a2ed.com

Non-chinese-preferred job ads in singapore is 'affirmative action' mate

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:48:00 +0000

I don't know what the issue is here, and why Temasek Review, and their so-called 'netizens', think it an issue worth pursuing.

Oh, wait a minute, Temasek Review (which has, for some strange reason, given itself the title of 'Emeritus' - which actually is a term of reference to a former holder of an office, especially a professor.....how is TR relating themselves to that? Perhaps they're using a dictionary purchased in their motherland) is a neo-nazi/confucian pro-singaporean chinese s(h)ite, and hence, it is no wonder that this is an issue to them, and their horde of loyal readers, whilst they do not similarly take equally vociferous and consistent issue with the ‘mandarin speakers/chinese preferred’ ads in singapore. That is more of an issue given that the chinese are a majority, and this affects the non-chinese to a greater degree when it comes to job applications, promotions, and understanding what their chinese colleagues are talking about when they choose to speak in Mandarin as opposed to English over their lunches, brunches and what nots.

‘Filipino Preferred’ job ads is not discrimination, but ‘affirmative action’ that helps to alleviate the opportunity cost of life within a racist and discriminatory status quo in the singapore of today.In a nutshell, given the reality of the above situation, amongst a host of others, that basically casts all non-chinese as ‘2nd class citizens’, ‘Filipino Preferred’ job ads is not discrimination, but ‘affirmative action’ that helps to alleviate the opportunity cost of life within a racist and discriminatory status quo in the singapore of today. To be fair and remove the ‘Filipino preferred’ criteria, in this instance, in an already pro-chinese and unequal state of affairs basically promotes inequality by ensuring that the chinese have access to everything, whilst everyone else has to wait for non-mandarin-speaking opportunities.

I do practice, in recent years, such ‘affirmative action’ myself. For instance, i refuse to purchase gold from Chinese-run shops in Little India, i purchase expensive items outside of the country so as to not make chinese-run businesses richer, and favour purchase of food from non-Chinese-run food stalls over generally overpriced chinese food stalls. I don’t like doing this, but if i don’t, i’m just going to be enriching the ‘chinese-preferred’ sector of singapore, and expedite the further degeneration of the non-chinese in singapore. However, I've yet to become objective enough to not help my chinese family and friends whenever they need it.

So, what i’m saying here is, till chinese supremacism and favouritism is addressed by these myopic, and sinocentric so-called ‘oppositional’ gits in singapore, whom, in their sinocentrism, are certainly corollaries of the government they purport to oppose, reverse discrimination is nothing but affirmative action designed to make life under chinese supremacism more palatable for those whom aren’t chinese.

From a more pragmatic approach, it would make sense for myself to ‘prefer’ Filipinos, which i certainly do, over the chinese. The reason is simple. A people whom are reared to ignore difference; whose only method of countering top-down oppression is by taking advantage of each other; aren’t really going to become very intelligent, receptive to differences, empathetic, develop the ability to compare and contrast phenomena with any great degree of sharpness; and won’t posses the ability to think out of the box as quickly or creatively as can those whom are products of more multicultural and democratic circumstance. So, since the chinese are so allegedly into ‘being pragmatic’, it would make more business sense to employ people from other climes.

You could say that more 'Filipino/etc preferred Job Ads could actually be a damn good thing as it would force singaporeans, all of whom have been severely affected intellectually and creatively, to again contend with difference, and become smarter for it. The silly girls and boys playing at being ‘opposition‘ in singapore ought to wonder why the government is bringing in all these new foreigners. The answer is simple mate. In an effort to secure political longevity for themselves in the past, and set singapore on the path toward some sort of union with China (i made this prediction back in 1993 in conversation with some friends of mine) they had to make you dumb via monoculturalism, confucianism, and racial supremacism and racism. Thereafter, they’ll need to bring in foreigners, or buy up foreign intellectual capital, to compensate for local stupour. Think about it.

police harassment of difference in singapore - in conversation

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:28:00 +0000

The following is ed’s reply to a comment by Mark (pseudonym. a singaporean chinese of exceptional empathetic stature) on police ‘spot-checks’ on minorities and those whom are different. A more extensive and unabridged version may be found in the comments section beneath the article, ed racially harassed by police at changi airport.

Hey Ed,

“Haha well. The police claim that this is to be done to look out for criminals in the wanted list so as to arrest them back for charges. However, they always seem to target those "xiao pai kia" and those who look different. If they really wanted to arrest those people, they would conduct an operation or something along the line to search for those people. So the police claim doesn't explain why there is such a quota scheme at all. So it's plausible that this scheme is carried out to induce general socio-political resignation, fear and apathy. And I don't think there are significant number of fugitives or escaped convicts here. And you're right that even those well-dressed people could very well be a drug-dealer and consumer. So in fact almost everyone could be the potential to be one. Why not check on those who look very innocent? Very misguided of the police to continue doing this sort of things. What about those big boss involved in drug trade? So to make it short, if we don't commit any crime, then they should be seen, not heard! - source”

Yeah man. Do the police actually think that wanted criminals are going to be sporting styles that are going to attract attention to them? Common sense would dictate that said ‘wanted criminals’ are most likely going to be dressed like ‘the majority’. Well, it’s a good thing that the major oppositional sites, blog aggregators, ignored this issue. So the police can continue serving as fashion police or harassing those deemed to be different.

we must also be aware that police checks can border on or be motivated by racial/difference animosity because those whom are unleashed on the public aren’t usually well-educated, young, and hence, more likely to carry with them the biases learnt in secondary school and in society, which in turn goes into determining whom they ‘spot-checked’.There was, and to some extent, still is, the same issue going on in the u.s. There was some fuss over perceptions that blacks commit the most crimes because of media portrayal, and police too ‘spot checked’ blacks most of the time. But, statistically, it was proven that this was not the case. The police only have to look at their stats to know whom they ought to target. If they did, they might realise that gangsters and criminals do not dress like myself, and most aren’t malays and indians. And if they are, they do dress in a particular way, especially gangsters. For goodness sakes, even gangsters, from the 80s to the present, know that people like myself aren’t. Perhaps the police ought to employ some gangsters to conduct seminars on this issue for their benefit.

But we must also be aware that police checks can border on or be motivated by racial/difference animosity because those whom are unleashed on the public aren’t usually well-educated, are young, and hence, more likely to carry with them the biases learnt in secondary school and in society, and which in turn goes into determining whom they ‘spot-check’. And this is further reinforced by the fact that people are pretty much racially segregated in this country, not integrative, and there is general racism, taken as normal because 'the chinese are the majority what!', and xenophobia as well. It is within such a climate that we can begin to understand the motivation behind police, public, perceptions of difference, and how the old chinese saying, ‘if a nail sticks out, hammer it down’, contributes to it. In a nutshell, the police may be multiracially-comprised, but the enforced monoculturalism and discriminatory conditions without would significantly dictate their perceptions of difference.

for people to immediately assume that a person who is dressed differently is a ‘trouble-maker’ actually indicates that the populace is devoid of the individuality, creativity, and intelligence, to produce differently-dressed people whom aren’t gangsters and criminals. The ‘general socio-political resignation’ that is contributed to by what can thus, in the light of all the perspectives in this article and comment section, be construed as police harassment of difference, can be linked to the chinese ‘culture’ of frowning on difference. In a country devoid of significant individuality, creativity, and intelligence, it can then be quite logically thought that those who dress differently are most likely to be ‘trouble-makers’ since, as stated, there isn’t much individuality, creativity, and intelligence, to produce difference of any other sort.

For instance, in the UK, people who dress differently are thought to be individualistic, artistes, thinkers, musicians, etc - as i most certainly am here, and which also explains why i’m never stopped here at customs or in the public. Nobody is going to immediately assume that s/he is a ‘trouble-maker’. So, for people to immediately assume that a person who is dressed differently is a ‘trouble-maker’ actually indicates that the populace is devoid of the individuality, creativity, and intelligence, to produce differently-dressed people whom aren’t gangsters and criminals. Even when there are people whom are dressed differently, it is usually and obviously in respect of some contemporary and personality-less fashion.

In a nutshell, the police may be multiracially-comprised, but the enforced monoculturalism and discriminatory conditions without would significantly dictate their perceptions of difference.Hence, in such a climate, you could say that true individuality, creativity, and intelligence is curtailed to the traditional and local sense of the word. You can say that the opposition also promotes this notion in the way those whom i met in the past reacted to me. They, in contrast to myself, dressed as if they just got out of bed, or were dressed for some formal occasion. It didn’t matter to them that i was more highly and relevantly educated than themselves.

Given this, we can began to appreciate parallels between public, oppositional, and police perceptions of right and wrong when it comes to personal presentation. We are far from having an social experience in singapore that can plausibly explain it in a more positive light. As V said in the comments section beneath the aforelinked article, "Even my mum also said ‘maybe they don’t like Ed being too different from other people and he is also Indian’. That might be a more accurate summation of the perception of difference in the allegedly 'modern' and 'first world' state of singapore.

BS Royale

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:39:00 +0000

You sure you have a 'culture'?

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:52:00 +0000

"It is the same with any other society had they been in the majority. For instance if Singapore was predominantly English then English would be preferred, so with German, French or any other racial group for that matter. It is natural for people of a race to be comfortable with others who are like them, especially a Chinese society which has an illustrious history. - gopalan nair: singapore, the final days for indians and malays. "

ed’s comment at the aforelinked site,

“It is also natural for humans to go beyond being comfortable with similar others and appreciate the fact that they can become greater in appreciation of difference than in ignoring it. To so is a sign of maturity. The inverse is nothing short of retardation. Yourself being in the US, should be appreciative of this point.

As for the 'illustrious'-ness of Chinese history, i don't see anything 'illustrious' about a history where the masses just do as they are told. In that, we can only talk about the history of the chinese elite. People under such oppressive and suppressive conditions have no history. They just exist as raw materials as do sticks and stones. It is when people, and the chinese, realise this, it is then that they might become the determiners of their history instead of its victims, whom, as a result, will inevitably go about victimising others as a consequence.”

You sure you have a culture?

I do not like the term ‘culture’ being bandied about and used to justify respect for ‘our way of doing things’ just because we, or our ancestors, hadn’t the sense or circumstance to appreciate any other way of doing things. Being able to 2nd guess our cultural way of doing things is, despite our penchant for the familiar, is one of the quintessential qualifications for our humanity (another one of ‘ed’s laws’.) Just because you do what you do whilst on your hind legs, whilst adorned with contemporary finery, and armed with the latest iphone to carry on meaningless chatter with other equally-endowed primates doesn’t mean that it out to be accorded the term, culture.

Culture goes beyond the means by which we cope with things.Culture goes beyond the means by which we cope with things. Animals do that. They cope. Hence, over millennia, they develop instincts and reflexes suited to enable them to eat, reproduce, and drop dead. Culture, in a nutshell, is a term that is best, and more accurately, applied to that part of the human experience that extends beyond necessity, coping, and consumption and reproduction.

Culture also excludes all those ‘cultural’ practices that arise because the main focus of our ‘culture’ is coping, consumption, and reproduction. For instance, gambling, is a consequence of our being focused on coping, consumption, and reproduction, and not philosophical-socio-political matters from a non-self-absorbed vantage. In other words, gambling, for instance, is a consequence of people living like animals (not being well-versed or interested in philosophical-socio-political matters from an empathetic vantage....all of which comprises true pragmatism and qualifies a culture as a culture, and a human being as a human being). It is a by-product of living like an animal. You could say that whilst these by-product results of primitive focus looks and smells like culture, it is more an indication of a failure of it, and the degeneration of a people.

image by ed

You could say that a ‘culture’ of eating, shopping and gambling, is the creative result of the degeneration of a people’s humanity. In other words, it is the last vestige, and manifestation of a people’s creative and human impulses of a people whom have been so reduced in their humanity that this is the best that they can think up and appreciate.

I’ve been inclined to think in recent years, that the bulk of contemporary american films and music, for instance, also qualifies as the best that a degenerating human being can produce. You can’t get rid of a human being’s creative impulse, but you can reduce a human being to an animal state with creative impulses and then produce what the americans of today produce. In other words, give an animal the creative faculty, and they become americans.

Each developmental stage has it’s own ceiling on intellectual, empathetic, and creative produce. But the best that one can produce in each stage isn’t indicative of the best that human beings can produce. Ascending to higher stages will open new developmental curves. But if we don’t, then people will just end up being the proverbial frog in the well and confusing the circular sky for the sky in its entirety.

So how do we determine if we have culture or not?

Very briefly, a true culture is that which has an inbuilt tendency to overthrow itself. This does not include external attempts to overthrow it like colonisation and assimilation. I’m referring to internal mechanisms that constantly lead people to question after the value of their culture, and the ability of the culture to take on board new and changing circumstances without attempting to assimilate everyone so that they can carry on thinking and doing things as did their ancestors a 1000 years ago.

So you sure you have a culture?

ed racially harassed by police at Changi Airport

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:34:00 +0000

Well, V (singaporean chinese girl working in the UK....and now back for the holidays) kept bugging the crap out of me to write about this experience....so here goes.

I arrived in singapore on the 15th of Jan in the evening via SQ with V. I got to the baggage retrieval belt first and quite immediately got the attention of the customs police standing at the checkpoint near the entrance to the arrival hall. Well, never mind.

The Story

I loaded up both V’s and my hand-luggage onto one trolly, and our larger luggage onto another trolley. V arrives. She takes the trolley with the hand-luggage, and i, the trolley with the larger ones. As i approach the customs point, a Malay police officer - a young bloke - rushes over and quite curtly, asks me, whilst ignoring V, ‘Sir, do you have anything to declare’. ed says, ‘No’. ‘Put your luggage through!’, says the police bloke, curtly, and with a frown. ed gets pissed. I stop right beside the police officer, point at him with my thumb, and call to V who has walked ahead a couple of steps, saying, ‘See what i said earlier.’ The police officer, or more like ‘boy in blue’, looks at me with surprise at my reaction, and then looks away, probably realising that he picked on the wrong Indian to screw around with. V comes up, and he asks her to proceed out of the transit area without checking her. The other two Malay officers look as if they feel bad about my being stopped by their colleague (credit to them), and one of them, a bloke, smiles at me attempting to calm me down, but it doesn’t work.....as i have a healthy sense of self-respect and don’t put up with racial harassment whatever the state.

Ed says to them both, ‘For 20 bloody years in my travels to and from the UK, every single time i come through this airport, i get stopped! Every single time i go through the UK airport, i NEVER get stopped. I lived in HK for more than year, and i see others getting stopped at the airport or outside, but i never get stopped. Can you tell me why i get stopped here?!”....as my luggage goes through the scanner. The officer (not the boy who stopped me) smiles again in an embarrassed way....he obviously feels kind of bad. The female officer then questions me after the contents of my luggage asking if i have some kind of machine in there. I said, ‘keyboard’ (referring to my smaller-sized midi keyboard). ‘Do you have another machine in there?’ I say, ‘no, i don’t think so’ (it’s only later that i realised that she was probably referring to my WDTV box which enables me to play digital files on the telly). ‘Oh, it’s ok, never mind. Thank you’. Very polite girl....probably trying to make up for her colleague’s stopping me.

I walk off with my luggage, and the other officer smiles at me again in an apologetic way, and i just shake my head. The officer who stopped me looks steadily away.

The Conclusion

Is this racial harassment? Throughout the time i was waiting for my luggage, i saw this police bloke stopping only one other person. A white bloke. All chinese were let through. But as i attempt to walk through with V, i get stopped, and she doesn’t. And the most incriminating part of it all is that if he really wanted to check my luggage, he would have had to stop her as well as she was carrying half my luggage. After all, they saw me loading up both our luggage onto both trolleys. And given that there were two hand-luggage on her trolley and two-larger ones on mine, wouldn’t it stand to reason that if he wanted to check my luggage, he would have to check the luggage of V's trolley as well? Hence, the allegation that this stop was racially motivated becomes all the more plausible.

Furthermore,

When V recounted this story to her mother, even she, in Hokkien, got angry and said, ‘how can they do this to him? How come they stop him but never stop you?’. My mum, a usually passive person, got pissed off as well. ‘How come they go around bullying Indians?!”, said she.

if there are parallels to this behaviour in the social arena, then, whilst the police might stop the chinese or ‘normal’ people every now and then, when it comes to minorities, and especially those who stand out, they get stopped ALL the time.I said to V, “not only have I had to put up with discrimination that has led to my economic prospects being severely compromised - despite my upper second honours degree - now i have to put up with racial harassment as well?! No bloody way. The next time any so-called police officer stops me, he better have a damn good reason for doing so. I had to put up with this from juvenile gangsters when i was younger, and now from equally young juvenile police officers. What is it? They giving uniforms to gangsters these days? Why is it that these o-level boys are given the power to use their uniforms to harass people whom are different, ethnic minorities, or just as an effort to show the public ‘who’s boss’?”

The point is this, if there are parallels to this behaviour in the social arena, then, whilst the police might stop the chinese or ‘normal’ people every now and then, when it comes to minorities, and especially those who stand out, they get stopped ALL the time. This, in effect, makes their normal checks a cover for their prejudicial ones. That is nothing short of racial harassment. By parallels in the social arena, i refer to similar aversion to difference, and favouring the conventional - from race to fashion. This is already evident in the media, job advertisements, government policies, the socio-economic arena, and so on and so forth. Amongst the juveniles, we see people ‘finding trouble’ with the outstanding. So when we see the police behaving in a similar fashion, it stands to reason that this social approach to difference would be evident in their checks on the people as well.

And this becomes all the more the case when it comes to lesser educated junior police officers - objectivity, unfortunately, is a skill that generally comes with higher education, and through particular subjects. It is not gained by youthful experience in a state where coffeeshops play chinese programmes all the time, where mandarin-speakers are preferred, and where the government clearly state that the state should have a racial balance in favour of one race over all others. In such a state, people become consequences of such a state of affairs with minorities doing unto each other that which is done unto them from up high.

Police officers should abide by the principles used to dictate the behaviour of children in the past..they should be seen, not heard.Police officers should abide by the principles used to dictate the behaviour of children in the past - they should be seen, not heard. Their presence itself, which is a good thing, should be enough to deter criminal behaviour. Stopping members of the public serves absolutely no purpose other than, as stated, to show them who’s boss, or to effect their own prejudices. Asking people where they are going is another instance of harassment as the police officers are certainly not going to be going with the bloke they’re ‘spot-checking’ to see if he’s going where he says he’s going. And if they were to do so, he would probably go where he stated he’s going just to prove he isn’t lying. They also shouldn’t be stopping people who look different....unless they are being paid an allowance for serving as fashion police as well. Having been a senior probation officer myself, i can certainly see the parallels between the juvenile delinquents under my care and police officers who stop me or my other friends.

Like I said to V, me and some of my other Indian friends whom have been stopped do dress differently. But you won’t find any Indian gangster dressed like us. Even they look at us and don’t seem too thrilled that we are as outstanding as we are and hence, seem to be in competition with them for public prominence. So when the police stop us, they know this as well. I’d put it down to a situation not dissimilar to that of the Afro-Americans and Latinos in their ‘Zoot suits’ back in the 60s and before that. As so-called 2nd class citizens, they are expected to be keep in their less prominent place, and not stand out, or risk harassment by the police. Even members of their own race might harass them to make up for their own feelings of inferiority relative to the dominant race. The same thing is going on here in singapore, with harassment of minorities by the police of other and their own races. It is corollary of racism-cum-aversion to difference culture of the state.

Any ‘spot-check’ can be subject to allegations of racist intent, or a gangster-like aversion amongst police officers to other’s being confident and individualistically-attired. After all, even in the working and social arena, such people are deemed to be ‘arrogant’. And the chinese do have a saying that goes, ‘if a nail sticks out, bang it in’. It is, hence, not surprising that it an ultra-conformist orwellian-like confucian state, difference if going to be battered down, cast aside, ignored, passed over for job opportunities and promotions, and harassed at all levels of society. In the absence of any valid reason, the claim that it is, ‘just a routine check sir’, can serve as carte blanche to all police officers to effect their own prejudicial agenda. In a racially self-absorbed, xenophobic, state like singapore, that allegation becomes all the more plausible. And given the host of stories i’ve heard from my other indians friends, it becomes plausible to the point of certainty.

When i asked V why she wouldn’t mind relocating back to singapore and asia for work, she said,

“I can have opportunities which you can’t have, i don’t have to be checked by the police because i’m not different and i’m not Indian......so i understand why you hate this country and want to stay in the UK....because you are respected there for what you are, but harassed here by these people for not being chinese....”

ed

Hong Kongers getting stupidly xenophobic about Mainlanders

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:25:00 +0000

“A group of Hong Kong residents have placed an advertisement in a popular tabloid calling people from mainland China ''locusts''.

The full-page advertisement in Apple Daily was funded by donations from a web-based group.
The term is an insult commonly used on the web by some of the city's residents to refer to mainlanders.

It comes as tensions escalate in Hong Kong over China's increasing influence and the influx of mainland visitors.

The advert, which warned of possible social conflict, contained lines such as "Hong Kongers have had enough!" and "This city is dying, you know?".

The donors, who raised more than HK$100,000 ($13,000, £8,200) for the advertisement in less than a week, also called for the government to stop the ''unlimited infiltration'' of mainlanders.

"Why are mainland mothers flooding in to take up resources in public hospitals, getting our benefits and social welfare?'' one of the organisers of the campaign told the South China Morning Post newspaper.

''Why do mainlanders... refuse to follow our rules and order? We can't accept that," said the man, who used the alias ''Yung Jhon......

The ''locusts'' advertisement follows recent controversial remarks made by Peking University professor Kong Qingdong.

He called Hong Kongers "bastards" and "running dogs of the British government" when commenting on an earlier incident in which a mainland Chinese girl was reportedly told off by locals for eating on a Hong Kong train." - bbc

Hmm...the above news is reminiscent of so-called ‘native-born’ singaporean approach toward foreigners isn’t it.

Poor, poor Chinese mainlanders. They, seeking a better life, go on to Hong Kong to give birth or work, and get treated like 2nd class citizens. I didn’t see the Hong Kongers distancing themselves from the glories of the China-held olympics not too long ago, so why this ‘us vs. them’ approach toward their brethren across the border? When the mainland plate is full, the Hong Kongers indulge. When it is the inverse, the mainlanders are called ‘locusts’. For goodness sakes.

Resources can’t be considered ‘scarce’ until there is an equal division of the fruits of everyone’s labour Those Hong Kongers whom are part of this 'anti-locust' movement should shut up, sit down, and ask if there are truly any significant differences between them and their mainland brethren. Don’t they realise that being xenophobic is one of the key factors that unites them - given China’s relatively sheltered history and their being trained to shun difference in favour of traditonal looks/cultures/cuisine/language/etc.

As for the poor Chinese girl who was told off for eating in the train, Hong Kongers should realise that the reason why there is a proscription on conspicuous consumption on trains is not because it is a bad thing in itself, but because Hong Kongers can’t be relied on to keep the trains clean if they are allowed to do so. Why assume the worst in people without attempting to bring out the best in people? Not surprisingly, singapore, another unfortunately multicultural-turned-confucian state, shares the same perspective. Think we need more multiculturalism in this region, and with a healthy influx of anglo-indians (culturally speaking, not racially) as well.

Finally,

When you look at the picture of the woman with the poster in the picture - look closely - you’ll see, ‘Safeguard Scarce Public Resources ≠ (is not equal to) Discrimination. In other words, they are saying that they are just focused on keeping scarce public resources for the Hong Kongers, and not necessarily because they don’t like Chinese mainlanders. It is supposed to be a ‘pragmatic’ thing, not a xenophobic one.

We can’t afford to feed you because we need to feed our rich”, is what they are basically saying.In essence, what these silly people are attempting to do is to maintain their upper classes, and hence, aren’t able to afford the influx of Chinese mainlanders. Resources can’t be considered ‘scarce’ until there is an equal division of the fruits of everyone’s labour (take that as another one of ‘ed’s laws’). Till this is true, all fuss created over the influx of mainlanders, or ‘foreigners’ in singapore, is nothing but an attempt, albeit unwitting, to maintain the inequitable status quo which have become accustomed to and developed ways of coping with - and which is hidden behind the sacrosanct term of ‘culture’. So you could say, as far as the scarcity of resources go, that these Hong Kongers whom are against the influx of Chinese mainlanders, are against their because they’d rather reserve their resources for Jackie Chan, other silly ‘celebs’, their capitalists, and leaders. “We can’t afford to feed you because we need to feed our rich”, is what they are basically saying. Silly people.

Sg PM Lee Hsien Loong: Being poor in singapore is better than being poor elsewhere

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:14:00 +0000

The exact statement being,

‘If you’re poor in Singapore, it’s no fun, but i think you’re less badly off than in any other country in the world.’ - todayonline

Well, well, well. Before kicking up a fuss about such statements, i would direct the people to think about how they’ve exhibited enough stupidity for their leaders to not shy from making such statements.

It’s not like their leaders, from PM Lee Kuan Yew (Lee Hsien Loong’s father) to PM Goh Chok Tong (the interim PM before the former’s son ascended the throne, haven’t been coming out with such priceless gems of wisdom through the decades. As the old adage goes, ‘every people deserve the government they get’. You can be sure that Cameron, however much of a git i think he is, would never dare come up with such statements given the intelligence of the British public.

But then, if one was astute enough (implying that the ed is;), one would realise that what LHL is saying is true. Yes mate. True, Truey, True, True. Haven’t you forgotten the oft-heard Chinese statement, stated in the face of socio-political-economic evils, ‘It’s like that one lah’, or, ‘everywhere in the world also like that one lah’. (i’m not trying to ‘arrow’ the chinese here, but in my decades-old experience, it is a statement i’ve heard many chinese make often enough....though lately, i’m beginning to hear the non-chinese make it as well. But we have to respect the origins of such statements so that we might give credit where it is due in respect of Intellectual Property and all that.) If one was to trace the lineage of such a perspective, you would find it’s origins in the 2 millennia-old Legalist-Confucian ideology (that has unfortunately ruled, oppressed, and underdeveloped the Chinese people) that basically discourages the people from counterfactual thinking in the face of governmental pronouncements, traditions, culture, the weather, etc.

ignorance may be bliss, but it doesn’t absolve you of the consequences of your ignorance. But if you can attribute said consequences to factors other than ignorance or socio-political injustice, you can be blissful despite being as hungry as your counterparts in foreign climes. You cannot underestimate the value of the aforementioned statements. It enables one to move from thought to action very quickly. And by ‘action’, i mean, not fussing about things you can’t change and just working hard (that’s another thing i’ve often heard quite a few chinese say). That is why, i have to say that the Chinese certainly deserve the credit of coming up with highly innovative ways to make shit more palatable. I’m not being sarcastic here. If we were to apply this Chinese ‘pragmatism’ in situations where things truly can’t be changed despite all human efforts, we would be able to make life as easy as possible and the best of it within such immutable circumstances. In that sense, Chinese ‘pragmatism’ isn’t a bad thing at all. It is a great thing actually. And i can’t give that credit to any other culture to as great a degree as i can to the Chinese.

However, when you apply that approach in circumstances that can be changed, then, it just leads to governments/corporations laughing their way to the bank with your money - and making statements that imply, ‘it’s better to be poor in singapore than elsewhere’ - whilst the people, faced with increasing pressures, will have little choice but to become opportunistic toward each other, and become exceedingly self-absorbed and self-centred - as is the case in the singapore of today (and which might explain why the coffeeshop television at my coffeeshop is locked in to the chinese-language channel 8). That is the result of an upside-down logic that goes, ‘why fight that which you can’t change’, without making an effort to change it in the first place (i’ve heard quite a few chinese of all educational levels up to graduates making such statements. I wonder why they don’t make such statements when it comes to exams and say, ‘why study today if you can’t pass your exams in the future?’)

Over time, that sort of circumstances causes desperation to turn to greed. And Marx’s ‘social alienation’ becomes a reality. The problem with this ‘moving from thought to action quickly’ tendency, and stating, 'it's like that one lah' in the face of overarching evils is that overtime, it can breed in one a tendency to not think about solving overarching things and just focusing on coping with its consequences.

And it is exactly than tendency that adds truth to LHL’s statement that implies, ‘Being poor in singapore is better than being poor elsewhere’. Basically, with enough coping strategies, the cessation of counterfactual thinking, self-blame, and social apathy, the poor can have a better time despite being impoverished. That is how the poor are 'luckier' in singapore than elsewhere because they can blame their plight on an absence of luck and little besides.

Being Rich in Singapore is like having lots of Hell Money but no Life. Being Poor in singapore is like having little money, but still having as much life as the rich. I suppose that makes poverty more palatable in singapore than in other climes. If the poor can be forced to accept overarching evils as immutable, then they will be spending more time thinking about how to get themselves out of their poverty than demonstrating, striking, etc. They will even blame themselves for their poverty when their horse of choice and pick of numbers, doesn’t come in. They will tend to take pleasures in the exceedingly simple ‘pleasures’ of life, feeling extremely validated when some minister goes on a ‘walkabout’ and hands them ‘red packets’ once a year and a plastic bag of oranges. They are going to feel happier as well, and not feel constantly pissed off because they’ve yet to view injustice as ‘it’s like that one lorrr’, ‘it’s like that one lahhh’, and not forgetting, ‘it’s like that one leiiii’. Give them a cup of ‘teh siew tai’, a pack of ciggies, and 24hours of chinese programming at the local coffeeshop, and they’re in mind-numbing bliss.

That, dear people, is the (confucianised) singapore of today. And that is why, in a nutshell, oh, sorry, in a cockleshell, it certainly is better to be poor in singapore than elsewhere. If you think about it, the more one tries to get oneself out of poverty, the more one will also tend to blame oneself for one’s poverty. Some may succeed in doing so, but it will simply cause others whom don’t succeed to blame themselves. (you can take that as another one of ‘ed’s laws’) Singapore, as is the case in Confucian and Advanced Capitalist states (like the ‘greatest nation on earth’, the U.S. of A), have cultures that are well-designed to promote not only self-reliance, but self-blame as well.

But, says ed,

...as i’ve stated quite a few times to those whom have had the sense to listen and consider, ‘ignorance may be bliss, but it doesn’t absolve you of the consequences of your ignorance.’ But if you can attribute said consequences to factors other than ignorance or socio-political injustice, you can be blissful despite being equally hungry as your counterparts in foreign climes.

..returning to what dear LHL said, for the sake of accuracy, he ought to have just said, ‘Being poor in singapore is better for the rich than elsewhere.’
Being Rich in Singapore is like having lots of Hell Money but no Life. Just as, being in Poor in singapore is like having little money, but still having as much life as the rich.

....is basically what i said to V (chinese girl from singapore working in the UK, and with whom i’m living), when she told me about an offer she had in Asia which would amount to about close to 3 times the salary she draws in the UK. In the UK, we might be relatively ‘poor’, but it reeks of empathy, curiosity in the face of difference, creativity, wit, and intelligence - which is what makes a human a human. But in singapore, it’s like living in the land of the dead whom have coins over their eyes and mouths as is the practice in funeral rituals in some cultures. You can have lots of money in singapore, but, you can only shop, eat, and gamble with it. Perhaps that’s why chinese funerals, when the family can afford it (like my late Chinese father-in-law) is so elaborate. They are hoping that they’d finally be able to give their loved ones the pleasures they deserve by burning them helicopters, branded handbags, and mansions......which, in this life, is reserved for their exploiters. Strange isn’t it. But that's what enables them, i suppose, to put with that which the poor and empathetic elsewhere might kick up a fuss over.

But returning to what LHL said, for the sake of accuracy, he ought to have just said, ‘Being poor in singapore is better for the rich than elsewhere.’

[updated] Bicycle Light: The edScope...in pictures

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Edison 6w LED MR16 bulb (neutral white - 5000kelvin). Comprises 3 2W LEDs...just arrived by post this morning

using a velcro adjustable bicycle handlebar mount made for conventional hand-held torches

My aim was to come up with the simplest, cheapest, DIY design that required no soldering, no drilling, and takes about 5 minutes to assemble by anyone, and requiring just about no electrical knowledge. I also wanted it to be easily taken apart and put in another housing if one just felt like a change in housing colour to match one's mood;), or if the housing got damaged in anyway. The housing-change takes less time as it is just a matter of unscrewing the cap, pulling everything out as one piece, and sticking it in another housing.

One of the reasons why i opted for this open-ended (the other end of the housing is open) curved design was for ventilation purposes as bulb-life can be compromised by all-round enclosure. Additionally, the bottom-side being open enabled me to stick a switch just inside the enclosure, thus taking away the need to drill a hole for it, and it shelters the switch from downpours as well.

As for ventilation of the bulb, the bulb has holes in it in the front, so the airflow through the bulb whilst cycling will mean that the cold air will rush in from the front, and the heat will be pushed out the bottom end.

The downside of this design is that if it rains, the water can get in through these holes as well. This, however, can easily be addressed to a significant extent by cutting out a transparent transparency and sticking it on the front over the bulb before screwing the cap on. When you choose a bulb, try to get those whose holes do now allow water to get in directly into the bulb itself. I'm currently using a bulb which has holes on the outer edge of the bulb for the purpose of cooling the bulb's exterior. To increase its water resistance, all i have to do is to seal off the upper half of the bulb. If water gets in through the lower half of the bulb, it will just flow down the pipe and out the other end.

The total cost, excluding the bulb and batteries amounts to £8.50, which includes 20% VAT (tax). You might be able to get the parts cheaper elsewhere.

With the 'edscope', amongst other homemade bike lights out there, it is no more about the torch. It's about the bulb. It's not going to be a case of losing the whole torch if the bulb blows, or buying another torch because it is brighter than the one you have. When you think about it, and do research on LED light bulbs and parts, you're going to realise that when you fork out a few hundred bucks or quid for a 'wow! so bright!' bike light, you're actually paying about a tenner for the light, and $290 for the housing. Ripoff ain't it. Ignorance maketh the fool. People are going to get the impression that you have to pay more for quality without realising that the false association between 'quality' and 'high price' just means that you're playing into the hands of the profit-greedy out there. That just make the high-priced brands that you proudly sport, not only a free advertisement for the company, but of your own ignorance.

With these DIY bike lights, as stated, it is all about the bulb. Find a better bulb, just do a switch. All this, 'my torch is better than yours' only serves to enrich those profit-greedy 'branded' bike light manufacturers out there, and pits us against each other. I'm into collaboration. Not competition - hence my socialist/communist approach toward life. I could easily make this light more complex so that i can sell it. But i chose to simplify it to the point that people can say, 'why would i want to buy it from ed when i can make it myself?' Exactly.

That's it. The 'edScope' is done. Just need to stick the battery pack into a 'tri bag' on the top frame. I'll do a pictorial and video tutorial on the construction of it soon.

ed

eds Backalley Band: REM

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Malcolm X and other stuff

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:07:00 +0000

Wikipedia’s ‘pro-piracy’ 24hr shutdown. Good or Bad.

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:07:00 +0000

Wikipedia has taken its English-language site offline as part of protests against proposed anti-piracy laws in the US.

Users attempting to access the site see a black screen and a political statement: "Imagine a world without free knowledge."

The site's founder, Jimmy Wales, told the BBC: "Proponents of Sopa have characterised the opposition as being people who want to enable piracy or defend piracy".

"But that's not really the point. The point is the bill is so over broad and so badly written that it's going to impact all kinds of things that, you know, don't have anything to do with stopping piracy." - bbc

"But that's not really the point. The point is the bill is so over broad and so badly written that it's going to impact all kinds of things that, you know, don't have anything to do with stopping piracy."

Yes, but Wikipedia et al’s move, if it works, is still going to leave the door open to piracy isn’t it. Their approach basically lets off 10 guilty for the sake of 90 innocents. Well, not bad. I’d go for that.

But let’s think about it a little further.

the existence of non-corporate piracy serves to supply the global populace the stimulus to question the terms and conditions of piracy lest its absence only serve to enable a few to monopolise it and render it virtuous.Imagine if the u.s. - the champion of capitalism and ‘democracy’, aka, global exploitation and the freedom to do unto others what they wouldn’t want others to do unto them - was to have its way. What then. Piracy sites would be blocked. Good thing. Certainly. For those who want their profits uncompromised, and their greed unquestioned.

For instance, think about ‘wave’ music files being made available by pirates out there for free, whilst Amazon provides low quality mp3 files for purchase and download. My point is, piracy out there basically keeps alive one’s incredulity in the face of corporate piracy. Without the existence of black, white can put itself across as black. Without piracy, corporate piracy will never be appreciated for what it is.

For instance, i’ve seen, on the net, people stating, ‘hey! if piracy is affecting industries big time, then why is it that corporations can still rake in millions and billions?!’

or,

‘What the &%$#! Why the hell is a bimbo like ‘Lady Gaga, singing shit songs making millions and millions whilst people are dying worldwide from hunger and disease.’

or,

‘Should these musicians, actors, movie directors, etc, be paid so much when all they’re providing is entertainment’?

or, as the ed stated some time back....

“what’s all this bollocks about IP? When members of a ‘work improvement team’ or other staff in a company get fired, do they get paid royalties for their past efforts which is still producing wealth for the company and its elite? This basically implies that o be honest where other’s have a legal right to be unjust, basically makes honesty an abettor of the latter.”

and it goes on and on and on.....

It’s the same ole thing. ‘Let him who has not sinned cast the first stone’, said JC a couple of thousand years ago. In this context, it is tantamount to defining sin in terms of whom is doing it, and not in terms of the sin itself.

In a nutshell, the existence of non-corporate piracy, whatever the intentions and aims of the pirates out there, serves to supply the global populace the stimulus to question the terms and conditions of piracy lest its absence only serve to enable a few to monopolise it and render it virtuous.

video: 'the edScope', homemade bicycle light prototype

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:26:00 +0000

Bicycle light: the edscope;)

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

As stated in a previous article (ed’s on sabbatical), a2ed is moving on from singaporean affairs to wider vistas, and also figuring out how to construct a bicycle light as cheaply as possible, making it bright enough to rival most of the overpriced ‘Cateye’ bike lights out there, and making it as simple as possible for anyone to replicate or take apart for simple repairs or part-replacement without compromising too much on aesthetics.

Well, it’s going on quite fine so far. Did quite a bit of research on the net on bicycle lights, the electrical stuff behind it - i.e. watts, volts, switches, battery holders, wiring, etc - my background in sociology/psychology/art/music/photography isn’t really relevant in the technical sense unfortunately;) Basically, what i ended up doing was to put together ideas from various tutorials, and come up with my own in the aesthetic and functional sense after considering and taking on the best of the ideas i’ve seen - that’s ‘progressive multiculturalism’ in essence;)

Unlike all the straight-design lights i’ve seen on the net, i opted for the 90º design so as to increase its waterproof quality, and to do away with the need to drill holes for switches - the switch would be internal and at the bottom, so all one has to do is to stick your finger in and click it on. Following on from this, i opted to keep the bottom open for ventilation purposes for the bulb. Perhaps I might drill an additional couple of holes just below the bulb (in the housing) so as to enable airflow from on end through to the other.

The 12v battery pack (10 AA sized rechargeable batteries) - which DIYers usually stick in a water bottle or pouch and hang it on their handlebar - i hope to velcro onto the housing itself (with heavy duty stick-on velcro)....see how that goes.....don’t know if that’s feasible yet. But if possible, it would add additional stability to the lightweight light and housing, along with making it simple to take the whole thing off the bicycle handlebar instead of fiddling with separate pouches.

As for the handlebar holder - to attach the light to the bicycle handlebar, i’m currently thinking of using a velcro bike mount and tying a longer velcro strip around the light to attach it to said bicycle handlebar. I’ll have to see how stable that might be before considering drilling options for other handlebar mounts.

With regards to the name, ‘the edscope’, it’s just a silly play on the term, ‘periscope’.

Anyway, still a bit of work to do. Will supply updates along the way. Gonna be fun figuring this out, given that i have bugger all experience and knowledge in this sort of thing.

ed

Why do well-off people shoplift?

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:20:00 +0000

“Chef Antony Worrall Thompson has apologised for shoplifting from a supermarket. But what makes people steal things when they have enough money to pay?

Worrall Thompson has apologised for his "stupid and irresponsible actions", after being cautioned by police for leaving a branch of Tesco without paying for small value items. He had reportedly done this on five separate occasions.

The 60-year-old has spoken of the shame of letting his family and friends down. The big question, he says, is "why".” - bbc

Well, that’s the heading of a BBC article that chanced across my attention today.

Off the top of my well-shaven head.....

Perhaps they can have anything they want because they have the ‘well-offness’ to do it. That takes the thrill out of acquiring something through the end-result of a month of minimum wage, and valuing it even more because of the effort taken to acquire the funds to get it.

we should pity the rich, or 'well-off'. They just need to be deprived off their penthouses for them to get a thrill out of purchases made through honest, hard, work.So if the rich can’t get a kick out of making a purchase via hard work, then i suppose, for some of them, the only way to get a kick out of the ‘hard work’ of shoplifting. The means via which they get said ‘kick’ changes, but the end-result is not too dissimilar is it. So, we should pity the rich, or 'well-off'. They just need to be deprived off their penthouses for them to get a thrill out of purchases made through honest, hard, work.

Of course, another take on it would be that given that the rich are used to making money off the backs of the minimum-wagers out there, they are just carrying on this tendency via shoplifting. The arena wherein this tendency is expressed daily changes, but the habit is not too dissimilar is it;)

The solution, get them to work for the money to get what they want, and then they might get enough thrill out of it and leave the shoplifting to the truly deprived.

As for the rest of the shoplifters out there, given that humanity is currently interned within a capitalist system where unrighteous acquisition is rendered righteous by it being lawful, generically, what this does is to hone the thieving instinct in most of humanity. As the (ed’s) saying goes, if you don’t take issue with evil, it can only mean that you aren’t that different.

music: The (truly) Golden Voice of Demis Roussos

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:36:00 +0000

(ed's comment, as posted and published in amazon.co.uk, The Golden Voice of Demis Roussos)

Considering my style and age (i'm an 80s bloke...and still am), people might wonder why i listen to Demis. To them, i'd say, "i don't listen to Demis, i feel with him. If it's good, it's good".

I'd describe Demis' voice, and fluctuating and passionate style of singing as nothing short of 'Heavenly'. The selection in this album is fantastic, or 'passionately soulful' to be more accurate. Every song take you on a journey to various and profound aspects of passion, love, and joy, and in effect brings you to greater heights with each song.

If i was a priest in the confessional, i'd recommend this over other traditional forms of penance;)The fantastic thing about the 70s is that music wasn't american-centred, and hence, the world got to enjoy musical perspectives and passion from a variety of climes. Hence, that makes it one of the best of times, and Demis, one of the best musicians/singers of a pretty much celestial category. I actually have the record/vinyl which is a few decades old, but not having access to a turntable, yet, i was thrilled to find the identical album in CD form - and which all the more makes me want to get a turntable soon (nothing beats the vinyl, scratchs, pops, clicks, and all)

If i was a priest in the confessional, i'd recommend this over other traditional forms of penance;)

ed's on 'Sabbatical'

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:36:00 +0000

I'm on a sort of 'sabbatical' at present. Leaving behind singaporean affairs and moving on to other matters.

I've always thought that focusing on the aforementioned affairs tends to dumb one down after a bit as it does not provide enough problems and perspectives which can enable the maximal development of one's perspectival potential. Well, if you focus your intelligence and potentials on to fixing children’s rattles, you’re never going to explore greater realms of inquiry are you.

Well, from hereon, it’s on to that which strains the brain beyond the fetters of the familiar and relatively superficial. This site will still continue to bang on about British affairs though, as it’s problems are of a more spectral variety, whilst focusing on general socio-cultural-philosophical affairs that has dogged the interest of the greatest minds in human history....along with continuing my interest in art, photography, music composition, and most recently, building a homemade high-lumens bicycle light;)

It's a 'calling' i suppose. If you feel inclined to go beyond the familiar and popular, it's your destiny to do so.

The Meaning of Christmas, and A Merry Christmas to All

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:59:00 +0000

Merry Christmas, not, 'Happy Holidays', or 'Happy Break from Work and sleep till noon'.

A Merry, 'Love thy Neighbour as thyself' Day that serves as a resolution for the countdown to the next Christmas that might, hence, make that a day where we celebrate our being a living illustration of that Ideal.It's a celebration of an Ideal, as espoused in Christ's 13th Commandment, 'Love thy Neighbour as thyself'. It's a celebration of the birthday of the one who was born out of, and for, Love, for humanity, with empathy, and with humility - which makes it just about one of the most significant of Socialist statements in human history. It matters not whether you believe He is the 'Son of God', or 'just a Prophet', or 'just a bloke'. It matters not if you believe that it was an Immaculate Conception, or if God exists, of if the birth of Christ was on the 25th of December or January the 6th. What matters, as I stated, is the Ideal.

That's what Christmas is all about, not just a celebration of the birth of this 'bloke', but an appreciation of the Ideal, and in our appreciation of it, so long as it is not drowned out by too much booze and partying, an internalisation of it that mightst turn the rest of the days of the year into mini Christmases.

It is not a day of compensation, where we make up for our self-interested behaviour throughout the year by tossing a shop-wrapped present beneath the tree of another, and hence, purchasing another year's of the other tolerating our self-interested behaviour and vice versa. It is a day of resolution, where, in our gift-giving, we resolve to make it the first of many presents for the rest of the year in our thoughts, words, and deeds to those we can hence truly view ourselves as friends off.....in love, humanity, empathy, and with humility, and as a stepping stone, to exhibiting it towards all humanity regardless of illusory borders of race, culture, nationality, gender, age, and et cetera.

So, with that thought in mind, I wish all a Merry Christmas. A Merry, 'Love thy Neighbour as thyself' Day that serves as a resolution for the countdown to the next Christmas that might, hence, make that a day where we celebrate our being a living illustration of that Ideal.

Amen.

Christmas & the Art of Gift-Giving

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Throughout the year, humans exist largely as ‘employees’.

This means that people generally engage in those characteristics that make us ‘human’, such as listening, acting on, exhibiting interest, exercising imagination, interacting meaningfully and striving aspirationally solely at work. Everything else is generally ‘compensatory’ or ‘recuperative’. That is, they do what they do outside of work not because it is an avenue via which they express themselves – or other aspects of their personas – but simply because it helps them to recuperate from the myriad of maladies they suffer as a consequence of their absorption within the work environment. Hence, social life is reduced to the status of a reservoir from which they drink in order to be rejuvenated for work. In other words, life becomes little more than a means to work as opposed to the inverse.

Christmas,

amongst others, however, demands that life, excluding ‘work’, be validated. It demands that humans be validated as entities of multitudinous potentials and sigificance instead of merely diminutive ‘employees’. This it does, amongst others, through the act of gift-giving. In the act of giving a gift, we have the opportunity to practice in the social arena that which we have throughout the year confined to the self-nullifying ‘work environment’ – validating the significance of an individual as a unique human being and a human being as an unique individual.

The art of gift-giving practices us in doing what we do at work, outside work. In other words, it demands, ideally, that we consider what a person likes; which in turn requires us to consider what the person is; which in turn requires that we have exhibited the requisite interest in the person prior to Christmas; which in turn requires that we have extended the requisite ‘ear-time’ to the person. This in turn will lead us to not only giving the person what s/he likes but what will develop her/him further in the course of the year as a 'full-of-potential' human being. Via such gifts, we validate them as human beings and as individuals. It requires that we put together all their whines, moans, wishes and musings transmitted in the course of the year in order to come up with the right gift.

This basically amounts to us having treated the person as more than just a ‘quick-fix’ - like the daily morning dose of caffeine - to making ourselves feel good/satisfying our own needs and rejuvenating us before plunging into work again. In other words, we must have been a true friend in the altruistic sense of the word.

We’ve often heard the phrase,

“Aiyah, this gal/guy is sooo difficult to buy gifts for…donno what s/he likes….stress lah! Let’s go for a mocha/lai sio hoonkee.”

This usually means that this person has spent much of the year paying attention and showing interest mainly at work and giving ‘the boss’ what s/he wants. They hang on to the boss’s every word and directive and deliver accordingly and on time. But when it comes to their ‘friend’/‘spouse’/‘family’, it is the inverse. Thus, the “Aiyah, this gal/guy is sooo difficult to buy gifts for……”, line.

This is when ‘ang pows’, ‘perfumes’, ‘ties’, ‘socks’, ‘handkerchiefs’, the latest knicks and knacks which is supposed to be “…very popular because everyone also buy” ‘etc’, are given.

“Aiyah, never mind lah…this kind of thing everyone surely want what!”

Hence, the dearly beloved spouse, friend, sibling, family-member, becomes an ‘everyone’ instead of an individual with her/his own personality. It’s difficult to think what this person might want because we have rarely paid any attention to what the person is, her hates and likes, her aspirations and inclinations throughout what then becomes the void between one Christmas and the next. And by such nonchalance, we actually under validate and thus underdevelop our friends, etc, as individuals by not validating their unique personalities prior to and during Christmas. And by such nonchalance, we further destroy any semblance of non-employee humanity within ourselves as we give up yet another chance to practice our humanity via a thoughtful practice of the Art of Gift-Giving.

So, when you get stressed out thinking of a gift for someone dear this Christmas,

remember, that can only be due to your not having given this significant other the requisite ear-time, or ‘friend-time’, in the course of the year – something which you have been devoutly giving your boss during the same time. It is because the siginificant other has been serving as little more than a panacea to the stresses accumulated via work. It is because the significant other has been used as nothing more than a sticky pad for muscle aches induced by the multitude of back-breaking postures you have been forced to get into between 9 to 5 that it has become so difficult to think up the right present for her/him. And yet, if you think about it, the more meaningful and less exploitative your relationships are outside work, the better you’ll be able to cope at work. So, appreciate the hassle of thinking up what you ought to buy a significant other this Christmas, for this indicates the deficiencies in your attitude towards relationships whilst simultaneously exposing those areas that ought to be improved upon in the course of what may consequently cease to be a void till the next Christmas.

When we consider the above, we'll realise that The Art of Gift-Giving practices us in the even finer Art of Being Human.

Merry Christmas to All!

[The above article was first published in 2006 by ed at a previous and now defunct site - gadgit.vox.com.]

Legal Music Downloads is Piracy

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

video: 'How to centre your bicycle torch', by ed

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

torch: ultrafire 501b 330 lumens.

mount: universal adjustable bike mount,

purchased from: lumenjunkies.co.uk - they do international shipping (no. i'm not in their employ, or receiving commission, in case you're wondering)

ed

art: R 20:3

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

[click image for larger view]

U.S. Buggers off from Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:24:00 +0000

“The flag of American forces in Iraq has been lowered in Baghdad, bringing nearly nine years of US military operations in Iraq to a formal end.
The US Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, told troops that the mission had been worth the cost in blood and dollars.” - bbc

ed’s comments beneath the excerpted bbc article,

215.

'Worth the cost in blood and dollars'? Does that include Iraqi blood as well, and the blood of close to half a million children whom died prior to 119 due to u.s. embargoes? (and which Madeline Albright stated was 'worth the price') - and which might have contributed to the 119 retaliatory attacks. Worth the dollars? I'm sure, since it is going to rake in much more.

America. Sheesh.

245.

U.S. interests are served by keeping regions that aren't kow-towing to them unstable. If they don't succeed in installing their puppets, they'd leave them unstable. Either way, America gains. And it is not that their colonial outpost - 'Israel' - isn't serving its function in keeping the Saracens in line either. The Ams just step in whenever more muscle is needed to maintain their hegemony.

256.

For those talking about the genocides that were taking place in Iraq, this was going on since Reagan times. They just needed enough self-interest to go in, and of course, the Kurds were a good justification, in the eyes of the easily -led. And don't forget who put Saddam in power and gave him his chemical weapons. The U.S. creates problems to profit from it later.

Why ed prefers Cream to Clapton

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:07:00 +0000

I prefer Cream to Clapton as the former had the psychedelic spirit, which, in its aesthetic sense, attempt to go beyond the realms of the norm and popular.

Cream, amongst others of that era, had it. Clapton, thereafter, didn't. He was sucked into the pop and mundane - ‘You look wonderful tonight’....what kind of soppy whiny crap is that, compared to ‘mind-expanding, Tales of Brave Ulysses’. The former just focuses on the microcosm of reality - romantic relationships, infatuation, etc, - whereas the latter takes on the microcosm of reality and renders its boundaries elastic. I suppose when the 'hippie' era passed away, it's spirit took refuge in myself.

To be suckered into 'fanhood' is to become a victim of the times, as opposed to having discerning taste when it comes to a choice between times.Hence, i'm no fan of no band, only the spirit of a worthwhile era. That (psychedelic) spirit always exists, but it doesn't rest permanently on anyone. It's like a butterfly that flits from one petal to another, and the true artist chases it wherever it wanders, and s/he's not distracted by where it lands but where it goes. And in that, the chaser becomes the butterfly itself. S/he becomes psychedelia herself. To be suckered into 'fanhood' is to become a victim of the times, as opposed to having discerning taste when it comes to a choice between times.

If you think about it, the way psychedelic artists developed after the psychedelic era, and through them, how their ‘fans’ just followed them and undeveloped along with them, these ‘artistes’ underdeveloped their fans enough for them to not have the spirit to love their past works as much as their present.

So when ‘Cream’ came back to the Royal Albert Hall in 2005 to do the stuff they did back in the 1968 - a year before the ed took a mid-day flight into planet earth via the wormhole of the universal spirit of femininity - you could say that they were actually doing a ‘cover version’ of another band, because they weren’t now, as they were then.

product review: Rido R-Lt bicycle saddle

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:05:00 +0000

The Rido R-Lt saddle sure is efficient in design, and sleek and stylish in design, but, unfortunately, it is certainly not really for MTB use despite what the manufacturers have to say about it being for 'serious mountain biking' as well.

Perhaps they assume that 'serious mountain bikers' won't be sitting most of the time, or have had their butts numbed from all the bumping that they might be accustomed to, to the point that they wouldn’t notice that the Rido R-Lt basically has two pretty sharp points sticking into your sit bones - and hence putting you at risk of having an unwanted anal intrusion if you were to shift left or right.

I tested out this saddle and found that it was certainly a comfortable saddle - whenever i leaned forward and downward as if on a racer (people call racers, ‘road bikes’, these days...don’t know why. Didn’t the old term work?)

In a personal email (see below), they said that it can be used for MTBs, but perhaps they meant, 'so long as you're not sitting in an upright position'. In another part of the Rido website, it is stated quite clearly that it is designed for the 'aero position'. Nice little contradiction. I suppose it could be used on an MTB if i was to replace the MTB handlebar with a racer handlebar, or my slim butt with an amply filled one. Waste of time, and money in terms of the postage cost for sending it back. Gave me a right royal butt-ache for a day as well.

the contradiction [click for larger view]

image on the left source
grey image on the right from Rido PDF here

email exchange between Rido and the ed,

______________________

Hi,

I'm thinking of purchasing the Rido RLt for my boardman MTB. Would it be suitable?

Thank you,

ed

______________________

Hi Ed. Thanks for your enquiry.

If you're looking for a firm, slender, lightweight saddle that will give you lift off the perineum, enable you to apply more power through the cranks when sitting, give you good saddle location, whilst at the same time allowing you to slide off the back with ease, then the RLt is the saddle for you..

If you want something more 'cushy', chunky and wider then the R2 is the one.

All the best,

xyz
Rido Sport

(if you noticed, the bloke didn’t answer the question)

______________________

Hi xyz,

Thanks for your reply. The reason why i had my doubts was because it is said at your site that it is made for those whom are adopting the 'aero-position' on their bikes. Hence, i thought it was unsuitable for mountain bikes. I'll take it, from your reply, that it is suitable for MTBs as well then.

Thanks again,

ed

______________________

Yes, that's fine.

xyz
Rido Sport

______________________

ed's review on SJScycles

The Rape of Nanjing vs The Rape of China

noreply@blogger.com (ed) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:34:00 +0000

Christian Bale defends 'Rape of Nanjing' film

“Actor Christian Bale has defended his role in a Chinese-language film portraying the 1937 massacre of Chinese by Japan's imperial army in Nanjing.

Critics say the film is nationalistic and anti-Japanese, but Bale says the film is not Chinese propaganda.

"It's far more a movie about human beings and the nature of human beings' responses to crisis," he said.

The film, The Flowers of War, will be released across China on Friday and in the US in late December.

Criticism

This year China has released several big-budget epics with strong patriotic themes.
The films have coincided with a slew of major anniversaries, such as the Communist Party marking 90 years since its foundation.

And Chinese officials have encouraged film-makers to push China's message to the world.
But Bale, who last year won an Oscar for his role in The Fighter, dismissed criticism of the film.

He said it was a historical piece, and anyone describing it as propaganda was not looking at it closely enough.

He told reporters it was an exploration of how a crisis "can reduce people to the most animalistic behaviour but also raise them up to the most honourable behaviour you could ever witness".

The Nanjing massacre, which is also called the Rape of Nanjing, is one of the most notorious episodes of Japan's invasion and occupation of China.

Some 140,000 Chinese were slaughtered, according to international observers, although Chinese historians put the figure much higher.

For many Chinese, the apologies offered by Japan have never been enough, and the event still tarnishes relations between the countries.”

The 'Rape of Nanjing' was truly a horrendous event in human history.

But one also has to note that far more Chinese were killed by Chinese emperors than were killed by the Japanese.

That's the funny thing about nationalism and patriotism. It is sort of carte blanche to local authorities to do as they will to 'their own' but do so with more impunity because they can rely on the murderous actions of 'foreigner's' on local soil to wash away the blood-stained crimes of their own 'native' overlords.

One of ‘ed’s laws’ is this. The more you accept homegrown evils for their being homegrown, the more you’re gonna take it out on those whom aren’t’. You can call it the ‘physics of human relationships’.In that sense, you can call this movie a 'propaganda' film that serves to continually divert the attention of the Chinese people from their own homegrown and native evils.

(Well, Christian Bale, after all, is just an actor. Hence, he wouldn’t be smart enough to realise these things....which makes me wonder why the people pay these gits as much as they do.)

So it appears that ‘the apologies offered by Japan have never been enough.’ Perhaps the Chinese people, subconsciously, realise that whatever the Japanese have to offer by way of apology and recompense, it would not be enough to make them feel better given that the wounds suffered by them in its entirety includes those inflicted by their own overlords.  

If you think about it, sometimes when we get pissed off with ill-treatment of one person, it is not because of what that person alone has done unto us, but the evils we have had to suffer from many others whom we have excused because they are ‘family’, ‘friends’, ‘compatriots’, etc. It is the suffering that comes from accepted evils that makes unacceptable ones even more unacceptable.

The problem with a people perspectivally afflicted in such a manner is that the consequences of their accepting local evils for their being local just means that the seething anger and malice built up over the millennia, might just lead to their taking it out on others, or/and, not minding it when their government acts similarly against others (like China did and does to Tibet) - just as they demand more recompense from foreigners for doing unto them that which their own ‘native-born’ compatriots have bettered by far worse.

One of ‘ed’s laws’ is this. The more you accept homegrown evils for their being homegrown, the more you’re gonna take it out on those whom aren’t (homegrown)’. You can call it the ‘physics of human relationships’.

Go think about that.