Happy 2nd Anniversary

Two Years Of Blogging
I can't believe two years have passed just like that.

Well, it has and it is a HAPPY 2nd anniversary!

Hip Hip Hurray!

They Have It But We Don't
I was watching this TV footage of the SIP. The SIP which we had a hand in making. I can't believe we have helped them build this while we have nothing of the sort here.

All that meticulous and clever thinking, planning and designing that had gone into integrating man with nature (water and greens) living and working together in one big industrial park.

Unbelievable.

More SinGAYpore-Ness
Oh gosh! Isn't that a green poisonous pong-pong fruit? If we didn't know any better, we could have mistaken it for a mango. Look at it crush and splatter like vomit on the walkway when someone steps on it. It is a nightmare when it ripens and turns fibrous and husky. What a lousy mess they make.

Oh yes, whatever we can't grow or rear here, we make them in the lab. That includes all marine seafood and poultry.

And we do not have a defence force. All I need is to activate the impregnable magnetic shield force which would cover us like a dome.

How's that for state-of-the-art technology?

Why I Like Shrek 3 - The Movie
I liked the movie because it had many of our favourite fairy-tale characters.

Like Snow White remarked: "You have three of the hottest princesses..." (which referred to her, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty). They were funny and they represented the feminism of the heydays of the women's liberalisation movement (the bra burning and all).

The creators also blended in the new. The bubble-gum chewing and bubble blowing non-chalance of the womenfolk in Prince (going on to be King) Arthur's kingdom and they spouted modern lingo like "Totally".

Most of all it is also about discrimination.

Have we thought about why the cast-off villains may have been snubbed and side-lined because of their lack of good looks or an oddity about them (think: Wicked Witch and a hook for a hand in the case of Captain Hook)

So it pretty much boils down to being ostracised and how the "villains" seek to champion their own causes and for their own happy endings in the concluding chapters of the fairy-tales.

Galls, This Is Ageism And Greater Cause For Concern
If there is ONE THING ageist the galls could have made a case for, it would have been this: that the employer CPF contribution for workers older than 35 is not going up 1.5 percentage points.

What does this speak of the treatment of older workers in the workforce? That they do not deserve the pay increase and that age plays a part.

How much more ageist can this get?

With-Holding And Prolonging Is Not A Good Idea (Is This Altruism On Your Part Or Something Else)
Let me recapitulate why tying up a retirement savings fund for so long, to the point that it is almost illiquid, isn't a good idea.

Pensioners may actually need the fund in cases of emergencies where very dollar counts. They also want to get to enjoy the fruits of their labor, so to speak.

They do not want what should have been their providence to be bequeathed to their heir apparent/s should they kick the bucket before the fund can be used up. In fact some may even want better control of who they bequeath their legacy to, apart from related persons (which can be an automatic willing by reason of kinship).

Furthermore, the medical component of the retirement savings fund, should it not be fully utilised, cannot be bequeathed. The unused portion is re-possessed by the State.

It can be NOT fully utilised because of the restrictions to which it can be used for, like for hospitalisation bills (though this is now slowly opening up for other channels it can be applied to. Eg: clinical use for chronic illnesses).

At least if this part of the savings fund can be bequeathed to nominees (related or unrelated), then pensioners can be assured the entire sum of their fund goes back to something or someone, other than the State.

In short, CASH is King.

Open Up More Recreational Spaces And For Longer
If we are ever serious to open up more recreational spaces, think about this. Many of our pools and stadia are under-utilised. And not just the public tracks but schools' as well. The secondary schools, polys, unis and jcs.

I cannot understand why these can't be opened up to the public and that the public ones stay open longer till after midnight or even round the clock - 24 hrs.

The astro turf is also a better buffer for a run than tarmac or some gravel-paved terrain.

And it is highly laughable that Woodlands Swimming Complex is chosen for upgrading over older and more run-down ones like Katong and Ang Mo Kio. Even the renovated ones have their public loos looking like they didn't.

What goes into the thinking here?

Experimenting For A Different Look
To distinguish one housing estate from another, we could always play with motifs, structural designs, colors, textures...the sky is the limit.

No need for opulence nor frills.