Global Warming - Temperature Rising

My latest creation on Global Warming, showing how the fishes melt under high temperature. A larger version in my Art of RAR blog.

When the right ball does not know what left ball is talking

When this happens, someone can go on screwing everyone. Ok, kopitiams and hawker stalls, do not anyhow raise your price, it will lead to higher cost of living. Inflation is the most dangerous beast lurking in our midst. The worst bugbear is housing. Look at the lovely prices in the sky and all the happy developers and speculators, and HDB owners! Now who is aiding the high prices? Would the hike in worker’s levy raise the cost of housing? Maybe not. Who knows, nobody I think. It is very difficult to understand building and construction cost when no numbers are available. Will the hike in redevelopment fees for properties raise property prices? Definitely no. There are unrelated, two different things. The high cost of housing is imported, imported together with foreigners coming here to work and to be residents. And also the high cost of materials, definitely beyond our control. I am still trying to figure out why property price is still rising. Maybe I am really dumb. After so long still unable to find out why.

We need more Chee Soon Juans in Parliament

Chiam See Tong may be able to anchor a team to win a GRC. I hope he delivers. But what is badly needed in Parliament is more Chee Soon Juans. Personally I think he is the most wronged person in politics. He has given his all, his career, his family and his life to politics, to serve Singapore. If this is not sacrifice, what else is? It is time that the people appreciate his contribution and give him their votes to bring him into Parliament. Having one Chee Soon Juan is not the end as a lonely figure in Parliament is not a joking matter. He could be drowned by laughters, and that is all there is to keep him on the defensive. He needs a team of several Chee Soon Juans to stand up to the wolf pack. And a few Chee Soon Juans can only do good for the people of Singapore. There is a need for an opposition voice, a real opposition voice, in Parliament. And if there is a time for it, this GE is the best opportunity to make it happened. The set back in the Reform Party must be taken in its stride and the best of the opposition must be given a chance to represent and speak for the people. Without an opposition voice, we can expect more of what we have already knew, and more akan datang. More of everything is affordable. No matter how good a solitary ruling party is, I think by now the people are wiser and know what is for their own good. A bigger and louder opposition voice is begging to be represented and heard in Parliament. Our first world country with first world political and economic system, with first world citizens, now with more foreign talents becoming citizens, more first world, must surely be able to withstand the presence of a few more opposition members in Parliament. Not the NMP or the NCMP kind. It would not collapse. If it does, like sand castle, then it is not worth keeping. We need a more resilient and durable political system that can last.

Tragedy of ignorance, irresponsibility or plain stupidity?

Lily Neo related this story of a 45 year old jobless woman. She has ‘five children aged 9 to 20 and a grandson living in a two room rental flat. She remarried recently, but her husband is also unemployed. The sole breadwinner is the 20 year old son, who has primary school education and earns $650 a month doing odd jobs. Her two daughters aged 9 and 12 are not doing well in school. Her 13 year old son has dropped out. And her 18 year old daughter has a 5 year old son.’ In the 1950s or earlier, in a rural environment, life will go on just like the border towns of Thailand/Myanmar/Kampuchea or in some parts of third world countries. The people live off the land, build a hut with some leaves and called it home. They will survive without education, with little food and little needs. In the 21st Century, in the heart of a big city, you cannot live life that way. Everything costs money, rentals, food and all the basic needs. Why is such a thing still happening in our society? Who is at fault? How much can the govt do to help these people? Are such tragedies avoidable? Just ponder. These people have the right to live, make love and procreate. Can anyone say they need to have a COE for doing such basic things? Can any govt take tough measures against the right to live, to make love, and to procreate? Is there a solution? Is there a problem in the first place? If we cannot recognise the problem, then there is no problem and no need for a solution. If we do not know that there is a problem, better still, no problem. Where is the ostrich?

This is home, truly…

Is Singapore a home or a hotel? The traditional understanding of a home is a place where one grows up and has many fond memories of, old places, faces, smell and a lot of stories to feel nostalgic about. It is about belonging, a familiar place to touch base. The features of modern living and being Singaporeans today are about change. Everything is changing, from the infrastructure and road maps to the faces of people on the street, the odour and the sight and sound, never the same before. We have people moving in and out of the island, citizens become non citizens, non citizens become citizens. We move homes like changing clothes. All the memories of childhood were wiped away for development and progress. The moving and changing even goes down to being a part of a place or constituency. Today part of Hougang, tomorrow part of East Coast, then become single wards, then GRCs. Today serve by this MP, tomorrow by another. With all the continuous changes in our lives, from the familiar to the unfamiliar, can we really feel that this is home? No wonder they are saying that as a nation, we are still a work in progress, starting all over again and again. Our roots have very few things to anchor on. Our friends were always new, our neighbours new, our MPs also new. We are less than 50 years old, and our accumulated past have already been wiped away by economic and progress. This is home, truly? Work in progress?