Siti Nurhayati - Keep running girl

'I need to represent Singapore even though my father couldn’t': The para-athlete who chases her dreams and the dreams of others. By Matthew Mohan 

SINGAPORE: When the crack of the starter's pistol reverberates, it is just Siti Nurhayati Ali Askar Khan and the track. Arms pumping, legs churning, heart pounding, the 16-year-old blitzes down the lane. No distractions, no worries, no stress. ...Siti runs fast and she has to - she's part of Team Singapore's contingent of 30 athletes who will participate at the Special Olympics World Games 2019 from Mar 14 – 21. Held in Abu Dhabi, the event is for athletes with intellectual disabilities, and this year marks Singapore’s tenth year participating.

Singapore's athletics team has eight members and Siti is arguably the most experienced of the lot.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/sport/para-athlete-special-olympics-team-singapore-11322330

Sports can bring life to people in different circumstances and the para Olympics and other para Meets are occasions that give the para athletes a chance to show their prowess in their sports.  I wish Siti and her team mates all the best and bring back more medals to do Singapore proud.

3-5 May 19, Singapore would be holding the first South East Asia cum Singapore Masters Athletics Meet here. The importance of this inaugural Meet can be seen by where it is being held. It was initially to be held at Toa Payoh Stadium, then Gombak Stadium, and finally Bishan Stadium.  At one stage it was supposed to be held at the open practice track next the National Stadium. This is how important this Meet is, and how important the masters athletes are to the people in charge of sports.

I bet they would not even report about it when the event is being held, right here in Singapore.

And there is a bigger Meet in December, the Asian Masters in Kuching, Malaysia. Singapore or is it the Singapore Masters Athletics Association, will be sending a contingent of seniors to compete in this Meet. Would the sports officials be interested in them? Would the media be bothered to cover the events and the athletes like they covered the para athletes?  The seniors, the masters athletes, not important, no point covering or reporting about them?

When would they gain recognition and support from the govt and be treated at least as important as the para athletes?

So how CPF?

In December, Mr Toh checked the total amount in his CPF account and found that he had $67,562.78 in the account.

The retiree revealed that he received a letter from CPF Board recently, informing him that the balance in his Retirement Account (RA) balance is S$646.86. The letter said that his last estimated payout will be in May 2019, since he receives a $250 payout monthly.

Mr Toh shared: “On 31/12/2018 my total amount across my CPF was S$67,562.78, which means CPF is keeping S$66,665.92 of my savings in my CPF money away from me for Ordinary Account (OA), Special Account (SA) and Medisave Account(MA).

“Why keep so much of life saving money saved in my CPF account away from a 70-year-old healthy senior citizen? Is my lifetime money reserved for OA, SA and MA account more important than my money for retirement expenses?”...


“In the event that Ian commits suicide, kills someone or is killed, I will hold all relevant persons and ministries accountable for failing to release my funds for his alternative medical treatments…”


This was the warning an unemployed mother of a mentally-ill son issued to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board recently, after the authority rejected her request to withdraw her CPF savings.
The mother, 55-year-old Carena Tan, had asked to withdraw S$70,000 from her Retirement Account to fund her family’s living expenses and treatment for her son, who apparently suffers from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Noting that Ms Tan would not be able to set aside the full retirement sum of S$171,000 in her Retirement Account if she withdrew the S$70,000 she applied to withdraw, CPF Board rejected her request. It instead asked her to “re-consider approaching the Social Service Office @ Bukit Panjang for financial assistance.”

Both cases were reported in theindependent.  These are the painful stories that are being kept from seeing the light in the main media. There are so many grouses and pains inflicted on the people when they are not allowed, by legislation, to enjoy their life savings that are supposed to be for their retirement. These two cases are just the tip of the iceberg. Many are suffering in silence and living in despair, hapless when the govt decided what to do with their money against their will.

The people affected are starting to curse the people that made them suffered for the want of their own money under all kinds of ridiculous excuses and changing the goal posts. To be daily and repeatedly curse by the people is not a good thing to live with. The evil doers would not believe that the curses would hurt them in any way and would continue to scheme against the people and their CPF savings.

Let them be, let them live with the curses of people adversely affected by their bad decisions. Let them live happily with their millions in their savings and assets.

Planting white lies, western narratives and agenda into the heads of the unthinking and unwary

Many innocent readers, especially the English educated whose main source of news is from western media, would unwittingly be victims of western propaganda and white lies without knowing it unless they are conscious and critical of what they read. It is so easy to plant ideas, lies and narratives to the readers and over time these would become the talking points of the readers. They would talk about these narratives and assume the same thought process, with the agenda and phrases planted into their heads.
 
Many bananas, some highly trained and educated, even the supposedly critical community of journalists and academics, are passive victims to the western agenda and narratives. If one does not look at the world with one’s own eyes and look at them critically from one’s own interest and perspective, it is very easy to go with the trend, discuss or think about things that the western media want them to think and talk about, using their terminologies and their versions of the truth or their alternate truths.
 
Some of the common trends of thoughts and phrases are debt traps, an assertive China that is bad, China bashing, the Axis of Evil etc etc. The West is repeating the trap idea for China bashing while China is offering aids and knowhow to help the poorer countries. Aids and cheap loans are needed by the poorer countries to drive their economies to better the lives of their people. They need money and knowhow from somewhere and the givers are their benefactors.
 
Today, the benefactors like China are not colonialists or imperialists that came with guns to conquer and rob the countries at gun points. The aids, loans etc etc are negotiated and accepted on a willing buyer willing seller basis. There is no coercion or force or threats applied in these deals unlike colonial times when the victims had no choice, could not bargain or negotiate. The white masters, the invaders dictated the terms.
 
The idea of debt trap is created by the West to smear China while refusing to look at the benefits China brought to the rest of the world. There would be some that fell into debt traps, some due to corruption, some self inflicted, some due to mistakes or mismanagement, not intended in the agreements. These countries would not have signed on the dotted lines if they did not agree or if the terms were unfair to them. For every country that fell into a debt trap, there are tens of countries that are very happy with the aids and loans from China. If the Chinese assistance is so bad, they would have turned to the IMF or World Bank or their ex colonial masters for help. The Chinese aids and loans must be very much more attractive to these poorer nations for them to go to Beijing instead of the West.
 
Another example is that China is an expansionist power, an aggressive or militant power, Communist regime therefore bad. The latter need no explanation if one is willing to open one’s eyes to see the wars the Americans are conducting and engaged in. As for expansionist China, just ask what expansionist means. The US is all over the world, from the eastern Pacific Ocean to the western Pacific Ocean, from the western Atlantic Ocean to the eastern Atlantic Ocean and into central Asia.
 
Look at a chess board for easy analogy. The whole chess board is occupied by the USA with China in a corner with 2 or 3 squares. This is the current status quo or balance of power in the world. The Americans have expanded and occupied all the squares in a chess board except for a few in a corner left for China. Why is it that no one is talking about American expansion? And why is China called an expansionist power when it is trying to push back to take back a few squares from the Americans when the Americans have taken practically everything?
 
No, the western media would only look at China trying to move out of its little corner as expansionist. The occupation of the rest of the chess board is their normal. China cannot move out of its corner, it is expansionist. This is their narrative, their world, the American Empire. China cannot share the rest of the world except to confine to its little corner, within its land borders.
 
For the unthinking, they would accept this as the reality and status quo. Changing the status quo is bad. Therefore China is bad. This is the result of reading the western media unthinkingly and accepting the western truth and western lies and seeing the world from the perspective of the West as the Empire that rules the world.
 
Should this be the status quo, the accepted state of things? Why is it so wrong and so expansionist for China to want a few more squares to move more freely and breathe a bit more fresh air? Why is China’s financial and economic aid to the rest of the world be just about debt traps and not about helping these countries that needed the aid and the assistance from China? The ex colonies of the West have been exploited, robbed, looted and kept in various stages of underdevelopment by the West. China is giving them an opportunity to move out of their poverty trap caused by the West. Is this bad?
 
It is very dangerous not to think and see the world in one’s own perspective. It is even more dangerous to see the world in other people’s perspective without knowing that one is also a victim in the bigger scheme of things. It is silly not to know that one’s thinking and view of the world are being planted and dictated by others and against one’s interests in the long run.
 
Do not become unwitting accomplices of the West in China bashing. Do not allow the West to tell you what to think, what to say, and how to think.
 
PS. The country that is suffering from the biggest debt trap is the USA. And they are very happy about it, growing their debt bubble. Of course they could get away with it by printing more money out of nothing.

Land scarce Singapore?

In land-scarce Singapore, new spaces for homes on the sea and in the air, possibly

A floating island and apartments perched over roads and old buildings are just some of the ideas for how Singapore could overcome its land shortage, as the show Land Unlimited discovers....

Based on the Land Use Plan, an additional 5,600 hectares of land are needed by 2030 to cater for a population expected to grow to between 6.5 and 6.9 million.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/land-scarce-singapore-new-spaces-homes-sea-air-roads-buildings-11327586

Many would take this nonsensical comment that Singapore is land scarce as the gospel truth and would subscribe to all the follow up measures the govt is taking to increase land and building high and low and into the sea.  An analogy to this is the claim that the politicians are underpaid despite their multi million dollar salary that is out of this world. The logic is simple economics. They have unlimited wants and nothing is enough. Give them a billion dollar salary and they would claim not enough.

Singapore is land scarce, based on what logic or reasoning? When there are only 2 persons on the island, Singapore would have excess of land for two on the island. Singapore would still be comfortable with the existing 724 sq km of land if it does not have the megalomaniac desire to grow its population to 7m or more. Similarly, Singapore would have enough water resources if it does not have this wild and flirtatious plan for population expansion just for the reason of economic growth and growth that is unsustainable and a double edged sword that would eventually destroyed Singapore.

There is no need for all the extravagant and expensive building projects to create more land just to bring in more wildlife into the island. Be satisfied, enough, and grow the economy by quality, by higher productivity, not by adding more wildlife into the island and claims that land is scarce, water not enough, and must resort to very expensive solution that would only raise the cost of living in the island. 

The proposed futuristic islands in the sea are well and good, but at what cost and who can afford it? Are they necessary if we don't increase our population to the point of bursting at the seams?

Singapore has plenty of land, more than enough, if we stop this irresponsible and dangerous population explosion scheme. Singapore is not land scarce if the govt does not make unduly demands on the land by wanting to put in another few millions of wildlife here.

Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes

More and more companies flying the deadly Boeing 737 Max 8 planes are starting to suspend flights using these planes. The Americans would not want to be seen to do it for their own selfish reasons as the reputation of Boeing would be at stake. The big question is whether there is a very serious and dangerous flaw in the software or hardware of the Boeing 737 Max 8 that warrants an immediate stoppage of these planes. The two crashes came within months of each other and happened to almost new planes must have sent a red warning to all its operators. Would this be a case for playing safe and ground all these planes pending further investigations or to continue flying and believing that all is well until another crash?

There have been many speculations as to the possible causes of the crashes. One went as far as saying that they are testing if they have full control of the planes and can crash them as and when they wanted. And the two crashes were just part of their testing plans involving third world countries like Indonesia and Ethiopia and any death or loss of properties would be just collateral damages. This allegation is serious but not a total impossibility knowing how cruel and devious the Americans are.

Since the disappearance of MH 370, there have been talks of it being hijacked by someone or some country that were able to take over control of the plane. The need to control planes from the ground took on extra urgency after the 911 incident in New York. Hijackers must not be allowed to take control of planes in mid air and ground controllers cannot do anything about it. Ground controllers must be able to override the pilot in the cockpit and take over control of aircraft. Is this the new normal built into Boeing and American manufactured aircraft?

It is unimaginable that someone would willfully crash the two Boeing 737 Max 8s just to confirm that they have full control of the planes from the ground and could bring the plane down at will. Is this the reason why the Americans have no reason to fear about the Boeing planes crashing but for those operators that were inconsequential to the Americans to be unduly worried that the next crash test would be held at their expense?

From some videos being circulated in the internet, the vertical nose dive of the plane was not normal. It showed that the plane was diving straight into the ground as if controlled and the pilot could not do anything to recover from the steep dive. Not sure if these videos are fakes. If they are genuine, the story behind the crashes is very intimidating, scary and criminal.

Is this fiction or real?

CAAS has taken the initiative to ban all Boeing 737 Max 8 into and out of Changi. This is a prudent decision as Singapore cannot afford a B737 falling out of the sky and into a densely populated area. And what did the American FAA said, as expected, Boeing 737 Max 8 is airworthy. Really?
What would it said and do if the crashes were Russian or Chinese planes? Would they order the ICAO to ban all these planes from all the airports in the whole world? Would the narratives in the western media be so mild or with wild allegations and instilling more fear and making more demands on checks and inspections on the makers of the planes? Two similar accidents killing all the passengers not good enough?