ball is in your court and an immediate respond is warranted. What is the situation?

Malaysian authorities considers barring Mt Kinabalu to climbers below 15

‘Meanwhile, the Malay Mail reported today (9 Jun) [Link] that Sabah is considering only allowing children aged above 15 years to climb Mt Kinabalu in the wake of recent tragedy involving primary school children.

State education director Datuk Jame Alip said he had spoken about the matter to state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun, who is also the state executive councillor in charge of education.

“We will bring it up in our next meeting. For me, 15 years seems like a more reasonable age,” he said, adding that he was extremely saddened by the deaths of the school children from Tanjong Katong Primary School.’

The above was part of an article posted in the TRE. I think this decision by the Malaysian authority is going to make many Singaporean parents very upset. From comments by parents reported in the main media, they are all for their children climbing Mount Kinabalu. The trip will bring a lot of good to the children, leadership training, survival skills, have a good understanding of nature and mountain and a lot of other goods that a 12 year old can learn.

I hope Malaysia would seriously consider banning those below 15 year old from climbing Mount Kinabalu. But maybe no problem really, if cannot go to Mount Kinabalu they can go to climb Mount Everest or Mount Kilimanjaro. Singaporean children are very adventurous and their parents are all for mountain climbing to help them grow up as well rounded individuals.

Malaysia must be prepared for a petition from Singaporean parents pleading  to allow 12 year old Singaporean children to climb this easy mountain. The mountain is suitable to our children to climb.

Ok don’t get me wrong. I am just expressing the sentiments and desire of those Singaporean parents who think climbing Mount Kinabalu is a piece of cake for 12 years old. I dunno about the rest, but I would not allow my 12 year olds to climb that mountain. And if anyone would ask me for a second opinion, my answer is a NO. I may be an exception, kiasu and kiasi. I really admire those brave parents and their exceptional children that would definitely turn out to be better adults after climbing the mountain.  

All of us have many mountains to climb in life but this is a mountain that I rather choose to miss, or at least would not recommend young children to climb. Would the school principals and teachers think that this is necessary and would want to bear the full responsibility if something like this happens again?

And if there is a petition to ask the Malaysian govt to drop the idea of banning children below 15, I would not be a signatory for sure. I rather be safe than be sorry.  I would actually say a word of thanks to the Malaysian govt for the ban as it is a responsible thing to do. Never mind if there are parents that still want their children to climb mountains and would not mind sending them to the Himalayas or Tanzania. That is their choice.

American treachery by Dr. Sawraj Singh

American treachery by Dr. Sawraj Singh -  http://thelinkpaper.ca/?p=46070

I saw a beautiful comparison of the railways in China and India, titled Indian Elephant Vs Chinese Dragon: Snail Rail Vs Bullet Train, done by Headlines Today (an Indian news channel) and available to watch on Youtube.com. For the comparison, two Indian reporters travel in one of the best trains in each country. One reporter travelled from Shanghai to Beijing on a bullet train, while the other travelled from Delhi to Jaipur aboard a train known as the Ajmer Shatabdi….

What these reporters have shown by comparing the railway systems actually represents the overall situation in both countries. Mao’s China gives the impression of a disciplined, harmonious, and tranquil society; while Gandhi’s India, where order and discipline have almost completely disappeared, pushing the country to chaos bordering upon complete anarchy.

While the Indian reporters presented a very balanced and fair comparison, the western media, with its ulterior motives, continues to present a very biased presentation. Nowadays, they are clamoring about the Indian economic growth rate exceeding the growth rate in China. The western media, which is bent on proving that India is going to overtake China, should watch this presentation by the Indian reporters. They may realize that their predictions are unlikely in the foreseeable future….

Why is the western media doing this? The obvious reason is that the West wants to use India as a sacrificial lamb. They want us to do their fighting and suffer the consequences. They want to shift the arena of the Third World War from Europe to South Asia. India has to see through the West’s ulterior motives and try to protect its own interests. We should not fall into the trap which the West has set for us.

Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at

The above extracts are from an article written by Dr Sawraj Singh. The rest of the world should take note of his advice to stay out of the American scheme to drag everyone into wars. They are instigating the Asean countries to join them in a military conflict with China which would definitely drag in the Russians into the fray as well. While the Americans fight wars away from their homeland, the wars fought by those dragged into it, in the case of South China Sea region, will be in their front yards and would lead to attacks in their countries. So far, touch wood, only the silly Pinoys and Japanese think that it is a good idea to go to war with China. The Malaysians are showing signs of backside itchy recently.

The Americans are stirring more shit in Europe and dragging the G7 countries to go along to confront China and Russia. In the 19^th Century they manipulated the League of Nation in the 8 country invasion of China. Now they are trying a similar trick to lead another 8 nations to attack China, the G7 plus one or two stupid Asean countries. But the China they are facin today is not the same militarily weak China of the past. And China would have allies to join force to repel the invaders.

The Evil Empire is trying its evil best to provoke a world war for their own interests and lure the rest of the world to die for them. Would the rest of the world wise up, excluding the G7 that are in cahoot with the Americans to dominate the world?

Kenneth Jeyaratnam – Substance politician

Kenneth wrote an interesting article posted in the TRE titled, ‘KJ: Whose ‘egregious conduct’ should be punished?’ This is the kind of quality discussion that is sorely needed in today’s local politics, and is what Hsien Loong was talking about. We need more serious and robust discussion on what is happening to our country and where we are heading instead of petty politicking. Kenneth is maturing and showing great substance in the issues he is talking up as a politician of substance. Yes, politicians must be measured by substance, by the serious issues they raised and prepared to engage. Judge the politicians by what they are doing and what they are saying, got substance or no substance, it will all show up quite clearly.
 
It would be good that politicians of substance be elected into Parliament and Kenneth is one of the good candidates that deserved to have a seat and a voice in Parliament. His Reform Party is still a small party and it may be difficult for him to put up a strong team to contest a GRC. His other choice is to take on a single seat ward. There are also suggestions that he may want to team up with the stronger opposition parties to put up a strong combined team to take in a GRC.
 
Kenneth may want to seriously consider speaking to Chee Soon Juan or his father’s former party, the WP to collaborate with them. Think of the greater good for Singapore and the people. Hope Kenneth can put up a good team or go for other options to get into Parliament.
 
There is a sore need for more politicians of substance to be in Parliament to serve the people and country. The people need to be represented by good politicians with hearts in the right place and the next GE is about the best time to do so. The people must choose wisely, for their own sake and for their children’s sake.
 
Yes, we need substance politicians and many of them. We don’t need duds to fill the numbers in Parliament.

Redbean Soup Update

Hi all,

The printer has confirmed the book should be ready on first week of July.
Thank you for your patience.

Redbean

Amos Yee – punishment versus correction

 

 

Offenders and criminals are rightly and expectedly punished by the rule of law when the law is broken. States need law to maintain order, security and rule of conduct for the proper functioning of a society. The rule of law provides a platform for people to coexist under a given set of rules that would make life bearable, orderly and to a great extent predictable.

 

The punishments meted out by the courts are measured and proportional to the crime committed. But before handling out a punishment, there is always the thought of corrective actions, to help the offenders not to commit the same offence again. But in some serious cases, the punishment is severe with no thought of reforming the offender. Death penalties are passed down in crimes where lives were taken or drug offences that are serious enough that corrective or reformative actions are found unnecessary.

 

So there are at least these two considerations when punishment are passed down, to correct and reform if possible, but if the crime is too serious, the court would do away with the corrective actions, and sentence the criminal to death.

 

In the Amos Yee’s case, it is not serious enough to want to just punish for the sake of punishment like serious crime. The thought is about reformation, about turning the boy offender around. And corrective actions can come in many shades and colours, from a pep talk, a warning, to reformative training and jail. What is then appropriate in the Amos Yee case would depend on how serious was the offence. In this particular case, I think many people have great differences in opinion. Some would rubbish this as the rant of a wayward youth and could simply be ignored. Some treated this very seriously and wanted the maximum punishment to be meted out. And the in betweens could vary between the two.

 

What is thus appropriate to be handed down to Amos Yee, a jail sentence or a long detention in a reformative centre? The prosecution is adamant on a long reformative training under detention and justifying it as reformative and corrective training. They are going to reform the boy.  The intent is so noble. Would it work? Would the boy be reformed after the stint in the reformative centre? Or would it lead to rebellion and harden the boy’s attitude towards authority?

 

Obviously a jail sentence would be just a punishment and would not do much good in correcting the boy. But would reformative training be more effective or be worse than a jail sentence? What’s next if the reformative training is ineffective and counter productive, recommend for an extension to keep the boy in detention again until he is reformed?

 

The effectiveness of reformative training for such a case is questionable.  No one can be assured that a reformative training would work and not to hurt or destroy the person under training. The result may be negative and just the opposite. This case would need the wisdom of mature adults to think through it carefully with the good of boy in mind. The corrective action or punishment must befit the severity of the offence.  What would a sincere and kind wise man or woman recommend for the good of the boy?

What would the people in the Kindness Movement recommend?

Loh Boon Chye – A Singaporean CEO in SGX at last!

 

 

It is good news to know that a Singaporean has been appointed as CEO of SGX to replace Magnus Bocker. Hope with his appointment, the flirtation with foreign talents is over and those infected with the foreigner is good disease will not look for another foreigner in the days ahead. The damage done to the Exchange over the last few years is so severe that Loh Boon Chye would have a hard time trying to breath life back into it. And hope they will give him time to understand the inherent problems in the system and to tear out a few chunks of cancerous growth that has cost the Exchange to go into a comma for so long. It would be painful and the Exchange would get worse before returning to its former glorious days.

 

Anyone thinking that the recovering of a dying exchange can be healed in a year or two would be hallucinating and deluding himself. And any small scratches on the surface would not do any good. Hope Loh Boon Chye could get a good grasp of the cancerous growth in the Exchange system and recommend what is necessary to save the Exchange before it is eclipsed and be irrecoverable. Perfunctory or cosmetic changes would not do.

 

It would take a lot of guts and persuasion for the new CEO to revamp the Exchange and return it to becoming what it was meant to be, a stock exchange and not a casino. Perhaps Loh Boon Chye may want to talk to other stakeholders to get a better grasp of the severity of the cancer instead of talking to the converts that are part of the problem. Talk to the people who know and not those who are asking for the return of a lunch break for the sake of a lunch break or those who think cutting commission, reducing bid size or smaller board lots would save the day. They could not tell the difference between a cold and SARS or MERS.

 

The Exchange is in dire straits and needs immediate attention to identify the real cause of its precarious state of being. There is no time for more wayangs and pretensions if the Exchange is to be saved. All the computers plugged into the system must be unplugged immediately as their modus operandi is detrimental to the fundamentals of a stock exchange. They seek short term profits that are contrary to the long term good of stocks and the Exchange. The Stock Exchange must return to its original role of supporting the growth of companies on a long term basis when fund managers can return to talk about fundamentals and long term investment to grow with the companies.

Education – A time and place for everything

National Remembrance Day, half mast, PM and ministers’ condolence messages, support from friends and relatives, kind words, all these meant nothing to the parents that were flown all the way to Kota Kinabalu to identify the bodies of their children and to bring them home, lifeless. This is a tragedy that cannot be described in words. The loss is devastating to the parents and loved ones.
 
Would anyone, any school, wish to continue with such a programme for their 12 year olds or 16 year olds? What is the role and function of a school, a primary school, a secondary school? Is leadership training part of the curriculum, a responsibility of the schools?
 
There is a time for everything, a time to be a child, go to school, be a playful teenager, NS, tertiary education, get a job, settle down and start a family. Schools should not over extend themselves to do things that are beyond their scope of responsibility. Sending children overseas for whatever educational activities should not be the function of primary and secondary schools. Leadership training at 12 is a farce! Go and do well in the PSLE first. Leadership training in an overseas trip is a bigger farce! 2 years in NS may not make any difference in making leaders of NS men. Challenging the 12 year olds to their limits is high falutin. No need to say more.
 
The MOE must re examine the role of education at different levels and keep the eager beavers under control. It is good to want to conquer the world, to be the best of everything. But do it at a proper time. Do not try to over achieve and go astray with fallacious activities not suitable or appropriate for the different age groups. There is no need to prove beyond what the schools are set out to do. Going the extra mile is always good if done within limits and without endangering the safety of the children.
 
Educators are expected to be professionals and to know the limits of what they can do and should do and what is unnecessary and superfluous. Do not expose the educators to do things that they would regret for the rest of their lives. No amount of kind words can bring back the children that were lost. The parents would live a life of painful memories and regrets of their loved ones prematurely taken from them. Can you imagine the grief?
 
I am lost for words to console the victims’ families. The loss of lives is so unnecessary. We don’t have earthquake but have so many earthquake victims to mourn and a day of remembrance for it. So unnecessary.

Aquino had an audience with Emperor Akihito

In his latest visit to Japan, Aquino was given the honour to dine with the Japanese Emperor. This fine gesture is akin to Emperor Pu Yi being honoured by the late Emperor Hirohito of the Second World War. I could not remember if Pu Yi did enjoy this rare honour of the company of the Japanese Emperor then. If he did, he would be just as flattered as Aquino is today. Is Aquino hoping to be appointed to head another Manchuko in the Philippines should Japan decide to go on another military rampage to bring the whole of East and Southeast Asia under its neo Asia Co Prosperity Sphere?
 
In the days of Puyi and his Manchuko, Manchuria was the industrial base for raw material for the Japanese Imperial Army. Would the Philippines be able to provide the raw material needed by the industrial Japan and its war industry? If it could, Aquino would definitely be highly decorated and placed on high pedestal by the Japanese for his great contribution to the Japanese Empire. He has already been targeted as a good replacement for Pu Yi and is awarded the highest medal of Japan for his potential to be part of the Japanese Empire.
 
If the Philippines could not provide the industrial base, it could play the role of Korea by providing foot soldiers and comfort women for the Japanese Imperial Army. In these two areas the Pinoys would excel perfectively. Pinoy soldiers like war and are trigger happy. They are macho and enjoy being heroes. As for providing comfort women to the Japanese Imperial soldiers, this would be a piece of cake for the Pinoys, a job cut out for them.
 
The military alliance between Japan and the Philippines is a perfect match to rule East and Southeast Asia. They compliment each other with their comparative advantages. The Japanese are so happy with this catch in Aquino and Aquino is so happy to serve the Japanese Empire willingly. He must have seen many advantages in this make in heaven marriage of convenience.

Hsien Loong, numbers don’t count, substance counts

‘In an interview with a group of ASEAN journalists on Thursday (4 Jun), PM Lee told the visiting foreign journalists that democratic progress comes from quality discussion in Parliament, not the number of opposition members. (He did not mention the number of ruling party members implies that without the presence of opposition members they could have good quality discussion among themselves. Is my assumption tiok or not? )
 
He described the duty of the opposition as one to “raise serious issues which concern the country, which offers real alternatives to the population and which then debates the hard choices which the country has to make”.
 
“If they do that, whether they have one member, whether they have ten members, they are good opposition,” he said. “If they don’t do that, you may have 20, 30 members, you are not being responsible. So, I would not go on the numbers. I would go on the substance of the debate.”’ TRE Editorial on 6 Jun 15
 
I have this bad habit of going with the flow and not to dispute what is politically right to say. So I must agree with Hsien Loong that substance is important in Parliament and not numbers. What is the point of having 87 duds in Parliament when one dud will do the same damage as 87? Similarly, one good opposition leader like Chee Soon Juan or Kenneth Jeyaratnam would be good enough, no need any more opposition members in Parliament. And on the ruling party side, one good member would be equally effective than having a full house of NGs. And this has been proven, after the departure of the pioneering leaders, there was really only one good member in Parliament and Parliament still functione as a Parliament.
 
Wait wait, I stand corrected. As I said earlier, I always agree with the politically right statement. Did someone say that if you have a good orchestra, even a dud conductor would not make any difference? Now does this analogy say numbers are important? Or is it numbers with substance are important? Ok, ok, I have figured this out. There is no contradiction here. Basically it is about substance. When got substance, one is good substance and many are many good substances, so can have a full house of good substance or good opposition members. You cannot be contented with one or two when you can have more with good substance to be in Parliament.
 
And don’t forget, Parliament is not a house for schoolboys to debate and see who is cleverer and who wins a debate for fun. It still needs the numbers to vote and pass bills into laws, if not, just to cheer or jeer or to laugh down the opponents. Ok, I never disagree. Good substance is good. But I think can have more the betterer, at least when come to jeering and laughing session, the voices and laughter would be equally loud which can be translated to be effective or at least give the impression to be so. Anyone saying never mind about voting, voting is not important, not necessary? The ruling govt can do the voting and passing of bills. That is the job of the ruling govt. The job of the opposition is merely to debate to make the Parliament looks like a democracy, got quality debate.
 
How many of you would agree with me? Never mind, did anyone say power logic?

A depressing day in Tanjong Katong Primary School

A 12 year old girl, Peony Wee, lost her life on a mountain trekking trip to Mount Kinabalu when an earthquake hit the mountain. 2 teachers and 7 more students are still missing. The students were there for leadership training as part of their wholesome education and investment for the future. Our education process is top notched, our students did not just go to school to learn the 3Rs but a lot of other ECA and character development programmes to make them leaders of tomorrow. Only a rich country like ours could afford such a comprehensive and enriching programme unlike the developing countries. Hopefully the product of our expensive education system will produce useful graduates for the economy in the future. If only this comprehensive system was introduced earlier, our PMETs would not be in dire straits today.

While we pray for the safe return of the missing students and teachers, maybe we should take the opportunity to reflect, with hindsight, how much we want to do with our children to make them better adults in the future. Mountain climbing for 12 year olds to me is a bit far fetched though many would thing it is normal and good. The overall picture is that all outings, even within Singapore, would incur some form of risk and could turn into tragedy if fate is unkind.

The Korean ferry tragedy is still vivid to many and still being mourned by the parents of those children that were gone. I thought that would have been food for thought to rein back some of the activities of the schools. Apparently our overseas trips and programmes for students are in full swing and students are encouraged to travel around the world, to many distant countries for all round character development. This is very good if everything turns out fine.

The question is that should schools be involved in such overseas trips that often benefits a few that could afford the cost and many that could not and could only envied? Should such trips be left to the parents and families to their own fancy and not involved the schools? It is good to have such programmes, a great outing, a great holiday to remember of. But as to the real value, it is subjective especially for very young children.

Maybe the MOE may want to rethink and look at the bad side if things did not turn out right like this case. Tragedy that can be avoided shall be avoided. The process of growing up and learning is a life time experience and there is no urgency to do it at the primary or even secondary school level. The biggest training programme and character development will come when the boys get enlisted into NS. That is solid training to turn boys to men at the appropriate time, and if danger is part of the process of growing up, NS training is full of it.

The Mount Kinabalu tragedy is still unfolding and could be worse. 9 are still missing. We do not need a bigger tragedy of the South Korean dimension to regret and think it is unwise to expose our children to it. Let the parents bring their children to Disneyland or the African jungle if they so choose to. The principals and teachers do not need to live with such memories and to regret the rest of their lives.

The Americans are great adventurers and love to go to war to return as victors and heroes. But when the brave young men and women return in body bags, the pain and hurt will last a life time. Having fun is one thing and everyone loves to have fun. Think of the consequences and ask if it is necessary. Is it something that must have or good to have or nice to have but not really necessary?

Saint Lee - by Yawning Bread

Yawning Bread has an article titled Saint Lee where he dealt with the issue of beatification and how the topic of a lese majeste law is in the brewing in Singapore. Actually there was no such thing. The idea came from two articles that talked about lese majeste in the Asian Correspondent and TOC.

In Catholicism, there is this process called beatification where a great dead man may be called a saint and be able to grant wishes to people who pray to him.  In a way this is like Tua Pek Kong or Guan Kong or Sun Mo Kong.  These are Chinese deities that can grant wishes to the masses that turned up to pray in the temples. But there was no formal process to raise them to the level of deities. They became deities by a spontaneous recognition by the masses of their goodness. The Catholic Church has a long list of saints that were beatified, St Joan of Arc, Saint Mary, Saint Nicholas, Saint Mother Teresa and many others by an established system of beatification.

In his article Yawning Bread suggested that the process of beatification was in full swing. The Catholic Church would require a miracle to happen and be accredited to the great dead man for sainthood. And this is no easy task and the Church would appoint a committee of inquiry to go through the life of the great dead man to see if there was a miracle in his life time. A miracle is not something that can be easily faked or created, like the founding of a nation or taking a country from 3^rd World to 1^st World. It has to be something out of this world. The ‘out of this world’ minister salary not counted, it must be really out of this world.

Come to think of it, the miracles in the Gardens by the Bay may come in handy. There are so many miracles happening there. You want snow, you can have snow. You want to have strawberry, raspberry, goose berry, goose pimples, no problem. If they can grow miracle olive inside the domes, what is so difficult about a few berries? The problem is whether these could be considered as miracles. And if acceptable, can these be credited to the good work of the great dead man.

I believe the Catholic Church has a long list of items to be ticked before any great dead man can be beatified and become a saint. The last and most recent saint was St Paul, the last Pope. Correct me if I did not get this right. Would there be another saint in the making? Or would there be a new deity for the masses to pray for protection from evil, for well being and maybe the favourite 4D number?

China – the demon fabricated by the West

Angela Poh Ming Yan, a Ph D student at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies made this comment in her article, ‘For China, it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t’, in the ST on 4 Jun 15, ‘To Beijing, the uneasiness and reluctance of regional countries to jump onto the Chinese economic bandwagon is mystifying.’

In a similar vein George Yeo commented that China’s intentions were often misunderstood. George was speaking at a public forum on Asia organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies on 3 Jun 15. ‘China does not intend to subordinate the economic strategies of other countries to its own and is misunderstood by others…the historical basis of the Silk Road…was “not on the basis that we must be the same, or that my values become yours or your values become mine”… instead it was “on the basis that we protect trade and property and there’s a fair exchange, value is added, there’s a positive sum, we all add benefit in the process”’.

While Angela Poh was wondering aloud that whether China do or don’t do it would be damned, George said, ‘Let’s hope that good sense will prevail, that the greater sense will be on all the benefits of exchange. And if you can recreate the prosperity brought about by the Maritime Silk Road, I think all these things will be set in perspective.’

Both were just being too polite to name the devil for demonizing China over a few centuries by the West that the name China is synonymous with evil, expansionism, aggressor, bullying but the reality was just the reversed. If the Asian countries would bother to think and look carefully, they would know who is the real bully, the expansionist power, the warmonger and the evil empire?  Since the eclipse of China as the richest nation of the past, China was a victim of Western aggression and conquest and humiliation. China was broken up, its land seized, and its wealth stolen. China is just picking up the pieces and trying to put together what was rightly part of China without claiming an inch of what does not belong to her.

The West, the western media and the Evil Empire have been relentless in putting down China when obvious economic initiatives like the Silk Road, AIIB, trade and infrastructure development with the rest of the world were branded as bad as if China was conquering its trading partners with a gun and taking advantage of their haplessness like the West did in the past and still doing. The Americans are the one that were starting wars and fighting wars, bully every country that did not want to tow the line, including bullying China by the use of might, but China was blamed as the bad guy.

How so, just read the local papers with all the western slanted articles against China used to feed the dull and unthinking mind of the masses. And this is repeated in all Asian countries. How could they not have a bad image of China like the way they demonized Iran and North Korea daily? Maybe George should ask the local media why they are paying for western biased articles against China when the sources of such articles should be paying them handsomely for the right to put their propaganda on their pages to do damage to China and other countries they chose to rubbish and demonise.

If Channel News Asia has the cow sense to use indigenous staff to report news of their respective countries from their own perspectives and for their own interests, should not the local media do likewise instead of paying to report news from the western perspective and to promote western interests and to dig and ridicule Asian countries with their slanted views and opinions?

What say you, George?

Quotable Quote: Amos Yee 2 Jun 15

“And yes, to the chagrin of numerous people, I have not ‘learnt my lesson’, nor do I see any ‘lesson’ that needs to be learnt. If you are going to try to tower over me and say that you know something important that that I don’t, make sure you have a compelling argument for that. And if your lessons are borne from a corrupt, archaic Government lead by primitive monkeys,…then sorry if I doubt the credibility of your ‘lessons’.

Hopefully history eventually vindicates me. But as of now, district judge Jasvender Kaur has deemed me guilty and the Prosecutor does in fact feel, that 30 months of a place worst than Prison (RTC) should be given to a boy who has posted an internet video. Unless you do in fact relish in my misery, I hope both of you will be able to sleep at night, and live with the fact that right now, as it is written in the annals of history, my blood is on your hands.”

I am not going to say that this is a plea by Amos to the authority nor is it a statement of defiance. They are the words of a young boy facing the State and all its machinery for something that he posted in the youtube that is not politically right or acceptable.

What has happened now is a boy being charged and waiting for sentence for an ‘offence’ and the issue is how serious would the punishment be like. The prosecution has been making recommendations to reform the boy with the assumption that the medicine is fit for the patient and the patient would be a good and nice boy at the end of the reformative regime.

Many people have many different views and so has the boy victim. Are the adults wiser or the boy? What is right and righteous today may not be right and righteous tomorrow. The boy in his philosophical way is leaving it to the future to vindicate him and set him free from the righteous people that are all so good hearted to want to save him and would rightly deserve a place in heaven for their good deeds and intent.

What would the future said of this case? And why would the boy commented that he wish them to be able to sleep well at night and would be at peace with themselves as they live their lives? Is there a war of conscience at work? Who is pricking whose conscience?

There is this lonely feeling that the whole world of conscience has deserted this boy. He is all alone to face the music. There is a sense of helplessness in him. They say, the good shall triumph over evil. Which is good and which is evil may be a matter of subjectivity. Right and wrong is no longer so simple and straightforward.

What do you think?

Cheng Bock and 40 ex PAP MPs to stand for WP

This came from Tan Kin Lian’s post in he TRE titled ‘Nice to hear cabby said PAP to lose 4 GRCs’. And Kin Lian added this, ‘His taxi driver friends had privileged information that Dr TCB and 40 ex PAP leaders will contest under the Workers Party banner. Wow! He made the statements in a most convincing manner. He believed in the reliability of his source. His friends had attended meetings where these matters were discussed.’
 
OK, don’t get over excited by this piece of news. I know it is very sexy. Kin Lian also commented that it is likely to be a rumour. So it is unlikely to be true. But there is a likelihood that it was true because he did not said it is definitely a rumour but likely to be a rumour.
 
How true could this be? In the days when the Oracle is still around this is a definite NO. Who would dare to go against the Oracle and stare him in his face. So, now that he is gone, the possibility cannot be totally ruled out. And there are good reasons for this to be a possibility.
 
Remember, the PAP started very well with many pro people policies that warned the support of the people. Those days it was called winning the hearts and minds of the masses. And they did. And the ex PAP members were the ones that did that. These people have the right thinking and have their hearts in the right place. They are different. If not they would not be able to win the support of the people for so long. If not Singapore would not be what it is today.
 
If there are 40 ex PAP MPs willing to stand with the WP, the game is over. There is no where the young newbies could stand a chance against the seasoned oldies that did it, who had done that, whose great works should be rightly accredited to them, not to the newbies who have done what? All the gloating of the PAP were the achievements of the past by the ex PAP MPs and pioneer leaders.
 
So, if this is true, I also find it difficult to believe, yes, it will be game over. But I also agree with Kin Lian that even if it is not true, it is nice to hear about it. It is a pleasant dream even in broad daylight.
 
Maybe the opposition parties should take the cue and work on these ex PAP MPs, the good men and women of yore.