This School Is On A Junket To Melbourne
Wow! A "school trip" to Melbourne for this group of students studying at Changkat Changi. And they are flying on a SIA plane.
From snatches of conversations I got, the teacher-in-charge mouthed something about being on a similar trip to Cairns.
And schools must be flushed with money to spend it like that.
I got a call for a "hardship" posting to teach Qingdao students for a month, starting this weekend. A measly $4 daily food allowance but with lodging thrown in and a salary of S$2500 a month. She quipped about standard of living and so on.
Balls to you, Man!
Contrast the two and tell me what you think.
"System Upgrade"
This is a laugh. After what the Bishan community library has billed it to be. Although it now has a nice opening screen with cool graphics and a well laid-out menu, the connection speed still sucks and toggling between windows lag so badly that when you type, the alphabets only come out after a certain delay.
The whole system is so slow and very unresponsive. The new screens dont come on fast enough. I think it needs a major overhaul and another "upgrade". The old system at the other libraries is faster and more responsive.
Hiro Is Gone - In A Jiffy And Just Like That
Hiro has upped and left. He has given me some inkling of what is to come when we ran into each other. What with all the snivel levelled at him, I can't really blame him. But then again he isn't exactly the cleanest or tidiest person or has the prettiest toilet habits. But neither is the house.
To think he spent 5 years here in that room. He must have spent some $15000 in all that time here. I thought he deserved better, not only in terms of furnishings but also in treatment and the way Tim and his mother snivel about him. All that vile and bile.
I took a look at it when it was vacated. The mattress had its spread cover torn and tattered, the furniture weren't exactly plush nor useable. But what I think was really bad were clumps of black dirt right below the air-conditioner signalling that it hasnt been serviced for a very long time.
And that room - halfway tiled on the walls, part of the window view blocked by a slab of concrete outside, obliterating light, view and pervading doom and gloom.
And it is SO SMALL for the price he pays. He could have gotten a better deal. Bigger room. Better furnishings. A newer estate. Etc, etc.
Ewwwww.......and all that health concerns and health scare. Doesn't anyone has a code on this? Some basic decent health standard for a minimum of air-conditioner maintenance?
The United Nations
Well, of course, another area our international public relations mill must have done pretty well, is to have brought in most, if not all, 193 countries of the world to be based here either at the ambassadorial or legation or whatever level. Another foreign policy of sorts.
As Tired As A Panda
I didn't know I was that tired untill I nodded my head and dozed off at the community library the other day. I caught forty winks or more, I think. After that short siesta, I woke up refreshed.
Just yesterday, my neck and back were stiff as rocks while I had these black rings round my eyes and they were watering really bad and I yawned so many times, flies could have made their home in my open cavity.
All those nights of sleeping in one kama sutraic position on a single bed, cramming my movement, and sleeping very late at night because of the caffeine in my tea or the nicotine in my ciggies didn't help either, I suppose.
Budget Terminal
Changi Airport T2 has nice skylights now which tend to brighten up things a little bit more. I visited the Budget Terminal and was pleasantly surprised by the modern, contemporary decor: clean, spartan, bright, quite colorful and airy. The word "budget" was fonted red and curvy on roadposts and on the terminal's wall.
Instead of being on two floors, one on top of the other, the arrival and departure halls are laid back to back, next to each other. There is only ONE cafe here and about the only things you can do here is sit around. No viewing gallery, no shopping, no nothing.
But it was kinda fun watching the countless motorists playing hide-and-seek with the CISCO auxillaries at the car parking lot as they zoom off or have to be told to scoot off or risk a parking ticket.
I hung around and took in the sights while observing the arrival of tourists/locals from Haikou. In fact the destinations that fly here are of south-east asian or asian origins like Taipei or Padang or Clark, Manila.
Danny Boy From Darwin
He must be Charles Darwin's fan, hailing from that part of town, or is it countryside, of Australia. I struck up a conversation and we got round to talking on a myriad of topics like the Subic Bay (the Americans have left the base some 18 months ago) where he had just arrived from (and oh, by the way, he was stranded when he missed his connecting flight and had to spend a day here in Singapore), Steve Irwin and his third, or is it fourth time, here at the Budget Terminal.
I handed him about the only "Uniquely Singapore" brochure cum map written in English (apart from the Little India Walking Tour and the Shopping Guide - the rest of the brocks were in Japanese, Malay or Chinese) to help him move around here and promised him I will drop him an email.
The Fabulously Rich And Maybe Famous?
All these big branded cars like the Mercs and the BMWs (oh, I spotted a Malay ex-MP driving off in a Merc on the eastern side of Singapore after buying home a meal from a Malay coffee-shop where I was dining on a $2 worth of roti-john - and yes, oh my GOSH, food portion can be BIG at some places so I shared my roti-john and gave away my $2 fries to an elderly news-magazines vendor at Hougang ) were pulling up to pick up passengers at T2's Arrival Hall. It was quite a sight to watch these rich and perhaps famous people, all togged out, stepping in and out of their marques as I sucked and drew on my ciggies.
In fact most of the people at the airport were fabulously rigged out, fabulously beautiful and seemingly rich. There were Asian Indians, Caucasians and Asian Koreans, Japanese or Chinese (whoever they are).
A Victorian Code And Happy Feet
"Singapore: The Encyclopaedia" has rightly acknowledged the penal code on homosexuality as a dinosauric Victorian code imposed on a populace living in the 2lst century. Incidentally Queen Victoria's bust got symbolically smashed to smithereens in the animated movie "Flushed Away".
Doesn't "Happy Feet" purvey enough undercurrents on being different, singing and dancing to a different tune in life and on absurd religious fanaticism in lieu of human intervention and effort in the face of calamity to warrant a parallel human look in our own lives?
What about the BIGGEST EVIL in the world - that is us humans if you don't already know - who destroys about almost anything in its path to conquest of every and any available resource for our human consumption and industry greed?
The penguins' food chain was seriously threatened when the antarctic oceans were overfished.
Just think about it - it is time Man Is Abolished.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Oh Just Shut Your Trap, People!
The Third World, A Foreign Policy Of Sorts And Yilmaz Western
Surely this must not only encompass poorer Asian countries but also the Eastern European Bloc. Remember the Ukrainian gall I met at a fast food joint. In fact, even round my block, there is another. An Eastern European gal.
Coming from where they are, Singapore certainly is haven. Many have made their home here. Of course they like it here and are actively supporting our government.We have of course done very well in this arena of our foreign policy. These immigrants can give a glowing report of us back home. It makes good public relations.
They have it so good that when I look at the exterior of the Tampines dormitory, it had a better-looking facade than some places I have lived in. Psycho's place is an example.
Yilmaz is one such example. He is from Turkey and is now a PR. Maybe even a naturalised citizen which he chose not to reveal to me. Having been a seaman and worked the rounds of our shipyards, he now runs a Western food stall and loves life here!
TADA - MORE MOE SLOGANEERING
Why don't you drop dead, MOE? We can do very well without you, MOE! If I had a child, I won't send him to preschool or even school, MOE! I think he will fare better homeschooling, MOE! You have collected enough school fees and exam fees from all your various exam boards, MOE! It is about time you get lost, MOE! You are cramming my style, MOE! I think I get stupider by the day being in your "institutionalised" system, MOE!
Get the picture, MOE?
The Merit In A Meritoxic Meri-Talk-Cock-cy
Let us examine what merit really is here in Singapore. Is it money? Donation? Kith and kinship? Party alliance? Connection? Bootlicking? Alleged allegiance and loyalty? Now there goes quite a list.
If the grapevine is anything to believe, someone heading our public investment institution was a Warrant Officer in the armed forces. And I thought the press made her out to be a graduate engineer. WHOA! What sterling credentials!
And she has a clone in the curriculum planning department in MOE. Does that explain anything that is happening both in our economy and education?
Hey Mr Temple Guardian
Well yeah. If you earn $1, you spend $0.20. Good advice! But this 70 year old dude inherited his wealth and he has donated $400 000 to a temple and now has time to "yam-cha". Please! Shut up! What do you know? He is like He-Ape's son and all those scions of successful business magnates. What do they know starting and scraping at the bottom?
A Meeting With The Holy Trinity
Two men and a woman. A job interview. This gal marketed her financial program and got about 15000 students enrolled on her program already. The program was co-developed with a certain school union. I knew it! Some advantaged connection!
I was working my butt and footwork, trudging down to all 300-odd primary and secondary schools, managing to scrimp only measly contracts here and there. And here she is, securing deals I can only dream about!
"The Peak" magazine laid out at the coffee table showed up celebrities, socialites, establishment players, ambassadors and entrepreneurs mingling.
Meri-Talk-Cock-Cy at its best!
Surely this must not only encompass poorer Asian countries but also the Eastern European Bloc. Remember the Ukrainian gall I met at a fast food joint. In fact, even round my block, there is another. An Eastern European gal.
Coming from where they are, Singapore certainly is haven. Many have made their home here. Of course they like it here and are actively supporting our government.We have of course done very well in this arena of our foreign policy. These immigrants can give a glowing report of us back home. It makes good public relations.
They have it so good that when I look at the exterior of the Tampines dormitory, it had a better-looking facade than some places I have lived in. Psycho's place is an example.
Yilmaz is one such example. He is from Turkey and is now a PR. Maybe even a naturalised citizen which he chose not to reveal to me. Having been a seaman and worked the rounds of our shipyards, he now runs a Western food stall and loves life here!
TADA - MORE MOE SLOGANEERING
Why don't you drop dead, MOE? We can do very well without you, MOE! If I had a child, I won't send him to preschool or even school, MOE! I think he will fare better homeschooling, MOE! You have collected enough school fees and exam fees from all your various exam boards, MOE! It is about time you get lost, MOE! You are cramming my style, MOE! I think I get stupider by the day being in your "institutionalised" system, MOE!
Get the picture, MOE?
The Merit In A Meritoxic Meri-Talk-Cock-cy
Let us examine what merit really is here in Singapore. Is it money? Donation? Kith and kinship? Party alliance? Connection? Bootlicking? Alleged allegiance and loyalty? Now there goes quite a list.
If the grapevine is anything to believe, someone heading our public investment institution was a Warrant Officer in the armed forces. And I thought the press made her out to be a graduate engineer. WHOA! What sterling credentials!
And she has a clone in the curriculum planning department in MOE. Does that explain anything that is happening both in our economy and education?
Hey Mr Temple Guardian
Well yeah. If you earn $1, you spend $0.20. Good advice! But this 70 year old dude inherited his wealth and he has donated $400 000 to a temple and now has time to "yam-cha". Please! Shut up! What do you know? He is like He-Ape's son and all those scions of successful business magnates. What do they know starting and scraping at the bottom?
A Meeting With The Holy Trinity
Two men and a woman. A job interview. This gal marketed her financial program and got about 15000 students enrolled on her program already. The program was co-developed with a certain school union. I knew it! Some advantaged connection!
I was working my butt and footwork, trudging down to all 300-odd primary and secondary schools, managing to scrimp only measly contracts here and there. And here she is, securing deals I can only dream about!
"The Peak" magazine laid out at the coffee table showed up celebrities, socialites, establishment players, ambassadors and entrepreneurs mingling.
Meri-Talk-Cock-Cy at its best!
Monday, November 20, 2006
Hey Blabbermouth, What About Regulating This?
What I meant when I said that the blabbermouth at the public financial regulatory office should have just kept his big mouth shut tight was this: Remember all those bucket shops that thrived and cheated on its clients BIG TIME by pretending to have traded their investments in some overseas financial markets? Well, they weren't exactly stopped, were they? So?
We Are All Gays, So Do Not Impose On Ourselves "False Sexual PietyAnd Abstinence"
If that was imposed on the straights, then it is just a dose of their own medicine. Let them feel how it feels for us to be living in their self-righteous and imposed world.
Now, Tim's place isn't exactly the TIDIEST and CLEANEST in the whole Toa Payoh-Bishan precinct. I mean there is cooking going on and there are scraps in the sink, in the trash bag near the rubbish chute and that attracts ants, cockroaches and lizards.
I must be dredging hair and dirt from all over the place into me room with my CROCS (TM) clogs. Now that my work clothes aren't wrinkle-free, I have to iron them and the ironing board and the iron aren't exactly in the best of state. Its wires exposed (a potential electrical hazard) and a flimsy board.
My Challenges During My Entrepreneurship Stint
First, everything goes onto the tender system. I am only a SOHO against the couple of hundred primary, secondary schools, junior colleges and tertiary institutions (not to mention all the government bodies)
I can be sitting the whole day and night at the PC, and with all the buggy hardware and software glitches and connection speeds, it is a hair-tearing experience. And our dear "educationists" want moi, on top of all that, to set up booths to collect cash for my programs.
Now the Edusave fund is a BIG ISSUE. But MOE HQ tells me that all it needs is a few clicks to extract a name list and deductions can be made. Not the name by name entry schools are trying to sob a story to me. Who am I to believe?
I am a marketeer, an administrator, a trainer and everything else rolled into one. I am not complaining but at the end of the day, I have just a few projects worth a measly contract value.
I am not a civil servant who sits on his behind and even if he/she does nothing (a fund manager who manages someone else's funds and not his own can also be similarly analogised) at the end of the day, gets a regular paycheck to see him through his meals, mortgage and car loan for the month.
Because this is my passion, my money and my calling, I will do it. But I am a private enterprise not some public enterprises who can afford the luxury of time to sit and wait while watching my everything crumble and dwindle. That usually means finances.
You have a calendar year of scheduled events that fall within certain months like exams, sports day, Founder's Day, etc and I am sure you can fix my programs somewhere year on year. It doesn't change that much, does it, year to year?
You can't be coming to me weeks ahead and schedule a training program, can you? Where goes your purported year-end "committee" meeting to discuss and schedule educational edifice for your charges for next year?
If educators feel they are saddled with CCA, CIP, academic or administrative duties, trash it out with the MOE policy dudes. Do not thrash it with me. I am there as an outsourcee. And I am a private enterprise. Please do not outsource to just within your family bloc (that means among the government bodies).
I think there should be CIP teachers, CCA (that include Arts and Sports) teachers, Outdoor Experential Learning teachers and different academic (Business, Maths, Science, English, etc) teachers and so on with all the necessary administrative back-up.
But like me if I think I can do a few, why not? I don't wanna stick with just one and I can handle it and I am paid for it.
If you think my enrichment programs duplicate yours and the teachers can do it, then do it. Why ain't I seeing you doing it? Why are the tuition centres shadowing what should be your job? Ain't I doing you a service by bringing the programs to your doorsteps to supplement (and not supplant) your teaching?
Schools Have Changed Beyond Recognition
When I flipped the yearbooks like the one of SJI back in those days, I noticed how staff was overwhelmingly male. Now the situation has reversed.
I am not sure which is a better thing. One thing I do know is that now probably the wimps (gays and bis) and the bimbs are hogging the educational service and perhaps that explains all the problems surfacing in schools.
The insecurity. The sado image to uphold. The inability to cope because of family tie-downs, etc. The GALL and WIMP thing to have everyone conform to one MOULD (run like a home). So can you juggle family and work? Can this mean it is a men's world, maybe even a single man's world?
How The Teaching Of Social Studies Can Go Wrong
I can see other ways of answering a source-based or structured essay question. But apparently our educators or curriculum planners can only see the few "model" answers.
That sums up how our system has gone wrong. A one-track mind and one-track route to answering questions and teaching and learning.
My Personal Teaching Wishlist
I wanna teach one academic subject like English or the Humanities or Business. I can do a lifeskill program like communication studies or project work or drama or art. I like to conduct outdoor activities like a gym session or a kayak session or landscape art painting or a nature trail or an expedition or learning journey for instance. That would be my passion for teaching - indoors and outdoors. I expect to be paid correspondingly.
I ain't going into any teaching academy for 4 years, not even 2 and waste my time when I know it isn't even platinum standards, let alone gold. All that airy-fairy theoretical one track methodology that is supposed to "handle" 40 diverse personalities. I am just gonna sit bored stiff, listening.
Mind you, there is a price to pay with a couple of years' bond and "subsidised" fees.
Outscource The Government Too
Since outsourcing is such a popular in-thing now, we can seriously consider this. How do we know we are getting the value for the kinda money we are paying out of our national coffers?
The Gauntlet
Let all enterprises and government know that if the company or country isn't doing well, the first to sacrifice his/her pay packet should be none other than the organisational leaders themselves.
Sell your house and car, downgrade, live in the public houses you built for the masses, have a feel and taste of how it is like, living in one, day in and day out and take the public transport which "spoilt" Singaporeans are whinging about.
I am not even sure the commentators are we. I mean they could be the permanent residents or even the naturalised citizens. So they had it good and of course they arent affected. They could even be the establishment players themselves.
A projected 5.5 million population in the future and an influx of foreigners (with the S pass relaxation and the Sentosa IR projects coming up) aren't gonna add on to the crush?
Try another time slot like 8.30pm in the night and judge if the crowd is the same as the 8.30am one. Try the early morning 6 or 6.30 am slot during school hours.
Administrators, come down from your lofty castle and live among us. Don't dream and live in cloud nine.
Where Do $1 million and $500 000 Get You These Days
You can afford a 4 maybe 5 -room flat that is fully paid for at today's resale prices and keep for savings, investment and retirement.
With half a million, you can only afford a 2 room and very little left over for anything else.
Dont Be A Fucking Bastard and CCB, MOE
By now you would have recognised the thread this is going. I have just added some and it MAY go on.
What I meant when I said that the blabbermouth at the public financial regulatory office should have just kept his big mouth shut tight was this: Remember all those bucket shops that thrived and cheated on its clients BIG TIME by pretending to have traded their investments in some overseas financial markets? Well, they weren't exactly stopped, were they? So?
We Are All Gays, So Do Not Impose On Ourselves "False Sexual PietyAnd Abstinence"
If that was imposed on the straights, then it is just a dose of their own medicine. Let them feel how it feels for us to be living in their self-righteous and imposed world.
Now, Tim's place isn't exactly the TIDIEST and CLEANEST in the whole Toa Payoh-Bishan precinct. I mean there is cooking going on and there are scraps in the sink, in the trash bag near the rubbish chute and that attracts ants, cockroaches and lizards.
I must be dredging hair and dirt from all over the place into me room with my CROCS (TM) clogs. Now that my work clothes aren't wrinkle-free, I have to iron them and the ironing board and the iron aren't exactly in the best of state. Its wires exposed (a potential electrical hazard) and a flimsy board.
My Challenges During My Entrepreneurship Stint
First, everything goes onto the tender system. I am only a SOHO against the couple of hundred primary, secondary schools, junior colleges and tertiary institutions (not to mention all the government bodies)
I can be sitting the whole day and night at the PC, and with all the buggy hardware and software glitches and connection speeds, it is a hair-tearing experience. And our dear "educationists" want moi, on top of all that, to set up booths to collect cash for my programs.
Now the Edusave fund is a BIG ISSUE. But MOE HQ tells me that all it needs is a few clicks to extract a name list and deductions can be made. Not the name by name entry schools are trying to sob a story to me. Who am I to believe?
I am a marketeer, an administrator, a trainer and everything else rolled into one. I am not complaining but at the end of the day, I have just a few projects worth a measly contract value.
I am not a civil servant who sits on his behind and even if he/she does nothing (a fund manager who manages someone else's funds and not his own can also be similarly analogised) at the end of the day, gets a regular paycheck to see him through his meals, mortgage and car loan for the month.
Because this is my passion, my money and my calling, I will do it. But I am a private enterprise not some public enterprises who can afford the luxury of time to sit and wait while watching my everything crumble and dwindle. That usually means finances.
You have a calendar year of scheduled events that fall within certain months like exams, sports day, Founder's Day, etc and I am sure you can fix my programs somewhere year on year. It doesn't change that much, does it, year to year?
You can't be coming to me weeks ahead and schedule a training program, can you? Where goes your purported year-end "committee" meeting to discuss and schedule educational edifice for your charges for next year?
If educators feel they are saddled with CCA, CIP, academic or administrative duties, trash it out with the MOE policy dudes. Do not thrash it with me. I am there as an outsourcee. And I am a private enterprise. Please do not outsource to just within your family bloc (that means among the government bodies).
I think there should be CIP teachers, CCA (that include Arts and Sports) teachers, Outdoor Experential Learning teachers and different academic (Business, Maths, Science, English, etc) teachers and so on with all the necessary administrative back-up.
But like me if I think I can do a few, why not? I don't wanna stick with just one and I can handle it and I am paid for it.
If you think my enrichment programs duplicate yours and the teachers can do it, then do it. Why ain't I seeing you doing it? Why are the tuition centres shadowing what should be your job? Ain't I doing you a service by bringing the programs to your doorsteps to supplement (and not supplant) your teaching?
Schools Have Changed Beyond Recognition
When I flipped the yearbooks like the one of SJI back in those days, I noticed how staff was overwhelmingly male. Now the situation has reversed.
I am not sure which is a better thing. One thing I do know is that now probably the wimps (gays and bis) and the bimbs are hogging the educational service and perhaps that explains all the problems surfacing in schools.
The insecurity. The sado image to uphold. The inability to cope because of family tie-downs, etc. The GALL and WIMP thing to have everyone conform to one MOULD (run like a home). So can you juggle family and work? Can this mean it is a men's world, maybe even a single man's world?
How The Teaching Of Social Studies Can Go Wrong
I can see other ways of answering a source-based or structured essay question. But apparently our educators or curriculum planners can only see the few "model" answers.
That sums up how our system has gone wrong. A one-track mind and one-track route to answering questions and teaching and learning.
My Personal Teaching Wishlist
I wanna teach one academic subject like English or the Humanities or Business. I can do a lifeskill program like communication studies or project work or drama or art. I like to conduct outdoor activities like a gym session or a kayak session or landscape art painting or a nature trail or an expedition or learning journey for instance. That would be my passion for teaching - indoors and outdoors. I expect to be paid correspondingly.
I ain't going into any teaching academy for 4 years, not even 2 and waste my time when I know it isn't even platinum standards, let alone gold. All that airy-fairy theoretical one track methodology that is supposed to "handle" 40 diverse personalities. I am just gonna sit bored stiff, listening.
Mind you, there is a price to pay with a couple of years' bond and "subsidised" fees.
Outscource The Government Too
Since outsourcing is such a popular in-thing now, we can seriously consider this. How do we know we are getting the value for the kinda money we are paying out of our national coffers?
The Gauntlet
Let all enterprises and government know that if the company or country isn't doing well, the first to sacrifice his/her pay packet should be none other than the organisational leaders themselves.
Sell your house and car, downgrade, live in the public houses you built for the masses, have a feel and taste of how it is like, living in one, day in and day out and take the public transport which "spoilt" Singaporeans are whinging about.
I am not even sure the commentators are we. I mean they could be the permanent residents or even the naturalised citizens. So they had it good and of course they arent affected. They could even be the establishment players themselves.
A projected 5.5 million population in the future and an influx of foreigners (with the S pass relaxation and the Sentosa IR projects coming up) aren't gonna add on to the crush?
Try another time slot like 8.30pm in the night and judge if the crowd is the same as the 8.30am one. Try the early morning 6 or 6.30 am slot during school hours.
Administrators, come down from your lofty castle and live among us. Don't dream and live in cloud nine.
Where Do $1 million and $500 000 Get You These Days
You can afford a 4 maybe 5 -room flat that is fully paid for at today's resale prices and keep for savings, investment and retirement.
With half a million, you can only afford a 2 room and very little left over for anything else.
Dont Be A Fucking Bastard and CCB, MOE
By now you would have recognised the thread this is going. I have just added some and it MAY go on.
Friday, November 17, 2006
I Am So Gloomy And Broody, The Sky Can't Rain Any Worse Than This
READ MY LIPS! I WILL KILL YOU!
Someone at some public financial regulatory office mentioned stepping in if private residential property prices spiral out of control. Read the above, MR WHOEVER YOU ARE. I am wagering my entire life on this one piece of investment just to get out of the rut I am in now - my house, my car, my retirement plans, my savings. You screw this for me and I am gonna screw your arse!
You Stink MOE
If I blundered once at the education job interview simply by innocently asking for a job fit to match my skills, what about MOE? Didn't they do the same all this time with special education for the intellectually gifted and not the intellectually slower?
I Think I Got A Job
The interview turned out well as far as I am concerned. A commercial vehicle sales representative. No basic, just a measly transport and monthly allowance.An equally measly commission on each vehicle sold. Amounting to a liveable monthly wage if I hit my sales target.
But who are the customers I am serving? And this will be for the most part of my day, spending my life like this. No creativity, use of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. No nothing. I seriously have to think about this and I don't wanna commit and back out should a suitable teaching job arises.
Major Hardware And Software Glitches
I have moved to the Beta version of blogspot and it is a double log-in like STARHUB. And the library is upgrading its system and OMFG, it is so slow and when I type, the letters don't come out at the same rate as my typing speed. There is a delay reaction.
Not to mention all the incompatibility issues I have been experiencing at the LAN shops. I have to convert my documents into rtf at some shops but these can't be uploaded at some job sites because they can only receive doc documents.
OMG, Look Who I Bump Into
Royston! I had a brief exchange with him but I wished I had been braver asking for his personal contact but I thought better of it as it seems kinda inappropriate at a first meeting!
Someone at some public financial regulatory office mentioned stepping in if private residential property prices spiral out of control. Read the above, MR WHOEVER YOU ARE. I am wagering my entire life on this one piece of investment just to get out of the rut I am in now - my house, my car, my retirement plans, my savings. You screw this for me and I am gonna screw your arse!
You Stink MOE
If I blundered once at the education job interview simply by innocently asking for a job fit to match my skills, what about MOE? Didn't they do the same all this time with special education for the intellectually gifted and not the intellectually slower?
I Think I Got A Job
The interview turned out well as far as I am concerned. A commercial vehicle sales representative. No basic, just a measly transport and monthly allowance.An equally measly commission on each vehicle sold. Amounting to a liveable monthly wage if I hit my sales target.
But who are the customers I am serving? And this will be for the most part of my day, spending my life like this. No creativity, use of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. No nothing. I seriously have to think about this and I don't wanna commit and back out should a suitable teaching job arises.
Major Hardware And Software Glitches
I have moved to the Beta version of blogspot and it is a double log-in like STARHUB. And the library is upgrading its system and OMFG, it is so slow and when I type, the letters don't come out at the same rate as my typing speed. There is a delay reaction.
Not to mention all the incompatibility issues I have been experiencing at the LAN shops. I have to convert my documents into rtf at some shops but these can't be uploaded at some job sites because they can only receive doc documents.
OMG, Look Who I Bump Into
Royston! I had a brief exchange with him but I wished I had been braver asking for his personal contact but I thought better of it as it seems kinda inappropriate at a first meeting!
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
I Am Simply A HopeLess In Life
Muiz, You Just Don't Understand
If you thought I was nonchalant about our relationship, you are dead wrong. I was stressed and not settled back then. I had to contend with all those "gaylords" and moved house 5 times. You didn't exactly send out very clear signals either. You wanted to return to your previous "abused" relationship with that dude who treated you like dirt and you had this group of khakis whose position I am unclear. You can't commit and you said you can't live in, may turn straight, etc etc. I can't read you or make out where you stand.
Add One More To The Definition Of Wimp
Oh yes, to me, wimps are also sluts who yearns and asks for fucks. Come on, you are a guy, not a gall! You wanna be a bi's punching bag?
Being Gay Is Far Worse An Ordeal Than The Hetero Community Can Imagine
We can't own affordable places till 35. Not having a home make living together impossible. We can only second guess each other's sexuality in public places, that means attuning our gaydar. We have no spousal nuptial ties or social contract binding us as there is no Woman's charter backing us up. We can't have PDA and we can't this and we can't that. What kinda sane condition is this for the emotional well-being of a person?
Surprise! Surprise!The Pot Calling The Kettle Black!
My title blog "Who goes there in the dark? Show thyself" could be equally applied to what I discovered that night. Tim brought home a total stranger (at least to me), a motor-biker carrying a crash helmet who slept over. He could well be responsible for soiling the toilet bowl too as he was using it the next morning. This proves my suspicion among other nagging suspicions I have been having. And we ain't supposed to have visitors?
Kallang Riverside Park
I have been to only one stretch of the beach but not the other or in fact, the whole loop of the beach and waterway. It is nice and the kayakers even nicer. But the place is small. I watched the kayakers and the water-skiiers while SDBA was towing some boats from one side to another.
The Role Of Government
If I had not spelt out more clearly the turfground which government should be operating on, perhaps I should now. I am not sure if it is their business to be in business in the first place. And the money they make, shouldn't that be ploughed into doing good for the community?
I thought they should play a more facilitating and regulatory role in the interest of the people. They should step in when corporations do not treat its staff well or even abuse the working relationship. In other words to put wrongs right. For justice and equality.
If I go for a constituency surgery, I do expect them to help me solve my problems. They are the government after all. If they can't, who else can?
Someone has to tell them sometimes how some things just aint working some of the time, right?
The Parable Of The Flatulating Diarrheaic
They can't accuse us of being whingers when most of the problems were created by the system in the first place. Like the recent card reader which cant read two EZLink cards or one EZLink card and contactless cashcard at the same time. It isn't fair to say that the onus is now upon us to remove one or the other. It is their GODDAMN FUCKING duty to rectify it.
As I have mentioned, the creator will have to be the destroyer. He who has created can similarly destroy or put right. The root cause of a problem has to be uprooted and destroyed. Like a flatulating diarrheaic. He alone has to be cured of the disease. You can't expect all of us to be cleaning up after him while he still goes around flatulating and diarrheaing, right?
Poor Old Man At The Corner Of The Bishan CPF Building
He begged for money. This is so pathetic. When I thought about Makcik near the Sultan Mosque, I can imagine her hopelessness, her desperation and her anxieties of surviving from one day to another. Like I am beginning to. Given these could be hoaxes but still I gave, from my heart.
Successful Welfare Models
I am glad MPs have brought up how the Scandinavians have done particularly well in their welfare model when compared to Germany or England. This has earned a swift but sure rebuttal with figures to boot. I still think we should take a second look.
Where Is The Crowd At The Library?
Today, it is almost a ghost town. All the mugging has disappeared. There are just about a couple more exam papers like the Combined Humanities, Additional Maths and Combined Science to go. So the muggers must be taking a break or they are done.
Oops, I spoke too soon. They are streaming in right now.
The Inequality Of The Sexes
This dark and good looking chap was with a bevy of galls. They were shunning him, calling him "gay". He kinda seem like he was latching onto them. I feel so sorry for him. Hey dude, if you are reading this, latch on to me instead. I welcome it.
By the way, I have been noticing this really cool CHS dude. When you observe his quiet demeanour, you can't feel how well-behaved he is . More than I can say for the galls I have seen.
If you thought I was nonchalant about our relationship, you are dead wrong. I was stressed and not settled back then. I had to contend with all those "gaylords" and moved house 5 times. You didn't exactly send out very clear signals either. You wanted to return to your previous "abused" relationship with that dude who treated you like dirt and you had this group of khakis whose position I am unclear. You can't commit and you said you can't live in, may turn straight, etc etc. I can't read you or make out where you stand.
Add One More To The Definition Of Wimp
Oh yes, to me, wimps are also sluts who yearns and asks for fucks. Come on, you are a guy, not a gall! You wanna be a bi's punching bag?
Being Gay Is Far Worse An Ordeal Than The Hetero Community Can Imagine
We can't own affordable places till 35. Not having a home make living together impossible. We can only second guess each other's sexuality in public places, that means attuning our gaydar. We have no spousal nuptial ties or social contract binding us as there is no Woman's charter backing us up. We can't have PDA and we can't this and we can't that. What kinda sane condition is this for the emotional well-being of a person?
Surprise! Surprise!The Pot Calling The Kettle Black!
My title blog "Who goes there in the dark? Show thyself" could be equally applied to what I discovered that night. Tim brought home a total stranger (at least to me), a motor-biker carrying a crash helmet who slept over. He could well be responsible for soiling the toilet bowl too as he was using it the next morning. This proves my suspicion among other nagging suspicions I have been having. And we ain't supposed to have visitors?
Kallang Riverside Park
I have been to only one stretch of the beach but not the other or in fact, the whole loop of the beach and waterway. It is nice and the kayakers even nicer. But the place is small. I watched the kayakers and the water-skiiers while SDBA was towing some boats from one side to another.
The Role Of Government
If I had not spelt out more clearly the turfground which government should be operating on, perhaps I should now. I am not sure if it is their business to be in business in the first place. And the money they make, shouldn't that be ploughed into doing good for the community?
I thought they should play a more facilitating and regulatory role in the interest of the people. They should step in when corporations do not treat its staff well or even abuse the working relationship. In other words to put wrongs right. For justice and equality.
If I go for a constituency surgery, I do expect them to help me solve my problems. They are the government after all. If they can't, who else can?
Someone has to tell them sometimes how some things just aint working some of the time, right?
The Parable Of The Flatulating Diarrheaic
They can't accuse us of being whingers when most of the problems were created by the system in the first place. Like the recent card reader which cant read two EZLink cards or one EZLink card and contactless cashcard at the same time. It isn't fair to say that the onus is now upon us to remove one or the other. It is their GODDAMN FUCKING duty to rectify it.
As I have mentioned, the creator will have to be the destroyer. He who has created can similarly destroy or put right. The root cause of a problem has to be uprooted and destroyed. Like a flatulating diarrheaic. He alone has to be cured of the disease. You can't expect all of us to be cleaning up after him while he still goes around flatulating and diarrheaing, right?
Poor Old Man At The Corner Of The Bishan CPF Building
He begged for money. This is so pathetic. When I thought about Makcik near the Sultan Mosque, I can imagine her hopelessness, her desperation and her anxieties of surviving from one day to another. Like I am beginning to. Given these could be hoaxes but still I gave, from my heart.
Successful Welfare Models
I am glad MPs have brought up how the Scandinavians have done particularly well in their welfare model when compared to Germany or England. This has earned a swift but sure rebuttal with figures to boot. I still think we should take a second look.
Where Is The Crowd At The Library?
Today, it is almost a ghost town. All the mugging has disappeared. There are just about a couple more exam papers like the Combined Humanities, Additional Maths and Combined Science to go. So the muggers must be taking a break or they are done.
Oops, I spoke too soon. They are streaming in right now.
The Inequality Of The Sexes
This dark and good looking chap was with a bevy of galls. They were shunning him, calling him "gay". He kinda seem like he was latching onto them. I feel so sorry for him. Hey dude, if you are reading this, latch on to me instead. I welcome it.
By the way, I have been noticing this really cool CHS dude. When you observe his quiet demeanour, you can't feel how well-behaved he is . More than I can say for the galls I have seen.
Monday, November 13, 2006
A Crazy Monday Morning
A Near Dust-Up
This PRC prick first played loud music from his PC while LANNING, even though there were headphones readily available. He was occupying the first few rows of tables where I was. I had to only because these were the PC stations that had CDROM readers and floppy disks for me to work on my resumes.
I requested him to tone down as I was already exasperated and overwhelmed with the sheer amount of job applications I had to submit, not restricting myself anymore to a teaching job but to sales, training, customer service, logistics and so on. These are really not my calling but I do not have very many choices left what with finance, time, age and academic qualifications not being on my side.
I will not teach in an all-girls school. Neither will I subject myself to training in the only teacher's academy here when I know what I can expect. Which is only to teach in the primary school section which isn't what I want unless as an enrichment program trainer. And not to mention the bond and school fees I have to bear. My best hope is still in the independent schools or the privately funded or private schools which occupy school campuses. Not the tuition centres. Not anything else.
This prick refused and after a while when I couldn't take it anymore, I stood up and shouted a string of vulgarities at him. At one point into our fight, he picked up a panel filled with nails and waved it at me. I would have thrown a chair at him but I thought better of getting myself hurt when he was more superiorly armed.
I called the police and as usual, I was disappointed that they could not take any sterner action other than issuing a warning. Especially since my life had been at risk.
I was angry at the "management" who had not persuaded him to tone down sooner. In fact they came up to me and cited the hourly rate of $2.00 as a non-profit venture for them to intervene. Their premise with its broken down panel had been turned into a potential assault weapon and they haven't taken more care of this. This only enraged me more.
Our Foreign Talent Got In Through The Back Door
These PRC students were almost like the few I witnessed who got into schools with donations , although they did not pass the admission tests. I am not sure what they are here for most of the time. Their backgrounds remain dubious and their "peidu" mamas even more doubtful. Were they their accompanying "mothers" even? They seem to be here for some job openings on the side or in the future. Their ages and qualifications masked beyond our immigration's notice or care.
And we are providing bondless scholarships to these ingrates which range from the Asean to the PRC schemes. What madness!
A Meeting With The UnHoly Trinity
Thinking back, I indeed had a meeting with the UnHoly Trinity and this was with MOE. Years back, after going round the commercial schools, I decided perhaps I could try out teaching in the public schools. I applied and was called up for an interview.
A panel of the Unholy Trinity swung into action. There was this long table with the threesome (a woman -bimb- who was bowed to by a blimp - an old fart and a young man - wimp) seated across moi with their names and designations displayed on tags on the table.
The younger Indian man who wore an ear-ring, upon my commenting on what I could do for the academically gifted, grimaced and made it clear I had transgressed on something. He asked me what I could do for the EM3 which perhaps was something he thought a male teacher should be doing? He struck me as vindictive. In fact the whole panel did.
Now I wanna ask whether shouldn't someone who wanna teach be assigned to teach pupils and subjects he/she feels confident about. Why would you want someone strong in the English language to teach Maths or Science when these are not his forte? And if he is more adept at teaching the intellectually abled, so shouldn't this be his gift? If I am teaching, it has nothing to do with my gender. I am not going to pretend to be a sado-macho. I am there to open up hearts, minds and souls.
If there is a need, I have my own brand of disciplinary control. My style is my style.
The whole panel made it sound as if they were some gods/godesses deciding on the people's fates. This is probably the grouses of many in the teaching service. They are for whatever reasons assigned and posted to teach pupils, subjects and at schools which they dont fit. It seems that these are sentences meted out for whatever "trangressions" they have committed. More like not ingratitaing to the upper reaches of the education service.
A Benign Or Belligerent God?
This reminded me of the different tracks religion take. For mine, it seems that someone's calamities in life is a result of some trangressions on his part and as a result he is punished with every kind of affliction in life. So he is to bear and grin it like Jesus carrying his cross. That explains his fellow Christians looking on and mocking him as a sinner? This is insane and almost as good as driving a person to his deathbed.
Another Christian religion however opines that this is otiose. Jesus had carried and died on the cross for us so we need not suffer.
Now, which of the two almost similar religions is more benign? And is God a severe and punishing God or a compassionate and loving one? If he is both, what of the more vile crimes committed against mankind in history? Have the perpetrators been swiftly brought to justice and sentenced? What of all the crusades in History ? Were they justified?
Whipping The NewSpeak
Going by the number of times the Whip has been lifted in all the decades of Parliament sittings, you can hazard a guess where all these newspeak is heading. Into the trash bin and dumped.
Who Are You In The Dark! Show Thyself!
If I read blogs in the blogosphere and someone can have MM Lee's lawsuit documents posted online, I know there are people in blogosphere who must be in some ways linked with the establishment. They are keeping tabs and spying.
In fact I know for some time, I have been confronted with many strange incidents along the way wherever I go which can only be planted by the establishment. And the people I keep bumping into are sometimes familiar faces. Like this morning for example. That PRC boy I have seen quite a few times on the bus and at the LAN shop.
It seems someone is throwing things down my way to test and to harass moi. Well I say FUCK YOU! It shows that you are no better than a rat who hides in holes!
I write and speak with no fear. That is and will always be my motto.
As I have said I am a pretty neutral kind of guy at first but I got sucked into all these bloody fucking stuff not of my free will. The people I met were always whinging and I am beginning to see why. I am beginning to whinge myself.
That is what all your doings have made this nation of people to be! Pure and simple!
This PRC prick first played loud music from his PC while LANNING, even though there were headphones readily available. He was occupying the first few rows of tables where I was. I had to only because these were the PC stations that had CDROM readers and floppy disks for me to work on my resumes.
I requested him to tone down as I was already exasperated and overwhelmed with the sheer amount of job applications I had to submit, not restricting myself anymore to a teaching job but to sales, training, customer service, logistics and so on. These are really not my calling but I do not have very many choices left what with finance, time, age and academic qualifications not being on my side.
I will not teach in an all-girls school. Neither will I subject myself to training in the only teacher's academy here when I know what I can expect. Which is only to teach in the primary school section which isn't what I want unless as an enrichment program trainer. And not to mention the bond and school fees I have to bear. My best hope is still in the independent schools or the privately funded or private schools which occupy school campuses. Not the tuition centres. Not anything else.
This prick refused and after a while when I couldn't take it anymore, I stood up and shouted a string of vulgarities at him. At one point into our fight, he picked up a panel filled with nails and waved it at me. I would have thrown a chair at him but I thought better of getting myself hurt when he was more superiorly armed.
I called the police and as usual, I was disappointed that they could not take any sterner action other than issuing a warning. Especially since my life had been at risk.
I was angry at the "management" who had not persuaded him to tone down sooner. In fact they came up to me and cited the hourly rate of $2.00 as a non-profit venture for them to intervene. Their premise with its broken down panel had been turned into a potential assault weapon and they haven't taken more care of this. This only enraged me more.
Our Foreign Talent Got In Through The Back Door
These PRC students were almost like the few I witnessed who got into schools with donations , although they did not pass the admission tests. I am not sure what they are here for most of the time. Their backgrounds remain dubious and their "peidu" mamas even more doubtful. Were they their accompanying "mothers" even? They seem to be here for some job openings on the side or in the future. Their ages and qualifications masked beyond our immigration's notice or care.
And we are providing bondless scholarships to these ingrates which range from the Asean to the PRC schemes. What madness!
A Meeting With The UnHoly Trinity
Thinking back, I indeed had a meeting with the UnHoly Trinity and this was with MOE. Years back, after going round the commercial schools, I decided perhaps I could try out teaching in the public schools. I applied and was called up for an interview.
A panel of the Unholy Trinity swung into action. There was this long table with the threesome (a woman -bimb- who was bowed to by a blimp - an old fart and a young man - wimp) seated across moi with their names and designations displayed on tags on the table.
The younger Indian man who wore an ear-ring, upon my commenting on what I could do for the academically gifted, grimaced and made it clear I had transgressed on something. He asked me what I could do for the EM3 which perhaps was something he thought a male teacher should be doing? He struck me as vindictive. In fact the whole panel did.
Now I wanna ask whether shouldn't someone who wanna teach be assigned to teach pupils and subjects he/she feels confident about. Why would you want someone strong in the English language to teach Maths or Science when these are not his forte? And if he is more adept at teaching the intellectually abled, so shouldn't this be his gift? If I am teaching, it has nothing to do with my gender. I am not going to pretend to be a sado-macho. I am there to open up hearts, minds and souls.
If there is a need, I have my own brand of disciplinary control. My style is my style.
The whole panel made it sound as if they were some gods/godesses deciding on the people's fates. This is probably the grouses of many in the teaching service. They are for whatever reasons assigned and posted to teach pupils, subjects and at schools which they dont fit. It seems that these are sentences meted out for whatever "trangressions" they have committed. More like not ingratitaing to the upper reaches of the education service.
A Benign Or Belligerent God?
This reminded me of the different tracks religion take. For mine, it seems that someone's calamities in life is a result of some trangressions on his part and as a result he is punished with every kind of affliction in life. So he is to bear and grin it like Jesus carrying his cross. That explains his fellow Christians looking on and mocking him as a sinner? This is insane and almost as good as driving a person to his deathbed.
Another Christian religion however opines that this is otiose. Jesus had carried and died on the cross for us so we need not suffer.
Now, which of the two almost similar religions is more benign? And is God a severe and punishing God or a compassionate and loving one? If he is both, what of the more vile crimes committed against mankind in history? Have the perpetrators been swiftly brought to justice and sentenced? What of all the crusades in History ? Were they justified?
Whipping The NewSpeak
Going by the number of times the Whip has been lifted in all the decades of Parliament sittings, you can hazard a guess where all these newspeak is heading. Into the trash bin and dumped.
Who Are You In The Dark! Show Thyself!
If I read blogs in the blogosphere and someone can have MM Lee's lawsuit documents posted online, I know there are people in blogosphere who must be in some ways linked with the establishment. They are keeping tabs and spying.
In fact I know for some time, I have been confronted with many strange incidents along the way wherever I go which can only be planted by the establishment. And the people I keep bumping into are sometimes familiar faces. Like this morning for example. That PRC boy I have seen quite a few times on the bus and at the LAN shop.
It seems someone is throwing things down my way to test and to harass moi. Well I say FUCK YOU! It shows that you are no better than a rat who hides in holes!
I write and speak with no fear. That is and will always be my motto.
As I have said I am a pretty neutral kind of guy at first but I got sucked into all these bloody fucking stuff not of my free will. The people I met were always whinging and I am beginning to see why. I am beginning to whinge myself.
That is what all your doings have made this nation of people to be! Pure and simple!
Friday, November 10, 2006
A New Season Of Blogs
Hold On, Here I Am Logging In And Look What I Found!
This is amazing! I log in through the Hub Centre and to view my bill, I have to log in again through the Account Manager! Double vision! Oo! But if I log in through the Account Manager Tab, I can view the bill directly!
So why the HUB thingy at all?
Why I am Pissed Today!
Starhub hasn't informed its subscribers of this termination of log-in through its Account Manager tab. Could it not have transferred existing account holders to the Hub Account automatically, saving them the hassle of re-registering? Couldn't they also link their existing e-services to the Hub and not make them wait for the mapping service.
Sweet Clove-Flavored Ciggies
I am onto this pack of "manis" ciggies which leaves a sweet aftertaste. Far out!
Governance For The Good Of The Majority
If we are to believe this, then the abundance and easy availability of fleshpots here is for the good of the majority. Straying spouses, break-ups and divorces. This must be good for the majority.
What about allowing foreigners to prostitute themselves openly here! According to one source, it seems that prosperous Singapore is duty-bound to allow these Third World harlots in to feed off our wealth. After all, the old farts here have no better use for their CPF funds, do they?
WHOA! I didn't know this was our responsibility! What about reciprocity? We don't find it easy to work abroad and I don't mean just the soliciting kind. Almost every type of work!
Look At The Galls Here!
I am not asking for demure bimbos nor am I asking for scantily clad witches nor ungirly butches. But hey, everytime I turn around, I see girls misbehaving. Screaming their lungs off, talking at butchy voices and cackling like the three witches of Mcbeth, they arent the girls they should be.
We have beaten down the last breath of almost every remaining dude here with the dire consequence that the GALLs have been let off lightly to the extent that they have climbed over the cuckoo's nest atop a tree.
Now they RULE the WORLD!
The Psychology Of Hate
This book is worth a read. It is well-researched and explains HATE like it is. Get a load of this! There is a taxonomy of hate from cool hate, hot hate to simmering, seething and burning hate! It also lays out the psychological foundations and origins of hate. Prejudice, history, racism, religion, ideology, us-and-them devaluation of groups of people and so on.
By the way, I am beginning to feel it too. HATE BIG TIME!
Starhub Lag
Starhub has just done away with logging in through the Account Manager menu such that all subscribers have to log in through the Hub Management centre. That means that I have to register for an account with the Hub Centre. WHOA! If you think this was easy, think again.
I had to make several calls to the centre just so to navigate the controls, in no small part due to the vague instructions given probably because the operator doesn't know better. I now have to wait an hour to log in even though I have activated the account upon an email notification and it was successful.
As it is now, after logging into my HUB account and clicking on the Account Manager Tab, it prompts me for another log-in. A double log-in! What incredulity! Apparently I can view my bill when on the Account Manager mode. I hope so.
You are so GOOD............!
Library's Peculiar Glitch
I have this funny feeling that the people who are responsible for writing the computer system program probably doesn't know a thing about library patrons' needs. Maybe even the library administrators arent aware.
I am on the library's online catalogue. I search for a book by typing in either keywords (I almost always pick this as I go by the book's title) or the author or name (not sure what "name" means - author's or what?). I limit my search by language (English in my case), media type (adults for me) , date (date? I will if I know) and branch (wherever I happen to be).
For the last few weeks except only for today, it has been turning up NIL results. When I look into the search box engine again, a string of gibberish (or Spanish maybe) is attached to the string of search keywords. I delete this string and re-enter and hey presto, it turns up results.
GOD! What is it with you, system! It worked today but not the last few times!
Where Do We Find True Talent?
Maybe they are found in our prisons? I don't know. What do you think?
We Can't All Be Singing Hymns Of Praises, Can We?
Let me be that vocal critic of our system here. We can't all be the Naked Emperor's minions to sing praises, sweep all and sundry under the red carpet, pretend that nothing is wrong here and that everything is working fine.
Let this be the job of all the mindless, hopeless, ingratiating idiots and lapsdogs in our society.
You Didn't Do Your Sums Right To Extract The Most Of Each Combination, Did You?
Some of the coffeshops don't have a fixed meal menu for the "kayakun toast". Like a whole meal set (eggs, toast and drink thrown in) at a certain price. They specify 2 eggs, 2 slices of toast and a drink. You can't have one of each but you can have 2 of each type and each type only. I get so cheesed I just order a drink as a protest. Doesn't that leave the vendor with less? I understand it has something to do with the toasting machine or boiler or something. Too bad for you!
What Will All This Newspeak Translate Into?
Yes, we have more relevant issues surfacing now at this new sitting of parliament. But what will it all lead to? Will it all be more talk and no action? Are we not running into brickwalls yet again? Will someone like me wanna sit in parliament all day making speeches without seeing any concrete translation?
Wait. Didn't someone say that it is gonna take 20 years before homosexuality gets decriminalised? 20 years! That will be when I have one foot in the coffin and the other doddering on a walking stick. It is like earning a princely 5 figure salary every month at that age or starting a business. What use will that be for me?
Elaborate Fashion Styling And Whoring
So if you can't live with yourself and you have to resort to overwhelmingly prettifying yourself, it doesn't speak much about you does it? I mean I can understand if you have very bad scarring or something. But if you spend tonnes on cosmetics, hair-styling and fashion, then well, oops, I dont think what you see is what you get. What you see isn't what you get! Not at all au naturel.
What about money spent in schools on deportment? Is that necessary? Wouldn't just some tips on personal basic hygiene and grooming suffice and not the whole elaborate works?
In fact why dont you wear pants! That way schools would not have a problem enforcing hemline rules!
Don't Go Into Bastardized Education, MOE
I have said as much on my educational review blogs. There is nothing wrong with academic achievement but to expect students to excel excellently (which is what an aggregate score in PSLE, the L1R4/L1R5 and the numeric point system for university admission are doing) a basket of compulsory examinable subjects is asking for a SUPERWOMAN or SUPERMAN mentality.
It is good we introduce other subjects like business, economics and computer studies as options but not as compulsories. Make all subjects modular so students can pick subjects they do well in or have the aptitude and passion for. We have to get this very clear from the outset.
Academic studies should be the preserves of public schools and not "commercial schools". Commercial schools should be providing educational alternatives, not tuition (especially run on a class-size basis) which is only saddling students with more academic overload, spilled over from mainstream schools.
However small-groups of 5 or less and one-on-one tuition are effective academic remedial and enrichment supplements and complements.
My Definition Of Wimps
Please don't get me wrong. I have no problems with men/boys who get along well with women/girls, just so long as they don't adopt those traits that define GALLS the way they are. Those very irritating traits in terms of behavior (not such a big problem if it is feminine traits that a guy exhibits) and thinking, values, their culture, their mouth, their everything.
To me wimps are guys who cannot stand up for what is in their heart. Mouth things they don't mean. Say what everyone else is saying. Act like a sado-macho. Covering up their sexuality by marrying or having a GALL round them as a shield for fear of being found out (but it is ok if they need this as an emotional prop or shield but why cant they lean on a guy, I can offer my shoulder and my gonads if they truly need it...)
It is sad that many bis have married and still do things on the side. Live a lie. Condemn gays even. They are really our scourge. Crucifying us. They turn out worse than any other gays or straights.
I think we all have to be true to ourselves. This is the last bastion of our personal space and freedom.
No One Left Behind - You Mean Your Flatulating Behind?
If this is the resounding chant of the DOTA SENTINELS AND SCOURGE we are onto now, explain why that poor old lady sitting right in the middle of the road in front of Bugis Junction/Seiyu near the traffic stoplight pedestrain crossing along Victoria Street is still there. Or the makcik near the Sultan Mosque?
Someone obviously hasn't wiped his behind after a trip to the loo. Or he hasn't been washing his hands?
Meri-Talk-Cock-tic Meritocracy
A reporter ran an excellent article today on meritocracy. I thought I should just add another side to the story. The story of how some "foreign talents" are winning the much hard won and well deserved places in our education system by our locals without seemingly much correspondent effort and merit. They pay money to get in.
Now isn't that merit-talk-cock-cy? Or is that your cock in your own mouth?
Breathing Fire Dragons And Phoenixes
There seems to be just a bit more fire and brimstone in Parliament now. The new crop of parliamentarians have surfaced pertinent issues that affect the lives of many. For instance, in the case of a media ban or censorship either in screen or print, people should be allowed to judge for themselves what is good or bad.
The more controversial a book or movie is, the more reasons it should be permitted to be read or watched. Usually this says or purveys issues that are true but which out of political correctness and for a myriad of factors, it is feared to provoke public outcries.
Let there be all the public outcries there can be if it means that the truth be out or that another perspective or view to an issue be allowed to see the light of day.
Your Cranial Mucus Is Thinning...........That Is Why It Is Time You Wear A Toupee (Fake Hair)....Geddit?
But one thing amid all the changes to the Penal Code remains, even though our law-makers have made it abundantly clear that they will not be pro-actively policing or enforcing it. Section 377A which is termed "outrages on decency" (what if it is consensual and the other guy is actually asking for it or enjoys it?) remains in force.
When the encyclopedia invokes "Asian Values", I almost wanted to bend over and ask a "sodomite to fuck me good in the arse - just for laughs not thrills, mind you. It will be my GRAND TWO TIMES having sodomy committed against my "weak will". This is so laughable, the Republicans have been routed but Singapore still has the PAP.
Again this is not only discriminatory, it is also contradictory especially when we have men's clubs here which surely do not have fashion shows as an appetizer on their menu. It is like banning the Nation Party here in Singapore on the unproven grounds of AIDS spreading when we still have gay parties in clubs and pubs. What is the difference or the point even?
Not as if the heteros (or is it bis) are not "playing ball" given the proliferation of karaoke lounges, bars and brothels here.
Someone's cranial mucus at the top of our policy-making machinery must be thinning......
Muiz ...I Miss Our Hot Kisses
Yeah, this is another thing I miss. Our long, deep, hard tongues thrusting into each other's oral orifices. These are kisses only men can share and love.
I can't imagine kissing a woman like that. Not even if she opts to take off her lip-color or has pearly white teeth. YUCKS! Get off me women!
How Am I Feeling These Days
Despondent, desperate, depressed, down and alone. Can't find a suitable teaching job (not teaching an all-GALLS outfit for one) and Muiz has all but left me. I am just living out my days one day at a time.
The last interview I went for was a direct-sales job (which kinda mean pyramid selling). I have to purchase a set of demo-packs and likewise, all other "customers" I approach. They in turn will have their "customers" do the same.
This company is affiliated to a local major publishing company which in turn is a subsidiary of an American BIG TIME media mogul. I am not gunning for this job for reasons I know best.
I have bought myself some really cool and neat working clothes but I don't seem to be going anyway or wearing them anytime soon. This is such a waste!
Something must come up....sooner than I can hope for.
This is amazing! I log in through the Hub Centre and to view my bill, I have to log in again through the Account Manager! Double vision! Oo! But if I log in through the Account Manager Tab, I can view the bill directly!
So why the HUB thingy at all?
Why I am Pissed Today!
Starhub hasn't informed its subscribers of this termination of log-in through its Account Manager tab. Could it not have transferred existing account holders to the Hub Account automatically, saving them the hassle of re-registering? Couldn't they also link their existing e-services to the Hub and not make them wait for the mapping service.
Sweet Clove-Flavored Ciggies
I am onto this pack of "manis" ciggies which leaves a sweet aftertaste. Far out!
Governance For The Good Of The Majority
If we are to believe this, then the abundance and easy availability of fleshpots here is for the good of the majority. Straying spouses, break-ups and divorces. This must be good for the majority.
What about allowing foreigners to prostitute themselves openly here! According to one source, it seems that prosperous Singapore is duty-bound to allow these Third World harlots in to feed off our wealth. After all, the old farts here have no better use for their CPF funds, do they?
WHOA! I didn't know this was our responsibility! What about reciprocity? We don't find it easy to work abroad and I don't mean just the soliciting kind. Almost every type of work!
Look At The Galls Here!
I am not asking for demure bimbos nor am I asking for scantily clad witches nor ungirly butches. But hey, everytime I turn around, I see girls misbehaving. Screaming their lungs off, talking at butchy voices and cackling like the three witches of Mcbeth, they arent the girls they should be.
We have beaten down the last breath of almost every remaining dude here with the dire consequence that the GALLs have been let off lightly to the extent that they have climbed over the cuckoo's nest atop a tree.
Now they RULE the WORLD!
The Psychology Of Hate
This book is worth a read. It is well-researched and explains HATE like it is. Get a load of this! There is a taxonomy of hate from cool hate, hot hate to simmering, seething and burning hate! It also lays out the psychological foundations and origins of hate. Prejudice, history, racism, religion, ideology, us-and-them devaluation of groups of people and so on.
By the way, I am beginning to feel it too. HATE BIG TIME!
Starhub Lag
Starhub has just done away with logging in through the Account Manager menu such that all subscribers have to log in through the Hub Management centre. That means that I have to register for an account with the Hub Centre. WHOA! If you think this was easy, think again.
I had to make several calls to the centre just so to navigate the controls, in no small part due to the vague instructions given probably because the operator doesn't know better. I now have to wait an hour to log in even though I have activated the account upon an email notification and it was successful.
As it is now, after logging into my HUB account and clicking on the Account Manager Tab, it prompts me for another log-in. A double log-in! What incredulity! Apparently I can view my bill when on the Account Manager mode. I hope so.
You are so GOOD............!
Library's Peculiar Glitch
I have this funny feeling that the people who are responsible for writing the computer system program probably doesn't know a thing about library patrons' needs. Maybe even the library administrators arent aware.
I am on the library's online catalogue. I search for a book by typing in either keywords (I almost always pick this as I go by the book's title) or the author or name (not sure what "name" means - author's or what?). I limit my search by language (English in my case), media type (adults for me) , date (date? I will if I know) and branch (wherever I happen to be).
For the last few weeks except only for today, it has been turning up NIL results. When I look into the search box engine again, a string of gibberish (or Spanish maybe) is attached to the string of search keywords. I delete this string and re-enter and hey presto, it turns up results.
GOD! What is it with you, system! It worked today but not the last few times!
Where Do We Find True Talent?
Maybe they are found in our prisons? I don't know. What do you think?
We Can't All Be Singing Hymns Of Praises, Can We?
Let me be that vocal critic of our system here. We can't all be the Naked Emperor's minions to sing praises, sweep all and sundry under the red carpet, pretend that nothing is wrong here and that everything is working fine.
Let this be the job of all the mindless, hopeless, ingratiating idiots and lapsdogs in our society.
You Didn't Do Your Sums Right To Extract The Most Of Each Combination, Did You?
Some of the coffeshops don't have a fixed meal menu for the "kayakun toast". Like a whole meal set (eggs, toast and drink thrown in) at a certain price. They specify 2 eggs, 2 slices of toast and a drink. You can't have one of each but you can have 2 of each type and each type only. I get so cheesed I just order a drink as a protest. Doesn't that leave the vendor with less? I understand it has something to do with the toasting machine or boiler or something. Too bad for you!
What Will All This Newspeak Translate Into?
Yes, we have more relevant issues surfacing now at this new sitting of parliament. But what will it all lead to? Will it all be more talk and no action? Are we not running into brickwalls yet again? Will someone like me wanna sit in parliament all day making speeches without seeing any concrete translation?
Wait. Didn't someone say that it is gonna take 20 years before homosexuality gets decriminalised? 20 years! That will be when I have one foot in the coffin and the other doddering on a walking stick. It is like earning a princely 5 figure salary every month at that age or starting a business. What use will that be for me?
Elaborate Fashion Styling And Whoring
So if you can't live with yourself and you have to resort to overwhelmingly prettifying yourself, it doesn't speak much about you does it? I mean I can understand if you have very bad scarring or something. But if you spend tonnes on cosmetics, hair-styling and fashion, then well, oops, I dont think what you see is what you get. What you see isn't what you get! Not at all au naturel.
What about money spent in schools on deportment? Is that necessary? Wouldn't just some tips on personal basic hygiene and grooming suffice and not the whole elaborate works?
In fact why dont you wear pants! That way schools would not have a problem enforcing hemline rules!
Don't Go Into Bastardized Education, MOE
I have said as much on my educational review blogs. There is nothing wrong with academic achievement but to expect students to excel excellently (which is what an aggregate score in PSLE, the L1R4/L1R5 and the numeric point system for university admission are doing) a basket of compulsory examinable subjects is asking for a SUPERWOMAN or SUPERMAN mentality.
It is good we introduce other subjects like business, economics and computer studies as options but not as compulsories. Make all subjects modular so students can pick subjects they do well in or have the aptitude and passion for. We have to get this very clear from the outset.
Academic studies should be the preserves of public schools and not "commercial schools". Commercial schools should be providing educational alternatives, not tuition (especially run on a class-size basis) which is only saddling students with more academic overload, spilled over from mainstream schools.
However small-groups of 5 or less and one-on-one tuition are effective academic remedial and enrichment supplements and complements.
My Definition Of Wimps
Please don't get me wrong. I have no problems with men/boys who get along well with women/girls, just so long as they don't adopt those traits that define GALLS the way they are. Those very irritating traits in terms of behavior (not such a big problem if it is feminine traits that a guy exhibits) and thinking, values, their culture, their mouth, their everything.
To me wimps are guys who cannot stand up for what is in their heart. Mouth things they don't mean. Say what everyone else is saying. Act like a sado-macho. Covering up their sexuality by marrying or having a GALL round them as a shield for fear of being found out (but it is ok if they need this as an emotional prop or shield but why cant they lean on a guy, I can offer my shoulder and my gonads if they truly need it...)
It is sad that many bis have married and still do things on the side. Live a lie. Condemn gays even. They are really our scourge. Crucifying us. They turn out worse than any other gays or straights.
I think we all have to be true to ourselves. This is the last bastion of our personal space and freedom.
No One Left Behind - You Mean Your Flatulating Behind?
If this is the resounding chant of the DOTA SENTINELS AND SCOURGE we are onto now, explain why that poor old lady sitting right in the middle of the road in front of Bugis Junction/Seiyu near the traffic stoplight pedestrain crossing along Victoria Street is still there. Or the makcik near the Sultan Mosque?
Someone obviously hasn't wiped his behind after a trip to the loo. Or he hasn't been washing his hands?
Meri-Talk-Cock-tic Meritocracy
A reporter ran an excellent article today on meritocracy. I thought I should just add another side to the story. The story of how some "foreign talents" are winning the much hard won and well deserved places in our education system by our locals without seemingly much correspondent effort and merit. They pay money to get in.
Now isn't that merit-talk-cock-cy? Or is that your cock in your own mouth?
Breathing Fire Dragons And Phoenixes
There seems to be just a bit more fire and brimstone in Parliament now. The new crop of parliamentarians have surfaced pertinent issues that affect the lives of many. For instance, in the case of a media ban or censorship either in screen or print, people should be allowed to judge for themselves what is good or bad.
The more controversial a book or movie is, the more reasons it should be permitted to be read or watched. Usually this says or purveys issues that are true but which out of political correctness and for a myriad of factors, it is feared to provoke public outcries.
Let there be all the public outcries there can be if it means that the truth be out or that another perspective or view to an issue be allowed to see the light of day.
Your Cranial Mucus Is Thinning...........That Is Why It Is Time You Wear A Toupee (Fake Hair)....Geddit?
But one thing amid all the changes to the Penal Code remains, even though our law-makers have made it abundantly clear that they will not be pro-actively policing or enforcing it. Section 377A which is termed "outrages on decency" (what if it is consensual and the other guy is actually asking for it or enjoys it?) remains in force.
When the encyclopedia invokes "Asian Values", I almost wanted to bend over and ask a "sodomite to fuck me good in the arse - just for laughs not thrills, mind you. It will be my GRAND TWO TIMES having sodomy committed against my "weak will". This is so laughable, the Republicans have been routed but Singapore still has the PAP.
Again this is not only discriminatory, it is also contradictory especially when we have men's clubs here which surely do not have fashion shows as an appetizer on their menu. It is like banning the Nation Party here in Singapore on the unproven grounds of AIDS spreading when we still have gay parties in clubs and pubs. What is the difference or the point even?
Not as if the heteros (or is it bis) are not "playing ball" given the proliferation of karaoke lounges, bars and brothels here.
Someone's cranial mucus at the top of our policy-making machinery must be thinning......
Muiz ...I Miss Our Hot Kisses
Yeah, this is another thing I miss. Our long, deep, hard tongues thrusting into each other's oral orifices. These are kisses only men can share and love.
I can't imagine kissing a woman like that. Not even if she opts to take off her lip-color or has pearly white teeth. YUCKS! Get off me women!
How Am I Feeling These Days
Despondent, desperate, depressed, down and alone. Can't find a suitable teaching job (not teaching an all-GALLS outfit for one) and Muiz has all but left me. I am just living out my days one day at a time.
The last interview I went for was a direct-sales job (which kinda mean pyramid selling). I have to purchase a set of demo-packs and likewise, all other "customers" I approach. They in turn will have their "customers" do the same.
This company is affiliated to a local major publishing company which in turn is a subsidiary of an American BIG TIME media mogul. I am not gunning for this job for reasons I know best.
I have bought myself some really cool and neat working clothes but I don't seem to be going anyway or wearing them anytime soon. This is such a waste!
Something must come up....sooner than I can hope for.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Muiz I Miss You Dearly
Everytime I look at other dudes, my thoughts stray to thinking about you. The good times we had for a while, your smile, your personality, your twinky bod and our conversations. I hope you understand that I was stressed for a period. Do call me when you are ready. I don't have your number anymore.
Friday, November 03, 2006
I Am Dying Soon I Think - Of Boredom That Is
Western Vs Asian
We didn't copy the Western model of democracy and of openness and communication. But we certainly didn't hesitate imbibing their sleaze like their media, porn, sex and bars. What does this speak of us?
The True Spirit Of Philantropy Then
Back in the old days, we had our philantropists, people like Tan Tock Seng and Tan Kah Kee. They built hospitals and schools for the destitute, the sick and the disadvantaged. Not only in Singapore but even as far away as China.
There weren't any credit point system for admission into universities to be had, no international image to uphold, no National Day Awards to receive nor were they run like the sleek business-generating machinery that is charity organisations today. They did it straight from their heart. For the good of the community and for the people.
The Role Of Government
I had blogged on the role women can play in society and more recently the role of religion.
Today, it just hit me that government too has a role to play. It has to be the provider of essential goods (like water, power, housing, welfarism and education) where a commercial one would seriously price these out of reach to the people.
In the same way, it has to mitigate in the untrammelled greed of commerce and its externalities while ensuring that it itself does not go down the same path . Sure, by all means be pro-businesses but at the same time, it has to act as the guardian and protector of the people's interests.
So How Is It Here?
It does seem that the people here are the ones footing the charity bill for the less fortunate. Think ethnic-based groups with monthly donations, flag days , charity events and so on. How much of the money goes to the poor directly or to the maintenance of some buildings or HQ in the case of charity organisations?
This poor old lady is still sitting near the Sultan Mosque.
Iconic buildings
These must be the preserve of tourism. Like our tourism board, museums , the resorts, the arts and other revenue-generators. Certainly not government buildings.
As for the maintenance of these buildings, in the case of the IRs, it would be the developers and owners who are responsible. So why not?
Work And Play
No wonder Daniel isn't keen on a LTR. He has said as much himself. He works at the men's club. Of course!
Evasive Evasion
This geezer was hogging the newspaper reading table, frantically scribbling notes in the margins of his investment portfolio. I casually asked how it was doing. Guess what he said? It isn't his and he is "assiduously" doing this for a friend. Look here! You don't have to be so kiasi. I won't be hankering after your wealth or something man!
I can understand that there is a huge shortage of tables in the community library after students had reserved the available ones for their study groups. But hey, I do need to read the papers. The last time I tugged at the chain to try to get the papers round to another table, the plastic binder broke off.
We can forget about holding any decent conversation or even striking up any meaningful friendship with our country men here, apart from wheedling for business deals. There is nothing to bind us.
Then again we can't really be sure they are our "country" men or women right?
In Your Dreams
I am not sure how the job statistics come about. A hundred and twenty thousand jobs created. Perhaps these are for the low-entry level kind, not the middle or high-end type.Then again, are they even created for Singaporeans?
Let Us Forget About High-Level Skills
As I have mentioned before, it doesn't take a degree to perform administrative, executive , logistical or whatever functions. So it isn't about people not having the skills but more that the jobs preclude them because of paper credentials. Wholly otiose, if I must add.
You mean they can't pick this up on the job? Does that piece of paper shows him what he has to perform at his work?
What Is Happening In My Life Now
Teaching jobs that require degrees. Look, I have seen teachers in action in schools and they dont strike me as degree-holders at all. The way they talk and reason. In fact, I think Auntie at home makes a better teacher and philosopher.
I have applied for sales and administrative jobs but this has not turned up anything save for an interview next Tuesday. Even a "boarding executive" job at a school hostel drew a blank.
Since I am already renting a room and there is a dearth of things to do at home (no TV, no computer) and people to talk to (everyone is unto themselves and I may not necessarily connect to one and all), I was thinking why not I put up at a school hostel and be in charge of young people.
At least I have some company to kee[ (for better or worse) and there are always the dudes I can relate to (drool). Some hostels even pay a housing subsidy to foreigners. Can you imagine that? Here I am, a local and I am footing a monthly rent out of my own pocket.
A simple job like that is also denied me.
Oo, Cutie Pie
Every which way I turn I have bumped into this cute SJI dude. At Vivo, at the library, at the park, almost everywhere. GOSH! What does all this mean?
Muiz, I Just Wanna Say This
I really really really love you. And miss you. When you walked away that day, my heart sank. You actually priortize your "friends" (of whom your relationship I am unclear) over me. I am so sorry I said those things just to spite and hurt you.
I like to call you but I can't. I have erased you from my contact list in a fit of fury and jealousy. I hope we can give our relationship another go.
We didn't copy the Western model of democracy and of openness and communication. But we certainly didn't hesitate imbibing their sleaze like their media, porn, sex and bars. What does this speak of us?
The True Spirit Of Philantropy Then
Back in the old days, we had our philantropists, people like Tan Tock Seng and Tan Kah Kee. They built hospitals and schools for the destitute, the sick and the disadvantaged. Not only in Singapore but even as far away as China.
There weren't any credit point system for admission into universities to be had, no international image to uphold, no National Day Awards to receive nor were they run like the sleek business-generating machinery that is charity organisations today. They did it straight from their heart. For the good of the community and for the people.
The Role Of Government
I had blogged on the role women can play in society and more recently the role of religion.
Today, it just hit me that government too has a role to play. It has to be the provider of essential goods (like water, power, housing, welfarism and education) where a commercial one would seriously price these out of reach to the people.
In the same way, it has to mitigate in the untrammelled greed of commerce and its externalities while ensuring that it itself does not go down the same path . Sure, by all means be pro-businesses but at the same time, it has to act as the guardian and protector of the people's interests.
So How Is It Here?
It does seem that the people here are the ones footing the charity bill for the less fortunate. Think ethnic-based groups with monthly donations, flag days , charity events and so on. How much of the money goes to the poor directly or to the maintenance of some buildings or HQ in the case of charity organisations?
This poor old lady is still sitting near the Sultan Mosque.
Iconic buildings
These must be the preserve of tourism. Like our tourism board, museums , the resorts, the arts and other revenue-generators. Certainly not government buildings.
As for the maintenance of these buildings, in the case of the IRs, it would be the developers and owners who are responsible. So why not?
Work And Play
No wonder Daniel isn't keen on a LTR. He has said as much himself. He works at the men's club. Of course!
Evasive Evasion
This geezer was hogging the newspaper reading table, frantically scribbling notes in the margins of his investment portfolio. I casually asked how it was doing. Guess what he said? It isn't his and he is "assiduously" doing this for a friend. Look here! You don't have to be so kiasi. I won't be hankering after your wealth or something man!
I can understand that there is a huge shortage of tables in the community library after students had reserved the available ones for their study groups. But hey, I do need to read the papers. The last time I tugged at the chain to try to get the papers round to another table, the plastic binder broke off.
We can forget about holding any decent conversation or even striking up any meaningful friendship with our country men here, apart from wheedling for business deals. There is nothing to bind us.
Then again we can't really be sure they are our "country" men or women right?
In Your Dreams
I am not sure how the job statistics come about. A hundred and twenty thousand jobs created. Perhaps these are for the low-entry level kind, not the middle or high-end type.Then again, are they even created for Singaporeans?
Let Us Forget About High-Level Skills
As I have mentioned before, it doesn't take a degree to perform administrative, executive , logistical or whatever functions. So it isn't about people not having the skills but more that the jobs preclude them because of paper credentials. Wholly otiose, if I must add.
You mean they can't pick this up on the job? Does that piece of paper shows him what he has to perform at his work?
What Is Happening In My Life Now
Teaching jobs that require degrees. Look, I have seen teachers in action in schools and they dont strike me as degree-holders at all. The way they talk and reason. In fact, I think Auntie at home makes a better teacher and philosopher.
I have applied for sales and administrative jobs but this has not turned up anything save for an interview next Tuesday. Even a "boarding executive" job at a school hostel drew a blank.
Since I am already renting a room and there is a dearth of things to do at home (no TV, no computer) and people to talk to (everyone is unto themselves and I may not necessarily connect to one and all), I was thinking why not I put up at a school hostel and be in charge of young people.
At least I have some company to kee[ (for better or worse) and there are always the dudes I can relate to (drool). Some hostels even pay a housing subsidy to foreigners. Can you imagine that? Here I am, a local and I am footing a monthly rent out of my own pocket.
A simple job like that is also denied me.
Oo, Cutie Pie
Every which way I turn I have bumped into this cute SJI dude. At Vivo, at the library, at the park, almost everywhere. GOSH! What does all this mean?
Muiz, I Just Wanna Say This
I really really really love you. And miss you. When you walked away that day, my heart sank. You actually priortize your "friends" (of whom your relationship I am unclear) over me. I am so sorry I said those things just to spite and hurt you.
I like to call you but I can't. I have erased you from my contact list in a fit of fury and jealousy. I hope we can give our relationship another go.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
This One Is For You Muiz!
Muiz, I am just so disappointed in you. You came into my life when I wasn't particularly the best of myself, what with having moved house 5 times and living with wimpy gaylords. Now that I am ready, it seems that you have deserted me. You walked away that day when I thought you wouldn't. It is no way to start any relationship if we can't be truthful to each other or go on a fetishy and physically abusive sexual relationship. I have erased you and your contact from my list. But I do wish we can still get together.Above all, you can't commit and I am not sure who you are hanging out with and what your real position is with them and with me.If you think you can, let me know. I will be waiting!
Monday, October 30, 2006
Muiz Darling, You Wimp!
How Can You Compare With Me, Muiz?
Well I actually planned for a bicycling trip with Muiz but changed my mind to a walk in the parks instead. But as it had been raining the last couple of days, I asked for a wet-weather plan and Muiz suggested visiting Vivo. So please, Muiz, you suggested Vivo and don't expect me not to window shop here, taking up precious time that keeps you from the appointment you planned the same day with "Khal & Co" ( I told you this way beforehand and if Khal & Co text you that same day, you would have respectfully declined as I have told you I do not wish to meet you on a rush-rush basis)
I think my underwear have been with me since the early 90s and I had not had a change since . So too my socks and neckties. I did buy some stuff in 1998 and in between a few items here and there and only this year 2006 did I throw out my old wardrobe which has accumulated since my NSF days.
I also started travelling further afield, other than the hinterland, in the year 2000 when I was 35 years old. I know of younger people who have had travelled almost the whole world and on a few trips to the same countries at that!
Public Service Thievery That Shows A Lack Of Creovation!
I am beginning to think that educators are no better than thieves. They ask for program outlines and we never get to conduct the programs. Very likely they do it themselves. That speaks volumes of their creovation!
I had teachers who wanted me to leave behind my demo CDs or they ask me to show them my game cards, things I refuse to comply. Educators or thieves?
Photogenic Fiefdom Right Here In Singapore
Yeah, He-Ape and his wife love holding the annual ceremony cum meetings. It is like a yearly show-off of their little serfdom and fiefdom they command. Everybody watches on as they usually give away long-service awards (to their kins and henchmen/women more likely) as photographic bulbs flash and He-Ape's wife is all smiles for the camera!
It is also that time of the year when He-Ape brags about his "school's" achievements like the attendees he has from renowned schools (most likely the bottom heap of the academic pile or some people he bought over with bribes like money or sweets)
A Nation of Compassion And Love - Pui - I Wanna Spit In Your Face And Gonads
I remember placing an advert in a major newspaper here and I was late in paying up. I was hounded, first by the newspaper, then its lawyers. The amount was just tens of dollars. In its legalistically-fraught letter of demand, it stated that it would not give up till all had been settled.
The same went with the housing authority. I had promptly paid up my mortgage in all the years since 1995 up untill 2004 and thereabouts. Can you imagine it doesn't pay heed to those years I had been dutifully paying my dues but chose to focus instead on the last one or two years when I was in financial straits!
Speaking with the officers was no consolation (pompous bureaucrats - a bitch and wimp no less) and over the counter, the clerk made it a point to deduct whatever little I had in my CPF to settle my dues.
Pui To One And All I Met In The Course Of My Work And More
This include ex-employers, ex-classmates, school-mates, educators and the whole lot. I wanna see you burn in HELL! And you will if Jesus Christ does exist and religion is what you make it to be!
Isn't Anthropology A More Satisfying And Unifying Study Subject For Mankind?
I told Johannes that teaching anthropology seems a better study subject than any religious study. First, its "Out Of Africa" theory seems to have prevailed over the multi-regionalists' theory and that spells a common ancestry for mankind. This is validated by the bio-geneticists.
It is no longer phenotyping that differentiate but genotyping that unify. How can bio-anthropology be a bad study subject in the name of humanity and the milk of human goodness?
Darling Blogger Wee, You May Be Right In Some Respects
Well, I haven't really read her entire blog but from the dribs and drabs, I must say she does have a few valid points. One, if she is correctly referring to all the "old and unmotivated leeches" (does she mean civil servants here?) who seem to be sitting on their behinds and collecting a regular pay cheque every month, she isn't far wrong.
Think of all the ridiculous and senseless policies that have stayed and stood for ages without anyone putting forth rectifications. What are the mandarins doing? Masticating and flatulating?
I have sat in with officials at the Education Ministry and one with a fat paunch doesn't know what the left hand isn't doing that the right hand is. One is a blinktard who is only good at asking for track record. Mind you, she is at the top of the educational pyramid. Well to answer her question, does a timber merchant know a thing at all about a design school or even education? How come he gets to set up a "school"?
I will repeat this once more. Providing education isn't like selling "yong-tau-foo". Anyone can sell the latter, usually the tasteless variety we get to eat nowadays. Keep education out of the "commercial" sphere. There must be that larger social good and noble objective to education other than profits.
What The Bloggers Wees Of Blogosphere Need
First, the educational elites at elite schools need a large dose of realism injected into their Aryan blood. That begins with people like me, someone very down-to-earth and who lives truly among the community, to open up their minds, hearts and eyes to the other side of living life in Singapore.
They can't afford to have other educational elites (scholars and what-not) telling them all the happy side to life. They need people like me, the face of reality, of failure and of realism to face them squarely in the face and level with them.
In fact if I had my way, the top scholars do not begin life at the top. They begin right at the bottom. Like He-Ape's son and all his family members, without any special access or privileges.
Educationists - Ha Ha Ha!
The bitches I met at schools are the combative dominatrixes who play favouritism and are dead set against any who dares to oppose them - that means their charges. When speaking with them, they are so filled with venom and hate, it makes me wonder if these are grown-ups or kids who has lost at a chatek game. Holy Cow Shit!
The disparaging and unkind remarks they pass are enough to poison any wilting rose growing by the roadside.
Muiz - You Wimp!
As for Muiz, yes, it is a different story altogether. I am relating to him on a personal level. I have my very good reasons to hate him. He hasn't proven to be a trustworthy person. I couldn't believe the way he lies to his mother and how he sneaks me into his house in the middle of the night when his parents are at work and his brothers are asleep.
He has snuck out of his house and had sex with men in their cars late in the night! And in various places! And he likes rough sex! The wrestling matches and the sado-macho kind! Most of all, he can't commit to a relationship, he can't settle down with someone and have a relationship!
This is a 17 year old and it scares the hell outta me! I would never have the guts to do this at that age! Looking at him rigged out in his religious garb, you couldn't have told! It doesn't matter if someone is a plain Joe, an ugly toad or a gorgeous hunk! Anyone can be like Muiz and all his ilk!
He was actually hanging out with "Khal & Co" at various McDonald outlets to "study" while he was lying to me that he was conducting study sessions at the libraries with his madrasah mates. And he practises his faith piously! If I were him, I would have renounced my religion straight away as I do now and be an agnostic or atheist! No need to pretend to keep up appearances when I know I can't!
There are more Muiz out there than we think!
Political Drama, Staging And Acting
Politicians aren't so different from actors or actresses. They look really good on print and in broadcast. Charismatic demagogues making great speeches of fantasy. Staging political dramas and theatrics to pull in votes and win elections. The scums of the earth.
Do Politicians Have Our Interests At Heart?
Your guess is as good a hazard as mine. I hope they do. Because despite all the glittery gloss of our city-state splendour, I have witnessed many elderly poor begging and scavenging for food or clothes or household items at waste-disposal bins.
All the money and labour spent on maintaining buildings of grandeur! Palatial public buildings!Deciduous trees that do not provide sustenance! A bloated, fat, pompous and useless public machinery earning nothing but sucking up blood money from the masses! Not even doing its proper job in some instances! Unmotivated leeches earning fat pay packets for nothing at the top echleons! Lame excuses of attending endless ghost meetings to shirk responsibilities! Cheap foreign labor that takes away jobs from the local unskilled! "Talents" who aren't really talents but stooges more likely! Or a political trump card against some paranoid imagined adversarial foreign invasion!
Intrusion into personal privacy and space! Not regulating when it should! Regulating when it shouldn't especially if it has no good reasons or rationale. Guilty untill proven innocent. Complete idiocy and bungling! Third World mentality! A nation built on money!
You have my utter contempt!
Hey Tim! I Can Nag Too
Well, the furniture I am provided ain't exactly first-class. Wardrobes and doors with hinges undone. Yellowed dirty insides. A metal rack good for store-room usage instead of in the bedroom. Stained bed sheets that make my skin itch. A broken rattan chair that makes me all achy and stiff sitting on it. And all that unexplained hair that I dredge into my room everyday. It must come from somewhere.
Well I actually planned for a bicycling trip with Muiz but changed my mind to a walk in the parks instead. But as it had been raining the last couple of days, I asked for a wet-weather plan and Muiz suggested visiting Vivo. So please, Muiz, you suggested Vivo and don't expect me not to window shop here, taking up precious time that keeps you from the appointment you planned the same day with "Khal & Co" ( I told you this way beforehand and if Khal & Co text you that same day, you would have respectfully declined as I have told you I do not wish to meet you on a rush-rush basis)
I think my underwear have been with me since the early 90s and I had not had a change since . So too my socks and neckties. I did buy some stuff in 1998 and in between a few items here and there and only this year 2006 did I throw out my old wardrobe which has accumulated since my NSF days.
I also started travelling further afield, other than the hinterland, in the year 2000 when I was 35 years old. I know of younger people who have had travelled almost the whole world and on a few trips to the same countries at that!
Public Service Thievery That Shows A Lack Of Creovation!
I am beginning to think that educators are no better than thieves. They ask for program outlines and we never get to conduct the programs. Very likely they do it themselves. That speaks volumes of their creovation!
I had teachers who wanted me to leave behind my demo CDs or they ask me to show them my game cards, things I refuse to comply. Educators or thieves?
Photogenic Fiefdom Right Here In Singapore
Yeah, He-Ape and his wife love holding the annual ceremony cum meetings. It is like a yearly show-off of their little serfdom and fiefdom they command. Everybody watches on as they usually give away long-service awards (to their kins and henchmen/women more likely) as photographic bulbs flash and He-Ape's wife is all smiles for the camera!
It is also that time of the year when He-Ape brags about his "school's" achievements like the attendees he has from renowned schools (most likely the bottom heap of the academic pile or some people he bought over with bribes like money or sweets)
A Nation of Compassion And Love - Pui - I Wanna Spit In Your Face And Gonads
I remember placing an advert in a major newspaper here and I was late in paying up. I was hounded, first by the newspaper, then its lawyers. The amount was just tens of dollars. In its legalistically-fraught letter of demand, it stated that it would not give up till all had been settled.
The same went with the housing authority. I had promptly paid up my mortgage in all the years since 1995 up untill 2004 and thereabouts. Can you imagine it doesn't pay heed to those years I had been dutifully paying my dues but chose to focus instead on the last one or two years when I was in financial straits!
Speaking with the officers was no consolation (pompous bureaucrats - a bitch and wimp no less) and over the counter, the clerk made it a point to deduct whatever little I had in my CPF to settle my dues.
Pui To One And All I Met In The Course Of My Work And More
This include ex-employers, ex-classmates, school-mates, educators and the whole lot. I wanna see you burn in HELL! And you will if Jesus Christ does exist and religion is what you make it to be!
Isn't Anthropology A More Satisfying And Unifying Study Subject For Mankind?
I told Johannes that teaching anthropology seems a better study subject than any religious study. First, its "Out Of Africa" theory seems to have prevailed over the multi-regionalists' theory and that spells a common ancestry for mankind. This is validated by the bio-geneticists.
It is no longer phenotyping that differentiate but genotyping that unify. How can bio-anthropology be a bad study subject in the name of humanity and the milk of human goodness?
Darling Blogger Wee, You May Be Right In Some Respects
Well, I haven't really read her entire blog but from the dribs and drabs, I must say she does have a few valid points. One, if she is correctly referring to all the "old and unmotivated leeches" (does she mean civil servants here?) who seem to be sitting on their behinds and collecting a regular pay cheque every month, she isn't far wrong.
Think of all the ridiculous and senseless policies that have stayed and stood for ages without anyone putting forth rectifications. What are the mandarins doing? Masticating and flatulating?
I have sat in with officials at the Education Ministry and one with a fat paunch doesn't know what the left hand isn't doing that the right hand is. One is a blinktard who is only good at asking for track record. Mind you, she is at the top of the educational pyramid. Well to answer her question, does a timber merchant know a thing at all about a design school or even education? How come he gets to set up a "school"?
I will repeat this once more. Providing education isn't like selling "yong-tau-foo". Anyone can sell the latter, usually the tasteless variety we get to eat nowadays. Keep education out of the "commercial" sphere. There must be that larger social good and noble objective to education other than profits.
What The Bloggers Wees Of Blogosphere Need
First, the educational elites at elite schools need a large dose of realism injected into their Aryan blood. That begins with people like me, someone very down-to-earth and who lives truly among the community, to open up their minds, hearts and eyes to the other side of living life in Singapore.
They can't afford to have other educational elites (scholars and what-not) telling them all the happy side to life. They need people like me, the face of reality, of failure and of realism to face them squarely in the face and level with them.
In fact if I had my way, the top scholars do not begin life at the top. They begin right at the bottom. Like He-Ape's son and all his family members, without any special access or privileges.
Educationists - Ha Ha Ha!
The bitches I met at schools are the combative dominatrixes who play favouritism and are dead set against any who dares to oppose them - that means their charges. When speaking with them, they are so filled with venom and hate, it makes me wonder if these are grown-ups or kids who has lost at a chatek game. Holy Cow Shit!
The disparaging and unkind remarks they pass are enough to poison any wilting rose growing by the roadside.
Muiz - You Wimp!
As for Muiz, yes, it is a different story altogether. I am relating to him on a personal level. I have my very good reasons to hate him. He hasn't proven to be a trustworthy person. I couldn't believe the way he lies to his mother and how he sneaks me into his house in the middle of the night when his parents are at work and his brothers are asleep.
He has snuck out of his house and had sex with men in their cars late in the night! And in various places! And he likes rough sex! The wrestling matches and the sado-macho kind! Most of all, he can't commit to a relationship, he can't settle down with someone and have a relationship!
This is a 17 year old and it scares the hell outta me! I would never have the guts to do this at that age! Looking at him rigged out in his religious garb, you couldn't have told! It doesn't matter if someone is a plain Joe, an ugly toad or a gorgeous hunk! Anyone can be like Muiz and all his ilk!
He was actually hanging out with "Khal & Co" at various McDonald outlets to "study" while he was lying to me that he was conducting study sessions at the libraries with his madrasah mates. And he practises his faith piously! If I were him, I would have renounced my religion straight away as I do now and be an agnostic or atheist! No need to pretend to keep up appearances when I know I can't!
There are more Muiz out there than we think!
Political Drama, Staging And Acting
Politicians aren't so different from actors or actresses. They look really good on print and in broadcast. Charismatic demagogues making great speeches of fantasy. Staging political dramas and theatrics to pull in votes and win elections. The scums of the earth.
Do Politicians Have Our Interests At Heart?
Your guess is as good a hazard as mine. I hope they do. Because despite all the glittery gloss of our city-state splendour, I have witnessed many elderly poor begging and scavenging for food or clothes or household items at waste-disposal bins.
All the money and labour spent on maintaining buildings of grandeur! Palatial public buildings!Deciduous trees that do not provide sustenance! A bloated, fat, pompous and useless public machinery earning nothing but sucking up blood money from the masses! Not even doing its proper job in some instances! Unmotivated leeches earning fat pay packets for nothing at the top echleons! Lame excuses of attending endless ghost meetings to shirk responsibilities! Cheap foreign labor that takes away jobs from the local unskilled! "Talents" who aren't really talents but stooges more likely! Or a political trump card against some paranoid imagined adversarial foreign invasion!
Intrusion into personal privacy and space! Not regulating when it should! Regulating when it shouldn't especially if it has no good reasons or rationale. Guilty untill proven innocent. Complete idiocy and bungling! Third World mentality! A nation built on money!
You have my utter contempt!
Hey Tim! I Can Nag Too
Well, the furniture I am provided ain't exactly first-class. Wardrobes and doors with hinges undone. Yellowed dirty insides. A metal rack good for store-room usage instead of in the bedroom. Stained bed sheets that make my skin itch. A broken rattan chair that makes me all achy and stiff sitting on it. And all that unexplained hair that I dredge into my room everyday. It must come from somewhere.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
You Die, Muiz!
Sunday chores
Hoovering up all the hair and gunk on the floor and mopping it up. Not least, because my room is just right next to the main entrance, all kinds of dirt, dust and grime get swept up to my doorstep. The fan needs to be wiped off its dirt too. Quite a choreful on a Sunday morning.
Vivo City
Its frontage is a slab of chocolate brown but its side has a steely nice wave-design which overlooks the Keppel Harbour and part of the South China sea enclosed in a bay, with the cruise-ship STAR VIRGO and the Chinese restaurant junkship anchored off its harbour. Quite a view.
Shops, shops and more shops. What about a community library here? Or a Borders or Kino bookstore?
Muiz - You Will Regret This
Well he seems pretty cheeky and playful these days. Hanging out with the "gays" from SGBOY who in my opinion do not provide good influence or company especially for "study group sessions". He is gonna regret this BIG TIME, later but not sooner.
And I know for some time, he hasn't been telling me the whole truth. If he thinks that "Ang Mohs" make good companions, he is gonna be in for a rude shock. I think most are in for the fun and going by marriage statistics in the hetero community, many end in divorces with naive locals having to return home and in tatters, some physically and emotionally abused.
Bananas, Oreos And Apples
The men's clubs have significant foreign holdings and I am not sure if this tells us the kinda filth the white men are dumping on our shores which we, Asians, have all but lapped up with great earnest.
That includes their governance, education and culture. Can Asians think? I am afraid the answer is an emphatic "No".
Antiquated Job Application System
It makes one wonder if the administrator really knows what he/she is doing. Sending a CV exceeding a certain byte size cannot be passed through. This is preposterous!
You Ain't No Educationist To Me - Blimps, Bimbs and Wimps
I have scant respect for educators these days. Making my rounds and speaking with them just last year did not leave me a very good impression.
Yvonne fed me this. She had noticed "bonzai" growing in her son's secondary school. Imagine the labor and cost to prune these. Not to mention the "lake" a school has. These funds would have been better utilised for stocking the school's library or something.
Are We Really Better Off These Days
Sure, the agrarian days of old require back-breaking work, toiling in untold climes. But now, it is mental stress that is taking its toll on our health.
So what do we need? Physical exertion or therapy to work this off. Isn't this the same?
Hoovering up all the hair and gunk on the floor and mopping it up. Not least, because my room is just right next to the main entrance, all kinds of dirt, dust and grime get swept up to my doorstep. The fan needs to be wiped off its dirt too. Quite a choreful on a Sunday morning.
Vivo City
Its frontage is a slab of chocolate brown but its side has a steely nice wave-design which overlooks the Keppel Harbour and part of the South China sea enclosed in a bay, with the cruise-ship STAR VIRGO and the Chinese restaurant junkship anchored off its harbour. Quite a view.
Shops, shops and more shops. What about a community library here? Or a Borders or Kino bookstore?
Muiz - You Will Regret This
Well he seems pretty cheeky and playful these days. Hanging out with the "gays" from SGBOY who in my opinion do not provide good influence or company especially for "study group sessions". He is gonna regret this BIG TIME, later but not sooner.
And I know for some time, he hasn't been telling me the whole truth. If he thinks that "Ang Mohs" make good companions, he is gonna be in for a rude shock. I think most are in for the fun and going by marriage statistics in the hetero community, many end in divorces with naive locals having to return home and in tatters, some physically and emotionally abused.
Bananas, Oreos And Apples
The men's clubs have significant foreign holdings and I am not sure if this tells us the kinda filth the white men are dumping on our shores which we, Asians, have all but lapped up with great earnest.
That includes their governance, education and culture. Can Asians think? I am afraid the answer is an emphatic "No".
Antiquated Job Application System
It makes one wonder if the administrator really knows what he/she is doing. Sending a CV exceeding a certain byte size cannot be passed through. This is preposterous!
You Ain't No Educationist To Me - Blimps, Bimbs and Wimps
I have scant respect for educators these days. Making my rounds and speaking with them just last year did not leave me a very good impression.
Yvonne fed me this. She had noticed "bonzai" growing in her son's secondary school. Imagine the labor and cost to prune these. Not to mention the "lake" a school has. These funds would have been better utilised for stocking the school's library or something.
Are We Really Better Off These Days
Sure, the agrarian days of old require back-breaking work, toiling in untold climes. But now, it is mental stress that is taking its toll on our health.
So what do we need? Physical exertion or therapy to work this off. Isn't this the same?
Saturday, October 28, 2006
I Slept So Soundly Last Night I Thought I Was In Heaven
The End Of Muiz
A fiery end, that was what it was to me. We arranged to meet at Vivo City and it was just that one special day after a couple of weeks of not meeting. Half the time he was texting on his mobile to his other "friends" and had an appointment with "Khal & Co" at 5pm, knowing full well we were having this day together.
So I gave him a choice of leaving for his appointment and he did, on my second urging, without even glancing back a second. I text him and told him it was best we broke up.
This is my second and last time I will patch up with him. I think he is a two-timing liar.
Look, I have survived so many break-ups before. This is no exception. I will never look back on a failed and ended relationship (if it was ever one in the first place).
Mindless And Self-Absorbed Singaporeans - A Nation Of Cataleptics
A poor old man fell the other day as he tripped over the kerb. Most didn't notice it , two onlookers smiled at him and none went to his aid. I was too far away from him to be able to render any immediate help. In any case, he promptly got up, brushed himself off and shuffled on. This must be the typical Singaporean's mantra of "Move On" (a heartless and brutal one which does not include emotional healing or comfort)
This reminded me of a similar incident when a man slipped and fell at a food court in Punggol. He fell right next to where a yound lady sat. She continued eating without nary a twitch.
This also brought to mind countless others I have encountered, usually the elderly, who beg on the streets, one even near the Sultan Mosque or who just do not seem to be in very good financial shape judging by the way they dress and the way they look and their overall physical condition.
The State Of A Typical Singaporean Family
I can speak on better terms with Auntie, certainly much better than with Tim. Tim is a hairdresser (which means he is a wimp of sorts) and likes nagging. He nags about the toilet bowl being soiled (by Hiro), mistaking me for doing it.
Well, I notice my bedroom always has hair on the floor. His ink-blue hair dye also drips all over the cistern and its bottle. And his toothpaste drips (or is it Hiro's), God, has crusted on the sink.
Auntie speaks softly to me and reasons quite well save for her occasional "quirks". However in the early morning after coming home , she would quarrel with some people over the telephone in her bedroom.
I have never seen Tim speaking with his Mom. I guess this is the state of family nowadays.
What Role Can Religion Play
Speaking with Johannes, we agree that religion has a role to play in modern society. That of uniting not dividing people of faiths. For one, it cannot ostracise and discriminate against groups of people like gays. Monogamous gay marriages, with adopted children even, cannot be wrong.
It should focus on its role of teaching morals , like how abortion is wrong , ridding society of fleshpots and emphasizing the sanctity of a monogamous relationship. And what about gambling?
Nihilism
There is nothing much to believe in anymore. Be it religion or science or education or family. We have been so "economised" that "the economy" controls every part of us, the human soul, heart, mind and body.
I suggest that it is time we abolish Man, intoto, from the surface of the earth. If we don't, GOD will (if there is one). It is that BAD.
Blogger Wee Versus Wee
I fear for Singapore if we have leaders who espouse the kinda views his daughter does (he stood by her, didn't he?). Precisely because he is in that leadership role, he should be undertaking the task of creating a more egalatarian society, for the public and community good.
Of course he can't control what his daughter says but WHOA! Isn't this kinda scary we have such "representatives" "representing our interests" in a "liberal" democracy? Or is it plutocracy?
My Last Stand
I am not marrying, even if I have to die on the streets. I am not going political begging either. I am gonna land a job the usual way. A teaching job. I wanna live my life on my own terms. My own place, my beau (not blimps, bimbs nor wimps) and my son (optional).
Political Staging And Lip-Service
Don't forget how this could be more pervasive than we think it is. The media is inundated with it. Sometimes it makes one wonder if politicians are even governing? Or are the technocrats the ones?
A fiery end, that was what it was to me. We arranged to meet at Vivo City and it was just that one special day after a couple of weeks of not meeting. Half the time he was texting on his mobile to his other "friends" and had an appointment with "Khal & Co" at 5pm, knowing full well we were having this day together.
So I gave him a choice of leaving for his appointment and he did, on my second urging, without even glancing back a second. I text him and told him it was best we broke up.
This is my second and last time I will patch up with him. I think he is a two-timing liar.
Look, I have survived so many break-ups before. This is no exception. I will never look back on a failed and ended relationship (if it was ever one in the first place).
Mindless And Self-Absorbed Singaporeans - A Nation Of Cataleptics
A poor old man fell the other day as he tripped over the kerb. Most didn't notice it , two onlookers smiled at him and none went to his aid. I was too far away from him to be able to render any immediate help. In any case, he promptly got up, brushed himself off and shuffled on. This must be the typical Singaporean's mantra of "Move On" (a heartless and brutal one which does not include emotional healing or comfort)
This reminded me of a similar incident when a man slipped and fell at a food court in Punggol. He fell right next to where a yound lady sat. She continued eating without nary a twitch.
This also brought to mind countless others I have encountered, usually the elderly, who beg on the streets, one even near the Sultan Mosque or who just do not seem to be in very good financial shape judging by the way they dress and the way they look and their overall physical condition.
The State Of A Typical Singaporean Family
I can speak on better terms with Auntie, certainly much better than with Tim. Tim is a hairdresser (which means he is a wimp of sorts) and likes nagging. He nags about the toilet bowl being soiled (by Hiro), mistaking me for doing it.
Well, I notice my bedroom always has hair on the floor. His ink-blue hair dye also drips all over the cistern and its bottle. And his toothpaste drips (or is it Hiro's), God, has crusted on the sink.
Auntie speaks softly to me and reasons quite well save for her occasional "quirks". However in the early morning after coming home , she would quarrel with some people over the telephone in her bedroom.
I have never seen Tim speaking with his Mom. I guess this is the state of family nowadays.
What Role Can Religion Play
Speaking with Johannes, we agree that religion has a role to play in modern society. That of uniting not dividing people of faiths. For one, it cannot ostracise and discriminate against groups of people like gays. Monogamous gay marriages, with adopted children even, cannot be wrong.
It should focus on its role of teaching morals , like how abortion is wrong , ridding society of fleshpots and emphasizing the sanctity of a monogamous relationship. And what about gambling?
Nihilism
There is nothing much to believe in anymore. Be it religion or science or education or family. We have been so "economised" that "the economy" controls every part of us, the human soul, heart, mind and body.
I suggest that it is time we abolish Man, intoto, from the surface of the earth. If we don't, GOD will (if there is one). It is that BAD.
Blogger Wee Versus Wee
I fear for Singapore if we have leaders who espouse the kinda views his daughter does (he stood by her, didn't he?). Precisely because he is in that leadership role, he should be undertaking the task of creating a more egalatarian society, for the public and community good.
Of course he can't control what his daughter says but WHOA! Isn't this kinda scary we have such "representatives" "representing our interests" in a "liberal" democracy? Or is it plutocracy?
My Last Stand
I am not marrying, even if I have to die on the streets. I am not going political begging either. I am gonna land a job the usual way. A teaching job. I wanna live my life on my own terms. My own place, my beau (not blimps, bimbs nor wimps) and my son (optional).
Political Staging And Lip-Service
Don't forget how this could be more pervasive than we think it is. The media is inundated with it. Sometimes it makes one wonder if politicians are even governing? Or are the technocrats the ones?
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Eidul-Fitr
Dream, dream, dream
These form part of the lyrics of a popular song in days gone by. I was hanging around Kampong Glam the other day which was ablaze with a bazaar and the conserved shophouses were retailing Eidul-Fitr bajus, what with Ramadan going on and Syawal just round the corner.
In my opinion, this part of town should be the true seat of Malay culture and heritage. There are the Istana grounds and a cemetery. Strangely after I went home that night and the following night, I dreamt three dreams, someting which I have not done for a long time.
I couldn't help thinking it had something to do with the kubor. People who died and whose spirits gave me a glimpse of their past lives.
Double Standards
Government schools should be the instituitions to impart educational knowledge. Not commercial schools like tuition centres. We cannot place the blame on "kiasu" parents. It was precisely because PSS, MOE was set up that these centres sprouted.
MOE is practising double standards when it does special education for the intellectually gifted, like the IP and Gifted programs, but not special education for the intellectually slower developers and disabled.
What Do We Have Here? More Man-made Stupidity!
Singaporeans are a very evasive lot when they communicate. They never tell you something straight from the heart. They tell you one thing when they actually harbour another thought. They also seem to be very untrustworthy who have hidden agendas.
They are all very nice to you when they need or want something. So they court the higher-ups in power. They repeat the exact same thing the media or government officials say. No originality of thought and wrong thoughts even.
A simple task is always politicised. People are so full of intrigue here. Fear, reticence and whatnot. How stupid can it get?
Have you noticed how job application forms even ask you details of criminal connvictions, your health and financial status and so on. Well, I am not sure if they are entitled to ask this but I thought these are very personal details. So what's with the "Yellow Ribbon" project? Wasn't that supposed to give our wrong-doers a second chance?
I spoke with Yvonne today and we agreed how stupid every single job nowadays needs a degree. Even simple administrative work. What ever happened to learning on the job for practical experience and doing your own self-learning for the theoretical aspects?
Daniel - The English Bull Mastiff
Look who is here! Daniel either owns, co-owns or works at a man's club. I can't imagine his bulldoggish, loud, arrogant, fat, bearish ass can serve up good service attitude. But it seems he does. He even calls a customer "handsome", so I was told which means he is a double-faced hypocrite.
I can still remember the day we had our argument and a tiny puny arse like him, living in a 5-room HDB flat in Punggol, could tell the police officers he may wanna consult his lawyers over the matter.
He had told me before how when he lived in Bedok, he had just as many tenants. He had also broken with his bf. I can imagine. A parsimonious, calculative and low-down lifeform like him can never hope to steal his beau's heart! Anyone would be turned off.
Singapore - The Encyclopaedia
Now that I have gone through most of its 2500 entries, I finaly realised what is missing! There should be entries on food like chwee kueh or ang ku kueh, these being kinda traditional snacks we eat. More entries on eponymous roads and other than National Day award recipients, laypeople living ordinary lives could be featured for precisely the kinda work they do - mundane but all the same, important work that makes a whole place tick.
These form part of the lyrics of a popular song in days gone by. I was hanging around Kampong Glam the other day which was ablaze with a bazaar and the conserved shophouses were retailing Eidul-Fitr bajus, what with Ramadan going on and Syawal just round the corner.
In my opinion, this part of town should be the true seat of Malay culture and heritage. There are the Istana grounds and a cemetery. Strangely after I went home that night and the following night, I dreamt three dreams, someting which I have not done for a long time.
I couldn't help thinking it had something to do with the kubor. People who died and whose spirits gave me a glimpse of their past lives.
Double Standards
Government schools should be the instituitions to impart educational knowledge. Not commercial schools like tuition centres. We cannot place the blame on "kiasu" parents. It was precisely because PSS, MOE was set up that these centres sprouted.
MOE is practising double standards when it does special education for the intellectually gifted, like the IP and Gifted programs, but not special education for the intellectually slower developers and disabled.
What Do We Have Here? More Man-made Stupidity!
Singaporeans are a very evasive lot when they communicate. They never tell you something straight from the heart. They tell you one thing when they actually harbour another thought. They also seem to be very untrustworthy who have hidden agendas.
They are all very nice to you when they need or want something. So they court the higher-ups in power. They repeat the exact same thing the media or government officials say. No originality of thought and wrong thoughts even.
A simple task is always politicised. People are so full of intrigue here. Fear, reticence and whatnot. How stupid can it get?
Have you noticed how job application forms even ask you details of criminal connvictions, your health and financial status and so on. Well, I am not sure if they are entitled to ask this but I thought these are very personal details. So what's with the "Yellow Ribbon" project? Wasn't that supposed to give our wrong-doers a second chance?
I spoke with Yvonne today and we agreed how stupid every single job nowadays needs a degree. Even simple administrative work. What ever happened to learning on the job for practical experience and doing your own self-learning for the theoretical aspects?
Daniel - The English Bull Mastiff
Look who is here! Daniel either owns, co-owns or works at a man's club. I can't imagine his bulldoggish, loud, arrogant, fat, bearish ass can serve up good service attitude. But it seems he does. He even calls a customer "handsome", so I was told which means he is a double-faced hypocrite.
I can still remember the day we had our argument and a tiny puny arse like him, living in a 5-room HDB flat in Punggol, could tell the police officers he may wanna consult his lawyers over the matter.
He had told me before how when he lived in Bedok, he had just as many tenants. He had also broken with his bf. I can imagine. A parsimonious, calculative and low-down lifeform like him can never hope to steal his beau's heart! Anyone would be turned off.
Singapore - The Encyclopaedia
Now that I have gone through most of its 2500 entries, I finaly realised what is missing! There should be entries on food like chwee kueh or ang ku kueh, these being kinda traditional snacks we eat. More entries on eponymous roads and other than National Day award recipients, laypeople living ordinary lives could be featured for precisely the kinda work they do - mundane but all the same, important work that makes a whole place tick.
Friday, October 20, 2006
At Complete Ease
Peace, peace
I have never found myself more at peace and at ease the whole of last week once I stopped reading the papers, reading books and blogging . Because all these pursuits are really intense, synaptic and personal.
It was like back to my good old school days when I could be holed up for hours poring over "The Hardy Boys", "The Famous Five" and the "Secret Seven".
I am getting out more and I am enjoying it very much.
You poor sexless being you! You must as well be neutered!
When I spoke with Johannes, I couldn't help think that at last I have someone on my side, someone who isn't with the establishment, speak the things they speak and think the way they think. But he did clear up one thing. Working with an American oil company, his firm is into oil exploration sites in Iraq.
We chatted about the state of affairs here in Singapore. How inconsistent, a double standard even, and how confusing policies are. Reading "Singapore: The Encyclopaedia", a section on homosexuality states how being homosexual isn't a crime but practising it is. What do you expect gays to do? Sit back and watch his sex life go by? Is he a sexless being?
This encyclopaedia is comprehensive and informative, a Who's Who in Singapore and which lists just as many events and terms that are generic to Singapore. Like tuition for one. But far too many are members of the establishment and one can't help get the feeling that something is missing (or amiss).
Educational Review (Part 2)
The whole system should be overhauled from kindergaten to university. The curriculum should be drawn up to provide for a systematic step-by-step progression from one level to the next without repetition or replication.
Subjects should be made modular. This means topical. For example, Physics should be divided into modules like Heat or Optics with further sub-division into its various components. Students who fail should not be made to repeat a whole year but only the modules he did not pass.
It should be a 3 year secondary school followed by a 3 year pre-university. This will be more spread out and less crammed.
It should be fun learning at the lower levels while progressively more research-based and independent learning.
Students should not only be taught topics in isolation or fragmentation but be shown how integrative and connected each is to a big overall concept and unifier. A theory of a cohesive everything if you will.
Life stories of how a concept began which usually relates to the person who founded it helps students trace the origins and develpment of an idea. They begin to understand the topic better.
Books wich can narrate a concept like a story explains it better. Like many of the popular culture books on the market now.
Singapore Politics
I met this cabby who brought me to Simei one late morning. He used to run a business but he has ceased as his supplier in China and Thailand have often duped him by supplying degraded steel products he imports for a steel factory here.
We got round to talking how we have lost heavily in Suzhou and he told me of a standing joke which the name Suzou implies. "Su" means lose while "zhou" means city. We los big time in this Chinese city.
Some politicians are just that - politicians. They are not economists nor entrepreneurs nor anything. Sometimes when we read a speech, it seems that the speech the politican makes refers to himself. Didn't we rid ourselves of colonialism only to duplicate their exact same failings?
What's more having ex-civil servants dabbling in businesses. Do they make good entrepreneurs? Well if everything goes well, good and fine. If not, fingers start pointing.
I have never found myself more at peace and at ease the whole of last week once I stopped reading the papers, reading books and blogging . Because all these pursuits are really intense, synaptic and personal.
It was like back to my good old school days when I could be holed up for hours poring over "The Hardy Boys", "The Famous Five" and the "Secret Seven".
I am getting out more and I am enjoying it very much.
You poor sexless being you! You must as well be neutered!
When I spoke with Johannes, I couldn't help think that at last I have someone on my side, someone who isn't with the establishment, speak the things they speak and think the way they think. But he did clear up one thing. Working with an American oil company, his firm is into oil exploration sites in Iraq.
We chatted about the state of affairs here in Singapore. How inconsistent, a double standard even, and how confusing policies are. Reading "Singapore: The Encyclopaedia", a section on homosexuality states how being homosexual isn't a crime but practising it is. What do you expect gays to do? Sit back and watch his sex life go by? Is he a sexless being?
This encyclopaedia is comprehensive and informative, a Who's Who in Singapore and which lists just as many events and terms that are generic to Singapore. Like tuition for one. But far too many are members of the establishment and one can't help get the feeling that something is missing (or amiss).
Educational Review (Part 2)
The whole system should be overhauled from kindergaten to university. The curriculum should be drawn up to provide for a systematic step-by-step progression from one level to the next without repetition or replication.
Subjects should be made modular. This means topical. For example, Physics should be divided into modules like Heat or Optics with further sub-division into its various components. Students who fail should not be made to repeat a whole year but only the modules he did not pass.
It should be a 3 year secondary school followed by a 3 year pre-university. This will be more spread out and less crammed.
It should be fun learning at the lower levels while progressively more research-based and independent learning.
Students should not only be taught topics in isolation or fragmentation but be shown how integrative and connected each is to a big overall concept and unifier. A theory of a cohesive everything if you will.
Life stories of how a concept began which usually relates to the person who founded it helps students trace the origins and develpment of an idea. They begin to understand the topic better.
Books wich can narrate a concept like a story explains it better. Like many of the popular culture books on the market now.
Singapore Politics
I met this cabby who brought me to Simei one late morning. He used to run a business but he has ceased as his supplier in China and Thailand have often duped him by supplying degraded steel products he imports for a steel factory here.
We got round to talking how we have lost heavily in Suzhou and he told me of a standing joke which the name Suzou implies. "Su" means lose while "zhou" means city. We los big time in this Chinese city.
Some politicians are just that - politicians. They are not economists nor entrepreneurs nor anything. Sometimes when we read a speech, it seems that the speech the politican makes refers to himself. Didn't we rid ourselves of colonialism only to duplicate their exact same failings?
What's more having ex-civil servants dabbling in businesses. Do they make good entrepreneurs? Well if everything goes well, good and fine. If not, fingers start pointing.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Hypocritical Oath - An Allegiance Of Vows
Wilde's Indiscretion
After reading Wilde's anthology of plays and prose, one gets an inside glimpse of the Victorian Age which at once is prim and proper superficially but thoroughly decadent at its core. Wilde exposes this hypocrisy through his subversive satirical plays.
It is indeed to Wilde's injustice that he should be prosecuted and jailed for his homosexual crime (despite a willing consent on the part of both parties who were married anyway at some point in their lives) as much as raise an eyebrow in today's state-sanctioned gay-marriage friendly England.
This shows how times have evolved and I can't help but relate this to what we are seeing here. The same state of denial and hypocrisy which the current literature and social norms do not support.
I can't agree more with Wilde on many of his observations.
After reading Wilde's anthology of plays and prose, one gets an inside glimpse of the Victorian Age which at once is prim and proper superficially but thoroughly decadent at its core. Wilde exposes this hypocrisy through his subversive satirical plays.
It is indeed to Wilde's injustice that he should be prosecuted and jailed for his homosexual crime (despite a willing consent on the part of both parties who were married anyway at some point in their lives) as much as raise an eyebrow in today's state-sanctioned gay-marriage friendly England.
This shows how times have evolved and I can't help but relate this to what we are seeing here. The same state of denial and hypocrisy which the current literature and social norms do not support.
I can't agree more with Wilde on many of his observations.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Move Over - Make Way For "Progress"
Wilde's Wry Wit
I shall leave you with this: "To be good is to be in harmony with oneself. Discord is when one is forced to be in harmony with others."
I cannot agree better after living with so many weirdoes the past couple of months and I am continuing to live with weirdoes right up till today.
Possibly My Last Blog
I think I have had about enough of blogging my thoughts here. I can't be forever here, watching the world and Singapore pass me by. I, like the rest of the emigrants, who have found this place wanting in many respects, will have to move on....hopefully to greener pastures.
All I can say to the people here is this: You make this place so shall you live and die by it too - for better or worse, for the moment or forever.
My Last Word On The Foreign Talent Debate
I have to state again, very categorically, that I do not begrudge any foreign talent on our shores his/her rightful place. But let us be very sure it is indeed a "talent".
Speaking for myself, if I emigrate (and this thought has besotted me many times recently) and if the lifestyle, culture and everything afford me the things I wanna pursue and I am madly enough in love with it, I see no reason why I shouldn't be embracing citizenship with my heart and soul. Why would I look over my shoulder unless of course the biblical "do not look back warning ala the destruction of Sodom and Gnorrhea" didn't sink into my head. Which can't say very much about me, can it? Didn't I turn into a pillar of salt after that?
This is my commitment to the country. Period. I can't speak the same for "dual/triple citizenries" or "permanent residents" though.
Just Own Up And Do The Right Thing, MOE
First you read about it in my earlier blogs. PSS, MOE registers commercial schools which confers some kinda authenticity and legitimacy to these schools while CASETRUST (Consumers Association of Singapore) takes over the accreditation, which in effect means that "private" education has been subordinated to a "consumerism" role. Imagine, the larger social good and objective of a holistic, meaningful education must surely be abrogated when Adam Smith's capitalism must surely be on entrepreneurs' minds. And who are we entrusting education to in the "commercial" realm? Ex-CEOs or ex-production floor workers?
If we were to have a commercial school system that shadows the mainstream one, wouldn't it make sense to abolish the former and incorporate its merits into the latter. Parents can be told that the money they spent on commercial schools can now be better spent on public schools viz enrichment programs or some complementary programs of sort. Better still, raise the fees a little and make the commercial schools into one with the public schools.
Now, special education schools (which is the education of the intellectually disabled and not education of the intellectually gifted as it is also commonly known in other parts of the world ) is canvassing for it to be under the ambit of MOE which all the time it has been languishing under the wings of NCSS .
MOE only does a perfunctory educational audit but NCSS does a thorough financial audit with a net effect that special education schools are run like charity organisations with no proper educational structure or curriculum. Not to speak of ever dreaming to assimiliate with mainstream schools, the latter being important for ultimate societal integration especially for mildly intellectual dysfunctional cases.
If the two scenarios are not redolent of the same staid air of shirking one's educational responsibility, public and social good, rats can't stink any more than civet cats do.
James Gomez' "Self Censorship And Singapore's Shame"
James Gomez does a superbly well-surveyed and precise critique of the political scene here.
Yes indeed it is to Singapore's shame if we can't express our views or even hold a different opinion from any incumbent's . I can't blame people like James Gomez or Steve Chia who deem the opposition's case as a lost cause in politically apathetic Singapore. James has left Singapore for Sweden where he works and Steve has, after his disappointing showing in the GE results, decided to quit politics.
James has not only put in perspective how the political climate has evolved but he has also given very concrete examples of the self-pertuating mechanism that advantages the dominant political party .
Mechanisms like a lethal cocktail of a climate of fear, economics and ethnicity. In his last chapter, he has even set out an agenda for action, which led him to run for the May 2006 General Elections on Worker's Party ticket.
It Is High Time For An OmbudsMan
James speaks my mind exactly when he suggested this. But I am thinking of the people, not politically affiliated, but who are impacted by socio-economic policies. Economic policies which seem to preclude some non-partisans who just simply wanna get on with setting up a small business for example. When one examines the corporate structure here, one finds no small number of present or past politicial affiliates on its boards which seems to suggest that one has to be party-partisan to get anywhere here in Singapore.
The Ombudsman must be someone non-partisan, someone who is outside the establishment and who can lend an authentic voice to all who has been wronged by the system in one way or another. Anyone, from individual citizens to corporations, who has a legitimate concern or complaint against the existing regime. A final "court of appeal" when all community or trade association (which incidentally are filled with the rank and file of the dominant party) channels have been exhausted.
Aid could range from helping someone to apply for a licence or inquiring into the circumstances why a certain licence is rejected or simply helping someone exercise his individual right.
Above all, this ombudsman must be seen to be neutral and to be a true people's arbiter for social and economic rights, independent of any party politics or politics.
How Politics Get Ugly And The Citizenry Can Only But Revolt
For many of us, we just wanna get on with the day to day business of making a living and doing what we wanna do. Imagine, someone, like myself, who is neutral to politics in many ways (we may be politically aware and only choose to exercise our rights at the ballot box), coming face to face with political obstacles hurled our way that deprives us of our rice bowl (the bureaucracy after all is seen as a state controlled organ) that can only enrage the citizenry to revolt against the political regime.
Not to mention all the state-imposed controls ranging from certification to licensing. If these were for the better good, we cannot but follow but they were wrongly and absurdly applied with no good reason or rhyme in my instance. How can PSS, MOE insists on a URA search when a premise is HDB-owned or SLA-owned ?
If the certification imposed were of a gold standard, we would also oblige. But in many of my encounters, they were sub-standard and even ludicrous. Theoretical airy-fairy.
I am not embarking on a political route (or to go political begging and have political heavyweights tipping the political scale in my favour) just so to go on my economic or social freeway, which is my constitutional right, to make a living for myself in the first place.
It is already DAMN STUPID that our MICE people actually has a hand in encouraging entrepreneurs fritter their financial resources in the way of organising education fairs overseas to recruit international students when this should have been the prerogative of the recruiters themselves.
Otherwise why are they paid the hefty commissions? If the entire association of schools boycott this practice, can they refuse to admit these students to the commercial schools for a prolonged time?
We are spoiling the whole damn market. It is like one oil producer impinging on a cartel's pre-agreed fixed price which can only lead to a price war of sorts, to the detriment of all the producers' bottom lines.
Can our policy makers get this into their thick heads? Or can't they?
I shall leave you with this: "To be good is to be in harmony with oneself. Discord is when one is forced to be in harmony with others."
I cannot agree better after living with so many weirdoes the past couple of months and I am continuing to live with weirdoes right up till today.
Possibly My Last Blog
I think I have had about enough of blogging my thoughts here. I can't be forever here, watching the world and Singapore pass me by. I, like the rest of the emigrants, who have found this place wanting in many respects, will have to move on....hopefully to greener pastures.
All I can say to the people here is this: You make this place so shall you live and die by it too - for better or worse, for the moment or forever.
My Last Word On The Foreign Talent Debate
I have to state again, very categorically, that I do not begrudge any foreign talent on our shores his/her rightful place. But let us be very sure it is indeed a "talent".
Speaking for myself, if I emigrate (and this thought has besotted me many times recently) and if the lifestyle, culture and everything afford me the things I wanna pursue and I am madly enough in love with it, I see no reason why I shouldn't be embracing citizenship with my heart and soul. Why would I look over my shoulder unless of course the biblical "do not look back warning ala the destruction of Sodom and Gnorrhea" didn't sink into my head. Which can't say very much about me, can it? Didn't I turn into a pillar of salt after that?
This is my commitment to the country. Period. I can't speak the same for "dual/triple citizenries" or "permanent residents" though.
Just Own Up And Do The Right Thing, MOE
First you read about it in my earlier blogs. PSS, MOE registers commercial schools which confers some kinda authenticity and legitimacy to these schools while CASETRUST (Consumers Association of Singapore) takes over the accreditation, which in effect means that "private" education has been subordinated to a "consumerism" role. Imagine, the larger social good and objective of a holistic, meaningful education must surely be abrogated when Adam Smith's capitalism must surely be on entrepreneurs' minds. And who are we entrusting education to in the "commercial" realm? Ex-CEOs or ex-production floor workers?
If we were to have a commercial school system that shadows the mainstream one, wouldn't it make sense to abolish the former and incorporate its merits into the latter. Parents can be told that the money they spent on commercial schools can now be better spent on public schools viz enrichment programs or some complementary programs of sort. Better still, raise the fees a little and make the commercial schools into one with the public schools.
Now, special education schools (which is the education of the intellectually disabled and not education of the intellectually gifted as it is also commonly known in other parts of the world ) is canvassing for it to be under the ambit of MOE which all the time it has been languishing under the wings of NCSS .
MOE only does a perfunctory educational audit but NCSS does a thorough financial audit with a net effect that special education schools are run like charity organisations with no proper educational structure or curriculum. Not to speak of ever dreaming to assimiliate with mainstream schools, the latter being important for ultimate societal integration especially for mildly intellectual dysfunctional cases.
If the two scenarios are not redolent of the same staid air of shirking one's educational responsibility, public and social good, rats can't stink any more than civet cats do.
James Gomez' "Self Censorship And Singapore's Shame"
James Gomez does a superbly well-surveyed and precise critique of the political scene here.
Yes indeed it is to Singapore's shame if we can't express our views or even hold a different opinion from any incumbent's . I can't blame people like James Gomez or Steve Chia who deem the opposition's case as a lost cause in politically apathetic Singapore. James has left Singapore for Sweden where he works and Steve has, after his disappointing showing in the GE results, decided to quit politics.
James has not only put in perspective how the political climate has evolved but he has also given very concrete examples of the self-pertuating mechanism that advantages the dominant political party .
Mechanisms like a lethal cocktail of a climate of fear, economics and ethnicity. In his last chapter, he has even set out an agenda for action, which led him to run for the May 2006 General Elections on Worker's Party ticket.
It Is High Time For An OmbudsMan
James speaks my mind exactly when he suggested this. But I am thinking of the people, not politically affiliated, but who are impacted by socio-economic policies. Economic policies which seem to preclude some non-partisans who just simply wanna get on with setting up a small business for example. When one examines the corporate structure here, one finds no small number of present or past politicial affiliates on its boards which seems to suggest that one has to be party-partisan to get anywhere here in Singapore.
The Ombudsman must be someone non-partisan, someone who is outside the establishment and who can lend an authentic voice to all who has been wronged by the system in one way or another. Anyone, from individual citizens to corporations, who has a legitimate concern or complaint against the existing regime. A final "court of appeal" when all community or trade association (which incidentally are filled with the rank and file of the dominant party) channels have been exhausted.
Aid could range from helping someone to apply for a licence or inquiring into the circumstances why a certain licence is rejected or simply helping someone exercise his individual right.
Above all, this ombudsman must be seen to be neutral and to be a true people's arbiter for social and economic rights, independent of any party politics or politics.
How Politics Get Ugly And The Citizenry Can Only But Revolt
For many of us, we just wanna get on with the day to day business of making a living and doing what we wanna do. Imagine, someone, like myself, who is neutral to politics in many ways (we may be politically aware and only choose to exercise our rights at the ballot box), coming face to face with political obstacles hurled our way that deprives us of our rice bowl (the bureaucracy after all is seen as a state controlled organ) that can only enrage the citizenry to revolt against the political regime.
Not to mention all the state-imposed controls ranging from certification to licensing. If these were for the better good, we cannot but follow but they were wrongly and absurdly applied with no good reason or rhyme in my instance. How can PSS, MOE insists on a URA search when a premise is HDB-owned or SLA-owned ?
If the certification imposed were of a gold standard, we would also oblige. But in many of my encounters, they were sub-standard and even ludicrous. Theoretical airy-fairy.
I am not embarking on a political route (or to go political begging and have political heavyweights tipping the political scale in my favour) just so to go on my economic or social freeway, which is my constitutional right, to make a living for myself in the first place.
It is already DAMN STUPID that our MICE people actually has a hand in encouraging entrepreneurs fritter their financial resources in the way of organising education fairs overseas to recruit international students when this should have been the prerogative of the recruiters themselves.
Otherwise why are they paid the hefty commissions? If the entire association of schools boycott this practice, can they refuse to admit these students to the commercial schools for a prolonged time?
We are spoiling the whole damn market. It is like one oil producer impinging on a cartel's pre-agreed fixed price which can only lead to a price war of sorts, to the detriment of all the producers' bottom lines.
Can our policy makers get this into their thick heads? Or can't they?
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Researching Politics Now
Look ! More Rag Tag Library Patrons
Oops, don't forget this sour puss who hawks my papers most of the time even if there is another one nearby. Or all the other heavily painted, gleaming eyed or China female dominatrixes who seem to abound here. And funnily it is always the school galls who make the most noises here at the library. What is wrong with you, bitch!
Political And Philosophical Reads
I read and will read again "LKY - The Man And His Ideas", JBJ's "Make It Right For Singapore" andJames Gomes' books on censorship among others. It is a balanced read, weighing one against the other.
Edmund Husserl's "Phemonology" presuposses nothing and to take things to appear as they appear. This is something we should be learning from , I thought.
Philosophical Astrays
When Dennis interviewed me, he mentioned something about "paymasters (meaning parents) looking for results, not personal philosophies on teaching". He is right, given the reality of education here. The reality of examination scores that is.
But precisely because we did not get our philosophy right that education has failed in its nobler and larger social objectives. Or other objectives even.
Pawns On A Political Chessboard, Not Even Rooks Or Knights
A small band of elites deciding and toying with the lives of a teeming population. This is exactly what personality testing, or for that matter, whatever else, is all about. All, with a few exceptions, the personae behind them were high-flying academicians or professionals.
Can you imagine we entrust the "GODS" to design, manipulate and pigeonhole our lives, our very souls even?
Ernest Hemingway Again
One chapter "Out Of Season" even has nameless characters simply addressed as "the young gentleman" and "his young wife", though there is Peduzzi, the alcoholic gardener who takes them on fishing jaunts at forbidden gaming places.
Oscar Wilde
One glimpses the snooty English deriding the Americans at one point in the story's unfolding. We also get peals of wisdom of life in general in some of the wildy witty Wildean quotable quotes like "punctuality is the thief of time" or Lord Henry's firm belief in "looking life and not reading about it" plus a taste of English culture in the way the houses are decorated, its surrounds and the English way of life (the English has no time for reading literary works but they do newspapers).
It is again not an easy read as it is set in the Victorian era where things and places are not similar to our contemporary lifescape. But its pointers in life are almost uncannily similar to life today (like how the young look to their elders for money).
What Else Will The Educational "Experts" Have You Believe
It does seem that the education landscape here like to recast certain educational dropouts or failures who have made good, as their pin-up boys for making it through sheer hard work and dogged determination. This smacks of covering up for the educational system's failings, assuming every Tom, Dick and Harry can even make it thus far, given a small percentage who do. Education has become "politicised".
Back to the issue of singling educational establishments for international recruitment. It is as obvious as the sun in the sky that these were schools in the educational realm for many years whichhave vast material, land and economic resources. All three hot contenders are also members of the establishment.
As to whether their curriculum or the system they adhere to has produced as many international accolades and acclaim in the form of the graduating students' work in any sphere of life isn't as clear-cut.
Why are other competing and alternative educational systems not allowed to strike out and perhaps flourish here? What we have here are basically two educational routes : the public schools and the commercial schools (each duplicating and replicating each other in its curriculum with the latter shadowing the former in many ways).
What are the larger objectives of education apart from a string of high examination scores or winning at every conceivable competition? What does this translate into at the end of the day?
Pricks/Weirdos At The Community Library And Everywhere
One writes down names from the obituary columns of the Chinese newspaper. Others use the tables for reading newspapers as personal PC desktops or to read their books. Dwayne's "MR STALKER" was again at the fast food joint but he wasn't smiling . In fact he had on an unsmiling face, with dark circled eyes and a tad of distress and nervousness today, I thought.
Hefty Premium
We have community libraries in almost all neighborhoods but some are really small which can only mean a small collection while other neighborhoods have yet or may not have them. This is again something I am querulous about. More libraries everywhere, a bigger collection and more space.
And oh yes, the world atlas has few hardcopies but it is available in software. You can't view it at the library itself but you have to borrow it home. To borrow it home, you need to be a "Premium Account" member at a yearly price tag of $21.00.
That means accessing the public loo 210 times with that kinda money I spent.
Oops, don't forget this sour puss who hawks my papers most of the time even if there is another one nearby. Or all the other heavily painted, gleaming eyed or China female dominatrixes who seem to abound here. And funnily it is always the school galls who make the most noises here at the library. What is wrong with you, bitch!
Political And Philosophical Reads
I read and will read again "LKY - The Man And His Ideas", JBJ's "Make It Right For Singapore" andJames Gomes' books on censorship among others. It is a balanced read, weighing one against the other.
Edmund Husserl's "Phemonology" presuposses nothing and to take things to appear as they appear. This is something we should be learning from , I thought.
Philosophical Astrays
When Dennis interviewed me, he mentioned something about "paymasters (meaning parents) looking for results, not personal philosophies on teaching". He is right, given the reality of education here. The reality of examination scores that is.
But precisely because we did not get our philosophy right that education has failed in its nobler and larger social objectives. Or other objectives even.
Pawns On A Political Chessboard, Not Even Rooks Or Knights
A small band of elites deciding and toying with the lives of a teeming population. This is exactly what personality testing, or for that matter, whatever else, is all about. All, with a few exceptions, the personae behind them were high-flying academicians or professionals.
Can you imagine we entrust the "GODS" to design, manipulate and pigeonhole our lives, our very souls even?
Ernest Hemingway Again
One chapter "Out Of Season" even has nameless characters simply addressed as "the young gentleman" and "his young wife", though there is Peduzzi, the alcoholic gardener who takes them on fishing jaunts at forbidden gaming places.
Oscar Wilde
One glimpses the snooty English deriding the Americans at one point in the story's unfolding. We also get peals of wisdom of life in general in some of the wildy witty Wildean quotable quotes like "punctuality is the thief of time" or Lord Henry's firm belief in "looking life and not reading about it" plus a taste of English culture in the way the houses are decorated, its surrounds and the English way of life (the English has no time for reading literary works but they do newspapers).
It is again not an easy read as it is set in the Victorian era where things and places are not similar to our contemporary lifescape. But its pointers in life are almost uncannily similar to life today (like how the young look to their elders for money).
What Else Will The Educational "Experts" Have You Believe
It does seem that the education landscape here like to recast certain educational dropouts or failures who have made good, as their pin-up boys for making it through sheer hard work and dogged determination. This smacks of covering up for the educational system's failings, assuming every Tom, Dick and Harry can even make it thus far, given a small percentage who do. Education has become "politicised".
Back to the issue of singling educational establishments for international recruitment. It is as obvious as the sun in the sky that these were schools in the educational realm for many years whichhave vast material, land and economic resources. All three hot contenders are also members of the establishment.
As to whether their curriculum or the system they adhere to has produced as many international accolades and acclaim in the form of the graduating students' work in any sphere of life isn't as clear-cut.
Why are other competing and alternative educational systems not allowed to strike out and perhaps flourish here? What we have here are basically two educational routes : the public schools and the commercial schools (each duplicating and replicating each other in its curriculum with the latter shadowing the former in many ways).
What are the larger objectives of education apart from a string of high examination scores or winning at every conceivable competition? What does this translate into at the end of the day?
Pricks/Weirdos At The Community Library And Everywhere
One writes down names from the obituary columns of the Chinese newspaper. Others use the tables for reading newspapers as personal PC desktops or to read their books. Dwayne's "MR STALKER" was again at the fast food joint but he wasn't smiling . In fact he had on an unsmiling face, with dark circled eyes and a tad of distress and nervousness today, I thought.
Hefty Premium
We have community libraries in almost all neighborhoods but some are really small which can only mean a small collection while other neighborhoods have yet or may not have them. This is again something I am querulous about. More libraries everywhere, a bigger collection and more space.
And oh yes, the world atlas has few hardcopies but it is available in software. You can't view it at the library itself but you have to borrow it home. To borrow it home, you need to be a "Premium Account" member at a yearly price tag of $21.00.
That means accessing the public loo 210 times with that kinda money I spent.
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