off on saturday : )

Hi all, Will be out at sea over the weekend and probably start posting on Sunday afternoon. Cheers.

Role of the Internet - Balakrishnan speaks

Role of the Internet - Balakrishnan speaks Govt will continue to take a light touch approach to the internet as they are not really that significant. The Govt will 'continue to set the political agenda and rules of engagement.' Below are some of the notable extracts of what light touch could mean. 'the Govt would not hesitate to 'demolish' those who crossed the line...' 'Any political leader worth his salt will sooner or later be unmasked and, therefore, can be dealt with or engaged on political terms, one on one.' I am trying to figure this one out on what he meant by political terms and one on one. 'I put this not in a threatening way but (the point is) that at the end, the cyberworld cannot escape the realities of the real world.' Luckily he did not use the term brutal truth. 'But he said Singapore's leaders have nothing to hide and are not afraid of the new media.' 'If it is true, I have to reply. If it is untrue, I have to demolish it. If it is seditious or defamatory, we will go after the person.' I think I am alright. 'the PAP had seen the press "cynically manipulated by politicians for short term goals."' 'I don't need The Straits Times to be the mouth piece of the Govt. We have the ministry spokespersons....' I think bloggers and forumers will now have a better picture of he govt's stand on internet postings.

nkf story - durai could walk free

The NKF story - Durai could walk free Now the rest of the story ...@#$%@#$%&*..............................................................#@#$%.

If New York and London can...

If New York and London can... We cannot simply pluck examples out of context and use them as justifications to our cause. We have heard so many supporters of a highly dense Singapore, with 6.5 million people, as reasonable because there are New York, London, Tokyo or Shanghai that have bigger populations than us. 6.5 million is simply another case of peanuts, a relative term depending on what one is comparing. I will just elaborate on two points why using these examples is a serious flaw. These are big cities of a reasonably big country. Or at least there is a countryside to talk about where the people can disperse outwards if they need too. And even if they did not do so, mentally there is this sense of space around them. Psychologically it is very reassuring to know that they are not strapped into a shit hole. We don't have this privilege. The doorway north can be closed or strangled at any time. In the south more or less the same. Claustrophobia? Then there is the bigger population to even out the acute abnormalities built up in the big cities. The greater population and the greater culture will be there to absorb and balance off the vast diversities of the cities. We don't have that either. Once we mess it up, that's it. We are in a little shit hole and we will be full of shit. No running away, no running out, except for the privilege few. So for those who will have to face the shit if the little red dot is risking to become a shit hole, they better stand up and say their peace. It can be a paradise with 6.5 million. It can also be a hell hole. Who is God enough to say it will be this or that? I am just sharing my reservations and concern.

a refreshing thought by kishore

A refreshing thought Kishore Mahbubani is probably the best mind in his cohort that Singapore has produced. I can't agree with him more when he said that in many areas Singapore is already world class or surpassed that. The fact that we are still exhibiting traits of little boys like I want this and that because the boy next door has it, like Kishore said, is a sign of our lack of confidence, not amounting to immaturity. The 'eye' is the most glaring symbol of a third world mentality. Just because London has it, so we must have it. But maybe that got a little to do with our colonial heritage. The next thing we may want to have, God forbids, is to have a Queen. We have the English Premier League living in the local papers and in the minds of all our football fans. They even know which brand of toothpaste or underwear their favourite footballers used or wore. And while we have achieved in some very important areas like education, and telling the world how good our education system is, which has been vindicated by the large inflow of students from abroad, we have started to dismantle our own education system which have been the envy of the world. We don't believe in ourselves. We always think that our local stuff aren't good enough. Our local talents from one of the top world universities, NUS, are of lesser talents than talents from universities of third world countries. Or just because a few who could not make the grades and went overseas and returned with inflated grades, talked a bit louder, and impressed the listeners, so foreign universities are better. Sure there are many great universities abroad. But not many of the rest are great. Otherwise our NUS ranking is pure fiction. Do we want to believe in these rankings? If not, then we should not pursue them. If yes, then we must believe that our local grads are good, or at least better than those from third world and lower ranked universities. Have we grown up as a nation?