Social media’s growing clout

Monday was a great day for social media. It was quoted profusely by the main media on all the saucy comments about Ravi’s dance performance in Hong Lim Park. It used to be the other way, when social media quotes main media for news and information.

The growing presence and relevance of social media is again proven by the suspension of an NPark officer and the investigation into the irregularities in purchasing $2,200 folding bikes for its officers. The case was brushed off quickly by officialdom when it first surfaced. It was through the tireless great investigative work of social media that revealed so many discrepancies and doubtful practices that this case can no longer be swept under the carpet. Many netizens are calling for an investigation by CPIB.

The main media was at a lost and one main media journalist was quoted to have sought assistance from a netizen journalist on how to go about conducting investigative journalism. This is about the best recognition social media reporters/journalists could ever hope to get from the professional and well paid and well trained main media journalists.

Social media is going to get more relevant with each passing day. But one must be cautioned about how easily social media can be abused. All it needs to do is to plant a few jokers to make all the comments wanted and these can then be quoted as genuine feedbacks from the bloggers or netizens. In reality, the feedbacks and comments were preconceived and to be used for a planned purpose.

While social media is flourishing in its free and unfettered ways, all must be made aware that many disinformation, can be planted to confuse and abuse the social media.

Social media reporters/journalists/bloggers must continue to strive to provide genuine and factual reports and articles to maintain their integrity and the integrity of social media as an alternative source of news and information.

When Minister turns ordinary citizen

After the last GE three ministers turned into ordinary citizens. They left politics and live a more carefree life as one among the millions. No more trappings of power and attention. A few ministers have stepped down but either remained in politics or staying in the inner circle of power brokers and still walk the corridor of power. To them, nothing really changes. Even for the ministers that have left politics, not much has changed. The umbrella of political power is still providing the needed shade and comfort wherever they go. What would life be if the umbrella is no longer there?

2016 looks ominously uncertain. Would the umbrella be folded and replace by a new one? The likelihood of the current political umbrella being removed or changed cannot be ruled out no matter how secure things look now. In a worst case scenario, the umbrella could be changed and many ministers would join the men in the street or civvy street. And without the coverage of the old umbrella, life is not going to be the same again. No more invitation, no more attention, no more large entourage, no one listening to what they talk or what they talk no longer matters. And the 30 titles and appointments will be lapsed. No invitation to be chairman or directors here and there.

Sinkies are being exhorted to prepare for retirement, to integrate with foreigners, accept a life with high cost of living and high cost of everything, to prepare to become hawkers as a new opportunity in life. The ministers who would join the civvy street need not bother with such issues. They are all very well prepared financially to live a life rich in abundance. What they would miss would be the attention and the sense of being important, being in the thick of things, being waited wherever they go. No one will be waiting for them when that day comes except their closed ones and friends.

Are the ministers prepared for such a change, when everyone in the street and their neighbours will regard them just as another ordinary citizen, just another Sinkie? This is no small change. Would they need psychiatric counselling to prepare them for the new life of being ordinary citizens? It is not easy to adapt to a situation when people will disagree with them openly without deference or decorum, or even ridicule or vilify them straight in the face. It can be quite dramatic and traumatic in the new situation, without the power halo over their heads.

Reading at some of the snippets in Chok Tong’s facebook, things can be rough down the road without the umbrella. Talking cock and craps would no longer be tolerated. Hope they will be strong and none would morph into lunatics at the fringes should that day becomes a reality.

US and the West plan to attack Syria

USA accusation of Syria's chemical weapons is a clear signal that the desperate West and US intend to use it as a pretext and preamble to attack Syria and to carry out regime change. Obama is being used by warmongering white masters to sound the alarm.


Obama don't be too swell headed of being the first nigger to be president of the Evil Empire, USA.  You are being used by white men as a psychological factor to win allies in the Third World or developing countries to serve the interest and agenda of US and the West. You had received the Nobel War Price, so you feel obliged to do the bidding of the evil white men. We know as a black prfesident you have no real power, for you have toe serve your white masters in Congress, the Senate and your war criminal masters and overlords in CIA and the Pentagon. You have tried to outdo the previous white presidents in carrying out brutal wars of aggression against Third World countries You are being used by the Evil Empire, USA to sow discord , suspicion and dissension among Asian and African nations and in stirring up China's neighbours to go against China with a view to eventually holding hegemony over them so as to dominate and control them in all spheres of life via territorial, political, finance and economy. You are denigrating yourself in serving as an agent of white men to destabilise and destroy Third World countries and in carrying out regime change of countries which do not accept US dictates you have not only betrayed them but have also grossly and unjustly trampled on their self-respect and dignity.

You are a hypocrite and you have no right whatsoever to accuse Syria or other countries of having chemical weapons when your Evil Empire , US has the world's greatest stock pile not only of chemicals but also tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. In any case the world knows that your false accusation of Syria is only a pretext and a preamble to eventually attacking Syria and carrying out regime change. Heaven is watching and it will not allow that to happen.

As a black president you should take the opportunity to right all the wrongs done by white to black men over the last few hundred years whereby millions of black African slaves were thrown overboard into the Atlantic Ocean or died under the most miserable conditions in America under their cruel white masters. The souls of these dead black men are crying out loud for revenge.

Obama shame on you for supporting white men's agenda of destabilising and destroying the whole of the Middle East and North Africa with a view to dominate and control the vast  rich mineral and oil resources of the Arab world. The sins of the Arabs is that they are lazy, weak and disunited  and thus fall easy prey to white men's manipulation and evil design.

We know all the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa are the results of the wanton West and US in using outside mercenaries and paid proUSA terrorists in creating trouble and starting proxy wars on behalf of US and the West.

Obama, you and your evil US will receive retribution for all the evils and sufferings you have done to poor Third World developing countries.

Born in Singapore

Born in Singapore is going to make a difference as we become a nation of Singaporeans plus foreigners. In the early years of nation building, when the bulk of the population was of migrant stocks, being a migrant or a citizen did not matter much. Citizenship was a fairly new concept as the island was established as a colony of the British Empire. The locals were not really citizens as we knew it today, but subjects of an Empire, a foreign overlord who treated the subjects as lesser beans than their citizens.

The immigrant mentality must change as we progress. We started off as nobody and the island was like no owners but temporarily occupied by the usurpers, the colonial masters. Since given independence by Malaysia, a lot of sacrifices had been made to make this island what it is today by the pioneers who paid a heavy price in the building of a country but did not really benefitted from it. The only people deserving to benefit from the sacrifices of our forefathers must be their descendants, their children as a part of them.

Born in Singapore, Made in Singapore, must be the legitimate trademark for ownership of the island. The island did not become what it is today by accident. It is acceptable and generous for the children of the founding fathers of the island to share the wealth and inheritance with some newcomers if they are willing to. It is foolish of anyone to think that this inheritance should be given away freely to anyone. Only reckless prodigal sons will squander their inheritance away without any inkling of how hard it was down this road. It was covered with blood, sweat and tears of our forefathers. Perhaps the layering of fine material have covered and removed all traces of the past, the smell and marks of old. But look carefully, they are still there. And be thankful for what the forefathers have done for what we have today. It is sinful and irresponsible to throw them away to benefit new migrants at the expense of the descendants of the original nation building. It is not graciousness but sheer stupidity to do so.

Born in Singapore is not the same as Printed in Singapore. The more mature countries like the USA also have special provisions in their constitution to guard the privileges of local born citizens. The President of the USA must be born in America. The local born in the island since 1965 should be in their 40s. There are enough local borns to take over the country from here onwards. It is time to consider amending the constitution to protect the local borns from losing their privileges to the foreign borns and new citizens.

We are a nation with our very own people. The Born In Singapore are not migrants. This is what a country and a nation are all about. It is not a hotel, and hotel guests must not be allowed to usurp the wealth and privileges of the real owners of the country. Those thoughtless people who think of nothing about giving the rights of ownership of the island to any Tom, Dick and Harry should be prepared to give their own properties away first, share their private wealth with foreigners if they think it is ok to give the country away to foreigners. Bet you none of them would want to give away anything that belongs to them simply because it belongs to them, they own them. Why then would anyone think of given the country away so freely? Do they not own the country too?

Or they have plans to leave when everything has been given away and the place no longer pleasant to live in? Hopefully this is not in the thinking. The Born In Singapore must exert their rights to protect their interests in the country built and willed to them by their forefathers’ hands before it ended up as someone else property. This island belongs to those Born In Singapore. But if they are so careless and callous, they could lose it or share it with people that came along without contributing to it.

Do not become a prodigal son and lose your inheritance. Do not be deceived into giving everything away as if they don’t belong to you. As Born In Singapore, this island is yours. Anyone thinking of giving it away needs your permission to do so. This is your inheritance.

The fearsome tag

Many must have remembered the Yellow Ribbon advert of an ex convict talking to a little girl and the fear it sent to the viewers that he was up to something no good. With his tattoo and appearance, the impression was bad, but it turned out that he was the girl’s daddy.

An artistic person performing a cultural dance would often be well appreciated by the audience especially if the dancer was a high profile professional from another field. Wow, the doctor is such a great dancer, or the minister or the CEO of a big corporation being carried on a well decorated sedan chair. There is nothing creepy about that. This is likely to be the reaction in normal circumstances.

The impression will be coloured, tainted, biased, if one wears a tag, especially a tag bordering on insanity. Once a tag is being pinned on a person, anything the targeted person does will be seen through that lens no matter if the case is proven. Any trait or behaviour that fits the looney category could be seen as confirmation that the tag is true.

M Ravi has just been accused of bi polar disorder or unusual behavior. Not proven yet. Now he went to Hong Lim to perform a dance in public. This is immediately seen as weird, that he is really what he was accused of. And the media is picking this point up. Wow, Ravi’s behavior is strange indeed.

Why is this so? Why is it that the commentators were not seeing the good side of Ravi, his other talents, that he could dance a classical Indian dance? And that was what he did.

Now this performance would likely be used by his opponents as evidence to prove their case, that Ravi is really a nut case. The tag is very powerful and destructive. It made the up the mind for many unthinking and innocent onlookers. All it needs is to plant the idea and all actions will be seen through that tinted glass, to confirm or to dismiss it. In this case, the dance performance is likely to be taken negatively against Ravi.

The door of IMH is open and waiting. How is Ravi going to get out of this snare? How many psychiatrists will be called upon to prove that Ravi is indeed of unsound mind? How many would be called to defend him, to prove that he is just another normal person with different talents and temperaments? And not dangerous, and be fit to work as a lawyer in his professional capacity.

Or would Ravi even get a chance to defend himself before the light goes out on him?