Not Good Enough for Singapore

In 1994, the brains in Mindef decided that the name 'reservist' was not suitable for us because it presented a 'psychological barrier' by suggesting that when a soldier completes his full time national service and goes into 'reserve' he is mentally not ready to be called up for action at short notice. Hence, we adopted the new name called ‘Operationally Ready NSmen'. Quite a mouthful isn't it?

I have always considered that line of reasoning a bit silly. If this logic is correct, then Israel, the country that first helped us to start our armed forces is in big trouble. In the past few weeks, they have been calling up their supposedly operationally-not-so-ready reservists to go into battle against the Hezbollah in Lebanon.


A Straits Times article of 8 August 2006

Anyhow, this is not the purpose of my post. I want to blog about the sad situation that Israel finds herself in today. In Singapore, we fathers tell NS stories to our sons. Over there, they tell real battle stories, and show real battle scars - that is if they make it back alive.

We should thank God that we have a good government here who have learned to live peacefully with our neighbours. What if we had some hot-tempered, fighting-cock type prime minister who responded tit-for-tat to the regular taunts of our closest neighbour's former prime minister who never tires of trying to pick a fight with us. Thankfully that megalomaniac has been replaced a gentleman; and a god-fearing one too.

May we never have to go the way of the Israelis.

A Simple Way to End All The Fighting in the Middle East

The best way to solve any problem is to get rid of the root of the problem. This past week, 2 wise men came up with the same answer;

First, famous film star and director, Mel Gibson declared that “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”

Then Iran’s President Ahmadinejad came up with the perfect answer - we should eliminate Israel.



Straits Times, Friday, August 4 2006

Problem is; who is going to hang the bell around the cat’s neck?

Simple, says Iran. Our brave brothers from Hezbollah and Hamas will take the lead. We of course will support them with all the missiles and money that they need. When the time is ripe, we will come in and finish the job.


** By the way, the solution President Ahmadinejad proposed is actually not new. Not so long ago, a man by the name of Adolf Hitler almost succeeded in implementing The Final Solution. But he died a lonely death. And today, his descendents do not even want to retain his name.

** A wise author once wrote: “There’s a reason why drunks in bars always get to talking sooner or later about elemental truths – love, family, death, politics, war and so forth. Alcohol cuts down to size the trivialities that loom so large to the sober mind.” In other words, when a man is drunk, the words he utters come straight from his heart and represents his true feelings and beliefs, which when sober, he is able to hide.

Words of Wisdom from a Chicken Rice Seller

Joan Teng, who helps out at her brother's chicken rice stall, wrote this letter to the TODAY on 3 Aug 2006.




"This perennial discussion about service is actually not about service; it is truly a reflection of how we Singaporeans treat each other every day."

The MSM Strikes Back

Last month, my favourite blogger Mr Wang, posted an article saying, The MSM Grows Nervous. Judging by the two lengthy articles that appeared in the Straits Times within a short span of 3 days, it appears that Mr Wang was right on target as usual. I think the MSM is more than nervous. They are probably angered by the many criticisms leveled against them by widely-read bloggers like Mr Wang. Just look at some of the unsavoury comments they used to label bloggers.


Article No. 1 by Sandra Leong, ST Life Section, July 30, 2006


“There are an estimated 50 million blogs out there in cyberspace now, and everyone of these bloggers has this aim: Read me. I want to be famous. The Age of Narcissism is well and truly upon us, but how healthy is it?”

“Welcome to the me-me-me world of blogging, but is it self-expression or self-indulgence?"

"Are bloggers becoming too narcissistic? Will all this self-publicity backfire? Isn't there something unhealthy about how people are so eager to share with the world every wart in their lives?"

"the excessive inward focus and self-indulgence of many bloggers is troubling" - Dr Mark Cenite, assistant professor at Nayang Technological University's school of Communication & Information.

Ironically, in the same report, there is news that the Ministry of Education - in conjunction with Singtel - will be organising an inter-school blogging contest next month. If blogging is such an unhealthy activity, why is the MOE promoting it? I hope our professional journalists will have the courage to write something to protest against this unwise move on the part of our government.


Article No. 2 by Senior Writer Andy Ho, August 2, 2006

"Some ask if bloggers are journalists at all or merely self-indulgent, opinionated folks expressing their views."

"Much of what bloggers offer is either misinformed, self-indulgent opinion or thoughtful but unargued ones."


Mr Andy Ho thinks that journalists do two things; (a) get the news and disseminate it accurately, and (b) analyse issues.

He believes that the professional journalist, “whose first obligation is to be accurate”, can do the former more effectively than the blogger, “whose first obligation is to be interesting”. Most bloggers do not generally report on something new. Typically, they report on what reporters have reported.

I think I can agree to a large extent with this last comment – but not the part about the obligations though.

Regarding the second role of fair comment, he thinks that: "Much of what bloggers offer is either misinformed, self-indulgent opinion or thoughtful but unargued ones." On this point, I disagree. I find that some bloggers like Mr Wang offer much more incisive and intelligent analyses than those of Straits Times journalists. Maybe their hands are tied somewhat for fear of offending the authorities. And, surprisingly, some of the part-time writers at TODAY seemed to write better than those at ST.

As for the lifestyle related articles, I find that many bloggers write more interesting and enjoyable articles than those in the Straits Times which tended to be too long and quite boring at times.

While I feel that it is too sweeping to say that all blogges are "self-indulgent " and “want to be famous”, I wouldn’t go so far as to dismiss the 2 articles as “ Silly Views”. But it really doesn't require the professional analytical skills of a mainstream journalist to see that the Straits Times is out to hang this label on all bloggers: SELF-INDULGENT.

Still, I think this is good time to reexamine my blog and see if its fits this unpleasant label. If it does, then perhaps it is time to call it a day, or at least scale down and concentrate more on my other blog, seeing that the signs of the Lord’s return multiply by the day.

Comic Relief

Singaporeans in general, and bloggers in particular should thank the ever-popular Mr Brown for his latest post containing a video clip from The Daily Show on the Mideast conflict).

At a time when 'happiness' surveys have repeatedly labelled us as an unhappy country, and young people talk openly about emigrating, (Examples here: My Lonely Stage, A Xeno Boy in Sg: Cost of Leaving in Singapore) Mr Brown's broadcast of the very funny video clip is really timely.

Comments like 'hilarious", "ROFLOL!!!", and "damn freaking funny" can be read in his blog.

But I should remind Singaporeans that we should not forget to thank Israel and the Hisbollah, as well as the Lebonese people without whom this funny show would not have been possible.

Vindicated

Many of the new PAP MP’s like this one should be happy to read the news reports concerning the passing of PAP stalwart Mr Lim Kim San.

I don’t mean of course that they are happy to read of the death of one of the ‘founding fathers of modern Singapore’; but rather what MM Lee Kuan Yew said concerning how Mr Lim was initially reluctant to enter politics because he was not a good speaker. Like many of these new MP’s, he too had to be persuaded to enter politics.

This is because many of the popular bloggers in Singapore liked to ridicule them by saying that since they had to be persuaded to enter politics, their commitment and sincerity is suspect. They can now point to the many achievements and contributions of this political giant to counter their detractors.

A Fool Never Learns

Full Article here

He should have listened to my advice and ‘shut up and move on’. Now that he has stirred up a hornet’s nest, and all the dirty linens and skeletons are going to come pouring out the closet, he going be stung for sure.

Even if he has never heard of my blog, certainly he could learn a lesson from this man. He was not content to quietly enjoy his outrageous S$600,000 a year salary and gold-plated taps, plus first class travel. Instead he tried to pick a fight with someone who could hit back, and today, he is ‘pierced with many sorrows’.

And even if he has not heard of the NKF Saga, certain he knows the old English proverb, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”.

Must We Wait For Another Tragedy?

When I posted my very first article in this blog, I highlighted the case of a Straits Times reader who wrote to the forum page complaining about numerous karaoke lounges and massage parlours that have opened in his neighbourhood in Joo Chiat. Everybody knows, he said, what really goes on behind the closed doors of these places. There had also been numerous newspaper reports about the problem of Chinese sex workers and Chinese ‘study mamas’. I have also seen 2 TV documentaries highlighting this problem. One was Get Real on Channel News Asia. The other was on Channel U.

Generally, one can conclude that this was a problem all Singaporeans knew about. The newspapers have reported several arrests and checks carried out by the police to tackle this sleaze problem. But by and large, the problem did not go away.

And then we have the sensational case involving the fatal stabbing of a Chinese masseuse in Ang Mo Kio two weeks ago. Again we find newspaper reports like this one - TODAY: Sleaze comes to the heartlands - appearing. This seemed to have worked finally. Overnight, it seems, laws were passed to regulate and control the operation of massage parlours and health centres. Last weekend, the police raided 129 massage parlours island-wide and numerous arrests were made.

Two questions come to mind.

1. Does it appear to you that our authorities like to wait until a high profile tragedy takes place before they will really take serious action to resolve a problem that many people already knew and complained about?

2. How long will the solutions mentioned above work before the situation regresses back to that before?

I am reminded of another similar problem – that of reckless driving and speeding by heavy vehicles on our highways.

Do you remember a high profile accident involving the death of the wife of one of our ministers-of-state some years ago? The accident took place near the Tuas checkpoint. Although the lorry driver was acquitted of any wrong doing, this case led to a number of bookings of speeding heavy vehicles. I recall that new regulations were passed requiring heavy vehicles to install speed-limiting devices. Not much have been heard about this issue since. Occasionally you still see someone writing to the press to complain about the problem of reckless driving involving heavy vehicles. It usually receives a standard reply from the traffic police accompanied by the usual statistics about the number of people caught speeding and so on.

I hate to say this. But I believe this is another tragedy that will be repeated before long.

Anyone who travels on our highways will know that the situation has not improved one bit. In fact, it appears to have worsened. Every time, I travel to Jurong Island, I cannot help thinking that one of these days, those speeding trucks with their loads of dangerous chemicals, are going to succeed in doing what our JI and Al Qaeda friends could not; that is to cause a disaster like the one caused by the speeding train in Spain just 2 days ago (ABC News: At Least 41 Killed in Spain Train Accident).

Maybe only then will we see some real action.