If there was no Thio Su Mien and Josie Lau...and gang

Yes, Thio Su Mien and Josie Lau and gang were booted out of Aware. Everyone clapped. Everyone happy. The majority have spoken. What if this event did not happen? Would the Aware CSE curriculum still be taught to the school children?

Year 2025 - A wedding

Now it is year 2025, and I am still alive. All my friends are still kicking around too, not mati yet. And I got a call from my anonymous friend. Hi Redbean, my son is getting married next Sat. You are invited. OH congrats. He must have found a beautiful bride. Ahem, not like that man. My son is the bride. And the groom is a tall and handsome Greek god, bronze in colour man. Wow, that must be exciting. So, you aren't planning to be a grandpa? Not really, they said they will adopt one from Kampuchea and one from Mamiya. So I will have two grandchildren. And I am truly happy to see them together. My son is so happy when he is with him. It is all about finding true happiness man. Great. So is the event formal or informal? Redbean, you are really 'swa koo'. This is year 2025, where got formal or informal. OK, then I will come in my tux top and jeans bottom. Would that be cool enough? Just come in whatever you like lah, as long as it is pink. Ok, no problem, I will just bleach one of my red shirt overnight. That shall do the trick. Oh, just for your info, the wedding is approved by the govt. How so? What has the govt got to do with the wedding. You son or son in law must be somebody important huh? It is like that lah, they are holding it at Hong Lim Park. Anything held there is approved by the govt. Oh, that's true huh. So clever. I am really looking forward to the wedding. I have been shooting orchids and dragonflies all my life. Now I have something real exciting to shoot at. Will be there. The above could be the reality of the future generations. Don't pray pray.

What are MOE's and Aware's positions?

The MOE had investigated and had banned the Aware CSE programme for the time being and is reviewing the contents from all the service providers of these programmes. MOE has also made its stand clear, that it follows the govt's policies of promoting healthy lifestyle with the family as the basic building block of our society. What the MOE needs to do is to clarify how the CSE programme was given the go ahead to be taught to school children. Was it an oversight or was it approved initially as acceptable until parents complained? As an oversight, it can be corrected by doing more due diligence. What is worrisome is that MOE could actually support such contents. Parents need an assurance that it is not. And MOE owes the parents who don't approved of the undesirable contents an explanation on how it came about. What is the true position of MOE on this? Similarly, Aware needs to publicise its position on the teaching of such material to school children. The Aware's content promotes homosexuality, anal sex and pre marital sex as normal. Is sodomy normal? Would Aware clarify where it stands on these issues? Is it for, against or neutral?

Mas Selamat – The Superman

We have heard it over and over again, Mas Selamat is a Superman. Not only that he could slip out of a heavily guarded detention centre, right under the noses of officers and guards, in broad day light, and disappeared for more than a year, terrorist experts are heaping praises on him, that he is an expert in terrorist acts, in making bombs, a determined man, a highly intelligent operator and what ever you can make him out to be. Basically he is smarter and more intelligent than any of the security officers we have in service. He is Superman! His latest exploit was to swim across the Straits of Johore, using improvised flotation gear. From what we read in the media, it was very likely that he strung together a pile of plastic bottles, tied probably with raffia strings or lallangs, and swum across the strait that was heavily patrolled by the coastguards in search of him. Ok, swimming across the 1.2km strait is no problem as school children could also do it easily. I definitely can’t. In the case of Mas Selamat, his comrade disclosed that he was a bad swimmer. Added to that, he has a bad leg that limps. So how could he swim across with such disabilities and handicaps. The obvious answer is that he had the help of some kind of propulsion. I think all he needed was to fart all the way and for an hour or so. That would take him across the strait. The only precaution he needed was to ensure that his farting was not too loud to be heard.

More transparency and less hostility

We have all heard calls for more inclusiveness and homosexuality is normal. It is also normal to teach children that homosexuality is an alternative lifestyle, and sexuality is normal, including pre marital sex. I have ventured into Catherine Lim's blog and read her article which suggested that parents should not imposed their values on their children. But is the Aware CSE programme imposing its values on children? The general impression I got is that many sophisticated adults, with many years of experience and widely read and travelled, assumed that children, in the early teens, are smart, well informed like them, and mature enough to make life choices on value loaded issues like sexuality, premarital sex, etc. And in her blog, there was one Beka who claimed to be a youth and very knowledgeable about such things, implying that all children are as knowledgeable and well informed as him/her. I asked him/her for his/her age as a 'youth'. From her post, I believe he/she will be a youth in her late 20s or 30s or older. There is no comparison to a child in her lower teens or pre teens. At those tender age, they are very vulnerable. Anyway, I got a few presumptious responses for my post in Catherine's blog that were clearly hostile and arrogant. Of course they called me presumptious, arrogant and ignorant. And I can clearly see where they are coming from. To be fair, to be transparent and open in our discussion over such 'normal issues' it is better that we know the background of the person speaking. I mean just the person's sexual orientation. This will help to make one understand why things were said in such a manner, and the values and experience that formed the basis of the positions taken. I am straight and hetero. I am normal. I do not feel ashame or any need to hide this information. And if the homosexuals do believe that they are normal, than they too should not feel ashamed to reveal their orientation. Then we can have a healthy discussion, with a better understanding of why the other is taking such a position. And this is a discussion between mature adults, not between arrogant and demanding individuals who only want others to see their points of view as the only right view. Homosexuality and heterosexuality are not something that we can ascribe right or wrong to them. Let's talk about them with some civility without getting emotional as if one who does not agree is an enemy and going after the other's lifestyle.