Age of citizen journalism is here

And this is what the media big bosses are saying. Their comments are justified by the coverage of people on the ground, at the scene, shooting and relaying information and pictures to media organisations to broadcast or put into prints. Handphones and digital cameras are very handy tools for the coverage of instant news. And there is the great happenings at Youtube with everyone trying out their flair and showing off what they have shot. What the media gurus forget to say is that citizen journalism is journalism of the people. The people choose their agenda and report things they want to report. This is a huge difference from what one reads in the media when the content is chosen by the editor. Now the citizens decide what they want to write, print and shoot and read. My denture almost fell out when I read this statement from ReuterTV's senior producer Jahabar Sadiq who cautioned against the bias in such material. "I 've seen videos that were edited and shaped in such a way that they presented just one point of view...News agencies will still be there to provide a neutral point of view - a view that has integrity and is created by professionals with very good editorial policies.' He said. How much is true in Jahabar's statement? 10% perhaps. All the news we read are edited and shaped in such a way that they present the views of the journalist or that of the media or broadcasters. It is often a one sided view. A neutral view? What a load of bullshit! And integrity, created by professionals with very good editorial policies? Integrity in what? Good policies according to who? The only thing professional is that the people are professional people being paid to do what they are told to do. Only in citizen journalism is there independence of thoughts and ideas reflecting what the citizen sees, hears and reports, of course with his taint of biasness. At least the citizen does not pretend to be neutral and objective.

What it is like with a doubling of population

We need to DOUBLE the following: 1. Roads and public transport system and car parks 2. Housing, either sideways or upwards 3. Schools, polytechnics and universities 4. Hospitals and clinics 5. Recreation, sports stadiums and amusement facilities 6. Places of worship 7. Jobs 8. Shopping centres, markets 9. Land of course 10. Reservoirs 11. Air and breathing space 12. Food 13. And many more things But our land is shrinking because of global warming. When that happens, no more land reclamation and many housing and other landed properties will be under water.

Car Insurance Premium expected to go up

The Insurance association has given warning that car insurance premium would have to go up because of high cost and claims. It reported a loss of more than $13 mil for the first quarter of the year on a revenue of nearly $200 mil for the same period. Assuming labour and other cost works out to be 70% of the revenue, or $140 mil, the claims from car accidents must be $60 mil plus $13 mil or $73 mil. And if the total cost is 50%, or $100 mil, the claim was a staggering $113 mil. These are just ball park figure. What is alarming is that a whole year figure would be 4 times this amount or between $292 mil and $452 mil. Now that is a lot of claims. The question is whether the loss is due to high accident claims or other costs eg labour cost, rental costs or losses due to investments. The amount of claims due to car accidents was expectedly not reported. The motorists who are going to be charged with higher car insurance premium deserved to know the whole picture. If accident claims is really that high, then it is justifiable to throw back the cost to the motorists. However, if the losses were due to higher manpower cost or other losses, then it is unfair to expect the motorists to bear the hike in insurance premium. Would CASE look into this before car insurance premiums are raised?

My reply to Li Ao

Ah Bian was interviewed by Yang Ming over Channel News Asia. And Ah Bian was in his own self, speaking or misspeaking in words that he could not pronounce clearly, and explaining his policies and philosophy of life and politics. Yang Ming was his professional best, articulate, polite and perceptive. He was posing questions at Ah Bian, leading him along but Ah Bian evading all the sensitive issues related to China. The most important feature throughout the interview was Yang Ming's expression. Though he smiled very often, and very cool and polite in his questions and comments, he could not hide his frustration at the man sitting in front of him that he called President. His face was as red as a lobster. He must be wondering why the Taiwanese elected such a man to be their President. There was nothing in Ah Bian that could impress him as one who can lead a nation. Ah Bian was fumbling as he could not articulate his words clearly. It was not even Min Nan dialect. After this interview, my reply to Li Ao is that the Taiwanese are also stupid. How else would a people electe a President like Ah Bian when there are many capable men around. Even Yang Ming is a much better man, anytime, in all aspects. They need to raise their President's salary to attract better talents.

security threat is real

The terrorist threat getting serious. This is a threat that will not go away but getting worst by the day. It is a matter of time when we will cry for our brothers and sisters lying in pools of blood or dying after an attack. And the govt is aware that they cannot fool around with such threats and must take all precautions and preparations necessary to prevent such an attack. Chee Hean came out with a new scheme to train more soldiers to take on this task, to protect our beautiful houses, complexes, infrastructures and HDB flats as well. No amount of men is too many to carry out this task. Uniformed personnel will be first on the line to face the terrorists. Maybe it is time they pay the uniformed personnel in the millions for putting their lives on the line to protect the wealth, security and safety of the people. Some issues and concerns were raised in Parliament with this new change. There were fears of abuses. This is unavoidable. Lets hope that there is no repeat of the airport incident where uniformed personnel abused their power and threaten the people they are supposed to protect. In that incident, an innocuous remark by a mother and a child resulted in their plan family holiday ruined and subjected them to intimidation by uniformed personnel, held up or in a way prevented them from going for their holiday. What the govt needs to do, and the people needs to know, is that the uniformed people are there to protect the people. And the people also must know their rights and when such uniformed personnel abuse their authority, they must be challenged or a channel for official complains to bring them to task, and be punished severely. For it is a very serious situation if we allowed uniformed personnel to think that they can abuse their authority and mess around with the citizens. And knowing the sheeple that we have, they will allow such abuses against them to get by. We need to educate our people of their rights as citizens as well. And also what they should do when uniformed personnel cross their line of duty to intimidate the people. This is also a time when the people and uniformed personnel must work closely together as one against a common enemy.