serious people in parliament

48 people interested in becoming NMPs This is an encouraging sign as more people find it important to step out to have a say in the running of the country. And there are many big and recognisable names and professionals in the list. All broods well for a more thinking and serious Parliament. Sitting in Parliament is not a boy boy game. What is important is that children should not be allowed in Parliament. And if they think that they are there to look after the interests of children, please don't. Let the parents do it. And if really necessary to have children, lets have a boys scout version or a school cadet version instead of the real thing. Trial and error, training or gaining experience should be done in training schools or in a training environment. Lets be serious in Parliament.

Why pay when you can have a free ride?

Why pay when you can have a free ride? Sim Kah Choon, a new citizen, and formerly from Sarawak, has had no urgency to take up citizenship here for more than 20 years. There were all the good reasons for not taking up citizenship. And the best reason was given above, 'Why pay when you can have a free ride?' Yes, it took us more than 20 years to realise how good the PRs were until all the kpkb in cyberspace prompted a rethink about giving PRs a free ride. Funny that nobody thought of it except the PRs who knew and quietly enjoyed the good time for as long as they can. We need to do more to make citizenship more valuable, more desirable and more meaningful, and not cheap. No body wants cheap stuff. The Americans sent their new citizens to Iraq and Afganistan and if they survived, they will become Americans. Now that is a heavy price for a citizenship. Or maybe we knew that becoming a citizen isn't a big deal and people may not be interested and will run away when we force them to make a choice.

collecting donation an enterprising biz

Repeated calls were made to the homes of Goh Kian Huat to donate to the NUS Alumni to help needy students. 'For the past three weeks, members of my family have been receiving calls from the Alumni Office asking why I had not responded to their request. It appears that NUS is aggressively trying to raise funds from alumni.' But the methodology is so frighteningly familiar. To be able to make so many calls requires manpower and resources. According to Goh Kian Huat's article, 'The NUS was corporatised in March and is now a limited company...there is more pressure for it to operate like a commercial entity, with making profit as its main objective.' All sounded too familiar. There was once an organisation that made collecting donation a commercial business, employing a huge full time staff just to make calls to donors to make donations. I just hope NUS Alumni is not taking the same road.

daylight robbery?

Daylight Robbery 'On Sat, on my way to Vivi City for the first time, I made a wrong turn - I followed the road sign - into the road leading to Sentosa. I told the girl in the booth about it, but was told I had to pay $2 to make a U turn. This is ridiculous, day light robbery.' By Cheo Liew Kiat No this is no robbery. This is Singapore, the unthinking part, the no thinking part, the rule that justifies the means.

a time of peace and love

Christmas is a time of peace, love, giving and sharing. Though the weather was bad across the world, nothing like the tsunami of 2004. There were some cheers and gloomy dark clouds. But a tsunami of a different kind is brewing. Below is a short article which I copied from littlespeck.com which says anything but the above. And if violence befallen on the owners of the article, I think they deserve it. Iran's president Punked by Danish group 'Sympathetic' ad published in Tehran press insults Ahmadinejad with hidden message. WorldNetDaily.com Dec 24, 2006 Less than a year after Danish cartoonists ignited protests across the Muslim world with their depictions of Muhammad, another group from that country has risked offending Iran's president by calling him a "swine" in a hidden message included an advertisement that got past censors and editors at the Tehran Times. Surrend, a Danish art group that targets world leaders, successfully submitted an advertisement to the newspaper that, at first glance, expressed support for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The half-page ad, submitted under the name of "Danes for World Peace," features a picture of Ahmadinejad and a series of statements sympathetic to his regime: Support his fight against Bush, We are also tired of Bush, Iran has the right to produce nuclear energy, No US aggression against any country, and Evil US military stay home. Surrend's members told the editors they wanted to express their solidarity with Iran and make amends for the publication of cartoons of Muhammad published in their own country, reported the German daily, Der Spiegel. But what the advertising editors at Tehran Times missed was that the first letter of each phrase formed an acrostic that, top to bottom, spelled "S-W-I-N-E." On it's website, Surrend describes itself as a "street-art group" that was started in the winter of 2006 "during the funeral of Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic." "The idea behind Surrend is to make fun of the world's powerful men," the group proclaims, through the use of "stickers, ads and posters with ironic texts as its expression medium." Despite listing only two members – Jan Egesborg and Pia Bertelsen – Surrend plans projects that will require "20 different travels," having already targeted authoritarian leaders with their pranks in Serbia, Belarus, Turkey, Poland, Sri Lanka, Faroe Islands and, now, Iran.