Stupid Genius

Insights to SDP troublemaking past

2015-03-17T15:45:00.002+08:00

I've had friends telling me that SDP and Dr Chee are troublemakers. I've also had friends who tell me that SDP has turned over a new leaf and is not the troublemakers that they once were. Recently, I've had the chance to talk to the "troublemakers" about this and think that maybe I can do my part in spreading their message.

They have always believed in having an open and accountable government. In an ideal world, there would be civil societies and activists to give pressure on the government when they do something wrong. Unfortunately, during the 1980s and 1990s, civil societies and activists in Singapore are non-existent, and SDP at that time had seen actions by the government then that they felt was wrong. With the absence of civil societies, and despite knowing that it is to the peril of their own political career, some members took it upon themselves to be the activists of the day.

They protested about a few issues, got branded as troublemakers, their character assassinated by the mainstream media and even got thrown into jail. But they have never given up on a better Singapore, and until today, are still members of SDP. They still are trying hard to get into parliament, so that they can more help shape Singapore into a better place.

Singapore now has a vibrant civil society environment and those members no longer need to be activists. They can now concentrate on being the politician they are and try to win votes, so that they can get into parliament and better help the poorer people of Singapore. As such, that is why there is this perceived change in SDP. They didn't change their ideals. They just get to channel their efforts to the preferred method.

袖手旁观

2014-09-18T10:50:00.000+08:00

最近在看我是歌手第二季。听到了张宇唱的袖手旁观，觉得歌词写得不错。

其中有一句是这样的

闭上一只眼
点上一根烟
能不能不管

当他唱到这里时，我觉得有点儿怪。为什么只闭一只眼？

然后唱倒覆歌了。

你的脸庞闭上眼睛就在我面前转呀转

那时我懂了。原来闭一只眼表现了好多的逃避心情。醒着时，觉得生命没有了意义，好像睡一觉就能把过去忘掉。可是一闭上眼，脑海就浮现她的样子。睁开眼难受，闭上眼又难过，真是进退两难。

Someone boasted about cheating his way out of NS

2014-06-17T09:39:00.002+08:00

I come across this article recently.
http://www.allsingaporestuff.com/article/chao-keng-god-how-i-forced-saf-release-me-serving-ns

I shall post some quotes from there

Before I start, here is to the people who say people who chao keng are pussies, hum ji, ball-less, etc. Not everyone is suited for the military. Not everyone is made for getting shouted at by sadistic superiors. For my case, I decided that NS pay of $480 was not going to cover my housing rent, my car installment, my food and my other expenses. I was not going to give up my freedom for a national duty.

I enlisted directly into HRI as PES E9L9 due to 'depression' (as diagnosed by IMH). I first started going to IMH a year before enlistment to build up a case to get a down pes. True enough, I got downgraded to E9L9 from A. As I only have a private diploma and O levels, being PES A will definitely make me a chiong sua man. To me, my business and career is more important than NS. We can leave the NS to those who aim just to be a mediocre person in life

So to all PES F hopefuls, I want to encourage you to take this path. It is a path more exclusive than OCS, as only a select few can actually attain this highest honour. Don't be fooled by what some people say about PES F people being unable to be hired. The world is your oyster. Even if no one wants to hire you (very unlikely as people in the private sector don't give a fuck about NS and would be happier if you had no NS obligations), start a business or carve your own career. Don't let the negativity of people who verbally abuse 'chao kengsters' affect you. Majority of this people have the 'just suck it up attitude' and are happy with a mediocre life. I'm not and I am sure you are not. I want to excel and succeed and challenge the impossible.

In the first quote, he gave all kinds of justification for him to wiggle out of NS. Frankly, our NS age is about 18-20. Having to pay housing rent, car installments at that age? He must be a very astute entrepreneur, which might really be the case, given that they way he get his PES F status is quite astute.

In the second quote, he describe how he feign depression to get a PES E0L9 status, and at the same time insult all those who don't do it. If everyone were to do this, I very much doubt that he will succeed.

The third quote is actually quite inspiring. He say that we should not accept our lot in life and strife to challenge the impossible and follow our dream. I would say that there are different kinds of dreams. You can dream to be a rich man by building a business empire, or you can dream to be a rich man by fooling people to buy your bogus product at a high price.

If I am his prospective employer, I won't hire him. If I am his prospective customer/business partner, I won't do any business with this person. He has shown a willingness to cheat and even go as far as to feign mental illness in order to obtain his objective. In mandarin, we call this 装疯卖傻。 With such a major lack of integrity, there's no telling when he will give you a stab in the back if it furthers his agenda. We sometimes cut corners to achieve our objective, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. Not all corners should be cut. I am able to work with someone who jaywalks. I am probably able to work with someone who beat the red light at traffic junctions. But I can't work with somebody who beat the red light at traffic junctions, hit somebody, and runs away.

There are things to learn while doing our National Service, like working in a team, managing subordinates, getting fit, etc. I've also made valuable friends while in NS as well. It can be argued that we don't need National Service to learn those things. But since it's here to stay, we should make the most of it and not run away. And if you really prefer to run away, at least do it with some integrity.

Is Roy an hero?

2014-06-04T09:54:00.002+08:00

Recently I come across this article: Link

I am not very good with words, but I shall try and counter his points.

1) We should respect the PM yes. But if anyone should suspect him or any other minister, they should voice out, so that checks to be made to either clear their name or make them pay for their actions. We should never hit out at people who speak out, even if they are wrong. We should just prove them wrong and move on. We bully 1 person who speak up, even if he's wrong, next time nobody will speak up, even when they are right.

2) If a person is unhappy with the PM or the government, the MP should not be their only outlet. Why restrict the path to one? What's the point? We are not a nation of stupid people who can't tell right from wrong. When somebody make a harebrained accusation against the government, they will be rebutted and made to look like a fool by the majority of us Singaporeans and it has happened before.

3) Blogging 300-400 unsubstantiated accusations? Did you even read them? His articles are backed by numbers gotten reliable sources and the sources named. He made some judgement on it no doubt, and you can argue if it carry any weight. But it's not unsubstantiated surely? And the lawsuit that our PM threw at him is only at the article that suggest that our PM is corrupt, and not on the other 299-399 articles.

4) Maybe our PM is really patient. And I agree that he has to clear his name. But is the courts the only way? Especially Singapore courts where the culture of pro bono is weak. How many people can afford legal fees of 50k or more? If I have real proof of any misbehaving of any government officers, I won't be talking about them because I won't have the 50k to risk.

Look at this wikipedia article on political libel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_libel

5) "If anyone can say anything he pleases, lies will be propagated and this will hurt the country’s image and hurt investors confidence."
This is a strawman arguement. Treating us all as idiots. On that level, lies can't be propagated enough to hurt the country's image. Every accusations are under the scrutiny of 2million eyes. Using Thailand as example is bad as their problems is much deeper than the lies that's being thrown about.

My conclusion:
People who say bad things about the government in Singapore, most of the times, they are not out to create trouble. They see something wrong and care enough to make a stand for it. It's that they care that they do what they did. Silence them, and the one to suffer will be us. Cos, 1 day, when there's really something wrong, nobody might be willing to stand out for us.

You can agree or disagree with what Roy said. You don't have to make him your hero. But don't silence people like him. And in order to agree or disagree, please read carefully what he write. Don't just take things at face value and say that he's bullshitting.

I like Roy to be proven wrong, but in a public debate, and not in a courthouse. If Roy is wrong, it means my money is safe, and it's only good for me. But if he should be right, I hope there will be actions to remedy the problems he has pointed out.Is

Go green? Yeah right...

2014-03-20T10:03:00.000+08:00

Spotted this in the Dhoby Ghaut MRT toilet.

I have 2 things to say to that.

1) Don't bullshit me. Other than this asking people to use toilet paper frugally, thus saving some money, what other things have you (Dhoby Ghaut MRT) done to go green? Of course you couldn't put a notice in the toilet that say, "Please do not waste toilet paper as it cost me money", but I am sure there are other nicer ways to say.

2) I hate this centralized toilet paper idea. Other than saving some little money on the toilet paper holder, it really inconvenience people.

A long time ago, there is no such big roll of toilet paper, so when this big roll of paper came out, some toilets put this 1 big roll in a centralized location in the toilet instead of 1 small roll in each cubicle.

I don't know, is it that some people think that having centralized toilet paper saves money? It actually waste more. Nobody want to take too little toilet paper to the cubicle, so what do they do? They unroll a whole big stack to bring into the cubicle and use only 10% of it. the other 90% is thrown onto the floor. Talk about a waste of money. And since now 1 big toilet paper roll is servicing several cubicles, they got used up faster. A lot of times the cleaner did not realize the roll is finished and there's no toilet paper when you need it. They should just put the big roll of toilet paper each cubicle.

Reflections on last China trip

2014-01-20T16:28:00.001+08:00

During my last China trip to Guangzhou, I observed 2 things which I thought China did quite well in their national education.

1) Annie sometimes brought me to travel on the mrt. The crowd in Guangzhou mrt is most probably worse than that In Singapore. On 1 mrt ride, where it's pretty crowded, I saw people trying to squeeze onto the train. They will be calling out to people inside to squeeze in more so that there's space for them to come in, and people in the grain generally comply. And they they can't squeeze any more, they'll say it out loud, and the person trying to come in will stop trying.

I can imagine a similar situation in Sg. where we won't call out to people in the train to squeeze, we'll just try to push our way in. And when it's too tight to squeeze, we probably won't tay it out loud. We'll be cursing under our breadth at the person, or shout at the person rudely.

China seems more civil than us for this. Of course, this could be my experience alone.

2) Annie brought me to KTV with her friends. One of them selected a few national songs. I can't imagine any of my friends choosing such songs. And if someone really did so, that person will be looked at with dread. But Annie and her friends just join in to sing the song happily.

Guangzhou Lijiang tour

2014-01-17T10:43:00.001+08:00

I went to China recently. To Guangzhou(广州） and Lijiang(丽江) from 27/12 till 6/1. As I can't upload images to fb on the go in China, here will be where I log down what I did. This page may take some time to load, there's quite a lot of images.

Day 0 Setting off

[IMAGE: Air ticket stub]

It's a 22:05 flight, and I went to airport directly from office after work. I am supposed reach Guangzhou at 2:05am.

[IMAGE: 3 for the price of 1]

I am lucky enough that this flight is pretty empty and I get 3 seats to myself.

[IMAGE: Guangzhou hotel room]

Annie has helped me booked a room at Huamei(华美) hotel. However, as I checked in so late, and they couldn't contact Annie for confirmation, they have already let go of her booking. This hotel has a new wing where the rooms are not so accessible, need to climb a few flights of stairs plus a pretty long walk. These rooms are cheaper, and that is what she booked for me. I ended up with the 20rmb more expensive room that is pretty near the lift. The panaroma stiching in this pic makes things looked warped. :P

Day 1 Guangzhou
For day 1, Annie brought me to this restaurant opposite the hotel for lunch. No pics taken. Then we went to this park, where I forgot the name.

[IMAGE: Some park pictures]

The pavilions are supposed to be historical structures and is protected. We can't go inside, can only take pictures from outside.

[IMAGE: Some park pictures]

[IMAGE: Museum pics]

There's a museum in the park.

[IMAGE: Museum pics]

This structure is supposed to have some historical significance. Not sure what. :P

[IMAGE: Museum pics]

I forgot to take pictures of the museum building. But I found it in 1 of the exhibits in the museum.

[IMAGE: Museum pics]

[IMAGE: More park pics]

This wall looks like a mini great wall of China. :P My friend who has lived in Beijing for a long time thought I went to Beijing when she saw this pic. Haha!

[IMAGE: More park pics]

This is a nice looking tea house.

[IMAGE: More park pics]

After this, we went for dinner, and had a ktv with her friends till 2am. And supper at the shop beside my hotel. Had some cooked oysters, yummy! Forgot to take pics. :P

Day 2 Guangzhou, off to Lijiang
As we by the time we sleep is quite late, I didn't see Annie on day 2, and I go to the airport on my own.

[IMAGE: Air ticket]

[IMAGE: Outside Guangzhou airport]

I didn't manage to take a picture of Guangzhou Airport on the way in. This looks like the control tower behind Pullman Hotel, taken from the door in Guangzhou Airport.

[IMAGE: Inside Guangzhou airport]

[IMAGE: Airplane meal]

And I thought there's no airplane meal for internal flights, and I had my meal of dumplings(饺子) before boarding the plane. Was pleasantly surprised to find that they did serve in flight meals.

However, this airline has a funny policy of phones are not allowed to be switched on, not even in flight mode. However, I see some people using tablets around me. I was quite pissed that they allow tablets and not flight mode phones. When they asked to me to switch off my phone, which I complied, and I became restless. I looked in the seat pocket and found that someone has left behind their tablet there. I thought that was lucky and planned to put it in my bag when we leave the plane. Then I got more restless and took out my phone again to continue my movie. I was told to switch off again. This time I tried to reason with them which they refused. I said that if people can use tablets why can't I? They said that that is not mobile phone! The air stewardess add that those specially allowed by the airline. Then I see the lady beside me took out a tablet and use too! This set me thinking. I took out the tablet that I found and look behind. I found a label stating that the tablet belongs to the airline. Haha! So I didn't found any leftover tablet after all. The tablet is actually the in flight entertainment system. No wonder they don't allow phones to be switched off. They want us to use their tablets.

[IMAGE: Lijiang airport]

Lijiang airport is beautiful. Kind of reminds me of the Bhutan airport.

[IMAGE: 他乡故事]

This is the inn that I stayed. I didn't take any day pic of it, so I show this night pic instead, taken on another day. I booked it from the internet as it has good reviews and I wanted a 客栈 kind of inn rather than the normal hotel. This inn is in Dayan Ancient Town (大研古城). Little did I know that, the road to the inn is not accessible by car. We need to alight from the taxi some distance from the inn and walked in. It's a pretty long walk in. But I could have done worse, as I found out on the 2nd day that there are some hotels that are even further in, and on top of a hill. Chugging my luggage to this inn is bad enough, imagine having to bring it up slopes and stairs!

By the way, the red lights in the picture is only switched on when there are guests who are not back yet. Makes it easier to find the inn. When all guests are back, the lights are switched off, and it's all pitch dark.

[IMAGE: 他乡故事-Front desk]

This pic is actually taken on the last day. Haha!

[IMAGE: 他乡故事-2nd floor]

This pic too!

[IMAGE: 他乡故事-2nd floor]

View of the 2nd floor from the courtyard.

[IMAGE: 他乡故事-Court yard]

[IMAGE: Tea with boss]

The boss is quite a nice person. he invite us to tea after we checked in.

[IMAGE: Streets of 大研古城]

After tea, we roam the streets of 大研古城.

[IMAGE: 新龙门客栈]

Come across this inn as we wander around. This inn is pretty high up, luckily I didn't book this hotel.

[IMAGE: Dinner]

We had our dinner in one of the restaurants serving local food. It's not exactly cheap, but it's pretty big serving and we can't finish the food. The hotpot is ok, the veggie is not nice.

[IMAGE: Local scripts]

This is Naxi scripts, 纳西文字。 You see them around the place in Lijiang.

[IMAGE: Streets of 大研古城]

After dinner, we went to a local pub, 一米阳光, for a drink only 6 small bottles of light local beer. Apparently this pub is pretty well known.

Day 3 Lijiang(2nd day in Lijiang)

[IMAGE: Breakfast]

Breakfast is provided free by the hotel everyday. Unfortunately, it's the same 3 cold sour dish + porridge + eggs + plain buns （馒头） everyday.

[IMAGE: View from 3 Little Bears (三只小熊)]

We heard that 万古楼 is the highest point in 大研古城, and we decide to go there. For some reason, I feel abit nauseous climbing the stairs. Something like I feel when I had too much alcohol the night before, but I had only about 4 small bottles of light beer! Anyway, I was panting terribly, and it was much better the night before and we were only halfway to the restaurant. So we decide to stop for tea at this place which claims to have a good view of town.

[IMAGE: View from 3 Little Bears (三只小熊)]

[IMAGE: Wan Gu Lou (万古楼)]

[IMAGE: View from Wan Gu Lou (万古楼)]

Looks similar to the view from 三只小熊? They are actually quite near to each other and I didn't realize until I reach here, haha! This is actually not 万古楼 yet. This taken from near the main entrance to it. There is still some flights of stairs before we reach the pagoda, and then the viewing point is at the 4th storey.

[IMAGE: View from Wan Gu Lou (万古楼)]

I took some pics from the top of 万古楼, but it's not well taken, and therefore this is the only pic uploaded. Can see Mount Yulong(玉龙雪山) quite clearly here.

After coming down from 万古楼, I was feeling quite sick, and we went back to the inn to have a rest before coming out for dinner. I bought some medicine, the pharmacist said it's food poisoning, had a nice merlion experience and feel better.

[IMAGE: Cafe in 大研古城]

After dinner, we had some drinks in a cafe. They sell the coffee bun, aka Roti Boy, there too.

Day 4 Lijiang (3rd)
We booked a 茶马古道 package via the innkeeper. It cost us rmb280 when it advertises at about rmb80 in all tour agencies we saw in the town. According to the innkeeper, the extra we pays goes to:

We have a mini van to ourselves, which means we can start it anytime we want and not have to follow the a fixed schedule.
The lunch is the local 土鸡火锅, which is better than what some other agencies offer.
The boat ride is using a canoe-like boat which has a better experience
We have 1 horse guide to ourselves, compared to 1 guide for 6 horses, which is more dangerous
We have a longer route for the horse ride

I am not sure how significant are the differences, but since the innkeeper is a nice person, I just listened to his recommendations.

[IMAGE: Boat ride]

We set off at about 11am, right after our breakfast. We are not hungry yet, and the horse ride will take 3 hours, by which time, the lunch will be over, so we had the boat ride 1st. Must be the effect of the extra rmb200 what empower us to adjust the schedule as we see fit.

[IMAGE: Boat ride]

[IMAGE: Lunch 土鸡火锅]

The steamboat is ok, not that fantastic.

[IMAGE: Lunch 土鸡火锅]

[IMAGE: 茶马古道]

[IMAGE: Feeding the horse]

Reached the resting point (for the horse)

[IMAGE: 茶马古道 pond]

There's pond in 茶马古道, which they claim is the source of water for Lijiang.

[IMAGE: 茶马古道 pond]

Paying respects to the pond

[IMAGE: 茶马古道 pond]

The water at this spot is supposed to be drinkable. But look, there's money in there!

[IMAGE: 茶马古道 waterfall]

There's a waterfall that feeds the pond.

[IMAGE: 茶马古道 waterfall]

[IMAGE: 茶马古道]

[IMAGE: 束河古城]

We opt not to return to the inn after 茶马古道. We have the driver drop us off at 束河古城. It's much smaller than 大研古城, and it looks more planned and orderly than 大研古城.

[IMAGE: 束河古城]

[IMAGE: 黑龙潭]

From 束河古城, we took a taxi back to 大研古城. We are supposed to alight at 大水车, but due to constructions, we were dropped off a distance away. And due to the changing conditions of the constructions, the signs are all wrong. We spent quite sometime before making it back to 大研古城, and it's not at 大水车. It's somewhere between 黑龙潭 and 大水车.

Some of the parks in Lijiang needs to show the receipt of the 古城维护费 on top of the entrance ticket before you can go in. You can pay for the 古城维护费 in the hotel. 黑龙潭 is free entry, but you will need to show the 古城维护费 receipt. We read in a book that if you want to go in without paying the 古城维护费, you can go after 8pm. We have already bought it, but that information to us, it means that 黑龙潭 is opened even after 8pm.

It was slightly before 7pm at that time and we decided to go to 黑龙潭. From 黑龙潭 to our inn, we will need to pass by 大水车, so it all makes sense.

You can see from the picture that 黑龙潭 is opened when we reach there.

[IMAGE: 黑龙潭]

There's a nice water fountain feature beside the entrance to 黑龙潭, and we took some pics of it.

[IMAGE: 黑龙潭]

Only to find that 黑龙潭 closes at 7pm. Bummer.

[IMAGE: 大水车]

Look! They Mac here! It's only the night before when I commented to my friend that, though we see only local food stalls here, Lijiang being a such a tourism place, should have a Mac.

[IMAGE: 大水车]

Nice effect on the buildings with the lights.

[IMAGE: 大水车]

The 大水车.

[IMAGE: 大水车]

There are Pizza Hut and KFC here too!

[IMAGE: 大水车]

[IMAGE: Dinner Cross River Noodle 过桥米线]

Dinner is 过桥米线 today. When we went back to the inn, the innkeeper tell us that the locals normally go to this stall that sell at 1/5 of the price we paid.

[IMAGE: Dinner Cross River Noodle 过桥米线]

Origin story of 过桥米线. It's a different version from the one 1 read in Singapore. Haha!

Day 5 Lijiang(4th)
This day is going to be a short entry. Slept late, only went out at 11am.

[IMAGE: Lunch at Pizza Hut]

A bit sick of local food. So it's Pizza Hut for lunch today!

[IMAGE: 黑龙潭]

Since we didn't manage to see 黑龙潭 yesterday, we go back there again.

[IMAGE: 黑龙潭]

[IMAGE: Steamboat Dinner]

Since it's the New Year today, the innkeeper decided to treat us to 辣排骨火锅 dinner at the inn. 辣排骨 is a local food. It's quite nice. Free flow alcohol. The way they eat steamboat is that you cook and eat the meat first. Then you cook and eat the veggie. It's all green in the pictures because I forgot to take the picture at first.

Day 6 Lijiang(5th)

[IMAGE: Mount Yulong 玉龙雪山]

I grew up in a tropical city. I've not seen snow all my life. The reason for going China at this time is partly I thought I might see snow, or at least spend time in a cold country. So to visit a snow capped mountain is going to be the highlight of this trip.

[IMAGE: Mount Yulong 玉龙雪山]

We took the cable car up. There's 3 routes. We took the longest route.

[IMAGE: Mount Yulong 玉龙雪山]

The ugly orange coat is provided by the tour agency.

[IMAGE: Oxygen Cannister]

So is this oxygen canister.

[IMAGE: Mount Yulong 玉龙雪山]

We were at 4506m above sea level.

[IMAGE: Mount Yulong 玉龙雪山]

The tour guide says, "看自己的身体怎么样，能爬多高就爬多高". I didn't really climb up. Was walking up halfway when a cold gust of wind blows, and I see that my friend is struggling, so I tell her that we shall forget about going to the top and head back.

[IMAGE: Mount Yulong 玉龙雪山]

After the mountain, it's lunch, followed by the 印象丽江 performance. However, we were late and has to go to a later show, and the tour guide bring us here to take pictures.

[IMAGE: Mount Yulong 玉龙雪山]

[IMAGE: 印象丽江]

印象丽江 is an outdoor performance designed by Zhang Yimou (张艺谋). He designed the stage against the backdrop of Mount Yulong, which makes it very grand. The cast are made up of locals, members of the minority tribes in Yunnan, dancing their tradditional dance, telling us about their way of life.

[IMAGE: 印象丽江]

[IMAGE: 蓝月谷]

Next stop is to 蓝月谷. The lakes there are very beautiful!

[IMAGE: 蓝月谷]

This is a panorama stich of 2 pictures. You can see that they 2 pics are taken with different aperture/shuttle speed settings.

[IMAGE: 蓝月谷]

This is another badly stiched picture...

[IMAGE: 蓝月谷]

I found snow on some parts of 蓝月谷. They are very small patches of snow. Just enough to create an impression that I go I am at a place with a lot of snow.

[IMAGE: 蓝月谷]

Day 7 Lijiang back to Guangzhou
It's the last day of our stay in Lijiang. Woke up pretty early this morning to walk my friend to the main road to take the taxi to the airport.

[IMAGE: Last breakfast]

I was pretty sick of the hotel breakfast, when I remembered the innkeeper mentioned to me before he lead a simple life had instant noodles for lunch sometimes. So I asked him where I can buy instant noodles as I would like that for breakfast. So he go buy 3 packets and have me cook it for our breakfast. :)

[IMAGE: Lijiang Airport]

The view outside the airport.

[IMAGE: Lijiang Airport]

[IMAGE: Last meal]

This is my last meal in Lijiang for this trip. It's a pretty big bowl!

When I got to Guangzhou, I checked in to the same hotel. I took the room in the new wing this time. The old rooms has risen by 20rmb as well, so now the new room is cheaper by 40rmb and is bigger.

Annie came bring me for out for dinner, and we go meet her friends for more KTV and beer and supper.

Day 8 Guangzhou
At first, we planned to go 长隆 theme park. But Xuanxuan, Annie's friend, said that she wanted to do bungee jump, which is at 白云山.

[IMAGE: Mount Baiyun 白云山]

We took the cable up to the top, and slowly walk down. Bungee jump is at the middle of the mountain.

[IMAGE: Mount Baiyun 白云山]

[IMAGE: Bungee]

To be honest, I wasn't too keen to do the jump this time. I was concerned about the safety, it being in China. But Xuanxuan went ahead and pay for my jump, so I thought, "what the heck"!

[IMAGE: Bungee Video]

Password: aWenHaoShuai

This video is taken by the Bungee people. Cost rmb60 to buy from them. They also took pictures of jumpers, which cost rmb30 for the set. Mine had about 19 pictures. All rmb90 paid by Annie. :D

[IMAGE: Lunch]

There's an eatery somewhere near the bungee place, and we had dimsum there.

[IMAGE: Mount Baiyun 白云山]

Continue down the mountain.

[IMAGE: Mount Baiyun 白云山]

After we left 白云山, Xuanxuan has to go catch a train to Shenzhen. Annie and me go back to the hotel to check out, and she drop me off at this Sauna place.

Day 9 Guangzhou. Going back Singapore

[IMAGE: Sauna]

This is a family style place. No hanky panky, at least I didn't see any. But I do see people come with girlfriends, wifes and children. In the sauna area, there's 2 hot water pool and 1 cold water pool. The hot water pools are at 37 and 40 degree, while the cold water pool is at 15 degree. It's so cold. I couldn't stand being in there for more than 1 minute. The 37degree pool comes with the water jet spray thingy. After I am done with pool, I head to the meal area. They serve food buffet style round the clock. Only at the times where they are preparing the food where meal is not available.

They had quite a number of mahjong rooms, and a snooker room, and a gym. Obviously I can't play mahjong and snooker as I was alone, and I am not up to chatting up strangers. I am not a gym person either.

There's a movie theatre and a resting room. Both these rooms have airplane first class kind of seat, where it's so comfy that you can sleep in it. They also have charging cable beside each seat so that you can charge your phone. In the movie theatre, they screen movies at a screen that fills the wall. In the resting room, each seat has it's own tv where u can watch the various channels in China. The charge was rmb230+ per 24hour with $30+ as service charge.

[IMAGE: Sauna]

About 24 hours later, I leave the place. They told me I was 7 minutes late and I have to pay for the 2nd day. That I can leave the place for awhile and come back later. But I can't come back later as I am catching a flight that night home. And it's abit ridiculous to charge me 1 day for 7 minutes, so I asked the lady to go talk to his manager about it. In fact, I also realize that the time on my phone, where is sync with the telco, is earlier than the time reflected on the receipt as my checkout time. Their clock were fast, that's why I was late! Anyway, good sense prevailed, and the manager waive off my 2nd day charge.

Annie come join me for dinner and we chit chat till about 12, when we parted and I hail a cab to the airport.

[IMAGE: Airport]

Finally it's time to go home. My flight was at 2:05am, but it was delayed, and I only managed to board the plane at abt 2:40am. I reached Singapore slightly before 7am. I went home to put down my stuff and head to office to work.

People will complain about everything PAP.

2013-10-01T08:54:00.001+08:00

I've always been against the way PAP run Singapore. I can't wait to see them out of office. But sometimes the criticism thrown at them is so over the top.

Link

"It’s actually just good fun," replied Minister Chan when asked about the arch.

"It’s just part of our heritage… and to recognise how Queenstown started 60 years ago, how far we have come and how far more we want to go.

I see nothing wrong with this. Maybe it's because I've never lived under colonial rule, but they did convert us from a fishing village to a bustling city.

But I see these in the comments

This is what you get for having a young inexperienced man to be a Minister.

He thought this is fun. Fun for who ? Of course for him !

For many of us who lived under the British colonial rule, we are glad we are out of it.
Then we were treated second class. The white men were deemed superior , the local second class.

To think that this Minister want to go back to that times !
What is he thinking ? Too brainy for his own good, definitely no EQ .

This reinforces the poor poor choice of Pee M to promote him to be a Minister.
Hope he will be out GE 2016 and never be the next PM !

The white men were deemed superior? Even now, there are Singaporeans who still deemed the "white men" superior. How many companies will engage a vendor over others just because they have a Caucasian CEO? I don't like CCS, but voting him out cause of this makes poor justification.

Oh my god…and this fella is going to be our next Prime Minister…dear all, better cast your votes wisely come GE 2016. If not, we are going to end up with more jokers like him to fast track the downfall of Singapore.

Another call to vote him out for this.

“It’s actually just good fun,” replied Minister Chan when asked about the arch.

Good fun? What the fark is that? You proclaim “Long Live the Queen!” and then turn around and say its all in good fun?

So what you are really saying is that these people does not mean it when they put it up. In fact they cannot be bothered if the Queen dies tomorrow? Then put it up for what?

And you dream of being our PM when you cannot even explain this logically? I sense dishonesty in your answers.

Are you retarded Chan Chun Seng?

Another anti CCS comment.

Maybe anti PAP sentiment has gone so strong that everything that they do is wrong. But such weak arguments to remove them will only paint everyone who supports the opposition parties in a bad light.

有影无

2013-09-17T08:45:00.001+08:00

After they surfaced, Elections Department quickly made a police report.

Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing, on Elections Department issues
Link.

Sure or not? According to this one, after news of the election boxes went viral on the social networks, ELD did not do anything about it until a few days later when someone email them about it. None of them use social media ar?

小英安息，希望你去了更好的地方。

2013-09-16T16:33:00.001+08:00

虽然我们认识的时间不久，不过你总会面带微笑照顾你身边的人。如今你走了，虽然你尸骨未寒，我们会尽量为你把后事办好。

小英 is a friend of mine, she has left us, and in very sad circumstances, and I shall attempt to tell her story here.

I was introduced to 小英 about 2 years ago. She was working as a singer in a hang flower joint. I was never a big hanger, in fact, the amount of flowers I hung for her is miniscule. But she has always greeted me with a smile and spent time talking to me when I was there. I was told that she was also always the one to do the housework in her company hostel. The one to buy household necessities. She always put in 100% effort into her work and her employer was very pleased with her, even if she didn't meet her quota. Unfortunately, due to her not being able to meet her quota, she got to leave the joint about 1 month into the job and go back to China. She still keep in contact with me even after she's back in China, which is not that common with the other singers I've met.

However, 1 day, she didn't respond to me any more. She must have moved on in life I thought, found a new boyfriend or something. Nevertheless, I still message her once in awhile to see if she will answer me again. I know a friend of her, 小呗, who is working in Singapore as a singer now. 2 weeks ago, I thought to ask 小呗 how is 小英 doing. I didn't get to do it and the friend went back to China on leave. Apparently, 小呗 also lost contact with 小英 some time back. But last year, they managed to find each other again, only to lose contact another time later in the year. This time 小呗 met up with a mutual friend of 小英 and asked the friend about her. The story the friend told her is devastating.

小英 was married to a psycho before I met her. The reason she came to Singapore that time was to get away from him. When she went back, she was staying with her parents. Sometime last October, her husband went to her parent's place while her dad is away with a hammer. She was beaten to death, and her mom is in the hospital since then in a coma state. After beating her to death, he jumped out a window to his death. That's not all. Her body is still in the morgue. Naked. It's been almost 1 year, and her family has not come to collect her body for cremation and burial. And worse, they didn't even bother to clothe her. When I hear this, I was thinking, maybe the mom's hospitalization fee is taking too much of a toll on the family's finance, and they have no choice but to ditch 小英。 Even though this is deplorable, I can still sympathize with them. But then, I asked myself, how about the clothes? Are they too poor to even buy a few pieces of cloth for her? Even if that's true, I am sure she will still have some clothes in the house that they can use. Why aren't they even making this effort to cloth her?

After hearing all these, a few of us decided that we want to do something for her. We pooled some money and gave it to that mutual friend. She had always wanted to do something for 小英 but she do not have the money. At first I was having my doubts on the trustworthiness of this friend, but I don't have any other choice as 小呗 say she can't do it, in the end she turned out ok. We couldn't do anything about the cremation, as that require either government intervention or approval from the family, so we settle for just buying some clothes for her. After this is done, the mutual friend was so frustrated dealing with the family over this that she said she's washing her hands off this already. I heard that when the family heard that some of 小英's friend is chipping in money to help them, they keep asking how much will they get, instead of what we are doing for her.

Show 小英's body after we clothed her

Now I have a thought. The morgue must have wanted to get rid of her. Keeping her body there is racking up a bill of ￥60000 already. Her family are not doing anything, so they have no way of collecting the money. Keeping her longer will increase their cost. I thought that if we go talk to them, there just might be a creative way to send her for cremation and no one gets into trouble. But if we are to do that, that means we have to find a place to keep her ashes, and probably per her a visit regularly to tend to her. This is supposed to be done by her family, and are we ready to take up that responsibility? Do we have enough funds to do that? So the thing to do now is to talk to the morgue, then we can decide on a course of action. But none of us can go talk to the morgue. Poor 小英。

Update: I just talked to a friend about this. He told me that the psycho's family offered to 小英's family ￥30000, back when there's no ￥60000 bill, for her cremation. It was rejected. We suspect that it's because they wanted more. If we are to somehow go behind their back and settle with the morgue for her cremation now, we don't know what kind of trouble her family can cause us. So I guess that's it. Poor 小英。

Touching Story

2013-09-16T14:02:00.001+08:00

I saw this story some time ago. They made it into an advertisement. Nice.

Weight Lost Advertisement

2013-09-16T13:57:00.000+08:00

Only you can change yourself.

Charity, School, Bald, Wig, Promises, Ladies

2013-08-16T11:19:00.004+08:00

For this year's Hair For Hope charity event, happening in end July, there's a bit of a controversy. For those who don't know, Hair For Hope is a charity event organised by the Children Cancer Foundation. The aim is to encourage children who are afraid being bald, and hence unwilling to go for Chemo.

This year's event, 5 students from St Margaret's Secondary School took part in the event. They promised their principal that they will wear a wig in school. However, 2 of them had rashes from the wig and refused to wear it. And there's a big argument about wearing a wig defeats the spirit of the event, which is to show that being bald is alright. There were a few arguments flying around, and I'll add in my view on this.

A promise is a promise. The girls should stick to it and not reneged on it. Unless, there's a higher calling. Maybe this Hair For Hope spirit is the higher calling.
And, 1 of the principal's job is to make sure that students adhere to the rules. If there's a rule that say students shall sport a bald head, then he has to enforce it. Sometimes, there might be exceptions to bend the rules to achieve a greater good, which in this case, might be wearing a wig while in school.
Unreasonable rules should be abolished. Times are changing. Rules set in the past may not be relevant now. Or rules could be added there wrongly. So while we should all follow rules, we should also be ready to make changes when needed. In this case, what's wrong with a lady being bald? There should not have been a rule that prohibit girls from sporting bald heads. So in this case, I am against the Principal requiring the girls to wear a wig to take part in the event. If the event is to dye the hair pink, then yes, the girls should be wearing a wig or face disciplinary actions. But bald?
What alternatives do the girls have if they want to take part in the event and not wear wig? They were at a disadvantaged position in negotiating with the Principal. They either had to agree to wearing a wig, not take part in the event, or make things real ugly. So they chose option 1, and later regret it. And they had an higher calling.

What do you do if you are made to promise something which goes against your principles of doing things, in order to obey an unreasonable rule? Make a stand and push for change? Kudos to the girls.

Are Singaporeans being too greedy?

2013-07-31T10:12:00.001+08:00

I came across this recently: Link.

The author said that Singaporeans should be thankful of what we have. I have some thoughts on that.

We have portable drinking water that other countries do not

Not every country has it, he says. This saves us the hassle of having to buy bottled drinking water from supermarkets. Far as I am concerned, many countries has it, and even if there isn't, what's the problem of buying bottled drinking water together with all our groceries? This is such an insignificant hassle that we will have got over it in no time. Having portable drinking water is good, but it's not going to be a very big mitigating factor for other screw ups that we may see
Safe and secure living environment

Singapore has hardworking police that keep our crime rate low, he says. Our crime rate is low no doubt, but I would think it's more due to our education than the hard working police. In fact, the years of having low crime is causing our police to be less skilled in tackling crime. They lacked 1 important attribute when it come to crime fighting, which is experience. Of course, it's good problem to have, just don't expect too much from them when something big happen.

Examples of not so brilliant police work:
- When Mas Selamat escaped, we have more than 1000 officers comb Bukit Batok hills looking for him, and nobody to monitor his brother's place, where he hide in for a few days.
- The plot to bomb Yishun MRT station was discovered because a surveillance video was found in the rubble of a house bombed by the Americans, and they told us.
- In April 2010, 2 taxi drivers was assualted by 3 Caucasians at Suntec city and was seriously injured. The police couldn't find the culprits in 2 weeks, but 1 of the witness managed to find them in 30 minutes after getting frustrated by the lack of result from the police.
Our clean streets

This point I agree. And like he mentioned, we have tons of cleaners making sure our streets are clean. We spend a fortune on that. I would hope that our cleaniness is due to the clean nature of our citizens though.

I would also like to add a few more points of Singapore that we could be thankful of, but we aren't.

Pur economy is doing well and we are one of the richest country in the world

Stagnant or negative wage growth for the middle to low income for the past few years somehow blind us to this fact. What good is a bustling economy if the majority of citizens are not enjoying the benefits?
Garden by the Bay

Featuring an exotic diversity of plants from all over the world, it's a technology feat that we can even have the plants here. But it being manufactured, with a slightly high carbon footprint, cost a bomb, and having a real nature reserve (Bukit Brown) demolished to make way for more roads, contribute to remind me of the Chinese saying 打肿脸皮称胖子。

Of course, there are other real good things in Singapore that we are appreciative of. We have many nice food that we like. We have good people out there trying their very best to make Singapore a better place. We have our friends and family here. Etc. We keep them close to our hearts and not brag about it, but that does not mean we do not appreciate it. Due to our low crime rate, we can wander the streets at night without too much worry of not making it home.

Rant: Work life balance is a privilege?

2013-07-15T09:12:00.000+08:00

Recently, I read an article where someone commented that work life balance is a privilege, and not an entitlement. It's only for people who has worked so hard to show their importance to the company that the boss has no choice but to accede to their requests.

I disagree somewhat. Work life balance is a choice. Our commitment to the company is 9am-6pm on weekdays. Other time should be ours. Of course, when work is not done, we should be responsible enough to use our own time to complete it on time. But then, I would say that free overtime by employee should be a privilege, not entitlement of the company. The company should try their best to let the employee go back on time everyday. Of course, the employee should also be trying their best, do overtime if necessary, to complete their work on time. After the employee had put in a reasonable amount of time into his work, then he should be free to spend the rest of the time on other important stuff.

Hair for Hope 2013

2013-07-09T12:59:00.001+08:00

I'll be shaving my hair for Hair for Hope. Please support me!

Work till we die

2013-07-08T11:47:00.001+08:00

There are a lot of old people working in Singapore. You see them driving taxis, helping out in kopitiams, selling tissue papers, fast food restaurants, etc.

I understand that there can be 2 reasons for old people working. One is that they find it boring, untenable to be lazing at home. Two is that they really need the money. Scenario 2 is where I find it depressing. Our country has failed them. We make contribute to our economy their whole life, and we can't let them take a break and enjoy the fruits of their labour in their later years. I used to think this is the more depressing scenario.

Until I come across this article recently, which got me thinking:
TOC - Why are you still driving a taxi at age 73?

People that belong to group 1, they are so attached to work that they don't want to slow down. They are so attached to the idea of working and it's how they measure their self-worth. Our income has so much become our life that we forgot there's another important part to it. Our relationship with the people around us, especially our family. What happens to walks in the parks? Having a game of chess with friends? Just plain chit chatting and catching up with friends and family? Having fun with our children and grand children? We have spent so much of our effort in our work that we neglect our family and friends while we are young, are we going to do that when we are old too? Or is it that due to our workaholic tendencies, we forgot to build our family, which leads to us not having one to turn to for solace and joy after our retirement?

Messi and his taxes

2013-06-21T16:24:00.003+08:00

From Soccernet:
Jorge Messi, Lionel's dad, explained: "What they are doing to Leo is very cruel. We are annoyed that some media are organising a campaign of hate and lies about him. We are also calm because we have always paid what we needed to. I can assure you that he pays 8-digit amounts of tax every year."

I don't think I earn anywhere near to 8-digit amount in a year...

Hazy Singapore and the conspiracy theories

2013-06-20T10:28:00.000+08:00

Singapore PSI levels hit an all time high of 321 last night. This was the 10pm reading. Other than the seriousness of the high number, this reading cause another stir. This 10pm reading was released very near to 11pm. Normally the readings are released within 5 minutes, so why was the 10pm reading last night so special?

This is taken from the NEA website last night. You can see the 10pm reading is 321.

This was uploaded by someone who claim that he saw this just before it got removed. This fuels the imaginations of a lot of people. A lot of people are saying that the PSI level is too high and the authorities do not want us to see it, and thus the delay.

I beg to differ. If we look at the 9pm reading, we can see that it's 290. It's already the highest we ever have. PSI levels above 200 are very unhealthy and PSI above 300 are hazardous. What do you think people will do when they see the PSI level at 290 at 9pm? All of them are going to be refreshing on the NEA PSI page at 10pm! So what happens when everyone keeps refreshing that page? The server can't handle the load and we get this:

Now we can see that the server can't handle the high load and crashes at 10pm. So what happens after that? The IT engineers will be trying to resolve this. And it takes time. They took about 1 hour to resolve this, which I think is a reasonable time.

So for this case, I doubt there's much conspiracy going around.

However, this morning the PSI reading was 122 at 8am and 131 at 9am. Look at this picture taken at 9+am.

And this picture is taken yesterday at about 2+pm where the PSI is about 170.

Now I don't have a logical explanation for this. May the conspiracy theories fly!

Update:
There's no conspiracy after all. The NEA hourly PSI reading is using the PM10 reading. It doesn't account for the smaller PM2.5 particles. See this link for more info.

This final pic is to show what the view is supposed to be.

Support for Rebecca who allegedly killed her son

2013-06-14T17:16:00.001+08:00

Someone is going to beg for mercy for Rebecca, who allegedly throw her 9 year old son out of the window.
Link

More information on this case
Link

Recently I saw a friend posted this on his facebook.
Link

A plea for a lighter sentencing should not be supported. Our judicial system places grave importance to the role of a mother in eastern traditions.

This is evident when during divorce proceedings, unless the father has a strong case against the mother's ability to raise her child, custody is almost always awarded to the mother. There is trust vested in her that she will leave no stone unturned in nurturing her child and providing him with the best she possibly can, regardless of his mental and physical condition.

Murder in the form of pushing him down a block of flats was certainly not the best option. It is also not what the poor boy would have expected of his mother, his sole source of emotional and physical strength.

Supporting tomorrow's event will only glorify her alleged innocence based on a single fact of her being a " single mother". If the law were to soften it's stance on her case, it will set precedence that single mothers are immune to the law regardless of the crimes they commit.

I don't really agree with it. My opinion is that no mother will kill trivially kill their own son. Whether we agree with her action, she must have gone thru anguish and pain before coming to the conclusion that killing her son is the best option for him. I am be wrong, but I think her case is a sad one and warrants more compassion when passing her sentence.

Another point to note is that, according to the article, it's not known if she throw him out or he jumps on his own. We only know she says she killed him.

Whatever it is, the support for her is definitely not based on the single fact of her being a single mother. And saying that if the law is to soften for her, it will set precedence that single mothers are immune to the law is like the ruling party saying losing seats to opposition parties will cause the country's economy to crash.

What to do with Suarez?

2013-06-07T14:15:00.003+08:00

This is my first post of the year! The first in 9 months...

Anyway, I shall attempt to re-kickstart this blog, though I don't know when my next post is going to be...

Since Suarez is reported to have said that he can't say no to Real Madrid and that the British media treatment of him has led him to reconsider staying in Liverpool, many fans has been expressed anger and disgusts at this and hope to see the back of him in return for a hefty transfer profit to spend on rebuilding the team.

Personally, I don't think Suarez is wrong to want to leave Liverpool. According to him, the press bad treatment of him is getting to his wife and daughter. That to me, is a valid reason to consider leaving. But having said that, he also said that he has not decide on his future yet. He might not leave. If he decide to stay, all the complains thrown at him will be for nothing. And I am worried that Suarez may feel further disillusion at staying after he read all the negative comments about him.

Suarez may bring a lot of controversy, as long as he realizes his short-comings, and attempts to correct it, it's good enough. So it's wrong of him to bite another player, but he has apologised. The racist incident shows that the FA disciplinary committee have being not very fair to him.

If he want to go, then we should sell him. and get a hefty profit. No player is bigger than the club, he can do and we will replace him. But I am concerned that our better players always want to leave us after a couple of successful seasons. Have we already become a club where our bet players think we are too small for them? If Suarez is to leave now, will Coutinho follow the exit next year?

Presents or Vouchers?

2012-08-29T07:36:00.000+08:00

I've always preferred to buy something rather than a voucher when I want to give something to a friend. Present giving is an art. It also shows how much you know the person. The effort you need to go thru also shows how much the person means to you. And if I were the receiver, the joy of getting something you like as a present is priceless. Of course, this comes with a risk of not getting what you want, but this only makes getting the right present more sweet. And sometimes, the present that you like may not be something you know. You may be using an old wallet happily and have no thought of changing until someone got you a new one as a present. Having said all these, I am not really against the alternative. Buying vouchers or even giving ang baos as a present. It's a practical 1. The recceivers can get the things they like themselves. Or they can use it to supplement their daily expenses. Some people like that. I am ok with buying vouchers if the receivers prefers it, but it's never my present of choice. Now, what do you give when a friend, or a friend's wife, has given birth? For me, if I were visit the friend in the hospital, I'll buy bird's nest or essense of chicken. Sometime later, maybe during the 1st month celebration, then I'll buy a present for the baby. It can be baby clothes or toys. For hospital visits, you buy things for the patient, in this case, it's the mother. After giving birth, having some tonic (bird's nest, essense of chicken, etc) is good for the mother, that's why I buy it mostly. Flowers is another choice, to lighten up the hospital ward. But I seldom get that. Or fruits. Recently, a friend's wife has just given birth. Another friend asked him if his wife prefers bird's nest or essense of chicken. The reply was that they had bought a lot at home, and had pretty much everything they needed, therefore a present is not needed. And if we have to get something, a voucher will do fine. I know the friend meant well. But in this case, I feel weird giving vouchers as a present ot a patient. "Get well soon" and money doesn't seem like a good match to me. So it's probably going to be a basket of fruits for me this time. So to my friends who are reading this, please do not buy the birds's nest and essense of chickens until the baby has gone home. Give us a chance to get them for you. If we don't, then you can go buy it. Either that, you can receive a few more and take a slightly longer time to finish them. :)

Yusheng claims

2012-02-01T15:11:00.002+08:00

From here

Klang Hokkien Association president Dr Ler Cheng Chye said simple logic would denounce even the remotest possibilty that yee sang was from Singapore.

"The custom of eating yee sang during Chinese New Year belongs to the Cantonese and given that people of this dialect are mostly from Kuala Lumpur, it must have originated from here," Dr Ler.

What kind of Dr is Dr Ler? What kind of logic is that? It takes only 1 person to invent the dish. It takes Singapore to have only 1 Cantonese to have a remote possibility that it is from Singapore. And we have much more than 1 Cantonese. What do he has inside his skull? Jelly?

And, according to mrbrown,

To be accurate, yusheng (raw fish) has always been around, but Lo-Hei was invented by the founders of Red Star restaurant. In Singapore.

Note: yee sang is yusheng in cantonese. Literally it means raw fish. But it's also another name for Lo-Hei.

Problems in SMRT?

2011-12-27T15:24:00.002+08:00

Excerpts from CNA Forum

yenyenpark:

ex-SMRT staff on why SMRT breaks down...

The problem all started when the Sr staffs were retrenched, resigned, retired and asked to leave. When she took over how many senior staff with years of experience and trained by experts from Japan, England and Hong Kong that did not agreed with her was removed and replaced with young people with paper qualifications and have not the slightest idea of how to run a train system. There these young management staff tried to impress her by backstabbing each other, come out with hairbrain ideas or quick fix solutions that did not sound in the long run. Well guess what after 10 years of this type of sh.it from a well oiled and smooth running system she ran it to the ground. Mark my words as long as she is in the helm surrounded by her clueless dogs there will be no improvment.

That was the time I took a serious look at my retirement plan. Then came her waves of cost cutting measures, buying of cheap spares that looks good on paper but can't even last till the next round of preventive maintainance, reduce the manpower to all sections working at skeleton crew level. The last straw came when some of my junior staffs was not satisfied with the way they were graded and the amount they got compare to what their bosses got. They brough it up to the union and HR and they got the same reply " The door is always open". That was when I knew the sh.it has hit the ceiling and I took my earily retirment and joined my fellow former co-workers.

botak:

yenyenpark just copied from another forum

the info is accurate....some old birds retired, many gave up and joined LTA / SBS NEL....

can you imagine a very small group of key NEL staff has a combined MRT engineering experience of >200 yrs...while a much bigger group of SMRT senior management has <60 yrs of train and track experience

the most senior and well respected of the 1980s pioneers are leading NEL and Down Town Lines; the brightest of this batch is the chief of LTA MRT, now leading in the investigations.....

Ask anyone from SMRT, how many senior staff has more than 20 yrs railway engineering experience.....

It is not a surprise that ah Lui went to LTA to look for the answer, all the super insider old birds are there....they knew exactly where the root causes are, that explains why so many 3rd rail claws were found dislodged during the overnight inspections led by LTA.....

God bless S'pore. God bless ah Lui.

It's all the government's fault. Or is it?

2011-11-14T22:27:00.005+08:00

My friends know that I am critical of the current government. Some of them has given up on talking about current affairs with me.

Recently, 1 of them say that critising the government has become a religion for me. She think that I would blame the government for a friend's rudeness. Which, unfortunately, I did. Sort of. She think that I would blame the government for someone pretending to sleep while sitting on a priority seat with an old man standing standing in front of him. Which, unfortunately, I did too. I would blame the government for government for feeding the whole nation, which I didn't, though I would think the government can consider feeding some people.

There are people who will blame the government for their being jobless. They will blame the government for their been poor. I don't. I won't blame the government for my being jobless, nor for my being poor. But I will blame the government if our jobless rate is high. I will blame the government rate of increase of poor people are increasing.

Recently, a friend use a online service to ask guest to register to go for his wedding. This smacks of insincerity and rudeness. By registering for his wedding, isn't it like we are asking him to invite us to his wedding? It's like he think his wedding is so great that people want to register for his wedding? And it also suggest that he don't care if you attend for his wedding. A I-can't-be-bothered-to-ask-you-to-attend-my-wedding-personally-you-are-not-worth-the-effort-register-yourself-in-my-website attitude. Except that I don't think that's what he think. He is just being a typical Singaporean (the action is not typical though), to do things the most efficient way, ie, do things with the least effort. Fortunately, most Singaporeans still understand that not everything should be done the easy way. Unfortunately, for him, wedding invitation isn't 1 of those gotta-do-it-the-proper-way thing.

I blame this on the government for culturing a must-do-things-efficiently attitude. They keep harping on how efficient they are, how great they are. If they are great, and they are efficient, it must be good to be efficient? On top of that, they placed so much emphasis on getting a degree. Your career in civil service depends on what kind of degree you get. If you didn't have any? You get peanuts. The real kind of peanuts. And in order to get a degree, you need good scores in all exams before that. And exams in certain subjects only. And if you are not that inclined in those subjects, what can you do if you don't want to be doomed to life of mediocrity? You do it the efficient way. You memorise the textbooks. And worse, the school principal's and the teachers KPI are on how great the students results are. Such that they are not so much on nurturing the young anymore. They need to get good results from the young, the efficient way. There's probably more. Or there's nothing to it. I am reading too much into it. Doing things efficiently is mostly a good thing. But there is going to be side effect in some people. Side effects like what manifested in my friend. He may be wrong. But the society plays a part in him becoming what he is. If I have to be criticised of being critical of the government, I would appreciate if my critic know why I am like that.

Another thing I don't like what is government created is the meritocracy system. Meritocracy system should not a bad thing. But our system's side effect is quite serious. By right, it's good to reward people who do well. But it has evolved that the people who do well think the people who don't do well, they deserve whatever they get. Coupled with the government's policy of giving minimum welfare, which rubs of on citizens, there are people who do no think much of helping people who don't do as well as us. They deserve it for not doing it right in the first place.

I don't like this side effect. I believe in 取之社会，还之社会。 Those do well should help those who doesn't. But there's a problem in this of course. There are bad people who make use of nice people who do well for handouts so that they don't have to work for themselves. So sometimes there are nice people who won't help because they don't want to be "cheated". The why-should-I-spend-money-on-people-who-don't deserve-it? The questions are i) who are people who don't deserve it? and ii) what's the ratio of people who deserves it to those who don't? And what's the cost of knowing the answer? I don't like the current system, but I don't have the answer to a good system. I want more to be done to help the less fortunate, but I want the meritocracy system to continue as well. Whoever can give me the answer to that, gets my vote.

Back to the current meritocracy system, it's a thin line between not helping people who don't deserve it to not giving up priority seats to elderly. Both stems from selfishness. Some believer of our meritocracy are selfish without knowing it. They think because they give up their seats to the elderly, they are not selfish, which they aren't, in a way. Some people think people who don't work do not deserve to be helped, some people think people who don't get seats because they do not deserve it. And I must add, everytime you refused to help someone that you think don't deserve it, if you are wrong, then you are denying help to someone who do. It's about what cost are you willing to pay to help someone who deserve it. If 1 out of every 3 times you helped someone, only 1 deserve it, the cost to help that 1 person is what you spend on all those 3 times. If it's 1 out of 10, then it's all those 10 times. So how much are we willing to pay. Or can we spend some effort/cost to be more sure if the person deserves it? How much effort/cost to spend?

Some time back, I mentioned that I believe in jobless welfare. I have a reason for this. I feel there's a economic lost.Most of us have money commitments. Our mobile bill, our electicity bill, our 3 meals, insurance, etc. Not working is a huge cost, and we won't want to leave a job without a job. So we look for job while still working. I would say that when someone wants to leave, it's likely he won't be that willing toput in extra effort to complete his task. He can be professional about it, and put in best effort during office hours. Nothing more. and during that time, he is looking for job, so he's also likely to take leave to go for interviews. That is a cost to the company, and indirectly, the economy. And companies looking for people will also have to wait at least a month before the person they want to recruit can join them. When we tender our resignation only after we got an offer, we have to work for the company at least 1 more month, depending on company policy. Of course, with any welfare, there will be people who abuse the system. So the question is again, i) How much are there? and ii) what are the cost to find out who deserves to be helped? Again, whoever can find a good balance between helping people and not wasting too much money gets my vote.

My point for the previous paragraph is, I believe in welfare, but I don't believe in welfare for the sake of it. There need to be a good enough reason. I don't like to waste money, but if I have the proper numbers, only then can I decide if the welfare is feasible.

1 more thing. Our CPF. I believe the old should be staying at home and enjoy the fruits of their labour when young. Some country have a pension system. They use the current working population to pay the old people who are not working. This can be a huge strain on the society when there are more old people than young, which we are going to be. But we do not have a pension system. We have the CPF. The CPF makes us save our money so that when we are old, we have enough to survive. There's just a slight problem. We spend our CPF on buying an apartment. And on our medical bill and our parent's medical bill. So what we have for retirement is getting smaller. Such that the more suavy people will invest their cash wisely for their retirement fund. Such irony. Our future retirement money is spent on our current need (roof over our head), which is also an investment as it's supposed to bring us money when we rent it out, or when we sell it. And we spend our current investment for our retirement. For people who tell me CPF is a good thing, when I see so many old people working, whether be it a management position, taxi driver, metal cans collector, I will say CPF fails in what they are supposed to do. You can blame it on them not knowing how to manage their money when young, but the problem is still there.

So after pointing out so many faults of the government, do I think every bad thing is the government's fault? No. Whatever bad thing that befalls an individual, it's always their own fault. Because there must be some ways that they could have done helped themselves but didn't. But when it happens to many individuals, I place the blame on the government as well. Because only the government is capable of affecting the lives of all their country citizen. Even if the cause is not their fault, if enough people are suffering from something, only they could have done something to correct the situation, and if they didn't, they failed. If I see or know 1 person who don't give their seats to elderly, I can try to persuade him. I can even persuade 10. If I see 100 person who don't give their seats to elderly, I can train 10 person, so that they can persuade 10 each. But i won't be able to help 1000, 10000, 100000. Only the government can.

In my mind, our current government has done many bad things. Do I want them out at all cost? No. If they manage to change and improve, I am happy to have them. And if some other group manage to take over them, I would expect them to improve on the current system and yet not lose the good things. A good government, new or old, should be able to recognise what is good now, and what is bad, and improve accordingly.