Fake Buddhists Monks (Sunday Times 8 Jul); and
Fake Buddha Tooth (Sunday Times 15 Jul)
Last week it was fake monks begging for alms in Singapore. This week it's questionable Buddha's relic. $45m was raised to build a temple to house a tooth said to be from Buddha. Experts sy it looks like a cow's tooth. Frankly, if I know anything about buddhism, Buddha should be turning in his grave (if he had one) if he knew people were keeping pieces of him let alone worshipping it. People who donate money to house relics, even if authentic, for worship seems not to have understood the teachings of Buddha.

A tale of true humanity (ST, 14 July)
On Hainan Island, a rag-and-bone odd job labourer has been taking in and adopting baby girls abandoned by their natural parents trying to have a son to carry on the family name. All over almost 2 decades he has taken in 10 or more girls. With his meagre income, he still manages to ensure that his children, natural and adopted, get an education and have a better future. When he sent his eldest adopted daughter, who was 19 by then, off to Shenzhen to work, it was a tearful separation as she had never left home before. The father cried all the way back on the bus. When the daughter offered to send money home for the family to celebrate Chinese New Year, he told her to keep the money for her own use, as he did not raise their children in order to make money from them.

As I read this story, I was thinking that if this man applied for PR status in Singapore he would probably be denied. He had no education, and no wealth to offer Singapore. And yet, what he could offer was the immeasurably more precious human heart and the compassionate soul.

Instead, we accept the rich and "talented" who are not afraid to use their talent to further enrich themselves materially (and in so doing, enrich Singapore). While some are probably nice people, the selection criteria probably doesn't favour philanthropy or compassion.

If Singapore is already crassly materialistic, the future with more immigrants of similar ilk, does not seem likely to be any different.


Who's misbehaving?

With the headlines, "Ok. Ok. I'll behave. Don't shoot." The Sunday Times (15 Jul) probably thought it was a fun picture to show a Spl Ops Command Officer pointing his gun at at 11-yr-old.

The Officer should know better than to do that. His weapon is not a toy, and even in basic weapons handling he should have been taught
1) Treat all firearms as loaded. 2) Never point a firearm at anything you do not want destroyed or killed.

There is a third rule: never let the breaking of the 2nd rule be captured in the national press. Yes, it's NDP, and maybe the kid was willing to pose for it, and maybe the dumb photographer asked for the pose. You should still be professional enough (or at least smart enough) to say no.

Guess who's gonna get a reprimand?

About Sovereignty

Brunei and Singapore celebrated 40 years of currency interchangeability by releasing new $20 notes with a same back - scenes from Singapore and Brunei, but with different fronts - Brunei $20 with their sultan, and Singapore $20 with Yusof Ishak.

At the press conference, Brunei described the notes as signifying that the countries were two sovereign nations on one side, and the close cooperation we had on the other. One comment left on the ST online was that this currency interchangeability meant that Singapore was vulnerable to the manipulations of Brunei. For example. North Korea is believed to be counterfeiting US currency. Our arrangement with Brunei would open us to the same risks.

However, that is only a possibility and not a probability, and the comment was alarmist at best and I don't think anyone took it seriously. However, what is interesting was mention of sovereignty by the Brunei leader, and the confidence that this 40 year cooperation should continue. Actually, if either country should be worried, it should be Brunei, as they have the natural resources to back their currency, but Singapore's backing is based on years of building up the reserves. In the early years, they probably had a greater risk that Singapore would just print money, and flood Brunei with "cheap" Singapore dollars. Even now, Brunei with less than 1/10th of Singapore's population probably have more reason to feel threatened but does not.

Both countries deal with each other with mutual respect as sovereign nations. There is no question that this arrangement would threaten the sovereignty of either.

In contrast, Malaysia feels their sovereignty is threatened all the time, whether it's the water issue, the causeway/bridge issue, our land reclamation programme, or our investment (or consultation) in the Iskandar Development Region.

Indonesia also feels necessary to raise the issue of their sovereignty over the Defence Cooperation Agreement which was tied to the Extradition pact. Now they want to amend the DCA because they feel their sovereignty is being threatened.

Thailand also felt necessary to raise the "Singapore boogeyman" with their concerns over the security of their mobile phone communications because of the Singapore ownership of one of their telco. The coup general has since admitted that it was a strategy to rally support of the the Thai people.

I thought it interesting that Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, all vastly bigger countries with larger population than Singapore would worry that a small island state of 4m people could threatened their sovereignty, while Brunei, one of the smaller countries in the world (tho still larger than Singapore) with a population less than 1/10th of Singapore is not.

Of course, it's arguable whether a currency interchangeability agreement is more threatening than any of the other issues. Probably not.

M'sian PM weds again
ST 9 June

Congrats Pak Lah!















The Judgement of Paris.
ST online 9 June
Judge overrules Sheriff electronic monitoring and orders Paris back behind bars. It's a simple life.

Wild Ride in a Wheelchair
ST, 9 June 2007

And here we were wasting our time getting bus fitted with wheelchair ramps! :-)

New Sand, New Maids, World's fastest walkers.

British researchers have concluded that Singaporeans are the fastest walkers in the world, which is a proxy measure of just how fast-paced life in those cities are.

How did Singaporeans get to be such fast walkers? Like all things, training.
First of all, our MRT train doors are times to close almost immediately after opening. This gives Singaporeans only a split second to get into the train, so they have to move fast! even as they sidestep the commuters trying to get out.

Second of all, our pedestrian crossing lights all come with a countdown timer so you'll be timed as you cross the road. Surprisingly, we have received reports that rather than increasing the walking speed, pedestrian crossings actually slows people down. Numerous drivers have cursed these slow-moving cattle that cuts down on their turning opportunity.

Pedestrians who are usually capable of walking far and fast, sudden come to complete stops when they get on escalators and travellators. This phenomenon is still being investigated.

Anyway, the jaded Singaporean asks, what's the practical use of such a finding? It's not going to change my life!

Ah but that's where you're wrong sir!

Think about it at about 20m per 12 sec (the study found that we cover about 18m in just over 10 sec), the average Singaporean covers up to 100m in 1 minute.

That means that if your home is now within 500m of an MRT, the town centre or other public amenities, you can now truthfully claim that it is just a "5 minute walk" from those amenities.

1 km away? Just 10 minutes walk!

Buangkok Station could have been open earlier!

Newsand

So after Newater, there is new sand. Fortunately we don't have to shit it out. New sand uses copper slag waste which is from our shipyards where the copper slags are used to blast clean vessels. The used slags are used to replace sand for making concrete. Eco-concrete is expected to be as strong as regular concrete.

There are also other advantages. The copper in the concrete may mean that lightning strips may not be needed for buildings constructed with eco-concrete. Of course it also means those metal thieves could leave a gaping hole in your wall. You would also be living in a Faraday cage and your cellular phone signals may not get through.

Hmmm eco-concrete may be the ideal material to build future cineplexes!

New Maids
After Philippines imposed a minimum wage for their maids, Indonesia has decided to follow suit. At this rate we will have to come up with new maids to replace those.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/robots/japans-makes-maid-robot-that-surprisingly-looks-like-gundam-not-a-sexy-lady-240846.php

Let's get some Japanese robot maids.

The worst investment ever!

Let's say you heard of a job opening up. It's contract work. 4 years. Pays $100,000 per year. Would you spend $10m to try to win that job?

Shift now to the US Presidential election campaign. The job is a four year term. It pays $400,000 a year. The two leading Democratic candidates are expected to raise and spend $500m each to win the presidency (ST 9 May 2007, "Cash fuels the race for the White House").

There are things not upfront in the picture.

Pipeline is a go

M'sia's PM has announced the $11b northern pipeline to shortcut travel through the Straits of Malacca is on. And this guy's not prone to saying one thing and doing another. Competition for Singapore is on!

But I thought I read somewhere that it takes 3 days to offload a supertanker (VLCC) and just 2 days to go down the straits. Well, it's an option.

I'm sometimes bemused by people's reaction to things that do not concern them.

Wong Li-Lin, a judge on "The Dance Floor" collected some money to give to a dancer she felt had talent, tho did not win, as the winner is determined by sms voting. (i.e. popularity).

She did no disparage the winners, but understanding the tough life of a dancer decided to encourage the one she thinks has the most talent.

That's like anyone of us giving money to a cause we believe in. Should you question the choices of someone who gives money to SPCA when there are elderly in need of food and shelter? Should you quarrel with people who donate to the arts when there are developmentally delayed children who could use the money for special education?

Choices.

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The elephant in the living room

I don't mean this elephant:

Task of jumbo proportions, not for the squeamish
http://sewerserpent7.livejournal.com/#asset-sewerserpent7-528

I mean the Great Debate on Ministers' Salaries Part III.

It was debated to bits while I was overseas. Then when I was back, it was debated again. Like most if not all Singaporeans, I couldn't accept it at first. Then I did. Maybe it's because I know people and I'm not the envious sort. I've accepted it as necessary and I haven't really followed the news. There is no new arguments from either side. The only new twist is the juxtaposition with the debate a few weeks ago on the public assistance handouts. Tens of dollars vs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It's been talked and blogged to death, but if I don't say anything about it, I may seem out of touch with reality. Or Singapore. Which some people claim is unreal.

I think most people can't accept paying Ministers higher salaries because there is some kind of envy, some kind of socialistic robin hood need to take from the rich to give to the poor. Some kind of idealistic self-delusion where they tell themselves, if I were in their shoes, I would NEVER do what they did, those selfish bastards.

It makes people feel good about themselves. Feel superior. Or maybe they just don't want the rich to get richer. They just want themselves to get richer.

It is an emotional issue and people confuse the issue, drag in irrelevancies, make non sequitur leaps of logic, confound the situation with unrelated matters, and make unwarranted comparisons.

For example, one argument and it's variant is that Ministers a) do not need that salary, b) do not deserve their salary, c) should not need that salary to serve, d) are not doing work that is worth that kind of money, e) are overpaid compared to other leaders who have much greater responsibility, and f) should not be benchmarked against the private sector because it doesn't matter who's up there, it's always the top people.

This argument misses the point completely. It's not so much about what the job of Minister pays. It's what else the person can make in other jobs. If you are a brilliant professional who can make $4m a year, why should you give up a lucrative career for $1.2m a year? or $1.8m? For the sheer joy of serving? Riiight.

Most Singaporeans will say, tell you what, why don't you play-play run the govt, don't bother me, I have to go make some real money. And if we get some cheap talents who don't make the grade, would the brilliant professional then decide to step up to the plate and serve? Well, he might. Or he might just go someplace else where he can do better business or make more money.

The Ministers' salaries have to be substantial enough so that good minds will weigh the "sacrifice" of foregoing their lucrative careers as not too much of a deterrent.

The problem is not that our current crop of ministers will leave if we don't up their pay. The problem is that the govt will have trouble recruiting potential new leaders if we don't.

So I say, pay them to attract new blood. Don't let Singapore become like NKF. T. T. Durai started with good intentions. Then he "lost the plot."

Pay them well upfront. So they don't have to wheel and deal and try to give their families a better life in unethical ways.

Indonesian police have decided that the sabotage at the Karimun granite quarry was business-related - "probably the product of unhealthy business competition".

I guess the anti-Singapore climate formented by the Indonesian political leaders were not relevant. Nor the possibility that some overzealous nationalists taking matters into their own hands to halt export of granite to Singapore was even considered.

It was just business competition.

Right.

At the time of the blasts, barges bound for Singapore with granite had been detained (and are still being detained) on suspicion of sand smuggling. Excuse me, how long for the Indonesian Navy to ascertain if there is sand under the granite? It's been over a month!

So at the time of the sabotage, there was no competition. Production had slowed and workers were retrenched because of the de facto granite export ban, and the fact that no barge owners want to risk getting their boats detained indefinitely.

Business competition? The business is closing down fast.

In the News

Pirate Haven Singapore (ST Mar 28). The 3rd part of the Pirates of the Carribean movie has a scarred Chow Yun Fat in a Singapore from an indeterminate past. It was a more interesting Singapore with stilt houses, back alleys, and I gather, an overall seedy atmosphere that makes it perfect as a pirates stomping ground. Most Singaporeans took the depiction of Singapore in their stride, and Chow's depiction of a Chinese pirate as a role.

Chinese (as in from China) response however, has been more... emotional, calling the role demeaning and insulting.

Excuse me. He's playing a pirate. So even Chinese pirates must be shown to be virtuous, upright, and honourable men in touch with the grand and glorious history of the greatest civilisation in the world?

Me thinks, perhaps the protesters doth protests too much.

Fearful Mahathir (29 & 30 Mar, ST). Over the last two days, the press have been reporting Mahathir's speech on Thursday where he criticised the plans for the Iskandar Development Region in South Johor. The plans include opening up investment to foreigners and lifting ownership quotas for businesses in the region. Dr M claimed that this would lead once again the the Malays being enslaved by foreigners.

"Enslaved Again?" Didn't know they were ever enslaved. British colonial rule? Oh that enslavement. Right. A bit of hyperbole there. Good for public speeches.

Well, Dr M, there was that New Economic Plan that was in place since 1969 to level up Malay's ability and share of the economic pie. That was 35 years ago, and 22 of those years were under under your leadership. And you still say that you believe in Malay ability, but that as of now they are not able to compete internationally? Perhaps the problem is that protection, means never needing to compete on equal footing?

If you want to improve your tennis game, you got to play with better players. Perhaps Mr Abdullah understands that a little better than you.

F1
So while we have been dreaming about Ferraris zipping past the Esplanade, M'sia has been worried about what it would mean for their F1 spot. Okay, it was only their Youth and Sports Minister who said she was worried. She even said that Singapore shouldn't compete with Malaysia. One Malaysian said it was strange that Malaysia would feel this way given the previous challenge from the Johor ports to try to wrest business away from Singapore ports. Oh wait, the Youth and Sports Minister is only 44. That means for most of her formative years, she has experienced the New Economic Policy that has protect Malays from competition. Too bad it doesn't extend to Singapore, eh?

Not to worry, Malaysia has come back with an answer. They can also host a night race to boost TV audiences! Nice one Sepang! :-) (Hmmm "see pang" in Hokkien means square right?)

Bullet Train To Singapore.
As predicted, Singapore went, "Huh?". But it was the Malaysia Minister who shot down the story. (Mar 28) New Straits Times, your bad.

Here's the news...

Singapore, Malaysia approves bullet train. (26 Mar) The New Straits Times citing unnamed sources from a Malaysian conglomerate said that the governments of Malaysia and Singapore had approved plans for a bullet train from KL to Singapore.

Based on past experience, the Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry should be issuing a "huh?" the next day. If it is confirmed by the Singapore Government, I'll... stop blogging for a few days.

DVD Pirates put bounty on dogs. (23 Mar) Malaysian movie and music pirates put a contract out on the sniffer dogs that busted their million dollar cache of DVDs. They are now trying to confuse the dogs by spraying chemicals on their DVDs. So next time you go to your friend's place and he plays you the latest Ghostrider DVD, take a sniff. If it smells like curry, it could be fake.

At least the DVD pirates aren't thinking too smart. One suggestion for drug dealers is to pretend to be blind, get a guide dog and hide the drugs up the dog's anus. Then when he passes the narco dogs, it is only natural for dogs to sniff each others arse and the narco officers will never get suspicious.

So now you know why there are so few guide dogs in Singapore.

Probably won't work with DVDs tho... (ouch!)

Granite quarry blast could be deliberate - Indon police. (26 Mar) Gee. You think? It's all well and good bashing Singapore for the sake of (Indonesian) Nation building. But when people start believing your stupid rhetoric and start engaging in terrorist activities, then the demogogic politicians are no better than radical fundamental Islamists militants...

Minister's Pay. What can I say that has not been said? $2.2m a year? That's about $183k a month. Or $6,100 per day. Or $254 per hour. If he sleeps 8 hours each night, that's $2000 gone! If we don't count sleeping hours, that's still $382 per hour for every waking hour. If he's constipated and spent 30 minutes in the loo, that's $190 down the toilet!

So the General Medical Council (GMC) of UK has lost their right to police themselves after they failed to detect how one of them (Harold Shipman) had systematically killed over 200 patients over 20 years (ST 22 Feb 2007).

The inquiry into the case found that the GMC was too focused on "looking after their own".

How's this related to Singapore?
The Singapore Medical Council had raised the Shorvon case to the GMC only to have the case dropped by the GMC who had a cursory review of the case and decided that Shorvon had nothing to answer for.

Shorvon was the UK researcher who was doing medical research in Singapore and had arbitrarily changed medications without regard for patients welfare. He escaped to the UK.

In view of this development, the SMC should appeal the decision.

City of Garden and Water
So PM Lee has announced that Singapore should aim to be a City of Gardens and Water. Jakarta says, Pfffttt!!!! We're already halfway there. Just need to work on the gardens part.

PUB in Singapore says, "Then why we work so hard!!!!"

The nurseries at Thomson Road says, "So we are ahead of time lah?"

Newater, new sand.
So when Malaysia cut off our water supply, we came up with New Water.

Now that Indonesia has cut off our sand supply, what? New Sand? Are we going to be shitting bricks? It's also called night soil, right?

Behind the scenes after the soccer match...
So as the Malaysian Referee walks into the tunnel, he is met by Thaksin who shakes his hands and hands him a briefcase full of cash. Then as he walks further down, he meets Mahathir, who takes a cut. Then Mahathir walks out the tunnel to the waiting Thai players and shares the payoff with them.

What's news?

Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand
Mahathir said that "Singapore believes that the most important thing is what profits Singapore" in an interview with Thai TV. Oh well, I guess Malaysia doesn't believe that the most important thing is what profits Malaysia and Thailand doesn't believe that the most important thing is what profits Thailand. That must be why Thailand shot itself in the foot twice with the currency controls and the foreign ownership rules and managed to chop their stock market performance down for 2006.

And that explains why Malaysia nd Thailand is doing so much better than Singapore economically.

ASEAN cup
So if Singapore beats Thailand tonight, I guess the Thais will claim that we eavesdropped on their strategy through their handphones. And if we lose... well we lose. :-)

Crazy Horses iGallop
So Crazy Horse is closing down. They've extended the show by another 4 days. But they're closing. When they go, we can just put 7 iGallops on stage and feature naked women riding on them. On Wed, it would be amateur women's night. On Thursday, it will be men's night. And on Friday, the foreign brides agencies can put on their best girls to see if they can get a husband.

T.T. Durai first thought he could talk his way out of the SPH suit, but after two days, he realised that he was bing forced to tell more than he wanted, and nothing he say would make him look good. So realising his lost cause, he threw in the towel and dropped his suit against SPH.

Subsequently, this week the New NKF sued him and after the opening statement by the opposing counsel, he realised that as the case dragged on, he was going to be dragged through the mud. Wisely, he decided to save his name and concede.

In two or three months time, he will face criminal proceedings. It is also likely that after hearing the opening statement by the prosecution, he will decide to cut his losses and plead guilty.

Which means that he will never have to answer personally the questions that is on everyone's mind.

The only way to make him speak is if the remaining respondents in the current case, decide to call him as a hostile witness...

Then we will hear from the horse's mouth.

T.T. Durai concedes "no case" after 2 days of trial (ST Jan 10). Previously he had dropped his suit against SPH after just 2 days. I guess "T. T." stands for "two-day trial".

However his other co-defendents are fighting on. I guess their defence now is, "it's Durai's fault!"

The hearing for damages will be in 12 months. 12 months! Why so long! Because lawyers charge by the hour.

Also, this has turned out to be almost an all Indian affair - Durai, Shanmugam, and Judicial Commissioner, Sundaresh Menon. Just an interesting note.

AppleTV and Apple iPhone has been unveiled (ST Jan 10)! Now you can watch all those YouTube clips on a full screen TV!... why would I wanna do that?

Thailand continues to show why the Military cannot run a country (ST Jan 10). After announcing that foreign share of ownership cannot exceed 50%, the Finance Minister goes on to say that of the 2,400 foreign businesses, only about 1,300 will be affected. Right. More than half. Only.

Then they promise to listen to businesses and will adjust. Next time, listen first. That foot in your mouth? Leave it there. It will remind you not to talk first. As if the lesson from the currency control fiasco was not learnt at all.

A whale destroyed a small trimaran (named "loose goose") off New Zealand, but the sailor said the whale apologised (ST Jan 10). I guess that makes it okay then.

Pfizer, the drug company that makes the drug that keeps your hotdog big, is now selling a drug that will help your dog get small (ST Jan 7). Right. While bird flu still dogs us, AIDS, Diabetes, Kidney failure, not to mention hunger, malnutrition still hounds the human race, in the midst of all this human misery, someone decides that it is worthwhile to make a diet drug for dogs. It will cost US$1 to US$2 a day.

Excuse me. You have a fat dog? Stop feeding it. Feed it less. What's it gonna do? Fix its own supper? Open the fridge take out the steak and cook it? Get the dog food from the kitchen cabinet, work the electric can-opener and eat? Or wait til you're asleep and chew on your toes?

The new drug shouldn't be taken by humans. It may cause nausea, headache, abdominal pain, or other side effects. My guess is... they worked on a drug for humans, couldn't counter the side effects, so are selling it for dogs. Hope they don't suffer the side effects.

Headline, Jan 6, 2007: Singapore win world Optimist title

No. It doesn't mean what you think it means unless you know that in the context of sailing, an Optimist is a class of sailboat.

Jan 6, 2007
Osim belts recalled: 2 caught fire

LIFESTLYE products company Osim is recalling 3,000 units of a new electric slimming belt, after two caught fire while being charged.

The company said the lithium-ion batteries in its new uZap Minis could have overheated while charging and caught fire.

No injuries have been reported. The company yesterday advised customers to stop charging and using the belt, which retails at $148.

Sales of the belt have been halted.



Man: Honey, that uZap mini I bought for you? You have to stop using it.

Woman: Why? It's great! I can feel it burning the fat off my tummy.

Man: That's the problem, Honey. Remember last night when you were using it and I thought I smelled burning flesh?

Woman: Well, yeah. It hurt, but like you said, no pain, no gain.

So the "School of the Future" will be ready in 2008. Guess that means the rest of us went to what kind of school...?

The National Council of Problem Gambling is inviting comments or feedback on whether the exclusion order (the one that disallows you to enter the casino) should be permanent, limited or revocable. That is, if you have recovered from gambling addiction, could you apply to be allowed into a casino. I say, if you have been cured of your gambling addiction, why would you want to go back in there?

The recent (and perhaps on-going) deluge of rain has wreaked havoc to our neighbours to the north and south. This little red dot remains mostly above water. Way to go!

Then there were those on landed property which had landslides landing on their property.

School bus operators have the perenniel problems of trying to charge for June and Dec, claiming that they had overheads in those months as well. I sympathise. Now why don't they just factor in those two months and just charge the 10 months fees with those 2 months built in. It would mean a 20% increase but there would be no charge for June and Dec. Problem solved. If the operators have trouble saving the extra, their association can perhaps help them with a savings plan of sorts.

A Judge gave a drunk Bomb Hoaxer just 6 months jail because she found that he had no malicious intent. She also said police should have procedures in place to distinguished between genuine tip-offs and drunken acts of foolishness. So if you have a genuine tip-off, please don't be drunk when you call the police. Or if you're drunk and want some fun, and have nothing to do for, oh, the next six months... Pfffttt!

In Malaysia, the Sisters In Islam intends to conduct a survey to see what impact polygamy has on families. They intend to ask questions like how family expenditure on clothes and other necessities are affected when the man takes another wife. Well, if you're going to ask THAT kind of questions... why bother? Limited resources. Increased dependents. No brainer.