The fanatics decide who should die!

Under the cloud of high moral fanatics The kidney patient is dying. Across the road, several thousands were also dying... of hunger. Some may still get by, living a life of extreme deprivation, never ever have a single day of a decent meal. The obvious outcome is that the kidney patient will die if he can't get a kidney transplant. Many of the hungry and deprived beans wil also die, miserably, without a day of joy and contentment to have a hearty meal. They simply cannot afford it. But the kidney patient may live, and some of these hungry mouths could live better, if the gulf created by the high moral fanatics could be bridged. The logic of these fanatics is that the poor will be exploited by the rich. When has the poor not been exploited by the rich? Then, shouldn't they ask the poor if they are happy to live their pathetic lives given a choice to sell a piece of their organ to those who need them? Who should decide or who is deciding the fate of the kidney patients and the desperate poor? It is bad to benefit from the desperation of the poor to buy their organs. Sound very noble and very tooth. What if the choice is a better life, free from deprivation, and still live on? What if it is a conscious choice, carefully deliberated, that the man is willing to part with his organ to provide for himself and family, a better life, and live with some dignity? What these fanatics have done is to impose their values, their goodness and their selfish do gooder mentality on the desperate poor by not offering them a choice. The fanatics have decided and judged that they should not be allowed to live better by trading their organs. And the fanatics will walk with their heads hung high, that they are morally righteous, that they have helped these poor and deprived beans to live on, hungry every day, with little food and clothing. The fanatics will feel so good that they are their guardians, self declared. That all these miserable people are unable to think for themselves and needed to be protected from exploitation by the rich. Is that so? Who is more righteous? Why can't civilised people, people of the law, work out some rules and regulations to protect the poor from exploitation and allow them to trade their body parts if they so wanted, without jeopardising their lives, so that they and their families can live better? Are the fanatics really helping them by closing off their options!

Why can't I sell my kidney?

Who is the fanatic who decides that I can't sell my kidney? Why should such fanatics have so much say over my body parts? There are many people who are living in misery, not even able to feed themselves with a full meal a day. Some hungry for the whole of their lives. To these people, to be able to sell a part of their body for $20k or $30k can make their lives so much more pleasant even for a year or two. Why should the elite of the world decide on the fate of these miserable people and condemned them to perpetual misery? Will their lives be better off selling a part of it or will they be better off in their pathetic state of being alive? Then there are also the body parts of the dead or going to die. Cadavers have been so to medical students. Nothing new. HOTA has been farming body parts for free. Should the people have the right to ownership of their body parts and will it to be sold to benefit their love ones? Can it be seen as private properties, assets to be handed down? Why is it that the state owns our bodies when we are dead and also owns our bodies when we are alive? In the case of willing buyer and willing seller, let the market forces determine how it should be sold. Why are we tempering with the market mechanism in a century when oppression or slavery can be persecuted by the law? Should the law make provisions to allow people more freedom to live a life they so choose, even to sell their body parts, fully aware and responsible for their own actions? Human body parts are definitely better than animal or synthetic parts. Many have gone to waste through ignorance. Let the owners of their parts decide what they want to do with them. Any fanatics want to impose their moral values and superior righteousness over the rest of the people?

ERP is getting on the nerves

We are hearing more and more noises in TOM of grouses on ERPs. Some even accused the LTA of right hand not knowing what left hand is doing. But actually they do. Every dept and ministry is functioning very well. The people with grouses are those who cannot afford to pay. If you can, driving around is going to be a joy. We have world class public transport system that is efficient and affordable. Nothing to fret about really. The only little concern is the buses may ply less often once too many ERPs are put up. It will be quite costly to have a few thousand buses paying ERPs 20 or 30 times daily. Some were also concern about the quality of family life. Actually family life should improve as more people will choose to stay at home instead of going out. And with so much time at hand, they can spend time washing and admiring their precious cars in the car parks. Overall, Singapore will be greener with lesser people driving and lesser cars on the road. Business will benefit from freer flow of traffic. And with people all staying at home, there will be more free space around to accommodate the 6.5m population coming our way. Maybe can raise the number to 10m. ERPs not only solve transportation problem, they also solve social problem and green problems.

The caretaker generation

We have arrived at the doorstep of the first world. The people who helped us get here were mostly gone. The people who are singing the song of praise and praising themselves for the success think that they are the one who have brought us here. That they are the ones with the magic formula, the architect of paradise, and think that without them we will not be here. They think we owe our success to them. The builders of paradise have all but gone. A handful still around. It is they and their effort that should be appreciated. The rest are just caretakers, inheriting a good fortune and riding on it, making the best out of it, that's about it. Before they get too high on their high horses, they should be reminded that it is not them that brought us here. They themselves were brought in to look after the wealth and not to mess it up. The people of paradise do not owe any debt to the caretakers. The people who will owe a debt to them will be the future generations should paradise continue to exist as a paradise.

Is Reach reaching to the people?

I have no idea how Reach is doing. Never been to that corner of cyberspace, yet. I think there are enough feedback in cyberspace, enough of issues and concerns that can be had for free. No need to keep setting up official sites just to gather feedback and attention at a cost. It will only tap on a very small minority who believe that they have to go through proper channel, to be vetted and to get the green light before the message can go up the next step. Something like writing to the forum pages of TOM. When there is sincerity in wanting to listen to the unhappy, the dissatisfied, the disgruntled, the vocal, for their grouses, just go to where they are. These people could be so pissed off that anything official will be taboo to them. They would not touch the official sites like Reach with a ten foot pole. So what Reach will be getting will be from a select group but at the same time isolating and not getting anything from those who are really pissed. When they say, you want to feedback you come to Reach or go to such and such a place and take a cue, only then we will listen to you and attend to you, what are they really saying?