Where are the heroes?

Countries that have been conquered and occupied by foreign forces have a very bad and bitter experience which they will never forget. An occupation robbed the countries of not only their wealth and pride, but the dignity of their people. Proud and upright people were all turned into vicious, unscrupulous and traitorous selfish people, only thinking of their own survivals. Betraying friends and families, and people and nation, became a means to survive. There were no heroes in such countries. Any hero will either be dead or rotting in prison for fighting the intruders. The conquered and oppressed people have very little choices. They need to live, and have families to feed. Joining the nationalist movement and resistance is as good as sure death. Not doing anything and trying to live is to live a dog's life. The other choice is to work for the occupied forces, the new rulers, to serve them and help them to exploit their own people and countries. In other words, become traitors and sell out their countries and friends and families. This has been repeated all over in history. From the days of the Red Indians, the Africans, the Arabs, the Indians, Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans, and the Jews during the holocaust, their histories are littered with tales of betrayal and selfish people who thrived by serving the occupation forces. That is what many conquered people have experienced. The Koreans and the Chinese, under foreign dominations, Japanese in particular, were forced by the Japanese and circumstances to eke out a living by turning against their own people. This also happend in Malaysia and Singapore. Those were hard times and men were turned to beasts, no morality, no righteousness and honour to talk about. There were no shame in being unscrupulous. The shame only came after the occupation forces were defeated and left. Then the blood letting will come and all the shame will be laid out for all to see. All the pride of a people were no more. The people could not believe that their own tribes could be so disgraceful and selfish to commit dastardly acts against them, to bow and kneel to the conquerors to wipe their arses. The Korean Nationalism and their stubborness to be strong and resilient must be seen in such historical context. And this applies to many of the conquered and colonised nations. History will repeat itself if they are led to believe that all is well. And in their folly and delusion of peace and harmony, and goodwill of 'friendly' nations, they will inadvertently dig their own graves. It is better to be safe than sorry. National survival can only be preserved by the nation's own people.

my flowery dream

I had a dream last night. There was this beautiful garden where the owner planted many beautiful flowers. He had taken very good care of his garden, fertilisers, water, pruning and talking to his flowers, to encourage them to grow. And the flowers listened to him and bloom in all their majestic colours and brilliance. It was an awesome sight to behold, so many flowers, what a riot of colours. Then one morning a van came. And the owner took out his cutter and started pruning. All the lovely flowers came down one by one. One hundred flowers were cut down and taken away in the van. Probably to some fine hotels for display. What a pleasant ending for the flowers. The the owner was happy, waiting for another 100 flowers to bloom.

myth 37

'I, Singaporean, not stupid!' Well, we have always been laughing at all the stupid Singaporeans. But really deep down they are damn smart. They know when to siam if they have to. There was this petition asking people to support Mr Brown in the online petition site. For curiosity I went there to take a peep, maybe can post my findings here. I was greeted with a message, Petition removed for lack of activity. What happens to all the concerned Singaporeans who supported a cause like the NKF? And what happens to all those who posted at Mr Brown's blog pledging their support? And none posted in the online petition that it has to be removed? Same can be said for the silence in the media over the last few days. I think if you ask anyone, they will say it is inconsequential, not newsworthy. Or there are more important news like dirty litters in HDB blocks, or a foreign car number plate spotted in Singapore. Now, who says Singaporeans are stupid?

Cyber space and citizen reporting, a new frontier!

It is time I revisited this thread after all the excitement in the press. I mean the Malaysian press. Cyberspace is now the new battle field between Mahathir and Badawi as the official press is, as always will be, one sided. In the blogs and columns, it was reported that hits can go as high as 1.2 million a day for Malaysia Today! The key advantage of cyberspace news is that it is uncensored and immediate. In a sense, no holds bar. And the official media has, in its traditional way, encouraged the growth and flourishing of cybernet news. To quote Raja Petra Kamaruddin, a well known political activist, he said, 'As long (as) as there is no real free speech, blogs will be popular.' Let's return to home ground and see whether the situation is similar. For several days after the Mr Brown incident, when cyberspace was invaded by highly charged bloggers and forummers on the issue, there was a complete silence in the official media. It was a hot topic , but the official press, for their own reasons, thought it was better not to say anything about it. There goes the reason for more interests in cyberspace, when the news that the people are interested are being reported. Look at today's Straits Times. It has a glowing report on citizen reporting and how fast this media is gaining ground and acceptance as the most effective and popular means of communication and news dissemination. It devoted 5 and a half pages on this new trend. But sadly, nothing much was said about the local blogosphere and forum activities except for a small factual reference to Mr Brown's case, with no comments. But I think two full pages were devoted to promote Stomp and why it is popular with news like road accidents, windows falling off, and prizes for taking pictures of litters around mail boxes, foreign car number plates sighted in Singapore. I can't imagine what sensible and serious forumers find in such bits and pieces of rubbish around HDB blocks? And did they report on anything about the local citizen reporting scene? Did they mention any blogs or forums that are attracting the bloggers and forummers? What is the reason for not mentioning the names of popular local blogs and forums? At least Zaobao did a survey once and listed the names of popular blogs and forums for all to see, and to visit. As long as official media, often correctly associated with official views and mindset, continues its traditional way, more and more people will flock to cyberspace to hear more refreshing and relevant news.

Threat is nearer than you think - A horror story!

This is the headline of a one page article, with graphics, on the North Korean long range missiles in The New Paper today. The main gist of this article is that Singapore and many Asian countries are now within range of North Korea. And we are now under threat. Horror, run and hide quickly. And North Korea is going crazy and going to fire their missiles at all the Asian countries, including Singapore. We are now in imminent danger. We must protest and join the campaign to put pressure on North Korea from developing this nuclear threat. I am wondering, just wondering, how many gullible Singaporeans will believe in a silly article like this? And obviously it is silly as no one think it worthy or credible enough to put his name as owner of the article. Why would the North Koreans be threatening us and wanting to fire their missiles at us? For that matter, even it they are all insane and really fire at us, the missile will miss us completely. The missile will not be able to find us, too small a red dot or pee sai, to be picked up by its radar. If the North Koreans were crazy, they would have long fired all their missiles into Japan. They have all the reasons and the capability to do it for more than 20 years ago. Why are they not crazy to fire at Japan but will be crazy enough to fire at Singapore? Would the New Paper that poses this as a genuine threat to Singapore explain to all the stupid Singaporeans as they are too dumb to understand. This is the kind of articles that silly Asians are made to believe. And the source of such articles is likely to come from you know where. And it is so patronising to think that in the 21 century, Asians, especially Singaporeans, are unable to think.