The wealth of Singapore

You know what the wealth of Singapore is?

Some countries - have natural resources. What will the Middle East be without their oil for example.

What differentiates us from Taiwan, or even Malaysia which has tremendously more land, natural resources than Singapore?

Its a few things - our strategic geographic location, our hybrid culture and also the willingness of our people to work with the system. Our location. Singapore sits in that sweet spot - astride major trading routes which overtime will become sweeter as Asia increases its dominance.

But above all else - its our system. I'm not just talking about our government. I'm talking about our culture. The sort of culture that allows Christians, Muslims, Chinese, Malays and Indians to sit on the same table and eat a meal together. The sort of system that can create an international banking system in a world where corruption and bureaucratic inefficiencies is the norm. A world where women and children can walk safely in the streets. A world where rapists, triad, and gangsters live in fear of the law as opposed to having lawyers take advantage of loopholes. A world where Government housing commission is not dirty word but a success.

Our government had a hand in creating this. But so did our people too. Would the PAP have been successful in Malaysia, Burma, China even Australia in the 1960s 70s etc..? There was a lot of give and take. And that's something I hope our government leaders would respect.

Can we out manufacture China?
Do we have the resources of Australia?
Are we as inventive as America?
Can we be as steady as Japan?

Comparisons are problematic. Comparing Singaporeans with mainland Chinese is actually pretty dumb. One is a small young nation of less than 4 million people. The other is an ancient empire that has over 1 billion people.

But Singaporeans - esp. Singaporean Chinese - are fond of comparing - and it starts from primary school if not kindergarten.

No amount of hard work will  enable us to be a China, America, Australia. We have to find our niche. What is it?

Singapore is a unique society, a special culture. As much as I dislike the PAP, like the majority of Singaporeans I cannot deny it did well by the people. I only wish that it would improve and build on the successes and strengths of Singapore for the benefit of the citizens. But I fear that the government is now run by scholars. Nothing bad about scholars - but their experience and very nature built behind a wall of academic success, books, is limited. There is also now a growing disconnect between the ruling class and the people - in much the same way as how the academically bright kids at school huddled in their corner of the library and shunned the rest of their school mates. You cannot govern a country successfully in the long term when the leaders were all assured of their positions by their success in primary and high schools.

There is also a growing insular nature in Singapore society. I'm not just talking about the rise of xenophobia. When the government can castigate Singaporeans who leave the country and work or live overseas as "quiters" you know that something is seriously wrong in the government logic. When government ministers can justify their exorbitant high salaries as necessary to prevent corruption while demanding low income families to sacrifice the lives of their sons for national service for peanut pay you know its seriously haywire. On  the other spectrum we see many Singaporeans retreating into an parochial mindset - despising foreigners and migrants.

Criticism shouldn't be seen as treason. The old school kind of rule - "shut up sit down or get out" has resulted in one of the world's highest migrations. More Peranakans were lost to Singapore - emigrating to other countries - due to the PAP rule than in WW2. And to make matters worse the government system of discriminating Singapore immigrants by slamming the door shut to them in comparison to new immigrants is baffling. Won't the branch of the same tree be more suitable for grafting than the member of some unknown tree?

The Singapore govt seeks to attract foreign talent while forgetting the unique nature of Singapore. All those former Hong Kong residents, and now Chinese and India nationals that the government is seeking to attract - the vast majority of them will only use Singapore as a transit lounge before migrating to greener pastures. Heck one China migrant even vehemently objected to the smell of curry from his neighbor. And what was the solution offered by the government representative? Stop cooking curry... stop cooking our national dish.... Whaaatttt??? might as well tear down our flag and paint it blood red with a yellow scythe and hammer and stars Good grief.

I see the future of Singapore as a cosmopolitan city. A city where its people are well traveled, speak and are fluent in many languages. Where Chinese people speak not just English but Malay, French, German, Japanese. A government which encourages and helps its people to excel - to go overseas, to work, to return - and not to take advantage of. A government which encourages its citizens to be innovative and respects their intellectual property rights ... which at the moment doesn't seem to be happening.

A city whose main export is the system of efficient corruption-free, nepotism-free, religious-free, ethnic-free, meritocracy bureaucracy. :) This is what our region needs.... badly. We should want and we should do all we can to get Malaysia, Indonesia to be heading down that path and not towards religious extremism.

A city where the Ministry of Education and Culture are not run by parochial minded people but people who understand that academic knowledge in math and science and mastery of "the mother tongue" is not the prerequisite to a successful life. But when I heard about my friends being blacklisted because they chose not to accept foreign govt scholarships issued by MOE but bonded to Singapore... I despair.

Ask yourself - why does Hong Kong a similar city to Singapore have such a vastly stronger movie making industry?

Some thoughts while traveling

Stuff my mind churns up when I travel on buses.

On the tearing down of church crosses in China.
Its not the outward manifestation of the church that makes a difference - the buildings, the concrete and iron icons - its what Christians do that matters. One of the letters of the Apostles stated that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." You could build a thousand churches bigger than the tower of Babel and get the same result as the latter. Vatican City and the great cathedrals of Europe are testimony to that - built on the sale of indulgences.

What is the point of being rich if you are a miser. You are only hoarding up wealth for someone else.

Good ideas are not good enough if you do not act upon them.

There are no such thing as the good old days. People who think that the past was great forget the many great evils that have been largely overcome for now - mass famine, total war, Nazism, polio, the Black Death, the utter subjugation of women, Stalin/Mao/Pol Pot era communism, the tyranny of religious governments, racist colonial empires...

Everyone will die. Not everyone lives.

We live in a superficial world. People are judged by what they wear, how they look, how much they earn, what family they came from - no one decides that they want to be born beautiful or rich, or tall or which country or religion they get to be born in. We can only decide how we choose to behave - abominably, maliciously, cruelly, without empathy or sympathy - or with kindness, compassion, consciously, and in due time with wisdom.

some were born to fly, some were born to swim. Somethings we don't get to choose.

No one dies truly. Our consciousness lives on. Who we are, what we are, our essential being is immortal.

Don't look at what you currently are - look at what you may become. Does a caterpillar dream that it will become a butterfly? Does a baby swan dream that it will remain an ugly duckling all its life? The biggest tree was once a humble seed. Grow. Overcome.

Some thoughts on life

Some people are vampires - they will drain the life out of you.

An example of this are people who when they are unhappy want everyone to be as miserable as they are.
"If I'm unhappy everyone else has to be unhappy."

These are people to be wary about and to most certainly avoid if you are able to do so. Unfortunately a lot of bosses are like that.

The question is - will you allow yourself to be infected with the same "virus" as them?

Will you also become a vampire if they bite you? Unlike vampires and disease carriers - this one carries more choice for the victim.

Death Penalty - Capital Punishment Asia vs Australia

There's been much uproar over the execution of the two drug smuggling leaders in Indonesia. Personally I don't have much of a problem with the death penalty if it is meted out against 100% convicted murderers and violent gangsters and pedophile rapists.

Over here in Australia and indeed in most Western nations - there take a decidedly lax view towards such people.

Sometime ago in Melbourne a gangster shot his girlfriend and two people who came to her aid in broad daylight in full view of the public. The good samaritan a father of two was killed. I suspect that the gangster will be paroled due to good behavior at some stage.
https://morb.wordpress.com/2007/06/22/melbourne-shooting-suspect-surrendered/

Governments and justice systems in the west frequently parole criminals who are most likely to re-offend. In this example the parole kills a mother and tortures her children.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-14/court-told-man-killed-mother-and-tortured-girls-while-on-parole/3572006

It happens so regularly here in Australia that most people here don't give two shits. Strangely however they have more time to protest over the sentencing of two drug leaders.

There is a distinct moral apathy in the West.

Partly its due to their belief in human rights - for prisoners. Keeping a criminal in jail in the West is very expensive - due to their adherence to basic "human rights" of all human beings - even a criminal who murders 50 women and children in one day - ie Martin Bryant, the Port Arthur mass murderer.

In Australia it cost $100,000 to keep an inmate in jail per year. The state is responsible for his welfare including his dental. And many criminals are happy to go to jail for that reason.

Example: The murderer rapist who bashed to death a young female pastry chef on her way to work said he was happy to go to jail because he finally had a roof over his head and food to eat.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/murder-of-melbourne-pastry-chef-renea-lau-one-of-the-worst-crown-prosecutor-20150427-1mu99u.html

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/homeless-man-scott-miller-pleads-guilty-to-raping-and-murdering-pastry-chef-renea-lau-in-kings-domain-20150119-12tuhc.html

Seriously wtf.

So Tax dollars that could be spent on improving public schooling, the health system, is being diverted to feed and house murdering rapist thugs.

Honestly, I'd put them on the end of a beach during low tide and let nature take its course. No need to hang or shoot or electrocute - too drama. Goodbye!!

But in Australia and the West they much prefer to put them in jail for a short while and release them back into the community... the fact that they will quite likely reoffend again doesn't seem to faze the authorities.

Rapist thug who got caught only when he attacked a celebrity the media care for.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/adrian-bayley-found-guilty-of-raping-three-women-before-he-raped-and-murdered-jill-meagher-20150326-1m3otn.html

When an imported criminal brought over to help his rehabilitation - raped and murdered two sisters who came to the city to work and start a good life -the then Premier of Victoria Steve Bracks was very dismissive of the tragedy - saying the system was working. A little while later convicted child rapists escaped from jail - true story - and the authorities prevented the release of their names on the grounds of their privacy.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/02/04/1138958933544.html

Seriously. This is Australia for you. Political leaders more concerned over the welfare of violent criminals than for the safety of its most vulnerable citizens.

The fact that Australia recalls its ambassador from Indonesia over the deaths of two certified 100% drug lords speaks volumes over the lost direction of Australia's morality.

In the West - there is a strong belief that reform, second chance, redemption is the more noble approach to crime. This stems from the Christian religion of forgiveness. But in this case its corrupted in this application. The State isn't suppose to forgive. The State exist to protect the public. Otherwise wtf are we refraining from arming ourselves to the teeth and paying taxes for?

I come from the East and I believe the first and foremost concern for the authorities is to protect the lives of innocent people - esp young women and children.

Why should they be given a second chance - to reoffend again?

OK. Having said that - there is a huge... a massive reaction against capital punishment.

Politicians, Priests, top judges, many thousands of people will rally in the street to protest against the capital punishment even of an absolute criminal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Tuong_Nguyen

You would think that the executed criminal was a hero.

Even simple honest, hard working teachers, nurses don't get this kind of celebrity treatment. The moral compass of the West is sometimes really haywire.

And for that very reason I think capital punishment should be... set aside. It just causes too much problems.

Indonesia should have commuted the sentences for drug smugglers to life imprisonment. It doesn't cost a lot of money to house criminals in Indonesia, even Singapore.

Put them in a remote location - a desert, an inhospitable island. Harsh life. Allow them all the tax-free cigarettes they want. Let them take drugs if they like. Let nature take its course.

Make them do hard labor, break rocks etc..Swim in the sea.

No protests. No adverse reaction. Everyone happy. And criminals don't get a hero treatment.

Choices...

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

The guns of Singapore are pointed backwards: Amos Yee

When the Japanese invaded Singapore in 1942 it was said that the mighty guns protecting Singapore were facing the wrong way. It was said that the guns were facing seaward because the British assumed that any attack would come from the sea.* But the Japanese invaders came from inland and the guns were useless.

So I'm reading the story about Amos Yee who like a lot of 17 year olds do dumb things.

He said a few dumb things and then we have community leaders advocating death for him. C'mon lah he's 17 years old - what's your excuse for advocating mutilation and murder?

But what I find baffling is the speed in which the authorities acted on charging the young man.

And it makes me wonder where the priorities of our government lie?

You might recall a crime in 2010 where three foreigners in a very public area violently assaulted a taxi driver and the people who came to his assistance. This might be an everyday normal occurrence in Australia, America, the UK, Europe etc.. but in modern Singapore violent assaults are quite rare thank goodness.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120215-328084.html

You can read the news item above.

It took 10 months for the FT Bank employees to be charged for bashing Singaporeans. Two of them even absconded from the country. On the other hand it took the authorities took less than a week to charge a Singaporean teenager who ranted on youtube; he was released on a $20,000 bail. Contrast that with the initial bail money for the two rich foreigners who escaped. The one who stayed behind got charged and spent 3 weeks in jail.

I don't know about you but I regard physical violence as a much more serious offense than talking shit on youtube. Bashing someone up leaves a lifetime of scars and physical injuries - someone could even have been killed. Youtube - ??? - "sticks and stones lah". And for fuck sake - foreigners beating up Singaporeans in Singapore? You expect our own Government to do more - and do it faster- to help our own citizens in our own country!!!

I can't imagine the pain and suffering the Singaporeans felt getting hammered by three chao angmos. So I'm really baffled and upset why it took such a bloody long time for my own government to charge three foreigners who bashed up my countrymen in my country. Contrast that with a 17 year old boy infamous Amos - it took less than a week to arrest some idiot teenager who posted some shit on youtube?

It should be noted that one of the foreigners is still on the run. Are our police following it up? Hmmm... or are they busy searching the net for possible Singaporean teenage insulters?

So??? - arresting a 17 year old puny kid  - very quick. Going after big size angmo bank workers who work for big time bank and beat up taxi driver uncles too tough ah?

Meanwhile, a Singapore taxi driver has been sent to jail for 9 months for molesting two female passengers. http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/taxi-driver-who-molested-vomiting-passenger-jailed-nine-months-201

I'm not sure why our courts can sentence foreigners who brutally physically assault our own people to a few weeks or a few months in jail whereas the courts seem to go apeshit on our own people? There seems to be a double standard here.

Where exactly are the guns of Singapore pointing? The British had their's facing the sea. The present administration seem to have their guns facing backwards.

More infö here

http://therealsingapore.com/content/losing-faith-because-polices-incompetence

*(Regarding the British World War 2 guns protecting Singapore - the big guns could indeed swing around to fire overland as well. But in any case the British heavy 16 inch guns were mainly equipped with armor piercing anti-ship rounds which proved ineffective against a land based invasion. They simply sank deep into the ground doing little or no injury to the Japanese Army.)

Lee Kuan Yew his legacy

Singapore has been very fortunate to have such an intelligent and capable leader as LKY. Just think about the other leaders in the region from that era. Korea - both sides, Ho Chi Minh, the leaders of South Vietnam, Pol Pot, Marcos, Mao... its not normal to find a competent, sane rational leader it seems. Most of the Asian leaders around the time were incompetent, corrupt, greedy, stupid, short-sighted or downright murderous.

Due to the PAP a lot of Singaporeans went from living in swampy villages to modern clean apartments - afaik - Singapore is the only nation in the world where Housing Commission Flats is not a dirty word.

Whenever I watch him being interviewed by foreign journalists I feel proud to be a Singaporean. He spoke well. He spoke with intelligence and wisdom.

Now he passes into legend.

You know what his legacy is to me? That we have an independent nation. That we have a robust economy. That we have a currency that doesn't fluctuate like the ocean tide. That we have a world class banking system. That women and children can walk the parks and streets safely even at night - not even Melbourne Australia the most liveable city in the world can boast this. That criminals, rapists, gangsters live in fear and not the other way around. In Sydney during the Cronella Riots 2006, ethnic gangsters were driving around the streets with illegal guns and knives injuring innocent bystanders while the police stayed away - this sort of craziness would never happen in Singapore. Armed robbery in Singapore, gangsters with guns are a very rare occurrence unlike America, Australia etc.. I think before Western journalists offer their critical opinion they should think about this.

We have a modern nation where the streets are safe  - thank you Mr Lee.