Section Leader’s Course

I remember that the SAF used to conduct a Section Leader’s Course to train soldiers into leaders. And if I am not mistaken, this is at least a 3 months or 6 months course. This must be the minimum duration needed to train a young man into a leader. Now we have read about the one week programmed by a primary school for leadership training by climbing mountains. This must be a pretty intensive and advanced training method to turn a 12 year old into a leader.

With so much hue and cry about the length of NS, and with many demanding that NS training should be shortened as the two years were a great sacrifice by our young men, putting them at a great disadvantage in their career development against the foreigners that need not waste two years for NS, I can see a good outcome from this innovative school leadership programme.

The SAF should do a serious study on this school leadership programme and learn from them how they could turn young boys and girls into leaders in a matter of one week. And if the result is positive, then the Section Leader’s Course can be modified along the same line, with mountain climbing as the main part of the training, and instead of 3 or 6 months, the training can be reduced to maybe one month.  That could easily save 2 to 4 months of training and thus reduce the duration of NS to maybe 18 months.

And, since the schools are so keen in leadership training, maybe the schools can work with Mindef to integrate their leadership training into the Section Leader’s Course. Let’s say the boys would be made to do a one week compulsory mountain climbing course in primary school and maybe a 2 week mountain climbing course in secondary school. With these two courses in their belt, they are half way there as leaders and the duration of the Section Leader’s Course can thus be halved.

That’s it, I think this is a very good idea for the two ministries to think about. No? Did any say no? Alright, I can agree that there is now a fear for mountain climbing for children. But there is still a big demand for leadership training for 12 year olds right? So how? They need to be trained as leaders and the earlier the better.

How about this, Mindef work out a one week leadership training for the 12 year olds using the Section Leader’s Course programme. And the students need not have to climb Mt Kinabalu. They only need to climb Pengkang Hill. I think this is reasonable. 12 year olds climbing a hill should be easier though not as challenging as climbing mountain. And I think Pengkang Hill is quite far away from the earthquake zone.

And if one week is too short, add another week when they are in secondary schools. And as suggested above, with these two programmes, the duration of Section Leader’s Course can be shortened and the 2 year NS can be shortened by 6 months.

The more I think about these two options, the more brilliant I think of myself. What do you think? Don’t call me ‘seow’ ok?  I am just trying to help. With the schools so keen to make leaders out of the boys and with Mindef needing leaders in the field, they must be able to work out something for the good of everyone. This must be another win win formula.

MERS coming, are we prepared for it?

The hospital said so, Hsien Loong also said so. This is a true sign of being prepared for it. The hospitals are all well prepared and equipped with all the protocols in place. MOH has also started to screen passengers from South Korea.

With the rapid spread of MERS there, we know that they have fouled up badly. We cannot do less than them. We have our experience with SARS and know exactly what to do.The govt is well prepared, are the people and commercial organizations well prepared as well?

This MERS thing is not just the job of the govt. One thing for sure, the SMRT is the most well prepared for MERS, to spread like wild fire if a MERS infected passenger happens to be in a jam packed train. The tightly confined cabin with the recycling of little air in them makes it a perfect contraption for the spread of MERS in the shortest possible time. Our shopping centres and all airconditioned environment are ideal breeding grounds for MERS to spread.

What about the people? Are the people equipped to defend themselves against the spread of MERS? The haze season is still a few months ahead and there is no need to issue protective masks to the people yet. With a more deadly and contagious disease like MERS that will come, only a matter of days, could be the next hour, why are the masks not issued to the people? Are the people told to start buying masks and start to wear masks or to wait until an incident strikes?

When should the people be prepared for this attack since it is a matter of time before it arrives? The preparedness of the govt and hospital is only a small part of the equation.

Mt Kinabalu – A word of appreciation to the mountain guides and teachers.

The 12 year old students were there when the mountain shook. Never mind why they were there. Try to visualize the terrifying scene when the rocks and boulders came tumbling down, the roars and rumbles of tons and tons of rocks falling at break neck speed.The screaming and cries of fear. The first reaction, shock and awe. The next instinctive reaction, run for your life. The third reaction, look for a safe spot, unfortunately there would be none if one was in the path of the falling rocks.

Now what would be the first thing in the minds of the teachers and guides? Yes, run for their lives. But, there were children with them, hapless children needing the protection and help of adults. These adults would have the basic instinct to want to protect the children instead of running away, grabbing at the children, shielding them, trying to pull them to safety, ducking the rocks, and forgetting that they too were exposed to the dangers and their weak bodies would not stand a chance.They could have run at the first sign of trouble, as fast as they could to save their own skin.

It appeared that they went for the children, stayed with the children, and perished with the children as a result. They were in the same boat, caught in a downpour of stones and rocks. As adults, they stood a better chance to flee for safety. Very likely they didn’t, as brave men would behave in times of grave danger.

And there were some brave guides that went back to look for survivals when the mountain was still unstable and the rocks could still come falling down. And a few were saved as a result of these brave men, to return them to their grateful, frightened and helpless parents waiting in despair.

I salute these brave men, those who survived trying to save the children and those that lost their lives trying to save the children. I would like to suggest the govt offers some form of monetary assistance to their families as a gesture of our appreciation for the lost of these brave men who died in the line of duty, to save our children.This is a small thing that we can do for them.

And don't forget the guide with one of our children on his back, saved from the jaws of death.

MH370 – The most wicked hoax of the century

The search for MH370 is coming to an end and not a trace of the aircraft is found. The optimism and confidence of some jokers that the aircraft would be found and was in the southern Indian Ocean have proven to be the biggest hoax of the century. Many precious time and effort were wasted in this futile expedition to a God forsaken corner of the Ocean, misled by a bunch of wicked people to distract the attention of the search parties from looking elsewhere with their false confidence and maybe even fabricated technical data. Great effort was made in this elaborate hoax by several parties to make it look feasible and playing on the desperation of the victims’ families and countries.

While the families of the dependents were desperately hoping for some miracles to happen, it was very difficult to call the hoax at its initial stages even when there were so many false and questionable assumptions. The only bit of supposedly genuine technical data of satellite pulses were the straws that the search parties were falling for.  Now that everything is proving to be a fruitless exercise in vain, it only confirms the stupidity of the expedition.  It was wild hope that were led by wicked people who were either guessing or have some evil intent. It also raised doubts as to the authenticity of the satellite pulses or to the mischievous analysis and what it meant.

Where are the aircraft and the passengers? Are they dead or have they been turned to dust?  There is absolutely no evidence to confirm that they were dead and gone. Serious, there was no aircraft wreckage to prove anything, no bodies to prove anything. The only conclusion is that the aircraft and the passengers were missing. No one could confirm beyond reasonable doubt that the passengers are dead. They are assumed dead though the possibility is very high. Until some evidence is found, it is NOT conclusively proven to be so. Where is the evidence?

Would the wicked people fabricating all the stories that the aircraft had been flown to the Indian/Antarctic Ocean own up to their lies? Would they own up to say they did not know and were told to say so, or for whatever reasons to say so?

MH370 is still a mystery waiting to be solved.

Amos Yee dangerous?

This is a matter of relatively surely. How dangerous is Amos Yee cannot be viewed in a vacuum. There must be some reference point for comparison. Let’s take the case of those foreign thugs that were allowed here to enjoy our hospitality that keep on beating up the old cabbies and refusing to pay their taxi fare, are they more dangerous than Amos Yee?
What do you think?

In the case of 29 year Swedes, a 6 foot hunk beating up a frail 60 year old cabby claiming that he felt threatened and unsafe, what the fuck, and he got only 12 weeks jail. Would this be adequate? And many of these trash got even lighter punishments. How would such punishment going to help to correct their violent behavior? Should they be given more severe punishment to teach them a lesson, to reform them? Should they be considered for 18 or 30 months of reformative training so that they can be turned into good residents and stop beating up old cabbies?

Why is Amos Yee so dangerous compares to these foreign thugs? Did Amos Yee hurt anyone, beat up anyone? Actually Amos Yee was himself a victim of assault. Is he really do dangerous to public security? And why were these foreign thugs not required to be sent for reformative training?