A future without the people’s consent

The govt has charted a new future for the Sinkies and wanted the Sinkies to unite and move forward together in the name of this future according to what Chan Chun Sing said at the ITE College East. Now what is this common future? Anyone knows?
 
I can’t remember any minister telling us what this common future is except what they are doing. Perhaps the people can make a guess as to what this common future is. For sure it must be a future led by the PAP Govt. This must be a given. The next thing that is a given is the 6.9m population and maybe more with the original Sinkies become an absolute minority core.
 
What else is given? More foreigners, more local PMEs driving taxis or being retrained by WDA to do manual jobs while foreigners take over their jobs? What else? A couple of days back, over the news Hsien Loong was talking about a smart city with the computerization of the city to make city living so easy. If I am not wrong, in a smart city the computers will do all the thinking and make all the decisions for the peopel. The people only need to take the instructions from the computers, guided by the computers to do what the computers think best and most appropriate. No thinkings required.
 
And the oldies that are not so clever with the computers will not be left out. I guess they will plant a computer chip in each of them and turn them into living C3POs. The little chips planted into them would be a miniaturised R2D2.
 
The common future looks interesting but where is the meat to beef it up so that all the Sinkies would know what is in it for them. For starters they can expect a big bang kind of celebration next year for SG50 with a lot of goodies for everyone, including babies and their parents. More good news in the pipelines?
 
Why is this common future so skimpy that I could not figure out what it is all about?

Kopi Level - Green

Return Our CPF Rally – 29 Nov Sat at Hong Lim (4pm)

The Return Our CPF Rally is coming back to Hong Lim even with the banning of Roy and Hui Hui from booking the place. I cannot use the term ‘prohibited by law to apply and speak in Hong Lim’ as the Constitution specifically provided the use of Hong Lim for this purpose and the right of the people for free speech. How could there be such a prohibition on Roy and Hui Hui is puzzling and very disturbing. Rule by law? What kind of law or whose law?
 
Leong Sze Hian and his friends have picked up the torch to keep the flame burning. In the past, raising an issue, no matter how serious, would soon be forgotten when met with a stony silence. The MSM would simply ignore the issue. Or someone would sweep it under the carpet, it’s over, let’s move on. Many issues raised died a natural death.
 
The climate has changed today. With social media, with more serious issues, and with the people becoming more tenacious in wanting to right the wrong, wanting justice and fair play, no issues would be put away so easily. As long as the issues are not resolved, as long as the people are not happy with the way they are being handled or mishandled, they will be repeated over and over again. Don’t ever think that the people can be shut out.
 
Roy and Hui Hui may be down, but there will be others to pick up the fight, to keep fighting for a fair solution or conclusion. This Sat the crowd will be back at Hong Lim to demand for the Return of the people’s CPF money.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Leong Sze Hian working doubly hard 替天行道

It is so easy to flash some data to condemn someone of a sin. See, the data said so. Many people would just accept the data at face value, nod or shake their heads and walk away. The one waving the data won. He set the agenda, claimed to be saying the truth with a set of data.
 
But we all know how data can tell all kinds of stories, and even lies. Taking a data without knowing how the data was concocted, the premises, the before and the after, the selective processes, could tell a story that the data waver wanted to tell. The listener is none the wiser.
 
I used to claim that I got data to prove that 100% of the respondents said so without telling the listeners that 100% consisted of me and my dog named Boo. And similarly, I have conducted a few polls that were quite innocent until some ‘gongmando’ thought he was very smart by stuffing the ballot box. Of course I cooked up another poll that did not give him a chance to stuff his votes. Finally he got to stuff the votes into his own mouth.
 
Over the last few days there were so many data and finger pointings at AHPETC for poor management. And some data were used to prove the case. And it took Leong Sze Hian and his team to bury themselves into the history books to fish out the old records just to prove that the data waved were carefully selected to tell a desired story by the data wavers. And the full story was totally different from the one sided story told earlier.
 
Without the hard work and meticulous detail digging, the people told of a story would believe the story. Now people have doubts as to the original story. Many thanks must go to the selfless and the voluntarism of people like Leong Sze Hian who put in so much effort for no monetary returns to show another truth. Who said everyone is motivated only be money?
 
My God, what if there were no Leong Sze Hian and his team of workers? What would the truth be? Who would be carried on the shoulders as brilliant super talents telling the ‘truth’?
 
I am sure telling half truth is not a crime and there is nothing unethical about it too. It is just being clever and needs to be praised and even rewarded for being so clever.

Kopi Level - Yellow

SMRT applying for fare review

This must be good news. With the restructuring and changing of accounting methods, with the high capital assets being transferred out to the govt, with the huge profits made in the last quarter and more coming, with increasing load from more commuters, with the govt pumping many billions to buy assets for the SMRT, and with the oil prices falling like a rock, every commuters must be keeping their fingers crossed that this time the SMRT will be asking the PTC for a fare reduction. When times were difficult they had asked the commuters to be understanding when they hiked fares. Now when everything is so favourable, I am sure they will reciprocate the generosity of the public by going for a fare cut. It cannot be the other way!
 
Listening to Lui Tuck Yew in his blog, I quote the Today paper, ‘ the authorities must continue to make public transport affordable for all Singaporeans. “I hope that the PTC will study if we can insulate vulnerable groups such as senior citizens from a fare increase or at least mitigate the impact on them.”’ You can see the goodness and the heart. Let’s hope there will be a fare deduction this time when the review is concluded.
 
What do you think? I don’t think they got the gumption and audacity to ask for a fare hike this time. Let’s wait and see what they will be asking.
 
PS. The commuters are still experience regular breakdowns, which means the service is still far from satisfactory.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Being stupid in a smart city

This morning was a horrible mess. There was a power failure and my computer did not get recharged. It did not wake me up in the morning as programmed. By the time I realized what was happening, I was half an hour late and in a big rush. I had so much trouble finding my way to the toilet as my GPS was not working too.
 
By the time I got into the toilet I was stuck and lost. My computer would normally instruct me to either wash my face or brush my teeth first depending on which one it thought would be of priority. I stood in front of the basin trying to decide what to do for the first time on my own. Then I had to decide whether to take a bath or skip it. My computer decided that for me too, by sensing the level of my body odour. If acceptable, it would tell me to skip the bath and not to waste water.
 
When I got out of the house, another problem cropped up. Which route should I take to get to the MRT station? This was the job of my computer. It would always choose the best path with the least people and most pleasant to walk. Now again I had to decide what I should do when I had long forgotten how to do it. At the traffic light again I was stalled. The computer would decide when I should cross the road safely and it was now up to me to take the risk to cross the road unaided by the computer. So risky.
 
At the MRT station I was looking for the traffic lights to tell me if the station was too crowded. But it did not as it was also affected by the power failure. And I was not sure whether to go into the station or take an alternative transport to my office. I did not know doing simple things like getting to the office could be so difficult without the computer. And I have programmed everything, spending on a small fortune on the computer and all the softwares. Now the computer had made me stupid and over dependent on it.
 
What about the other computer illiterate senior citizens? Can they afford to buy a computer to lug along wherever they go? And could they be as smart as me in using the computer? Maybe I should get someone to develop a chip that can be inserted into computer illiterate idiots to make them smart so that they can benefit from living in a smart city.
 
I am still stuck at Raffles Place not knowing which is the best route to take to reach MBFC. I need to get my computer charged first to be able to get my life back to normal.

Kopi Level - Green