mr mean is here

school tuition fees are subject to means testing? how much a student pays depends on the affordability of his parents? well, is this 1984 or 2084? when such mean mentality is put to practice in all sectors of our lives, we have to be tagged, with all information made available to the authority. a loaf of bread will be priced differently according to the income level of the consumer. in fact everything will have a different price. from each his best and to each his worth. hey i thought this is an outdated socialist or communist concept. from each his best and to each his needs. now ain't the world getting meaner when mean people are in charge? i mean mean testing. they are not mean but they love mean testing and adore mean testing. mean is the way to go. lets all get comfortable with being mean. mean or mean testing is going to be our way of life.

half mast: consistency or to be not

s rajaratnam's departure and the honour of a half mast has raised questions. and many were thinking, how it causes a lot of discomfort in several quarters. devan nair may be a doubtful starter. but teng cheong seems to receive many sympathetic calls and grumbling about the half mast he was not given. this will go down our history book and will resurface every now and then. a half mast is given to a founding father who rightly deserves the honour. for consistency, we can expect keng swee, chin chye, othman, pang boon and nyuk lin to be given the same honour when they take their turns to go home. after this batch would the honour be bestowed to the second generations of leaders? chok tong as pm, would likely be given a half mast. what about the rest of the ministers? so far all are living their lives quite correctly as honourable people. but one slip and tongues go awagging.

dependency strategy

the more people depends on the govt, the more they need the govt/ruling party. if this dependency relationship can be created, then the ruling party will have the people at its beck and call. the trick is to make the people eat from your hand. now how to do that? make everything very expensive or make things just a bit difficult to afford or need to be helped. then offer help to them. they will forever be grateful. this is the real part. on the fiction part, just shout everything is affordable. and we all know what affordability means to different people. affordable to who? a millionaire or a beggar? affordable to someone who earns $20k a month or someone who earns $1k a month? how could anyone shout 'affordable' when the term is so relative?

business times headlines: s rajaratnam dies

don't you people find the heading a bit bland, a bit too direct? why can't they put in a little more effort in choosing a few nicer words to describe this man of words? a giant passes away, or a titan fades away. even called home to be with the lord would sound so much more pleasant then, s rajaratnam dies. he dies. so kopitiam lingo. he dies. die already. die liao. sometimes, in some matters or things that we treasure or value, people will put in that little extra effort to phrase things in a more graceful manner, and sounds so much better. i hope our media could spare a little thought on this.

s rajaratnam, a founding father gone home

not too long ago we heard the passing away of devan nair. today we witness the passing away of another founding father of our nation. his is a generation of men that changed lives and charted the path of our nation, created history for future generations to read about. and it is good that they have all live to a ripe old age and see the fruit of their labour and conviction. they must all have been pleased for what they had done as young men, freedom fighters and nation builders. rajaratnam is one of the few men whose speeches are worth reading. speeches that are colourful and interesting and meaningful. other than lky, perhaps rajaratnam is the only person that could capture the attention of his audience. i could still have vivid glimpses of his fiery speeches of independence and self rule. we wish him a good journey home.