Disclaimer:
In no way this is to be treated as an academic historical paper or the absolute truth. It's just an opinion piece I penned one last time for my own leisure and of course, for our leader Lee Kuan Yew. There will some good and nasty things I will write about him so extreme LKY's worshipers (those who ignored his past deeds and want to whitewash him) and haters, please go away. We are not on the same channel. And for the rest, I believe you already have your own opinions on the old man but I hope you can read on. Click on some of the links I shared and form your own new opinions on the man. This posts will have some video links and also some historical facts that I know. Most of them are pulled from the Internet so it might not be correct as I need something to reference upon on, If readers do spot a mistake, please just drop me a comment and I will correct them.
History is important to me. It's a form of way to identify myself as a Singaporean Chinese. I enjoy reading Ancient Chinese history to lean more about my roots but I especially love reading Singapore's history as I am a true born 3rd generation Singaporean. I also love his-story as I am fascinated with people. People with powers that shape future generations to come.
Lee Kuan Yew is one such character.
I actually started to write about him again while he was critically ill in bed but I decided to stop when I saw the euphoria of some of his haters online. And indeed, those who adore him started to condemn those who are happy about his inevitable demise. People then started taking sides and posting irrational thoughts, provoking each others. Some called for unity. Some called for respect. Some ask others to go fuck themselves I'm of course, indifferent about the whole death issue as all men will die some day. But all these hate and love on one single person? Then followed by the mourning and the long queue to pay a last visit to an empty shell. Don't you want to know why leh? I want to know and I think I know. :P
People likes to simplify things. I tends to complicate them. So for this piece. I will just list out the good and bad things that people say about him that I agree with.
The good
1) He's charismatic, good looking and definitely an intellectual who posses some wisdom to guide our country. Just look around us now. Singapore as a country is successful and rich. There's no denying it that he helped to shape it into this. Of course he had help from others like Goh Keng Swee and Dr Albert Winsemius. But at least for those haters who say he's a dictator, he did listened to their suggestion and implemented them. And for those worshipers who are still reading or clueless. No. Singapore is not a "fishing" village when he took over.
2) He's a tough and strong willed leader who can bring the best out of people. "People, especially the ministers and senior government officials working under him literally fears him" one of his critics and ex ISD detainee Francis Seow said. Such fears normally will push oneself to excel. It's not the best way but I agree it's one of the ways to do it.
3) He's not corrupt. He's frugal in his expenses. I had heard rumours that he enjoyed expensive whiskey or wine but I think that's fine. All man have some sins. Same old shirt and briefcase for years..... I sincerely love the windbreaker he always wears to parliament sittings. This frugality also extended to his family members. I think Tin Pei Ling will faint if she is part of the family. Also not to forget he's not in this for the money. The CIA bribe scandal is also another good indication.
4) He's a loving, devoting father and husband. Although last time no instagram but there are enough pictures in his memoir and on the Internet to proof that :P I especially feel the love in this and this video on youtube.
5) He's hardworking and put Singapore 1st. Countless accounts of civil servants says he work hard everyday and when he speaks, is mostly about Singapore. There's no denying that.
6) He's a master orator. Period. ND rally and election speeches was so much more interesting during his era.
7) He's gentle, kind and approachable. Some of you might go HAR!!??? But sad to say this is genuine. I once had a very brief encounter with him. My friend and I went to Marina Barrage to shoot but we got ourselves right in the middle of a PAP convention . So we retreated and took a long walk towards the Marina Bay MRT station. Along the road, we saw the whole road empty with traffic. A limo stopped just beside the road and there he is, the old man was in the car heading towards the convention. I made eye contact with him, he smiled at me 1st and I smiled and waved back. He actually waved back and the car drove off. No high horse or attitude or a fake smile. A very genuine and sincere one I would say. There are, of course other countless people who have the chance to talk to him and find him the same way. I will explain why this is such a big contrast to what others says of him. This love of the people is like a Lord or a King loving his subjects. He is concern with our livelihood as he felt responsible for our well beings. Not exactly bad but I would not say it's exactly good too as his world view is that people are born with a difference. Some are more "elite" then others.
The bad
1) He's a bully, a gangster and power crazy. Especially to his political opponents or those with influences and opposes him. I think I can list a very long list of names. But some notables are during Operation Coldstore in 63 and 66. People like Chia Thye Poh (32) , Said Zahari (17), Lim Hock Siew(17), Dr Poh Soo Kai (19) and others. I named the 1st four because they were imprisoned without trial for the longest period of time. The brackets beside the name is not the age but the years spent in detention. The links are video interviews that was made but please don't treat them as the absolute truth. But it serves a good understanding on who LKY targets and how his opponents felt about him. Then in 1987. Operation Spectrum sees another wave of arrests. This could be the main gist of his flaw. He also stayed too long in power. From Senior Minister to Minister Mentor! What a title! The rest of the founding fathers have already retire from politics or not involved in cabinet meetings. But he stayed on till 2011!
2) He's ruthless and authoritative. Even Mr Dhanabalan who said it that he was ruthless to all who would undermine his authority. It's not easy to work for such a boss.
3) He's cunning,calculative and not trustworthy. In the declassified British documents The late Tunku Abdul Rahman and Lord Selkirk does not have good words for him.
4) He practices nepotism. Giving various high senior government position to his own people. This is not surprising as he needs to consolidate his power and control.
5) He's greedy and a hoarder of money. This seems to be contradictory to point that he's not corrupt. But being frugal and not accepting bribes does not mean he's not greedy. There are people who likes to see money in their bank grows indefinitely for no apparent reason. He may not spend it but he just loves to hoard it. How he acquires the money will be another room to debate for but the fact is that he acknowledges that ministers needs to be paid according to the highest income group shows he enjoys being wealthy.
6) He's egocentric, living in his own grandiose. I think the books, the state funeral of his wife and allowing all those ass lickers surrounding him is a good indication that he likes to hear people say great things about him.
7) He's a coward. Yup. He's scared. Scared of all the bad things that might happen if he loses power and all. His public persona is always a strong and fearless man but I believe underneath he is damn scared of those whom he finds are his equals. This is quite easy to spot as when faced with challenges to his authority. He uses backstabbing and underhanded methods to solve them rather than with the rule of law. Eg. like the ISA. and lawsuits . J. B. Jeyaretnam, Dr Chee and Mr Tang Liang Hong. He's also highly suspicious on people who would undermine his rule.
7 good points and 7 bad.
There are more like he's a racist towards our Malay brothers and sisters but I think he had no choice in that. He needs the Chinese voter base to consolidate his power. I sincerely don't think he is racist but I do apologise to my fellow Malay Singaporeans for the biased treatment under his rule. Those who knows me well knows I hate hypocrites and he's seems not. He did said in his books that he don't believe in western style democracy and so he didn't deny its all just a cover up. I'm still struggling with these 2 points so I left them out.
I believe majority of my fellow Singaporeans on both end of the spectrum agrees with my assessment and some of them in the middle ground like me still find it sad to see him go and have an unknown urge to pay him a last respect. It's perfectly normal and make sense because he did indeed became a part of our heritage. Majority of the Singaporeans did not even know our own Singapore history well. Which is to me quite sad and why I wrote this post. Most of our heritage are torn down for the sake of "progress". The only person we knew well together and closely tied to our history is Lee Kuan Yew himself. One of the founding father of modern Singapore. Whenever we go overseas, we'll be surprised to hear our foreign friends knew about a person called LKY. From young, we're educated sub-consciously that he is the embodiment of Singapore. Just look at the euphoria and joy every time when the old man shows up for NDP! So whenever one of our heritage or national identity are destroyed, we felt something is lost. And for the supporters and haters, we did lost something today.
So would I pay my last respect to him in person and mourn. Not really. I find that a lot of the current problems we face in Singapore is actually the legacy of the old man himself. Due to his authoritarian style of rule. Majority of the Singaporeans became too dependent on the government and thus, lost the ability to think critically and paints everything in just plain black or white/ true or false argument.
I also don't believe in wearing black or mourning together is a way to send him off. It creeps me off actually. I don't think he will like it either as he clearly stated he did not want to be worshiped after he's dead. He don't want to be embalmed and put in a display case like Chairman Mao. Instead, I'm actually glad he's finally out of the picture so we can reorganise ourselves as fellow Singaporeans and move on. This is so pragmatic Lee Kuan Yew style isn't it? :)
RIP LKY.
Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
Public Transport in Singapore?
Decided to write a post after all the media hoo haa on this incident in ST.
Rugby: ACS(I) to charter five MRT trains for C Division rugby final at National Stadium
They are people out for blood for this incident. Their arguments are mainly the MRT rail is actually a public transport and why should public utilities be allowed to charter private events. Some silly defenders will say they are chartered buses what. How come got difference meh? Big difference. How so? If we charter a bus, the road that the bus is driving on still belongs to the public and other cars and buses could still drive on the same road. Rails? Not possible in Singapore right? This is because we only have single-way tracks and not multi tracks like other countries. So in short, this incident kinds of like ACS "chopp" a dedicated public road to National Stadium and not allowing other vehicles to use it at the same time. So that's why LTA have the right to be pissed.
But this opens to another observations I see on social media. Singaporeans still sincerely believes we have "public" transport. Sorry to say its all incorporated and privatised during Goh Chok Tong era. SMRT in 2000, SBS in 1997. So is our Electricity, Water and postal service.
So please don't be naive and think that these companies will serve in the best interest of the public. Their bottom line is to make more profits for the shareholders.
Rugby: ACS(I) to charter five MRT trains for C Division rugby final at National Stadium
They are people out for blood for this incident. Their arguments are mainly the MRT rail is actually a public transport and why should public utilities be allowed to charter private events. Some silly defenders will say they are chartered buses what. How come got difference meh? Big difference. How so? If we charter a bus, the road that the bus is driving on still belongs to the public and other cars and buses could still drive on the same road. Rails? Not possible in Singapore right? This is because we only have single-way tracks and not multi tracks like other countries. So in short, this incident kinds of like ACS "chopp" a dedicated public road to National Stadium and not allowing other vehicles to use it at the same time. So that's why LTA have the right to be pissed.
But this opens to another observations I see on social media. Singaporeans still sincerely believes we have "public" transport. Sorry to say its all incorporated and privatised during Goh Chok Tong era. SMRT in 2000, SBS in 1997. So is our Electricity, Water and postal service.
So please don't be naive and think that these companies will serve in the best interest of the public. Their bottom line is to make more profits for the shareholders.
It speaks volumes
when our gahment encourages its people to sell off their homes or houses so that they can downgrade and get some extra cash to survive in their twilight days. This post is about the 76 year old granny begging for her CPF to be returned to her. Instead of just providing a listening ear for her and STFU, the PAP IB or those cynical bastards starts hounding on where she is currently staying now. Why she never sell that house? She rich what.
I asked my wife that day after I read the news. "Dear, if one day we did become poor, should we sell our house and rent/buy a smaller house instead?" She says I'm mad and she would rather die then sell our current house. I asked why? She replied, "It's our 1st house together. I like the location and neigbourhood and moreover our children were born and raised in this house, it has sentimental values that cannot be matched by wealth. Nope, I would die and leave the house to my children rather than selling it!"
I smiled and nodded.
We were not buying a house. We bought a home.
There is no price for home. Period. And I sincerely think the old lady has great sentimental values on that house she currently resides in. If there is money in my CPF, I would rather use that then to sell my home.
I shall repeat again. It speaks volumes of our gahment if they want or encourage its people to sell their homes to stay alive. It speaks volumes.
I asked my wife that day after I read the news. "Dear, if one day we did become poor, should we sell our house and rent/buy a smaller house instead?" She says I'm mad and she would rather die then sell our current house. I asked why? She replied, "It's our 1st house together. I like the location and neigbourhood and moreover our children were born and raised in this house, it has sentimental values that cannot be matched by wealth. Nope, I would die and leave the house to my children rather than selling it!"
I smiled and nodded.
We were not buying a house. We bought a home.
There is no price for home. Period. And I sincerely think the old lady has great sentimental values on that house she currently resides in. If there is money in my CPF, I would rather use that then to sell my home.
I shall repeat again. It speaks volumes of our gahment if they want or encourage its people to sell their homes to stay alive. It speaks volumes.
May 2014. What an interesting month!
WARNING. Long post ahead with lotsa grammatical errors. :P
A brief summary. Besides being the month of my girl's birthday, there was a coup in Thailand that ended the political unrest. A blogger got sued by our PM Lee in Singapore and a big debate about constructive politics between our PM Lee and opposition chief Mr Low.
1st off. Thailand military staged it's 12th coup on the 22th May. Bringing the 6th month of madness in control (somehow forcefully). Although I don't really endorse the idea of such actions by the military but at least so far they have been quite fair in dealing with both parties. The only thing I want to complain is that there are too much censorship on the media. I guess they are worried that the anti-coup camp will stage more protests so they have these draconian laws of anti-coup messages deleted and court martials but I'm afraid this will most probably makes things worst. I'm not going to comment too much on this whole situation as the Thai always says "Please don't comment on Thai politics if you're a foreigner. It's complicated." I still want to stay in LOS so the better of me to STFU :)
Then at the Singapore end. We have a blogger Roy Ngerng being sued by our PM Lee. I was following this thread quite closely as it was damn entertaining. I have to say sincerely I didn't know about Roy (even though I am SO "political"and critical of our MIW gahment) before this whole incident. I did however, remembered that I read one of his articles that was shared by my friend in FB. I didn't dwell too much into it as it was a link from The Real Singapore. :P But at that time, my conclusion was it's just a rant. I do have some knowledge on how our CPF works and there are some good questions on certain aspects but most of them are just bit extreme on trying to get himself into trouble. And lo and behold. He got sued!
So the online mass kind of broke into 3 camps.
Pro MIW camp starts mocking him - this is usual and I forgive them.
Anti-gahment camp supports him totally - a usual response from them too as anything anti gahment must support mah!
Then the 3rd camp - so called pro liberals who always said that they don't take sides (but in fact they do but just do not have the guts to admit it) starts mocking him too - this is to me, a very disgusting attitude and the worst of all. Why? Because these are hypocrites and those who reads my blogs know I hated hypocrites.
Roy may not be factual I agree, he may not be smart or an intellect like you and I. He maybe did it for glory and fame. But at least he dares to speak up. Maybe he is insidious and out for blood against the FAMILEE. But ask this question. Besides getting sued by our most powerful person in the country. What other benefits will he get? He will be punished, condemned and maybe even lose his job and get bankrupt so do we really need to mock him any further? Real pro liberals should instead mock the other 2 camps, the pro MIW and anti-gahment ones. They should not be proclaiming to be pro-liberal and make fun of Roy like "He deserves it." "He's stupid!" "He just want to be famous!" but instead gives sound advice to Roy like "He should be more careful on how he writes. " " One can make his points across without name callings or getting emotional"
My take on the whole lawsuit is that this is one of the worst PR disaster for our PM Lee as if he had been gracious and dropped the case, Roy will not be made as a Martyr in the anti-gahment camp. It's sad actually as this whole debacle, all of us are losers. Our PM becomes a bully, Roy with get sued and punished for something he believes in. And if he is the bad guy like what other people says, he gets his limelight anyway. We, the commoners will not get a full disclosure on what's going on in our CPF.
The last incident was the constructive politics debate in Parliament between PM Lee and WP's chief Mr Low. I read the some of the comments in FB before watching it and people were laughing at Mr Low's Engrish... That's a bit low. For a Mandarin educated Mr Low, what he managed to pull off was formidable. It might be interesting to see how PM Lee debates in Mandarin or Tamil/Hindi. We should do that in parliament as I believe one day with our current intake of FTs, Singapore might really belongs to China/India. :P
A brief summary. Besides being the month of my girl's birthday, there was a coup in Thailand that ended the political unrest. A blogger got sued by our PM Lee in Singapore and a big debate about constructive politics between our PM Lee and opposition chief Mr Low.
1st off. Thailand military staged it's 12th coup on the 22th May. Bringing the 6th month of madness in control (somehow forcefully). Although I don't really endorse the idea of such actions by the military but at least so far they have been quite fair in dealing with both parties. The only thing I want to complain is that there are too much censorship on the media. I guess they are worried that the anti-coup camp will stage more protests so they have these draconian laws of anti-coup messages deleted and court martials but I'm afraid this will most probably makes things worst. I'm not going to comment too much on this whole situation as the Thai always says "Please don't comment on Thai politics if you're a foreigner. It's complicated." I still want to stay in LOS so the better of me to STFU :)
Then at the Singapore end. We have a blogger Roy Ngerng being sued by our PM Lee. I was following this thread quite closely as it was damn entertaining. I have to say sincerely I didn't know about Roy (even though I am SO "political"and critical of our MIW gahment) before this whole incident. I did however, remembered that I read one of his articles that was shared by my friend in FB. I didn't dwell too much into it as it was a link from The Real Singapore. :P But at that time, my conclusion was it's just a rant. I do have some knowledge on how our CPF works and there are some good questions on certain aspects but most of them are just bit extreme on trying to get himself into trouble. And lo and behold. He got sued!
So the online mass kind of broke into 3 camps.
Pro MIW camp starts mocking him - this is usual and I forgive them.
Anti-gahment camp supports him totally - a usual response from them too as anything anti gahment must support mah!
Then the 3rd camp - so called pro liberals who always said that they don't take sides (but in fact they do but just do not have the guts to admit it) starts mocking him too - this is to me, a very disgusting attitude and the worst of all. Why? Because these are hypocrites and those who reads my blogs know I hated hypocrites.
Roy may not be factual I agree, he may not be smart or an intellect like you and I. He maybe did it for glory and fame. But at least he dares to speak up. Maybe he is insidious and out for blood against the FAMILEE. But ask this question. Besides getting sued by our most powerful person in the country. What other benefits will he get? He will be punished, condemned and maybe even lose his job and get bankrupt so do we really need to mock him any further? Real pro liberals should instead mock the other 2 camps, the pro MIW and anti-gahment ones. They should not be proclaiming to be pro-liberal and make fun of Roy like "He deserves it." "He's stupid!" "He just want to be famous!" but instead gives sound advice to Roy like "He should be more careful on how he writes. " " One can make his points across without name callings or getting emotional"
My take on the whole lawsuit is that this is one of the worst PR disaster for our PM Lee as if he had been gracious and dropped the case, Roy will not be made as a Martyr in the anti-gahment camp. It's sad actually as this whole debacle, all of us are losers. Our PM becomes a bully, Roy with get sued and punished for something he believes in. And if he is the bad guy like what other people says, he gets his limelight anyway. We, the commoners will not get a full disclosure on what's going on in our CPF.
The last incident was the constructive politics debate in Parliament between PM Lee and WP's chief Mr Low. I read the some of the comments in FB before watching it and people were laughing at Mr Low's Engrish... That's a bit low. For a Mandarin educated Mr Low, what he managed to pull off was formidable. It might be interesting to see how PM Lee debates in Mandarin or Tamil/Hindi. We should do that in parliament as I believe one day with our current intake of FTs, Singapore might really belongs to China/India. :P
A short review on Maige TV. IPTV box
That's where the discussion and research on how to get World Cup at a cheaper rate started. And I didn't found the cheapest option but an interesting one that allows us to watch various satellite and HBO cable channels over the Internet. This is known as IPTV (IP stands for Internet Protocol). What it is? It's basically something very similar to Mio TV by Singtel that uses an Internet connection to stream/broadcast a show.
There are various brands for such IPTVs and currently one of the most prominent one is by Maige TV. This box is a device dedicated to streaming video on demand and online. There is a local distributor for both Singapore and Thailand but I decided to be cheapo and ordered a unit via Alipexpress.
I placed an order on the 9th and only managed to receive my box on the 17th. Shipping was by DHL and was considered fast as there was a week break for the Songkran over here. Price I paid was $390SGD for the box, wifi adaptor and shipping in total. $50 cheaper then the local distributors but I would recommend those with non geeky friends to get it locally. I will get to that later.
Hardware wise. HDML cable was included but no batteries for the remote. The box and the remote feels cheap. Cheap like those China made Media TV boxes. Not necessary a bad thing but at this price point I was thinking it should be better. Let's say we deduct the subscription and shipping cost. The hardware will be around $200. So 200 for such hardware is a bit errrmmmm.
Video quality? Streaming was good on my fibre connection here in Maesai. Both Wired and Wifi - N tested. 1080p HD quality for most channels and some even have Ultraclear which I find streams very well. I have tested the device over various time and it does hangs once in a blue moon. Quite normal for IPTVs boxes. There is a refresh button on the remote so just hit that and it will resync again. Not occasionally but for certain channels do get it more often than others. Live streaming of soccer was good over here though but as usual like Mio TV, there will be a slight delay compare to real cable broadcast. The new box also provides 7 days playback functionality and Video on Demand which I find it to be very useful. Basically you can watch any shows you had missed within a 7 day period. Video on Demand library is pretty awesome. G.O.T, Battlestar and tons of Cantonese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese dramas are available. Movies are updated frequently. The kids watched a few cartoons on the box already. Frozen was one of them :P. The software interface is responsive and fast compared to bloody starhub cable box. It came default in Chinese though and even though you changed the interface language to English, mos of the show listings will be in their native language. Even for the titles in V.O.D are in Chinese for English drama. Like those found in latest media player, firmware can be upgraded so I guess there will be improvements coming up. The device also has an additional usb port for HDD so it can be used as a media player box too. I have not tried that portion as the online content is more important and comprehensive for me.
For a full channel list, check it out here. Last count was 366.
Installation was a breeze for wired connection. Just plug an Ethernet cable (provided too) to your router, HDMI to the TV and power adaptor you're ready to go. Once powered on, it will prompt you for activation or renewal. I contacted the seller to activate the box for me. Yes, it's via subscription and the 1st year subscription is included in the package. The chap was online and it only took a 5 mins wait to get it activated. Renewal is on offer at $100 SGD at the moment but according to the site, the usual price should be $140. My advice is to just use it till it expires and renew afterwards. Yes it might be more expensive later but what if they go bust? So ignore the subscription till it ends. Wireless however was a pain in the ass for me. 1st was the USB port issue which I managed to solved quickly. Then I couldn't connect to my WPA enabled Wifi even after I entered my passphrase correctly numerous time. I thought it was due to the port but it could detect my home's SSID so I guess its the encryption portion. In the end. I created another SSID with no WPS and serve as a single guest account on my router and it worked fine after that. Not exactly secure but at least it works for the moment.
IPTV is relatively new. Content providers are still willing to provide content to these newcomers as they still pay their license fee and yes, it's legal. Beware if there are no subscription fees at all. But data carriers like Starhub and Singtel might easily sabotage these newcomers by putting a QOS on such servers. Not likely to happen in Thailand but not too sure about SG. If lotsa people buy this box then we might see it happen.
Overall conclusion is if you want EPL/Soccer, HBO, Discovery Channels and other major news English channel, this box has it all. Video Quality is great. Installation is a hassle for Wi-fi (for me) but otherwise not a major issue. Would I recommend it? Yes I would if you really enjoy watching cable TV and do not want to pay too much for all the channels. Especially the sports one. But not highly recommend it as the initial cost of getting the box is high. Even worse is that the box and remote is pretty cheaply build externally and whether it will last more than 3 or 4 years is an issue. If the entry price is not more than $300 then I would highly recommend it.
A short trip back - 2014
The long break for schools in Thailand starts from March till the 1st week of May. That is for the majority of public schools in Thailand. I took the family back to Singapore to visit my sis and mum again. We hit the road on 29th March and returned on the 7th.
This trip to SG was mostly unplanned. Plainly just to let the kids to spend some quality time with grandma and aunt. The road trip started with a Sam Law (Tuk Tuk) trip to the Maesai bus station. From there, we took the bus to Chiang Mai. Then we switched to a Sawng Tiao (Red Pickup truck taxi) to the airport and flew out via Silkair. It was hectic but actually quite fun as the kids get to try different sorts of transport in a single day. Over in SG, we spent most of the time at their aunt's home. We did however, revisited the Sentosa Watercove Park and Jurong Bird Park.
This round, we flew out from Chiang Mai instead of Bangkok like last year and due to financial constrains. We didn't even stay in Chiang Mai when we returned from Singapore. Normally, we would stay a few days either in Bangkok or Chiang Mai after our return from Singapore but we didn't. We just took a taxi straight back to Maesai and actually for this trip, we aren't as tired as it used to be.
It might be due to the kids are older so its now as daunting as it used to be.
This trip to SG was mostly unplanned. Plainly just to let the kids to spend some quality time with grandma and aunt. The road trip started with a Sam Law (Tuk Tuk) trip to the Maesai bus station. From there, we took the bus to Chiang Mai. Then we switched to a Sawng Tiao (Red Pickup truck taxi) to the airport and flew out via Silkair. It was hectic but actually quite fun as the kids get to try different sorts of transport in a single day. Over in SG, we spent most of the time at their aunt's home. We did however, revisited the Sentosa Watercove Park and Jurong Bird Park.
My sister also took some leave from her busy work schedule and brought the kids to a toy store and they bought another set of LEGOs. So they are pretty occupied at her flat.
Overall, I didn't get to meet up with friends on this journey. I will be returning to SG again in early July. Reason? Bloody reservist again.
I saw this coming almost 8 years ago.
I woke up this morning and was reading the news online when I saw this on BBC.
Singapore has topped 131 cities globally to become the world's most expensive city to live in 2014, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26412821
I'm not surprised at this announcement at all but I just recalled the time when my girl was just born in 2006. I was thinking about the option I can provide for my girl and my wife if I was to choose to bring them back to Singapore. I guess I made the correct decision then. Again, I'm not dissing Singapore being expensive or whatsoever. To certain people (those rich ones :P), it's still a fantastic city to be in. And I would easily choose Singapore over Bangkok if it's the only choices I can make.
Frankly if I was to bring them back to Singapore then, Boy boy won't be around as I sincerely don't think I can afford to have another kid as a sole bread winner. Missus can't speak English and it will be tough for her to get a job which means our income will be limited.
In short, wages have been stagnant since 2000 while the city moved on at a ridiculous pace without allowing us, the majority middle income group to catch up. And this to me, is not growth of a country but a perversion of growth and wealth among the top earners/leaders in the country. What's even worst then this is the majority of Singaporeans still have not waken up from their dream that it's not the fault of gahment policies. Sad.
Singapore has topped 131 cities globally to become the world's most expensive city to live in 2014, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26412821
I'm not surprised at this announcement at all but I just recalled the time when my girl was just born in 2006. I was thinking about the option I can provide for my girl and my wife if I was to choose to bring them back to Singapore. I guess I made the correct decision then. Again, I'm not dissing Singapore being expensive or whatsoever. To certain people (those rich ones :P), it's still a fantastic city to be in. And I would easily choose Singapore over Bangkok if it's the only choices I can make.
Frankly if I was to bring them back to Singapore then, Boy boy won't be around as I sincerely don't think I can afford to have another kid as a sole bread winner. Missus can't speak English and it will be tough for her to get a job which means our income will be limited.
In short, wages have been stagnant since 2000 while the city moved on at a ridiculous pace without allowing us, the majority middle income group to catch up. And this to me, is not growth of a country but a perversion of growth and wealth among the top earners/leaders in the country. What's even worst then this is the majority of Singaporeans still have not waken up from their dream that it's not the fault of gahment policies. Sad.
1st post of 2014!
I'm back!! Literally in Singapore for a few weeks before I travel back again. It's the usual 3 months routine to come back and clear some backlog stuff over here in Sillypore.
I broke my own tradition of not writing a last post in Dec 2013. I actually had a draft but I decided not to publish it as its a bit wee sensitive at the moment. For those dying to know, it's about my views on the recent protests in Thailand. Maybe when all the dust settles and if I feel like it I will relook at that entry and publish it.
I also received an email from TOC, asking me for permission to republish some of my future posts. I'm a bit honored actually. I'm just a Sillyporean in Thailand, minding my own business and blogging about my life there. Wonder who will be interested in such a boring guy anyway.
The web is a very funny thing as blogging is no longer the "in" thing nowadays. I wonder who still read full length blogs nowadays. I do but I think I'm the few rare ones. Tweeting (Twitter) and short messages such as status updates in G+ and facebook are much more common nowadays. So that's what I have been experimenting recently for the pass few months. Posting more status updates on facebook rather than writing something here (ok, it's an excuse, I'm just plain lazy. :P)
Anyway, for those who are really interested inspying following me. I have activated the followers in Facebook. So feel free to "follow" me instead of sending me friend's request (I only add those whom I know personally :) )
Thanks for reading and I will be writing soon since. Singapore got new things to see leh.. A new Expressway and DT line. Must explore.
I broke my own tradition of not writing a last post in Dec 2013. I actually had a draft but I decided not to publish it as its a bit wee sensitive at the moment. For those dying to know, it's about my views on the recent protests in Thailand. Maybe when all the dust settles and if I feel like it I will relook at that entry and publish it.
I also received an email from TOC, asking me for permission to republish some of my future posts. I'm a bit honored actually. I'm just a Sillyporean in Thailand, minding my own business and blogging about my life there. Wonder who will be interested in such a boring guy anyway.
The web is a very funny thing as blogging is no longer the "in" thing nowadays. I wonder who still read full length blogs nowadays. I do but I think I'm the few rare ones. Tweeting (Twitter) and short messages such as status updates in G+ and facebook are much more common nowadays. So that's what I have been experimenting recently for the pass few months. Posting more status updates on facebook rather than writing something here (ok, it's an excuse, I'm just plain lazy. :P)
Anyway, for those who are really interested in
Thanks for reading and I will be writing soon since. Singapore got new things to see leh.. A new Expressway and DT line. Must explore.
Some thoughts on the recent riot in Singapore.
The recent violence at Little India sparked another wave of stupid, idiotic comments on social media. Both on our foriegn workers (FW) and our HOME team (Police, Ambulance and Fireman). It's just disgusting to see how my fellow Singaporeans labeled our FWs names like "Little Indians" and etc. Demeaning and not respectful of their hard work. Similarly to our HOME team, calling them cowards and why never use their firearms. Yes, effciency can be better but they are professionals at all time. Just think! Not ONE single firearm was shot during the entire incident and they managed to quell it. This really explains how out of touch my fellow Singaporeans are in terms of mobs and riots because we have not experienced it for quite some time. This is simply impressive to me and kudos to our police for seeing the rational and didn't use more violence to stop it. If they had, they will only create more riots or acts of violence and revenge next time round.
I think YB's analysis on the riot, the spark and the fuel of the whole think is what I have similar in mind. Do read it up as I can't write as elegant as he does. (I don't have time oso :P)
Hopefully, this whole incident will change the mentality of Singaporeans (I doubt it) Violence will come again if we continue to think we are an "upper class" while they are just to serve. And yes, we learnt all of that from our PAP masters. The elites. Since they trampled us and we have no balls to fight back, we go online and post silly comments and poke fun at the poor and weak.
Minimum Wage. A simple explanation why we should have it here in SG.
A lot of my peers and Singaporeans do not understand the idea of a minimum wage scheme and they sing the same tunes as what our PAP gahment in Singapore. That this idea is just another dirty welfare scheme. Really WTF response.
First of all, understand what a minimum wage is by reading here. It's a more balanced explanation of this scheme and my emphasis is that schemes and policies can be tweaked.
From my perspective. It's good for Singapore as most of our low paying workers are actually underpaid and there are no growth in their income since the last 2 decades. The main reason is that all the major corporations and companies are taking up the profit (being monopolistic) instead of correctly distributing the profit to their employees. Most of these low skilled workers are in the construction business, service line such as restaraunts and retail shops. These people need a mechanism to protect them. As shown in the link above on the Card and Kreuger's investigation on increasing the minimum wage in New Jersey in 1992
Our gahment can actually set aside certain industries to have such a scheme. Please don't tell me they can't do it. If they can so effectively stream kids in their Primary or Secondary schools. Then it can be done easily. The main issue here is they kept arguing that its difficult to set the amount of a minimum wage. Because as market forces convenes and price might go up and down. The wage should follow market rate and such constant changes means that today I set $5.00. 1 or 2 months later it will be not enough or it will be too much. So it's meaningless to do it.
Utter bullshit. The main reason to set a minimum price is just to set a baseline to protect these low wage and low skilled workers. You need work to survive in SG. You will work even if its underpaid like what we have now. These corporations just squeeze these poor people out by setting their own "market rate" Company A will say we will pay $2 an hour and ask B and C to follow. The rest of these companies will follow suit as I get to earn more and keep my labour cost low.
Think about it in this way. If you start a business, you need to consider the minimum profit you want to earn right? Why? The labour and effort that you put into it lor. So what's so different is this from the minimum wage? So stop saying its useless or will not work. It's bullshit and our gahment will never implement this as the one that will hurt the most if it's being implemented will actually be our bloody Gahment related Stat board corporation and even our own bloody gahment.
First of all, understand what a minimum wage is by reading here. It's a more balanced explanation of this scheme and my emphasis is that schemes and policies can be tweaked.
From my perspective. It's good for Singapore as most of our low paying workers are actually underpaid and there are no growth in their income since the last 2 decades. The main reason is that all the major corporations and companies are taking up the profit (being monopolistic) instead of correctly distributing the profit to their employees. Most of these low skilled workers are in the construction business, service line such as restaraunts and retail shops. These people need a mechanism to protect them. As shown in the link above on the Card and Kreuger's investigation on increasing the minimum wage in New Jersey in 1992
Our gahment can actually set aside certain industries to have such a scheme. Please don't tell me they can't do it. If they can so effectively stream kids in their Primary or Secondary schools. Then it can be done easily. The main issue here is they kept arguing that its difficult to set the amount of a minimum wage. Because as market forces convenes and price might go up and down. The wage should follow market rate and such constant changes means that today I set $5.00. 1 or 2 months later it will be not enough or it will be too much. So it's meaningless to do it.
Utter bullshit. The main reason to set a minimum price is just to set a baseline to protect these low wage and low skilled workers. You need work to survive in SG. You will work even if its underpaid like what we have now. These corporations just squeeze these poor people out by setting their own "market rate" Company A will say we will pay $2 an hour and ask B and C to follow. The rest of these companies will follow suit as I get to earn more and keep my labour cost low.
Think about it in this way. If you start a business, you need to consider the minimum profit you want to earn right? Why? The labour and effort that you put into it lor. So what's so different is this from the minimum wage? So stop saying its useless or will not work. It's bullshit and our gahment will never implement this as the one that will hurt the most if it's being implemented will actually be our bloody Gahment related Stat board corporation and even our own bloody gahment.
The fallacy of idolisation
This post is written on the recent 90th big birthday of our so called "founding father" Mr LKY himself. Pages and pages of people congratulating him and denouncing him on the Internet and social medias. Most of them are just ball-licking idolisation of a "man". My emphasis on that later.
I had an interesting discussion with a friend and he was raving about how great that old man is and whatsover. "No matter what he did, bad or good. He did sucessfully managed our country!" my friend argued. "And look at your Switzerland, Norway of those Denmark countries that are sucessful! Name me a great leader from that country! None right?"
Now here's the fallacy. Do they have great leaders? I would say so but I can't name them because these great leaders chose not to be named and remembered. They work from within and never took credits all to themselves. And these leaders actually help shaped the future generations within the country to be responsible for their very actions they are going to take. Be it politically or socially. I think they do know that idolisation of someone will only leads to a very concerning issues. Instead of "telling" people what to do. These good leaders will lead and convinced people to why and what should be done. And in the end, all will be responsible for their actions and consequences.
Now back to idolisation of a "man". Human beings are not perfect. None and period. There's nothing wrong in looking up to someone that you like but overdoing it and we get to see something very similar. Look at Hitler, Mussolini. Look at Mao Ze Dong, Deng Xiao Ping. Even look at our old man LKY now. Their intentions are always initially good but once success gets into their head and ball-lickers assholes starts surrounding them. Some of these assholes jokers will use the status of this new idolisation for their own personal agenda and purposes.
So herein lies a great question and my answer to it all; Is our LKY a great leader? No, he's not. He is to me, a successful one but can never be great. Simply becuase when he's in power and he never exercised his choice to educate and give credits due.
And the sad fact is that all great leaders are normally unkown to most. As these people never take credits at all. We will only remembered them via their actions and the nations they were in . Great nations like Switzerland, Denmark and etc.
I had an interesting discussion with a friend and he was raving about how great that old man is and whatsover. "No matter what he did, bad or good. He did sucessfully managed our country!" my friend argued. "And look at your Switzerland, Norway of those Denmark countries that are sucessful! Name me a great leader from that country! None right?"
Now here's the fallacy. Do they have great leaders? I would say so but I can't name them because these great leaders chose not to be named and remembered. They work from within and never took credits all to themselves. And these leaders actually help shaped the future generations within the country to be responsible for their very actions they are going to take. Be it politically or socially. I think they do know that idolisation of someone will only leads to a very concerning issues. Instead of "telling" people what to do. These good leaders will lead and convinced people to why and what should be done. And in the end, all will be responsible for their actions and consequences.
Now back to idolisation of a "man". Human beings are not perfect. None and period. There's nothing wrong in looking up to someone that you like but overdoing it and we get to see something very similar. Look at Hitler, Mussolini. Look at Mao Ze Dong, Deng Xiao Ping. Even look at our old man LKY now. Their intentions are always initially good but once success gets into their head and ball-lickers assholes starts surrounding them. Some of these assholes jokers will use the status of this new idolisation for their own personal agenda and purposes.
So herein lies a great question and my answer to it all; Is our LKY a great leader? No, he's not. He is to me, a successful one but can never be great. Simply becuase when he's in power and he never exercised his choice to educate and give credits due.
And the sad fact is that all great leaders are normally unkown to most. As these people never take credits at all. We will only remembered them via their actions and the nations they were in . Great nations like Switzerland, Denmark and etc.
Studying Again
Those who have followed me on Facebook might have known my intention to quit my current job and I did so recently. My contigency plan has kicked in and I was to accquire a Taxi Vocational Licence before I head back to Thailand. It's just a course I have been planning to take for quite some time (way back even before my TEFL) but I never found the time, well more likely the determination and will to go through it.
It's not like I'm definitely going to be a Taxi "Uncle" but I just want to keep my options open. The trade seems suitable for me if I'm back in SG. Flexible working days if I am to become a relief driver and I can fly back to Thailand when I'm free. And again, money is an issue but I'm not really that desperate. At least I don't ever need to go back to my old job again.
I have a lot to say about my old job but I guess since my official "date" isn't over yet so I plan to write that out maybe in July. Let's just say its not a very happy experience working back in the same company and changes, yes, changes to the management has such a huge impact that its just plain crazy not to leave that hellhole.
Some people say " Just endure, when pay comes, all will be forgotten!" Well, sometimes life is not as simple as that and if your Blood Pressure keeps going up while you're in the job, it means something is terribily wrong. Just a short entry before I go back to my maps and notes.... Not really that easy now... Now where the f**k is Taman Nakhoda? :P
It's not like I'm definitely going to be a Taxi "Uncle" but I just want to keep my options open. The trade seems suitable for me if I'm back in SG. Flexible working days if I am to become a relief driver and I can fly back to Thailand when I'm free. And again, money is an issue but I'm not really that desperate. At least I don't ever need to go back to my old job again.
I have a lot to say about my old job but I guess since my official "date" isn't over yet so I plan to write that out maybe in July. Let's just say its not a very happy experience working back in the same company and changes, yes, changes to the management has such a huge impact that its just plain crazy not to leave that hellhole.
Some people say " Just endure, when pay comes, all will be forgotten!" Well, sometimes life is not as simple as that and if your Blood Pressure keeps going up while you're in the job, it means something is terribily wrong. Just a short entry before I go back to my maps and notes.... Not really that easy now... Now where the f**k is Taman Nakhoda? :P
In the pigeon hole and Bangkok stop over
We didn't went out after the watercove park trip. Wify did went out to Tampines mall for a short shopping trip while I let the kids have some fun at the playground downstairs. Girl is a natural climber like my wife. Boy boy just go crazy with the slides. I think this is one area that is pretty cool about Singapore. We do have plenty of cool looking, safe and clean children's playground (especially in my area). Basically whenever we are not going anywhere and staying in the flat, we would drop by the playground to let the kids stretch their arms and legs. A flat in Singapore is small and unlike in Thailand, the kids can't shout or jump in the flat. Well, I used too but that was the time where people are more tolerant and we are still in a kampung(village) style but not the case now. I think its better this way too as at least I can teach the kids to be considerate of others. Not making too much of a ruckus...
So it's a lot of cheap entertainment for my kids :P. We finally took a flight back to Bangkok on the 3rd of April. Boy started to become very chatty on the cab we took from the airport to the hotel in Petchuburi. I think it's because of the familiar Thai they are speaking. Boy do understand Chinese but he is just not like his sister, not willing to speak in Chinese. (even with me as he knows I can understand him)
He was so chatty with the cab driver, speaking of his experiences in Singapore and Thailand that wife and I were just laughing away at his illogical response to the cabbie. Girl does not loose out and shared her experiences too. Pretty entertaining for the long ride as the traffic was all jammed up. We managed to check into the hotel at 7pm and its a very family oriented hotel called Centrepoint Petchaburi. I took the executive suite which allows up to 4 adults in a room.
We settled down and since we had some food on the flight, we didn't bother too much about the dinner. I did went out and bought some McD and the kids had some french fires before we called it a day.
Initially, we planned to stay in BKK for 2 night and wanted to take the bus home but it was full. Song Krang was just around the corner so all were heading back for their new year break. Luckily wife's cousin was heading back to Maesai with her husband and kids and they have a big van like truck that could fit all of us. We had to extend one more night at the hotel as they need to settle some business on the 6th April.
We didn't go anywhere in particular in BKK. Wife was happily shopping at Pratunam next door. Kids were having fun at the hotel's play room for children or a dip at the hotel's pool. We did dropped by MBK to buy a bag for my sister the day after.
Finally checked out on the 6th. Wife's cousin picked us up at the hotel lobby and we went to his house to prepare for a roadtrip back to Maesai.
Singapore revisted part 2 - Watercove Park
This is the new waterpark playground at RWS that just opened just this year. My sis needs to work and my mum needs her rest from yesterday :P So, it's just the 4 of us and I have to say. This park is pretty good.
Boy got all psyched up when we reached the entrance and saw all the rides. I think he would have jumped straight into the water if I have not been there to pull him back. It was nightmare trying to control him when both he and girl girl get excited. Wife was not smart enough to change before we go so we have to wait for her. (Try asking a 3 year old to wait to play... :P) Finally she got dressed and we hopped into the river adventure which takes us all around the entire park. We stopped halfway at the wave pool and have fun at the wave pool and big bucket. It's a pity though as most of the rides are for teens and adults so most of the rides the kids can't take part. Wife and girl did try one of the more adventurous one while boy and I have fun at the wave pool.
We then try to snorkel but boy was too young and not allowed... (Bah) . So we just continued with the river adventure and went back to get some money for lunch. Both of them ate alot this round (replenish all the energy spent. We continued to play at the wave pool and the big bucket playground until I have to pry them out of there. Took some effort but managed to do so by promising them to visit the aquarium next door.
Big mistake. The aquarium was great but boy was all psyched up and tired from the watercove park. So he was just running amok in the aquarium and wife and I took more time trying to calm him down rather than enjoying the display. Girl was ok though and she loved the huge Manta ray in the large aquarium. She asked me how come the Manta like not happy like dat... hehehe.. And the jellyfish. She just stared straight into that tank for minutes...
All photos in this post taken with my new waterproof phone. Sony Xperia Z
Singapore revisted part 1 - Universal Studios Singapore
This is the 3rd time my wife and kids came over. For this round, it's a bit different as the last 2 trip we came during Chinese New Year. Since my girl started her Primary school formally last year in May. We can't come back during CNY 2013 as she is still in school. (No official CNY in Thailand). Her term break started in the 2nd week of March and will end in May. So I took the opportunity to plan this trip just before the water festival (Song Kran) in April. It's free and easy this time but I bought tickets to Universal Studio and the new Adventure Watercove Park. Since the 2 of them really enjoy playing with water.It's free and easy for the 1st 3 days in Singapore. My sister took a day leave to be with her niece and nephew at home. We went shopping for some new swimsuits at Tampines Mall next day and took them to the Tampines swimming complex the day after to cool off the hot weather in Singapore. My mum and sis also took them shopping at Orchard and my boy was totally in awe with the amount of toys in Takeshimaya. Ended up my sister bought him a bit transformer toy.
Then we had Lunch at the Far Far away castle. Girl girl really like the castle as it looks very pretty. We then went for the Far Far away 4d movie. Girl got so high from the 3d effects she tried to snatch the bugs and ghost on the screen.. heheh.. Took a break and enjoyed the Madagascar ride. They had watched the cartoon before so they are aware of the characters. Then the merry go round but its a bit short ride compared to those we have in Thailand. Not even a minute... :P
It started to drizzle when we finished the Merry - Go - Round and we tried to go take the Sesame Ride but it was so packed with people that we skipped it totally. The sound stage opposite was next and the last we visited. I was carrying my boy we got splashed by water in the Live Action Sound stage. Boy was a bit poofed around this time so we decided to call it a day as we have the waterpark the next day. We took the monorail back to Vivo and took a double decked bus 30 home. Boy was sound asleep on the bus while girl girl was enjoying the bus ride at the front seat of the double decked bus.Reached home around 7pm and we had our dinner at a hawker centre near our house.
A long break
This series of journal actually started in March but I have not found the ample time to write it in full details. Most of them are in point forms and finally I have the time to complete and publish them. My long break starts on the 24th of March. I took a flight back to BKK and took the bus home. It will be a rush for me as the whole family, missus and the 2 kids will be flying back to Singapore and stay at my sister's flat for a week.
I reached home in the morning of 25th and wife fetched me from the bus station. Kids were still sleeping while I arrived. Then it's all packing and going through the normal routine of preparing the food for my dog and asking our neighbours to look after our fish :P
We called for a cab to the airport in Chiang Rai this time as it will be almost 2 weeks away from our home and it does not make sense to leave our car at the airport for that long period of time. It will be an internal budget flight from Chiang Rai to Don Meung Bangkok. Followed by an SIA fight at Suvarnabhumi. There was a 2 to go package for SIA and I splurged on the air tickets this round. The flight from Chiang Rai to BKK is a bit uneventful. Boy was a bit restless though and girl girl's ear pain is not as serious as last time. We reached Bangkok in the afternoon and took the free shuttle to the new airport.
The 2 enjoyed the free shuttle to the airport on the big bus. Looking at the tall buildings in Bangkok and the huge amount of cars and traffic plying the roads and expressway. They got into counting the colourful taxis that they saw on the road. By the time we reached Suvarnabhumi It was around 2pm. We had lunch and managed to check in at aroung 3pm. The flight was scheduled at 6pm so we had a long wait. The 2 started getting restless and I reluctantly took out the Ipad and allowed them to watch some cartoons on it. By the time we boarded the plane. Both of them was so tired that they fell asleep immediately after the plane took off. We had some trouble waking boy up for the in flight meal... :P
Reached home around 11pm.
Interesting way to start a year
I'm typing this on the plane. I'm on my way back to Chiang Rai for a short break. Just only a week prior to my break, I actually tendered my resignation letter over matters of a deduction in our department's OT pay. It was actually quite dramatic. We received our pay last month just after Chirstmas and my colleague spotted the err in payment. Initially I thought it was just an individual mistake in the Finance department but later I found out the deduction was across the board. Furious with the sudden changes without any notification. I wrote a very strong worded email to my immediate superior and manager. Their response was pitiful in the sense that they don't see anything wrong in the whole fiasco. So furious was I that I decided to quit.
My immediate boss (who is also a good friend of mine) managed to persuade me to hold my letter and requested to have an emergency team meeting with the ops manager. For a very long time, all our team members came to the meeting that day and the ops manager explained that there were no changes the OT formulae. However, there was a special component that he has been giving to us discreetly ever since we joined the company. And our dear ops manager was questioned recently why he gave the special component so he has to enforced the rule.
I smell bullshit. Anyway, I cut straight to the point that we don't see it that way. A cut is a cut and if you wish to enforce this rule, at least have the courtesy to inform us before hand. This is to allow us to judge if its rational for us to do the extra OT. Not like we had done it in December and then undercut us this way.
So after some haggling, they gave in and return us the special component for the time being. For how long this will last? I really don't know but at least they promised to inform us next time if they play such stunts.
So actually I was going to be free and jobless in Feb 2013 but I guess I will stick around for the moment. Since the ops manager did personally asked me to withdraw my resignation letter (actually money is still the factor ... :P) So just this once, my principle was set aside.
Our Mainstream Media is just plain stupid
Thanks to Mr Brown for notifying.
This really proves that our local papers and mass media are plain stupid (more like idiotic) in the whole Internet era. Anything posted on the net will be cached. Its no longer like the good old days where you can burn periodicals or books. This new medium is here to stay and by display this sort of behavior of deleting the post without any sorts of explanation is just plain integrity suicide (not like they have a lot left anyway).
The only way out now for them is to republish the posts or give a really really good explanation. Come on please! Don't expect deleting these posts will stop people discussing about this issue. This will just makes things worst?
And about that mayor who don't know anything about the whole bonus incident. I seriously wonder how come we pay you so much?
Thanks to the gutless and stupid 66% Singaporeans who voted for these people to power. I'm ok, as I'm leaving for good. For the rest who are staying. You're screwed.
This really proves that our local papers and mass media are plain stupid (more like idiotic) in the whole Internet era. Anything posted on the net will be cached. Its no longer like the good old days where you can burn periodicals or books. This new medium is here to stay and by display this sort of behavior of deleting the post without any sorts of explanation is just plain integrity suicide (not like they have a lot left anyway).
The only way out now for them is to republish the posts or give a really really good explanation. Come on please! Don't expect deleting these posts will stop people discussing about this issue. This will just makes things worst?
And about that mayor who don't know anything about the whole bonus incident. I seriously wonder how come we pay you so much?
Thanks to the gutless and stupid 66% Singaporeans who voted for these people to power. I'm ok, as I'm leaving for good. For the rest who are staying. You're screwed.
I thought I read wrongly!!!
Saw an article on Todayonline and can't believe my eyes for a while. The article was about the recent "high" level civil servant bragging about spending 40k in France for a cooking class. Thought our Mr Teo was already doing damage control in the parliament. But some of these "elites" just could not shut their mouth....
Here's an extract from the article... Note the bold and especially the red portion.
Bloody hell... can someone (maybe Mr Teo who is at least trying hard) give Mr Charles a tight cock slap on his mouth. More damage control coming...
Link to original article
Edit: Seems like Sammyboy Coffeeshop is already lynching our dear "Immortal" Charles. hehehe
Here's an extract from the article... Note the bold and especially the red portion.
Agreeing that the rebuke in Parliament was “harsh”, MP Charles Chong noted that Mr Tan didn’t “brag” about how expensive the trip was in the article.
.
“Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a little bit boastful,” he said. “Would people have taken offence if his wife (a senior investment counsellor at a bank) had paid for everything?”
Bloody hell... can someone (maybe Mr Teo who is at least trying hard) give Mr Charles a tight cock slap on his mouth. More damage control coming...
Link to original article
Edit: Seems like Sammyboy Coffeeshop is already lynching our dear "Immortal" Charles. hehehe
Overdosed.
If I really go and follow the doctor's instruction and take all the medication they prescribed.
One type for pain, one for gastric, one for vomiting and 2 types of antibiotics. I only completed the antibiotics and left the other 3 alone. They even prescribed me 1 year supply of Paracetemol. Bloody 180 tabs!! And that's only CGH. SGH gave me another 80 tabs.
I wonder if someone who have financial issues are able to pay for all these drugs. I did checked with the pharmacist but she said the doctor prescribed it and I have to take it. So I guess its the doctor's fault?
So whoever wants Paracetemol (Panadol) do let me know... maybe can pass some to you.
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