My experience with a Dental Clinic

The govt has started to scrutinize the claims made by clinics under the CHAS scheme.  Two dental clinics had been suspended and more are under investigations. I had an experience with a dental clinic sometime last year and it gave me mixed feelings.

It was nice to seek dental treatment under the CHAS/Pioneer Generation Scheme and came out without having to pay a single cent. Wow, wasn’t that nice?

It was something else when the dental surgeon hardly did anything to your teeth. I asked for a broken filling to be redone but was told it was still ok. It has been chipped and breaking down in several parts and would only get worse. But that was it. The dental surgeon did think it necessary to do anything. I was not pleased.

The other strange feeling was that I did not received any receipt or statement as to the treatment done and how much it cost, how much was the subsidy and how much the dental clinic would be claiming on my treatment.

This is unacceptable as a dental patient would not know, and need not care how was the billing done and whether that was the treatment done. This big hole must be plugged, with the patient receiving a statement on the treatment he received and the cost of the treatment as a check on the clinic involved.

Hope this violation of a govt subsidy scheme is not abused too widely and public money not wasted unnecessarily. Let’s wait for more audit reports and scrutinizes to know the whole truth.

American’s use of warships to control the South China Sea not disturbing

A typical western set piece by AGENCIES with the title “China’s use of fishing vessels in Indonesian waters to assert claims ‘disturbing’” was reported in the Today paper on 23 Jun 16.  The first para, ‘China is using its fishing fleets with armed escorts to bolster maritime claims in disputed territory, a senior United States’ State Department official warned yesterday, calling China’s behavior “disturbing’ and, “I think it’s a disturbing trend to see Chinese fishing vessels accompanied by coast guard vessels, used in a way that appears to be an attempt to exert a claim that may not be legitimate,” said another US official to journalists in SE Asia.

What is not disturbing is the Americans moving more of their military hardware into Asia and SE Asia, sailing their warships and flying their warplanes and conducting military exercises in the South China Sea.  Let me rephrase what the US official said and see if it is disturbing? ‘I think it’s a disturbing trend to see American aircraft carriers in the South China Sea accompanied by more naval vessels, used in a way that appears to be an attempt to exert a claim that may not be legitimate.’ The silly Asean country leaders are blinded by their greed to try to seize a few low hanging fruits in the Chinese garden and did not know that the Americans are surrounding the Chinese garden, including their own gardens, and are taking over all of them.

The Americans also claimed that the Chinese fishing boats were accompanied and escorted by Chinese coast guard vessels. If that be the case, how could the Indonesian frigate be firing at the Chinese ships without the Chinese coast guards firing back?  Or the coast guards were not there in the first place?

The western media have been repeatedly pushing out articles to poison the minds of the readers to hate China. There is also an article by a Nick Frisch from the local Yale Law School asking whether it is worth looking back at Tiananmen after 27 years. This is another way to revive memories of the Tiananmen Incident. I would also like to ask whether it is worth it to looking back at the 200 years of African slavery in America and the genocide of 70m to 100m native Americans, depending on which American historian’s figure?  Or those incidents happened too long ago and better not to be remembered. Why were there no Slavery Day to remember the enslavement of Africans in the USA? Why were there no Genocide of Red Indians Day to remember the millions killed, murdered and slaughtered by the Europeans? Too few Red Indians left to remember? Or no one dare to remember them to offend the White Americans?

I have not read the article yet. Maybe I should and write an article about the white man’s conscience.

The dangerous precedents to be set by The Hague

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has announced that a
decision will be made on the South China Sea island dispute filed by the
Philippines unilaterally without the consent of the counter party, China.
Those parties on the side of The Philippines are eagerly rubbing their
hands for a judgment in favour the latter, dreaming that it would favour
their attempts to make claims in the South China Sea against China. The
provocateur or mastermind behind this theatre of course will be smiling in
glee at the puppets fighting among themselves without a clue of what are
in store for them. Have no doubt that the puppets could only see as far
as their nose, and would end up being slapped by the same insidious act they
supported blindly or for short term interests.
The Asean states wanted and are praying very hard that their wishes would
be granted. Let me remind them that before their wishes come true, they
better reflect on the implications of the farcical decision or the
political statement that The Hague is going to make. The case violates many good
principles of law and order governing international relations. In this case
there is an international institution, a court that chose to preside over
a territorial dispute that it has no jurisdiction to hear. And they are
arrogant enough to want to make a judgment despite objections by the
affected party and without hearing its side of the story, ie in
abstentia. This is not about a criminal case or a dispute between citizens
of a country where the court has the legal right to sit and hear the case
and the citizens have no grounds to object. This is an international court
and the parties are sovereign nations that owe no obligation to the court
and could choose to tell the court to lump it. The decision or judgment
thus has no legal standing and is not binding to the party that chose not
to oblige.
How would a decision by The Hague be important to the Asean countries and
other countries of the world? Many countries, including those within Asean,
have territorial disputes with their neighbours. Take the case of the Philippines and Malaysia as an example. If Malaysia were to take the
position that China must abide by the 'judgment' made by the Permanent
Court of Arbitration, would Malaysia also do so should the Philippines,
with the support of the same mastermind, filed a case to claim Sabah
despite Malaysia's objection and refusal to participate should the Hague
ruled that Sabah belonged to the Philippines? This can also apply to
Singapore Malaysia relations when the latter is still harbouring the idea
that Singapore belonged to Malaysia. Likewise, Malaysia could unilaterally,
with the support of the same mastermind, if it behaves well and to the
liking of the mastermind, filed a case to take over the four Muslim southern
states of Thailand. Would Singapore or Thailand abide by the rulings of the
Hague in its decisions when they refused to participate in the hearing and
refused to make their defence?
The Koreans also have island dispute with Japan. China and Russia also have
similar disputes with Japan and so are many other countries. Would any of
these countries fall victims of a similar scam when they offended the
mastermind and have the international court making judgment against their
territories and would they accept the farcical decision?
The Hague decision is going make a very dangerous precedent that would
affect many countries around the world. A big power could connive and bribe
or coerce an international court to judge against any country with or
without their objection or without their participation. Is this what Asean
countries and the world at large think is a good thing, a good way of solving inter state territorial disputes?

When your PC or laptop is hacked?

I had this dreadful experience when this loud angmoh woman’s voice blasted out from my speakers. It went something like this. ‘Please call this number if you want to get your data in your computer back…something like that.’ And a window popped out from the screen with a phone number starting with 800-xxxxx, could not remember the rest of the digits. I quickly switched of my laptop.
 
This happened last Sat, 25 Jun 16 when I was reading TRE site. Shit! Then the screen went blank. I knew that I was hit. I turned on my anti virus for a full scan and no virus or malware was found! But when I logged on again, I could not access the internet. The indicator went swirling when I clicked on the Chrome icon but nothing happened. Tried several times to confirm what I did not want to know. My photo files were still ok. But my Word’s files were unreadable. A window popped up when I tried to read a file with a Window Word initial and the following sentences. Your Word program needs a converter to read file correctly. This feature is not installed in your system. Please click to install program or something like that. And there were two buttons, Yes and No to click. I refused to click suspecting the worst. My files are held at ransom.
 
The only thing to do is to seek help. I also bought another PC for immediate use. My friends in mysingaporenews blog were very pessimistic. Big trouble, gone case. Spoke to a computer sales guy. He too said serious and costly.
 
I asked another guy who told me to reset laptop to factory setting would help. I nearly tried but hesitate as I would lose all the apps loaded. Thought of doing a full saving, lock, stock and barrel, but still hesitant.
 
Then I tried another way. Eureka, it works. I can now gain access to the net. And I also found a way to read my Word files. Alright, not to alarm the hackers or leak out the secret, I am not going to divulge what I did in this blog. But anyone who wants to know can email me for my solution if they have been hacked. It did not cost me a cent. But I don’t guarantee that it would work in your case but very likely it will.
 
Redbean – Normal service has been resumed.

The ‘civilised’ bananas versus uncouth Chinese

There is this snobbery here, in this little island, that the bananas are more civilized than the mainland Chinese. And the bananas are born that way. Also, the mainland Chinese would always be uncivilized, unchanging and be like that and inferior to the bananas.

Many bananas are born in the last few decades and did not know that their forefathers were mainland Chinese, came from China. They probably believed their forefathers were Europeans, came from Europe, very civilized. They did not know that when the Europeans came out of Europe, they were mostly pirates, buccaneers, robbers and savages, out to loot and colonise and kill the natives of whichever land they landed, and calling the natives savages. This is akin to the human race calling sharks, whales and man eater animals as wild animals deserved to be killed. Instead they were the wild beasts, the savages that were killing these animals in the millions as food on the table, some for fun, they called it game fishing or hunting.

Even as recent as in the 1950s and 60s, the parents and grandparents of these bananas were just as dirty, rude and uncouth as what they accused the mainland Chinese of today. They spit and shit everywhere and have very ill manners. They could not remember. Their parents and fore parents were either too shameful to tell them or dead and gone. To cut the story short, if they could become more ‘civilised’, cleaner, more hygienic, less rude and crude, why can’t the mainland Chinese? No, the mainland Chinese are different. Their parents are Chinese. The parents of the bananas are not Chinese. Not Chinese, then what?  Ang moh or chap cheng?

What ever the bananas can become, the Chinese too can become and be better. They are better in many fields than the Chinese in this piece of rock. They are world Number One or Number Two in many things, not just being the best airline or best port. Is Singapore still Number One in these things?