On the last day of the year

I would like to thank Wifey for 4 years together.

Starbucks Parkway Parade

Holland Drive Hawker Centre

Westin Stamford Lobby Lounge

Toa Payoh MRT Station

915 Fried Chicken

IMM Loading Bay

Dragon View Park

Ikea Alexandra

St. Bernadette's Church

Rose Garden Eatery, Melbourne

Old Airport Hawker Centre

Thomson Medical Centre

FAITH!!

Wee First Infant Care

Kowloon

Mt Alvernia Hospital

JOY!!

National Library Board (??)

Geraldine, I love you

Y2K + 7

Had a thought-provoking chat with a friend who's making a successful second career out of career-counselling friends. She had a convincing case for me returning to a vocation that I abandoned some years back.

I remember the day I stepped into the formalin-impregnated hall with 149 other hopefuls. Taking an oath of respect with our ungloved hands on the cadavers.

I remember the night I gave up it all up along the quiet lonely corridor in the pre-war building at Kampong Java.


Photo credit: www.cebam.be

I hear your advice and will keep it for the future. Thanks.

TV Mobile

So I was on the public bus these past days for one reason or another. The car being out of commission until the weekend. What hit me while on the bus was not the sardine-like conditions but the incessant noise emanating from the TV Mobile console.

For those not familiar with TV Mobile. It's the brand name of a free-to-air TV station on most public buses in Singapore. Commuters get to watch news and re-runs of local TV programme while on the bus. Not a bad idea until you realise that the volume is perpetually turned up to drown out the engine noise. I suspect this is done so that the advertisements may be heard regardless of traffic and crowd conditions.


Photo credit: www.coverville.com

TV images I can ignore but it's really hard to even think properly when I have the equivalent of someone shouting into my ears for the entire journey. I don't need to know, for the 101st time, that MacDonald's is giving away $10,000 dollars in a lucky draw. And I certainly don't need the entire cast of Phua Chu Kang teaching me the finer points of Singlish.

There is absolutely no private space on public buses nowadays. Not even private space for personal thoughts. I'm very sure that there are laws against such things in enlightened countries.

God Jul och Gott Nytt

Peace and goodwill to all men


Image credit: www.hotlib.com

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christmas

Lest we forget

Humanity has the propensity to treat one another in the most depraved manner. Occasionally a spark of hope may shine through the darkness.


Photo credit: www.cartercenter.org

My wish this time of the year is for everyone to treat one another with respect and dignity.

Have a peaceful and silent night tonight. Wherever you are in the world.

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peace

Carcel de Caseros

One of the most notorious prison in Argentina has finally been demolished last week, according to a BCC report today. The Carcel de Caseros (Caseros Prison) was a place where dissendents of past regimes in Argentina were incarcerated and "disappeared."

The International Herald Tribune reported on August 7, 2007,

...The Cárcel de Caseros is considered to have been among Argentina's most inhumane prisons under Jorge Rafael Videla's brutal military dictatorship from 1976 to 1981.

What made Caseros worse than many other prisons was the lack of direct sunlight. Prisoners grew sickly from lack of vitamin D. Their skin turned green and flaked off, and their teeth, hair and eyesight deteriorated...

And instead of killings and physical tortures, the prison was constructed in such a way to exert psychological pressure on inmates. The walls were painted in garish colours and built in a way that disoriented the senses. Numerous prisoners committed suicide because of that.


Photo credit: fadwebsite.com

It is perhaps fitting that someone has made an art piece out of the deserted building. Using the broken glass of the facade windows to create a light illusion of faces staring out from the prison, Seth Wulsin won admiration from the Argentine public, some of them ex-detainees. The faces shimmered in the sunlight and, depending on where the observer was standing, not all were visible simultaneously. Some disappeared when the angle of the light changed with the passing hour.

It is an example of art that heals. All the more apt as, day by day, the building was demolished in stages, the faces disappeared forever. An ephemeral memorial to those who were "disappeared" and perhaps laying past ghosts to rest.

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art

Winter solstice

So once again we are at the turning point of the year. The northern hemisphere is experiencing its longest night. The winter solstice falls on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month of the Chinese calendar (十一月十三日) this year.

It's strange that I should remember and mark this astronomical event every year. The quietness of a dark night appeals to me more than the noise and light of other occasions like Christmas or Chinese New Year. I can imagine a family reunited for dinner on the longest night of the year.


Image credit: baidu.com

Of course, it's quite nonsensical to talk about a long, dark winter's night while I live right smack on the Equator where the climate is perpetually hot and humid. Maybe that's why I find it mind-numbingly stifling here. The weather is a metaphor of the mindset here in 1984-ville. Every where I turn to, people go to the same malls for leisure. Everyone lives in perpetual fear of losing their jobs, or of not getting their yearly bonus. The conversation topics revolve around property prices, public and private transport taxes. The weather is hot, humid and nothing else. We wear the same kinds of clothes the whole year round. And every household overworks its System 4 Inverters.

Nobody looks up at the sky anymore. We are losing our individual and collective souls. When was the last time you saw a shooting star? Really...

Pause and think about what it means to be in-sync with your inner soul as you go about completing the last-minute shopping. What is it to be human?

I wish you peace.

Lasik (Part 4), or The Baggage from My Past

I live in a place with the highst rate of myopia in the world. Myo-what? That's the medical term for short-sightedness. Most of my friends will agree with me that it is very annoying to have a pair of spectacles perching on your nose, without which you'd have to grope carefully in order not to trip over things while walking. Being myopic is more of a psychological scar than an everyday inconvenience for me. The reason I say this is because of the circumstance that made me short-sighted.

I was born to parents who did not need to wear glasses. My mum is not myopic now although she is beginning to develop long-sightedness due to old age. This condition results in her not being able to see things clearly at a close range. Think of it as the opposite of myopia. But I am digressing.


Photo credit: www.freephoto1.com

After a tempestuous relationship, my parents separated when I was barely learning how to control my piss. Anyway, I was put under the care of my maternal grandmother. Now, as it turns out, my mum was an adopted child so there isn't any blood relation between her and granny. This is an important point, as we shall see later. The other significant thing to note is that my granny's biological sons are all severely myopic.

Effectively, I was put into an environment where short-sightedness was the norm. I was also made to read textbooks over long hours under a dim fluorescent light bulb. The first sign of failing eye-sight appeared when I turned 10 years of age. I found that I couldn't read the service numbers of public buses until they came right up to the bus stop. I remember a funny experience with a friend of mine who also had problems with his eyesight. We had missed a bus because we couldn't read the number until it was too late to flag. Yes, bus drivers were and still are an impatient lot. So we devised a plan. You know how it is with 10-year-old boys, they come up with the most ingenious of plots. My friend stationed himself about 50 metres ahead of the bus stop and he did the number spotting, waving to me when the right bus approached. I then had ample time to flag the bus while he would make a mad dash back to the bus stop.

So that was my first step into the world of myopia. I was definitely coerced into it. I remember the physical abuse that I received if I did not do well in school. One of my uncle even set his own test papers for me on a weekly basis, giving me a good thrashing when I got any mistake. Once he returned from work while I was watching TV. He promptly interrogated me on why I was not studying. I got another beating with the warning to "make sure that you are studying when I return home." All that abuse was witnessed by other members of the household. No one intervened.

There is only so much that a yound child can take before he breaks and does one of two things: run away or allow his will to be broken. For good or bad, I chose to conform to expectations, putting in countless hours of revision and reading. All the while under unsuitable lighting conditions.

My short-sightedness hangs like a ghost from the past, a reminder of the unhappy days and how I was robbed of my birthright. I have no genetic pre-disposition towards myopia but I was forced to abuse my eyes to point of failure.

Now that I'm a father of two beautiful daughters, I pray desperately everyday that they will not have to wear glasses when they start going to school. Because when I put on my glasses every morning, I am reminded of the emotional baggage that flawed care-givers placed on me so many years ago.

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Technorati: myopia, health, lasik

The quirks of urban living

Before I go to the story I must state on record that I'm NOT bored with life and the most serious vandalism I ever did was missing my aim at the men's room while half-drunk with 40% Bacardi.

Whatever...

Earlier this evening, a friend told me that the buttons in the lifts of HDB blocks could be "re-booted", much like pressing Ctr-Alt-Del on a Windows OS. Apparently what happened was that punks had been jabbing all the buttons, resulting in much annoyance to the next person taking a ride. Imagine visiting every floor before you reach your destination.

Anyway, this friend of mine found out that, at least in the lifts serving the block he lives in, he could cancel all the activated buttons by simultaneously pressing three buttons. Neat little Easter egg for defeating all those punks.

Well anyway, as you can see from the time stamp of this blog post, I am feeling insomniac. Guess what's the best way to kill time in the middle of a dark and silent night, besides blogging? Of course, it's to conduct scientific tests. Heh.



So, I went into the lift at my place and randomly pressed a few buttons. It turned out that if I pressed more than three buttons, not necessarily simultaneously, the activated buttons would be de-activated, reverting back to stand-by mode.

A pretty interesting Easter egg. It prevents itchy-fingered kids from doing their stuff but the lift cannot serve more than three floors at a time.

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urban guide

Stress

We experience mental stress generally when we perceive that the demands of aspects of our lives overwhelm our capabilities to handle such demands. All of us have experienced some form of stress in our lives, some are better able to handle it, others need external intervention.


Hallucination is a symptom of extreme stress
Photo credit: www.cattlerange.com

We are probably familiar with the general stages of stress. They are, in order of severity:

1. Awareness. This happens when we become aware of the threat to our well-being and this is usually associated with a sudden increase in pulse rate. In most people, this is the shortest stage of stress and they eventually move on to next stage.

2. Coping. The typical response after we become aware of the threat to our well-being is, of course, to try to get rid of the problem or to find ways of living with the problem such that it does as little damage as possible. We know that coping mechanisms cannot function indefinitely as it depletes our resources. When the threat eventually outlasts our coping mechanisms, we move on to the third and most serious stage.

3. Exhaustion. When our coping mechanisms are overwhelmed, our body can no longer maintain normal functions. This results in our organ systems not performing the right things. For example, improper organ functioning may be manifested as stomach ulcers, heart attacks or insomnia. The most serious consquence is, of course, death from these manifestations.

There is considerable overlap among the three general stages. For example, a person may experience insomnia while successfully resolving the problem. My experience with the stages of stress is typical. I remember experiencing frequent diarrhoea during the school examinations, especially before and after tough papers.

The most insidious way by which stress levels build up in most working class city-dwellers is presenteeism. We ignore stress signals to carry on working, always striving for one more hour, one more page or one more deal. Employees & employers alike are equally guilty of promoting such health-destroying behaviour because going on sick leave is generally frowned upon. The subconscious message is that a person who fails to cope with stress has a lesser moral character or questionable work ethic.

There is always a choice to walk away from work when the alarm bells go off. Workers need to be empowered not just with legislative protection but also with knowledge of how to recognise stress levels and the available resources to help them cope.

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stress health

Lasik (Part 3), or The Second Skin

The best non-medical invention that came along, in terms of myopia correction, is the contact lens. They fit on the cornea like a second skin, providing clear vision in the entire field-of-view, unlike spectacles where there's always a blind-zone outside of the frame.


Photo credit: Bryan Tong Minh

I got into the act quite late, having worn my first pair only at 18. This came about after running too many competitive cross-country races stumbling over roots and shrub without the benefit of wearing my 500-degree glasses. The only time I did wear glasses while competing, I ended having them flung off my nose while trying to catch up with the guy in front of me during the last leg.

The trick to wearing contact lenses is to keep them on short and keep them clean. Cleanliness is paramount. It was something that I took for granted and ended up with two bouts of conjunctivitis. Simple rules apply. Always wash hands before handling, never wash lenses with tap water.

As a result of those two bouts of infecton, I could no longer put on contact lenses without getting sore eyes after 2 hours of wearing. And my eyes would ache for a few days after that. So ended my tryst with the contact lens.

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lasik contact lens

The 25k project (Part 2)

It costs quite a sum to apply for Canadian Permanent Resident visas for a family of four. In Canadian dollars (CAD), it’s 550 each for Wifey and me, CAD150 each for Faith and Joy. That makes a grand total of CAD1400 or SGD1900-plus with current forex rates.


Sunset in Vancouver
Photo credit: Matt Jones Photography

The Canadian visa section in Singapore charges SGD2192 if we’re paying in Singapore dollars. That’s quite a hefty premium. It’s less costly if we get an international bank draft in Canadian dollars. It’ll cost under SGD2000 with the service fee added in

With knowledge, there’s empowerment (and savings).

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emigration vancouver

Photography

By the way, yawningbread has an excellent article on DIY self-portraits. For all of us who don't believe in paying some guy 20 bucks for a grouchy passport photo...

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photography

Lasik (Part 2), or The Curse of The Snellen Chart

It was in 1984 when I was first pronounced myopic by a government nurse performing routine medical examination on students enrolled in state-run elementary schools. That diagnosis was made through the use of a Snellen chart. There was neither follow-up at a specialized opthalmological facility nor examination by an optometrist. I was simply given a written note of the declared diagnosis and the estimated unaided visual acuity (like 20/60 or some other numbers), with a stern advice to get a pair of glasses if I wanted to continue doing well in class.



My mum, proud as hell that I'd gained the status symbol of a studious boy, promptly took me to an optometry shop in Chinatown, where I was prescribed with a pair of spectacles. I remember they were around 100+ diopters (or "degrees") for each eye.

Looking back, that was about the most arbitrary process I have been medically subjected to. I became a myopic person all because of the Snellen Chart.

And so began my love-hate relationship with the eyeglass. I hate my dependence on them for all the usual reasons. Uncomfortable, slides off with perspiration, gets broken easily etc. There was only one reason for me to love them. They acted as a shield to my inner world. People say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I treated my glasses as a privacy screen. I used them as social camouflage, hiding emotions and ignorance. It is very easy to assume an intellectual, know-it-all air when you wear glasses. Answer this question: who's the geek, Bill or Steve? Must be the glasses giving one of them the geeky image.

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lasik

Lasik (Part 1)

My glasses were nearly cracked while playing tickles with Faith. She's reached the age where every piece of furniture (and dad lying on the sofa) is a mountain to be conquered. Did I mention that she converted my previous pair of spectacles into two monocles?

Wearing glasses is quite an impediment.

The gossip of the day is that one of my ex-classmate is now performing laser surgery for short-sighted patients. It's good to have contacts in such places.

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lasik

A new look

My apologies for the unfamiliar layout. Yes, you'd typed the address correctly and/or that link you clicked still works. I figured that the 3-year-plus blog facade needed a facelift. Please take a look around, maybe you might find the theme that connects the four Easter eggs ;-)

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My favourite fruit

The newest incarnation of the iPod nano looks very delectable, never mind the iPhone. Too bad I need all the cash I can hoard at the moment for my $25k project. Must resist! Vancouver here I come!

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music

Communication

You know, much of the conflict around the world arise from a lack of clear communication. Who was it who came up with a model of how ideas get perverted in transmission? He must have had too much time on his hands be a genius. The steps go:

1. Sender forms idea
2. Idea is coded into an expletive about someone's parents a message output
3. Output is picked up by receiver
4. Receiver decodes message
5. Receiver translates decoded message into idea
6. Blood feud begins

or some sh*t like that. Should've paid attention in school.

Anyway, the original idea gets changed four times when the receiver eventually forms his own ideas about the idea. No wonder we all behave like deers without eyes.

Think I'll brush up English speech & grammar (yeah, all that SVO crap) and then maybe get a TESOL or CELTA certification before unleashing all my corrupting powers on unsuspecting fools helping poor kids learn English.

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education, language

The pork problem

So now my favourite Ma Ling spam is off the shelves. Something about a carcinogen.


www.roxytrading.com

It's not the first time that 1984-ville has been affected by such occurences in other places. Remember the Nipah virus scare that hit parts of Malaysia back in 1998?

Which drives home the point about how vulnerable 1984-ville is and how much its denizens are NOT in control of their own destiny.

So much for all the bluster about making it great on our own strength and we can't even solve a porky problem.

Whatever it is, I'm sure the good people of Malaysia and China are quietly enjoying their pork, fresh or canned.

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food

Please make sense

Read an article in the local rag about the rising trend of 1984-ville parents sending their children to international (private) instead of government schools. Apparently parents need approval from the government for their kids to attend private schools. The reason cited in the article was a need to promote cross-culture understanding. However in the same article, the writer noted that international schools have students from many countries and are more heterogenous than local schools. The environment is more child-friendly, catering even to kids with special needs.

I have only 3 rhetorical questions:

1. Can someone please make sense here?

2. Why don't we just admit that the reason for not allowing local children into what are essentially foreign schools is so we can brain-wash them early?

3. Who says I need approval for doing what I want to do for my kids?

Good behavior doesn't allow me to express myself in Hokkien here.

Fatigue

Where there is no vision, the people perish
-The Bible

I am very tired. I don't remember being this tired when Faith was born 2 years ago. In fact, I was working with frenzied energy completing the grad thesis, moving into a new place and starting a job when Faith came. There are less things to tend to this time round. This tiredness is quite mysterious. Maybe it was the 30-hour labour that Wifey went through before Joy was born. That experience was emotionally draining. Maybe the magic of being a parent is wearing off. Maybe it's the experience of seeing how the education system crushes the youth in school. Maybe it's the credit card debt. Maybe it's the thought that my two children may be stuck in this lousy place if our emigration plan does not succeed.

I need to do something different soon, like going off for a dig in Turkey or somewhere similar. One thing is for sure: I need something more than bread and butter stuff to keep me motivated.

ASEAN Summit

and the propaganda machine is in full swing, enlisting Stefanie Sun to sing praises about it, while the purge of Burmese monks continues.

Death penalty

So the UN General Assembly voted 99-52 for the adoption of a non-binding resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. This moratorium was adopted with a view on the eventual abolition of the death penalty as a form of criminal justice. Thirty-odd other countries abstained.

1984-ville, not surprisingly, voted against the adoption of this resolution. In fact, some news wires reported that the UN representative of 1984-ville led the group of 52 nations who voted nay.

A 99-52 margin is not even close. In fact, it's almost 66-33 in terms of percentages. In any electoral process, that wide a margin is considered a thrashing. To put it in context, the Prime Minister of 1984-ville, considered one of the more popular MPs, barely achieved that kind of margin in his own constituency a year ago.

Which begs the question: Is 1984-ville a pariah state?

Hardly. That's because the United States government is a firm supporter of the death penalty. But then again, one could argue that a post-9/11 US is a pariah in the world community.

Progress in this area is slow. Like the abolition of slavery, apartheid and other such things, changes take time. The hangman's (or firing squad, lethal injection etc) count will continue to increase until humanity finally sees the light. But given the sad state of human affairs, I'm not optimistic.

Update: Here is the BBC report. And it quotes the 1984-ville UN representative, "They (countries that voted for) claim to support freedom of expression, but vote to deny it to others." Since when was the death penalty a form of expression that needed protection?

The 25k project

So we looked up the process of applying for Permanent Residency in Canada. It's a lot less bureaucratic than that for Australia. The only thing holding me back now is the proof-of-funds. The Canadian government requires a C$19k prood-of-funds. Basically to ensure that we don't fly over and live off welfare for a while. The CIC website doesn't mention what this C$19k (roughly S$25k) is about. I'm thinking, maybe I can show the valuation of my flat. That'll settle things, after all, the last transaction for a similar flat in my area was 470k. But anyway, where can I raise 25k?

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emigration

The end of the innocence

Remember when the days were long
And rolled beneath a deep blue sky
Didn't have a care in the world
With mommy and daddy standing by

..and so the first four verses of the song by Don Henley goes. I fear the end of the innocence for Faith has begun.

Losing sight of the reason

Sometimes we lose sight of why we do certain things. For example, people form organized groups for a purpose. But very often it feels like the organization exists as an end to itself and not for its stated purpose.

We will form a group known as XXXX because...

How you complete the above statement will determine if your group has a reason to exist.

Military junta 2, Burmese people 0

Source: www.irrawaddy.org

It's a sickening feeling. First 1988, then 2007.

The BBC World Service was dissecting the failure of street protests in bringing about immediate political change. One analyst was predicting that future protests might see more violence coming from the people because of the realization that the military regime understands only the language of violence. The response from a Burmese exile was that violence would breed more bloodshed and peaceful demonstrations are far more powerful methods.

It is a sickening feeling indeed. How many more peaceful Burmese need perish before a change happens.

And what next, if the military junta falls?

More casualties in Burma

Source: The Irrawaddy

The Irrawaddy is an online news source about political happenings in Burma. It's maintained, presumably, by people who are pro-democracy & freedom. The website was disabled by a Trojan-type virus over the past 2 days. I wonder who'd do that?

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burma
protest

Fighting Peacock

Shot in cold blood

Video footage on the website Democratic Voice of Burma appears to show the Japanese journalist, Kenji Nagai, being shot deliberately at close range by soldiers of the Burmese military.
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burma
protest

Another martyr for journalism

Source: Reuters

A Japanese photojournalist for APF was shot dead by the Burmese military while covering a portion of the current nation-wide protest.

When will this nonsense end?

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burma
protest

Tense situation in Burma

Source: dathana.blogspot.com

We are all hoping the current situation in Burma would not be a repeat of 1988. Dictatorship and oppression must go. The Burmese people have been under an iron hand for too long. I'm looking forward to the day when people there would be free to sit in front of their own homes, to see their children play in the yard.

This blog has news & photos of the unfolding events as well as links to other blogs monitoring the situation in Rangoon and other cities across the country. Please help spread the news online so that more people become aware of this. If possible, please provide anonymous proxy links to these courageous bloggers because the military junta has blocked access to sites like Blogspot from within Burma.

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burma
protest

The beginning and end of summer

Source: The Internet Encyclopedia of Science

The Sun crosses the Equator in a few days' time on its southward journey. September 23rd to be precise. Actually, to be strictly correct, the Sun doesn't cross the Equator. It's more like the Earth reaching a portion of her orbit around the Sun such that parts of the Earth's surface around the Equatorial region would face the Sun directly at noon on September 23rd. Those who spoke Latin named this day Equinox, from aequus (equal), nox (night), meaning there would be equal number of day and night hours in a single day.

In another three months the Chinese will be celebrating the end of another year. They call that winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. Longer nights ahead.

Of course, things are reversed in the southern hemisphere.

On a more practical side, it also means that the sun will no longer shine directly into my living room. Cooler daytime temperatures are definitely welcomed.

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Secularism

What does it mean to live in a secular environment?

1. Where people do not tell you what you can or cannot believe or do?

or

2. Where people frown upon the practise of any form of belief system?

So, what does it mean to live in a "secular" environment?

gagging them early

Source: Google imagine search

So this overworked person in my company wrote to the press, complaining about tough conditions in the industry. Unfortunately the local propaganda rag does not publish anonymous letters.

The resulting manhunt and inquisition was a phenomenon to behold, with the deputy CEO and department heads going berserk.

So much for encouraging independent thought...

icon of the last century

Source: amitp

at least it is to me.

I was up til early this morning, enjoying an extended period of holiday from work. And hunching over the computer through the night always brings back memories of my boyhood, when I hunched over my first personal computer (similar to the one pictured above), trying desperately to beat that level of Load Runner or solve part of the dungeon in Ultima IV.

Staying up late reminds me of my age.

Gotta sleep early...


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887

Source: Wikipedia

A very Royston Tan-esque situation happened at the annual company function yesterday. Yes, this company that I sell 8 hours per day of my soul to is slightly different, prefering to avoid the year-end to hold its annual dinner.

Anyway, I arrived very fashionably late, stumbling into the ballroom midway through the boss' speech. As luck would have it, the main entrance (where I made mine) was on stage left.

So, I signed my attendance and dutifully took the door gift and lucky draw number, which was one shy of the triple-8 combination. The first prize this year consisted of:

1. $500 voucher for IT products
2. The new GPS-enabled Nokia phone
3. A bottle of premier wine with a 3-figure price tag

Guess which number was drawn for the first prize?

Guess which joker with the winning number lost his ticket stub?

3-month hiatus

Maybe I've reached a point where I'm done experimenting with blogs. Maybe I prefer to share things face-to-face. Maybe there's nothing noteworthy to write about. Maybe I'm just a bad writer.

Whatever it is, this past 3 months of silence (online, at least) got me reflecting about what really was going on when I wrote about things that happened to me, my thoughts etc. I don't miss blogging. Things that I needed to share were shared with Wife & friends.

Maybe it's the end of the line as far as this blog space is concerned. I've enjoyed reading what others wrote. Their writings made me think, mostly about how diverse opinions can be. I suppose if I had a burning issue, I would maintain some form of consistent online presence. Given that I'm not living in a war zone nor under an overtly dictatorial political regime, I don't see a need to write about things happening around me. My thoughts are still there. I just don't see the point of sharing them online. After all, there is only so much one can go on bitching about how the social security system is continually screwed and how disempowered the citizenry really is.

On a personal note, the en-bloc demon has finally claimed the old estate that I used to live in. Rather sad to see it go under the wrecker's ball. Nothing is permanent here, especially not in the face of monetary gains. I dream of a little cottage with a spacious backyard by the seaside. But even that is temporal in the grand scheme of things. Physical things are ephemeral. And I'm still on this spiritual journey until my number is called. Nobody knows when THAT will be.

Anyway, I'll let this space slide on for a while. Let's see what develops before the year is out.

Intellectual vulgarity

This interesting incident related by yawningbread is mirrored on a daily basis at work.

The act of covering one's behind.

Political correctness.

The collective good.

All are forms of and responses to tyranny, disguised in the cloak of civility.

All are forms of intellectual vulgarity.

The world would be a radically different place if everyone called it a spade.



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Why I want out...

Source: Google

Maybe coincidence but entirely fitting that my 301st post is about one of the failings of a cold & efficient society.

Read the background story here.

So now the only government-run hospital in 1984-ville that provides maternity care will be charging its inpatients for the use of labour wards by the minute. 53 cents per minute to be exact. In the name of efficiency, no doubt. I'm sure mrbrown will come up with something witty on this. But on a more cynical note, "efficiency" has become a much-abused word or phrase, like "democracy" or "anti-terrorism". Almost anything may be excused if done in the name of democracry anti-terrorism efficiency.

But let me tell you a story about someone whom I'll address as "Aunty".

Aunty comes by to clear my waste paper basket at 10am every morning. She does her job in a slow, deliberate manner, greeting everyone along the way. Sometimes she misses out on the crushed paper that's stuck right at the bottom of the waste basket. Sometimes she tries to tidy my workstation and I won't find some important note without having to rummage through the neatly-stacked piles of paper - messing the place again.

Aunty likes to chat. We spend a good part of 10 minutes chatting once a fortnight or so. She tells me about her son, for whom she scrimped and saved in order that he receive an education in the UK. Her son has a family in London now and they come back regularly to visit her. She works now not because she needs the dough, but because it gives her a chance to "keep in touch with the outside world" as she puts it, and, I suspect, to see what messy punks like me are doing in 21st century society. I tell her about Faith and she dishes out grandmotherly advice.

Aunty is not very efficient as a cleaner. But her 10am routine is now an integral part of work life for me. Would I like to have someone else who would blitz through the cleaning routine, clearing everything and not missing out on that crushed paper at the bottom of the waste basket? Of course. But would I give up interesting conversations with Aunty, who serves as an unwitting reminder of what it means to be a parent and a human?

Efficiency is not always good.

1984-ville has become a victim of its own success. And I want out. Out to somewhere slower & kinder.

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emigration

Leading the way for ASEAN?

Source: Google

Finally, somebody in Thailand has had enough of Big Pharma and that it's a crying shame people suffer not from lack of medical treatment but lack of means...

Read the BBC report about how the Thais are breaking patent agreements on anti-HIV drugs.

Finally, somebody is admitting to an open-secret. Government is the law


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