3/01/2013
Buy Singapore goods, employ Singaporeans
‘Humble: February 28( A blogger in TRE)
Local SMEs, Singaporeans are like your families. They are like your parents, brothers and sisters. If your brothers are in difficulties, definitely you will try your best to help them. It’s the same also to the Singaporean Talents who work for you. You must advise, help, train them because they are your families. Why are you not patriotic? To help your countrymen? Why you think Singaporeans are lazy and useless? As far as I know Singaporeans are the most hardworking people, if you pay them right….’
If my memory is right, I think there were campaigns like buy local or buy Singaporean goods or something equivalent. This call was to give business to our local enterprises. Would it be out of tune to call on Singapore companies and businesses to employ Singaporeans first? Would it be too much to expect the Civil Service, Statutory Boards and GLCs to employ Singaporeans first and to only employ foreigners when the skills are not found in Singaporeans. Can these Govt agencies take the lead and set a good example?
I am in Singapore because I have better skills than any local here -Victor Vassiltsov, a Russian FT. This comment by an FT speaks of a policy that if a foreigner is better than the local, it is ok to employ the foreigner. Compares this to Australian immigration policy that will only take in skilled foreigners in vocations and trades when there is a shortage or when the skills are not found in Australians. The Australians only employed foreigners when they could not find Aussies to fill positions, not that the Aussies were less able. When the Aussies can fill a position, no matter how talented or better is the foreigner, sorry, we will call you.
If the Singaporean policy or practice is to employ anyone that can prove to be better than a Singaporean, then Singaporeans will have to step aside. And when we open the door to the world, to countries that have hundreds of millions of people or billions of people, it is only natural that many will be better than Singaporeans. Shall we replace all the Singaporeans with foreigners that are better than Singaporeans? We can also replace the ministers and MPs too using the same logic and reasoning.
So what is left of Singaporeans? Is this the reason why some people refuse to accept the slogan Singapore for Singaporeans? Anyone that is better can take over the place of Singaporeans?
If this should not be the case, or should not be allowed to happen, perhaps it is timely to call on the Govt and local businesses to employ Singaporeans first. We need to save the Singaporean specie. Many are unemployed or underemployed because the Govt and businesses can find alternatives, sometimes cheaper, in hiring foreigners. Some are qualified, some may be better, and some are under qualified or even fraudsters with fake qualifications and experience.
Employ Singaporeans first must be a national policy and supported by private businesses as well. Or is this just another empty call, irrelevant and impractical and will chase all the businesses away? Before the influx of foreigners, we were doing just this, depending mainly on our limited manpower resources. Now we have many highly qualified and experienced PMETs, no one should be left redundant unless of his own choosing. Employers must also note that the cost of living for Singaporeans is very high and they need to be paid adequately to get by.
This is also the call in Hong Lim. Should this call be ignored as voices from the lunatic fringe?
White Paper, sealed and buried
Parliament is over, Hong Lim Spring is over, is the fate of 6.9m or a bigger population than the present over? Can the 77 MPs touch their hearts and say they have the authority from the people to bring in another million or 1.6m people into the country? Or would they just keep quiet, assumed that they have the authority even if the people disagree, because it is passed by Parliament, so they can go forward to execute the proposals in the White Paper?
Given the widespread unhappiness and anger, would the Govt bother to consult the people, have a real conversation with the people and get the consent from the people to go a head with this ambitious, dangerous and unpredictable path of a bigger population that may prove too big to handle? This act will change the whole demography of the nation, the social and political landscape as well.
My personal view is that the Govt owes it to the people to seek their permission to change the whole fabric of this nation. They cannot ignore the people, not 77 men and women against the wishes of 3.3m citizens. No minister in the cabinet, not even the PM, is big enough to make this change. A referendum on this is the most decent thing the Govt should do. It is not a matter of you know best and you would shoulder the responsibility should an epic failure befallen this island in the future. No one is qualified to carry this responsibility. And worst, none of the 77 would likely to be around when the crunch hits.
Is the White Paper sealed and buried and not to be spoken again?
2/28/2013
Pentagon spreads anti-China hacking lies
The article below written by Fred Goldstein is published by Workers' World of workers.org
Feb. 25 — Dramatic front-page headlines in the New York Times
accusing the People’s Liberation Army of China of being behind computer
hacking in the U.S. have all the earmarks of a Cold War-style propaganda
attack on China.
This bellicose attack comes at the same time that new leadership is about to take over in China. It comes in the context of the U.S. “pivot” to the Pacific and the buildup of military forces there directed at China. It comes at a moment when the Pentagon is facing the prospect of budget cuts. And it comes at a time of intractable economic crisis, when the U.S. government and the financial authorities are desperate to shore up the economy.
Seeming to surface out of nowhere — in the midst of debates about budget cuts, gun control, immigration reform, maneuvers over cabinet appointments and so on — this sudden flare-up of hostility is a dangerous step forward by anti-China hawks in the Pentagon and the establishment.
The China-hacking smear campaign was based upon a 60-plus-page report sent to the New York Times by the computer security firm Mandiant. The Times wrote a 3,000-word lead front-page article, replete with code names, charging that internet protocol addresses pointed to a building in Shanghai that allegedly housed a unit of the PLA.
The Chinese government and the PLA have strenuously and categorically denied the charges. They called the charges irresponsible and pointed to the lack of any proof. Other U.S. experts in cyber security pointed out gross inconsistencies in the report and asserted that no one can pinpoint the location or origin of a computer breakin by the IP address alone. It is common practice among hackers to conceal their origin by directing the IP address to a false location. (Jeffreycarr.blogspot.com/2013/01/ — search for “China”)
Be that as it may, what stands out is that the hacking story is being used politically to stir up suspicion and hostility against China and the Chinese military, even though all the alleged targets of the hacking were economic, i.e., unnamed private corporations.
The Times reported this incident in a sensational manner, conjuring up images of China destroying U.S. electrical grids, water supplies, communications systems, ad nauseam. The leap from alleged economic corporate spying, which takes place on a regular basis among all major companies and all governments, to a lurid military-spun fantasy about subversive Chinese aggression is calculated to stir up antagonism against China.
‘Cyber security’ & the military-industrial complex
Mandiant is a cyber security company that has cashed in on the recent anti-China boom. It works for the Fortune 100. Cyber security is a $30 billion industry, and Mandiant had revenue of $100 million in 2012, up 60 percent from the previous year. (Reuters, Feb. 22)
Mandiant operates out of Arlington, Va., and is tied to the military and the CIA. Its CEO and founder, Kevin Mandia, has worked for Lockheed Martin and U.S. Air Force intelligence. Its chief security officer, Richard Bejtlich, has worked for the Air Force Internet Warfare Center and the Air Intelligence Agency.
They are part of a growing wing of the military-industrial complex. For example, a keynote speaker at a Mandiant-sponsored conference held at the Washington Ritz-Carlton hotel last October was retired Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of the National Security Agency and then of the CIA. Hayden is part of the Chertoff Group, run by former head of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.
It should be remembered that the U.S. and Israel developed the Stuxnet virus, which sabotaged Iran’s nuclear facilities. This is far more than mere espionage. It was an act of warfare. These are the forces behind the report.
The Times story and the Mandiant report are nothing less than a “nongovernmental” attack organized by the U.S. government and the Pentagon to lay the basis for further military measures against China.
The report was leaked to the New York Times. It could have been handled in a completely toned-down style or behind closed doors, the way many matters of the gravest importance are handled. Making it public in such a dramatic way was the real political aggression. Buried in the Times article on the report was the admission that the Times has a “business relationship” with Mandiant.
The Times is the most prestigious mouthpiece of the U.S. ruling class. It could never have issued such a sensational blast at the PLA without prenotification and thorough consultation with the Pentagon and the State Department, as well as the White House. In fact, President Barack Obama previewed the attack with a strong reference to “our enemies” and cyber attacks in his State of the Union speech. This was clearly a coordinated offensive.
It should be recalled that former New York Times reporter Judith Miller worked with the Bush administration and the Pentagon to sell the Iraq war, writing front-page articles about how Saddam Hussein was stockpiling “weapons of mass destruction.” She and the Times were ultimately discredited when the reports proved false, but they helped pave the way for the U.S. invasion.
Similarly, the timing of the race to push forward the Mandiant report was partly driven by the Pentagon’s plans to bolster its Cyber Command staff from 900 to 4,900. Thus the report was also aimed at protecting this projected increase in a key Pentagon program at a time of talk about general austerity and Pentagon cutbacks.
The capitalist media are understood by Marxists to be an integral part of the capitalist state. They are sometimes described as the fourth arm of the state — the means of ideological and informational compulsion. The treatment of the Mandiant report was truly a state-to-state transaction, giving the capitalist government a safe distance should it find it diplomatically necessary to dodge and double talk.
Critical time for China
This report was a shot across China’s bow just when new leadership is about to take over. It is a flagrant threat and an attempt at destabilization. Washington and Wall Street are demanding that China move more vigorously toward abandoning state-owned corporations and state planning and open up wider to a complete takeover by the capitalist class and imperialism.
The top agencies of the U.S. government, the imperialist think tanks, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank — all are pressuring the Chinese leaders to make more political space for the bourgeoisie to organize in China under the slogan of “reform.”
The new leadership under Xi Jinping takes over after the previous leaders crushed the left wing at the top of the party, led by Bo Xilai. The new leaders are now faced with an encouraged and stronger right wing. This newest, most brazen threat to China’s armed forces is undoubtedly calculated to send a message to the new leadership that the U.S. wants to see a deepening of capitalist reforms and opening up to imperialism — or else.
U.S. ‘pivot’ toward Asia
These actions must be seen as part of Washington’s so-called “pivot” toward Asia — a euphemism for increasing its encirclement and military pressures on China. The present media attack is directed at the element within China regarded by the Pentagon as its primary adversary in the world: the People’s Liberation Army.
The so-called “pivot” is not new. It comes after a long history in which U.S. imperialism, and particularly its admiralty, have regarded the Pacific Ocean as a “U.S. lake.” The recent application of this doctrine is the “pivot” and is part of a multipronged offensive.
Consider some recent history:
Both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations escalated military pressure on China. Clinton moved a vast arsenal of naval and air weapons systems to Japan and Guam. The Bush administration sent an additional carrier force to the Pacific and announced the deployment of more submarines to the region.
The Obama administration went further. It expanded its joint naval exercises with Japan to prepare for the defense of disputed islands, abandoning the historic hands-off U.S. position. The U.S. sent Marines to Australia and restored military cooperation with Indonesia and New Zealand. Over the last three years the Obama administration has carried out the largest joint military exercises in Asia since the Korean War.
In January 2010, the Pentagon sold advanced military equipment to Taiwan, an island historically part of China that is politically separate only because it became the refuge of counterrevolutionary armies driven from the mainland in 1949 by the Chinese Revolution.
In July of that year, the U.S. and south Korea carried out a major military exercise in the Yellow Sea simulating war with China.
Washington has also strengthened its south Korean puppets militarily and is programmed to set up a theaterwide anti-missile system involving Taiwan, south Korea and Japan — all aimed at China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
In addition to military moves, anti-China economic measures are in the works. A Trans-Pacific Partnership that would include most of the nations in the region, plus the U.S., has excluded China.
Pentagon wants contracts, not cutbacks
The Pentagon is under pressure to make cutbacks in military spending, both from the masses who need the money and from the bankers who want to grab the money. The global suspicion generated by the hacking headlines is calculated to bolster the cyber war capabilities of the Pentagon and justify its huge budget by painting China as an “enemy” that must be defended against. It is supposed to provide support for new weapons systems that the Pentagon has in mind for its encirclement of China — including new generations of missile ships, long-range drones, new piloted bombers and ballistic missiles. All can be deployed outside the range of China’s defenses.
These types of big-ticket items were built up during the Cold War against the USSR and China, and made the military-industrial complex the dominant economic and political force in U.S. capitalist society. The anti-China hacking story is part of the campaign not only to ward off budget cuts but to increase the hundreds of billions of dollars handed over to the Pentagon for war
Finally, this attack comes at a time of stagnating U.S. economic growth that has led to mass unemployment and underemployment and declining wages. Because the masses have little money to spend, Pentagon spending becomes more integral to holding up the economy. It should be noted that with a dip in Pentagon spending in the fourth quarter of 2012, the economy shrank 0.1 percent.
The working class and the oppressed peoples must not be taken in by the attention-grabbing headlines against China and the PLA. It is the workers in both countries who will suffer from any escalation of Cold War-style tension generated by the Pentagon and the White House.
Schools are closing, hospitals are being shut down, social services are being cut, no money is spent on jobs, and prisons are filled with predominantly Black and Latino/a youth. The capitalist profit system is bringing more and more hardship to the people.
The enemies of the workers here are not the Chinese people or the Chinese government. The real enemies are the big capitalists who are running society into the ground at the expense of the masses. And one of the biggest concentrations of avaricious capitalists is military contractors — merchants of death who profit from war and war preparation.
As for “hacking,” technology is the product of the millions of people who have created it, not just in this generation but going back to long before the pyramids were built. This technology was created by humanity; it should belong to humanity as a whole to be used for its benefit. No group of avaricious monopolists should be allowed to own, control and use it against the people.
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Pentagon spreads anti-China hacking lies
By Fred Goldstein on February 25, 2013 » Add the first comment.
The Pentagon, imperialist cyber warfare’s central headquarters.
This bellicose attack comes at the same time that new leadership is about to take over in China. It comes in the context of the U.S. “pivot” to the Pacific and the buildup of military forces there directed at China. It comes at a moment when the Pentagon is facing the prospect of budget cuts. And it comes at a time of intractable economic crisis, when the U.S. government and the financial authorities are desperate to shore up the economy.
Seeming to surface out of nowhere — in the midst of debates about budget cuts, gun control, immigration reform, maneuvers over cabinet appointments and so on — this sudden flare-up of hostility is a dangerous step forward by anti-China hawks in the Pentagon and the establishment.
The China-hacking smear campaign was based upon a 60-plus-page report sent to the New York Times by the computer security firm Mandiant. The Times wrote a 3,000-word lead front-page article, replete with code names, charging that internet protocol addresses pointed to a building in Shanghai that allegedly housed a unit of the PLA.
The Chinese government and the PLA have strenuously and categorically denied the charges. They called the charges irresponsible and pointed to the lack of any proof. Other U.S. experts in cyber security pointed out gross inconsistencies in the report and asserted that no one can pinpoint the location or origin of a computer breakin by the IP address alone. It is common practice among hackers to conceal their origin by directing the IP address to a false location. (Jeffreycarr.blogspot.com/2013/01/ — search for “China”)
Be that as it may, what stands out is that the hacking story is being used politically to stir up suspicion and hostility against China and the Chinese military, even though all the alleged targets of the hacking were economic, i.e., unnamed private corporations.
The Times reported this incident in a sensational manner, conjuring up images of China destroying U.S. electrical grids, water supplies, communications systems, ad nauseam. The leap from alleged economic corporate spying, which takes place on a regular basis among all major companies and all governments, to a lurid military-spun fantasy about subversive Chinese aggression is calculated to stir up antagonism against China.
‘Cyber security’ & the military-industrial complex
Mandiant is a cyber security company that has cashed in on the recent anti-China boom. It works for the Fortune 100. Cyber security is a $30 billion industry, and Mandiant had revenue of $100 million in 2012, up 60 percent from the previous year. (Reuters, Feb. 22)
Mandiant operates out of Arlington, Va., and is tied to the military and the CIA. Its CEO and founder, Kevin Mandia, has worked for Lockheed Martin and U.S. Air Force intelligence. Its chief security officer, Richard Bejtlich, has worked for the Air Force Internet Warfare Center and the Air Intelligence Agency.
They are part of a growing wing of the military-industrial complex. For example, a keynote speaker at a Mandiant-sponsored conference held at the Washington Ritz-Carlton hotel last October was retired Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of the National Security Agency and then of the CIA. Hayden is part of the Chertoff Group, run by former head of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.
It should be remembered that the U.S. and Israel developed the Stuxnet virus, which sabotaged Iran’s nuclear facilities. This is far more than mere espionage. It was an act of warfare. These are the forces behind the report.
The Times story and the Mandiant report are nothing less than a “nongovernmental” attack organized by the U.S. government and the Pentagon to lay the basis for further military measures against China.
The report was leaked to the New York Times. It could have been handled in a completely toned-down style or behind closed doors, the way many matters of the gravest importance are handled. Making it public in such a dramatic way was the real political aggression. Buried in the Times article on the report was the admission that the Times has a “business relationship” with Mandiant.
The Times is the most prestigious mouthpiece of the U.S. ruling class. It could never have issued such a sensational blast at the PLA without prenotification and thorough consultation with the Pentagon and the State Department, as well as the White House. In fact, President Barack Obama previewed the attack with a strong reference to “our enemies” and cyber attacks in his State of the Union speech. This was clearly a coordinated offensive.
It should be recalled that former New York Times reporter Judith Miller worked with the Bush administration and the Pentagon to sell the Iraq war, writing front-page articles about how Saddam Hussein was stockpiling “weapons of mass destruction.” She and the Times were ultimately discredited when the reports proved false, but they helped pave the way for the U.S. invasion.
Similarly, the timing of the race to push forward the Mandiant report was partly driven by the Pentagon’s plans to bolster its Cyber Command staff from 900 to 4,900. Thus the report was also aimed at protecting this projected increase in a key Pentagon program at a time of talk about general austerity and Pentagon cutbacks.
The capitalist media are understood by Marxists to be an integral part of the capitalist state. They are sometimes described as the fourth arm of the state — the means of ideological and informational compulsion. The treatment of the Mandiant report was truly a state-to-state transaction, giving the capitalist government a safe distance should it find it diplomatically necessary to dodge and double talk.
Critical time for China
This report was a shot across China’s bow just when new leadership is about to take over. It is a flagrant threat and an attempt at destabilization. Washington and Wall Street are demanding that China move more vigorously toward abandoning state-owned corporations and state planning and open up wider to a complete takeover by the capitalist class and imperialism.
The top agencies of the U.S. government, the imperialist think tanks, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank — all are pressuring the Chinese leaders to make more political space for the bourgeoisie to organize in China under the slogan of “reform.”
The new leadership under Xi Jinping takes over after the previous leaders crushed the left wing at the top of the party, led by Bo Xilai. The new leaders are now faced with an encouraged and stronger right wing. This newest, most brazen threat to China’s armed forces is undoubtedly calculated to send a message to the new leadership that the U.S. wants to see a deepening of capitalist reforms and opening up to imperialism — or else.
U.S. ‘pivot’ toward Asia
These actions must be seen as part of Washington’s so-called “pivot” toward Asia — a euphemism for increasing its encirclement and military pressures on China. The present media attack is directed at the element within China regarded by the Pentagon as its primary adversary in the world: the People’s Liberation Army.
The so-called “pivot” is not new. It comes after a long history in which U.S. imperialism, and particularly its admiralty, have regarded the Pacific Ocean as a “U.S. lake.” The recent application of this doctrine is the “pivot” and is part of a multipronged offensive.
Consider some recent history:
Both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations escalated military pressure on China. Clinton moved a vast arsenal of naval and air weapons systems to Japan and Guam. The Bush administration sent an additional carrier force to the Pacific and announced the deployment of more submarines to the region.
The Obama administration went further. It expanded its joint naval exercises with Japan to prepare for the defense of disputed islands, abandoning the historic hands-off U.S. position. The U.S. sent Marines to Australia and restored military cooperation with Indonesia and New Zealand. Over the last three years the Obama administration has carried out the largest joint military exercises in Asia since the Korean War.
In January 2010, the Pentagon sold advanced military equipment to Taiwan, an island historically part of China that is politically separate only because it became the refuge of counterrevolutionary armies driven from the mainland in 1949 by the Chinese Revolution.
In July of that year, the U.S. and south Korea carried out a major military exercise in the Yellow Sea simulating war with China.
Washington has also strengthened its south Korean puppets militarily and is programmed to set up a theaterwide anti-missile system involving Taiwan, south Korea and Japan — all aimed at China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
In addition to military moves, anti-China economic measures are in the works. A Trans-Pacific Partnership that would include most of the nations in the region, plus the U.S., has excluded China.
Pentagon wants contracts, not cutbacks
The Pentagon is under pressure to make cutbacks in military spending, both from the masses who need the money and from the bankers who want to grab the money. The global suspicion generated by the hacking headlines is calculated to bolster the cyber war capabilities of the Pentagon and justify its huge budget by painting China as an “enemy” that must be defended against. It is supposed to provide support for new weapons systems that the Pentagon has in mind for its encirclement of China — including new generations of missile ships, long-range drones, new piloted bombers and ballistic missiles. All can be deployed outside the range of China’s defenses.
These types of big-ticket items were built up during the Cold War against the USSR and China, and made the military-industrial complex the dominant economic and political force in U.S. capitalist society. The anti-China hacking story is part of the campaign not only to ward off budget cuts but to increase the hundreds of billions of dollars handed over to the Pentagon for war
Finally, this attack comes at a time of stagnating U.S. economic growth that has led to mass unemployment and underemployment and declining wages. Because the masses have little money to spend, Pentagon spending becomes more integral to holding up the economy. It should be noted that with a dip in Pentagon spending in the fourth quarter of 2012, the economy shrank 0.1 percent.
The working class and the oppressed peoples must not be taken in by the attention-grabbing headlines against China and the PLA. It is the workers in both countries who will suffer from any escalation of Cold War-style tension generated by the Pentagon and the White House.
Schools are closing, hospitals are being shut down, social services are being cut, no money is spent on jobs, and prisons are filled with predominantly Black and Latino/a youth. The capitalist profit system is bringing more and more hardship to the people.
The enemies of the workers here are not the Chinese people or the Chinese government. The real enemies are the big capitalists who are running society into the ground at the expense of the masses. And one of the biggest concentrations of avaricious capitalists is military contractors — merchants of death who profit from war and war preparation.
As for “hacking,” technology is the product of the millions of people who have created it, not just in this generation but going back to long before the pyramids were built. This technology was created by humanity; it should belong to humanity as a whole to be used for its benefit. No group of avaricious monopolists should be allowed to own, control and use it against the people.
High quality living according to snake oil sellers
The snake oil sellers are still peddling their deception to the daft Sinkies that small is better, public transport can replace car ownership and the quality of life will be better. In 2030 it will be even better, but no one is telling the wide eyed Sinkies how much it will cost them for the better quality living, how big will be their flats and whether they can still own a car.
To me it is very simple. Quality living must come with bigger space for leisure, bigger homes for children to grow up, private personal space and no need to cram like sardines every where. And car ownership is a desirable item to provide that quality living, the freedom to move around for leisure with the family, for convenience. For some, a car is an absolute necessity, not a luxury. And these must not cost an arm or a leg to own one or a life time of slavery to pay for them.
We had them before, when we were poorer on the whole. We have become richer, some very rich, but we are telling the not so rich people that these necessities and niceties are now beyond their reach, that they must make do without them, smaller homes and living space to cram more children into them. How can the quality of life be better in living in pigeon holes? Progress? How can the quality of life be better depending on public transport, or taxis, compare to private cars?
It is time to stop deceiving the daft Sinkies that these are progress and better quality of living. We can only return to better quality of living with more space and lesser people. And mind you, a smaller economy with lesser people will not compromise on the quality of life. Life is for living and pleasure when one can afford it, not to slave and work just to live and to live in little nooks and corners.
Economic growth that leads to being squeezed and being deprived of the nicer things, basics like bigger homes and car ownership, is bad economics. Economic growth must lead to better quality of life in all ways. Otherwise the economic growth is as good as no growth and better to do without. And another 1.6m people are something that we can do without.
Still want to con people to live in dog’s kennel and claim to be better quality living? Woof, woof….
Mysingaporenews is a Singaporean blog
I couldn’t believe that I have posted some 7,000 articles in this blog over the years. When I started I wanted this blog to be a very provocative blog, teasing and tearing at the conventional thinking process, challenging the readers to look at things from different perspectives. I hope I have not failed in doing this. I just got screwed by several bloggers in TRE in my latest post on ‘Not owning a car is better quality living.’ What is apparent is that the readers read everything I said at face value, even with so many hints that it was not meant to be what it appeared to be. Only a few who have got used to my style and the innuendoes were able to see the subtle meanings and cynicisms from under the table. : )
The other major line of thought in this blog is that it is all about Singaporeans, about the interests of Singaporeans and the well being of this island. There is a Singaporean Spirit in us, among us, a string that weaved through the hearts of all Singaporeans as one people. It is there and still there, but flickering and may go off if we are not careful. I am not sure if the underlying mesage gets through, that readers can feel a greater sense of being Singaporeans, and feel responsible for this island and wanted to be and to do something no matter how small for this country.
As for the non Singaporeans, this blog may give them an idea of what being Singaporeans is all about, and the story of Singaporeans and how this island state is evolving, a continuous work in progress, or in regress.
The idea of national interest, country and people, have been in my vein, probably imbibed through the years when I was in uniform and then as a civil servant in Mindef. I was at one time even lecturing in the National Education Course. So this blog is kind of a continuation of what I was doing officially then and unofficially now, in educating Singaporeans about their country and what is happening to their country. Don’t let the Singaporean Spirit die. Don’t let anyone kill it. This is a constant banging at the consciousness and the subconscious, to kick the morose mind to a state of awareness and to take cognizance of what is happening. It is only when Singaporeans become more aware and politicised and understood what is happening around them would they stand up to play a more active role in the making of their country.
The affairs of the state, the well being of the country and its people, are not just the responsibility of a chosen few, the elected few. It is a matter that concerns every Singaporean, it is not just an economic matter, material well being, but a matter of the heart. Every Singaporean, a civilian, a civil servant, men and women in green or in blue or in civee, must always have the interests of the state and people uppermost in their minds, guiding their actions for the good of the nation and people. Only then can the people as citizens of this country continue to exist as one people and one nation. Anyone who loses this moral compass and strays, and compromises these principles for the wrong reasons would have to answer to his conscience and his children and grand children in times to come.
After writing so many articles over so many years, there is a big risk of going astray and walk down the wrong road like all human beans do. Every now and then it is nice to take stock and realign the compass to stay on the course. If our country ends up in the hands of foreigners and not our children, we are to be blamed.
I used to work in the little zoo in Tanglin and often have tea with the bird keepers in the bird park down the road. Those were quite some time back, Most of the bird keepers have retired, and so were the zoo keepers. I hope this blog will be able to bring more Singaporeans together to think and be like Singaporeans and not let the flame of nationhood be extinguished by the presence of too many foreigners and new citizens that may have different dreams from us.
Keep the Singaporean Spirit alive in each and every one of us.
The other major line of thought in this blog is that it is all about Singaporeans, about the interests of Singaporeans and the well being of this island. There is a Singaporean Spirit in us, among us, a string that weaved through the hearts of all Singaporeans as one people. It is there and still there, but flickering and may go off if we are not careful. I am not sure if the underlying mesage gets through, that readers can feel a greater sense of being Singaporeans, and feel responsible for this island and wanted to be and to do something no matter how small for this country.
As for the non Singaporeans, this blog may give them an idea of what being Singaporeans is all about, and the story of Singaporeans and how this island state is evolving, a continuous work in progress, or in regress.
The idea of national interest, country and people, have been in my vein, probably imbibed through the years when I was in uniform and then as a civil servant in Mindef. I was at one time even lecturing in the National Education Course. So this blog is kind of a continuation of what I was doing officially then and unofficially now, in educating Singaporeans about their country and what is happening to their country. Don’t let the Singaporean Spirit die. Don’t let anyone kill it. This is a constant banging at the consciousness and the subconscious, to kick the morose mind to a state of awareness and to take cognizance of what is happening. It is only when Singaporeans become more aware and politicised and understood what is happening around them would they stand up to play a more active role in the making of their country.
The affairs of the state, the well being of the country and its people, are not just the responsibility of a chosen few, the elected few. It is a matter that concerns every Singaporean, it is not just an economic matter, material well being, but a matter of the heart. Every Singaporean, a civilian, a civil servant, men and women in green or in blue or in civee, must always have the interests of the state and people uppermost in their minds, guiding their actions for the good of the nation and people. Only then can the people as citizens of this country continue to exist as one people and one nation. Anyone who loses this moral compass and strays, and compromises these principles for the wrong reasons would have to answer to his conscience and his children and grand children in times to come.
After writing so many articles over so many years, there is a big risk of going astray and walk down the wrong road like all human beans do. Every now and then it is nice to take stock and realign the compass to stay on the course. If our country ends up in the hands of foreigners and not our children, we are to be blamed.
I used to work in the little zoo in Tanglin and often have tea with the bird keepers in the bird park down the road. Those were quite some time back, Most of the bird keepers have retired, and so were the zoo keepers. I hope this blog will be able to bring more Singaporeans together to think and be like Singaporeans and not let the flame of nationhood be extinguished by the presence of too many foreigners and new citizens that may have different dreams from us.
Keep the Singaporean Spirit alive in each and every one of us.
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