TRS, one down, one to go

In the social media scene, there is practically only a handful of active websites for alternative news. Taking away the more colourful sites, there are really only two decent sites that gave a good spread of the news in the social media and are the places that netizens hungry for alternative views will gravitate to, the TR Emeritus or TRE and The Real Singapore or TRS.
 
Being a ground up news and views and opinion provider, an aggregator of what the people say, mainly individuals expressing themselves on events and happenings here, the posts are expected to be very colourful and varied, from rumour mongering, drumming, serious opinions and serious news. There will be the occasional fabrications of lies, of distorted news and the one sided news that the main media are also well known for.
 
The TRS has been ordered by the govt to be taken down and they did since last night. It was reported that their ‘licence to operate the site was suspended by the MDA’. This is news to me, the part about having a licence to operate a virtual site in virtual space. Would a site operating in the US or Europe but with contents about Singapore and frequented by Singaporeans and citizens of the world require to get a licence from the MDA?
 
The reason for the closing down of TRS, ‘they have published material that is “objectionable on the grounds of public interest, public order and national harmony”’. These motherhood clauses can mean anything under the sky and violating this regulation could see the editor in jail for up to 3 years or a fine of S$200,000. A couple, a 26 year old Singaporean, Yang Kaiheng and a 22 year old Australian, Ai Takagi, have been arrested and charged ‘with seven counts of sedition and one of failing to produce documents to a police officer’. They were alleged to have published articles that ‘promoted ill will and hostility between different races or classes here’. The more serious part according to MDA is, ‘deliberately fabricated articles and falsely attributed them to innocent parties’.
 
With the TRS down, the only popular website left is the TRE. Everyone is wondering how long would TRE survive given the sensitivity of the MDA and the coming general election. TRE is now the preferred site of choice for alternative news and will be watched like a hawk. If the TRE also goes under, there would hardly be any worthy alternative sites left for the social media enthusiasts to visit. It would literally mark the end of social media here.

Is this the end of the light touch policy and a new beginning to the end of social media?

Taking a degree mill course and getting a degree mill degree is exceptional

There is no reason not to take a degree course for pleasure, as a hobby as long as you tell your employer that it is not to be taken into consideration if you put it in your resume. The ‘smart’ employers will understand. Tell them it is a hobby, a past time and you don’t mind wasting your time and money taking it.

Actually there are many reasons to take a degree mill course. In the first place it is cheap. It is also convenient, no need to leave the house for it. It is also easy, no need to do anything, no test, not attendance, no course work. And there are plenty of degree mills to choose from. It is also super fast to get a degree from a degree mill. A few days will do and one could get half a dozen degrees in month. One is also spoilt for choices as you can get any degree you want, from any country of your own choosing.

The only trick to make the degree from the degree mills worthy is to tell your employer you did it thinking, honestly, genuinely, that the degree mill is a real university, a legitimate one. Your employer would not judge you for your stupidity for taking a degree mill course without checking. Your intelligence is assured, and equal to the intelligence of your employer. If the employer is stupid enough not to know that you are stupid or lying, you can bet he is a good employer that would buy your degree mill’s degrees and would not see anything wrong with it.

They would even come out in your defence, so that they would not look stupid, in case people found out you got a degree from a degree mill and was employed. The employer would likely justify that they did not consider your degree mill degree when employing you. You are safe as they need to look NOT STUPID for their stupidity and for not doing due diligence.

And the best countries to apply for a good job with your degree mill degree are the exceptional cities. The more exceptional the better are your chances of being employed. And better still, go to a city where the citizens are infamous for being daft, the kind of people that cannot think and would accept anything you said. It is in their DNA. But they will pretend that they are super talents. So just play with it. Flatter them for their intelligence as long as they give you the job. Remember, do not tell them they are fake talents even if your degree is fake.

Money laundering, degree laundering

We have heard of money laundering where dirty money are washed and clean to become respectable money for circulation. One of the methods is to use layering, get the dirty money through several layers, buy, sell, buy sell, like buying stocks, properties or even winnings in the casinos. Then the source of the new money becomes legitimate. When asked, the money comes from selling of properties or stocks or from the casinos, not from drugs or corruption. And if no one is able to trace a few steps back, everything will be fine, no more dirty traces to cry foul.

Laundering of fake degrees and qualifications and CVs go through the same processes, layering. Start with some fake degrees, get a job through some connection, by paying if necessary, work in some organizations, resigned, changed jobs, and along the way get a lot of recommendations and testimonials. These recommendations and testimonials can also be bought without one actually working in any organization. Pad up the new CVs and go overseas to gullible countries that are lax in vetting and checking. Get employed in some genuine organizations.

After several layering, the fake past can be discarded. Even the fake degrees can be discarded especially in silly countries that claimed degrees are not important. Look at the track record, can do the job, with good references will do.  These stupid countries did not think resumes and testimonials can also be fakes, can also be bought.

After getting genuine work experience in silly but reputable organizations or countries, jump ship, go to the USA, Australia or Europe to start a new life with the new resumes.  After a few years can come to 1^st World countries like Singapore and look for top management positions as foreign talents. No one will have any clue of who this animal was. The past will be erased and forgotten, all the fake degrees and fake resumes no longer needed. Now walk around proudly with a newly minted or laundered CVs, work experience and new degree by enrolling in genuine universities using the work experience as requirements for admission.

See, laundering of CVs and qualifications can also be done quite easily.

Amos Yee – A new divide

The flutter of a butterfly has morphed into many butterflies fluttering in this island. When the fluttering of a butterfly is allowed to go flapping unrestrained you will get a storm brewing. The Amos Yee Incident has led to the gravitating of two groups, one hating him and wanting him to be lynched and another calling for understanding as he is just a wayward boy and needing guidance. When no one thinks it is right and prudent to tell the lynching mobs to back off, the mob went wild.

In the beginning there were the verbal threats of bodily harm to the boy, and this was followed by a man hitting the boy outside the court house. And there were applause from silly adults, supposedly responsible people, that the boy deserved it. And the icing to top up this comic tragedy of vicious attacks against a boy, a book store put up an insensitive tweet that went viral. I quote from an article in TRE on this,

‘Meanwhile, Popular bookstore posted an insensitive tweet on Twitter capitalizing on the “slapping incident” of Amos Yee.
It poked fun of Amos by putting up a picture of Famous Amos cookies and tweeting “Sorry you got slapped. Here, have some cookies on us!”.
Netizens were outraged and heavily criticised Popular bookstore. Many are calling for a boycott of the bookstore:… Facing a barrage of criticisms and calls of boycott, Popular bookstore later quickly put up an apology:
“It was a mistake that we accept and sincerely apologize for. We promise that we won’t do it again. #saynotoviolence”.
It has since deleted the insensitive tweet….’
The level of viciousness from the group against the boy, Amos Yee, is getting more serious and escalating. The voice of reason and compassion is also up a few scales to condemn those attackers. And the rest of those following this Incident are divided into two camps, one shaking their heads at how this is allowed to go on and on unrestrained, like it is the right thing to do, with approval from God, while the attackers behaving as if they are the righteous and godly people with God on their side. Come to think of it, when God is in the picture, who dares to go against God?
Everyone must be cowering in fear except some god fearing people that think they have the consent of god to do what they are doing to Amos Yee, the boy on the wrong side of god. What a heavenly divide this has become. And the storm is brewing, an act of God that nothing can be done to stop it except to hurry and evacuate to safety, away from the storm.
See nothing, hear nothing, say nothing and do nothing are the best things to do.
Which is the side of Darkness, which is the side of Light? Amen.
Below is a comment by a netizen, a father of 4 to Popular Book Store posted in TRE.

Trust et al:

May 2, 2015 at 1:52 pm  (Quote)

Dear Popular Book Store
I am a father of 4, a Singapore citizen.
I saw your utterly reprehensible disgusting and outrageous Tweet making fun of Amos Yee, a defenceless teen who was viciously assaulted at the doorstep of our Courts. There was the image of a human hand in the gesture of slapping accompanied by the words ‘Hi 5′ and ‘Ouch!’. This clearly meant you were celebrating and even congratulating the assailant and feeling gleeful about the attack. To a 16 year old imprisoned as an adult and in handcuffs and ankle fetters after an assault, you offered Famous Amos cookies, clearly to taunt him.
This was a carefully designed stunt calculated to capitalize in a sadistic manner on the trauma and agony of a teenager. You clearly sought to gain cheap publicity since the tweet featured stationery which you sell!
Minister of Law Shanmugan has categorically stated that this horrendous violent act cannot be condoned.
The Singapore Kindness Movement (whose Patron is our Prime Minister) has denounced the vicious online attacks on Amos Yee which led up to this atrocity.
You are a company which makes its fortune selling textbooks, guidebooks and stationery to kids.
I cannot comprehend how you could stoop to such uncivic and barbaric behaviour when a young person is being victimized.
It is highly probable that conduct such as yours will lead to further violence against Amos Yee and will promote a culture of political violence and thuggery in Singapore.
‎I am ashamed as a Singaporean that an apparently reputable company like yours could stoop to such reprehensible cyber-lynching.
You have not apologized to Amos and his family. Instead you are resorting to PR gimmicks.
Many netizen have called for a boycott of your store and products. I think this is the least that you deserve!

Amos Yee’s assailant arrested

I wrote about this trivial incident yesterday, just to quote the intro paragraph of the article, ‘The boy, Amos Yee, was hit by a man outside the court when he turned up to hear the charges against him for insulting religion and God. After hitting the boy the man ran off but not before shouting ‘Sue me, sue me’ in front of journalists waiting outside the court for the boy’s appearance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ17hfhI0C0....’

Our super efficient men in blue did not fail and the man was arrested at 2 am on the same night. The news broke the next day saying that a 49 year old man was arrested. Oh, 49 year old! Heck, my old man’s vision must be playing tricks on me, or was it the above video? That man seemed too young, at most in his mid 30s. His movement, mannerism, his running and gesturing, all seemed too young to be 49.

It is unbecoming for a 49 year old man to behave that way, more like a juvenile. If he is not caught and identified, I would go on thinking that it was a young man hitting Amos Yee.

The big question, what’s next? How would this man be dealt with? In this case, though trivial, it has an international standing and an international audience. It is a very high profile case, and God is watching over us. At the mortal level, this is a case of reckless defiance of the law, the police, and the govt. It was conducted just outside the courts of justice, presumably there would be police around, and in front of many journalists and reporters with cameras ready, and he did it, without a care that he would be caught in camera. He was so confident that he could get away with it, thinking, acting and behaving like a kid. After hitting the boy he turned around to taunt the boy, facing the cameras, without trying to hide his face, no sign of fear of the law, that he could be easily identified. It was very unusual for a 49 year old to behave so naïvely confident of himself. You would expect a 49 year old to know what he was in for and be more careful to commit a premeditated act of violence. He was not provoked and act in the heat of a moment. He was there waiting for Amos Yee..

Would the courts, the police and the govt take this case in a different manner? Would this be treated as more than a simple scuffle between two private individuals and Amos Yee be asked to file a personal suit against his assailant and claim for damages? The fact that he has been arrested means that the govt or the police are taking this very seriously. Would this case be used to make a statement, a deterrent, against all future and potential violators of peace and order, not to think that this is a lawless country, ‘bo cheng hu’, and they can go around hitting and assaulting anyone they liked, right in front of the courts?

With the noise about this case spreading unrestrained, many cheering, some jeering, that the hitting of the boy is a right and good thing, and with many leaders keeping their lips sealed, other than Shanmugam, the impression is not very well received.  Shanmugam, as the Minister of Home Affairs, had to say something or people will get the wrong message, like the fake degree case.

Now, would more righteous people, and ministers, speak out against this assault in broad daylight, against a child by a 49 year old man? A trivial case, nothing much about it, not vile, not outrageously?  Not alarming? Anyone wants to be kind to this kid, or to be kinder to the kid/man for hitting the kid?

What would be the message to be sent out by the govt and the police?