Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere, Anywhere, Here.

C'est La Vie

2009-12-28T23:44:00.005+04:00

Received SMS from Bernard that Adrian Lee is in coma after having a seizure in the sea.

The first question to come was of course, which Adrian is it?

And it took me 2 days to finally remember which Adrian he is.

Crap.

I mean we were same class during our Uni first year. What happened, such that i could not match a face to this name. The truth is that we drifted apart after first year due to RE/BU streaming.

But still, if i'm in SG, i would go and see him, maybe for the last time. We did have some fun times together then. He's a talkative guy who likes to debate and talk all sort of nonesense with me or anyone in general. The last time we spoke was on yahoo this year.

Hmm... feeling crappy now... Maybe subconsciously, i dun want want the name to be that of some one that i do know again? Trying to give myself an excuse? Maybe....

Nevertheless my dear Adrian, not sure when u will be leaving us. But just want u to know i dun regret knowing u. Cheers my friend. Be in peace.

Post note - 3 Jan 10: Go in peace my friend.

On Death

2009-11-06T13:49:00.002+04:00

Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream.
And scenes or bliss pass as a phantom by?
The transient pleastires as a vision seem
And yet we think the greatest pain's to die.
How strange it is that man on earth should roam
And lead a life of woe, but not forsake
His rugged path; nore dare he view alone
His future doom which is but to awake.

-John Keats (1814)

Some thoughts but too lazy

2009-10-23T16:32:00.000+04:00

Sometimes i wanted to write something here. But just too lazy to pen my thoughts down. Is this a sign of aging?

It is easier to put a line down at facebook these days.

Oh well. 随缘吧。

The Tao of Being Slow and Steady - Being Still

2009-07-27T19:50:00.008+04:00

Being human, we all have the tendency to do things fast so that we could go on to do more things. Or we tend to "multi-task" for the same reason. The underlying reason for our fast-paced life is to do more things so as to maximise our limited time on earth.

However in one's rush, human tends to make mistakes and waste more time instead. An oxymoron that one tends to forget sometimes.

Looking back to my own experience with Aikido and Taichi, these 2 counterintuitive arts teaches one to be slow and steady instead so that one could be faster in mastering them.

I was reminded of this principle again while i was drawing lines to cross out items on a list using an ink-based pen. Anyone using a normal ink-based pen would know that using one to draw a line can be irritating as the ink rarely flows evenly, especially when you trying to draw your line fast. To draw an even line, you would have to draw on your pen slowly with steady pressure.

This makes me ponder about the times of my life when mistakes are made. Most of them occur when i was rushing. Also, we are conditioned to be fast by this fast-paced society which demands speed and efficiency in all areas.

So how does being slow and steady makes one faster? By being efficient. Fast and Efficiency are not synomous bedfellows. More often than not, they are quite exclusive. One could always fast, but one is never always efficient; i.e mistakes. It is counterintuitive but it makes sense.

Does that mean one should do things slow all the time to achieve efficiency? The prinicple of Tao implies that being slow or fast is being relative. Being steady is the key to the speed in which one should move.

And how does one be steady?

By having a still mind. Having a still mind is like being at the centre of a vortex. Center/mind is calm while everything else moves around it.

Mind you, having a still mind is not easy. But one can start by being slow and steady, where eventually one will slow down and become still.

Dogville

2009-07-16T15:42:00.005+04:00

Was reading a review on Antichrist when i somehow wandered to the Wikipedia page on Dogville, which was by the same director. It was supposed to be a USA - Land of Opportunities trilogy of sorts but only got as far as the second installment "Manderlay"

Dogville seems like an interesting flim, althought the Antichrist got lambasted. Not sure about Manderlay though, as i never heard of it.

I particularly like this statement from the director:

According to von Trier, the point of the film is that "evil can arise anywhere, as long as the situation is right."

Hmm... Sounds about right. So what are the situations that Evil can arise easily?

Enforcing your own beliefs on others

Enforcing your own opinions without understanding the whole picture

Blind obedience

Protecting self interest
Emotions like vengeance, jealousy, anger, etc
anymore?

Do not go gentle into that good night

2009-07-07T10:41:00.004+04:00

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning
they Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

The Words of Jiddu Krishnamurti

2009-07-03T15:33:00.005+04:00

Extracted from Wikipedia.

"You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, 'What did that man pick up?' 'He picked up a piece of the truth,' said the devil. 'That is a very bad business for you, then,' said his friend. 'Oh, not at all,' the devil replied, 'I am going to help him organize it.'

I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular path."

"All authority of any kind, especially in the field of thought and understanding, is the most destructive, evil thing. Leaders destroy the followers and followers destroy the leaders. You have to be your own teacher and your own disciple. You have to question everything that man has accepted as valuable, as necessary."

" 'Truth is a pathless land'. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, nor through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation, and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection. Man has built in himself images as a sense of security—religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these dominates man's thinking, relationships and his daily life. These are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man in every relationship."

"...So, we are enquiring into what makes a bird. What is creation behind all this? Are you waiting for me to describe it, go into it? You want me to go into it? Why (From the audience: To understand what creation is[)]. Why do you ask that? Because I asked? No description can ever describe the origin. The origin is nameless; the origin is absolutely quiet, it's not whirring about making noise. Creation is something that is most holy, that's the most sacred thing in life, and if you have made a mess of your life, change it. Change it today, not tomorrow. If you are uncertain, find out why and be certain. If your thinking is not straight, think straight, logically. Unless all that is prepared, all that is settled, you can't enter into this world, into the world of creation."

"How is the mind which functions on knowledge – how is the brain which is recording all the time – to end, to see the importance of recording and not let it move in any other direction? Very simply: you insult me, you hurt me, by word, gesture, by an actual act; that leaves a mark on the brain which is memory. That memory is knowledge, that knowledge is going to interfere in my meeting you next time – obviously. ... Knowledge is necessary to act in the sense of my going home from here to the place I live; I must have knowledge for this; I must have knowledge to speak English; I must have knowledge to write a letter and so on. Knowledge as function, mechanical function, is necessary. Now if I use that knowledge in my relationship with you, another human being, I am bringing about a barrier, a division between you and me, namely the observer. That is, knowledge, in relationship, in human relationship, is destructive. That is knowledge which is the tradition, the memory, the image, which the mind has built about you, that knowledge is separative and therefore creates conflict in our relationship."

"The brain has been trained to record for in that recording there is safety, security, a sense of vitality; in that recording the mind creates the image about oneself. And that image will constantly get hurt. Is it possible to live without a single image about yourself, or about your husband, wife, children, or about the politicians, the priests, or about the ideal? It is possible, and if it is not found you will always be getting hurt, always living in a pattern in which there is no freedom. When you give complete attention there is no recording. It is only when there is inattention that you record. That is: you flatter me; I like it; the liking at that moment is inattention therefore recording takes place. But if when you flatter me I listen to it completely without any reaction, then there is no center which records."

"The brain is the source of thought. The brain is matter and thought is matter. Can the brain – with all its reactions and its immediate responses to every challenge and demand – can the brain be very still? It is not a question of ending thought, but of whether the brain can be completely still? This stillness is not physical death. See what happens when the brain is completely still."

“Fear is always in relation to something; it does not exist by itself. There is fear of what happened yesterday in relation to the possibility of its repetition tomorrow; there is always a fixed point from which relationship takes place. How does fear come into this? I had pain yesterday; there is the memory of it and I do not want it again tomorrow. Thinking about the pain of yesterday, thinking which involves the memory of yesterday’s pain, projects the fear of having pain again tomorrow. So it is thought that brings about fear. Thought breeds fear; thought also cultivates pleasure. To understand fear you must also understand pleasure – they are interrelated; without understanding one you cannot understand the other. This means that one cannot say ‘I must only have pleasure and no fear’; fear is the other side of the coin which is called pleasure.

Thinking with the images of yesterday’s pleasure, thought imagines that you may not have that pleasure tomorrow; so thought engenders fear. Thought tries to sustain pleasure and thereby nourishes fear.

Thought has separated itself as the analyzer and the thing to be analyzed; they are both parts of thought playing tricks upon itself. In doing all this it is refusing to examine the unconscious fears; it brings in time as a means of escaping fear and yet at the same time sustains fear.”

“A mind that is in meditation is concerned only with meditation, not with the meditator. The meditator is the observer, the senser, the thinker, the experiencer, and when there is the experiencer, the thinker, then he is concerned with reaching out, gaining, achieving, experiencing. And that thing which is timeless cannot be experienced. There is no experience at all. There is only that which is not nameable.”
“You know, in all this there are various powers like clairvoyance, reading somebody’s thought – which is the most disgusting thing to do: it is like reading letters that are private. There are various powers. You know what I am talking about, don’t you? You call them siddhis, don’t you? Do you know that all these things are like candles in the sun? When there is no sun there is darkness, and then the candle and the light of the candle become very important. But when there is the sun, the light, the beauty, the clarity, then all these powers, these siddhis – developing various centres, chakras, kundalini, you know all that business – are like candlelight; they have no value at all. And when you have that light, you don’t want anything else.”

"Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life-perhaps the greatest, and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody, that is the beauty of it. It has no technique and therefore no authority. When you learn about yourself, watch yourself, watch the way you walk, how you eat, what you say, the gossip, the hate, the jealousy-if you are aware of all that in yourself, without any choice, that is part of meditation."

“Man, in order to escape his conflicts, has invented many forms of meditation. These have been based on desire, will, and the urge for achievement, and imply conflict and a struggle to arrive. This conscious, deliberate striving is always within the limits of a conditioned mind, and in this there is no freedom. All effort to meditate is the denial of meditation. Meditation is the ending of thought. It is only then that there is a different dimension which is beyond time.”

“Meditation is the emptying of the mind of all thought, for thought and feeling dissipate energy. They are repetitive, producing mechanical activities which are a necessary part of existence. But they are only part, and thought and feeling cannot possibly enter into the immensity of life. Quite a different approach is necessary, not the path of habit, association and the known; there must be freedom from these. Meditation is the emptying of the mind of the known. It cannot be done by thought or by the hidden prompting of thought, nor by desire in the form of prayer, nor through the self-effacing hypnotism of words, images, hopes, and vanities. All these have to come to an end, easily, without effort and choice, in the flame of awareness.”

"If you are not at all concerned with the world but only with your personal salvation, following certain beliefs and superstitions, following gurus, then I am afraid it will be impossible for you and the speaker to communicate with each other. We are not concerned at all with private personal salvation but we are concerned, earnestly, seriously, with what the human mind has become, what humanity is facing. We are concerned at looking at this world and what a human being living in this world has to do, what is his role?"

“The present crisis is different because we are dealing not with money, not with tangible things but with ideas. The crisis is in the field of thought, of ideas, of intellect. Before, evil was recognized as evil, murder was recognized as murder, but now murder is a means to achieve a noble result. You justify the wrong means through the intellect. When intellect has the upper hand in human life, it brings an unprecedented crisis. The other cause of this unprecedented crisis is the extraordinary importance man is giving to sensate values - to property, to name, to caste, to country.”

It doesn't matter

2009-05-13T08:49:00.003+04:00

Saw this interesting article.

ON AGING.

Last year someone gave me a charming book by Roger Rosenblatt called ‘Ageing Gracefully’ I got it on my birthday. I did not appreciate the title at the time but it contains a series of rules for ageing gracefully. The first rule is the best. Rule number one is that ‘it doesn’t matter.’ ‘It doesn’t matter that what you think. Follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid. If you were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don’t get that promotion or prize or house or if you do – it doesn’t matter.’

Wisdom at last. Then I heard a marvellous joke that seemed related to rule number 10.

A butcher was opening his market one morning and as he did a rabbit popped his head through the door. The butcher was surprised when the rabbit inquired ‘Got any cabbage?’ The butcher said ‘This is a meat market – we sell meat, not vegetables.’ The rabbit hopped off.

The next day the butcher is opening the shop and sure enough the rabbit pops his head round and says ‘You got any cabbage?’ The butcher now irritated says ‘Listen you little rodent I told you yesterday we sell meat, we do not sell vegetables and the next time you come here I am going to grab you by the throat and nail those floppy ears to the floor.’ The rabbit disappeared hastily and nothing happened for a week.

Then one morning the rabbit popped his head around the corner and said ‘Got any nails?’ The butcher said ‘No.’ The rabbit said ‘Ok. Got any cabbage?’

What does all that mean ? Ha.

What are Friends for?

2009-04-21T10:56:00.007+04:00

Previously I had lent a substantial amount of money to a friend. I din really want to but my friend pleaded it out basing on the length of our friendship and that the loan can be repaid easily once the cash flow is resolved. In my moment of weakness, I relented because I believed the loan was within the ability of my friend, and with the condition that this is only a one time thing (which was also acknowledged by my friend). While it wasn't repaid on the promised date, it was eventually repaid in full 3 weeks down the road.

Unfortunately and as predicted, i was asked again to provide a much larger loan, and to which i did not agree to. And to my relief, this issue was not brought up again.

In retrospect, the following things are observed :

All borrowers will always say that the loan can be repaid easily. But they will usually miss the first promised date of repayment, be it due to time needed to transfer or gather their money.

A suspicion that the refusal to provide a subsequent loan will sour the friendship. (i.e you have the money sitting in the bank anyway, why not lent your friend? or the guilt factor playing its drama in your mind)

I would think that i am normally generous with friends in terms of treats and probably a loan of few hundreds dollars can be dispensed easily as i believe our friendship will be treasured over a few hundred bucks. In the event, the loan is unpaid despite one reminder, i would not asked for it back. But the value of that friendship will be reassessed.

However, a substantial amount is way too serious to test a friendship. This particular sentence makes me wonder about my own values. Is money more important than friendship? Am i really money-minded etc etc.

The answer was in my memory. More than 5 years ago, when i loaned a few hundreds of dollars to another friend during the early days of our working lives, i sms " what are friends for" in reply to his sms of "thanks". The retort from this friend was that friends are not meant for borrowing money and it was not easy for him to lower his pride to ask for a loan. So this was not to be taken lightly. No one wants to borrow from another person if they could help it.

When you do lend money to any one, the recipient will always feel pressured when you ask about repayment or even talk about money/finance etc. Either they will think that you do not trust them or there is no intention to repay. And they will accuse you of it. This is human nature. As a result, you will feel guilty.

The conclusion to this post? It is in your heart.

No man is an island

2009-04-21T10:53:00.002+04:00

NYT reported that "What Are Friends for? A Longer Life" on 21st April 2009.

Treasure your friends and hopefully they do too.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

2009-04-09T18:03:00.003+04:00

Jane Austen and Zombies. Who knew it could be a best seller. It is available at Amazon.

And a new genre is born. Makes your wonder what other classics can mix well with mindless corposes.

How dark is Dubai ?

2009-04-08T10:07:00.012+04:00

The Independent published a commentary "The Dark Side of Dubai".

Most of it is true although i had never experience it second hand. Maybe a bit sensationalised i guess.

UAE was a young country with mininal natural resources and cultural/historical roots then. Also with a heavy religious culture setting, their society are tightly close knitted and quite impermeable. Since the discovery of the black gold, the country was thrusted into modernisation on turbo drive. While they may be a bunch of shrewd people, you can feel that they are just begining to learn to adapt to globalisation. Their society still remains guardedly close to the many foreigners running about on their pavements. Majority of the Emeratis keep to themselves, except for those who had stepped out to experience the global village.

There are of course subtle changes being brought about by globalisationa and the foreign culture that are invading their land. These can be mainly observed by contrasting their younger female generation, particularly their teens and young adults, against their blackly-claded elders. Hot pants maybe frowned upon by the elders, but fashion is still fashion for their younger counterparts.

With regards to their treatment of the environment, I agree that UAE is in urgent need to re-assess their strategy on the environment. Seriously.

The ecological damage inflicted on the war with the desert and the environment should be looked at by the administration. This is not the first time that the sea at Dubai was observed to be dirty. There was even a news article some time back reporting on this issue. At the very same beach area.

The modern history of UAE began with the black gold. Will it outlast its supply? Only time will tell.

Your morals will be controlled some days

2009-04-06T13:31:00.004+04:00

Saw this article that the Brain's moral centre or wisdom centre is located.

Image the day that we can control our own or other's behaviour with medicine or chemicals.

You want to be a bad boy, pop the red pill.

You want to be a SNAG, pop the pink pill.

You want to kill some one day, pop the black pill.

This day is not that far off.

House, S3E6

2009-04-01T09:47:00.002+04:00

"You may not get everything right, but you couldn't get everything wrong either." - Cameron

The comeback of the loincloth. For women.

2009-03-31T13:16:00.007+04:00

Loincloths hot among Japan woman

Mar 30 - The latest in "women's liberation" is a product making a comeback in Japan that makers claim allows women to ditch tight-fit underwear -- loincloths.

A Japanese lingerie maker (Wacoal) calls female loincloth underwear the "ultimate liberation item" for women. Toshi Maeda reports.

*Cool. But probabaly not a good idea during that time of the month bah. The VPL may also be a concern.

**Think it would cool to hang one up in the living room or where and tell your guest that its for wiping hands before telling them some bullshit about it being the loincloth of some dead guy from Japan. hee.

A satellite call Jim

2009-03-31T13:07:00.006+04:00

Reuters reports "NASA in Colbert conundrum over Space Station".

Stephen Colbert aims to name the space station after himself through a NASA naming competition.

I just aim for something smaller. Who knows right? Just probably have to get richer than USA. ha.

After note : Only a treadmil was named after Colbert in the space station.

Women, Shopping and Uncle Ben.

2009-03-31T10:46:00.004+04:00

BBC reported Shopping sprees linked to periods.

It could be true as the human body is affected by chemicals/hormones. I.e. treatment for depressions and some mental illness.

But then Uncle Ben put it the best :

"This guy, Flash Thompson, he probably deserved what happened. But just because you can beat him up, doesn't give you the right to. Remember: with great power comes great responsibility. "

Do your part, switch off your PC

2009-03-30T17:12:00.006+04:00

Leaving PCs on overnight costs companies $2.8B a year By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Even during an economic meltdown, when companies are scrambling to cut costs, businesses are wasting billions of dollars by leaving their PCs on at night.

U.S. organizations squander $2.8 billion a year to power unused machines, emitting about 20 million tons of carbon dioxide — roughly the equivalent of 4 million cars — according to a report to be released Wednesday.

About half of 108 million office PCs in the USA are not properly shut down at night, says the 2009 PC Energy Report, produced by 1E, an energy-management software company, and the non-profit Alliance to Save Energy. The report analyzed workplace PC power consumption in the USA, United Kingdom and Germany.

Wastefulness does not just affect a company's bottom line, it creates environmental concerns, the report says. If the world's 1 billion PCs were powered down just one night, it would save enough energy to light the Empire State Building — inside and out — for over 30 years, it says.

"Workers do not feel responsible for electricity bills at work, and some companies insist PCs remain on at night so they can be patched with software updates," says 1E CEO Sumir Karayi. He says 63% of employees surveyed said their companies should take more steps to save PC power.

"It is scary how much energy is wasted," says Michael Murphy, senior manager of global environmental affairs at Dell, a business partner and customer of 1E. It has used 1E software to efficiently manage its 50,000 PCs globally, saving about $1.8 million a year.

Simply shutting down PCs at night can save a company with 10,000 PCs over $260,000 a year and 1,871 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the report says.

"PCs can be a tremendous drain on electricity," says Doug Washburn, an analyst at Forrester Research. "During a nine-hour workday, it isn't always in use because of lunch, meetings and other things."

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

2009-03-30T14:27:00.004+04:00

Was clicking around on the net when i came to this wikipedia page on Hunter S. Thompson.

Seems like we could have been good friends, i think. Wondering if i can get a hold of any of his books in AD.

Hmm...

Jesus was in japan, according to wikipedia.

2009-03-30T14:20:00.004+04:00

Go figure. Courtesy of Cowboy Caleb.

Never trust what you read. Anywhere.

The dead horse is flogging me.

2009-03-30T14:17:00.004+04:00

Hmm. Been some time since i had updated this blog.

Few days ago, I wanted to start a Twitter account to record my thoughts but too lazy. This is due to the realisation that i'm using my facebook for similar purpose.

Hence I shall use this blog for this purpose. haha...

Regrets and Farewell... She is a jolly good fellow.

2008-11-14T08:48:00.002+04:00

14th November 2008, 11am plus Singapore time.

That is the time when i lost my friend, Ms Christina Toh, to cancer. If my memory served me correct, the last time we met, it was probably around this time too. It was for Liling's birthday in 2007.

Got to know her through Liling in Uni and we went clubbing as a gang. It was a fun time. Christina always like to share her knowledge in alcohols as she had worked as a female bartender previously.

Fast-forward to 2008, and she is getting weak from her treatment. Sigh.

It will be one of my regrets that i cannot be there to see her off. That's the problem with being out-stationed is that you cannot be there when you want to be there for them.

For the living, we should live our live to the fullest and cherish everyone around us.

Rest in peace my friend.

If this is true...

2008-04-26T23:19:00.007+04:00

Yahoo reported on 21st April 2008 that "Masturbation may prevent prostate cancer".

If this is true, most men would have 1 less thing to worry about. Ha ha ha. While its only reduced risk, it is better than nothing. ha.

Post note : i just remembered that Men get Prostate Cancer much more often than Women. So i guess the above can't really be that true bah. wahaha....

Fight the Rain

2008-04-26T23:15:00.005+04:00

Not sure how serious are people voting for the The 2008 TIME 100 Finalists. But this article is funny.

Go Stephen !

Meat... too much meat...

2008-03-12T21:14:00.003+04:00

While i like to eat meat generally, for the one week since i had been here, i am about to get sick of eating meat. Not particularly sure if its the preparation of food (mainly through grilling or roasting) or what. But seriously, too much meat eating really makes one feel unhealthy...

I am trying to eat more fruits in the morning (mainly because i bought too much and dun want them to be spoilt thus wasting them), i shall resolve not to eat lunch and will only order a salad for dinner every alternate days.

Lets see if i can keep this up for how long...

Change the messages.

2008-03-11T22:00:00.004+04:00

Saw this post from miyagi.sg.

“If the message is that being gay is so horrible that you can be killed for it, then we have to change the message”

No one should be killed for being different from others. All should be equal under the Law. That should be the fundamental of any organised society. And if that society is not so, citizens should be allowed to leave to find their own paradise. I support Ellen's cry to change the message. And by relations, i support the appeal to repeal section 377A of Singapore's Penal Code, which is supposedly being kept for the conservative local Asian community and as a sleeping penalty. Who knows whether another Anwar case will appear in the red dot.

On another different matter, i realise that i was tempted to say that there should exceptions, in particular those involved in crimes, to my above statement "All should be equal under the Law". One reason is because crimes are determined by the legislative and the society at large and each of these groups classify crimes according to their believes, which may not fair to all.

Reaching into my heart and brain, i came to 2 convictions:

1. Criminals, once served their sentences, should be given a clean slate, except for those habitual repeaters, who by theory, cannot make their own decisions due to their mental states.
2. Life is precious. Criminals should be locked up to punish them for their crime or keep them away from the society at large to protect others. In this respect, my final stand on the death penalty is a negative.

2 messages must be changed for all society at large.

1. Being different is not a crime, even if it is on sexuality and of course as long as all are willing parties.
2. No life should be take away from another just for punishment.

There Are Drugs in Drinking Water. Now What?

2008-03-10T20:57:00.004+04:00

Saw the above mentioned article in NYT.

Make you wonder if the drugs will keep accumulating until those people with sensitive bodies become affected. Of course the easy way out is to improve the filtration system to remove the drugs or other chemicals but this technology will take time to be commericalised for general use.

So the alternative ?

Drink only distilled water.

4th March 08

2008-03-04T22:32:00.002+04:00

Got my new computer... but some problem installing primavera thus wasting my time waiting for the IT guys to solve this problem. Eventually installation is completed but some error with passwords caused the attempt to be abandoned halfway so that i could meet my Shan.

Had dinner with her at a Jap restaurant near city hall before setting out to New Asia Bar or rather at City Space to have a intimate chill out session.

We talked a lot that night, of which i only remembered one part.

Shan : What if some other guy chased me?

Me : What matters the most to me is that you are happy. If you are happy with him, by all means. I can't be there with you... it is not fair of me to expect you to wait and you can't control emotions.... etc etc...

On reflection, of course i wanna strangle all my potiental competitors... but i also cannot be selfish and its not fair for her.

Is the theory of letting the bird go and come back practical in reality ?

爱人不容易啊!

First K

2008-03-02T06:31:00.002+04:00

2nd March 08
2am
Right side
Handicap Lot
Her place.

One post from Post-secret

2008-02-17T09:04:00.000+04:00

I like this one from Post-secrets -

I graduated from High School in 1967. So did the girl i love, she never knew. Now 2 marriages, 1 war, and 40 years later, I can honestly say say:

"there has not been a day in the last 40 years, that I have not thought of her with love and regret. "

The Ladder Theory

2008-02-17T08:53:00.001+04:00

Hmm... Interesting article.

Rainbow by Jay Chou

2008-02-16T19:01:00.002+04:00

彩虹. (rewritten in simplified chinese)

作曲:周杰伦作词:周杰伦

voice over “十一月四日，如果能让我重新在来一次，我希望我不曾出现在你生命里。。。”

哪里有彩虹告訴我?
能不能把我的愿望还給我?
為什么天这么安静?
所有的云都跑到我这里

##有沒有口罩一个給我?
释怀說了太多就成真不了
也许时间是一种解药
也是我现在正服下的毒药
看不見你的笑我怎麼睡得著?
你的身影這么近我却抱不到
沒有地球太阳还是会绕
沒有理由我也能自己走

**你要离开我知道很简单
你說依赖是我們的阻碍
就算放开那能不能別沒收我的愛
當作我最后才明白

##有沒有口罩一个給我?
释怀說了太多就成真不了
也许时间是一种解药
也是我现在正服下的毒药
看不見你的笑我怎麼睡得著?
你的身影這么近我却抱不到
沒有地球太阳还是会绕
沒有理由我也能自己走

**你要离开我知道很简单
你說依赖是我們的阻碍
就算放开那能不能別沒收我的愛
當作我最后才明白

**RAP看不見你的笑我怎麼睡得著?
你的身影這么近我却抱不到
沒有地球太阳还是会绕 ...会绕
沒有理由我也能自己走掉
释怀說了太多就成真不了
也许时间是一种解药...解药
也是我现在征服下的毒药

**你要離開我知道很簡單
你說依賴是我們的阻礙
就算放開那能不能別沒收我的愛
當作我最後才明白

14th Feb 2008

2008-02-16T06:16:00.006+04:00

Initially i planned to bring to her to this restuarant at the durian where we can over look the mouth of the river. The open terrace has a nice ambience which is condusive for V-day dinner.

But she wanted a more relaxed setting. Eventually i subsidized a friend to take over my pre-paid reservation and i brought her to Jalan Sultan for fish head steam boat, which i hope she enjoyed.

Further on, i took her to Sentosa for a stroll where we talked until 12 plus by the beach. We talked a lot that night... actually i talked most of the time though... hmm... must remember not to be too philisophical all the time.

It was the best V-day i had in a long long time. Anything simple things that you do with the right person are always sweet.

What really made me very happy was that she had also bought me a gift... a book titled "Atonement"... a movie which i wanted to watch with her but never got to asking her. According to her, it was for me to bring to camp if i did not get my deferment from my ICT. The amusing thing is that i too also bought myself a book to read for the same reason. Are our hearts starting to think alike ? I can only delude myself in thinking so.

But as i laid on my bed, listening to Jay Chou's Rainbow, a bout of sadness hit me.

"看不見你的笑我怎麼睡得著?
你的身影這麼近我卻抱不到
沒有地球太陽還是會繞
沒有理由我也能自己走
**你要離開我知道很簡單..... "

.....

Big Decisions

2008-01-21T19:37:00.000+04:00

Been busy since my last post. Its work all the way till this night.

However i made a big decision to move on in my career. Especially to an overseas posting. While one offer is firmly in grasp, the other still needs to be played carefully.

But to me, this is still a minor decision. The major one was to leave the woman that i love and not being able to see her for the next 2 years or so. While it was unfair of me to ask her for her opinion, i couldn't help myself to ask her if she wants me to stay. Knowing the eventual answer all along, i fall into my own trap that adds more sadness in my already sad heart.

Wonder how she would be when i come back to visit. Would she be attached or married ? Would i miss the important part of her life that has nothing to do with me ? Would she be more pretty?

Questions and questions that have no answers. Silly me.

What was she doing when i was taking this photo?

My sister-in-law is pregnant !

2007-11-12T16:58:00.002+04:00

I bought my brother a VSOP for his belated birthday. Then he dropped the surprise.

She is 7 weeks pregnant. Whoa.

Having a kitkat in China

2007-11-06T16:23:00.000+04:00

Highly challenging and pressuring work since my last post. The main project had finally started and i trying to ease the main contractor into the workings of a government institution. It is some what funny that at the tiger's mouth, contractors do not put in their 1000% effort to maintain safety and all that stuff. Oh well.

As per the title. Will try to paint the 2 cities of Suzhou and Shanghai red while i'm there from tomorrow to Monday. Courtesy of my employer.

The only regret is that i will miss my friends' wedding dinner and the ROM of Mr & Mrs Peh. Though only 1 or 2 other humans reads my blog, my heartiest congratulations to both couples.

Now i better go home and do my packing.

Government expediture

2007-10-13T21:27:00.000+04:00

Was reading at The Singapore Daily, when i found this article " Town councils investing in stock market ".

Was amazed at what our town council can do with public fund. While this government can set their own rules to do pretty much what they want, from a layman's point of view, it is quite irresponsible to gamble with public funds. Just like the fact that no one debates about the debacle of our dealings with the Burma Junta, this issue should be discussed with dissemination of information to the public so that everyone can know how the government coffers are being used.

Lastly, considering the fact that Creative was recently dropped as one of the 30 component stocks STI and it had been losing for some time, Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council should reconsider their investment.

Free Burma !

2007-10-03T20:05:00.000+04:00

First Indonesia, now Myanmar

2007-09-29T18:34:00.000+04:00

Found this featured article, Web of cash, power and cronies, on Tomorrow.sg from Australia's Newpaper, The Age.

It will be interesting to note if this government will revert or ignore this article. Will S'pore Inc do what it did when asked about the funds flowing in from Indonesia's businessmen? But then of course, we have to bear in mind that we need to get cheaper sand, cement and granite from Myanmar to build our Integrated Resorts aka Casinos. There are some interesting comments from Mr Aaron Ng's old blog entry "Myanmar to become Singapore’s savior"

While unlikely, i still hope someone is crazy enough to bring this up in Parliament so that this can be clarified.

Personally, regardless of the validity of of this story, the question to be asked is whether we should expect our government to uphold higher moral standards and be accountable for their actions. And if we do but they don't, what is our recourse? What if it is for "our own good" or "better future" ?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Age

Web of cash, power and cronies
Eric Ellis September 29, 2007

SINGAPORE isn't just skilled at mandatory executions of drug traffickers, running an excellent airport and selling cameras on Orchard Road. It also does a useful trade keeping Burma's military rulers and their cronies afloat.

Much attention is placed on China and its coming hosting of the Olympic Games as a diplomatic pressure point on the rampant Burmese junta. But there is a group of government businessmen-technocrats in Singapore who will also be closely monitoring the brutality in Rangoon. And, were they so inclined, their influence could go a long way to limiting the misery being inflicted on Burma's 54 million people.

Collectively known as "Singapore Inc", they gather around the $A150 billion state-owned investment house Temasek Holdings, controlled by a member of the ruling Lee family.
With an estimated $A3 billion staked in the country (and a more than $20 billion stake in Australia), Singapore Inc companies have been some of the biggest investors in and supporters of Burma's military junta — this while its Government, on the rare times it is asked, suggests a softly-softly diplomatic approach towards the junta.

When it comes to Burma, Singapore pockets the high morals it likes to wave at the West elsewhere. Singapore's one-time head of foreign trade once said as his country was building links with Burma in the mid-1990s: "While the other countries are ignoring it, it's a good time for us to go in … you get better deals, and you're more appreciated … Singapore's position is not to judge them and take a judgemental moral high ground."

But by providing Burma's pariah junta with the crucial equipment mostly denied by Western sanctions, Singapore has helped keep the junta and its cronies afloat for 20 years, since the last time the generals killed the citizens they are supposed to protect.

Withdraw that financial support and Burma's junta would be substantially weakened, perhaps even fail. But after two decades of profitable business with the trigger-happy generals and their cronies, that's about the last thing Singapore is likely to do. There's too much money to be made.

Hotels, airlines, military materiel and training, crowd control equipment and sophisticated telecoms-monitoring devices for its secret police — Singapore is manager and supplier to the junta, and the "cronified" economy it controls.

It's impossible to spend any time in Burma and not make the junta richer, thanks to Singapore suppliers' contracts with the tourism industry. Singapore's hospitals also keep Burma's leaders alive — 74-year-old junta leader Than Shwe has been getting his intestinal cancer treated in a Singapore government hospital, protected by Singapore security. Singapore's boutiques keep junta wives and families cloaked in Armani, and its banks help launder their money and that of Burma's crony drug lords.

Much of Singapore's activity in Burma has been documented by an analyst working in Prime Minister John Howard's direct chain of command, in the Office of National Assessments. Andrew Selth is recognised as an authority on the Burmese military. Now a research fellow at Queensland's Griffith University, Mr Selth has written extensively on how close Singapore is to the junta.

Often writing as "William Ashton" in the authoritative Jane's Intelligence Review, Mr Selth has described in various articles how Singapore has sent the junta guns, rockets, armoured personnel carriers and grenade launchers, some of it trans-shipped from stocks seized by Israel from Palestinians in southern Lebanon.

Singaporean companies have provided computers and networking equipment for Burma's defence ministry and army, while upgrading the bunkered junta's ability to network with regional commanders — so crucial as protesting monks take to the streets of 20 Burmese cities, causing major logistical headaches for the Tatmadaw, the Burmese military.

"Singapore cares little about human rights, in particular the plight of the ethnic and religious minorities in Burma," Mr Selth writes.

"Having developed one of the region's most advanced armed forces and defence industrial support bases, Singapore is in a good position to offer Burma a number of inducements which other ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) countries would find hard to match."
Singapore's Foreign Minister, George Yeo, is the current chairman of ASEAN.

Mr Selth says Singapore also provided the equipment for a "cyber war centre" to monitor dissident activity while training Burma's secret police, whose sole job seems to be ensuring pro-democracy groups are crushed.

Monitoring dissidents is an area where Singapore has particular expertise. After almost five decades in power, the Lee family-controlled People's Action Party ranks behind only the communists of China, Cuba and North Korea in leadership longevity, skilled in neutralising opposition.

"This centre is reported to be closely involved in the monitoring and recording of foreign and domestic telecommunications, including the satellite telephone conversations of Burmese opposition groups," Mr Selth writes.

Singapore Government companies, such as leading arms supplier Singapore Technologies, dominate the communications and military sector in Singapore. "It is highly unlikely," Mr Selth writes, "that any of these arms shipments to Burma could have been made without the knowledge and support of the Singapore Government."

He notes that Singapore's ambassadors to Burma have included a former senior Singapore armed forces officer, and a past director of Singapore's defence-oriented Joint Intelligence Directorate, people with a military background rather than professional diplomats.

He writes that after the 1988 crackdown, when the junta killed 3000 protesters, "the first country to come to the regime's rescue was in fact Singapore".

When I interviewed Singapore Technologies chief executive Peter Seah at his office in Singapore, I asked about the scale model of an armoured personnel carrier made by his company on his office table. He said ST sold the vehicles "only to allies".

Does that include Burma, I asked, given that Singapore controversially helped sponsor the military regime into ASEAN?

Mr Seah was non-specific: "We only sell to allies and we make sure they are responsible." He didn't say how. ST and Temasek don't respond to questions about their activities in Burma.

Singapore is so close to Burma that one of its diplomats there wrote a handbook for its business people there. Matthew Sim's Myanmar on my Mind is full of useful tips for Singaporean business people in Burma. "A little money goes a long way in greasing the wheels of productivity," he writes.

A chapter headed "Committing Manslaughter when Driving" describes the appropriate action if a Singaporean businessman accidentally kills a Burmese pedestrian. "Firstly, the international businessman could give the family of the deceased some money as compensation and dissuade them from pressing charges. Secondly, he could pay a Myanmar citizen to take the blame by declaring that he was the driver in the fatal accident. An international businessman should not make the mistake of trying to argue his case in a court of law when it comes to a fatal accident, even if he is in the right."

Mr Sim says many successful Myanmar businessmen have opened shell companies in Singapore "with little or no staff, used to keep funds overseas". The companies are used to keep business deals outside the control of Burma's central bank, enabling Singaporeans and others to transact with Burma in Singapore.

He may be referring to junta cronies such as Tay Za and the drug lord Lo Hsing Han. Lo is an ethnic Chinese, from Burma's traditionally Chinese-populated and opium-rich Kokang region in the country's east, bordering China. He controls a massive heroin empire, and one of Burma's biggest companies, Asia World, which the US Drug Enforcement Agency describes as a front for his drug-trafficking. Asia World controls toll roads, industrial parks and trading companies.

Singapore is the Lo family's crucial window to the world, as it controls a number of companies there. His son Steven, who has been denied a visa to the US because of his links to the drug trade, married a Singaporean, Cecilia Ng, and the two reportedly control Singapore-based trading house Kokang Singapore.

A former assistant secretary of state for the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Robert Gelbard, has said that half Singapore's investment in Burma has "been tied to the family of narco-trafficker Lo Hsing Han".

Tay Za, who is romantically linked to a daughter of junta leader Than Shwe, is also well known in Singapore. He was prominent in the Singapore media last year, toasting the launch of his airline Air Bagan with the head of Singapore's aviation authority. Dissident groups say the trade-off for Tay Za's government business contracts in Burma is to fund junta leaders' medical trips to Singapore.

Eric Ellis is an Australian journalist and correspondent in South-East Asia.

Victor and Liyun's wedding

2007-09-29T09:43:00.000+04:00

Was one of the brothers for victor, which includes Kayhock, Derrick, Fengjie, Kenny and Jiafu.

Victor handed me the Sisters' angbao and asked me to negotiate with them. According to feedback, i sounded like a "professional" brother. Ha ha... The negotiation was quite smooth, probably coz the Sisters were instructed not to be too "fierce" to Victor. There was the usual washabi eating at which Derrick and Jiafu puked. The trick to eating these green stuff is to swallow immediately and dun let it stay in the mouth or throat for any time.

Didn't know Liyun's side is rather well off. hmm.. Her younger sister has her similar features except her eyes are larger, she is much taller and is actually quite cute. hmm... ha ha ha. Ney... she is quite young and is studying in NTU somemore.

The food at Waterfornt Copthorne is actually quite good at 1K plus per table and their ballroom was also quite grand enough. Overall, the dinner went off smoothly together with the customary phototaking at each 37 tables.

Apparently the newly-weds intend go for a "made in japan" product during the honeymoon.

Good Luck! and the Best.

Weddings to come - an update

2007-09-27T05:10:00.000+04:00

Added Chermaine's wedding to my previous post on list of weddings to go to this year.

Tradition

2007-09-21T07:03:00.000+04:00

Found this article on the New York Times - Voices Rise in Egypt to Shield Girls From an Old Tradition

As a strong proponent against female mutilation and, as a matter of fact, also circumcision (except for life threatening scenarios of course), it is disheartening to know that such practices are still prevalent in both Africa and the Middle East Region.

While most traditions stemmed from religious roots, this story demonstrated that it is the human elements of up keeping ridiculous traditions that held back the progress of the society. Religion can be progressive force in this world and age, especially for those who need spiritual support. However religious leaders must stand up, like the Egyptians, to clarify and abolish such practice. Laws must also be implemented fully to complement the effort. The use of female patriarchal power in the society to induce change should also be applauded and encouraged in conservative societies.

If the above mentioned approaches are not done concurrently, slower solutions like education will have to permeate through the society at large before eradicating this unfortunate practice while more lives are being destroyed this moment.

Tradition is a system of doing things on schedule based on human need for a familiarity crutch. While most may argue that traditions are necessary for society to function, i think that we have to examine the reasons behind the traditions and decide for ourselves on their relevancy before one follow through.

Use your brain, yah ?

Weddings to come

2007-09-17T21:47:00.001+04:00

28th September 2007 - Victor & Liyun
10th October 2007 - Piping's
9th Novemeber 2007 - Peiyin & Chongseng (ROM)
17th November 2007 - Cherry's
29th November 2007 - Chermaine Ng's (bf - Xiangfeng)
9th December 2007 - Chioupyng & Ronnie
18th December 2007 - Chengwan's

Too much blessings this year :i

Sometimes the right song hits you in the right spot at the wrong time

2007-09-12T14:42:00.000+04:00

歌曲：不能说的秘密
歌手：周杰伦
词:方文山曲:周杰伦

冷咖啡离开了杯垫
我忍住的情绪在很后面
拼命想挽回的从前
在我脸上依旧清晰可见

最美的不是下雨天
是曾与你躲过雨的屋檐
回忆的画面
在荡着秋千梦开始不甜

你说把爱渐渐放下会走更远
又何必去改變你說過的誓言
你用你的指尖阻止我说再见
想象你在身邊在完全失去之前

你说把爱渐渐放下会走更远
或许命运的签只让我们遇见
只让我们相恋这一季的秋天
飘落后才发现这幸福的碎片
要我怎么捡

冷咖啡离开了杯垫
我忍住的情绪在很后面
拼命想挽回的从前
在我脸上依旧清晰可见

最美的不是下雨天
是曾与你躲过雨的屋檐 oh
回忆的画面
在荡着秋千梦开始不甜

你说把爱渐渐放下会走更远
又何必去改變你說過的誓言
你用你的指尖阻止我说再见
想象你在身邊在完全失去之前

你说把爱渐渐放下会走更远
或许命运的签只让我们遇见
只让我们相恋这一季的秋天
飘落后才发现这幸福的碎片
要我怎么捡.

Sleeping too much

2007-09-12T01:28:00.000+04:00

Yeah. Now is 5.30am.

When i lent my car to my brother for his reservist, i didn't count on the fact that i will go straight home after work and on the dot. And begin dozing off on my sofa at 10+ pm and waking up at 4.30am plus.

But being awake at a time where there is nothing to bother me. I started thinking of my career and where it is heading. What a paradox.

Granted that i did not specifically start to look for another job, except at Mapletree which gives out fat bonuses with opportunity for overseas posting, I'm starting to feel dissatisfied with my current job after almost 11 months (i joined in mid October) coz its reaching a plateau or maybe it's just a lax period with no major projects coming in.

I need challenges and pressures in my life. If left alone, i will really start to slack to an extreme degree. I need to place myself in a challenging environment. Given the direction that the head office is going, i think i'm going to be stuck to one big client all of the time coz they wanted a specialised person to settle project management for them. Boring.....

I need more. I need to set myself a higher goal.

I am a capable manager. Maybe not that "good" yet. While i'm getting there, this will only lead me to some middle management level kind of place. Except that I'm looking for a place that i can excel as a leader. Not sure what do leadership qualities entail. But throw me in a sea with sharks, i am confident that i can start hunting sharks with my flock in good time.

Now that's clear, i'll have to find my patch of sea that are full of sharks.

Like

2007-09-12T00:51:00.000+04:00

Was thinking of the same question posed by my only reader when i wrote my previous post.

And i have come to realise it is more of the above subject title.

I guess she happens to have the qualities i like and she also happens to be in close proximity. That probably extended my obsession with her. She also happens to be the type of girl that grows on you, which is in line with what i like coz i am not the type of person that will fall in love on first sight.

Despite what TV drama shows you, it is difficult trying to "get to know" a direct colleague from work. Work conflicts always get in the way.

Another thing. Perhaps as a woman, she did pick up my subtle vibes. And she is probably avoiding me subtly and is keeping me at arm's length.

Feel disappointed. but then i'll get over her. Soon, i hope.

Thats the thing with life sometimes. Those you like you can't get. Those that you are not interested in, want to get close to you.

Sad.

Love vs Like

2007-09-09T06:09:00.000+04:00

Found an interesting file that i had while clearing my computer of rubbish.

The file's resolution is too bad, so i'm typing it out.

The difference between

somebody you love vs somebody you like

In front of the person you love, your heart beat faster but in front of the person you like, you get happy.
In front of the person you love, winter seems like spring but in front of the person you like, Winter is just beautiful winter.
If you look into the eyes of the one you love, you blush but if you look into the eyes of the one you love, you smile.
In front of the person you love, you can't say everything on your mind but in front of the person you like, you can.
In front of the person you love, you get shy but in front of the person you like, you can show your own self.
You can't look straight into the eyes of the one you love but you can always smile into the eyes of the one you like.
When the one you love is crying, you cry with them. But when the one you like is crying, you end up comforting.
The feeling of loves starts from the eyes but the feeling of like starts from the ears.

So, if you stop liking a person you used to like, all you need to do is to cover your ears. but if you try to close your eyes, love turns into s drop of tear and remains in your heart forever.

暗恋不容易。

2007-09-05T14:36:00.000+04:00

In previous entry, i have admitted that i have developed a strong liking for my colleague who sits in the same office as i do.

This time, i have to admit that the poisoning is deepening, regardless of the fact that i had wanted to ignore my feelings for her. sigh. The more time that i spend with her, the more i cannot get over her.

To put it simply, everything that she does, be it a simple smile, her scratching of her hair (not from dandruff lah), the way she walks (especially when she is walking in front of me), the way she talks, sound she makes when she sighs, her laughter, made my brain stop functioning. I had tried hard to stop looking at her adorably most of the time, lest people around me caught on to me, but my eyes still stray to her in the end. I think no one caught on to me yet coz i have my poker face on most of the time at work.

And even worst, i took the opportunity to lend my brother my car for his highkey in-camp training so that i can take the MRT with her every morning and also try to go home after work with her too. While this is only the second day of this stupidity of mine, i still could not stop myself from doing it. If i can only talk to her normally, as in at work, but i could not make myself open my month to chitchat with her like what i can do with other girls. So these 2 days, it is as if we are 2 colleagues whom simply took the train together coz they live in the West.

Initially, i thought that i had just only lost my balls to make contact with a girl that i care about, or it is because we are direct colleagues and so subconsciously, i dun want to make it too complicated by trying to hit on her.

But 2 hours ago, i had a flash of sudden insight. She is a gem of a girlfriend, i.e homey, filial, feminine, gentle, fun-loving and quite a funny girl. And she will be taken soon by a lucky bastard. And she will have the kind of 幸福 that i cannot give her. And I will be very upset and pained when she really did get together with someone that is good to her. I will probably want to kick myself hard then.

Is the best that i can give her is by not being with her?

As a pessimistically optimistic person, i had tried to analyse my chances based on how she treats me. But i had come to the conclusion that it is just that of a lower scale of status between that of "colleagues" and "acquaintances". This is likely due to the fact that at work, i am the senior guiding a new colleague to navigate this workplace.

Also how could you hope to love anyone if you have no heart to open to? My heart had disappeared a long time ago when i broke up with my first girlfriend. It is not the breaking up that shattered my heart but the realisation that love like our other feelings, hunger, sadness and happiness are all impermanence. They are as real as the rainbow after the rain.

But then if it is so, why am i typing this now?

Again i repeat my question : Is the best that i can give her is by not being with her? or am i just chicken?

Should SG Law be like this ?

2007-08-19T14:20:00.000+04:00

Was reading IS when i came across this article from "Police declare joggers an "illegal assembly"" by Yawning Bread.

I dunno about you. But this is damn funny and ridiculous when our enforcement can selectively enforce the Miscellaneous Offences Act (on Illegal assembly) and on certain groups of individuals.

Shouldn't the law be applied across the board to everyone? I could go along Orchard Road any day and easily identify pockets of people that are committing this offence. And by the time i'm done, probably Orchard Road would be a stretch of ghost road. If the law is ambiguous, shouldn't the legislative or judicial people look at this act to either clarify it or abolish it if it can be abused?

I can't say with a straight face that i'm proud of our enforcement agency anymore. Sad.

Revisiting Zouk

2007-08-16T14:24:00.000+04:00

It was an atypical Wednesday. Having being bogged down with work, i had decided to go off early to join Ter and Chua for cheap happy hours beer at Boat Quay. 3 men sitting at the bar counter... we got bored soon.

We departed for Thumper which is doing a soft reopening launch at Goodwood Park Hotel. A vast difference of the previous Thumper. More of a chill out place now. Boring.

Then we hit upon the idea of revisiting Mambo at Zouk, coz Citibank customers can get in free. (no free drinks but got 1 for 1 offer from 9 to midnight). It was boring all the way till 11.30pm when retro music started rolling from the speakers. Felt like i had spontaneously time travelled to my NS days. Except that I'm older and the rest of the crowd are much younger. Phuture changed from house to hip-hop. Trance music still rules in Velvet.

Now, i have to decide whether i will be an old chiongster doing hand signs in old music (i.e retro) or old chiongster trying to be young in hip-hop music. Neh. Probabaly I'll do both. ha ha ha...

Come to think of it, I don't listen to music much in my day to day life except for car radio when i'm driving about, which is less then 20 minutes in total a day. But strangely, after a few drinks and accompanied with nice music, it feels wonder to sway as one with the rhythm of the music. It is truly one of the few things that i enjoyed besides good women, a good read and a good video game. Where you can truly leave your brain behind and let the spirit take over.

Amendments to the Constitution

2007-07-19T17:28:00.000+04:00

Usually i dun bother with parliamentary debates, but this one, blogged by mollymeek, is ridiculous.

Totally disagree with this amendment. The segregation of the powers of the state, i.e. legislative, judiciary and the adminstrative, is sacred. While the parliamentary system on this red dot already combines the legislative and adminstrative function of the state, further erosion should be and must be prevented.

And through this "debate", the dark side of the our system of government is sadly exposed.

Not good.

KL trip

2007-07-19T17:11:00.000+04:00

Went up the North-South highway to KL over last weekend with my colleagues and bosses.

Spend most of the time shopping with my female colleagues. The most event part of the trip was to play the roller coaster at B. Times Square. Damn huge shopping complex. Also went to see Putrajaya. That's the beauty of having large lands... colossal mosque and office buildings.

Then something ridiculous happened to me. My heart moved for a female colleague. Been almost 5 years since i had such a feeling. Everything about her looks cute to me. Was it my biological clock? or my long time no use hormones? or just a simple infatuation?

There's the wise saying before... "Don't eat and shit in the same place" . But is this an excuse for myself?

The One Koan

2007-07-09T15:42:00.000+04:00

Reinterpreting Koans the modern way.

Old Koans, New Koans, One Koan - by Jan Chozen Bays, Sensei

At all ends.
One way.
Bulls.

A secondary school friend's wedding

2007-07-07T10:27:00.000+04:00

Got invited to the above mentioned which is happening today evening. (7/7/07).

Been donkey years since i last saw my secondary school friends, which is probably the last wedding in last Dec.

Dunno who else is invited and dunno who in the world am i sitting with. But i'm going anyway. Coz i'm curious to know how this batch of secondary school friends are doing now.

Would we be taking a photo together later on, ie. during the customary walkaround. But then again, these photos rarely get sent back to the participants and will probabaly grow fungus in a photo album somewhere until their future kids search them out.

Anyway, how much angbao should i give ? hmm...

see how bah.

[Post note - 9-7-07]

The Singaporean Style Wedding SOP is as per follows. :

Guests are late. Start late. Powerpoint of photos of couple from young to courtship. First Wedding processsion. Eat first course after march through. Speech
More eating. ROM/Fetching bride video. Eat. Yam seng. Eat. Saying of gratitudes. Photo taking tour. Eat. Shake hand. Go back.

Most couples in singapore start their life this way bah... the "singapore way"?

But no matter how any guest finds it, the couple will still be the happiest pair in the whole ballroom.

Congra's my secondary school friend. Cheers.)

History and Memories

2007-07-06T15:26:00.000+04:00

An interesting review on a local director's production, Invisible City. Not really on the movie of course, but the response elicited from the reviewer.

Let me quote what i found interesting :

" that as material things get demolished and destroyed, what's left are the memories of what once were. And when memories fade, become faulty, not get recorded in some medium as evidence of its existence, what then? "

" What I enjoyed about Invisible City, are the moments where it inevitably made you think, about existentialism, about memories, about immortality. The quest of some to want to leave their own mark in the vast world we live in, to make that drop of proclamation - "I was here!" - heard. "

" Do we need artifacts to convince us of something, of time capsules, buried treasures that need to be dug out, something to hold and feel, versus something more abstract, like memories, experiences, that are more difficult to preserve. "

" What makes history? I think history is made up of emotions. Emotions that are universal, emotions each of us are capable of feeling, that Invisible City is able to elicit. "

So what is left behind when we die? Should we even bother? Why do movies portray people having flashbacks when they are dying?

All we have with us always are our memories but then even memories fade away. Are we complete without memories? But then again is a memory completely yours to savour when it gets its input from the surrounding and others? Then shouldn't we be sharing as much as possible with others?

For one who is forever in an emotion barren land, do i have a history? or even a future?

I dun really like to remember my Past, or rather most of it coz it's pretty useless to me most of the time. So that would leave me with the Present and Future. If you can't be bother to predict the Future, then only Present is left. But if i'm not always in Present most of the time, then how?

What the heck have i been doing? Do i even bother?

To shave or not to shave

2007-06-30T13:23:00.000+04:00

Tomorrow is the Hair for Hope event at Novena Square. Still thinking of whether to participate for this year. Last year i did it because it was a worthy cause. The only thing is that this time, my sideline requries me to be decently presentable.

Do people take one seriously when one is "clean shaven" ? Is it harder to close a deal ?

Hmm... Still have one night to think about about it....

[Post note : didn't go in the end]

What had happened since.

2007-06-18T17:06:00.000+04:00

Changed job.
Hang out with Mr Low too much and still do.
Lost my Pink Motorola (Curse you thief!)
Bought a O2 Zinc.
Handcuffed and squated in jail for total of 8 hours.
Became a criminal, i think.
Lina Joy couldn't win.
Still broke.
Still unattached and slightly irritated by people asking why.
Moonlighting in a hot sector but not that successful.
Still alive. (damn it)
Still comtemplating to change industry.
.......

Hmm.... Just dun ask why. Just know can liao.

Spoke too soon

2006-12-13T06:36:00.000+04:00

Apparently, a colleague that i had not met yet has died of a heart attack. His office is just around the corner.

3 Weddings and a Death.

2006-12-12T04:52:00.000+04:00

Over the last weekend (9th & 10th), 3 female friends of mine got married. An Ex-Miss Bai from my NPCC group, an Ex-Miss Lai from my Uni-class and lastly an Ex-Miss Kee who is my Uni-mate cum SWC member. Did not attend Ex-Miss LaiÂs ROM ceremony as its too cramp at a Changi Poolside. But nevertheless, all the best to all newly-weds. Apparently its considered passe to adopt your husband's surname for the modern young females on this island.

Death news came in the form of my Ex-boss from my previous job. Apparently he suffered a heart attack while playing golf in Malaysia on Sunday. He is good-natured, knowledgeable and a great boss. He will be missed by a lot of people that IÂm sure. Hopefully my ex-colleagues are not that adversely affected by his pass away. Rest in peace, Mr Yamano. Heart attack is a really silent killer.

Saw an accident yesterday too. A taxi collided into a motorcyclist. The motorcyclist was rolled under the taxiÂs wheels. No news regarding the outcome yet.

Was unable to even up the score coz I woke up today. As usual, my annual birthday wish never came through. Frack, IÂm really tired.

At any single moment, the Alpha and Omega process is always in motion. As transient as all things maybe, it is still worth the time for mortals to experience all the 酸甜苦辣 of this bowl of soup known as Life.

Personally, IÂm tired of it all.

No matter which level of happiness, sadness, heartache, satisfaction or any other human emotions that one can experience, the feeling of that emotions are all the same, albeit at different amount. Go examine all the occasions when you are happy or sad, the essence of the feeling is the same at which ever level / value you are at, as in more or less happy. Sounds complex? Think of emotions like happiness as food like Fried Kwaytiao or sadness as bitter herbal tea. When you are more happy, its just more Kwaytiao, when more sad, more bitter herbal tea. But essence of kway tiao and herbal tea are the same.

Moving on. So when you get too tired of all the emotions in the world, what else is left ?

I know. But do you ?

084 hitting the road

2006-12-03T08:49:00.000+04:00

The last station for IPPT was the 2.4km run. Considering the fact that I have no reason to attempt it as failure is already guaranteed, I lifted my left foot and started running.

Running, sweating profusely and breathless, the demon of laziness was demanding that I fall out.

“Why do you bother to run ? You dun get anything out of this. Are you ashamed of falling behind and coming in last ? You could be enjoying a can of cold cool 100plus. You will start to regret it as you start aching tomorrow…. etc etc “

Yet I persisted.

In the end, I was the last, even the PTI in charge of the station had started packing up, thus leaving my actual timing unknown.

Yet I was happy.

I started, I ended. Cheers.

Prologue

2 months ago, MIG (men in green) computer system had been sending one SMS per week reminding me to take my annual IPPT. And last month, the frequency increased to 2 twice a week and these last 2 weeks, every 2 days. And upon considering the fact that its not worth 50 bucks and the hassle of digging out my Greens to delay the inevitable RT, I went for a IPPT yesterday.

Never did pass any non-ICT IPPT before, and this one was no different. I suppose anyone that’s not severely obese can pass if they put in some effort to train. Exercising had never been part of my life style, discounting golf and other passive sports that I have picked up along the way, so I guess RT is the only way that can drum it into me. Anyway, I have already gathered my band of “fallen” green brothers to attend my future RTs, so it should be fun, albeit a troublesome way to jumpstart a health routine.

Cogito ergo sum

2006-11-21T17:29:00.000+04:00

A article from NYTimes.

Just Thinking About Money Can Turn the Mind Stingy

By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: November 21, 2006

One of the most comforting versions of the American dream includes becoming not only rich, respected and glamorous, but also a soft touch: generous with time and money, a philanthropist-mensch, a nurturing prince or princess of industry.

But if a paper published last week in the journal Science is any measure, that impulse to share does not come naturally to anyone who is thinking about money, even unconsciously.

In a series of experiments, psychologists found that subconscious reminders of money prompted people to become more independent in their work, less likely to seek help from others or to provide it. They became reluctant to volunteer their time and stingy when asked to donate to a worthy cause.

“Everybody says that if they had the money, they’d give more away, they’d do what Warren Buffett did,” said Kathleen D. Vohs, lead author of the study, referring to the financier who recently donated more than $30 billion of his assets to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Well, we thought that that was a nice thing to bring into the lab, to test in a variety of ways,” added Dr. Vohs, a psychologist in the University of Minnesota school of management.

Her co-authors were Nicole Mead of Florida State University and Miranda Goode, a graduate student in marketing at the University of British Columbia.

In one experiment, involving 52 undergraduates, the students unscrambled sets of jumbled phrases. One group untangled phrases that were often about money like “high a salary paying.” A second group solved word puzzles that did not refer to money.

The researchers then had the students work on a difficult abstract puzzle that stumps most people and offered to help if the students wanted it. Those who had been thinking about money worked on the problem an average of more than five minutes before asking for help, almost 70 percent longer than the others.

By “priming” unconscious thoughts in similar ways, the researchers found that students with money on their minds, while clearly self-reliant, were less likely than peers who had not been primed to lend assistance: twice as slow to help a confused student on a word problem and about twice as cheap when asked to donate to help needy students.

Having money on the mind even caused the students to put more distance — literally — between themselves and others. Instructed to place two chairs together to meet another student, they put the chairs about 47 inches apart, compared with 31 inches for the students who had not been prompted.

The researchers say this effect of money is plainly evident in everyday life. People with resources do not recruit friends to help run a party. They hire a caterer. Students with money do not give a moving party with pizza. They hire a mover.

“We know there is a civilizing side to money, that people acting in a self-interested fashion depend on fellow humans in a community and tend to treat them fairly,” said George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “But this study shows its pernicious side, how the pursuit of money can be isolating.
“This study really came out of the blue. I don’t know of any precedent for this work.”

In the study, people’s personal attributes made little difference. This effect of money on behavior was as strong in women as in men, and it did not change with the students’ backgrounds. Daughters of high-end bankers behaved just like sons of plumbers.

“And none of them realized the studies were about money,” Dr. Vohs said. “It was all unconscious.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Be careful of what you think.

Thoughts, Desires, Believes can easily manifest into phyiscal realities, either consciously or unconsciously.

People see the things that they want to see because people believe the things that they want to believe. Such is the power of Self-delusion. This is neither bad nor good phenomemon for humans. Everyone uses this ability a little once a while for various reasons.

The only danger would be when one tries to pass his delusions on to others. One can choose to die in his own shit, but please, don't convince or force others to die in your shit too.

Koreans are more conservative than me.

2006-11-16T20:49:00.000+04:00

The Newpaper reported that the music video below by U-nee (korean artist) is banned in Korea for being too hot. Dunno whats the big fuss about. She's obviously hot and the video is not that bad. Oh well...

Indonesia & The Red Dot

2006-11-16T08:39:00.000+04:00

I refer to this post and another recent and seemingly related post by the blogger Mr Wang.

If you link things up, this online article by this Indonesian's publisher would an interesting addition to this line of thinking.

Probably not the last time we will hear about such things.

My Take on the Wee-Wee Fiasco

2006-11-02T07:27:00.000+04:00

The next interesting thing was the fiasco about a certain RJC girl and her MP Father which got the local blogsphere agitated. And coupled with the suicide of a non-elite. It exploded into discussions on Elitism, Meritocracy and the Class Disconnect which were expounded by the local writer Catherine Lim many years ago (if my memory can still be trusted lah) and, at then, she was accused of challenging the out-of-bound markers in the 90’s.

Today, this incident shows that this deep rooted problem has blossomed or sunken its roots to affect our youths and particularly the elites in our educational system. What things about our system can be changed to right this growing issue ?

My take is that nothing short of a major political change that starts from the masses can effectively alleviate and arrest this issue. Unless there is a sudden sprouting of more heartland opposition MPs of various parties who can rise to the occasion sincerely and into the parliament to effect wide-sweeping policy changes, there is no other way. Such a scenario is largely impossible as such convictions must come from the masses’ heart but these hearts are currently more pre-occupied with issues of livelihood.

If this problem is not arrested, this red dot will really become a hotel in the near future with the elitist group being the only true patriots around as they would have too much to lose by then.

The first step to this solution would be allow total politcial freedom in the media and, then follow by subsequently, the adjusting of the current barrier to entry for anyone who wants to stand for elections so forth and so on. The current educational system should then undergo a more radical overhaul to arrest the growing diversion of the so called Student Elite and their neighbourhood brothers/sisters.

As long as there is only one main political party around, there isn't much hope except for slow changes that will come too late.

Thoughts during a hiatus

2006-11-02T07:06:00.000+04:00

Around 3 weeks into my 2nd Job now. So far it had been a breeze since we are still trying to confirm a Lead Designer to start the ball rolling. As the Client’s Rep, I spending my time trying to understand my role from a Client’s perspective.

Been with my first job for almost 3 years. It gave me time to learn what I need to learn about this trade of mine. And most importantly, it’s a haven for me to look inward philosophically to understand life on this 3rd rock. Now, I’m like a practicing monk / student leaving the monasteries / hill to re-enter the mundane world to further my understanding and perhaps to create new chaos / dynamics / peace ? Hee hee…

I wanted to blog about our PM’s insertion that the IMF/World Bank event was a rounding success despite “agendas” from “others” but I couldn’t find the time as I try to act “on” for my new job. Now I couldn’t remember what I wanted to say.

Anyway, during the recent Deevapali weekend, Ter, I and 2 of his friends drove down to KL for a short break. We spend most of our time hunting down the delicious food there and spend our Saturday night at KL’s Zouk. And man, it’s a happening place. The amazing thing is that all the pretty girls seemed to be congregating at Zouk that night. Serious, I can’t find any unattractive lady in the midst. Seemingly an unreal experience in all my years of pubbing. The vibrant night scene at center of KL totally surpass that of the red dot,as itwas still very active into the wee hours of the night.

Amusingly, during our time in KL, we escaped the worst day of the Haze (I think it was PSI 150). But the Haze continued shrouding this island for another 2 weeks despite the repeated but failed assurance from the Establishment that it will be over soon. Currently the haze measurement stands stayed below 40. Its almost an annual affair these years given all the NATO policy by all the Asian countries. At least someone did make an apology even if there is no solution in sight.

Parking my car was an issue of cost for me because in the first 2 weeks because I was shuffling between my HQ and the site. While the Client did not grant me a slot in their underground carpark, I had still managed to find another season parking in another building that only costs 20 bucks more. Still I have to ration my expenses as my salary would come by end November, meaning that I’m almost penniless for 1 and a half month. No choice. Got to loan some money from my father or else I couldn’t last this stretch. Sad to say, my father took up driving night time taxi in order to supplement his income for his various financial commitments. The impact from the recession in the 90’s still affected many to this day.

I’ll expound the recent Wee-Wee Fiasco in another post later.

Let me backtrack a bit to the whole Temasek cum Shin Corp cum Military Coup in Thailand thingy. I couldn’t agree more with the author of this blog post that Mdm Ho Ching must step down as the head of Temasek after she settles this current issue properly and give the public a good explanation. Can’t let her just pat her backside and go off. The Establishment can put whoever they know to this position but her blunders must be answerable as public funds are involved.

All in all, in this transition period of mine, it was not dull except that I could not get down to write out all my thoughts. And hence on to the next post.

人与神

2006-10-03T07:17:00.000+04:00

Nobel Prize for Medicine: Silence is golden for US laureates - AFP

U.S. scientists win Nobel for medicine - Reuters

(Extract from Reuters)
....won the 2006 Nobel Prize for medicine on Monday for their discovery of how
to switch off genes, a potential road to new treatments for diseases from
AIDS to blindness and cancer.

Through experiments with worms, the two showed that a double strand of ribonucleic acid, or RNA, the genetic messenger of the cell, can "silence" targeted genes in a process known as RNA interference (RNAi).

RNAi has grown quickly into a hot area of research for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, who see it as a promising way of tackling a range of conditions.

"Craig's and my work (concerned) why some genes get turned off," Fire told Reuters.
"We were trying to manipulate them and we found certain things could turn them off very efficiently ... Knowing the genes doesn't tell you what they do, so if you start to turn them off you can start to learn what they do."

The discoveries may lead to methods to stop gene expression in diseases such as cancer, slowing tumour growth.

"The discovery is already being used in clinical trials for viral diseases, for eye diseases, for cardiovascular metabolic diseases," Bertil Fredholm, a member of the
prize-giving Nobel Assembly of Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, told Reuters.

"But even more importantly, it is being used in every drug industry as a fundamental research tool," he added, saying RNAi has "invaded" laboratories
worldwide.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have to agree. This is another milestone since the discovery of the structure of DNA.

The possibility of a X-men might be within my life time.... Maybe not. From test tube babies, to designer babies, to cloning and now this. Men can and will enter a new stage of evolution. But as per all instances of Men trying to play God, this will be a start of a downward spiral. Call me a pessimist on this issue if you will.

Power corrupts the minds of petty beings.

Ignorance is a sin

2006-10-02T19:02:00.000+04:00

Bishops reject Vatican abuse cover-up allegations

Monday October 2, 4:24 PM

By Deborah Haynes

LONDON (Reuters) - Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales rejected as "false and entirely misleading" a BBC documentary about what it said was a cover-up of child sexual abuse under a system enforced by Pope Benedict XVI in his previous job.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Catholic Church in the two countries, plans to write to Mark Thompson, director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) this week to protest about the programme, aired late on Sunday.

The documentary, by "Panorama", the BBC's flagship current affairs show, examined what it described as a secret document written in 1962 that sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

The document, called "Crimen Sollicitationis", imposes an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation and any witness. Breaking that oath would result in excommunication, the BBC said.

"The procedure was intended to protect a priest's reputation until the church had investigated, but in practice it can offer a blueprint for cover-up," the BBC documentary said.

"The man in charge of enforcing it for 20 years was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the man made Pope last year," reporter Colm O'Gorman said in the programme "Sex Crimes and the Vatican".
Ratzinger was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department that enforces doctrine, from 1981 until his election as Pope in April, 2005.

The Vatican said on Monday it was studying the transcript of the show but had no immediate comment.

Responding to the documentary, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham, central England, said the BBC should be "ashamed of the standard of the journalism used to create this unwarranted attack on Pope Benedict XVI".

He said there were two strands to the documentary, one highlighting cases of child abuse by priests -- a crime the Catholic Church dealt with seriously, carefully and with transparency -- the other attacking the Vatican.

"This aspect of the programme is false and entirely misleading," Nichols said in a statement endorsed by the bishops of England and Wales.

"It is false because it misrepresents two Vatican documents and uses them quite misleadingly in order to connect the horrors of child abuse to the person of the Pope." The second document cited by the BBC was a 2001 update of the original text.

The public broadcaster defended its documentary.

"The protection of children is clearly an issue of the strongest public interest," it said in a statement, responding to the bishops' criticism. "The BBC stands by tonight's 'Panorama' programme, and invites viewers to make up their own minds once they've seen it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

By making and broadcasting this programme, BBC had lent weight to the conspiracy theorists who have long accused the Catholic Faith of covering up for their clergy over their abuses.

Accuracy of accusations and the supporting documents will be unlikely to see the light unless there is a law suit. But then, there is no guarantee that the outcome will be the truth. The Catholic Faith is a powerful corporation which transcends a lot of jurisdiction. And many people have a lot of vested interest to maintain the integrity of this system. In the unlikely event that of a verdict for BBC, the lawsuits and backlash against the Faith would be tremendous.

The Faith by itself is innocent, just that its name is tainted by the people who managed the Faith. What else is new.

People like to quote that “ignorance is bliss”. I, for one, am sure that this is only a fallacy for people who, for some reasons, cannot handle the truth and its consequences. It’s a human tendency to ignore matters that does not affect them but does that mean we should let the affected suffer on their own ?

Running away will only cause the issue to come back and bite your ass.

This story is one such good example.

Related Link : Bishops condemn BBC abuse claim (2/10/06)

I need a pinch of salt.

2006-09-30T09:35:00.000+04:00

Singapore Locks Up Rights Lawyer in Mental Hospital

By Jaya Gibson
Epoch Times Staff deported to Sydney
Sep 28, 2006

Singapore authorities have forced the city-state's leading human rights attorney, Madasamy Ravi, into a psychiatric institution, The Epoch Times has learned. Ravi's hospitalization, which sources say is against his will, follows his legal defense of eleven Falun Gong practitioners in a series of cases which Ravi believes are politically motivated.

Falun Gong adherents believe the Singapore government is prosecuting the cases to please the Chinese communist regime, which persecutes Falun Gong.

Ravi was arrested on September 19, said his younger sister Seeniamah. Singapore officials arrested Ravi on the day he was to travel to Geneva to address the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Ravi had told The Epoch Times he would speak to the Council on Singapore court irregularities he had witnessed during his most recent defense of Falun Gong adherents in the Singapore Subordinate court, as well as on the court's lack of independence.

Two days later, he was sedated against his will and committed to Singapore's Adam Road Hospital, Seeniamah said.

In the days between Ravi's arrest and his commitment, he was released "conditionally" into the care of his family, said family members. Police then reportedly told Ravi's family that he would be jailed, and that they would have no access to him—unless they agreed to have him committed. Ravi's brother Sivam signed the commitment papers.

He does not suffer from mental illness, according to acquaintances.

A source close to Ravi, whose anonymity will be kept for safety reasons, managed to visit him on Thursday, September 22. Ravi appeared in good health, but said that he was being held against his will and wanted to be released immediately. Ravi said he "did not feel safe" at the hospital, said the source.

In 2005, Ravi did make a successful visit to the UN—to the now defunct Commission on Human Rights. There, he raised Singapore authorities' ire by successfully lobbying the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston to publicly speak out against a case of mandatory death sentencing in the city state.

Following his reporting on the Singapore trials of Falun Gong practitioners as well as the protests at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings in Singapore earlier this month, this reporter was regularly monitored and followed by local police.

Upon returning to Singapore after a brief trip to Europe, this reporter was detained by immigration authorities and deported to Australia on September 25. No reason was given for the deportation.

At the time of writing Ravi remains hospitalized. All attempts by The Epoch Times to gain access to him have been blocked by hospital officials. The Singapore state press has reported that the trial of Falun Gong practitioners will be postponed until next month as a result of his absence.

The trail was due to continue on Monday, September 25.

From Epoch Times

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related News

Today, 26/9/06: British Falungong journalist deported from Singapore: Falungong - from AFP
Today, 26/9/06 : Lawyer Ravi fails to keep another date

Blogs with related new or comments

i-speak, 27/9/06 - Miscellaneous
Singabloodypore, 27/9/06 - M. Ravi - Get Well Soon
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is quite a serious accusation by Epoch Times, which is Falun Gong linked newspaper. As someone who lives here, i can only hope that this is not true coz the alternative is too scary even for me. There is not much verifiable facts available now to form an opinion. Let see how this will develop in time.

To be updated.

Clinton slaughters the Fox

2006-09-25T13:07:00.000+04:00

Background : Fox Network is a known right-winged affiliated media network, i.e with the Republicans aka “Grand Old Party” (GOP).

Fox proposed to interview Clinton where it was agreed that the interview is to be half on The Clinton Global Initiative and half on any other things.

And the interviewer, Chris Wallace, tried to pin the blame on Bill Clinton for not doing enough, during his administration, to tackle terrorist threats and especially Osama. thus leading to some spectacular fireworks from Mr Clinton.

This is probably the Republicans’ strategy to deflect some of the fallout from the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq and terrorism, which represents the comprehensive consensus findings of the 16 US intelligence agencies. This report essentially finds that the US-led Iraq War worsens terrorism and Islamic extremism threats globally.

As Yahoo has reported, since the NIE report was out, the Democrats had seized upon the NIE to undermine the image fostered by current President George W. Bush and Republicans as the party best able to stop terrorism before November elections in which control of Congress is at stake. Thus leading to this embarrassing episode.

But man, was Chris Wallace slaughtered by Mr. Clinton who laid bare the hypocrisy of Fox Network.

Luckily I witnessed the incredible moment on Youtube before Fox Network forces the Youtube to take down this embarrassing footage.

Serve them right.

Luckily you can view the transcript and the video at these links.

One is not the President of the USA for nothing.

Addendum

A rebuttal from the current Administration. Obviously more will follow in time.

I'm inclined to believe Mr. Clinton on the "comprehensive anti-terror strategy" left by his administation but then the truth may never be totally clear in a media slug fest.

Addendum - an update

Guardian UK Report
Various views collected by CNN

Its official. Damage control time for the Republicans.

An ordinary week and some random thoughts

2006-09-23T09:42:00.000+04:00

Some random thoughts

IMF-World Bank Annual Meeting finally ended. Not really sure if I can believe our state media that we had really impressed our guests but there is no doubt that we didn’t gain the full benefits as touted by the administration. Now at least, we can finally go to Suntec and not get lost.

The Hong Lim Park Debacle helped CSJ gain some political mileage in his quest for freedom of speech and right to assembly on this red dot. Hopefully more people can see CSJ as a normal politician instead of a troublemaker as portrayed by the PAP and State Media. Here are 3 links to bloggers to have blogged about it. (1, 2, 3)

One may not agree with all his methods but you have to respect his tenacity in pursuing something that he believes in.

And then there’s the Pope’s clumsy slip-up seems to be abated judging by the events this week.

While their PM is out for meeting, the Thai Military staged a so-far-still-peaceful Coup, effectively throwing out the existing administration. There seems to be some protest by students this weekend where hopefully no blood will be spilled. Singaporean’s money might go down the drain due to Temask’s action in purchasing shares of Thailand’s national communication company which were owned by the deposed PM.

There’s a rumour in the wind that Ms Chua Sock Koong who took over the position of CEO at Singtel from Lee Hsien Yang was LKY’s niece. This is yet to be verified. Also till date, LHY never explained his sudden resignation from the top post.

The Taiwan street protest seems to be spilling out to this weekend. Will and should the current Taiwan’s president step down ?

The Verdict is still not out on the Lina Joy case in Malaysia that concerns Islamic conversion.

And 19 days to go before my last day with this Company.

‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,' – attributed to Voltaire

The Vatican Vs Muslims

2006-09-16T09:02:00.000+04:00

Apparently, during a lecture, the current Pope said some offending stuffs to Muslims yesterday.

And by today, there is a global outcry among the Muslim population.

No doubt this will be another controversy in this sensitive period. Would things blow up ?

I’m guessing no one vetted through the Pope’s notes properly. Mentioning the works of dead people who are considered bias seems insensitive. There seems to be a gap between the Vatican and the Muslims. It would be good if both sides can use this event to engage in dialogue as per the Pope’s original intentions.

But I can’t convince myself that no one would use this controversy for their own purposes thus resulting in tragedies.

To quote from the movie “ Miss Congeniality ” - World Peace !

Public Relations - PAP just dun learn

2006-09-16T07:15:00.000+04:00

Famous blogger, Yawning Bread, summed up the issue to a T on the current IMF-World Bank Annual Meeting 2006 fiasco and the current state of political affairs on this red dot.

In the face of all this, doesn’t PAP have some Public Relations people on the standby to manage all this backlash ?

If PAP dun buckle up (although it might have been already too late), instead of the MICE that this government is hoping that this island will become, it will be a mice as in a 过街老鼠 which will be mentioned in the same bad breath together whenever restrictions of freedom of speech debate is mentioned globally.

I particularly like this phrase from Yawning Bread :

“(By the way, many Singaporeans think that "upholding the law" means enforcing rules and clamping down. That only shows how brainwashed we've all been. "Upholding the law" means defending our legal rights and freedoms against those who would trample on those rights and freedoms, be they robbers, kidnappers or politicians.) "

4 more days till the IMF-World Bank Annual Meeting closes. Will the Red Dot’s reputation survive till 20th September 2006 ?

To digress a bit, I hope people also dun neglect the discussions and results from this meeting, because the repercussions affect everybody globally.

Addendum 01

It just occured to me... The SDP's protest march today... besides the fact that his gang will be rounded up, what will happen if some IMF-World Bank / NGO, CSO people decided to join the event ?

World Press Photo 2006

2006-09-12T06:18:00.000+04:00

On display at the new National Library.

Thanks to a friend for mentioning this exhibition, otherwise it might have escaped my notice, thus missing out on an impact-ful exhibition.

Even viewing the pictures on their official website brought about raw emotions and critical evaluation of my tiny world view. Can’t wait to visit them later this week.

Personally I can’t imagine myself keeping a firm grip on a camera while taking such beautiful yet tragic photos, which is probably why I’m not a good photographer bah. How does one separate your emotions in the face of tragedy and capture the moment?

A picture really says a thousand words, if not better.

The Fallout before 9/11

2006-09-09T06:16:00.001+04:00

The IMF-World Bank Saga Exploded 2 days before the infamous 9/11.

The Intelligent Singaporean has all the reports.

But it makes you wonder, if this Red Dot did receive any “substantiate“ threats that make the local authorities this edgy, besides the fact that this is near to a sensitive time. Maybe they did but are just keeping it quiet ?

Let see how it plays out in the end as an Authoritarian State / Host is embrassed by its Client. Will how many of all the supposed 16,000 visitors really come at all? The show will go on lah, however it will be less crowded ?

My day has just started some more.

4 million smiles are just ain't enough.

2006-09-08T14:10:00.000+04:00

Singapore under fire as World Bank-IMF protest, 8th September 06

Naked Truth - Protesters say S'pore will deport them, 8th September 06

The Sound Of Silence, I-S Magazine, 8th September 06

Gloom in Hotel Lobbies, 8th September 06

With all the negative publicity generated, would you be surprised if less than expected number of visitors actually came ? Will they come with their family and spend all their money here or will they just come for the conference and return back home / go else where immediately ?

One thing for sure, this gov't doesn't know how to do good PR.

IMHO, I think the supposed protests or demostrations that will come and "disrupt our sheltered island lives" can be effectively managed by changing the mode of their delivery. We could give permits to the NGOs and CSOs to do their speeches and discussions at our Hong Lim Park (i.e the defuncted Speaker's Corner) where it is supposedly there for. Then, while they are in the area, these guys can stroll into Chinatown or the nearby Boat Quay to help boost our economy here and stuff.

By concentrating them into one area, monitoring would be easier for the men in blues. And if the Red Dot can pull this off, the positive publicity generated will do us good in the long run. Instead, our uncreative adminstrators just do the lazy thing by shutting these people out.

Sometimes 4 million smiles are just ain't enough.

Swallowing, a Double Entendre

2006-09-08T09:28:00.000+04:00

Coutesy of Imedeen

When will the Prudes ever learnt to open up ? (Pun intended)

Crikey !

2006-09-04T15:16:00.000+04:00

Steve Irwin

(22nd February 1962 - 4th September 2006)

Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray while shooting a documentary in the sea.

Its ironic and a pity, but, in a weird way, fitting that he went because of an animal.

Its a reminder that, in spite of all the things that Man had achieved, nature is something unpredictable and cannot be tamed that easily.

Nevertheless, my condolences to his Wife and Kids.

The World just lost an entertainer, environmentalist / naturalist and a Role Model.

No news on Joy. Again.

2006-09-04T15:08:00.000+04:00

How long will the Malaysia’s Judicial System take to make a decision?

Incidentally, as I was searching around for new updates on the Islam conversion Case in Malaysia’s court regarding Lina Joy; I found that a blogger Maobi actually comment my post on this issue as surreal under the post “Carnival of Joy Day 4”. I’m cool with that.

What’s cooler is that this blogger bothered to gather the links to various other blogs that commented on this issue.

The eventual decision and its rationale by the Malaysia would be interesting, no matter which way the decision falls. What would be more interesting would be the ramifications thereafter in the Islamic World.

As before, we shall wait (again) to see.

She’s a Virgo

2006-09-04T04:48:00.000+04:00

Name : I know but will let Uncle Kwok announce to the world

DOB : 3rd September 2006 (Chinese Dog Year)

Location : Mount Alvernia Hospital

Weight : 3.19 kg

The relieved Mother, the blessed Princess and the stressed Father (now Uncle) are all fine.

Photo? No need lah, there will be more than enough of that coming from the new parents soon enough.

Killing Time with Flash

2006-09-01T08:17:00.000+04:00

Added a link to my frequented flash game site.

Batman Returns (1992)

2006-08-29T14:44:00.000+04:00

Nothing else interesting on TV so i caught the above.

"Batman : Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it.

Catwoman : : A kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it."

How true.

Talking Cock in Parliament 2006

2006-08-28T15:01:00.000+04:00

Couldn't make it but luckily some kind soul took video of the whole event and post it on youtube. Damn funny, laugh until tears man... Must try to make it next time. Click this link or the one in front to experience the talk cock session. hee hee... A good review of the event can be found at IndigNation.

Damn funny.

Shameful China Human Right Abuses

2006-08-25T04:34:00.000+04:00

From Yahoo by AFP:

Thursday August 24, 11:46 PM

China jails activist who exposed birth control abuses

China sentenced a blind activist who exposed forced abortions and other abuses of the nation's one-child policy to over four years in jail, prompting outrage from his wife and supporters.

A court in east China's Shandong province sentenced Chen Guangcheng, 34, to four years and three months on charges of "wilfully damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic," the Xinhua news agency said.

A court employee confirmed the sentence when contacted by AFP.

"This is completely unreasonable and against the law," said Chen's chief lawyer Xu Zhiyong, who was barred from attending the half-day trial on Friday last week.

"This definitely affects China's image and its claims as a country ruled by law."

Chen ran into trouble with authorities in Shandong's Linyi city last year after accusing them of forcing many women to be sterilized and have abortions as late as eight months into their pregnancy.

China's controversial population control policy that has been in place for the past 25 years is aimed at restricting urban couples to having one child and rural parents to two.

The central government officially condones only economic sanctions against violators of the policy but human rights groups have long complained that much harsher penalties are regularly carried out.

China's national family planning agency said after Chen's expose that Linyi authorities had indeed carried out some extreme measures and promised disciplinary action, but no punishments have been made public.

Instead Chen, a self-taught lawyer, was formally charged in June this year after villagers protesting police abuse of him clashed with authorities in February and March.

Chinese activists and human rights groups have repeatedly said the charges were laid against Chen to silence and punish him for exposing the violations of the one-child policy.

Chen's lawyer and family said on Thursday that Chen's trial should have been cancelled when he rejected the court-appointed lawyers.

They maintained the verdict, which they only learned about from foreign journalists, was a gross violation of China's laws.

Six villagers arrested with Chen on the same charges have all been released, including three who were sent home Thursday, a clear sign that the authorities wanted to target Chen for his boldness, his wife, Yuan Weijing, said.

"This shows they justed wanted to seek revenge against Chen Guangcheng because he spoke out against the savagery of the family planning officials," Yuan said.

"I want to tell the world Guangcheng is innocent. He carried out a lot of investigations and he reported what happened to the victims, some of whom are our relatives. I will continue to stand by him."

She said his family would appeal the sentence.

The three villagers released Thursday each received a seven-month sentence suspended for a year. They had already been jailed for half a year, Yuan said.

They told her that while in jail they were beaten and forced to sign statements accusing Chen of inciting them to smash the windows of police vehicles during the February scuffle.

Chen's plight has received international attention for revealing the continuing abuses of China's one-child policy, as well as Beijing's lack of tolerance for rights defenders.

Time magazine this year named Chen one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Human rights experts said Chen's case appeared to be part of a government-ordered crackdown against a growing number of lawyers and rights defenders who are speaking out against injustices.

"The purpose of this is also to send a message that the state does not accept legal constraints, legal challenges to its actions," said Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Well-known human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was also arrested this month. He had demanded Chinese leaders stop persecuting members of the banned Falungong spiritual movement. - AFP

Hard Gay is married !

2006-08-24T21:01:00.000+04:00

Foooooo!!!

My fav japanese got married to his chio girlfriend on 8th August 2006. Kudos to my friend for telling me. hee hee

Copying from a website :

"Japanese comedian Masaki Sumitani, who rocketed into the spotlight in Japan in 2005 by playing the goofy character Razor Ramon HG (Hard Gay), surprised his fans by marrying 23 year old model Suzuki Anna on August 8th.

Contrary to his funny, hip-thrusting screen image, Masaki is in real life a really quiet guy. According to his new mother-in-law, when the hunky guy asked for her daughter's hand, "he spoke so quietly that he had to repeat himself three times before I could hear him.". It was reported that Masaki tries hard to keep his life separate with his TV character, but whenever his fans have a request, the good-natured person would go back into his dressing room and come back out as HG for them."

Can't find any picture of the newly-weds... butthis is her :

Anna Suzuki

My friend asked me to get my japanese colleagues to get some of his merchandise like his key chain or the infamous Tomy toy. Hopefully some of them are going back home soon. hee hee...

Hard Gay Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu

Hard Gay Thrusting Key Chain

But started to "hear" his popularity being affected. maybe he could market himself as bisexual ? Anyway his act is likely only a one time fad and he's probably smart enough to 见好就收. If you ask me, he has probably gained more with this marriage than what he may had lost over it.

Foo~~~~~!!!

我也爱金三顺

2006-08-23T20:49:00.000+04:00

Channel U reported that this South Korean drama 我叫金三顺 gathered more viewers than 大长今 back in South Korean.

Five episodes later, there is no dispute. Damn Funny. One of the better korean dramas i have seen. Hopefully it dun get too draggy near the end. Apparently this drama is credited with helping to bring about a social revolution for Korean women. Let hope this lasts.

A quote :

“Dance like no one's watching.
Sing like no one's listening.
Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt before.
Live like there's no tomorrow.”

Scientology Vs South Park.

2006-08-20T13:13:00.000+04:00

Yahoo News ran a report by Reuters annoucing that South Park lost out to The Simpsons on an Emmy because Emmy voters, apparently, shied away from giving the prize to "South Park" for an episode lampooning Scientology and Tom Cruise.

According to Wikipedia, which has a article on Scientology , Scientolgy has the "Hidden Truth" about the nature of the universe which is taught to only the most advanced Scientologists. If i'm not wrong, South Park actually gave out this "secret knowledge" in the episode titled "Trapped in the Closet". You can view the this episode at Youtube (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

Personally, i love both South Park and Simpsons so it doesn't really matter to me who got that Emmy. What i'm amused is the alleged reason reported.

Is Scientology becoming that strong in USA or is this just an isolated case ? Only time will tell...

The only sad thing that is that The Simpsons's "The Seemingly Neverending Story" din even got featured on Youtube as the controversy took over the Emmy Award.

All is One, All is not One.

2006-08-18T14:03:00.000+04:00

While Rikkõ, a high government official of the T'ang dynasty, had a talk with his Zen master, Nansen, the official quoted a saying of Sõjõ, a noted monk scholar of an earlier dynasty:

"Heaven and earth and I are of the same root (天地与我同根),
The ten-thousand things and I are of one substance (万物与我为一)."

and continued, 'Is not this a most remarkable statement?'

Nansen called the attention of the visitor to the flowering plant in the garden and said,

"People of the world look at these flowers as if they were in a dream （凡人见此花如在春梦）. "

What did Porky Pig do wrong ?

2006-08-16T15:23:00.000+04:00

In Yahoo News and today’s Today, I read about this Malay lady over the bridge that wanted her gov’t to officially document her conversion from Islam to Christianity by changing her identity card (story is reproduced below, courtesy of Yahoo & Reuters). If this lady is in Afghanistan, her fate might not be the same as her lucky Afghan compatriot, Abdul Rahman, who is now safely practicing his religion while eating pizzas.

Her gov’t is supposedly answering to her lawyer today. At this sensitive time and age, such matters are not altogether unheard of; except that its usually very hush-hush; that is until now. Coz according to today’s Today, the ruling should be out today.

This case will be a litmus test and a significant milestone in Islam and to the world as Malaysia is a "secular" country with a largely Muslim population that professes to taking up a moderate Islamic stance, in spite evidence of growing trends, reviving interest in Islam, suggesting a move towards an Islamic State.

Let’s wait and see.

While chatting about the above with my moderate muslim colleague, I brought up the topic of pork and Islam. Being a moderate muslim, her view was that this issue was a health issue provided for in the Quran for muslim to follow as expounded in the following links :

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=20060614131638AANi5dv
http://www.webziner.com/islam/whypork.htm
http://www.brain.net.pk/~medimind/unlawful_edibles_in_islam.htm
http://www.islamicaweb.com/archive/t-36107
http://www.whyislam.org/Forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3300
http://www.beautifulislam.net/health/pork_forbidden.htm

Amusingly in the Christian Bible and Jewish Torah, pork is also mentioned as a forbidden food source. So what happened to Christians and these Lost People ?

If you read all the above links, there is another view that pork or alcohol or gambling are prohibited just only because the Koran / Muslim God / Prophet says so and the reasons behind this ban does not matter. It is simply the Muslim God’s view….. Interesting example of blind faith... but hopefully not that wide spread else where.

Doubt that I will give up meat anytime soon though.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday August 13, 8:43 AM

Malaysia braces for ruling on Islam conversion

By Jalil Hamid and Liau Y-Sing

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Malaysia is expecting a court ruling any day now that could shake society to its foundations: does a Muslim have the right to convert to another faith?

A Muslim by birth, Lina Joy decided to become a Christian, marry and raise a family. But in Malaysia, where Islam is the official religion, this is an affair of state, not conscience.

The 42-year-old has asked the Federal Court, the country's highest civil judicial authority, to acknowledge her decision to convert to Christianity and is now awaiting a verdict.

Whatever the outcome, the decision could pose a headache for a government that is trying to meet the demands of the majority Muslim population and the sizeable minority of non-Muslims.

"The fundamental question in Lina's case is whether Muslims in this country can convert?" said political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda.

It's a tricky legal question in multiracial, multi-religious Malaysia. Ethnic Malays, who make up just over half of Malaysia's 26 million people, are deemed Muslims from birth.
Azlina Jailani was one of them. She was brought up as a Muslim but at the age of 26 she decided to become a Christian.

In 1999, the National Registration Department allowed her to change the name in her identity card to Lina Joy but the ID entry for her religion remained as "Islam".

Until the entry is deleted, she cannot legally marry outside the Muslim faith. The legal wrangling began when she took the department to court over the anomaly.

Joy could not be reached for comment.

Constitutionally, freedom of religion is guaranteed. But in reality, conversion out of Islam comes under the ambit of sharia or Islamic courts. And under sharia law, renouncing the Islamic faith is punishable by fines or jail. It isn't an option.

'POLITICAL DYNAMITE'

Muslims who leave Islam end up in legal limbo, unable to register their new religious affiliations or to legally marry non-Muslims. Many keep quiet about their choice or emigrate.

A court victory for Joy could be explosive.

"It's political dynamite. It will create instability," Abdul Razak said. "For decades, the position of Malays and Muslims have been guaranteed.

"It will open the floodgates. Now you see Malays are going to convert and the government sanctions that. Definitely there will be a huge backlash and PAS is going to town with it."

Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), the country's biggest Islamic opposition party, agrees.
"It will be a bad precedent," PAS deputy chief Nasharuddin Mat Isa told Reuters. "It will create some uneasiness in the Malay community. It could lead to demonstrations."

The influential Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia, the Muslim youth group once led by former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, wrote a letter asking the Federal Court to dismiss the appeal.

"Allowing Malays to leave Islam automatically will erode the status, the rights and the privileges of Malays," it said.

But a ruling against Joy could also inflame opinion among non-Muslims, who are already aggrieved over what they see as the gradual encroachment of Islamic law into civil society.

"If they rule against Lina Joy, the whole question of religious liberty -- the freedom of conscience, choice, expression and thought of an individual -- will be greatly affected," said Wong Kim Kong, secretary-general of the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship Malaysia, which represents about two-thirds of Malaysia's roughly 4,000 churches.

But he agreed that a court victory for Joy could spark a Muslim backlash. "This group may sow discord or even create public disorder that will result in greater polarisation of the races and religion in the country," Wong said.

For Islamic scholars, Joy cannot win.

"If Islam were to grant permission for Muslims to change religion at will, it would imply it has no dignity, no self-esteem," said Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad, senior fellow at Malaysia's Institute of Islamic Understanding. "

And people may then question its completeness, truthfulness and perfection."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An afterthought.

With the world as it is today, Islam is wrongfully stained from inhumane acts by Religious Fundamentalists who misuse their religion for one reason or another. Compound with the fact that Islam is some sort of a closed culture, many misperceptions and mis-understandings will be propagated among non-Muslims and Muslins themselves until it is too late for any reconciliation.

As much as it is for non-Muslim to use their brains to think through falsehood, Muslims should take actions to educate others about their faith before all Muslims are viewed as fundamentalist and actually turn out as one.

Essentially, this is a clash of Ideologies. Whilst there is no magical pill to solve all human to human problems, in my humble opinion, since the Cold War can actually end, there is no reason this couldn’t. That is unless the reconciliation takes too long and the whole world is already ravaged by war then. Hee Hee…

Reality of a Marriage

2006-08-15T13:15:00.000+04:00

Found this blog from Tomorrow. This blogger's entry regarding his current decision against getting married in the future actually deserves a read coz it brings up some interesting points to ponder upon when the time comes for any guy.

Hair for Hope 2006 Postmortem

2006-08-14T04:18:00.000+04:00

The Result - $ 300. Yes, exact.

Could have gotten more though. Apparently among the sample group, i.e most of my friends, do not trust electronic transactions due perceptions of it being unsecured and too troublesome. All wanted to donate but could not hammer down a time to meet up. As a positive thinker with pessimistic streak, I like to think positively that these friends are all internet savvy but are just not confident of conducting electronic transaction due to the gov’t’s lousy effort in promoting it; even if they are always booking air tickets online.

Better than thinking otherwise, I say. Ha ha ha ;)

How much is your freedom worth ?

2006-08-12T11:35:00.000+04:00

Premiering last night past midnight on our local shore is the new reality programme by Fox titled “Unan1mous”.

9 contestants are locked in bunker with no sunlight, no outside contact, and not being able to know what time it is (i.e like in jail except the facilities are larger with beds, showers, hall etc). Under these conditions they have to all decide unanimously who will get $1.5 million, but as they fail to make a unanimous decision the money goes down $1 every second and many twists and turns are thrown at them.

This show ended with 8 persons after 8 episodes. Not really sure how long whole thing took before everyone couldn’t stand each other and wanted to get out. Ha ha

The concept is fairly good except that the execution of the programme is lousy, i.e looks fake and frictional.

Anyway, this show brought about a discussion between my father and I. Can anyone survive in a prison environment for 2 million dollars for a period of…. say 2 years ? We all hear of people going to jail for money for whatever reasons, but if given a choice, would these people give up the money for their freedom?

To put it more concretely, for 2 years (2 x 365 days) and 2 million Singaporean dollars, the participant would be not be allowed outside a enclosed prison cell of say 25 sq m with artificial lighting (no sunlight), toilet and shower facilities, and also 3 meals a days (Water is available through a tap and food is introduced through a slot on the door.); but no external contact, no knowledge of time, and no reading materials will be given. Also no camera will be installed in the ceil so that the participant is truly by himself. The door to this ceil will only open for 2 occasions. One would be upon 2 years where the participant is allowed to leave with his 2 million dollars; the other would be when the participant gives up at any point of time and forfeit the money for his freedom within the 2 years.

The crux of this theoretical exercise is simply : How much is your freedom worth even if you are greedy?

In such circumstances, will anyone get the 2 million dollars and be sane enough to spend it?

Week 1

2006-08-06T09:41:00.000+04:00

1 mm perhaps ? hee hee...

Hair for Hope 2006 again

2006-07-31T08:32:00.000+04:00

Went down to Suntec with my NS room mate who registered.

And since they allow walk-in volunteers, so i parted hairs. hee hee

Seriously, i really look like a monk.

Watched 龙虎门 with my friend after the shave. Simple storyline with lots of computer effects. Think one or two of the scences was inspired from The Matrix. Overall, its an entertaining show for a lazy Sunday, especially if you grew up with HongKong martial arts comics. ha ha

It is only with this NS friend of mine that i would get the chance to be the deviant that i am. Somehow, we just enjoy the same weird things. ha ha ha

Saving Some People with Money

2006-07-26T04:03:00.000+04:00

An Article from The Guardian 20-7-06

[Wealth and Experience

Bill Gates is the world's richest man, pledged to tackle poverty and disease in the planet's poorest continent. But what happens when the awkward billionaire faces the sick and poor of the townships - and the brighter warmth of Bill Clinton's mission? Sarah Boseley reports

Thursday July 20, 2006
The Guardian

The Thingathinga family live in a corrugated iron shack with no sanitation among thousands of other brightly painted corrugated iron shacks on the outskirts of Cape Town. Ten people, five of them children, share three dark rooms and nobody earns any money. They are among the poorest people on the planet. Last week, the richest man in the world walked in through their door.

Bill and Melinda Gates, with an air of slight embarrassment, sat on a low wooden bench in the middle of the dark room, surreally reminiscent of nervous interviewees on a breakfast TV sofa. Before their arrival, Nkosepaca, the 60-year-old head of the family, had hauled himself across the floor and into a makeshift wheelchair at one end of the bench. He lost both legs above the knee when he fell off a crowded train a couple of years ago, and the stumps were tied up with filthy rags. Gates, whose personal wealth exceeds $40bn (£22bn), sat next to him, hands in his lap, eyes lowered below his baseball cap and feet wedged behind one of the chair's wheels, which might once have belonged to a bicycle.

How were they to make conversation? Bill and Melinda Gates, whose charitable foundation takes as its premise that all lives have equal value, struggled to connect. They were there to talk about tuberculosis, because the foundation is putting millions into research to replace the ancient and inadequate BCG vaccine and find new drugs to shorten the six-month treatment time. Nkosepaca has had TB four times, infected by different strains of the bacterium - something which it later appeared had fascinated Bill Gates, who was to raise it with scientists again and again, asking what the implications were for a vaccine.

But faced with the man, he was silent and it was his wife Melinda who tried politely to engage Nkosepaca about his health, and who lit up with real warmth as she caught the eye of a wild-haired, fidgety granddaughter or a big-eyed baby. When his turn came to ask a question, Gates, looking less than comfortable, resorted to numbers.

"How many people live here?" he asked in that staccato voice that carries all the feeling of a computer chip, followed by: "How long have you had electricity?" (The answer was six years.)

The Gateses were on their first tour in South Africa since Bill announced he would step aside from Microsoft (although only reducing his involvement, he says) in 2008 and the billionaire financier Warren Buffet announced he would give the $30bn foundation most of his fortune - effectively doubling it in size.

The family had no idea of the vast wealth at Gates's disposal. "Do you know who he is?" I asked them. They shook their heads. "Or why he has come?" No clue. But as most destitute Africans reasonably do, faced with a white, well-fed foreigner, Nkosepaca asked him for help. "He asks if anybody can help us because the money we're getting is too little to sustain a family," translated a young man from the Desmond Tutu TB Centre at Stellenbosch University, which had arranged the visit. Later, one of the daughters spoke up. "I just want to know whether you can help our father," said 25-year-old Kutala quietly in English from the back of the room.

"We came for a visit," answered Melinda. "We certainly will do something to help your family because you have been so hospitable today."

If they chose, they could propel this family and many like them into prosperity with a nod. They could buy them food, a new house, clothes, education for the children and never notice a difference in the bank balance. It's an instinctual reaction, they say, but it's not the right one. Gates calls it "a kind of a retail approach where you say, 'OK, just the people I've seen - I'll help them.' It's like saying, 'OK, the ones I haven't seen don't matter - just the ones I've seen matter.'"

"We do a special gift for the houses that we go into, but that's more out of courtesy. It isn't how you can change the basic phenomenon that we've got here."

Melinda agrees, but with an emotional underlay. "I don't think you ever go into a place like this and leave without thinking about the individual. I've gone into some of the orphanages where you'd like to take all the children home with you. But then you have to always try and upscale from there and say, 'OK, if I help just that one child, what am I doing for the entire cause?'"

Gates has the ability to ring-fence a problem and focus his formidable mental energies on solving it. He moves it into a detached dimension, where he can be scientifically rational. Emotion does not get in the way. Confronted with the poverty and suffering of individuals, most people do not feel like that. In the little shack, as the Gateses run out of questions, Nulda Beyers, the professor at the Desmond Tutu TB Centre who has arranged the visit to the township of Khayelitsha, begins to prompt Nkosepaca. There are things that matter to her and that she clearly thinks Bill and Melinda ought to know. In the room are three young women with four small children between them. "Where are all the men?" she asks the old man.

"All the boys are on the street. They won't support their kids," he answers.

She pushes it further, with real feeling in her voice. "It's a big problem. The men run away. What advice can you give us for your daughters and their children? How can we make the men more responsible?"

"The men must support their kids. They are a gift from God," comes the answer.

Gates has not been following. "Where are the men? Are they gone?" he asks. The question relates to the messy world outside the clinical parameters of the development of vaccines and drugs for TB. But Melinda is there. "They won't come here because they have to face up to the fact they have to support the family?"

Of course, the Gateses know the social and economic realities of life in townships. Gates recalls his visit to Soweto, where he took a computer and then realised that the failure of electricity to power it was not the most urgent issue in people's lives. The pressing problems beyond the scientific challenges of new medicines have led the couple to set up a global development programme, but he does not have a clear vision of where it is going.

"In health, there are incredible solutions like vaccinations where, with an upfront investment, you can dramatically change a disease. In some of these other issues about jobs, motivation, education, it's not as clear what the dramatic impact is in those areas, but certainly we're thinking about it," he says. Clean water and improving crops - "so many people talk about being hungry" - are two of the items on the agenda.

He prefers philanthropy performed with technical discipline; altruism run like a multi-billion-dollar business. It will probably get results - perhaps spectacular results - but Gates is never going to be a crowd-pleaser.

Two days later, the relatively modest Gates entourage is swallowed by a whale. Bill and Melinda's fact-finding trip links up with Bill Clinton's Africa tour. Clinton is doing five countries in seven days. It's Wednesday, so it must be Lesotho - the tiny state within a state whose tribe held out in the mountains when the British took the rest of South Africa. It is proud and it is dirt-poor and suddenly there are three huge private jets on the Maseru airstrip - probably more planes than have ever been there at one time before.

Ex-presidential philanthropy looks different from that of software billionaires. Gates has his own private plane, naturally, but Clinton has two bigger ones, loaned by people richer than himself. And his millionaire backers come along for the ride, bewitched by the Clinton charisma but with nobody much to talk to. The small man with prematurely white hair and dark glasses is Frank Giustra, the Canadian financier and head of Lion's Gate Entertainment. The big man in the vibrantly striped shirt is Karl Heinz Körgel, a German media mogul - though his pilot needs some sleep, so the 15 or more journalists and camera crews following Clinton, together with a more modest four writers accompanying Gates, are temporarily on a plane leased from the president of Djibouti. It has a double bed at the back and sofas with seat belts that are mostly ignored and as we take off, Ira Magaziner, who runs the global health side of the Clinton Foundation, is perched on the side of an armchair. We sit on the table or floor to hear his briefing and catch cans of cold Coke before they slide away. There is something of a party atmosphere.

The good humour lingers on as an extraordinary cavalcade of 10 or more white cars with tinted windows and police escort screeches across a parched landscape of failed maize crops and dry grass, with hardly more than a few handfuls of bemused local farmers to notice. Lesotho has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world, at somewhere between 23% and 31% of young adults. We are headed for an Aids clinic which, with Clinton Foundation backing, is now offering drug treatment not just to adults but also to children. Few disagree that Clinton already has made a significant difference to Aids treatment, using his name and standing and the expertise he can command to force down the price of drugs.

And suddenly there is the former US president, in the middle of a crowded courtyard at Mafeteng hospital. Clinton has emerged from a private meeting with a small girl twisting and spinning from his hands. Arriet, six, is the first child to receive antiretroviral drugs here. She has been on them for eight months, is clearly very well and Clinton knows exactly how to handle her. She does not want to talk but gets interested in my camera, so I let her look through the viewfinder and then take her picture, while Clinton bends down to get in the shot. I show it to her and she laughs and laughs.

It is very well done. Even his security guards, the bristling, dark-suited heavies with earpieces who talk into their sleeves, melt away around the former president so you are left as if alone with him. Clinton is relaxed and warm. He lingers; he has time for everyone. He seems to have a genuine liking for people. He gives a speech of thanks at the clinic and all around people are loving him, while Bill and Melinda stand alongside, fading into the background.

You believe that Clinton cares. The focus on the human, on the individual, the stories about the brother and sister in the Bahamas for whom he got Aids drugs and whom he visits every year tell you that. And he banks the adulation and approbation to use as leverage later on.

Gates now shares platforms with world leaders, but you sense he talks numbers with them. So many lives potentially saveable. So many millions for a vaccine. He does not do human and he does not want to do politics. "Politics is a dangerous word," he says. "We're involved in working with governments to talk to them about how rich governments can make their aid money be used more effectively and encourage them to do more aid. We're involved with developing-world governments in terms of trying pilot programmes and, when something works, encouraging them to replicate that. I make a distinction between that and politics."

Some might argue for a moral imperative to get into the political argument in South Africa, where the health minister supports lemon and garlic as a cure for Aids and millions are set to die while the treatment plan is slowly, grudgingly rolled out. Gates says what has been achieved so far is due to the activists and the press. But he is meeting the deputy president privately later that day and is waiting to hear whether he will be talking to President Mbeki in person or on the phone.

"Hopefully we say good things and get them excited about doing more on these issues," he says. "Any ideas we have about the way things can improve, we will share."

"We're not the activists," Melinda goes on. "The press is the press and the activists are the activists. In private we can share whatever thoughts we might have."

Privacy matters. The Gateses will do what they have to do on the public stage to advance Microsoft or the foundation, but beyond that they do not seek attention. Their philanthropy is a family ideal, handed on from their parents. They intend that their own children should understand what it means to be less equal. Their two older children were in South Africa with them, hidden from the press. On the day after the visit to the Thingathinga family, the Gateses took 10-year-old Jennifer and seven-year-old Rory to see the crowded corrugated iron homes of Khayelitsha for themselves. "We talk at the dinner table about these issues. We think as a family we have a responsibility to give back to the world," says Melinda. If the children want to participate in the foundation, well and good, she says, but "I hope that when they grow up they will follow their own passion. They need to lead their own lives."

She talks about feeling great "as a mom" when she sees tiny babies whose lives are safer for the vaccines the foundation has funded. Gates compares the human body to a computer system. "The human body is the most interesting system," he says. "It is the most complex system." He has been reading books on the immune system since he was 32, adds Melinda, with the faintest whisper of humour. While the best job he could have in the world is the one he has, says Gates, the second best would be discovering new medicines. "It is a field that is changing. You get new tools all the time. You can have a huge impact. The kind of work and thinking that goes on is very like software," he says.

He is excited, energised, by the ideas of brilliant scientists who must think him a 21st-century messiah. Who else is going to fund their money-losing, world-saving ideas? Gates says what would be unthinkable at Microsoft. "We can afford to have a lot of failures. We're going to have a lot of failures. I will not stop working on malaria, TB or Aids because of failures."

The Buffet money means that he can gamble more millions than he expected. Extraordinarily, he is capable of counting the pennies one moment and throwing vast sums at unpredictable prospects the next. He asks prices, wants to know whether they take credit or just cash behind the wire netting in the Khayelitsha shops. But on arguably the hardest scientific challenge in medicine today, which could easily cost him billions, he says: "We're not going to give up working on an Aids vaccine. Not in my lifetime." And when I ask if he could reach a point when he will decide that too much money has been spent with nothing to show for it, he answers with what passes for a laugh: "Ask me in 30 years' time."

Regardless of anyone's views on Microsoft's business practices, it is an attitude that has to command respect. As he says himself, no government facing election every four years would take such risks. He is not standing in for rich governments - he is doing what they do not dare to do. If this is what philanthropy is about in our times, perhaps we should just be glad. ]

The End

Afterthoughts

Went to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website to check out the organization’s visions and stuff. What the foundation is trying to do is of course commendable. At the moment, over 10 billions dollars have been given for purposes approved

We all heard the old saying that “Money isn't everything”. In this instance, having the largest fund possible in the world or having almost unlimited cash still isn't enough to solve any problems or bring about immediate or foreseeable relieves to those that matter. All things take time, especially social, environmental and political problems.

Gates's method of using money to solve the world's problem is a practical one but it lacks the human touch. Managing expectations should also be essential part in any of their endeavors. Humans being humans, are a greedy and impatient lot who demands immediate self-gratification and ignore suffering of others.

In the long run, curing all disease like cancer, AIDS or even flu is an admirable endeavor but more humans are wiped off through war than any other major disease outbreak. Will eliminating all disease / illness help to make the world a better place by having people live longer naturally? Not if they are suffering from the ravages of war or living under oppressive regimes or corrupted administration. Probably the only people that will reap the benefits are those that are already comfortably living in their air-conditioned cocoons.

Does building more schools or generally improve education levels help to make the world a better place? Probably only the people in first world country would benefit from the cheap labour but educated work force that comes about. What about the university graduates who, in the end, still need to export themselves to foreign lands as maids, construction workers to earn a decent living?

So. Is what the Gates trying to achieve an exercise in futility? Of course not. It brings relieves to people who need it, even if these needy people are more accessible and visible. Helping everyone in the world is impossible even if you have unlimited resources because there are many uncontrollable factors involved.

As long the Gates stay to their guide lines in doing their charity work in their little cocoon and dun try to solve poverty problem of those living in the poorest countries in the world, I guess what they are doing is fine.

The day may come where one has to make a political stand on some of the poor goverance still exisiting around the world, then, then what will this foundation do ?

He's The Murderer

2006-07-24T08:02:00.000+04:00

He's The Murderer by PhilliPah (DeviantArt)

Bush Veto Stem Cell Bill

2006-07-21T15:59:00.000+04:00

"On this 20th, President George W Bush exercised this veto rights to the legislation to increase the funding of research using human embryo cells to fight serious illnesses, stoking a fraught emotional and ethical debate.

Supporters of the Bill say it would allow research only on cells created in fertility clinics which would otherwise be thrown away, but President Bush claims the legislation would have supported the use of human beings as scientific material.

Is it acceptable to use embryo cells to seek a cure for devastating illnesses such as Alzheimer's, or is such research a violation of human life? " - from The Telegraph.Co.UK.

6 interesting comments on the Telegraph website :

1

Stem cells are the building bricks of our bodies - able to be whatever kind of tissue we need - and without the rejection issues other forms of organ replacement lead to with recipients. This research has the ultimate potential of making it possible to cure any illness, repair or replace any worn out body parts - in short enable someone to live forever. Science fiction? No a reasonable extrapolation of what we know so far about stem cells from research. So we have the technology on the way - the other side of the equation is obvious - who will have the cash? Stem cells may achieve wonderful things but are they for all - or will the full power of what they may prove able to do be reserved only for the super-rich? Private health care has always been able to offer a bit more than the limits of state health care systems - that is why it thrives even today in Britain with the most expensive NHS model in the world. If we are to pursue stem cell research we need to determine where it is going and whether it is to be for mass cures available to all - or amazing feats of bio-engineering for the few - and if by that we mean the few who can pay.Posted by simon coulter on July 20, 2006 3:31 PM

2

All of the medical advances in stem cells have been in adult stem cells, why do people want to continue dead end research in embryonic stem cell research? Posted by Richard T. Ketchum on July 20, 2006

3

President Bush did the right thing and should use his veto power more often to put a stop to unnecessary spending. Most of the negative comments (see Vivian Philips's remarks as an example) miss the real issue: spending tax money to support controversial research is neither acceptable to many taxpayers nor is it necessary. Most funding for disease and prevention research comes from the private sector, and already millions have been raised to fund stem cell research and many universities, including Harvard, with its enormous endowment, have established privately funded stem cell research centers. Government should spend its money on public works, education and defence and not in places where private money can and will do a better job, as the history of failed government projects has proved.Posted by jay williams, jr. on July 20, 2006 2:24 PM

4

To imply that anyone who is opposed to embryonic stem cell research is some kind of religious lunatic is deeply insulting. I am not of any religious persuasion, but I strongly believe that all human life, whether it be a few dozen cells or a couple of trillion, is sacred and deserves to be protected from deliberate harm. It is no more morally acceptable to carry out research on these "unwanted" embryos than on "unwanted" children in orphanages. We must learn the difference between right and wrong, and if scientists cannot be trusted to keep within moral boundaries then politicians must make them do so. The diseases which this research may alleviate are indeed terrible, but the taking of human lives to extend others is simply not acceptable. Posted by Alison Rawlinson on July 20, 2006 2:16 PM

5

Stemcells are a bit of a generic headline grabbing statement. What are stem cells? They reside in the retina of a chick even as much as in the bone marrow. Each of these stem cells requires 'trophines' and 'growth factors' to differentiate. The question is at which dose and under which culture conditions? Since nobodies knows bioscientists take embryonal stem cells,which they think are the primorial cells of all stem cells. But at the moment nobody succeeded other than in scientific fraud experiments to implement the theory, as cell culture conditions cannot mimmic the real organism as yet. These guys find themselves in the brutal middle-ages of cell culture and they should firstly accomplish their ideas in an animal model before doing it in a human. So far nothing has been delivered by these stem cell scientists but hot air. It will take years until they can deliver a product Posted by christian a. hehn on July 20, 2006 1:38 PM

6
What modern science has taught us about embryos: they're nothing particularly special. Every cell has some potential to become a full individual, via cloning or other similar processes. If an embryo is a sacred life then so is every other cell - and that would just be silly. So, really, I can't see a valid objection to using what is basically a barely differentiated blob of cells for medical research. It's not "a person" yet and in the case of IVF spares, it never will be.Posted by Julian Morrison on July 20, 2006 12:28 PM

Afterthoughts

As an atheist, I just really can’t comprehend the vetoing of stem cell research with Bush citing Christian Rights and stuffs.

All major medical advances started out with the same opposition by moralist and conservative people, i.e blood-transfusions, abortions, surgery, IVF treatments.

But with time, education and compassion for people who are really suffering, I’m sure we will be laughing about this in many years to come.

No doubt, one can’t say if it really can bring the much-touted benefits or God, if there’s one, will be cursing the scientists who started this idea, but the advancement for medical science must start somewhere.

Hair for Hope 2006

2006-07-21T12:51:00.000+04:00

Children’s Cancer Foundation (CCF) accepted my friend, Ong Su Kit, this morning but I couldn’t join as the slots are full by the time I called. What a pity. I’m quite sure that I can get a decent donation. Oh well.

Subscribed to their newsletter, so I’m sure to make it for next year. Yeah!

Our children are our future. Kindly pledge to my friend or donate in other ways at www.ccf.org.sg/hfh/

Maybe I can register as a bone marrow donor....

我也爱台妹 !!!

2006-07-20T08:21:00.000+04:00

The original MV of MC Hotdog’s 我爱台妹 can be viewed at YouTube.

But I’m going to post the 台湾金曲奖2006 version found here, coz its more symbolic and I like it. Yeah !

Buying Luck

2006-07-20T04:58:00.000+04:00

Starting hearing Radio DJs discussing about this issue to remind me that a Public Holiday is around the corner. Its on a Wednesday.

Actually, I dun see what’s wrong with selling free National Day Tickets. Just the economics of Supply and Demand in action.

Un-nationalistic? It is just helping people who really want to watch the whole celebration much much more but who dun have the seller’s luck to get the tickets. These people just want to watch it, even at a premium. With the money that the tickets bring, it will be used to boost the economy. Why would this be unpatriotic?

On this note, while I can support National Day Concept but the actual National Day celebration is out for me due to the trauma from my NS days. Which is also why I will never watch it or be involved in anyway.

Sadly though… it is also why I dun get to make any money this way.

Wasted.

Hmm... but selling the tickets isn't a crime in the first place, right ?

The Black Book

2006-07-19T19:05:00.000+04:00

Wrote something on the manga Death Note and its movie adaptations at my msn blog.

Personally i like the wallpaper with the floating apple. Cool.