To cowpeh cowbu or not?

My article on WP’s silence in many hot and controversial issues has received mixed reactions as usual. Some are still unhappy that the WP has stayed away from making a stand when the people wanted them to say something. Some have complimented the WP for being wise by not being drawn or trapped into a situation like Chee Soon Juan or JBJ and other opposition politicians and be smashed to bits and buried alive.

There are merits and reasons to want WP to speak up. There are also very good reasons not to speak up but speaking up only at a critical moment when it counts. It is easy for WP to fire away at the many issues that the people are unhappy about and score political points and win over more supporters. Other than this, they are not going to gain anything meaningful and may open themselves to attacks just like cleaning the ceilings of hawker centres. Everything they said would be used to slice them to pieces, right or wrong, nitpicking to the tiniest hair. Even if they can say all the right things, all they need to do to get into trouble could be as minor as a sneeze while speaking.

What would happen to the issues if WP did not speak up? The problem could magnify and accelerate to an intolerable level much faster since no protest could be seen as everything is good, no problem, policy well received, or no one can find anything wrong with the policy. It is like allowing the fire to burn itself out.

Speaking out and pointing out problematic areas would allow remedial actions to be taken to rectify the flaws and could even turn a bad policy or issue around. A potentially explosive issue or bad policy could be massaged to become more acceptable. Speaking out, criticizing is helping to solve a problem, helping to make things better. The bad part is that no one likes to hear the bad news, the critiques, and people who spoke out are seen as bad people, trouble makers, the messenger of bad news, and often be kicked in the arse.

This may be a good reason why WP chose to stay reticent, don’t ruffle the feathers, don’t be a smart aleck when it is not welcomed, don’t be the messenger of bad news and don’t get butted for trying to help. What is the point when whatever they said would be received badly and seen as stirring trouble, with the wrong intention?  Must as well let people be happy with their mistakes and let the problem and pain fester and rot, and wait for the opportunity to pick up the pieces when it is too late to salvage a bad situation. Being quiet, non committal has many merits and can be strategically very sound too. It can also be a game of psycho, making the enemies wandering what one is up too and what is brewing. It may force the enemies to panic, to act prematurely and start barking for the wrong reasons. It can mislead the enemy to become complacent, to think there is no threat, all so nice and humble and accommodating. A nice and easy going politician, always smiling and so sweet can be even more dangerous than a barking dog. It is all a game and how the politician can play to his advantage. What is real or unreal?

We are just bystanders watching the chess players moving their pieces. Who will emerge the winner when it is game over, the quiet one or the one that is kpkb for the wrong reasons?

The price of justice

Recently an angmoh was fined $4000 for beating up a taxi driver after his drinking spree. Yesterday another angmoh was charged for beating up an Asian local who subsequently died, and was sentenced to 18 months jail. Oh he also had to pay a hefty $32,000 as compensation to the dead man’s mother for medical expenses. $32,000 must be a very generous compensation for the low life here, and 18 months jail was meant to be a very serious and deterrence sentence for beating a local ending in death. Another silly angmoh cyclist violated traffic rules, taunted a local woman driver in the middle of the road, and nothing happened to him. Maybe someone went to beg him to be nice to the locals.
 
The price of justice or the cost of justice is pretty affordable in this Sin City. I may want to caution that this price is only applicable to angmohs. I am not sure if the price would be heavier for the locals, or for the citizens? And I could even expect the price to be extremely high if a local were to beat up an angmoh, and worse if it ends up with a dead angmoh. The compensation could be in the millions, taking into account the potential income of the angmoh over a life time.
 
This is after all an ex angmoh colony and the angmoh tua ki mentality is still prevalent among the ex subjects of the empire. It is in their blood, in their DNA. They would employ angmoh first even for local companies doing local businesses. If I were an angmoh, I would make this place my play ground, to make money, have fun beating up the locals and enjoying the hospitality of the local women who are more than willing to oblige. Many would literally flip over when they see an angmoh, the prize possession of a low thinking local woman.
 
You really cannot blame them when supposedly high thinking elite also flip when they see an angmoh. Angmoh is best, in everything. How could anyone accuse the daft locals of being xenophobic when they idolize and worship at the sight of angmohs?

My son earns $10,000 (一万)

Many years back while doing my ICT in Taiwan I had time to take the train and be amongst the Taiwanese along the Taipei Chiayi line. The Taiwanese spoke mainly minnan dialect or Hokien as we are used to. These two women were chatting away like our aunties in the market, one probably not literate and another looked better off. The illiterate, very like some of those we met at the wet market spoke in the usual loud pitch for all to hear.

‘My son ‘tan’ 一万 lah.’ (One million in Chinese numerals but ten thousand in our terms)

The other woman nodded her head politely. I was impressed, initially not knowing what currency she was referring to. After a few more exchanges I heard that the son was an odd job worker. My first impression took on a new reality. At that time the exchange rate was something like S$1 to TW$15. A $10,000 pm is hardly anything, an equivalent of a few hundred Sing$.

Today, if one is watching the HongKong TV serial, often the pay are in HK$20k or HK$30k, and sounding quite astronomical for an office worker. After conversion there are like S$4k to $5K. Still very good but less startling.

Today in Sin City, many aunties are loudly announcing that their children are university graduates in pride. Many of the older aunties were at best O level, with many lesser or unschooled. During their time, a graduate was a very prestigious thing as there were very few around. Today around you a train cabin, likely 2 out of 3 are graduates, including the white collar foreigners.

What has happened is that inflation has caught up not only in the incomes of the people but in educational level. And a $10k income today is not much better than a $1k income in the 60s/70s. A graduate today is no better than an O level graduate in that era in terms of job opportunities and potential income.

Also in grades, today, straight As are the norm and you would need more to be above the average. Today, Crescent and Fairfield are the top schools. But in those days there were the average schools. Or are they really the top schools today when many of the top schools are not spoken of in the sense that they don’t participate in the O level exam? And many PSLE school leavers could not even apply to these unmentionable top schools as they have pre selected their intakes through the through train schemes. Please do not apply. If you are good we will contact you.

In housing, every average worker could aspire to own a 5 room flat or better in the 70s/80s. Today such flats are unattainable to many, even graduates as their first property. In those days, many office workers could buy a second hand car after one year of working. Any young police or army officer could buy a brand new small capacity car after a couple of years of working. Today most of them can forget about such luxuries. Take public transport is the norm.

Have we progressed? Are our lives getting better, from living in bigger homes to smaller homes, from car ownership to taking public transport? From just an O level and bringing up a family quite comfortably to a university graduate and still struggling to make ends meet.

Shall we celebrate that we have arrived in the first world with Swiss standard of living? Is the quality of life getting better?

Print media’s doom exaggerated

This is what Patrick Daniel said in his article in the ST a few days’ back. I must say I agree with his assessment but for different reasons. Digital and social media have carved out a big chunk of the pie and readership from print media and this is a fact. The younger generations are more comfortable with digital media and will keep fleeing the ground with a balance that will tip in favour of digital media in the long run.
 
On the other hand, print media has its own turf that is cut out for it. In fact both have their own audience and it is only a matter of who gets a bigger slice of the pie. The development of the two media is diverging into one that is reporting on facts and events, thanks to the political leadership, and another into more opinionated discourses and very interactive in nature. Digital and social media are going to be very personal, very emotional and with a very high rate of participation by the readers. It is a two way affair while print media is just reporting. The readers just read what the reporters reported. The reporting role is still necessary for the full time reporters to go around gathering news to report on and being paid for it.
 
The ST and its stable of lesser news media are doing well. According to Patrick Daniel, it is all about a commanding brand. I wonder if the brand would still be that commanding when other brands are allowed to print and sell their news. Why are there no neutral or alternative brands? Search me? In a monopolistic environment, it is elementary to gain the biggest share if not all the share of the readership and can crow about it. Where are the competitors? What would be the fate of the ST media if there are competitors? Would ST be doomed?
 
The print media’s shelf life has been extended. It will continue to exist for a longer time. This is a truism as digital and social media have their own limitations. When the latter becomes full fledge media with their own professional reporters, the balance would be tipped further to favour digital media. For the time being, the ST stable of news media shall rule the waves as the only media available. Just like the other monopolistic services, not making money and maintaining the market share is simply idiotic.

The silly Spaniards still think they are an empire

A Spanish court had heard complaints by a Tibetan group of alleged genocide by the Chinese soldiers in Tibet and even issued a court’s order to arrest Chinese leaders like Jiang Zemin and Li Peng. China has issued a strong protest and called the act despicable.
 
Actually China should simply issue an order for the arrest of the judge who presided in this farcical and mischievous court case and all the court officials involved for terrorism and for slandering the Chinese leaders. Who did they think they are to go around arresting other country’s leaders? There is no need to protest against the silly Spaniards. Just make sure that those involved do not set foot in Hongkong or Chinese soils. Put up an arrest on sight warrant with ‘wanted’ posters for the judge or judges and court officials.
 
China could impose a trade sanctions against Spain until the Spanish govt makes an apology for the silly act.
 
China can also remind the Spanish of their genocides in Latin America and the Philippines, not forgetting the Spanish Inquisition. They killed tens of millions of South Americans in the name of the God when they invaded these countries. The British did the same to the North American natives and more than a hundred millions were brutally shot in cold blood. How to exterminate a continent of people? Ask the British and the Spanish, they did it.
 
Who committed genocides?