Looking at Sin 10 years down the road

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) is coming up with a more serious discussion on the future of Sin, in year 2012. This is something that is worth looking at instead of conning youth to talk about graciousness and kindness. Issues like kinder society are much nicer to discuss than influx of foreigners, high cost of living, high property prices.

The IPS studies, headed by Gillian Koh and a team of professionals will be looking at 3 scenarios. 1. A pro business govt focusing on economic growth and ensuring better paying jobs for Singaporeans. 2. A govt formed by a splinter group of the PAP providing cheap and heavily subsidized healthcare, education and housing. 3. A weak coalition govt running a country whose citizens have little trust in it but where there is high venture capitalism and much community driven effort.

These are the possibilities in the near future. I thought a better topic would be to look at the realities today and the problems that will surface when the world financial system goes into a tail spin. The case is like a pro foreigner govt that provides good jobs to foreigners and losing the confidence and support of the people and is bundled out in the next GE. A new coalition govt is formed with many inexperienced politicians taking the helm and with the people taking a big gamble to place hope on a completely new team. No ex PAP or splintered PAP group will do as the distrust in the PAP is so total that anyone associated with the PAP will not be favoured by the people.

How would such a scenario play out in 5 years time? This is a more immediate problem, very likely and deserve more attention than something in 10 years or 20 years or in 100 years in the future. When the crisis can happen any time, there is no luxury to look beyond but to tackle the immediate problems. Forget about once upon a time. It is now, the moment has come to look seriously at immediate problems and issues. Funny that people rather ignore them and wanting them to be sweep under the carpet and to spend them gazing at the crystal ball of yore when they will be history.

Affordable healthcare in Sin

Singapore healthcare, like public housing is affordable. A meningitis case in KK Hospital ended with a $130k bill for the boys’s parents. But they are not complaining. They were too happy with the bill as it was affordable. They only need to pay $250 pm for the next 42 years, interest free some more. The hospital is so compassionate and generous by not charging them any interest.



Welcome to the all inclusive and richest nation in the world when a truck driver would not bat an eyelid having to pay $130k hospital bill incurred by his son. He is happy and the hospital is happy, for the next 42 years.



The paper millionaires in Sin are living precariously with their $1m property and feeling very secure and pleased with themselves. They did not know that all it needs is a family member to be down with cancer and his wealth will be down by half a million immediately, to be paid in cash. And the monthly check up is going to cost him $10k for the next 2 to 3 years at least. Such millionaires will be in debt in no time even after selling off his only paper asset.



As for the retirees, the system is designed to finish his savings in double quick time with inflation devouring away everything he got. Retirement is a very dangerous state of existence unless one is drawing a million bucks in retirement pay. They have counted why they needed $1m a year on retirement.

Paintings of god 神画

The painting above is one of 39 pieces of works in the exhibition held at NUSS Guild House, Kent Ridge from 22 Oct  to 21 Dec.

Paintings of god 神画

What is 神画 or paintings of god? The Secrets of Mother Nature Exhibition now at NUSS Guild House at Kent Ridge(22 Oct – 21 Dec) is about a new photopainting art form.  I have developed this technique after many years of experimentation. It is called the Art of RAR or Reflection and Refraction. It involves the taking of invisible images in the water and turning them into paintings.

Such paintings have never been done or seen before. It is about a photograph but not a photograph, a painting but not a painting, an original but not. It is not computer graphic art or animation. It is a hybrid of a photograph and a painting created not by a human artist but by Mother Nature, or god in a liberal sense. It is painted by a human artist but it is not. Let me explain this new art form before I confuse everyone.

Why is it a photograph but not a photograph?

A photograph is the product of an image taken by a camera of an object. There is a direct object image relationship. In this art form an object is photographed using the camera. But the image captured is not that of the object. The object is simply water in a pond and nothing else. The image can be anything, looking anything other than water. The image is inherent in the water but is not visible to the naked eye and needed some processing to reveal what it really is, and definitely not the water that it originally appeared when being photographed.

It is a painting but not a painting

A conventional painting is normally painted by an artist onto paper or canvas with ink, pigment, water colour, oil, crayon etc. The painting in this case is printed by a printer and can be pigment, ink or oil. It has some similarities with a conventional painting in the sense that it came from an artist’s idea or thought. The difference is that this idea or concept comes from the thought of Mother Nature and can only be captured by a camera before being translated into a visible form.

It is the original but not the original.

The real original of a painting created by this method is invisible, is fluid and is in the water, and vanishes the moment it is photographed and would never be seen again. This original concept exists in a different plane, like a human thought. Thus the painting in print form can be called the original as it is the only available arising from the first thought in the water.

It is not computer graphic art or animation

The painting comes from a digital image of a camera. It only goes through some processing that are similar to darkroom processes, eg brightness, contrast, colour, sharpness, intensity, brilliance etc. There may be some touching up of spots or removal of minor blemishes. No major alteration of the image is done. The authenticity of the digital image is preserved and can be easily returned to the original form with the hitting of the reset button.

It is painted by a human artist but it is not

The conceptualizing of the painting is done by Mother Nature. Everything is already there and the contribution of the human artist, the photopainter, is to assist in bringing out the details of the painting that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye. The photopainter, the human artist, can only do what is already present in the original image and does not introduce new or additional elements into the paintings. As the possibilities of each image are quite varied, the photopainter could interpret it in many ways and there is no certainty that the image in print is exactly what Mother Nature intended. This is the part played by the human photopainter, introducing some subjectivity into the final form.

In summary, every painting created by this technique is conceived and designed by god or Mother Nature, photographed and fine tuned by a photopainter. It is a photograph turned into a painting with Nature doing the bulk of the creative part of the work. The photopainter just collaborates with Mother Nature and the final work is the effort of both parties with Mother Nature playing the bigger role.

This art form or technique is intrinsically a Singaporean creation.

 

Chua Chin Leng - Photopainter

Erotica - A case of mindless defiance

The case of Alvin Tan and his girl friend’s demonstration of how creative they were in bed is not simply a lifestyle choice. It was, until he followed up with several defiance statements regarding his benefactor country and institutions. His tuition fees and living expenses in Singapore were all paid for by Singapore taxpayers. The scholarship includes $50,000 in tuition fees and $6,000 in living expenses yearly and could have be given to children of Sinkies.

I do not have to pay a single cent in Singapore, bond free.
‘When asked if he is worried he may get expelled from NUS for his ‘exploits’, Alvin Tan said:
I don’t really care if NUS take action against me. I am prepared to be expelled. Anyway, I have set up my own company here (in Malaysia) and is financially secure.

When it was suggested that he will need to pay back his tuition fees if he is expelled, Alvin Tan retorted:
I will not pay a single cent to NUS if I am expelled and what can they do to me?’ Quoted from TRE.

This is the kind of retort from an ingrate. He is totally unappreciative of the money and hospitality showered on him by the Singapore Govt. He is as good as telling the Singapore Govt go fuck off, I don’t need your money and I don’t care a hoot who you are. What is more sickening is that he could be sneering at the Sinkie Govt all the while for its silliness in offering him the scholarship. This is the ugly truth about the sincerity of foreign scholarship holders. Are our super talents so daft not to see this?

His attitude not only antagonises the Sinkie taxpayers, it will make them blooming mad with their Govt for wasting their money on such fools. There will not be more calls for the withdrawal of scholarships to foreigners. The money will be better spent on the children of Sinkies. The Govt must take note that the people are unhappy with them throwing money away to ungrateful and unappreciative foreigners. This is not an isolated cases. Only unqualified fools will keep repeating the same mistakes.

It is about time the govt rethinks its policies of throwing away taxpayer’s money to foreigners and depriving the children of the taxpayers from them. I can sense the anger boiling.

And the collateral damages will be those deserving foreign students that need such scholarships and are appreciative of them. On hindsight not many will be appreciative of our Govt’s generosity. I support the cancellation of all scholarships to foreigners and to throw the money to our children.

No one should waste his time trying to argue for the merits of such scholarships to foreigners.

The Govt should set the example in jobs for citizens

Would the Govt heed the angry voices of the PMETs who have been displaced by foreigners in their own beloved country? Many are losing good jobs with good income, from $5k to $10k pm to foreigners and no longer able to find an equivalent. And they ended up as self employed agents or taxi drivers. Not doing anything to protect the better educated citizens that are professionally qualified will spell doom to the ruling party for sure. You cannot bluff the people all the time.

The main reason for opening the flood gate for foreigners is to create more and better jobs for the citizens, not cleaners, not downgrading to lesser paying jobs. This is a betrayal of the whole mission. More foreigners mean more good jobs for Singaporeans, NOT, more foreigners mean lesser good jobs for Singaporeans but more good jobs for them.

There are many jobs in the govt, in the stats boards, in GLCs that need not go to foreigners. The Amy Cheong case will stand up like a sore thumb. So would the PR of SMRT. Are Sinkies that dull that these jobs must go to foreigners? The govt must adopt a Sinkie first policy when jobs are concerned. The civil service, the stats boards, the GLCs, must recruit Sinkies first. Only specialised jobs that no Sinkies can do or qualify to do should they go to foreigners. There is no reason why such jobs should go to foreigners in the first place. It is not the responsibility of the Govt to provide jobs for foreigners, even public housing. And foreigners should include PRs.

Let the foreign companies provide jobs for foreigners and for Sinkies. And make sure they are good jobs. This is what it is all about in opening the gate to foreigners. It must not be the other way round, providing good jobs to foreigners and bad and lowly paid jobs to Sinkies. And the deception of printing pink ICs to foreigners to call them citizens would not be tahan for long. The slew of hands has been exposed.

Can the Govt get its priorities right?  The votes for the govt come from the citizens. The Govt has a social contract and responsibility to its citizens, not to foreigners, not to PRs.