the irony of immigration

many migrants moved to europe, canada, the usa and australia because they wanted that kind of good life. but they forgot that that kind of good life expects them to adopt a different social and work culture, a different way of life and a different set of value system. they only thing that by going there they will be able to live like the white europeans. what these migrants could not understand is that they must be like the white europeans to live like them, to have the same kind of motivations and aspirations. unfortunately, they don't. they went to these countries and still wanted to be what they were, continuing with their own ways of living, and building their own ghettos, just like home. and then they became unhappy. for whatever reasons which they could not understand, or understood but too stubborn or rigid to change, they were hardly better off than they were before. and problems start. and they demand to be left alone, maintaining their old systems and values, and lifestyles. why go to these countries in the first place if they insist on being what they were? didn't they know that going to an adopted country one needs to adopt a new way of life, and accommodate or adapt to the host country and not the other way round? it is not simply acclimatising to the weather. didn't they want the new kind of affluent lifestyle? if they want to move their own villages to the western world, shouldn't it be better to remain in their home countries? and the host countries also did not bargain for these kinds of immigrants. they thought the immigrants wanted to be like them. they were painfully wrong and are going to pay a heavy price for it. france and britain are paying now.

the americans are standing up to their leaders' deceit

william pfaff penned an article in today, 'payback time for warmongers?' the story is a followed up to 'scooter' libby's indiction for exposing the identity of a cia agent, putting her and her family at risk. and this is only the tip of the iceberg. the paper revealed that more of bush's closed lieutenants, maybe even bush, will be indicted in no time. nothing new, except that the americans and the rest of the world were willing parties to the deceit. all chose to believe, like little kids being mesmerised by the stories of white men killing red indians. a good thing. it looks so silly, but it happened. all the discrepancies, misleading information, half baked information, were trumpetted by presidents, prime ministers and secretaries of state across the world, including a serious session in the united nation, as justifications to invade iraq. can we believe that world leaders, men who are making decisions for the people of the world, behaved so clownish at the united nations? all these men who were present should all resign and live a life of shame. they are unfit, despite whatever titles they gave themselves, to be called world leaders. and what was the role of the great and objective media, with great thinkers and analysts? they were all parties to the deceit. payback time has just started. and william pfaff is talking about locking them up in guantanamo base for a start. will bush and blair, and the whole gang, be hanged for their injustice and the lives of iraqis and american boys lost due to their personal folly?

workfare bonus - co owners of the nation's wealth

it is good that the govt is now thinking of sharing the nation's wealth with the citizens. with more than $200 billion in reserves, that is quite a neat sum of money. but no govt will be thinking of squandering away this national reserves recklessly. what the govt is probably doing is to work out some formula to reward the people from the income generated from investing this reserve. at 5% return, this will give an income of $10 billion per annum. it would not be asking too much if 10% or $1 billion from this income be set aside for the people as their share of the national wealth. this will then make the value of the national reserve meaningful to the people. the people can then feel the wealth of the nation and that they too are part owners of this wealth.

paris burns for 10 days. a lesson for singapore

despite the relatively good inter racial relations here, some minorities still feel that they have been discriminated. some even painted glorious pictures about europe, uk and the usa as the paragon of how well the coloured minorities were treated. now paris burns, and tension is also mounting in birmingham. two lessons must be learnt from these racial and religious time bombs. never take them for granted. and two, never short circuited the process of racial integration. don't ever think that foreigners can easily adapt themselves to our society. don't think that nothing happens means that everything is fine. our immigration policies and foreign workers/talents policies are time bombs that are waiting to blow up into our face. the foreigners are foreigners. it will take many generations for them to feel like one of us. speeding up the process of citizenship will not work. once their strength is big enough to count, and given the right conditions, a tiny spark is all it needs to flame the whole nation. we will be like france and uk. the govt must not be too smug to think that they have full control on accepting foreigners as our citizens. some will have values that will forever segregate them from the ethos of our society. australia and many european countries will find out sooner or later that some will not want to be like them or accept their laws and customs. then small ghettos and enclaves of foreigners will developed and they would one day demand that the nation accepts them as they are and their peculiar customs and ways of life. in fact the size of foreign workers has reached a proportion that is frighteningly unmanageable should they run riot. there is no short cut to race relations. do not race to 8 millions.

a species odyssey

channel newsasia has been screening this programme about the evolution of man from apeman to modern man for several weeks. its startling remarks about man having existed for more than 10 million years, originating from the african savannah and spreading across the world, must be quite difficult to stomach for those who believed in biblical truth. the approach of this documentary is very systematic and scientific in nature and gives the impression that it is the truth and very difficult to dispute. 10 million years of civilisation is simply unbelieveable and too wide a gap from the bible's 6,000 years when god first created adam and eve. now viewers are confronted with two conflicting truths, one based on scientific research, including evidence of bones and stone tools, and another based on the documentary proof written in the bible. is anyone feeling a little wiser?