The plains of Jiangsu

Our trip to Rugao, a third or fourth tier city in China took us out from Shanghai to tour the plains of Jiangsu. This piece of land is incredibly flat and fertile and gave us a totally different impression of China, the big crowded cities, over built, bad air and dull over cast sky. The plains of Jiangsu is open land, agriculture land, and land for the people, for homes and industries, ie plentiful of land and space.

The pics in this post started from Rugao by coach all the way to Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, about 120km distance. Enjoy the scenery and open space and the architecture and homes of rural China and take note of the old tiny houses that were once there, some still there in the forefront of the bigger new homes, landed homes that are now the new China. The first pic is the city of Rugao to give a comparison of the landscape and infrastructure.

Highrise estates already starting to take shape in the rural backyard of China

Windmills along the Yangtze River

Closer look of the windmills and green energy

Still low rise homes as we approached Shanghai

Crossing Yangtze River

Outskirt of Shanghai, still flat land but more buildups

Outer city of Shanghai

Looking at Shanghai along the way to Pudong Airport.

Benjamin Lim - Do you still remember him?

Terry Xu of TOC tried to assist the parents of Benjamin to raise fund using GIVE.asia fund raising platform to sue the govt for the lost of their 14 year old son. After raising more than $2,000, the campaign came to an abrupt stop with GIVE.asia saying it is against their mission in this campaign. Some netizens are furious at the way the campaign was disrupted.
 
There is an article by a Ghui posted in the TRE on this subject and here is a comment from the same post.
 
Painful Justice:
October 20, 2017 at 4:42 pm (Quote)
Benjamin was just a very young 14 year old boy and did not deserve the heavy handling meted out to him even if he had misconducted himself as alleged. Oops, my apologies, this is what everyone thought or else he would not have taken his life. But the court found that everyone who had contact with Benjamin were very professional and very caring and thus free from blame. Benjamin's case was a totally unnecessary tragedy and no parents could have found closure losing a son under such circumstances. As parents, we empathize with the Lim family and fully understand what they are going through. We support the steps they are taking to seek redress.
 
I can feel the pain in the parents for losing a child at this tender age for something that did not deserve this kind of ending. You can bet how many tears have flowed in the family and how difficult it is to come to terms with losing a loved one. How can there be a closure to this case?
 
Would anyone who have directly or indirectly caused the premature death of Benjamin be man enough, be courageous enough, be honourable enough to kneel in front of the parents and beg for forgiveness? I think if such a thing happens, maybe healing will start. For the parents to want to pursue this matter, it is a sign that the grief is not going away and there is a deep sense of injustice in how they see how the case was closed.
 
It is very painful. It must be, and worst when no one owns up or found responsible for the lost of their beloved son, Benjamin.
 
Can this case be over because legally it is over, settled in the court of law? The court has already made its ruling that no one is found culpable to Benjamin's death?
 
Hope Benjamin would always be in the minds of those wielding power and authority to think very carefully, act very carefully, that such a painful tragedy would never ever happen to another child and another family. No amount of words and apologies can reduce the pain and sufferings of the parents and family members for losing a child in such circumstances. It was totally unnecessary and unacceptable and intolerable and inexcusable.
 
The law may say it is over. The conscience would not allow it, except for those with no conscience. Anyone think there is any injustice in this case?

US to be more focused and engaged in the region

This is the wish of Hsien Loong as the PM of Singapore. Singapore needs the Americans to be here, to balance China’s influence and the neighbouring countries. This sounds good as a geopolitical strategy. There is a Chinese saying, 引狼入室, translated as inviting the wolf into the house.
 
The USA used to be seen as a benign and gracious power particularly to its allies for several decades. But the history of US conspiracies and meddling with the domestic politics of countries, regime change, inciting and provoking wars, did not speak well for this once great power. It is now the cause of all the wars and troubles in the whole world. Every trouble spot has the American finger prints on it. It has rapidly assumed the image of the Evil Empire.
 
Now, how is this new image of the Americans going to fit in with Singapore and Singapore’s security? Is Singapore inviting the wolf into the house, inviting the Evil Empire to remain engaged in the region to create more trouble for the region, instigating one country against another? Please note, this country thrives on selling weapons and needs wars to sell weapons and to keep the Empire going.
 
While you are reading this, the Americans are at the verge of starting World War 3 in the Korean Peninsular and Iran. If the Russians and Chinese have not put their foot down to stop this menace, World War 3 would have started, by the Evil Empire of course. And there is the new hot spot, waiting for another invasion by the Americans, Venezuela. South China Sea is the reserved spot for the Evil Empire should other regions stabilized. Inviting the USA to the region, to stir shit in the South China Sea?
 
Things have changed. The world has changed. Lee Kuan Yew had died and his policies and world view of the Americans and their usefulness in the region must die with him. The Americans’ interest in the region is the American Empire, the perpetuating of the Evil Empire’s hegemony in the region and the world.
 
It is only luck that Singapore’s interest in some areas coincides with the interest of the Evil Empire. When the interests divert, Singapore too would be subject to regime change and interference by the Evil Empire. For the time being, Singapore is still safe but not for long. The Evil Empire only pokes its fingers in countries that are not loyal to the Empire. That does not mean it does not poke its fingers in the affairs of its colonies. 

South Korea and Japan and the Philippines are clear cases of being under the control of the Empire. The latter has recently broke free from the American grip. Lately Qatar also came under the attack of the Empire for getting a bit closer to China. And Tillerson is in India stoking the flame between China and India and poking at the Indians to be another American proxy against China. The Indians love this attention.
 
Singapore is stuck with the Evil Empire and would not be able to steer a more neutral policy for its own interest. The deeper the Evil Empire stays here, the more it would be entrenched and the more difficult it would be to extricate it from the region. It would not go away.
 
There is no need to beg the Evil Empire to stay. Tell them to go away and they will beg to stay, and by force if needed be, to stay in the region to protect the Empire. Why does Singapore think it is necessary to go begging the Evil Empire to stay? Do a little bit of thinking. Does Singapore really believe that the Evil Empire will go away, will beat a quick retreat from the region on its own if Singapore does not beg it to stay? Silly isn’t it? See what is happening in the Philippines? When Duterte wants to evict them, the Americans went down on their knees begging to stay. They refused to go away.
 
Now who is planting this silly idea that the Evil Empire is going away and Singapore must constantly remind the Empire that they should be here, that they are welcomed and needed? Becare of 引狼入室!

PS. Watch this video and listen to Prof Martin Jacques' advice to the Philippines and how relevant it is to Singapore.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc56bWY7oRg

What is so competitive about the media industry?

I am not so sure what Warren Fernandez meant by saying that SPH would hire more foreign correspondents when 130 staff was retrenched as part of 240 eventually. Was he talking about hiring foreigners to raise the quality of the paper to compete with other media in Singapore, to boost readership and sales?
 
What kind of environment is SPH operating in this little island? What kind of news would be attractive to the readers? Who forms the majority of the readership? Would better quality news, like foreign news, or more EPL news be needed to raise sales and readership?
 
Is not that SPH operating in a monopolistic environment when the competitors are also part of SPH? How many foreign media are circulating in Singapore and what kind of readership, what volume of readership to they command? Is the foreign readership significant enough to hire foreign correspondents to win them over to improve sales of local papers?
 
By the way, with the tight control over the local media, what kind of news would appear in the papers or be allowed to be printed to attract more readers? Does it really make any difference if the reporters/journalists are foreigners? I am presuming here that foreign correspondents that SPH is planning to recruit are foreigners. I may be wrong here. And by the way again, what is the percentage of foreigner reporters/journalists in SPH and what is the percentage of locals, oops, I mean Singaporean reporters/journalists?
 
Should not the SPH be catering to the bulk of the readership whom I believe are Singaporeans and some PRs? I may be a bit behind time here knowing that more than half the population are foreigners now and it would be wise to write things that these foreigners would want to read even though some have become citizens and PRs. How about a few more newspapers for China Chinese, India Indians, Pinoys and what have you? Would these foreigners be interested in reading papers specially written by their kind and writing news about their homeland?
 
This is something SPH must be seriously thinking about. More than half of the population is foreigners. No wonder readership is falling with local news written by local reporters. Half the population of foreigners is a big market.
 
I read in theindependent talking about SPH going regional, to write about regional news, maybe competing in producing regional papers. Not sure if this is true. If SPH cannot even compete and be successful with a monopolistic environment in home ground, can it be a success competing in open seas, unknown territories full of sharks? This kind of one trick pony thinking is very similar to sending our sacked and jobless PMETs that could not get jobs in our very own country against foreigners and expect them to get jobs in the region when every country is protecting their jobs for their own citizens.
 
Stupidity has no cure.
 
PS. In a monopolistic environment, what competition is SPH facing? Got competition meh?

Trump likes Loong

Photo credit to the statestimesreview and the Straits Times. I copied from the former site.

From the facial expression of Trump in the above pic, it is evident that Trump really liked Hsien Loong. Look at his face carefully, it is like he is saying, 'I like this chap. He knows what I want. He is so sweet.'