Let’s pray

Smug human beans and those that are materially successful tend to sneer and despise the poor that went down on their knees to pray to God or heaven or whatever deities or spirits they could seek to give them a helping hand. Such practices have been perpetuated throughout human civilization till today. The hapless, the helpless, the poor have no one to look to and in desperation turn to the supernatural as a last resort. The natural aristocrats, the royalties, the elite would quietly sneered at their stupidity. The arrogant would laugh haughtily at these pathetic beans and their desperate ways.
 
Don’t laugh, go to all the places and houses of worship, they are all praying. Even the fallen rich, fallen elites or aristocrats would go down on their knees to pray when they hit hard times.
Looking around at what is happening in this little piece of rock, it looks increasingly real and meaningful to pray to the supernatural when all else do not seem to work. Yes, the Sinkies are in desperation. Ok, not all Sinkies are in such a dire state, but those that were, their only hope is for the supernatural to do something. Many are hoping against all hopes that there is indeed a super bean out there to come to their aid when all else fails.
 
Everyone in the wrong side of the equation is hoping and praying for the mysterious hand to make things right. What else can they do? Yes, nothing. Their ancestors have done this through the millennia and today is no difference.
 
Let’s pray that wrong should be righted and goodness shall prevail over evil.
Everyone please go down on your knees. There is no shame to pray. You are just hapless poor human beans with on power to do anything to help yourself. Only the One that could work mysteriously could help you.
 
Let’ pray like what our forefathers do in times of desperation and when hope is the only thing to cling on to. For those that are successful and fearless, that what they are are due to their exceptional abilities and talent, there is no need to pray. They are gods themselves and untouchable, and praying is a very silly thing that only the losers will do. God will only help those that help themselves. For those who have, more would be added to them. Amen.

PS. Foe the successful, there is no need to pray for all their wants have been granted. They could even grant wishes if you pray to them. In the mean time keep sneering at the losers. 

Mahathir’s definition of a Malay

‘Mahathir simplified the meaning of being a Malay by saying to be a Malay, one has to speak the Malay language, follow the Malay customs and be a Muslim…. To be a Malay, said Mahathir, is no more an ethnic thing as today it is more of a legal matter.’
 
What or who should be the authoritative source of what is a Malay? Singapore’s has its own definition of what is a Malay. According to Article 19B of the Singapore Constitution, "any person, whether of the Malay race or otherwise, who considers himself to be a member of the Malay community and who is generally accepted as a member of the Malay community by that community" is qualified to run as a candidate for the reserved EP for Malays.
 
The encyclopedia, Wikipedia, dictionary and all the anthropologists would have their own definition of what is a Malay. With so many different definitions, the final answer for a Malay is that everyone can be a Malay and everyone can also not be a Malay.

A person can change his nationality, can change his religion, even change his father, but no one can change his/her racial blue print. Race is biological, You cannot change your DNA, at least for now until the scientists find a way to alter them. Then a Caucasian can be a Mongoloid or vice versa. A Negrito or Afrikaan can be Caucasian or whatever.
 
Race is not a legal matter but ethnicity, not even cultural, it is biological.
 
A chicken that can swim and quack like a duck and calling itself a duck is a duck, or still a chicken?

Is the Govt short of money?

The slew of taxes coming from the Govt is not a good sign. When a govt is desperately churning out more and more taxes, it is a sign that something is wrong, financially. Why would a govt be raising taxes so often when there is no need to, ie, when it is financially sound, when there is no need to squeeze more money from the people? The most important thing to do in judging the Govt’s financial position is what it is doing, spending more money or collecting more taxes. This is a good guide to the health of the govt’s coffer.
 
Why do I ask such a question, Is the Govt short of money? I did not follow the ND Rally but noticed that everyone is talking about a sugar tax. I quote this from thestatestimesreview, ‘The Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday (Aug 22) announced that it is now “studying” sugar tax following dictator Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally speech on diabetes. The MOH has created a committee, “Diabetes Prevention and Care Taskforce”, to implement the sugar tax:’
 
Diabetes is a health issue. Telling the people not to consume too much sugar is a good thing. And the people will know that this is a good thing and would be most willing to listen to good advice. This is not something like littering and a fine is needed to keep people from littering.
 
Why is there a need to impose a sugar tax to keep people from taking more sugar? Is sugar a drug, like cigarette or liquor? Oh, maybe it is like water, so subject to tax to make the people know how important it is not to waste water/sugar. No, sugar is a staple food, an essential food that everyone needs, like salt and rice. To think of imposing a sugar tax is outrageous unless there are more to it than meet the eyes. Is the Govt so short of money that it is finding every excuse to raise taxes? If not, which idiot is thinking that this is a good idea? What’s next, too much salt is bad, raise salt tax. Too much rice is bad, carbohydrate is also a major cause of diabetes, so raise rice tax?
 
What utter rubbish! Everything also wants to tax. So desperate for money? No, no, really? Then what is the real reason behind this thinking on sugar tax? Running out of ideas? Taxing the people is fun yah? May I suggest this, tell the daft people good quality sugar must be priced higher so people would not buy too much sugar because it is expensive?
 
Why doesn’t the Govt make consuming excessive sugar a crime? Then can impose fine for buying or consuming too much sugar. Make the people wear a sugar counter on their necks to measure how much they take and fine them accordingly if exceeded the limit? 

Have these people gone crazy, money crazy?

Why is China hesitating and not chasing the Indian soldiers out of its territory?

The Indian soldiers have been in the Chinese territory on the Sino Bhutan border on the pretext of protecting Bhutan’s territory from China. They moved in to stop the Chinese from building roads in an area between China and Bhutan that is not Indian territory. China has given several warnings for the Indians to withdraw voluntarily but the Indians have stayed put in defiance, violating Chinese territorial integrity.
 
The Indians arrogantly spoke of their superior military strength and completely ignored the Chinese warnings. They have reasons to do so as they came well prepared just like in 1962. The Chinese were caught off guard as their people on the ground were construction workers with a few border guards that were not prepared for an Indian incursion. The Indians have been amassing their troops at the border and any hasty and unprepared reaction by the Chinese border guards would be dealt a severe blow by the Indians.
 
India has been preparing for this day since the humiliating defeat in the 1962 Sino Indian border war. The shame inflicted on the Indians was too much to swallow and till today they are still claiming that they were caught unprepared despite building up a dedicated 4th Army Corp specifically to seize the disputed territories from China. Now they have stationed their elite 33rd Army at the border region, all prepared for war with China. The 33rd Army is backed by Brahmos missiles, Sukhoi 30s bought from Russia, Apache helicopters and field guns and tanks bought from the Americans. The Chinese would be knocked unconscious if they dared to chase the Indian soldiers out of their territory without proper preparations.
 
This is a major reason why the Chinese are still not acting. They would also want the whole world to know that it is the Indians that are encroaching on Chinese land. In the meantime they would need to move in their air force, armies and anti aircraft and anti missile units to defend against the Indian forces lined up along the Sino Indian border. The Indians are very confident that they could take on the Chinese and avenge their defeat in 1962 this time with a well prepared military force, like their very well prepared 4th Army Corp. Only after the humiliating defeat then that they put blame on their unpreparedness. This time they are on record claiming that they are well prepared and would win this war and could not hide under another excuse of not being prepared if defeated again. And this time it is on record that they have intruded into Chinese territory.
 
The Chinese would need time to prepare themselves in the face the massive deployment of Indian forces along the border. This is not going to be a quick and decisive war with just foot soldiers. It is going to involve missiles, artillery and the air forces unless the Chinese can get it over with quickly. While everyone is wondering when would this war begin, the Chinese would be building up their forces to meet the Indian forces, might with might, men for men, machine for machine. This is not play play game. This is serious and going to be big. A military offensive to defend their territory occupied by an invading force cannot be taken lightly.

Commuters must beg for fare hikes to improve quality of service

'Totally waiting for Khaw boon wan to emerge with a champion solution of raising MRT fares to raise standards. Look at what the past few fare hikes have given Singaporeans. Did it give us better service standards?' Sandra Chin

Sandra Chin posted an article in the TRE about the numerous fare hikes but with no improvement in train services, rather more serious failures and stoppages on a daily basis. She is aghast and frustrated like many commuters. Everyone is hoping for PAP's fix all expert Khaw Boon Wan to fix this problem fast but after more than a year, things did not seem to improve.

As I have stated way back then when Boon Wan volunteered to solve the MRT problem after the success in building more HDB flats to cut down the queue and runaway prices, this may also be a self inflicted problem like the HDB. In the HDB's case it was easier as the cause of the problem was not building enough flats or slowing down the building of more flats in Mah Bow Tan's watch.

In the MRT case, it was neglect in maintenance and engineering services that led to an accumulation of faults and shortfalls in maintenance. Short of a major revamp, the overload in capacity due to rise in ridership and years of maintenance neglect would not be so easily resolved.

The other problem as raised by Sandra Chin as the cause of poor services must be not enough fare hikes or fare hikes not high enough. Maybe, I say maybe, commuters should beg the MRT to raise fares so that services can be improved quickly. As we have heard this mantra for years, you want good services, better quality services, be prepared to pay more.

So, commuters, please go down on your knees and beg for more fare hikes. The quality of service would definitely improve and the regular and daily stoppages, breakdowns, slowdowns and delays could disappear over night. Pay hikes or higher pays, or higher fees are the miracle cures for social, economic and system problems in this island. Everything can be solved or will be solved by paying more.

See the quality of our graduates, after paying so many years of tuition fee hikes, all now so qualified to drive taxis! Today we are the city that have the most and highest qualified taxi drivers in the world. See how they compete with foreigners with poor degrees or degrees from degree mills and ended up working as temps or short term contract staff! 47,000 applied to be Uber/Grab drivers, a choice job of Singaporeans, to be their own boss.

Pay more and get more and better quality and services is the way forward. It never fails. Quick, quick, more fare hikes the way to go for better services.