Western thinking in a Chinaman’s head

China is the most irresponsible emerging power for its failure to rein in the belligerent North Korea. It did not punish North Korea after the sinking of the Choenan as told by the Americans. (In this incident the West has already convicted the North Koreans of the crime but not allowing it to defend itself. The North Koreans have admitted the firing into Yeonpyeong but denied its role in Choenan and wanted an independent investigation to view the evidence. The South Koreans and its allies who conducted the one sided investigation pointedly refused to let them. There is no reason why the North Koreans needed to deny the shooting if they did it. There is no reason to deny an independent investigation if the evidence is convincing.) Every country wants to be friendly with China but it was China that is behaving aggressively. All Asian countries are viewing China’s rise with suspicion and fear. And China is rapidly beefing up its military forces and getting more aggressive in its disputes with its neighbours. The above is standard western American and western views. But inside many Asian heads, including the heads of WOGs and westernized Chinamen, this is the prevailing view that coloured their thinking process. Oops, I meant whiten their coloured minds. No one questions the role of the Americans, Japanese and South Koreans in provoking the North Koreans. No one wants to know the truth in the sinking of the Choenan. No one wants to know how the Americans have been orchestrating and creating the tension in the Korean Peninsula. No one wants to tell the South Koreans to stop their war mongering war games in the front yard of the North Koreans. Now that the Americans has given the green light to unleash the monster of the WW2, to allow Japan to rearm and become another military power, this idea will be accepted as the correct way to go by these Asians with western thinkings in their heads. The remilitarization of Japan is a very dangerous development. The beast in the Japanese people has not gone away and will resurface itself to terrorise the Asian countries and people. Is America just a peace loving country? A sweet darling to sleep in bed with? Nicholas D Kristof has an article to describe the modus operandi of the Americans which he titled ‘Military force is not effective at solving modern problems’. This is what he said, ‘The US spends nearly as much on military power as every other country in the world combined, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. It says we spend more than six times as much as the country with the next highest Budget, China. The US maintains troops at more than 560 bases and other sites abroad, many of them a legacy of a world war that ended 65 years ago….The US will spend more on the war in Afghanistan this year, adjusting for inflation, than we spend on the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican American War, the Civil War and the Spanish American War combined.’ Is this a benign and friendly super power? Why does it invest so much money and resources in the weapons of war and keeping so many military bases? For tea parties? This is the way the Americans choose to deal with countries that do not tow its lines. It will use force to deal with them. And it will do it again and again, as it has the monopoly of power. Ahh, the aircraft carriers and their fire power! But the silly Asian heads, thinking American or Western, took all this for granted as the order of the day. The flexing of American military muscles and starting wars is a peace loving thing. It is America’s right to instigate and start wars. America is a benign and peaceful power. China is a belligerent power. When America schemed and orchestrated the tension in Korea, it is China’s responsibility to defuse it. By not doing anything, China is irresponsible! What kind of silly heads will think like this?

Child abuse in Singapore?

A letter by a Neo Leng Hui appeared in the Today paper appealing to the MOE to start primary school later. And with full day schools, shouldn’t this be easier? Whatever the ‘f’ reasonings, efficiency, convenience, parents can fetch the children before going to work, blah, blah, blah, the current system demands that many primary school children will have to be up by 6am or earlier to get to school on time. The consequences of a system that compelled young children to wake up at the wee hours of the morning cannot be good. Those hours are meant for nocturnal animals. Even adults will have problems waking up in those hours. But clever adults think that it is ok for little children! Waking up at those hours to rush to schools would mean that the children will have difficulties trying to eat their breakfast. The body system may not be ready to consume meals. And rushing food into the body can be a problem too. Very likely the children will have to pack their food to eat when they arrived in schools in more humanly hours. It is not an uncommon sight to see little children slumping at the lift doors or the gates as they were barely await and trying to go back to sleep again. Some parents have to carry them all the way to the cars or buses where they could knock off again. These are terrible sights and a terrible thing to do to our little ones. But the experts in childcare and schoolings may think otherwise. There are social problems too, in the dark hours of the day. Would the parents feel good and comfortable bungling their little ones out of their way to schools? Would it be more sanely and better for children to spend some decent times together during breakfast instead of rush rush and rush, or when the children were all half asleep? Are we abusing our little children for their own good, to go to schools? The efficient tickling of the economic system is more important than the welfare of the little ones?

Wen Jia Bao’s visit to India stirring a storm

Reading from articles originating from India, the visit by Wen Jia Bao seems to have created a storm instead of bridging relations between the two countries. Even George Yeo could not miss the unfriendly vibes in the Indian media that kept blowing up the differences in the two countries, from border disputes to super power ambition. Both have many similarities, ancient, populous and corrupt in their own ways. One is already a super power and another pretending to be one. There is no need to claim who is more successful or who is a bigger power. There is no need to claim who is number one in this or that. The truth is all out there. India has historical claims over territories that it claimed was hers, and so does China. How this dispute is going to be resolved or can be resolved in the near future is anyone’s guess. India is claiming that China is getting more belligerent and aggressive and is responding by reinforcing its border military forces, including beefing up its air force. It seems that war is the only solution in the Indian cards. One far fetch drama is the belief that China is encircling India by helping to build sea ports in the littoral states of the Indian Ocean. The concept of containment originated from the Cold War between the West and the communist states. This has been proven to be ineffective as no states the size of China or India can be contained in any way. The Americans failed to contain China and at best only to restrict China’s relation with the American allies. But sooner or later, the allies, if they are independent countries, will have their own interests to look after as these are above the interests of whichever super power. Actually what China is doing is to thwart the efforts of the Americans and the West and also to expand its economic and political space. India is hardly in its equation for at least the next 30 years. In many areas, there is simply no contest and India should not think too highly of itself. It should just go on developing its economy and infrastructure. The influence and stature of a country will be accompanied by its economic strength, backed by a strong military. There are many interstate and strategic differences between the two countries. India should learn from the way China break out from the stranglehold of the Americans by economic development and advancement in technology. There is nothing the Americans can do to contain or restrain China short of an all out war. America has failed miserably by wasting its resources in military prowess and hardware and allowing China to grow by leaps and bounds in the economic field. India can do like wise, develop its industries and technology. No matter how much it aspires to be a super power, it cannot be one if its rockets keep falling out from the sky despite having no problems with its design. Get the basics right, strong economy and military, and all things associated with super power will fall into place. Having a noisy media talking nonsense and creating more animosities would not turn India into a super power. Militarily the US is still the undisputed super power. Economically it is a bankrupt super power. It is in a very precarious state where it could not produce enough to pay for all its adventurism except by printing money. The G2 is not coined for nothing. It recognizes that at the top of the heap there are two super powers. The Chinese may not be as powerful as the Americans militarily. Financially it is the undisputed super power. It helped to ward of the financial crisis of the late 90s. Today China is the most sought after Santa Claus of the financially strapped countries. The US is a pauper, Japan is not the Japan it once was. So is Germany or any other European country. No need to mention India. Only China has the financial muscle to pull the sick European countries out of the quagmire. Even if there is a property bubble burst in China, which the West is hoping everyday and eager to say I told you so, the incompetent Chinese can never manage their economy, the huge cash reserves will pull them through. No need World Bank or IMF. The rest of the poor ‘rich’ nations are equally impoverished to be able to lend a helping hand even if they are willing. This is what China is today. No need to claim super power status. The European knew who has the dole.

Singapore logic tak pakai elsewhere

The supreme Singapore logic is unquestionable inside Singapore. This simple and clear logic only Singaporeans can understand. Some examples like privatized companies are run privately with no govt interference are easy to understand. The HDB, privatized govt hospitals, transport companies, are all run under commercial disciplines and using the logic of profits and nothing else. The banks, stock exchange, universities, national newspaper etc etc are independent from the govt. They make their decisions based on their own commercial and business interests. When the same logic was applied in other countries, somehow they could not understand how our logic and reasoning worked. They kept messing up by insisting on believing that our govt linked companies are part of our govt and controlled by our govt. In Thailand, our purchased of their telco from Thaksin hit a wall. They claimed that their security was compromised by us. How ridiculous. Then there is Australia who could not separate our Stock Exchange from our govt. They did not like the way our govt functions and implicitly thought that our exchange is less worthy too since it is associated with the govt. And in Indonesia, just because shares were held by two Singapore owned companies, they simply lumped them together as one entity and accused us of collusion, monopoly and all that jest. Now their courts even ruled to confiscate the assets of our companies. Luckily our head offices were not informed and they can’t do anything about it. If our head offices had been informed, they would have taken everything away, legally of course. Is this an issue of misunderstanding or a kind of difference in perception? Or is it culture and different way in thinking? Or is it because of different world and different world view?

Government is serious business

The communist countries have their best men and women in govt services. The western democracies have their attractive and good looking men and women in office. One selects the best based on their intellect and abilities. The other uses popular votes to vote in the best looker or talker to look good on TV and make lovely speeches. Singapore modeled its govt on western democracies but deviated by choosing the ‘best’ men and women to be in govt. This has served the country well for many decades. But the problem of getting the best in govt is hitting many road blocks. For one, not necessary the best will want to stand out for one reason or another. This has resulted in the ‘best’ being the best of the willing. Another major problem that marred the selection process is the dearth of political talents and leaders. The consequence is that many have no choice but duty bound to stay on even when they are not in the best of condition, physically. Some could be hard of hearing, walking or even making a speech. But they sacrificed themselves for a noble cause. Some even have to take less money home. Pathetic is the word. On the other extremes we may find children in govt as well. These must be very exceptional talents to be selected and elected by the people to serve them and the country. They are bright and clever but may be lacking in experience and wisdom in some cases. Experience and wisdom do not come about by reading books alone or an inborn thing. These are the mistakes and adversities one encountered, directly or indirectly, over time that make a person wiser, more circumspect, humbler and able to appreciate the problems and difficulties and meanings of life and living. Govt is not child play and we need the best of the best to govern the country and make life better for as many as reasonably possible. We cannot have half ins and half outs in the govt. Agree that the best means many things and different things to different people. The people and the quality of their life shall be the best to judge what is best or betterer for them. A big contradiction in this quest for the best to serve the country and people is to have part time MPs but with a pay that is not part time. No matter how talented, when a job is part time, it is part time.