Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

I just came back after spending the nearly the whole day out and cannot miss the well and colourfully dressed Muslim brothers and sisters everywhere. There is one place they are missing though, the foodcourts. But that is understandable as they will be having their feasts at home with their families and friends.

I was at this foodcourt and the only people I saw were mainly Chinese, some Indians and some foreigners. Having the Indians and Malays all eating together in the foodcourts was nothing unusual as they are part and parcel of this country, they are a part of every Singaporean. Now the foreigners are also becoming a part of us as well. Their presence cannot be missed.

Today I really felt something missing, without the signs and presence of Malays among the customers. It would likely be the same for a Chinese or Indian festival with the particular tribe making the missing act.

Once again, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

A single swallow justification

Now that the Hair for Hope event in support of the Children’s Cancer Foundation that led to the punishment of 2 girl students by their principal is water under the bridge, I would like to revisit the thinking behind the incident that let to the fiasco and public outrage. I quote the Principal Marion Tan “Can you imagine if I were to say yes, I’d have everybody coming to school with a bald head. Sometimes it’s a fad, so they would take advantage of the situation.”

She has her point in that the girls did promise to put on wigs if they participated in the event. And if she was in the army, the girls would jolly well wear the wigs as promised. That is how the army works, regimentation, and an order is an order. In this case, the demand for such an undertaking by the principal is misplaced as it showed a lack of understanding and appreciation of the Hair for Hope event. It is all about empathy and compassion for those cancer patients that have to go through the painful chemotherapy and the undesirable consequence of a bald head.

Let me return to the quoted statement above. This is like the proverbial saying a swallow does not make a summer but many would insist otherwise. And this is the thinking of the people in authority. They cannot release the CPF savings to the people caused some DOM had squandered all their monies on mei meis, or some have gone to the casinos. So it is best that the money be all locked up. Imagine if the govt would to say yes, every retiree would take out their money and feed the mei meis and the casinos. Jiat lat, all would end up with no money the next day and crying to the govt for charity.

The same justification for not allowing people with higher income to use lower class hospital wards with higher subsidies. If one is allowed, all the rich people will opt for C class wards, maybe people living in the Istana would also do so. Think HDB too, if one is allowed to buy smaller flats, all would want to buy smaller flats.

What kind of mentality is that? Do the people making decisions up there really believe in this logic? The stupid ones do, I am sure. The smart ones are only using this flawed logic for their own convenience and to serve their agenda and whatever schemes they are brewing. They are too smart to think that this is logical thinking.

Don’t take a swallow and claim that it is summer. Don’t think that seeing an albino crow and conclude that all the crows are white. Can this episode be a lesson to the policymakers to fine tune their thinking? Fat hope, this is a golden rule to rule the people and take advantage of the people, for their ignorance and passiveness towards authority. The authority is always right and always logical in their reasoning. Tio boh?

I remember, if we were to give the people a drumstick they will demand for the whole chicken, or something like that. Where got exception one?

Two National Day Celebrations

This National Day is special in the sense that there will be two celebrations held about the same time and within the same vicinity. One has a theme, Many stories, One Singapore and the other, Reclaiming Singapore for Singaporeans. The first, the official celebration organized by the Govt, will be held at the Marina Bay with much fanfare and all the pomp and pageantry, a great festivity for all, Singaporeans and foreigners. At least a hundred thousand spectators will be there, watching the parade and performances and a grand display of fireworks to end the night.

Reclaiming Singapore for Singaporeans will be held a short distance away at the Speakers’ Corner in Hong Lim Park. There will likely be a smaller gathering of mainly Singaporeans to celebrate the National Day organized by Singaporeans with no official budget to give it the glamour and colours of a joyous event. They will celebrate the National Day in a solemn low key way, more in spirit as true blue Singaporeans, to remember the days gone by, the great but forgotten Singaporeans that contributed to the success story of this little island. They will remember what it was like when the island residents were mainly Singaporeans, like a bigger kampong of people who lived together for a long time and knew each and every one in the kampongs.

Amidst this little celebration there will also be a tinge of sadness, of the days gone by, the buildings and places that were lost forever, of the unrecognized and fallen heroes that were cast aside by the furious pace of development and change. There will be remembrance, there will be praises and regrets, but it will still be a National Day celebration by the original Singaporeans, the pioneers who built this nation and their loved ones.

Happy National Day to all Singaporeans.

Silencing of the lamb

The lamb has been silenced. All is peaceful under heaven. 天下太平. Three little girls were silenced, penalized by their school for participating in a fund raising event to help cancer stricken patients and helping to make a statement that it was alright to be bald, after chemotherapy treatment. Their brave and gracious act was seen as of lesser importance to a promise to wear wigs should they shorn off their locks and look bald. This is not acceptable as it could mean something else, a fad or a rebellious act.
 
The parents were furious, the public were furious. The girls were silent. The MOE has yet to make a statement on this. Would the Cancer Society that organized this event make a statement in defend of the girls? Or would this matter be stone walled, silence is better than saying the wrong thing? The three brave girls are facing the music in silence. Instead of being good role models, they are now seen as bad, disobedient and doing the wrong thing.
 
Some may think that this topic, Silencing of the lamb, is related to Leslie Chew. No, actually the silencing of the lamb is not even about the silencing of the girls. It is just coincidental that the case of the girls being silenced happened over the last couple of days.
 
There is a bigger silencing event going on nationwide. Ever been in the train or buses and notice the silence except when some loud mouth foreigners are around and screaming away? Our young are being silenced in a different way, by technology. Practically every one of them will be banging away on their mobile or ipad or whatever pad, oblivious of everything around them. They are busy, very busy, either messaging or playing worthless games of colour balls running down the screens. This is a generation of drones and droids who are glued to their little gadgets and do not care a thing about what is happening. You can sell them away standing or sitting in the trains or buses without them knowing.
 
Don’t the young have better things to do than to play with their mobile and ipads? Do they think about what is going to happen to them in the near future, their lives and their country? These are the lambs that live in a silent and meaningless world of their own, without a care.

We are so rich yet so miserable

Singapore is one of the richest countries in the world, or maybe the richest on a per capita basis using the reserves divided by the population of citizens. With this kind of money at the govt’s disposal, why is it that the people are getting more and more unhappy and upset with the govt? Shouldn’t the govt dish out some from the public coffers to make the people happier and less miserable? Or the govt could do it another way, by not squeezing more from the people through public housing, medical bills in public hospitals or through subsidizing public transportation and education?
 
Let me give two simplistic views on why the govt is not doing the obvious and get elected and get more popular votes in every election without having to stage rallies to convince the people how good it is. One possibility that is being rumoured, I hear drums beating, is that there is not enough money left as the losses in investments could not cover for the debt owing to the people in the CPF savings scheme. I say this is rumour and without any truth whatsoever as no one knows other than those in the know how much is left. The simple thinking is that if the govt has the money, there is no need to keep shifting the goal posts on withdrawal dates for taking out the CPF savings by the people or increasing the minimum sums to ever higher sums. Ok, no need to belabour this point as it is just an imagination of the people.
 
Another possible reason, this is just a personal view and is just as flawed as any rumour or misinformation, is that the govt is made up of sadistic people who enjoyed making the people miserable, especially Singaporeans. The billions or trillions in the reserves are there but the govt just refuses to let the people have them to have an easier time. The people must be strangled financially by a big 30 year housing loan to keep them in check and cannot be funny. The money in their CPF accounts must be kept away from them so that they cannot have fun with mei meis or toy boys. The govt just does not want to let the people have a good time.
 
OK, this is just a theory that the govt is made up of wicked people. Of course this is not true. They are the most compassionate, caring, selfless, righteous, honest and honourable people the country could ever produce. There is no reason for them to keep the money from the people. And the money is there, and they are not taking it to enrich themselves. The money is to be kept there for a rainy day in the future, when the rain comes. Maybe they are waiting for purple rain.
 
Seriously, why is the govt doing this to the people, making the people so angry and unhappy, and risking themselves being booted out in the next GE? Why don’t they take the easy way out, share the nation’s prosperity with the people to make the people live easier and more comfortable, cheaper public housing, free public transportation, cheaper health care, and still can charge foreigners to make up for the deficit? Why make foreigners richer and happier and citizens more miserable?
 
I really cannot understand. The govt cannot be so stupid right? What is the real reason for the govt to make life so difficult for the people and keep trying to make it worse by stubbornly trying to flood the island with more foreigners to replace the citizens, with higher and higher property prices and cost of living? Maybe this is the absolute proof that the citizens are daft and could not understand why the govt is doing this to them, for their own good. Only super talents can understand the goodness of all these tough and painful policies and decisions made by the govt.