The morning dawns darkness

Work up this morning to be greeted by a bright new day. Sat down for a cuppa of kopi and breakfast to prepare for a quiet and blissful weekend. Flipped the ST and suddenly darkness descended all around me.

Ravi was told to see a psychiatrist by the Law Society or to face losing his license to practise as a lawyer. And Ravi’s consultation with his own psychiatrist, a prominent practitioner, was somehow not enough. How many psychiatrists must Ravi see before enough is enough or before the Law Society deems he is fit to practise law?

Has Ravi misbehaved in courts, incoherent and acted in a way detrimental to his clients or embarrassing to the courts, to the legal profession? Or has Ravi done anything to harm anyone? Has Ravi’s clients been complaining about his behaviour and incompetence?

He has been in and out of courts and no judges have so far questioned his ability to handle his cases. Why is Ravi seen as incompetent and could face losing his licence to practise?

The darkness is overwhelming and suffocating.

Our roads are dangerous for cyclists

Are our roads dangerous? Shanmugam said, and I quote from the Today paper, ‘I have been noticing that there is increased amount of unsafe driving on our roads…I wonder if it is the case that we are simply noticing this more, or if indeed our driving habits have become worse. And Today had a table showing that the number of cyclists and pillion riders who died or were injured in accidents were 589 for 2009, 573 for 2010 and 500 for 2011. The number for Jan-Jun 2012 is 190 and simple projection will see this number to be about 190 plus or minus a bit in the next 6 months, or about 380 to 400 for the year. 

Ahem, I must say that based on these numbers, the number of incidents is getting lesser, not increased.

Nonetheless, the number of death is still too high for a casual recreational activity with one or two death daily. It is the most dangerous sports in terms of number of casualties. It should be discouraged or even banned. The number of death is unnecessary and not worth the risk.

Many cyclists refuse to admit this fact that our roads are just too dangerous for cyclists. They are not only narrow, other than the highways, the drivers, the big buses and lorries, are often driven by speed demons. Many of these heavy vehicles are driven by the lowly educated, the foreigners with their third world mentality and habits, and pose just too high a risk for our cyclists.

To add to the problem, some cyclists think that drivers are as well mannered and safety conscious as them, and would drive with care. To further add to the deadly delusion, some of the cyclists thought number is safety and would cycle abreast in twos and threes or more when in a big group, ignoring the right of motorists. They are simply inviting for trouble. A little mistake by the drivers, intentional, accidental or trying to frighten the cyclists to cycle single file would send them flying to heaven.

At this point in time, our road infrastructure is just not suitable for cyclists, not even single file. Best to just keep to the parks, connectors and housing estates. Venture to the main roads at your own risk. The hobby or sports, the attractive sports attire and gadgets to don on, are not worth the risk of losing arms and legs and lives. Don’t be silly and don’t be stubborn. Our roads are not meant for cycling.

Quote from Professor Christopher Balding

‘Everyone the world over, the Chinese included, acknowledge that the Chinese media is blatantly manipulated and censored. Chinese technocrats quietly admit they don’t trust their own economic data believing it to be rigged for political purposes.’ Christopher Balding

How many people believe that their country’s media, or any media, is not blatantly manipulated and censored?

What you will be getting and missing reading western media

This is what David Pilling wrote in his article, Japan, China and their ‘history problem’ in the Today paper, ‘The argument over Senkaku goes back to the start of Japanese colonialism. Japan surveyed Senkaku in 1885, … Saying that there was no sign of the islands being under anyone’s influence, it incorporated the into Japanese territory in 1895. Beijing says the islands have appeared on Chinese maps since the 16th Century. From its perspective, Japan seized the islands when it was setting off on its Western inspired colonial rampage. The islands were controlled by the Americans after the war, but returned to Tokyo in 1972 as part of the reversion of Okinawa to Japan. Beijing says the US had no right to return them since they were not Washington’s to give.’

Anyone reading this piece will think nothing is wrong with the Japanese version and the return of the islands to Japan. What was missing was the acknowledgement by the Japanese Imperial govt even much earlier of Diaoyu Islands as the territorial limits of the Qing Dynasty. What was left out was the ceding of the islands in an unequal treaty after China lost a war with Japan in the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki. It was not an innocent act of simply incorporating other countries’ land into another country like the Western powers did during their colonization of the world. Columbus went to American and found no one owned it, so claimed that he found it. Raffles founded Singapore because no one else found it.

It also brushes aside the fact that the islands were held in trust by the Americans only and America was not the rightful owners. It also did not say anything about the post WW2 treaties for all land grabbed by Japan to be returned to China, including these islands. It also turned a blind eye to the American agenda of the Cold War conflict with China and Russia and thus conveniently ignored China’s rights to these islands.

The western media often deliberately ignored the truth and the relevant facts to show a different truth. Unwary and innocent readers would easily be made to see only their side of half truth, and lies as truth. And may daft Asians and Africans would believe these western truths and yell and cheer and embrace them like the gospel truth. Unthinking and not thinking and making an ass of themselves to serve western interests and agenda without knowing it.

China will do very well by not learning from the corrupt West

There is a Bloomberg article in the ST yesterday about the great pay gap between the American and Chinese bankers. As an example, it said that ‘For every US$1b of profit, investment bank JP Morgan, the biggest US lender, pays its chief executive and chairman Jamie Dimon US$1.21m, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s most profitable, gives its top executive Jian Jianqing US$9,400.’ Dimon’s total package last year was around US$23m while Jian was about US$300k.

The disparity is probably as wide as the income gap between the rich and poor in Sinkieland. The article also said that the gap would be narrowed in a matter of time. It would, but hopefully China would not be as crazy as to go all the way like the crazy American white collar crooks. The salary of their political leaders is another example of China refusing to do the wrong things and ape the West blindly. They are not going to restrict the number of banks and not going to let them grow to become too big to fall. This is something that will keep the Chinese income gap and inflation in an even keel. Remember, all the big money paid to top bankers, CEOs and govt leaders eventually is paid by the people. It comes from the people that they robbed indirectly.

Despite the hue and cry about property prices falling, the Chinese are not going to do the same crazy thing to let property prices go sky high. The developers are trying to frighten the govt by claiming prices would collapse. They did not know that there are more than 1.4b Chinese waiting for cheaper properties and waiting for the prices to fall. The Chinese have brilliant scholars and administrators who are studying the developments around the world and could see the pitfalls of high property prices. They are going to introduce more curbs and control measures to keep property prices low.

There are many things the Chinese are learning since they joined the world community in the last 60 years and they are very discriminating in what they would adopt and apply to their country. Heh heh, high property prices and high salaries are not in their cards, at least if the current leaders have their way. They are not daft, like Sinkies. Hope they don’t turn their stockmarkets into doubles of Wall Street, and allow computers to trade against small investors, and not to allow derivatives and snake oils to be sold in their markets. By not aping and copying the West blindly, the Chinese would do well and protect themselves from the greed that is destroying the western economies and system.

PS. For those wondering why I wrote so many articles about China, US and east and south east Asia, these are my academic interests. No man is an island and we must look beyond the little wells we live in. The world is so interconnected that everything affects us in one way or another.