28 hr wait for hospital bed

TOC Feature: 28-hour wait for a bed at the Singapore General Hospital Posted by theonlinecitizen on April 2, 2008 The above article was posted by Andrew Loh in TOC. It talked about a patient that only got to a bed of her choice after 28 hr wait. It also mentioned that a bed was offer to her in B2 ward earlier instead of B2 Plus ward but she rejected the offer. In my view, the criticism for the long wait was unfair. First she was sick and should grab whatever bed that was offered to her if she needed a bed badly. But she had an affluent sickness of being uncomfortable in a warm room and needed to be in an aircon room. So she rather wait for the comfort of an aircon room and to endure the discomfort of being in the waiting area. A personal choice. The other point raised is the lack of beds. But this is not a real problem. It is a conscious decision to build lesser hospitals (which also means lesser beds) so that the facilities will not be under utilised. It is a judgement call. You can agree or disagree with the judgement or value behind the judgement. The lack of bed need not be a problem. If the thinking is right, or the value is right, lack of bed will not be an issue.

Umno dismantling a farcical regime

UMNO has awaken from its slumber, like Rip Van Winkle. What happens? Everything was fine, so fine. Now everything looks so farcical, so ridiculous. All the values of goodness, right policies, right things to do, to say, are now wrong. Yes, UMNO is going to dismantle everything associated with the Mahathir regime. Even Mahathir agrees. All his choices for PM were wrong. All his good men in UMNO were unfit to be there. Mahathir is calling for UMNO members to speak out, speak out, speak out. When he was in power, it was Daim, Daim, Daim. Did I get my spelling right? Diam, Diam, Diam. Unbelieveable, the people within UMNO who once sang all the songs of praise are now the non believers. Would it be the case in paradise? Would the believeables also turn to become non believers and denounce everything as heresies?

Talk on Generosity in Public Service

Mahbubani should invite Lee Myung Bak to the LKY School of Public Policies to talk on Generosity in Public Service and the Meaning of Public Service. Paradise has long discarded and forgotten that there are some human values that are good through times. Things like generosity, compassion, kindness and helping the poor. These are values to live be and not just to speak for show. And Lee Myung Bak is the man to talk on such basic human goodness. No one can accuse him of hypocrisy, of saying one thing and doing another. Lee Myung Bak will bring enlightenment to Paradise, to those that have been blinded by greed. But he has a tough job convincing those who have crossed over to the dark side that there is still light on the good side. Of course many will sneer at him and call him foolish. But to be pragmatic, he should not push it too far by asking people to follow his example. Just pass the message that greed is good. This will bring cheers from his audience. All he needs to is to conclude by saying, 'Too greedy is bad.'

UBS is looking like a rotten deal

The UBS deal is not looking too healthy at this point in time. Hopefully our investment has provided for the latest can of worms. If we are just extending a loan, collecting dividend and can get our money back if we elect not to convert to shares, then we are ok. What is evident now is that putting money in ailing banks or organisations is not enough. We need to put our people in charge. With the resignation of Marcel Ospel, it would be good if we can put our top talents in to restructure the bank and save it before it goes to the pawnshop.

Mahathir insulting Malays

He said, 'The West will exploit Malays if Anwar become PM.' He still believes that the Malays are incorrigibly dumb and can be easily exploited by the Malays, including Anwar. Only Mahathir can protect the Malays and take on the West. How many of you believe Anwar is dumb and Mahathir is right?