My bruising past

The police report lodged by Ms Claudia Kwan after her 3-year-old daughter came back from pre-school with a bruise and swelling on her right ear brought a smile to my face. Not a smile of sadism but of fond remembrance. It brought back memories of an era when coming home from school with bruised ears or knuckles was no big deal, much less worthy of a police report. Those were the days when teachers doubled as Gestapo thugs to dish out dire punishment to disobedient students. Female teachers were particularly vicious - their claw-like nails left many a ear lobe with indelible pinch marks while the more inventive among them transformed wooden rulers into knuckle-dusters to rap (what else?) knuckles.

Not to be outdone, male teachers lined errant students against the wall and machine-gunned them with rapid-fire slaps. For talking in class, I found myself facing such a firing squad one fateful day. There were five of us and the four wimps next to me were already in floods and tears when the first “shot” rang out.  From the corner of my eye, I could see their heads jerk from the impact of his slaps. But I told myself I would never let a teardrop fall even if my head rolls. Shocked at my dry-eyed resistance, the embarrassed executioner whipped in two more slaps in a desperate bid to coax some fluid out of my tear glands. Just then, the public address system came to my rescue - not that I needed it. “Will Mr XXX come to the principal’s office! Will Mr XXX come to the principal’s office!” So off he trudged, with his tail between his legs.

When I came home with teacher’s finger marks plastered across face, my parents barely offered me a glance. They had our next meal to worry about. Since my hadn’t gone missing, what’s the big deal? Fast-forward to the present when a child’s bruised ear is enough to trigger Facebook postings, a police report and over-the-top parental hysteria, and you get the distinct feeling that you’re living in a different age. Different yes, but better? You be the judge.     

Can Kim Jong Un trust the Americans?

A meeting between Kim Jong Un and Trump is on the card, scheduled in May. This is another historic moment of the new century. But many rascals are insinuating that Trump must not trust Kim Jong Un and the North Koreans. The truth is the reversed.
Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il was betrayed and cheated by the conniving and lying Americans. He signed an agreement with the Americans to denuclearize and after dismantling his nuclear installations the Americans cheated him by heaping more demands than were agreed. Kim Jong Il tore the agreements and went back to rebuild his nuclear facilities.
 
Today we have a North Korea that is a full fledged nuclear power whether the Americans want to admit it or otherwise. A nuclear power is a nuclear power and does not need a recognition and acceptance from the Americans. Thanks to the Americans for betraying Kim Jong Il.
 
Now the Americans and their cronies are demanding that the North Koreans to denuclearize, to dismantle its nuclear weapons and facilities. In return the North Koreans are demanding a guarantee that their country would not be invaded or nuked by the Americans.
 
Can the North Koreans trust the Americans after being cheated by the Americans before? How can the Americans guarantee that North Korea would not be invaded or nuked after they have denuclearized, without nuclear weapons? Even if Trump were to give his personal guarantee, can the next American president or future presidents abide by this agreement and guarantee? Surely not.
 
The North Koreans are safe from an invasion led by the Americans or Japanese today because of the nuclear weapons and the support of Russia and China. If they have no nuclear weapons, the Americans could turn a blind eye and allow the Japanese or other crony countries to attack the North Koreans while pretending to be neutral, or worse, do it themselves.
 
A guarantee that North Korea would not be invaded or nuked is as good as No guarantee. The Americans cannot be trusted. Look at what is happening in the Middle East, in Iraq, in Libya, in Syria and the other countries where the Americans have invaded and with troops on the ground and refusing to leave. Ask what had happened to Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi and the outrageous WMD ploy.
 
It would be foolish for Kim Jong Un to trust the evil Americans, the country that lives by the notion of American Exceptionalism. They can do anything they want, to invade and do regime change to any country they want. They can tear to pieces any agreement they have signed, like TPP, Climate Change or refusing to sign agreements like the Law of the Sea and many other UN sanctioned agreements.
 
An American guarantee is like a guarantee given by the devil. I am sure Kim Jong Un would be smarter than to be duped by the Americans.

Who to blame or who do you vote for to ruin your life

Below is an extract of an article from a bitter Singaporeans, not local, a Singaporean. He is asking the same question many unemployed and highly qualified and experienced PMETs are asking. Many just resigned to their fate and disappeared even in govt statistics of the unemployed, no longer part of the statistics, not even good enough to be a statistic, forgotten, vanished. They no longer count in the percentages of unemployed to make it look as if the unemployed number is really low and acceptable.
Here is the extract by a Don Tan posted in TRE.
 
“A strange country, low level jobs like taxi drivers, insurance and property sales persons, you have highly qualified professionals. To rub salt into the would, the entry requirements for these course is you only have certificates from Singapore schools like NTU, NUS, SMU, Polys et cetera, all other certificates need to be separately assessed as they are not recognised!
 
What has gone wrong with this country? Third world foreigners coming into this country with inferior or fake degrees or qualifications are given good jobs while locals with good degrees and qualifications are relegated to prepare themselves to downgrade to low level career? You wonder why taxi, insurance and real estate would only prefer to look at local qualifications while govt ministries, GLCS and MNCS would hire all these third world inferior qualified?
 
Is this what you voted for? You are preparing yourself to be replaced by these imported FTs?”

 
What is happening to your country and your fellow Singaporeans? I don’t care a fuck about the locals that are not Singaporeans in such a situation. Now you even have MPs caring for PRs when the PRs are not eligible to vote and did not vote them to rule over you. They rather take care of PRs that are classified as locals than Singaporeans.
How many of you are PMETs and in dire strait like those attending courses with Don Tan and no MP would want to give you a helping hand?
 
Wake up daft Sinkies. Vote for people who care for you, not to care for foreigners even if they are classified as locals. They are not citizens, not Singaporeans. They are here stealing your jobs.

Chee Hong Tat - Test balloons are false and vicious

SINGAPORE: The Workers' Party could have used its "test balloons" allegation on the timing of the Goods-and-Services Tax (GST) "to great effect for political attacks", if the Government had not challenged it in Parliament, Senior Minister of State Chee Hong Tat has said.

"Had the Government not pursued the matter in Parliament, most people would have overlooked Ms Lim’s 'test balloon' comment.  However, the WP could later use it to great effect for political attacks, including during the next general election," he wrote in a letter addressed to all Singaporeans published on the People's Action Party (PAP) website on Saturday (Mar 10)....

Mr Chee said in his letter that her allegation was "false and vicious" and "goes to the heart of the Government's integrity".

"The underlying sting of that allegation was that the Government was being dishonest with the people," he wrote.

The WP could then repeat the allegation at election rallies and claim that since the Government did not rebut it in Parliament, "it must be true", he said.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/test-balloons-allegation-if-not-refuted-could-have-led-to-10032354

I thought after Sylvia Lim refused to apologise to Grace Fu's threat to file a complain against her this silly chapter on the test balloon allegation would have been closed and forgotten. The above is another report in Channel News Asia on Chee Hong Tat's public letter to the people to tell the people how dangerous is the test balloon allegation.

For goodness sake, testing the ground before implementing or changing policies or laws have been a standard practice by almost every govt all over the world. There are times when policies are unpopular or controversial or simply bad for the people and govts need to be very careful of the backlash if introduced. They would adopt all kinds of tactics to test the ground, soften the ground, creating fake news and misinformation to distract or convince the people to believe the policies are good and not bad for the people. Some govts may even tell lies to get the people to believe in their bad policies.

Test balloon is just another different expression of such govt tactics. It is nothing new or abnormal. What is the farce all about? Test balloons are false and vicious? 

I give up. It is a waste of time and resources like crying wolf or throwing a red herring to confuse the people. Oops, is crying wolf false and vicious, is throwing a red herring false and vicious, like test balloon?

What do you think?

PS. I think the people would be better educated and entertainment reading my rubbish in mysingaporenews.

Driverless trains need drivers

Below is a comment by a Stupida posted in TRE.

“After spending a fortune on driverless trains,
we will now have drivers in the trains becos the
tech is not working. However, we are going to go
ahead with being a cashless society – and do it
Overnight, rather than ease in – and there’s no
backup in place when the machines break down. “

Stupida has a point. Driverless trains come with a technology to save on manpower, thus more expensive than trains that need drivers. Now driverless trains need drivers to be more efficient and safer. This is really stupidity has no cure.

And it reminds me of not just going cashless and when the system goes bonkers, everyone must make sure got money in his pocket, but driverless cars. They are testing driverless cars and if the above case of driverless trains is what is coming, driverless cars would still need drivers to be safe.

What’s new, kopi O kosong with sugar? Saving a life time with money in the CPF for retirement but not enough money for retirement? Still need to save more and have more insurance policies. Having compulsory medical insurance and still needs to have minimum sum in Medisave Account to be doubly sure got money for medical?

Got PM, 2 deputy PMs, still need more ministers in PMO? Got MPs still need mayors?
Alamak, susah lah. Not only susah, anyone think this is a big waste of money?