A little window dressing may do the trick

As the opposition corner quiets down in their protest against organ trading, there are still some whimpers of unhappiness. Words like organ trading, selling or buying organs seems to be getting on the nerves of the protesters. To overcome such great misgivings, I would suggest that we shall henceforth desist from mentioning the words organ trading or buying/selling organs. In its place we shall creat a Organ Donation Charity Fund. The organ donors can donate their organs to this Fund and be allowed to have a lucky dip. Depending on where he/she is from, the price will be the equivalent of a sum of money decided by the Fund either in S$, US$, rupiah, pesos or whatever. On the other hand, kidney patients can donate a sum of money as decided by the Fund and be entitled to another draw which will be his date for a transplant operation. By doing these, both will be donors to a charity fund, no buying or selling. And the public can help by donating as well to boost up the Fund. And celebrities can also do their parts to participate in a Organ Donation Charity Show. The telco will be happy as well. Actually all will be happy. Nothing changes. And some eminent people can lend his or her name to the Fund or charity show. Back to square one. To cater to those who have strong objections on moral, ethical or religious grounds, HOTA scheme should remain. The poor or those who do not want to donate to the Fund can continue to remain in this scheme. And people who do not want to donate their organs to the Fund can have their organs harvested by HOTA and distributed free to those in the waiting list. Nothing changes. Nothing to cry about. And we shall not deprive those who have the money and willing to pay for it from external sources on their own effort. They should be allowed to do as they please as long as they don't cut the HOTA queue or the queue in the Organ Donation Charity Fund. With these well thought out plans, am I brilliant, I think no one shall have any more objections or unhappiness, except me. I will be giving this plan away free, not collecting the consultancy fee, the survey fee and the research fee. My estimate is that I will lose about half a million by sharing my plan openly. What the heck, it is for a good cause, though a bit silly not getting paid for it. Hope people would not think it is not a good plan because it is free.

Signs of decline or complacency?

In one of my earlier posts I did mentioned about the unusually high standards set by the first generation leaders and their intolerance for mistakes. Basically the message coming down from them was that 'Don't fool around and no slipshod work.' No mistake was tolerable. Zero defects was the standard. What we are hearing from Parliament yesterday would make our first generation leaders cringe or turn in their graves. We are not perfect. So mistakes must happened. Fatigue, too much work, different facts, different circumstances, so mistakes happened. We are only humans! Yes we are only humans. We all made mistakes every now and then. But to use such arguments as justifications is simply bad. A mistake is a mistake, is a mistake. Period. Deal with it. No amount of excuses is good enough and the more one tries to explain them away, the more ludicrous it will sound. Just simply said, yes, it is a mistake and unacceptable and inexcusable. How to react to all the finger pointings? Just listen quietly and show some shame and remorse. Nod the head in acknowledgement that the criticisms and unhappiness are justified and deserving. Eat the humble pie.

No gems in Parliament

The brevity in the reports on TV last night did not disclosed any gems worthy of posting here. The closes that one can get is a gleam of a shiny and beautiful head of Siew Kum Hong. I was so distracted by the glare that I totally missed out on what he was saying. I will now have to refresh myself from the factual reports in TOM.

Would Singaporeans be motivated by money?

In Parliament Kan Seng announced that a $1m bounty is waiting for anyone who squealed on Mas Selamat's whereabout and leading to his recapture. What he emphasised is that the money is from private individuals, not from the govt. Maybe the govt does not believe that people can be motivated to work for money. But apparently the two individuals thought so. And they would like to sacrifice half a million each to motivate the poor Singaporeans to look out for Mas Selamat. Will it work? Is money that important in the psyche of Singaporeans that they will not work harder to capture Mas Selamat? Why won't Singaporeans go out and hunt for him in the name of country and nation? What happen to the selfless Singaporeans that believe in some virtues like sacrificing for the nation, dying for the nation, instead of working just for money? The other point to note is that till now, 5 months after his 'escape', there is not a thread of news on his whereabout. There are two possibilities. He is long dead in the wilderness. That explains why no one knows where he is. The second explanation, more frightening, is that the people who helped him to escape and harbouring him, are damn professional, committed and will protect him at all cost. And these are people who are unlikely to be moneyminded. They are unlikely to sell him out for money. People who are motivated by a cause will die for the cause, like those suicide bombers. Money is not important to them. Money only motivates the superficials or those who need money. As a country, we need to motivate our people to work, sacrifice and die for the country on more noble causes or on some silly idealism. This kind of motivators will beat money anytime. Our NS men will die and fight for the country even if they are paid a pittance. Without such sense of duty and commitment to a nation, we are as good as a goner. The $1m will be a test to see if Mas Selamat's accomplices could be bribed by it. And if $1m is too little, maybe gradually increase the stake and see how much will they bite. Eventually the price should be high enough to move some of them, hopely.

Fear not retirement plan

Singaporeans got it made for life. They should not fear being unemployed and penniless. I am not referring to the CPF Life. That one is bull. The real stuff is to cash out when property prices are up. And it is up and up as it has been reported almost daily. Just pray that more foreigners keep coming onto our shores to support the property market. After selling their HDB flats, should be between $500k to $750k, park the money in fixed deposits and live frugally. That will be enough to last them for 30 or 40 years. Where to stay, squat in a temple if possible or with the children. If not, rent a room from the FTs who have bought over their flats. Two old folks, why do they need more than a room? They could not even have the energy to mop the flat. Renting a room will remove such a chore. Let the FTs look after and maintain the flats. Never mind if they become the new landlords. When you have more than half a million in the bank, nothing to worry about. Sell everything, don't own anything. Just convert to cash. This is the latest mantra now I think. And the beautiful surroundings and parks will be like the garden of Eden to be enjoyed in the twilight years.