cyber pests and bounty hunters

Cyber Pests in my blog There are a few cyberspace pests helping me to generate traffic into mysingaporenews blog. I am not sure whether to thank them or to curse them. Their presence has definitely raise the ratings of my blog, except that their intent was just to disrupt and hurl abuses. The age of professional thugs in cyberspace has arrived. Elfred has a new opening now, to be paid to disrupt blogs and forums. Another business that may sprout out from this is bounty hunters. These will be hunters out there hunting down such pests and bring them to court for a reward.

myth 104

'Meritocracy Myth' Thomas Koshy added to the meritocracy myth in his article in the Today paper today. What is meritocratic, as he has reaffirmed our views discussed in cyberspace, is not really that meritocratic in the true sense or ideal sense. There cannot be true meritocracy when there are differences arising from 'race, sex, age sexual orientation, physical disability, region, religion and physical appearance.' One could add inheritance, in wealth and genes. In society, superior ability, as Koshy termed it, may not be given a chance because of unequal access to resources and opportunities. But what is dangerous is that a state that is based on the philosophy of meritocracy will have the same ending as any state based on any other political philosophies. The elite will become arrogant and be disconnected with the people and will eventually be overthrown by the people, according to Michael Young's fictional book, The Rise of Meritocracy. One could read it like The Animal Farm. Is there hope for meritocracy to survive in this island state? The writings are ominous.

Who needs Blogger's Code of Ethics?

Below is an article calling for a code of ethics for bloggers, posted in Singapore Patriots, assuming that bloggers are the culprits for some of the mess in blogosphere. However, in my blog, which I do not attack anyone in particular, nor do I use vulgarities, maybe some exceptions, there are a few pests that have obviously been sent there to disrupt my blog with their personal attacks. Now who needs a Code of Ethics? Who are behind these pests? In support of a Singaporean bloggers' Code of Ethics - Part 2 Dharmendra Yadav's TODAY article calling on bloggers to self-regulate continues to draw mixed reactions from local blogosphere. Aaron, Yuhui and I generally support the suggestion. BL agrees that blogs should self-regulate, but doubts the feasibility of implementing the idea. Other bloggers, including Dr Huang, Cowboy Caleb and Elia Diodati feel that it is unnecessary and impossible. I don't think Dharmendra and Aaron were calling for a formal blogger's association which will censor or censure its members who do not toe the line. That is not only undesirable but also impractical—bloggers simply won't join the association. There is also no intention to muzzle the "last bastion of truly free expression", as Dr Huang colourfully describes blogosphere. "Censorship" is as much a bad word to bloggers, as "welfare" is to the Singapore government. Rather than any type of association, whether formal or informal, I would prefer a Code of Ethics that the majority of law-abiding bloggers would willingly agree to. This Code should be concise, localised to the Singapore context, simple to understand, easy to adhere to, and non-binding. Its function would be symbolic rather than regulatory. It would be somewhat like the our National Pledge. The Pledge, penned by our first foreign minister S Rajaratnam, is a short and straightforward, yet deeply meaningful statement. Almost all Singaporeans from all walks of life and political persuasions agree with it. The Pledge itself has no legally binding requirements, but those who choose not to adhere to the statements set forth in the Pledge are likely to find themselves contravening some laws of our land.

To raise CPF or not not to raise CPF

The trade union leaders have called for some restoration of the CPF. Good times are here, it is time to bring out the champagne and have a party. Surprisingly several analysts were out in arms against such an idea. Obviously the memories of hard times and bad times were forgotten. During those dark hours, many lamented and regretted the high CPF and the rigidities of our wage system. There were calls for CPF cuts and flexible wage systems. The decisions were tough and hard to make but were made. CPF were cut, flexible wages were introduced. All to make our system less rigid and competitive. The wage system needs to be flexible to change with the highs and lows of the economic cycles. We have done well and live with an increasing portion of flexi wage components. Do we want to go back to cast more increases into stone again and have the same problems of breaking them when the hard times are back? Or do we want to continue to input further increases into the flexi portion of the wage to allow companies and organisations to vary them according to their performances and the economic trend? And there were talks that we can manage international forces, have no fear of competition from low wage countries, and can create high value jobs again. Now that is really good news and a great thing to know.

It is all in the mind

While I am calling for more bloggers and forumers to join cyberspace, while all the bloggers and netizens are named the Person of the Year by Times Magazine, the battle for cyberspace has begun. Three snipers entered www.mysingaporenews.com and started to challenge my postings. It just shows that mysingaporenews is worthy of reading. But how worthy and how good a blog is is all in the mind. When the mind is good it will see good things. When the mind is bad, it will see bad things. When the mind is big it will think big. When the mind is small it will think small. Then comes the clever element. A clever and good mind will think very big. But a clever and small mind will think very small and think very bad. In the drawer of a CEO, there will be two books. One is for good and honourable people and one for small and sneaky people. Both are very useful to him. The good and honourable people will be groomed to take over important positions. The small and sneaky people will do the sneaky jobs. And that will be their lives in the organisation, to do sneaky things. And the CEO knows very well that only such sneaky people can do such jobs. But never will he use them for good and honourable jobs.