Joseph Schooling - Singapore's golden boy in Rio

Picture courtesy from TRE. He looks so Singaporean.

The elusive gold medal in the Olympic Games finally arrived, in style, in Olympic record time at 50.39. What is more special is that it was brought home by a true blue Singaporean, a third generation Singapore born Singaporean. This gold medal does not come with all the controversies of foreign talents, of mercenaries, but home grown and hard work. This is a medal that all Singaporeans can be proud of.

Schooling won his 100m butterfly in the company of the swimming greats in Phelps, Le Clos and Cseh, all wanting to win this event to add to their cupboards of gold medals. And there was Joseph Schooling standing there up front to deny them this glory.

Would this home grown talent spur a rethinking in the sports field, to think and have faith in our very own children, that we should start to grow our own timber again, though 30 years late? See how much wasted opportunities for our children, how much time and money wasted on the foolish dream of money can buy everything, including honour!

This crazy fad of buying talents transcends all fields of enterprise in the island that was once proud of our own talents and our ability to be better than the best in the world. But for the last 30 years Singaporeans have been living in a sick belief that we are daft and useless in everything and anything from anywhere, from little third world villages, are better than us. And many silly Singaporeans believe so even today. And they are still bringing in plane loads of rubbish to replace Singaporean talents and our children and expecting Singaporeans to down grade to become security guards and taxi drivers.

No, all the craps about upgrading, skills upgrading, are really skills downgrading, income downgrading, expectation downgrading, and downgrading of pride and dignity.

Schooling may be a champion in sports, in the swimming pool, but his triumph should open up the eyes of dead gold fish eyes, to see that Singaporeans are not 'has beens' and can be the best', and be proud people once again, not daft in their own countries, not good enough for everything and we need foreigners to replace them, replace their genes and see to their extinction.

Well done Joseph Schooling. Your victory is more than a victory in the swimming pool in the Olympic Games. Your victory is a victory for all Singaporeans, that there is still life and goodness and talent among Singaporeans. We are proud to be Singaporeans again. No need to hide behind foreigners, behind mercenaries for our glory. We should end this silly pursuit of buying foreign talents to do us 'proud'.

The case for restrictive laws for sub judice

This troubling development to this cosmopolitan city where everyone in any position of authority is deemed a super talent, some even think they are immortals, is quite uncalled for really. The assumptions for such laws came at a time when the judges and legal officers were quite ordinary in a way, like lay people, easily swept off their feet by public opinions. And there was this jury system where the jurors were common lay persons that were even easier to listen to the winds, with very light ears and did not have a mind of their own.

We have abolished the juror system, so this problem with lay persons making legal decisions is no longer a problem. We now have eminent and learned judges making legal decisions, very fine men and women with very fine training and education, people who think law and definitely cannot be influenced by lay persons writing their opinion pieces in the social media. Or would they? The main media would definitely not utter rubbish to influence the judgment in court when a case is in proceeding.

Read this again for the reasons for sub judice laws, ‘Both statutory and common law contempt of court are concerned with the possibility that a juror, witness or lay judge may be influenced by material which is published about active legal proceedings.’

We have done away with jurors. There is still possibility of witnesses being influenced by public opinions. And lay judges? Do we still have lay judges today in our courts? I have heard of judges, I have heard of lay persons but not lay judges. This is the first time I heard of lay judges in the above definition from outlaw.com. Can I safely conclude that our judges, well trained professionals, are not lay judges?

Is there really a case to invoke such restrictive laws on sub judice in this smart nation? A smart nation cannot be filled with stupid people right? And definitely not stupid judges that will go with the flow… of public opinions. Or at least people put into authority, especially in the courts of law, having gone through a tough regime of legal training, can they be easily influenced by public opinion despite their legal discipline? Or would a simple gag order, forbidding learned judges from reading the social media to protect them from bad influence in the social media do?

Have we advanced as a people, as a nation, to rise above antiquated laws that were introduced at a time when judges too were not so learned, could be lay judges, to protect them and the legal system? It would be very serious if our learned judges of today could easily be influenced by lay people making their lay opinions.

Are we regressing as a people, as a nation, to think that ancient laws and practices are still useful and practical to our highly educated, highly trained and highly discipline justice system?

Can we trust our learned judges to be able to distinguish between chaff and the real stuff in a legal proceeding? Or do we think that the learned judges are just as fickle as the lay people? What is the brandishing of this sub judice law trying to say? Would it undermine the integrity and intelligence of our learned judges, that they need such an ancient law to protect them from making wrong decisions?

Why I did not bother to read about the latest CPF schemes?

It does not affect me at all and would not affect may CPF holders today and in the future. Savings and more savings are luxuries only for the rich and people with a lot of money to save. Many will be living a hand to mouth existence and savings and more savings will mean they need not have to eat and live today and hopefully they will live long enough to benefit from their savings.

I will leave it to those who still have some CPF savings to sweat over these attractive schemes. To those that would not be affected, why bother? And many people down the line, the young, are unlikely to benefit from whatever schemes that they are scheming. How so? How much can the young of today, and the parents of today be left with in the CPF is they have to pay for their million dollar properties and the compulsory Medishield Life and all the minimum sums to be locked up?

No need to bother about those unable to afford million dollar properties as they would not have much to put into their CPF anyway. The 3 or 4 rm HDB flats would have exhausted whatever they put into their CPF, nothing much left to be schemed or benefit from any schemes.

True or not?

Reversing the wolf pack strategy

The Americans and the West have been able to rule the world by the wolf pack strategy on top of the divide and rule strategy that have been very successful for the last 600 hundred years.  Afro Asian and Latin American countries have been chopped and divided into bits and pieces to be conquered and ruled by the West. Till today, this divide and rule strategy is still relevant and effective even against the big powers like China and Russia. The Americans were very successful in driving a wedge between China and North Korea to allow them to ostracise the North Koreans as the bad boy of the world. China was unable to stand firm to back up the North Koreans under this divide and rule strategy. What would come closely behind this strategy is the wolf pack attack strategy. They would gang up in so called Coalition of the Willings to invade Iraq and Libya. And soon this Coalition would be turned against the North Koreans and subsequently against China and Russia.

The stupidity of the Chinese and the Russians to allow this manipulation to go on against their interests in baffling. Could they not see that they are next in line to be invaded by the wolf pack? Iraq, Libya, Syria, next Iran or North Korea, and down the line China and Russia. Why would the China Russia camp adopt the same strategy to deal with the aggressive ploy of the Americans and the West, to divide their alliances and attack one at a time? Why would they not strengthen their alliances to deal with the wolf pack, one at a time?

There are early signs that the Chinese and Russians knew that they could not be the whipping boys of the West for long as they too would end up the victims. There are increasing joint military exercises by the Russians and the Chinese in the same way the Americans are doing all over the world to intimidate the China Russo camp and their allies.

The China and Russo camp must retake the initiative and turn the game around, to gang up, to take on the members of the western wolf pack. Unwittingly being forced to break ranks among themselves is the most stupid thing to do and would not only not be appreciated, but would be used to weaken and destroy their camp.

With the rise of Japanese militarism encouraged and supported by the Americans, the Japanese is posing a greater and increasing threat to the securities of China, Russia and the Koreas. All these countries have suffered from Japanese military aggression and expansion in the past. It is only appropriate and opportunistic that they should gang up, form a wolf pack, to take on the Japanese militarism. They have all the reasons to attack Japan like the way the Japanese attacked them in the past. A four nation invasion of Japan would make the job so much easier and to right the wrongs of history, the atrocities committed by the Japanese against them that the Japanese are still denying today.

A wolf pack against the Japanese is only right and necessary to curb the ambitious aggressive plans of the Japanese to revive their pre war glories and to be in a position to attack them one at a time.  A wolf pack of China Russia, and the two Koreans would be formidable and indefensible by the Japanese, and the Americans would have to think very hard to want to come to the defence of Japan.

The China Russo camp cannot be sitting there waiting to be attacked by the wolf pack. They must take the initiative and form their own wolf pack against the American/Japanese/western wolf pack if they are going to survive in this game of might is right. Not doing anything is not an option but waiting for their turn to be invaded by the American camp, one at a time.

The game must change and the victims turn to become the aggressors to put the American camp and their allies on the defensive, starting with Japan.

Is Singapore at war?

One Douglas Chua wrote to the ST forum on 10 Aug that we need to buy the anti missile iron dome system to protect the island from rocket attacks by terrorists from Batam? What about terrorists finding themselves in strategic locations across the causeway firing rockets at aircraft in and out of Changi or at any part of Singapore? In this kind of ground to air attacks against planes, the dome will be practically useless.

The terrorist warfare is affecting many western countries and our neighbours, like it or not, at war or not, we are at war without our choosing. There is no need to declare that we are at war in this kind of modern warfare that conventional weapons and armies are totally hapless. All the mean machines, the super expensive toys like F35s are only good for show. The tanks, the destroyers, submarines, fighter bombers and what else are but a misconnect, meaningless against a moving and solitary target that does not look like a target.  But we must buy more expensive weapons, the more expensive the better, dunno for what, against who, against what kind of enemies when we should be deploying more people and resources in a real war that can hit us any moment.

Of course we are also at another war, a conventional one, In Iraq or Syria, and in Afghanistan and dunno where in the Middle East. We may  not be sending our combatants to engage in direct warfare, but in supporting roles to protect our medical teams, and air to air refueling or operating drones for recce missions, the soldiers are in the theatre of war, in a war zone, can be killed. Singapore has been part of the American Coalition of the Willing in the American wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan. This is modern day League of Nations invasion of China in the 1890s.

Some bloggers were asking, does the govt need to discuss this and get Parliamentary approval, or even a referendum to go to war.  The question of are we at war is a denial of the reality. Can we really say that we are not at war when our soldiers are part of the American Coalition conducting warfare in the Middle East and Afghanistan?

Some may argue that we are not really at war. See, no casualties, and away from direct gunfire, maybe out of reach of enemy fire. And our boys and girls can always come back to have their char kway teow or chicken rice anytime in the comfort of our airconditioned restaurants and live life as normal.

How far do we have to go before announcing to the people that we are at war, engage in a war, and our soldier boys and girls are in the war zones? Up to what extent before there is a need to discuss this in Parliament and to tell the people that we are at war and since when were we at war?

Or would someone want to start another academic exercise to define what is at war and whether we are technically, literally, or legally at war?

Diary of Japanese Imperial Army Massacres in SE Asia

The Japanese continue to deny the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians during the Rape of Nanking in 1937. With tomes of documents, photos and films on the barbaric and brutal killings of young and old, pregnant women, children, beheading  and bayoneting of babies, the Japanese denied, and still denying that it happened. It was not true, it was not like that, no such things, only a few hundreds were killed, the liars in Japan would protest. The Japanese can continue to lie, to deny the naked truth of the hideous war crimes they committed, the Chinese people would not forget, and so were many of the Koreans and Southeast Asian people. Oops, maybe many Southeast Asian people have forgotten, even forgiven the Japanese and even falling in love with the Japanese as very nice people, very honourable people, very civilised people, very trustworthy and peaceful people.

 

I will want to remind those that have forgotten, that the war crimes of the Japanese to the Southeast Asian people were all recorded in history. And in a documentary produced by Chris Nebe, he revisited the major massacres committed by the Japanese against the Southeast Asian people. No, not just in Singapore but in nearly every Southeast Asian country but the natives either chose to forget and forgive or through the ignorance of their own history, could not or did not want to remember.  In the Sook Ching Massacre inn Singapore alone, 90,000 civilians were massacred.  Our mobile phone young would not remember a thing except to play Pokemon. The Japanese have every reason to want to forget, to whitewash this part of their ugly past, but should the Southeast Asian people want to?

 

In 1942, in the Bataan Death March, thousands of the more than 80,000 Filipino and Australian prisoners of war died before they reached their destination. This was followed by the 1942 Laha Massacre in Timor of Australian and Dutch civilians, bayoneted and beheaded in cold blood by the Japanese. Then there was the Banka Island Massacre in Indonesia where Australian nurses were forced to wade into the sea and machine gun to their death. One survivor lived to tell the truth at the Tokyo War Crime Tribunal.

 

The then Malaya also had its massacre in Parit Sulong where hundreds of Indian and Australian prisoners of war were executed. In 1943, in the Pacific Wake Island Massacre, 98 Australian and Dutch civilians working as slave labourers were also executed by the Japanese. Philippines had more than its share of massacres in the 1943 Palawan Massacre and the Manila Massacre in 1945 where more than 100,000 civilians died and the city destroyed. And the Pinoys love the Japanese. In Burma there was the 1944 Kalagong Massacre.

 

Did anyone know of these massacres, remember them? These are only a few of the many massacres recorded in history and the many unknowns that were not reported. Not the Japanese, their history books were whitewashed from these crimes against humanity. What about the history books of the Philippines, of Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar? They don't seem to remember them either. No wonder they look to the Japanese as so civilised and polite people, not knowing their evil past. In Singapore, Sook Ching was like a bedside horror story minus the cruelties and the gore and bloodiness of the crime. More than 100,000 civilians were murdered in cold blood by the evil Japanese. Some young Singaporeans would be asking 'true or not, don't bluff leh'.

 

The Japanese may not want to remember them, may want the world to forget about their war crimes. Should the victims of the Japanese war crimes simply forget them and best, believe the Japanese are very nice people, very polite, very kind, very peaceful, very honourable people?

 

How can a people be honourable if they don't own up to their war crimes and barbarism? How to trust them when they are lying by the skin of their teeth?

 

The documentary by Chris Nebe is at: Diaoyu+Islands+-+The+Truth-HD.mp4

China starting to show displeasure with Singapore

Global Times, the unofficial spokeman of China, has published articles that criticized Singapore’s cosying up with the Americans and the lavish dinner that Obama hosted for Hsien Loong as a statement of Singapore’s support for the Americans particularly over the South China dispute. Singapore’s overt support of the American position is never in doubt by the numerous articles published in the local media and with comments from Singapore officials that irked China. And Hsien Loong’s comments at the White House dinner put squarely where Singapore stood in the dispute between China and the US.
 
The Global Times did acknowledge the difficult position of Singapore in a region that is not too friendly and could turn hostile to Singapore and Singapore’s interests and the need to play the American card. The military might of the Americans is sorely needed should the neighbours attempt to squeeze Singapore to put Singapore in its rightful place. China appreciates that but when Singapore leaned too close to the Americans and even overtly took positions that are explicitly anti China, it forces China’s hand.
 
The Global Times reminded Singapore that it could play a balancing role like in the past by being as neutral as possible. When Singapore started to take sides against China, Singapore would lose this value and strategic role as a balancer between the two superpowers. LKY was able to do what he did because of his ability to respect the interests of the two superpowers without being hostile to anyone. China opened its doors to LKY, giving him special access to China’s top leaders. LKY could share his understanding of Chinese leader’s thinking with the Americans and could advise the Americans because of this special privilege built over years of trust and confidence building.
 
When this trust is lost, when China perceived that Singapore is no longer trustworthy, but in the American camp, the door will be closed. Hsien Loong or other Singapore leaders will find themselves waiting outside the corridors of Chinese leaders taking cue numbers and waiting to be invited for an audience that would not come. When that day comes, Singapore would lose its usefulness to China and also to the Americans other than being a close military ally like the South Koreans, Japanese, the Philippines and the Vietnamese. The consequences of being relegated to a staunch American ally in the American pivot to Asia would not be in the long term interest of Singapore. Many doors would be closed and many economic deals would be left hanging in the air. The Chinese market would no longer be there, to be easily accessible.
 
This seems to be the warning coming out from the Global Times. Respect China’s interests and continue to play a strategic balancing role between the two super powers or be sidelined.
 
The warning to Singapore has been sounded. Whither Sino Singapore relations going forward are now in the hands of Singapore leaders. Would Singapore's media and officials continue to call China's friends as Trojan Horses in public forum to show where Singapore stood in the US China rivalry?