How stupid can one get?

I was reading the papers today about the cruel beating and harsh regime administered to two brothers age 9 and 11 under the care of a taskmaster. The boys were caned till they bled for dozing off while studying. They had to wake up at 4.30am to study and slept at 11pm. The parents thought that the taskmaster could discipline the boys and probably improve their grades. The harsh regime is common in China, and with a little trace of the sadism in a book praising Tiger mums. Beat them into shape. It is for their own good. The more you beat them, the better they will turn out. And many silly ‘masters’ employed such methods on their students. The notables who went through such regimes are Jackie Chan, Samo Hung and their peers. Many were maimed for life. Still many silly parents allowed their children to be cruelly beaten for their own good. How stupid can people be to perpetuate such barbaric behavior on the young? And there are adults who still think beating and cruelty are good to shape up children. I would recommend caning for the taskmaster and the parents. I thought such mentality only can be found in the rural areas among illiterate and ignorant farmers. ‘The 45 year old electronics scientist was sentenced to six months’ jail…’ ST. Poor boys.

A new national problem

Worrying about the jobless yodas. Our oldies are going jobless, unemployed, unemployable. Serious problem! We need to find jobs for them. We need to restructure jobs, amend legislations, to let all the old fools to continue working, till they drop dead on their jobs. What is happening? What have happened to the happily retired and living on a nest of life long savings? We are and were a nation of big savers. We save more than anyone else. What have happened to our savings? Why must oldies keep on working to earn some money to live on? Crazy thought. What have gone wrong to our great retirement schemes and plans? What happens to the golden years, to see the world, to enjoy the grandchildren, to be happily retired, lying on a rocking chair and reading a book or watching the sunset? Now it is like a big crisis to have all the oldies hanging around, jobless! They must have jobs, they must be working, so say all of us. No more golden years? Soon golden age will also be passé.

Message from Parliament

We need more foreign talents. And we need more foreign talents. We have more than 5 million bodies in this piece of rock. And we need more foreign talents. When we are at 6 million, we still need foreign talents. When we are at 10 million, we still need foreign talents. When we are at 20 million, we will still need foreign talents. We need the bodies to ensure economic growth. Our economic growth is vital to our survival. Without economic growth, we will be history. And our economic growth depends on bodies. We need bodies to fill up our trains and buses. We need to fill them to the brim or else it is inefficiency and unprofitable. We need bodies to fill up our shopping centres and food courts. If not, business will be bad and rentals will fall. We need more bodies to fill up the factories and offices, or rentals will fall too. We need more foreign talents. We need more bodies to buy up all the properties, housing or commercial, or else prices will fall. And when all the properties are bought, we need to build more to generate more economic growth, and we need more bodies, and we need more foreign talents. And our roads must also be filled with cars or else it will be a waste of resources. A jammed pack road system is a sign of prosperity and high economic activity. Also good for COEs and ERPs. Our world class hospitals need to be filled. Can’t imagine if they are half empty or 70% filled. We need more bodies to fill them, from staffing to patients. Every head counts for economic growth. For the sake of economic growth and efficiency, we need to keep growing our population. And since the locals are not reproducing enough, we need to bring in more foreign talents. Don’t worry, economic growth is everything and it will not stop. We will keep growing, and keep needing foreign talents, and more bodies.

Comforting words in Parliament

Raymond Lim spoke in Parliament about his ministry’s plan for public transportation. More trains, more buses, higher frequencies, and best of all, more comfortable rides. Gone were the comparisons with Tokyo’s sardine can trains. It used to be the reference point, that if our trains were not as crowded as Tokyo’s, we are still not there, not up to Tokyo’s standard. Now comfort and higher frequencies are important. Thank you. And there is more money for everyone. The students are going to get more assistance with their school fees and the qualifying income has been raised. The poorer groups of citizens too will be seeing more help coming their way. Is this part of the election process or what? If it is part of the election process, a pre election morphine jab, what will the post election process be like? For sure, the fares will go up. The delay in fare hikes is only temporary. And for sure, someone is going to say, hey, all this costs money. And money must come from somewhere. Anyway it is a nice change. I am hoping that Boon Wan will also say that medical fees are too high. But no, when an open heart surgery cost only $8 out of pocket, it cannot be too high. In fact it is too cheap. And then we have seen medical bills in the tens of millions. Seriously, there is no reason to say that our medical bills in govt privatized hospitals are too high. The only way to say that they are too high is to ignore the $8 open heart surgery as only good for the likes of Boon Wan. Hope he will share with the people how he could do it. And also the $24.8m medical bill must be seen in a different light. Taking these two examples as anomalies, perhaps, maybe, we can then take a serious look at those $150k or $200k bills and say yes, honestly, undisputably, they are extraordinary high and not suitable for ordinary people. In reality, any bill that is above a couple of thousands is high. Any bill that is in 5 digits is very high and very unaffordable to the average Singaporeans. But they are lucky, with so much money in their Medisave and all the Ms to pay for them. What if they have no Ms? And would somebody admit that the prices of public housing is no longer affordable to many average Singaporeans? It will be a pleasant sound to hear. But I just heard a loud No, they are very affordable. Hey, this is pre election time, would it not be nice to say something nice?

Why is there a need to apologise?

LKY has made a statement that he stood to be corrected on his comment that the Malays should loosen up a little in their observance of Islamic norms. He was just being polite. As an elder statesman, he was being generous to offer his advice for the Malays to integrate better with the other communities. For him to have made the statement, the reason is obvious. If the Malays have integrated at a pace and level that he found comfortable, he would not have to say this. The Malays may think otherwise and feel that they have integrated very well and no need further advice. It is just a matter of perception from two different perspectives. Some may agree with him, some may not. I am still reading many comments that LKY needs to apologise. Apologise for what? For trying to them to be better integrated? Is that a derogatory remark, something that hurts? If the Malays disagree with his observation, just tell him they don’t agree. Both need not see eye to eye. Actually the way LKY puts it, the comment was most polite. He is not demanding the Malays to do what he wanted or else…. He did not reprimand the Malays for the pace of integration which he found still not good enough. The more the Malays and the other communities integrate with each other, the better it is for hotel building. Oops, I slip. I mean nation building. Even if it is just a hotel, integration of all parties working and living in the hotel cannot be bad. Need to apologise for wishing the community to be better? Come on, grow up lah. Take off the blinkers and see the world from the level of a higher good and stop being so petty and personal. The Malays are lucky that the MM is thinking about their problems and how to help them along. He could just keep quiet and pretend, which everyone is doing, that all is fine.