20th Asian Masters Athletic Championship - Our masters athletes in action

Kannan is sitting right in front of some the athletes that were able to attend for this photoshoot at Toa Payoh followed by a send off lunch.

35 Singapore masters athletes will be competing in the 20th Asian Masters Athletic championship in the city of Rugao in Jiangsu China from 24-28 Sep. Rugao is famous for having the most centenarians alive and is most suitable to host such an event. In Singapore we have a strong pool of senior athletes enjoying themselves in the gruelling sports of athletics and would not call it a day until their bodies failed to move, their legs failed to run and their hands failed to lift or throw. These masters athletes are self funding and doing their own training totally on their own without any support from the govt except for some generous individuals and private organisations.

The Singaporean Team of athletes, age 35 to 80+, with some ex state runners like Paul Su, have been training very hard in the past months to do battle with the other Asian athletes, all 3,000 of them from across Asia in this meet. Some of the competitors that have registered for the events were in their 80s and 90s.

Just my event for the 65-69 age group for 100m sprint draws 28 runners. The events include long and middle distance, 10,000 metre walks and field sports like short putt, javelin, discuss and the jumps.

The man behind this Singapore Team is A Kannan from the Singapore Masters Association. Working closely with him and assisting in coordinating all the travel arrangement and logistics is Jason Wong from the Singapore Masters Track and Field Association. The athletes from both associations and some free individuals are all going as Team Singapore to fly the Singapore flag.

The Singapore Team is fortunate to have many sponsors making contributions to this event. The main sponsor is a Mr Andy Foo who will be hosting a dinner for the athletes in Rugao. The other sponsors are acknowledged in the top banner of this blog.

CPF – Phillip Ang carrying the touch

Thanks to Phillip Ang for his persistence in keeping the CPF money issue alive and current. Just keep talking about this subject less some donkey would say 'see, no one is talking about it anymore', so they have accepted their fait accompli about the CPF no longer their money and would not care what would happen to their CPF money anymore.

Here is a quote from 'bapak' in a comment in Philip Ang's post in the TRE.

Bapak:
September 9, 2017 at 11:51 pm (Quote)
And now they upped the brainwatching by advertising on MiddleCorpse a son telling his daughters he is topping up his father’s account as token for bringing him up. Whoever fucking stupid ones will do that. Got money give your aging parents CASH. Why need to topup their accounts?

How many people have read this or know about the foolishness of topping up the CPF of their parents when they should be giving them cash to spend as and when they like? Once the money is in the CPF, you lose control of that money and using it is subject to all the rules of the CPF and could mean tan ku ku.

How many people understand the meaning of putting more money into their CPF or topping the CPF accounts of their parents and did not know the consequences?

I have been told that there is another change to the CPF Medisave Fund. When the owner dies, the money would not be allowed to be taken out despite the owner choosing to pass all the money to the beneficiary in cash. The money in the Medisave will be transferred to the Medisave of the beneficiary, forever retain in the CPF. See how desperate they are to take your money.

A caveat, I need to confirm this change if it is true and if it is retrospective or only affect new CPF members. Phillip Ang and all of you reading this, please check up on this. I will be writing to the CPF to confirm on this change.

This is really frightening and disgusting. I hope it is not true. And Leong Sze Hian has recently reported that if you don't do anything after they sent you a letter at age 65, your piecemeal withdrawal for retirement will be deferred to 70 years old!

And no announcement again in the media.

Has this got to do with blocking Cheng Bock from the presidency? Money not enough?

21/9/17
PS.  I have made a nomination under the normal scheme, not the Enhanced Nomination Scheme ENS. CPF has replied:

'A CPF Nomination allows you to decide who will receive your CPF savings, and how much each will receive. By default, your nominees will receive CPF savings due to them in cash via cheque or Giro.'

The payment to the Medisave account of nominees is under the ENS.

Rohingya crackdown – Learn from the Americans

The Americans are raising alarm at the crackdown on the Rohingya as ‘ethnic cleansing’. Several thousands of Rohingya are fleeing Myanmar after violence broke out when Rohingya militants attacked police posts on 25 Aug 17. A White House statement, ‘We call on Burmese security authorities to respect the rule of law, stop the violence, and end the displacement of civilians from all communities.’
 
The Americans should not just make statements like this and think it will solve the Rohingya problem. The Americans have many great experiences in handling ethnic violence and are very good at solving them. They should come forward to showcase how they solved their ethnic cleansing problems in the past that today there is hardly anymore problem to talk about. The Americans have been very successful in solving their ethnic problem and the Myanmese and the countries of the world have a lot to learn from the Americans.
 
The Americans used to have Red Indian problem of a scale the world today cannot imagine, nearly 100m of them. How the Americans were able to solve the 100m Red Indian problem that turned violent to what it is today, only a handful left, is legendary and exemplary. The Americans should teach the world how to solve ethnic problems using the ways they knew best.
 
If I could recall from American history books, from Hollywood movies, the Americans were very successful in using violence to tackle violence. They decimated the Red Indian population to near zero and the problem became extinct. What ever that was left of the Red Indian tribes, be generous, offered them fertile reservation land and marched them to these God forsaken land to make the best out of them. Problem solved. QED.
 
The best part, keep the whole world in the dark about the violence used to solve the ethnic cleansing problem. Who cleanse who? That is history for those who want to know.
 
The Myanmese govt should send a delegation to Washington to ask for the secret American formula to solve the Rohingya problem. If the Americans refused to help, go to the UN and get the UN to pressure the Americans to share their successful formula in solving the Red Indian problem without being accused of ethnic cleansing, with the whole world kept in the dark of what really happened, what happened to 100m Red Indian braves and squaws and children.
 
Come on Americans, don’t be selfish, tell the world how you solved the Red Indian minority, or was it majority, ethnic problem? This is all about human rights and humanity isn’t it? So don’t just stop at crying out loud at Myanmar. Teach Myanmar how to do it.

Sit in protest at Hong Lim this Sat 16 Sep 4.30pm

Dear Fellow Singaporeans,

We have just received the NParks permit to stage a first-ever Silent Sit-in

Protest against the Reserved Presidential Election this coming Saturday

16th Sep from 4.30 to 6.30pm.

Its a sit-in protest meaning that we won’t have any speakers for the event

with no stage and no microphone speaker system. You can however bring along

your placards to show your displeasure with the incoming

government-appointed Presidency.

If you feel dissatisfied with the recent events surrounding the

controversial PE, this is the time to show up and be counted. You can

continue to be a keyboard warrior quietly firing away online but the time

to step up is NOW!....Gilbert Goh



The above is a message from Gilbert Goh, the organiser of the sit in protest against the EP process, not against Halimah Yacob as the next President.

Details of his message can be found in Transitioning.org or TRE.

PAP is a forward looking govt, always looking and planning 20/30 years ahead

This is the greatest strength of this forward looking party. They are always looking head, planning ahead, though some have accused them of not looking at now and ignoring current problems. The Buddhists have this saying, the most important moment is now, the most important people are people sitting in front of you, the most important thing to do is what you are doing now. For the next moment you could be dead. How’s that for always planning for tomorrow?
 
Such philosophical sayings are just that. What is important in politics is about thinking ahead and planning ahead and don’t have to worry about the present or answering to the present. Both viewpoints have their strengths and weaknesses of course. Let’s just look at the strength of the PAP for being a forward looking party, like partying now and look forward to the glorious time in the future.
 
The first forward looking policy of the PAP is the fear of a rogue govt should the PAP lose power. They fear that the new govt could be rogue and would wantonly and carelessly spend all the savings accumulated by the PAP govt in the form of the people’s savings in the CPF now called the nations’ reserve. How much is there no one knows, don’t ask the President. Don’t think he knows either, or at least President Ong Teng Cheong did not know then. Not sure if Nathan knew or Tony knew when they were in office.
 
The point is that whatever in the reserves, it could be squandered or gambled away by a rogue govt in the future. So the PAP came out with a plan to prevent this from happening. The solution is an Elected President to do the job as the guardian of the people’s money. No govt in the world could be bothered about this dangerous thing that could happen to their countries. Only the PAP is prescient and responsible enough, and care enough to plan for this eventuality.
 
After cooking up this scheme to protect the people’s savings, the PAP started to look ahead again and came out with the idea that the EP could also be a rogue and could be in cahoot with the new rogue govt. So the power of the EP must also be constrained less he also did what a rogue president would do. This is NG.
 
Now a new wonder scheme has been found to as the solution to a rogue EP, ie a President Advisory Council of wise men, handpicked, full of integrity, to curb the power of the President. Though the EP is elected by the people, with the mandate of the people, unless it is a walkover than not elected and no mandate, the EP cannot be trusted and it is better to have a group of wise men, fully trusted, to advise him and check on him in case he becomes rogue, like the rogue govt he is supposed to check. This is double insurance.
 
This new power given to the President Advisory Council is good, at least for the moment. Once the dust has been settled, the PAP may start to look ahead into the next 20/30 years and may be worried what if the PAC could also turns rogue. Now this will call for a new scheme to watch over the PAC isn’t it?
 
What would be the PAP’s solution to prevent the PAC from becoming rogue? Is this possible? Is it possible for an EP to turn rogue? Is it possible for a popularly elected govt to turn rogue? If the answer is yes for one, it must also be yes for the other two. Tiok boh?
 
What do you think? Another 20/30 year ahead scheme in the making to check on the PAC? Know how forwarding looking the PAP is and how much time they spent thinking and planning ahead to fix future problems, I think there is a good possibility for them to think that the PAC could also become a clear and present danger to the EP. Thinking and planning a head is to guarantee that the future is always bright and good.
 
PS. For those who are still kpkb about the train problems, not to worry, in 20/30 years time all will be fine. This one is guaranteed.

Racial equality must be right sized

TRE has an article by a Matilda Gabrielpillai with the title, ‘Majority Chinese not doing enough to stop closet racism, so much for equality’. She lamented about the plight of the minorities and the disinterest among the Chinese majority to their causes. What is pertinent after all the bitching about the Chinese majority paying lip service to the minorities is this paragraph,
 
‘More domestication of the truth in the show--those four CMIO boxes, they are not the same size in real life, are they? If depicted more realistically in terms of size, the discourse of each imagined race wanting more than that given to them will start to give off very different meanings than that of human beings always clamouring for more. Don't belittle the minorities' clamouring and make it the same about a majority's clamouring--one is about equality, the other is for greater power. I wonder about the assumptions of someone who can even begin to construct those Singapore boxes as equal.

- More at AllSingaporeStuff.com https://www.allsingaporestuff.com/article/majority-chinese-not-doing-enough-stop-closet-racism-so-much-equality
FB: http://fb.com/allsgstuff

I think she has a point. Singapore cannot be equal when the Chinese majority is an absolute majority while the MIOs are not really equal in numbers. I would like to correct her that her closet view on this Chinese majority is not the fault of the Chinese. This is an artificial creation of the British colonial power. They were responsible for the racial composition of modern Singapore. Don’t blame the Chinese like the naiveity of a child that did not know her history and blaming everyone for the wrong reason.
 
What can be done to correct this imbalance is to do what the British did wrong then and rebalance the population to 25% for each racial group. I think that is the gist of her angst and doing that would please her and make racial equality more real.
 
What I can say is not to worry. With CECA, and if one really counts the number of the CMIO, I think the percentages are working more towards reducing the Chinese majority to a smaller number if one is to include all the foreigners here, local or foreign workers. Mind you, more than half of the population consists of foreigners and many are not Chinese. So the real percentage of the Chinese majority is much lower today. The biggest gainer among the CMIO is likely to be the Indians. From my observation in the trains, on the streets and in Raffles Place and MBFC and in East Coast, the Indians are a very significant group, very likely bigger than the Malays today. I don’t have the statistics and my observation may be wrong. But this is based on the physical presence, not based on locals, residents, PRs, citizens or whatever.
 
And if this is not good enough, maybe the likes of Matilda Gabrielpillai should make a representation to the govt to rebalance the racial population so that all the races are of about equal in size. Then everything will be more equal or at least equal in numbers.
The British had an artificial construct with Chinese as the absolute majority. I am not sure the British planned it that way. It did not matter to them then. Maybe the govt of the day may want to have a new artificial construct to please the minorities like Matilda Gabrielpillai. Then we will have real equality and peace in paradise.
 
What do you think?
 
PS. I am not going to think about how to make this possible, like telling the majority to stop reproducing or the minorities to go forth and multiply. But if I have to, I am going to curse the British for allowing this to happen and to create so much inequality in this island. I will not blame the Chinese majority for it as they were colonial subjects of the British like the rest of the minorities and had no say of what the British were doing here.
 
So please get your facts right and go fuck the British and not the Chinese majority for the present situation. This is like blaming the social and economic ills in the region to the Chinese when the real robbers and looters of the colonized countries were the colonial powers, the British, Dutch, Spanish, the Americans and to a certain extent the Portugese. What SE Asia is today is the work of the colonial empires. Stop blaming everything without thinking.

Shame on you America

Cynical Investor wrote on Amos Yee being detained in the USA for 11 months and still under detention for seeking political asylum in the US. The article is posted in TRE.

'SgDaily’s Buzzfeed story (from March) reminded me that Amos has spent 11 months in a US jail. And there’s still no end in sight....

And taz not all. In jail he kanna robbed.
What an ass to believe that America is the land of the free for scroungers. He should have tried Europe but taz the trouble with a stupid boy. He didn’t research or analyse enough the topic. No wonder he’s a hero of the TRE cybernuts. Stupid people like stupid people.'

I posted this not because of Amos Yee or neither do I agree with the disgusting tone of Cynical Investor on Amos Yee. The important point here is that Amos Yee escaped to the land of the free, the beacon of freedom called the USA. Instead of getting his freedom, he is being locked up in jail and suffering the humiliation and abuses not different from a black suspect or convict in American jail.

Why is he held for so long and what is his attorney doing? Nothing because it was pro bono or Amos Yee is not a case attractive enough to fight for? And it is ok for this young Singaporean to rot in an American jail forever, who cares?

I think Amos Yee would stand a better chance to be walking free in the streets of Toledo if he disguised himself like the terrorists as someone escaping from the wars in the Middle East.

America, where is your conscience, where is your human rights, where is your freedom and justice? Or you are just a farce?

Shame on you for treating a political asylum seeker this way.