Singaporeans honoured with French knighthoods

 Wild Rice theatre company founder Ivan Heng and poet Pooja Nansi have been recognised for their "outstanding contributions" in promoting French arts and culture in Singapore, said the Embassy of France in Singapore in a press release on Thursday (Jun 27).

The two Singaporeans were appointed Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (or Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Ministry of Culture for their "significant impact on cultural cooperation" between Singapore and France.  CNA 

Kudos to the two Singaporeans for their contributions to French arts and culture and for being recognised for their efforts. This is a good idea that Singapore can adopt. What about a similar knighthood or pingkat for Singaporeans for promoting Singapore arts and culture, like promoting hawker food, which hawker sells the best chicken rice or chap chye png, or nasi lemak, nasi briyani, murtabak, mutton soup etc etc. Despite the daily coverage of Singapore's world renowned hawker culture, no Singaporeans has ever been recognised for their great effort in promoting hawker food, recognised by the UN as a national heritage.

The Americans should also take a cue from the French and confer knighthoods to Singaporeans promoting American interests and smearing China for the sake of the Americans. These Singaporeans are working endlessly to promote American culture and military power, and their efforts should not go to waste, without any recognition. And they are doing it for free, with great zest and devotion, to glorify the evil American Empire as a peace loving Empire, never go to war, never kill, never steal, never cheat, everything the Americans did was for peace, like in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza, and about to happen in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and also the Korean Peninsula.

These Singaporeans are labouring day and night to promote the interests of the Americans and should be duly rewarded. After all, the Americans have a US$1.5 trillion budget for such American admirers and free labour, slaving happily, unthinkingly, and selflessly for the evil American Empire.

BRICS expansion derailed by India

 The strength of BRICS lies in its membership. The greater the number of countries joining BRICS, the stronger and more influential will be BRICS to serve the interests of its members. BRICS is seen as an alternative to the western world and their pro western organisations, as an option for the rest of the world to break away from the bullying and stranglehold of the American dominated world order. BRICS is the way to freedom from American threats, sanctions and the abuses of the dollar primacy system.

Given these concerns and backgrounds, BRICS' main priority is to admit as many members as it could attract, unlike the last meeting in South Africa when only 6 countries were admitted. From the grapevines, it seems that BRICS is having a very serious internal problem with one particular member abusing its position to stall the admission of more new members. Just because of this rogue member, BRICS is now held hostage, unable to move forward to admit all the members it wants, to turn it into a force to compete with American controlled organisations like G7, World Bank, IMF and the UN.

It is so sad that a promising organisation like BRICS that the countries of the Global South are pinning their hopes on to lift them out of poverty, to freedom from American oppression and hegemony but now unable to do so. 

It is paramount that the existing members of BRICS that share the same vision, motivation and goal, should stand together to push forward their objectives and agenda despite the objection of a rogue member. If needed be, BRICS should do the necessary, cut off the tumour immediately. It may be painful and hurting but for once and for a short while. BRICS can then pick up itself and steam ahead without this internal trouble maker that is obstructing the progress of BRICS.

Very likely this rogue member would be left out in the lurch even by the American and western camp as they would not trust such a difficult member that only thinks of its own interests and not the interests of all the members of an organisation. BRICS must make a decision fast and now before the main meeting in Kazan in October. The cancer if not removed, would always be a problem to BRICS and hinder its progress in the long run and can derail whatever BRICS want to do. Better severe the tie right now and free itself from a persistent and troublesome member than to be crippled and becomes irrelevant even before it gets started.

BRICS must bring in as many members as possible, as soon as possible, or it will disappoint potential members and loses its credibility and the hope of countries of the Global South. The Americans and the West are pulling all their weights to get this rogue member to pin down BRICS at all costs. Without getting rid of this rogue member, this member would gain strength by influencing more members to form an opposing camp to obstruct the growth of BRICS. BRICS would turn out as a still birth baby, a great misfortune and missed opportunity for the Global South to unite and chart their fortunes together.

Killing one sick member is worth the pain that is likely to be short and temporary. Look ahead to a better future with a membership that shares the same goals and wanted to move along for common prosperity, without the presence of a treacherous traitor in their midst. This is a critical decision that the BRICS members have to make immediately.

Chinese students not going to USA to study humanities...humanities are for Americans

 Chinese students had not been going to USA universities to study humanities en masse in the past and certainly not today, which serves them no purpose for jobs in China that demands knowledge in three disciplines - Science. Engineering and Mathematics. China had been training all the engineers and scientists to helm their developments in science, high speed rail, space technology, shipbuilding, infrastructure construction, semiconductors, EVs, jet engines, and anything and everything that needs such skills.

China does not need graduates in the humanities to teach and quote Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream, which is a comedy. China does not want to import foreign bad habits that had already been imbued in student's who went there to study, being brainwashed by corrupted and immoral behaviors such as drugs, violence and lying, cheating and stealing.

Even if the USA universities deny Chinese students to study Science, or even to enroll in USA universities, it will not stop China's upcoming generations from having the knowledge in Science, Engineering and Mathematics. Chinese universities can play that role better, cheaper and faster by tailoring such courses to suit the country's push forward in a new renewal energy era. That direction had already been charted long before the USA realized it too late.

Moreover, the Chinese Government have little fear of such students studying at home, as opposed to those studying in the USA from staying behind after graduating and helping an ungrateful enemy from taking advantage against China and yet crying foul. It also saves Chinese parents much in terms of the monetary loss from supporting such expensive education in the USA, which can be attained in a much cheaper, better and safer way at home and helps the Chinese economy. 

Anonymous

Malaysia needs a pragmatic leader like Deng Xiaoping to turn around

 The past several decades can be said to be 'Malaysia's half century of humiliation' just like China losing control to foreign power intervention between 1839 to 1949 and dubbed as 'China's century of humiliation'.

Like China rising like a phoenix from the ashes, Malaysia needs a regeneration with a good leader in charge. Malaysia literally needs a Deng Xiaoping to be followed by equally astute and pragmatic leader like Xi to carry through the changes. But with the racial policy deeply entrenched, it will be a difficult task for any leader to do the job. Racial or religious politics destroys most countries, though it may return good result for those ruling the country and needing majority support initially. When racially endowed voters tasted the forbidden fruit, removing that endowment is going to be impossible.

India is morphing into what Malaysia went through, utilizing religious sentiments to woo political support for the ruling party, the BJP, but not without danger when that falls apart. Nothing is forever. Support cannot depend on religious sentiments forever, especially when jobs and living conditions are not properly managed. Shouting religious mantras to rally support cannot generate the jobs to put food on the table nor pay the rent. 

Anonymous

Anglo Saxon devils US and UK will never let the world have peace

 All those peace moves, and ceasefire deals to end the two wars are just postures to fool the world. The USA does not want to stop the war, not in Ukraine nor in Gaza. After all, Netanyahu already said that any ceasefire is not going to stop the war. Netanyahu also needs the war to stay in power. And the USA knows that in Ukraine, Putin will not accept any return of conquered territories to Ukraine, which Zelensky is calling for to get a peace deal.

If an attempt is going to be successful, the USA or UK will throw spanners in the works to sabotage the deal. They will invent hurdles to sidestep the deal, claiming it works to the disadvantage of the crony that they supported. It happened few times in Ukraine.

A real peace deal can only come about without the participation of the USA or UK, nothing more nothing less. That is why the 'peace summit' in Switzerland is being called a shit summit with no possibility of success, even with Joe Biden staying away.

How could that peace deal have any possibility of success without Russia at the talks? Who is answering for Russia in absentia? They probably wanted China to be the scapegoat, which China wisely refused to participate. And they blamed China for instigating other countries to stay away. The USA did that with veiled threats like 'You are either with US or against US' in most instances and Zelensky thinks that China will stoop that low to follow the footsteps of the USA.

Anonymous