More than a month has passed since MH370 gone missing. There are still
many ships and aircraft in the Antarctic scouring the freezing waters
for signs of debris or the black boxes. They may even take in a whale as
MH370 if it makes the sound similar to the black boxes. It is so tragic
and so comical. I must say that given the disinformation or
misinformation, they just have to go through the motion. The wise ones,
or those who knew where the aircraft is, would be quietly smiling and
stay away from the circus.
How many of you really believe that MH370 was flown there to be sunk
into the icy water of the Antarctic? I for one would not believe in this
myth. Even if they found the black boxes, I doubt they will, I would
not believe the MH370 is buried there. There is no logical reason for
the aircraft to be there except for a devious plot, a deliberate act of
planting information to deceive everyone that it is there.
That aircraft cannot plunge into the ocean without leaving any traces of
debris or dead bodies floating as living proof that it was there.
When would the truth surface? Are the passengers still alive somewhere?
When would the wicked ones be unmasked and brought to justice?
Kopi level - Yellow
4/10/2014
Roy Ngerng, I disagree that Sinkies are selfish
Roy Ngerng wrote a piece in TRE titled, ‘Time to agree we have been played out’, and has this as his leading paragraphs:
‘As our country grows richer, we become more selfish as people. But this doesn’t have to be the case. In other developed societies, as they grew richer, they learnt to care more and looked out for one another.
If I were to tell you the reason why we’ve become more selfish, would you believe me?’
No Roy, I don’t believe you. In fact I totally disagree with you that Sinkies are selfish. Not at all, and I can prove it to you. But I agree with all that you said in your subsequent paragraphs. So, let me quote some of the facts to prove how generous Sinkies are or made to be.
1. We share our little island with people from the 3rd World to the level of 50% or more of our population. It could be very much more if we fished out the number of these foreigners that are now called new citizens.
2. We spent hundreds of millions or billions over the years to offer scholarships and living allowances to thousands of 3rd World hungry students to study in our world best universities at the expense of our own children. Some parents have to sell their homes in order to get their children educated overseas so that we can be very generous and selfless to the foreign students.
3. We gave many good jobs, at least half a million jobs, to foreigners, to displace our highly educated and experience citizens. We let them have the good jobs while our PMETs drive them around as taxi drivers. How more selfless do you expect Sinkies to be?
4. We gave opportunities to train their doctors, their bankers, their IT specialists and many more, so that they can gain all the experience required to put into their CVs, and to be promoted to top management and CEOs in our country. We don’t mind depriving our own talents from such opportunities to be trained, to gain the experience so that they can take on more senior positions.
5. We gave employment agency licences, student recruitment licences, housing agent licences, insurance agent licences to the foreigners freely and happily. We do not mind if they eased out our own citizens in these industries.
6. While we have serious shortage of land and good homes for our citizens, we do not mind selling all the good homes to foreigners to live in this paradise we have built so that they can enjoy their wealth in peace and comfort.
7. When they rioted and burnt our police cars, we blamed it on our citizens for making them angry, for pushing them and yelling at them. We blamed it on our police officers for not being forceful enough to keep them under control. It is our fault.
8. We help them to integrate into our community not just be words but by spending millions on them to make them feel at home. We even help them to celebrate their festivals and turn our country to be more like theirs. How can we be called selfish?
9. We allowed foreigners to set up companies here and employed mainly foreigners with only a handful of Sinkies. And they enjoyed all the perks of being in this fine city but acting like parasites, sucking all the good things and shitting and peeing everywhere. We don’t mind. We are not selfish.
There are many other things we did selflessly to be generous to the foreigners to the disadvantage of our own citizens. Many of our citizens were even forbidden to buy public flats but the foreigners, turning new citizens, have a choice of flats served on a silver platter to them. And we will voluntarily serve two years of national service for a pittance, pledging to fight and die to protect the foreigners and their properties.
How can we be accused of being selfish? How can we be accused of being xenophobic?
Tiok boh? No matter how I look at it, I still think we are very generous, very selfless, to the point of idiocy. True or not?
PS. I think Sinkies are quietly saying to themselves, ‘Let’s move out and let the foreigners take over our paradise island.’ Let’s be generous and let them have our country.
Kopi level - Still Yellow for so many days.
‘As our country grows richer, we become more selfish as people. But this doesn’t have to be the case. In other developed societies, as they grew richer, they learnt to care more and looked out for one another.
If I were to tell you the reason why we’ve become more selfish, would you believe me?’
No Roy, I don’t believe you. In fact I totally disagree with you that Sinkies are selfish. Not at all, and I can prove it to you. But I agree with all that you said in your subsequent paragraphs. So, let me quote some of the facts to prove how generous Sinkies are or made to be.
1. We share our little island with people from the 3rd World to the level of 50% or more of our population. It could be very much more if we fished out the number of these foreigners that are now called new citizens.
2. We spent hundreds of millions or billions over the years to offer scholarships and living allowances to thousands of 3rd World hungry students to study in our world best universities at the expense of our own children. Some parents have to sell their homes in order to get their children educated overseas so that we can be very generous and selfless to the foreign students.
3. We gave many good jobs, at least half a million jobs, to foreigners, to displace our highly educated and experience citizens. We let them have the good jobs while our PMETs drive them around as taxi drivers. How more selfless do you expect Sinkies to be?
4. We gave opportunities to train their doctors, their bankers, their IT specialists and many more, so that they can gain all the experience required to put into their CVs, and to be promoted to top management and CEOs in our country. We don’t mind depriving our own talents from such opportunities to be trained, to gain the experience so that they can take on more senior positions.
5. We gave employment agency licences, student recruitment licences, housing agent licences, insurance agent licences to the foreigners freely and happily. We do not mind if they eased out our own citizens in these industries.
6. While we have serious shortage of land and good homes for our citizens, we do not mind selling all the good homes to foreigners to live in this paradise we have built so that they can enjoy their wealth in peace and comfort.
7. When they rioted and burnt our police cars, we blamed it on our citizens for making them angry, for pushing them and yelling at them. We blamed it on our police officers for not being forceful enough to keep them under control. It is our fault.
8. We help them to integrate into our community not just be words but by spending millions on them to make them feel at home. We even help them to celebrate their festivals and turn our country to be more like theirs. How can we be called selfish?
9. We allowed foreigners to set up companies here and employed mainly foreigners with only a handful of Sinkies. And they enjoyed all the perks of being in this fine city but acting like parasites, sucking all the good things and shitting and peeing everywhere. We don’t mind. We are not selfish.
There are many other things we did selflessly to be generous to the foreigners to the disadvantage of our own citizens. Many of our citizens were even forbidden to buy public flats but the foreigners, turning new citizens, have a choice of flats served on a silver platter to them. And we will voluntarily serve two years of national service for a pittance, pledging to fight and die to protect the foreigners and their properties.
How can we be accused of being selfish? How can we be accused of being xenophobic?
Tiok boh? No matter how I look at it, I still think we are very generous, very selfless, to the point of idiocy. True or not?
PS. I think Sinkies are quietly saying to themselves, ‘Let’s move out and let the foreigners take over our paradise island.’ Let’s be generous and let them have our country.
Kopi level - Still Yellow for so many days.
4/09/2014
The STB promotion video says it all
A promotional video commissioned by STB, created in the Philippines by
the Philippine network ABS-CBN and must have been approved by the STB
for circulation, says it all. It is all about reversed integration. We
are getting to think and see things the Pinoy way. We have confidence in
what they do, pay them to do it, agree and happy with the production.
And we fly it to the whole world proudly as a class act. Must be right?
Now this great video production is withdrawn. Hopefully it didn’t cost very much since it was produced in the Philippines and can be written off. This could be a small start to the dilution of our thinking, mindset and values by the foreigners. Our core strength is the Singaporean spirit and our way of life. If we are not going to be more Singaporean but more of the 3rd World then we will be drifting into trouble in the future. And it is going to be. When foreigners are a minority, they would subject themselves to our way of life, like in Hongkong, even the British colonial masters had to learn to speak Cantonese. In our case, with foreigners in such great numbers, we would likely be made to be more like them, to speak, think and behave like them.
The change in the way Mandarin is spoken is a sign of more to come. Many words are now pronounced differently, in the Beijing style, sounding so alien an uncomfortable. I believe this would also affect Tamil or many will eventually start to speak Hindi, and the children brought up by the Pinoys, Indonesian, Myanmese maids would be speaking their tongues, and assimilate some of their cultural traits. Good for diversities but not sure how it would affect our social values and the things that made Singaporeans so successful in the past.
Shall we encourage more integration and reverse assimilation?
Now this great video production is withdrawn. Hopefully it didn’t cost very much since it was produced in the Philippines and can be written off. This could be a small start to the dilution of our thinking, mindset and values by the foreigners. Our core strength is the Singaporean spirit and our way of life. If we are not going to be more Singaporean but more of the 3rd World then we will be drifting into trouble in the future. And it is going to be. When foreigners are a minority, they would subject themselves to our way of life, like in Hongkong, even the British colonial masters had to learn to speak Cantonese. In our case, with foreigners in such great numbers, we would likely be made to be more like them, to speak, think and behave like them.
The change in the way Mandarin is spoken is a sign of more to come. Many words are now pronounced differently, in the Beijing style, sounding so alien an uncomfortable. I believe this would also affect Tamil or many will eventually start to speak Hindi, and the children brought up by the Pinoys, Indonesian, Myanmese maids would be speaking their tongues, and assimilate some of their cultural traits. Good for diversities but not sure how it would affect our social values and the things that made Singaporeans so successful in the past.
Shall we encourage more integration and reverse assimilation?
Finally, China standing up to the American bully
Chuck Hagel, US Defence Secretary, went to China to tell the Chinese
that they have no rights to unilaterally designate their ADIZ but must
consult the Americans. He also warned the Chinese that the US will
protect the Japanese and the Philippines in any dispute with China.
China’s Defence Minister Chang Wanquan replied in no uncertain terms that Japan and the Philippines are the provocateurs and China would not yield an inch on its national core interests. China would not be the first to start a war but is prepared to take the Americans as well if the two forced China into a war and the USA wants to join the fight. Chang said, ‘We will make no compromise, no concession, no trading, not even a tiny…violation is allowed. The Chinese military can assemble as soon as summoned, fight any battle and win.’
The Americans have been bullying the Chinese for more than 60 years, always threatening and warning China of an American attack if China would not heed the American threats. It would be a matter of time before China adopts the same stance against the Americans. China is warning the Americans to rein in the Japanese and not be permissive and supportive of Tokyo’s aggressive provocations.
The rhetoric of China is getting to sound very similar to the Americans. China is telling the Americans that not only Americans can warn and threaten China anymore. China can warn the Americans and would one day thump table with the Americans when it is as strong as the Americans. Both can play the game.
Gen Fan Changlong, vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission was quoted in the ST to have said this in full view of the press 'that he took personal offence at his remarks in Japan last weekend and at a meeting of Asean defence ministers in Hawaii last week. "I can tell you frankly, your remarks made at the Asean defence ministers meeting and to the Japanese politicians were tough and with a clear attitude," said Gen Fan. "The Chinese people, including myself, are dissatisfied with such remarks."'
Today the Americans still have an edge over China but nothing more than that. China is not able to attack the Americans in conventional warfare but could more than adequately defend itself against an American conventional attack. The first salvo when war is declared, China would take out all the American and Japanese bases in Japan and South Korea and secure the China seas. No American ships or aircraft carriers would be allowed to be within striking distance of mainland China.
The next phase would be nuclear warfare which both sides would not dare to play with. There will be no winners in a full scale nuclear war between the two superpowers.
China’s Defence Minister Chang Wanquan replied in no uncertain terms that Japan and the Philippines are the provocateurs and China would not yield an inch on its national core interests. China would not be the first to start a war but is prepared to take the Americans as well if the two forced China into a war and the USA wants to join the fight. Chang said, ‘We will make no compromise, no concession, no trading, not even a tiny…violation is allowed. The Chinese military can assemble as soon as summoned, fight any battle and win.’
The Americans have been bullying the Chinese for more than 60 years, always threatening and warning China of an American attack if China would not heed the American threats. It would be a matter of time before China adopts the same stance against the Americans. China is warning the Americans to rein in the Japanese and not be permissive and supportive of Tokyo’s aggressive provocations.
The rhetoric of China is getting to sound very similar to the Americans. China is telling the Americans that not only Americans can warn and threaten China anymore. China can warn the Americans and would one day thump table with the Americans when it is as strong as the Americans. Both can play the game.
Gen Fan Changlong, vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission was quoted in the ST to have said this in full view of the press 'that he took personal offence at his remarks in Japan last weekend and at a meeting of Asean defence ministers in Hawaii last week. "I can tell you frankly, your remarks made at the Asean defence ministers meeting and to the Japanese politicians were tough and with a clear attitude," said Gen Fan. "The Chinese people, including myself, are dissatisfied with such remarks."'
Today the Americans still have an edge over China but nothing more than that. China is not able to attack the Americans in conventional warfare but could more than adequately defend itself against an American conventional attack. The first salvo when war is declared, China would take out all the American and Japanese bases in Japan and South Korea and secure the China seas. No American ships or aircraft carriers would be allowed to be within striking distance of mainland China.
The next phase would be nuclear warfare which both sides would not dare to play with. There will be no winners in a full scale nuclear war between the two superpowers.
The authentic versus the fake
It seems that the Tourist Board is having second thoughts about the
fakes and imitation tourist attractions that are sprouting up in the
islands. With so much money pumped into the fakes, and with minimal
returns, not mentioning that the bigger they are the bigger will the
white elephant stand out, trying to justify their existence, to cover
cost, is going to be a mammoth task. And for the poor guys that are
tasked to promote such fakes and with targets that could not be met, it
is a daunting and stressful proposition.
How much more would have to be coughed out upfront to build the fake gardens in the Marina Bay and how much would be needed to keep the glass, concrete and steel structures in good conditions and the plants in them comfortable? How many visitors are needed to be herded to these fake contraptions to just break even? And why would visitors from the temperate countries flew all the way here to see temperate plants? With travelling cost spiraling down, the hot land people would have no problem flying to the temperate countries to see the real things.
Has anyone wondered why the African states did not build such fakes? Did anyone ask why tourists are flocking to Africa to see the authentic and barren African grassland and savannah or the Amazon jungles? Oops, shouldn’t say these to give people the idea of creating an African wild park or an Amazon jungle, or they have already done that? And all it needs is a cut in the power or energy supply and all the plants in the greenhouses would turn to dust and the structures into wasteland.
How long would these fake attractions last compare to the Botanic Garden that has been in existence for more than a hundred years, and needing pittance for its upkeep? Millions of people have spent their times, several generations, in the natural environment of the garden. It is an eco system that is self sustaining, with minimal upkeep in trimmings, grass cuttings and trash clearing. The Botanic Garden, a genuine tropical garden, will continue to exist for the next few hundred years as a tropical self sustaining ecosystem. How long would the fake gardens survive without pumping more and more money for its upkeep?
The Botanic Garden is like the mature states of Europe, attaining a certain balance and equilibrium, not much haste or farce, but existing quietly and peacefully as part of the natural habitat. The fakes will need more and more effort to get the buzz going, a lot of effort to keep its artificial vibrancy that is unnatural and unbalanced, just like the haste and fast pace of development in this city. Just pull the plug and all will come to a stand still.
What is needed is to strike a natural balance, not too much haste and pace, a natural swing and momentum of its own. The high pace of social and economic activities and the chase for vibrancy are unsustainable. It will need more and more effort to keep the wheel spinning, all for the sake of spinning the wheel.
Yes, the authentic and natural attractions of the islands are what the tourists would want to see, would fly half way across the world to see. They don’t come for the fakes. And the authentic way of life does not need expensive upkeeping to stay attractive. Think the vastness of wild Africa and the likes of Nepal and Tibet, the seas of Maldives. There is no need to spend a couple of billions to built funny structures to attract tourists. Think the Bugis Street of the past and the present Little India and Geylang. These are the real stuff and cost free.
How long can we keep pumping steroids to keep things going at this frantic rate?
Kopi level - Green
How much more would have to be coughed out upfront to build the fake gardens in the Marina Bay and how much would be needed to keep the glass, concrete and steel structures in good conditions and the plants in them comfortable? How many visitors are needed to be herded to these fake contraptions to just break even? And why would visitors from the temperate countries flew all the way here to see temperate plants? With travelling cost spiraling down, the hot land people would have no problem flying to the temperate countries to see the real things.
Has anyone wondered why the African states did not build such fakes? Did anyone ask why tourists are flocking to Africa to see the authentic and barren African grassland and savannah or the Amazon jungles? Oops, shouldn’t say these to give people the idea of creating an African wild park or an Amazon jungle, or they have already done that? And all it needs is a cut in the power or energy supply and all the plants in the greenhouses would turn to dust and the structures into wasteland.
How long would these fake attractions last compare to the Botanic Garden that has been in existence for more than a hundred years, and needing pittance for its upkeep? Millions of people have spent their times, several generations, in the natural environment of the garden. It is an eco system that is self sustaining, with minimal upkeep in trimmings, grass cuttings and trash clearing. The Botanic Garden, a genuine tropical garden, will continue to exist for the next few hundred years as a tropical self sustaining ecosystem. How long would the fake gardens survive without pumping more and more money for its upkeep?
The Botanic Garden is like the mature states of Europe, attaining a certain balance and equilibrium, not much haste or farce, but existing quietly and peacefully as part of the natural habitat. The fakes will need more and more effort to get the buzz going, a lot of effort to keep its artificial vibrancy that is unnatural and unbalanced, just like the haste and fast pace of development in this city. Just pull the plug and all will come to a stand still.
What is needed is to strike a natural balance, not too much haste and pace, a natural swing and momentum of its own. The high pace of social and economic activities and the chase for vibrancy are unsustainable. It will need more and more effort to keep the wheel spinning, all for the sake of spinning the wheel.
Yes, the authentic and natural attractions of the islands are what the tourists would want to see, would fly half way across the world to see. They don’t come for the fakes. And the authentic way of life does not need expensive upkeeping to stay attractive. Think the vastness of wild Africa and the likes of Nepal and Tibet, the seas of Maldives. There is no need to spend a couple of billions to built funny structures to attract tourists. Think the Bugis Street of the past and the present Little India and Geylang. These are the real stuff and cost free.
How long can we keep pumping steroids to keep things going at this frantic rate?
Kopi level - Green
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