6/16/2016

Singapore is an exceptionally safe place

About a week ago Channel News Asia had a programme on the scale of TB epidemic in India and how big a group of TB patients had developed full resistance to all the available drugs, ie no current drug will have any effect on their sickness and they would not be cured. The programme also quoted figures like 4m died annually from TB and worse, the TB patients were literally walking everywhere and spreading the disease. Please correct me if I misquote the number.

The first thought that came to mind was the hundreds of thousands of Indian natives in this island. Horror! They are travelling in the trains and buses day and night, in close proximity with the natives of the Red Dot, and they have this sick habit of sticking themselves to the natives, probably part of their way of life, like the crowded trains back home. Would they be spreading TB generously to the natives here?

My mind went whinning for answers. Oh, no cases of TB here, or very few cases. This means that TB is not wide spread in the island. It must be due to the stringent medical checks and controls, the vetting, to only allow those that are medically free of diseases to enter the island. We must give a pat on the back of MOH for keeping our city free from foreign diseases and epidemic. Then I managed a smile. It would not happen here, just like terrorists would not attack here, thanks to the intelligence agencies and the men in blue.

Singapore is safe from terrorism and diseases despite half the population coming from the 3rd world countries. This must be a miracle to brag about.

Oops, spoken too early didn’t I?  Today’s front page news, a cluster of 6 TB patients in a block in Ang Mo Kio.  How did that happen? And they are all Singaporeans, a bigger mystery. TB has more or less been eradicated here and should there by new cases, they must come in from abroad. But these 6 are all Singaporeans, suggesting that the disease could be indigenous. Or they may have been travelling overseas.  They can’t contact TB here. If that is the case, many more Singaporeans would be having TB giving the confines and close proximity to foreigners sticking together in the trains and buses.

How did it happen? While the MOH is still investigating, they also assured the public that everything is under control and the 6 are no longer contagious. There is nothing to panic. TB needs long and close contact to develop and spread. Not sure the 20 or 30 minutes inside the trains and buses would be serious enough to get TB? But base on the last two decades of experience and empirical data, no problem. TB is not going to gain grounds in this island.

Singaporeans can sleep in peace. Only 6 cases mah.

No need to be an MP or be in Parliament to ask questions

The SDP is asking questions and demanding answers from the govt on the series of lift breakdown accidents injuring several citizens. This is part of the press release by the SDP posted in the TOC.

‘SDP calls for MND to give a full account of lift mishaps


By onlinecitizen on June 13, 2016 Politics

In a media statement issued by Mr John Tan, Vice-Chairman of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), the party calls for the Ministry of National Development to give a full account of lift mishaps at HDB blocks.

The party notes that even after Deputy Prime Minister, Tharman's promise to improve lift safety in response to a lift incident where an elderly woman's hand was severed, there still have been lift malfunctions which have led to injuries and even one death.’

And these are the things that the SDP are askings and wanting the govt to take actions. Not ice the difference? They are not just asking questions but demanding answers and actions. Not just to ask questions for asking questions’ sake and be happy with whatever answers provided by the ministers. Read these,

‘Why did it take so long for Mr (Lawrence)Wong to tell the public of the measures his Ministry was taking to resolve the problem? Could more stringent and urgent steps have been taken? Could the injuries and death have been prevented?

The SDP calls on the MND to take immediate steps to prevent further mishaps from occurring. The Ministry should also publish a full account of the jobs done in the areas of maintenance and repairs of lifts throughout the island without further delay. The report should include the names of the manufacturers of the lifts and their countries of origin.’

The above questions are backed up by 7 incidents of breakdowns, dates and places and people injured or died.  They don’t simply ask questions or make a statement and claimed to have done their job, end of matter, subject closed. Those MPs in Parliament, elected, nominated, NCMPs, should take a lesson on how to ask questions in Parliament from the SDP. SDP should conduct a course on how to ask questions in Parliament and the MPs, NMPs, NCMPs can use their Skills Future fund to attend and pay for it.

What do you think?

6/15/2016

Ideological and propaganda warfare

Below are some extracts from an article written by a Russian philosopher Andre Vitchek on the damages done to Russia and China by western propaganda over the last 200 years. It has come to a state that anything Russian and Chinese is bad, and Russians and Chinese are bad people, only the Americans and Europeans are the good people.

These days you may get hugs from many common people in the Middle East or Latin America when you say that you are Russian, but such emotional outbursts are mainly intuitive. After being bombarded by extremely effective and negative Western propaganda for years and decades, people of the world still know very little, if anything, about two enormous countries that have been proudly resisting the Western imperialism – Russia and China.

I recently spent five weeks in Latin America, where the West openly supports the entire wide spectrum of counter-revolutionary movements, literally overthrowing one progressive government after another. I worked alongside the left-wing intellectuals there, helping to define the way forward, to rescue the Process.

But I was shocked by how little is known there about both Russia and China – for decades two natural allies of the patriotic Latin American Left…

. It is easy to understand the reasons behind all this. Even in some of the most revolutionary nations of Latin America, the Western mass media outlets have been managing to retain their presence, often through the right-wing big business cable TV and satellite distributors….

And so the negative and misleading messages about Russia and China are spread constantly. People are bombarded with them from the television screens, from the pages of mass-circulation newspapers, and from the imported (Western) films….

And the situation is much worse in Asia.

There, the Empire has truly and fully mobilized all available resources, in order to discredit its two main adversaries.’

Speaking to my friends and colleagues in such places like Indonesia and Philippines, I was told that most of the people there know little, even close to nothing about Russia. It is still perceived through the Cold War and post-Cold-War stereotypes. The Western propaganda apparatus has been portraying Russians as cold, aggressive, brainwashed and dangerous….

China is being targeted with an even greater and more malicious force than Russia. Successful and Communist China is the worst nightmare for the West and for the local, Asian ‘elites’.

The entire propaganda apparatus is now in overdrive, spreading ideological attacks and negative messages. The most peaceful major country on Earth is being portrayed as an aggressor and threat to regional and world peace. In the Philippines and elsewhere, the global Western regime is arousing the cheapest and extremely dangerous bellicose forms of nationalism.

The local Chinese diaspora of Southeast Asia that consists mainly of the anti-Communist elements, descendants of the people who left China after the revolution, are playing an extremely important and destructive role.

Nobody seems to notice that the United States/NATO is encircling both Russia and China with its military bases, while deploying new offensive missile systems. Nobody talks about those tens of millions of people who were massacred during the Western invasions of Asia during the 20th century.

And the situation is not much different in Africa and elsewhere….

The war against imperialism should be fought not only on the battlefields; it should be fought on the airwaves, at the printing presses, in the concert halls and theatres. Kindness, humanism, internationalism and knowledge can often serve as weapons much more powerful than missiles, strategic bombers and submarines.’

I just want to point out this statement to the Chinese diaspora, particularly the bananas to take note of. This is an observation by a Russian philosopher from far away. He could see how silly and destructive the bananas are to China under the heavy influence of American and western media. Here is the statement:

‘The local Chinese diaspora of Southeast Asia that consists mainly of the anti-Communist elements, descendants of the people who left China after the revolution, are playing an extremely important and destructive role.’

Well done bananas, for blindly betraying your roots and civilization. The Americans will be laughing themselves silly at the silly Chinese hating anything Chinese. And they will say, ‘Good boy’, you learn well, to hate yourself.

Coming to terms with Orlando shooting

It is far away, but the killings were splashed across the pages of our papers like it was in our very own backyard. The world is getting so small, so close and events happening on the other side of the globe would be known in an instance. We could feel and share the pain, but not the pains of those being killed daily in the Middle East, with many more killed and wounded, daily, with many children going hungry and not going to school, forever on school vacations.

The Orlando killing is getting too close for comfort. The motive, other than being a part of the ISIS world wide terror war against the infidels, this one is more specific. It was about the gays, the LGBT that they have very little tolerance for.  And we just had a rousing gay party in Hong Lim Park, a great success, with many corporate sponsors, some foreign and getting on the nerves of the govt. No, the govt was edgy for different reasons until the Orlando shooting.

Now the govt has a legitimate reason to raise the alarm.  The Pink Dot Party could be another terrorist target for sure.  Shanmugam said, ‘te madness is not going to stop and Singapore must be prepared to respond “hard and fast” if such acts hit home.’ Uh, to respond hard and fast if it happens? Better make sure it does not happen. When it happens, say at a Pink Dot Party in Hong Lim with 20,000 people, no joke. The carnage could be worse than in Orlando and the news will be in the front page and centre spread of all the media in the world.

What is the govt going to do about it? The internet threat to the govt’s computer system is leading to a ban on civil servants from frolicking in the net. Would there be a ban on gay gatherings here? And how would the LGBT group reacts to such a ban? Or would it be another case of it would not happen here, like the Bangla terrorist cells?

Would anything change here after Orlando? Or would thing be as per normal?

The tactics of the ISIS is to attract lone wolf terrorists that are self radicalized through the net to attack whoever they want to attack, the infidels. These are highly unpredictable individuals that could be the best of friends, a model citizens but turned rogue overnight.  There is just no way of telling who’s who.  The danger is clear and present.

Shanmugam has called for all Singaporeans to come together as a nation and to be prepared against terrorist attacks. That is easy. The difficult part is that half of the population is foreigners. How to educate them and bring them together as a nation?  Maybe that is a non issue as all the foreigners coming here are good foreigners and would not attack Singapore and Singaporeans even if they are terrorists. They all have a soft spot for Singapore. Singapore is so good to them.

The danger comes from Singaporeans that are easily radicalized, not foreigners. See, so far no foreigners have tried to attack Singapore. Singapore is safe from foreigner terrorists?

6/14/2016

Indonesia will not allow Singapore to act against its citizens

This is the latest coming from down under, the big brother of Asean.  Singapore thinks that by passing the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act it can then go around arresting anyone it likes for violating this law? The Americans can do it, passing all kinds of silly transboundary laws and go about applying to countries around the world. That is American Exceptionalism or America is the Empire and can impose any laws onto anyone. Small little countries must know their places and stop believing in myth that it can punch above its weight.

The strong objection and statement are testimony to might is right and when one is small, it is better not to be too overbearing. You can only punch above your weight if the bigger party allows you to do so. Indonesia would not allow Singapore to act against its citizens even if their acts affected and hurt Singapore and Singaporeans. What can Singapore do about it?  On the other hand Indonesia is arresting fishing boats from China, Malaysia, Vietnam etc and their citizens for violating their territorial waters. Not sure about the rest, but in China’s case, Indonesia is acting like it is punching above its weight against China. They believe China could not do anything against the Indonesian Navy. In reality, it is China that is allowing the Indonesians to punch above its weight. Anytime China could withdraw this privilege like Indonesia is doing now to Singapore, and arrest Indonesian naval ships when it decided enough is enough.

There is one area that Singapore can punch above its weight. Throw money around. We have a lot of money to throw and those who needed money would come crawling to plead with us, to let us feel important, full of dignity, and to throw our weight around with our money to punch above our weight, …and to look silly after that when the money is gone.

How many millions do you want, $100m, $500m or $1b?