The Spirit of Citizenship

Below are 4 key points on citizenship mentioned by Obama in his State of the Union Address to the Americans.

‘After all, that’s the spirit that has always moved this nation forward. It’s the spirit of citizenship – the recognition that through hard work and responsibility, we can pursue our individual dreams, but still come together as one American family to make sure the next generation can pursue its dreams as well.

Citizenship means standing up for everyone’s right to vote…. It should be the power of our vote, not the size of our bank account,that drives our democracy.

Citizenship means standing up for the lives that gun violence steals from us each day. (Gun is not too relevant in the Sinkie context, but more about public security and safety when rioting is becoming a new reality.)

Citizenship demands a sense of common cause; participation in the hard work of self-government; an obligation to serve to our communities. And I know this chamber agrees that few Americans give more to their country than our diplomats and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.’

We do talk about citizenship but our citizenship is being violated by the large numbers of foreigners here. We even corrupted the value of our citizenship with PRs lumped together as locals as if they are citizens. We corrupted out thinking, the thinking of the young on what citizenship means and why PRs and foreigners are not one of us. We have 2 million foreigners gainfully employed here in top jobs that rightfully should go to the locals. Unfortunately our system has failed the citizens badly that many top jobs, I mean govt and govt linked companies’ jobs, happily given to foreigners with the bull excuse that no citizen is deemed fit to take those jobs.

We must thank those exceptionally talented Sinkies to take on 5 or 10 or 20 jobs or else they will all go to foreigners too as no Sinkies are good enough to wear those hats. Sinkies must be very grateful to these super talented individuals. May they be blessed by the horse.

What is wrong with our citizenship when so many foreigners are having a party here while Sinkies are under employed or unemployed? Is our citizenship means giving way to foreigners, foreigners come first because they are good, because they have great CVs and certificates that no one bothers to check for their authenticity?

What is wrong with our citizenship and the aspirations of the citizens to pursue their dreams? Not good enough so conveniently raise the foreigners to high pedestals to fulfil their dreams.

Where is the wisdom of statesmanship?

恭喜发财 Gong Xi Fa Cai

May the Year of the Horse bless the nation with a wise leader and bring prosperity to all the citizens.
Happy Lunar New Year to all of you.
May all our leaders be blessed with the wisdom of the horse to bring good blessings to the citizens.

Lunar New Year in Chinatown - A pictorial essay

Part of Upper Cross Street leading to New Bridge Road at the end with a horse lantern protruding into view. Taken at about 6pm on 28 Jan 14.

Section of New Bridge Road with Majestic Theatre and People's Park on the right. The decor of horse and Chinese coin lanterns lined both New Bridge Road and Eu Tong Sen Road.

Crowds queuing to buy Bak Kwa from Lim Chi Guan. The dried grilled sweet meat cost $55 per kg this year.

Entrance to Chinatown MRT station at Pagoda Street.

Shoppers in the midst of Chinatown, Pagoda Street.

A boy marvelling at the new year decor for sale.

More decorative pieces for sale inside the shop.

A pretty girl selling balloons. Behind her is another famous Bak Kwa store, Mei Chen Xiang.

Chinese calligraphy scrolls for the main entrance to a house or main hall.

More shoppers for the new year goodies in Temple Street, Chinatown.

Buying groundnuts and watermelon seeds as titbits, to eat and chat during the new year visitings.

Wax meat and ducks, a must new year delicacies especially among the Cantonese.

Shoppers and tourists having a good time at Smith Street, Chinatown.

Alfresco dining in Trengganu Street, Chinatown, on a fine tropical evening.

Part of South Bridge Road leading to Maxwell Road with new year decor.

Entrance from Pagoda Street next to the Sri Mariamman Temple. The temple also has a banner to celebrate the Lunar New Year. A common practice in a very tolerant and amicable multi racial and multi religious city. It is getting a bit dark, nearly 7pm local time.

Thailand, the strange nature of things happening

The Yingluck govt is pushing ahead with the general election on 2 Feb. The street protest continues while a state of emergency order has been issued in Bangkok. And ‘Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban has threatened to "close every route" to polling stations again for Sunday's election, raising fears of further violence’. MSN.
 
Shouldn’t Suthep be arrested for disruption the general election? It seems that he is untouchable, like he is carrying with him an Imperial Sword, a representative of the King. And he and his Bangkok protesters are accusing the whole Yingluck govt of corruption and now incompetence. Can they be sure that a new govt will not be corrupt? And all the media reporting on the general election is saying that the result is an assured landslide victory for the Yingluck govt. Holycow, a corrupt govt assured of winning a general election with public protest on the road and with an army and a judicial that would not allow any mischief to happen during the election! (This is a bit like Sin when there are so much anger and criticism against the govt but comes a GE the govt will still be elected.)
 
What a complex series of contradictions. What is very clear is that there is order and strategy above the confusion. The master strategists are working real hard on both sides. On the Suthep side, he had a loud voice in Bangkok with the Bangkok media and elite on his side and a kind of certainty that he could ruin the general election and incapacitate the govt with impunity. He has the authority to do so.
 
On the side of the Yingluck govt, they are treating the Bangkok protesters as shadows playing their own game but inconsequential. The protesters and Suthep can continue with what they are doing, the govt will simply ignore them and go ahead to do what it deems fit.
 
A new govt will be announced after the general election, if it is not disrupted, with Yingluck still the PM and her cabinet still intact and the street protest still in Bangkok. Should a violent clash erupt, the law enforcing officers of both the police and army would have to step in. Then what, a military state?

Hsien Loong needs to speak Singlish

An editorial article in TRE titled ‘PM: You’ll be sorry too if I send all FTs home’, a follow up to Hsien Loong’s talk to NTU students, has drawn more than 100 comments and growing. The main point it seems is that the netizens just could not understand or agree with what Hsien Loong said. Not sure if the message gets across to the students, obviously the netizens got a message that they don’t agree with and are shooting back point by point at what Hsien Loong said.
 
Looks like Hsien Loong needs to speak Singlish and think like a Sinkie if he wants to communicate to Sinkies and know what are the concerns and interests of Sinkies and why Sinkies are so unhappy with his policies. If he doesn’t, then he will be like Josephine Teo, still scratching her head and wondering why the Sinkies are so angry with the govt.
 
Below are just three comments that I copied from the same thread in TRE to give an idea of how the netizens are reacting to Hsien Loong. Of course he can ignore the comments as noises from the lunatic fringe and go on with his policies as if nothing has been said.
 
• Errr!:
January 29, 2014 at 9:35 pm (Quote)
 
We never ask you to send all FTs home. We only want you to keep the genuinely good ones and keep the proportion low so that it would not harm our livelihood unfavourably. I really don’t understand this PM. He seems to not getting the right information from the ground. Singapore has always had its fair share our foreigners in the past and the proportion were not as big as this, and we never had any problems with foreigners until now due to the large proportions of them living and earning their living here.
 
• my $8 heart bypass:
January 29, 2014 at 9:56 pm (Quote)
 
What a fcuking load of bullshit, FTs create jobs for locals.  
Lee Hsien Loong, just go and take a look at DBS and see how many Ah Nehs working there and tell me why these jobs cannot be done by locals.
 
Every morning you see bus loads coming in to unload these Trash at MBFC from DBS Changi office.
 
Go and walk around Changi airport, and see whether you are in Manila or Sinkieland.
Why do you need Pinoys to be Guest Relations officers, they speak Tagalog accented English, don’t you know ???
 
Singing the same fcuking tune again and again, FTs create jobs for locals.
Yes, the economy may have grown, but you and your PIGS are creating jobs for the Trash have flooded in due to your Open Legs policy.
 
You can bloody well wayang and bullshit all these students who are still wet behind the ears, but don’t try and bull us Sr. citizens.
 
And the greatest crime is spending $400M of tax payer’s money to fund these foreign students with free education at the expense of our own children.
 
• Reflections:
January 29, 2014 at 9:56 pm (Quote)
 
What he says:
“You put the wrong CEO there, the bank goes bust, thousands lose their jobs.”
What I read:
“You put the wrong PM there, the country goes bust, everyone loses their jobs.”