Trim and Fit aka TAF Club

[How Singapore battled obesity]
[transcript]

Remember TAF club? I was never a member, thankfully, because I was pathetically skinny even till now. But I remember laughing at the TAF club people as they jump up and down in the hall. "Elephants", that's what I used to called them. Hey, common I was 14. It was a really difficult period.

I have always think that the getting all the heavy people together in a group is a bad idea. It doesn't take a genius to imagine that the kids are going to be made fun of. And I sincerely, believes that there's more harm than good. Apparently, some of these kids grew up and needed psychological help.

...David Kan, counsels several past members of Trim and Fit clubs. He says some of these children are deeply scarred by the experience.
Kan: They do feel the stigma that I’m being short-listed for this program means I’m labelled a person that is obese and as a result I may be a potential outcast in the school. And to them, if I am fat perhaps I’m a failure, I am a loser.

And here we have the official respond:

Education officials insist that no-one set out to stigmatize overweight children. It’s just turned out to be a by-product of the program a by-product nonetheless tolerated by officials for 15 years.

And according to statistics earlier:

...Singapore has achieved remarkable success in its fight against childhood obesity. The proportion of school-age children classified by the government as obese has fallen from 14% to 9% in the past 15 years. During that same period, just about everywhere else in Asia has seen childhood obesity rise.

Once again, the Singapore government is reminding us that these children are not just sons, daughters, brothers and sisters. They are also numbers.

Another mass production of students

An article appeared in Today newspaper on the 17th of November, titled: School experiment that failed. It's about a parent dilemma on sending her children to a Singapore public school, or an international school. She decides to give the public school a go but the venture proof to be short lived, and she finally send her kids to an international school.

Of course this not the first time our educational system has been criticised, and the its many short coming discussed in the media. And our educational board will again, metaphorically, smiles and nods, and reassure us how about how innovative our schools are, and how improvements are constantly made to an already world class formula, and exciting new classes on creativity thinking are around the corner.

But stupid is as stupid does. The fact that students nowadays are still facing the same kettle of fish like I did, shows the problem are not going to away with a few new 'creative classes'.

Passing exams has becomes the aim and goals of schools. The true purpose of teaching and learning has been forgotten in the pressure of higher school ranking. Exams results has been the sole determination to a person's worth. It has become an end in itself. Can anyone honestly deny this culture of fear of exams in our students?

We boost of high maths and science scores. But our unnaturally high scores in this area are nothing to be proud of. Simply because these are subjects that one can prepare for by doing the holy 10 years series. In other words, you can do well in these subjects by doing roughly the same thing over and over again. You simply have to follow.

Ever wonder why we don't seems to do so well in literature? Maybe because to do well, you'll need to come up with your own ideas and original content. Something that is perhaps sadly foreign in our students. Seriously, how many Singapore students ask questions in your university class?

The problem with our system is that it systematic destroys ones creativity, uniqueness and self-esteem. Round pegs are made to fix into square holes and polygons are filed to form squares. There is simply no room in the system to be yourself. It's a system that rewards conformity and punishes uniqueness. The best way to pass exams is to do what is tried and tested and avoid risk.

I have never felt that I actually learned anything in the 10 years I spend in government school. In fact I'm glad that I'm still able to do a little bit of thinking once in a while despite the fact that I have been authoritative educated (But then I have stop reading the straits times, so I guess that helped).

Our schools may be good in imparting factual knowledge, but at a cost of a person innate sense of creativity and discovery. While factual knowledge are useful, I can't help but wonders if I can't achieve the same result by keeping a small library. Creativity can't and doesn't need to be taught, it only need to be allowed. Sometimes I feel we give up the forest for a tree.


You could say that the high teacher-student ratio are to blame and that the teachers and schools mean well, but I'm incline to be unforgiving to a system that robs me of my childhood, destroys my self esteem, and teaches me to be afraid of the world.

School experiment that failed

How will their kids fare in a local school? One expat mum finds out Noelle de Jesus

Weekend • November 17, 2007

THOSE who had watched the international schools defeat some of the best local schools in televised debates earlier this year found much to discuss across their dinner tables and at cocktail parties.

The key question: What kind of educational system best prepares children for today's challenges?

For my husband and I, these discussions took place much earlier. When we moved here eight years ago, our major concern was how best to educate our daughter and son — Filipinos carrying United States passports, now permanent residents of Singapore.

We wanted strong academics, of course, but we also wanted them to be life-long learners with confidence, creativity, responsibility, self-respect and awareness of the world. Neither did we want them to be set apart from the youth of the country which we had chosen to make our home.

Seeing groups of expat teenagers skateboarding in the youth park off Orchard Road, I sensed alienation and a lack of belonging. Somehow they seemed cut off from society. We did not want this for our children.

So we sent them to local schools. We were aware of the strengths of the school system — the solid foundation in science and mathematics and the remarkable self-discipline that would be so efficiently instilled.

We had read of a few foreign students who had emerged triumphant from local academic rigours, securing admission into fine universities abroad.

But we also understood potential pitfalls — the largely authoritarian system, the single-minded rote approach to learning and the high student-teacher ratios.

Many raised eyebrows at our choice. A colleague at work said: "You have a choice, why put them through that?" She spoke of the way the system can kill the joy of learning, the ability to think "out of the box".

But we had taken to heart the news that the Ministry of Education (MOE) was slowly but surely changing the system. It was allowing the teaching of simplified Chinese, establishing support for more creative as well as more critical thinking, and promoting the arts and sports. Anything else our children needed, we figured we would be able to provide at home. We were hopeful.

After sending them to a local Montessori pre-school, we found ourselves living 1km away from two of the best primary schools, one for girls and one for boys. That single kilometre was critical. Our son went through the ballot, but they both made it.

Our first frustration was foreign language learning. Anxious that they learn Mandarin, we (and they) quickly found it was next to impossible in the local system, due to the pace and depth of the classes — classes that proved too difficult even for Singaporean students.

I soon discovered that all the students in my daughter's class were taking extra Chinese lessons. As one tutor said: "Children don't learn mother tongue at school; they learn it from their tuition."

With no Mandarin background, my children tuned the classes out; the rote system of learning did not work.

"Why can't they take Mandarin as a foreign language?" I asked an MOE administrator. There was no ready answer. Instead, my children were invited to take French, German or Japanese.

When my daughter told me she had to prepare for her science exam, I told her to study her textbook. She replied: "There's nothing in the book."

The girls were told to "read on their own"; what to read was not specified. Later, I found out parents bought old science exam papers for their daughters to study from.

I also found the rather quantitative methods used in my kids' English classes highly suspect. If my daughter tried her hand at a complex sentence with modifying phrases and she made a mistake, the entire sentence was marked incorrect and points were taken off. This made her decide to stick with easy noun-verb sentences.

As for my son's compositions, they were edited subjectively. His quirky, still grammatical sentences were red-penned and in many cases, falsely labelled incorrect.

But the high teacher-student ratio — 1 teacher to 40 students — proved to be our utmost concern. It rendered the simplest dynamics of question-and- answer explanation difficult to say the least. In the boys' school especially, teachers struggled to maintain order, let alone teach.

My son, a square peg in a round hole, was labelled a trouble-maker for inquisitiveness. The reputation followed him from Primary 1 to Primary 2.

One day, his teacher called me to report him as "the mastermind" of some class bullying, saying his own friends had fingered him as the culprit.

When I spoke to my son, he denied he was solely responsible, saying: "What's the point of saying I'm not; they'll all say it's me, anyway. So I just took the punishment."

When we heard this, all our doubts crystallised in one decision. Despite all our hopes, this wasn't working for him. Creativity, language, even writing — we could teach ourselves. But we felt unequal to the task of constantly undoing daily institutional damage to his self-esteem. And we had no desire to fight the system.

We withdrew both children from their schools and placed them in an international school.

There, they could at least learn Mandarin as a foreign language. They would be able to have a real relationship with their teachers, enjoy inquiry-based learning and be encouraged to express themselves. They would each be in a class with no more than 25 students and that ratio would only make things better all around.

It is by no means perfect. No education system is. And we were disappointed that our experiment failed.

Cost, of course, is one issue. To pay the price equivalent to that of a small diamond, when once we paid the price of an apple for a year's schooling, will not be easy.

We also continue to seek opportunities for our children to interact with other Singaporean children, grateful they have maintained some of the friendships they forged at their old schools.

But on his first day at the new school, my son told me he had the best day of his life. My daughter came to me and thanked me for moving her. "Here," she confided, "I feel like I am learning something every day." How can you argue with that?

At the end of the day, the root problem of the local school system is the high teacher-student ratio which demands more control from the teacher and gives the students less opportunities for variation.

Many foreign families make it by dint of playing the game we did not play: Filling the children's time with extra classes, buying old exam papers and willingly allowing their children's uniqueness to be efficiently rubbed off so that they could fit themselves neatly into the system's uniformly round holes. We did the only thing we could do.

At least, you can't say we didn't try. And it was a learning experience.

Ultimately that's what education should be about.

Noelle de Jesus is a freelance editor and writer who believes parents should be responsible co-educators of their children.

Repeal 377A and Thio Li-Ann, on why the 2 sides can't agree and freedom

*Dr Thio Li-Ann speech can be read here together with commentaries.

A lot can be, and indeed has been said on the debate. To find out more, and you should, goggle is your friend (Try 377A, or Thio Li-Ann). I have wanted to comment on this issue, but was too busy, and frankly, not smart enough to add anything new. But now that the sound and fiery has died down a little, and with the advantage of hindsight, I'll attempt to share what I picked up on this

1."You cannot make a human wrong a human right."
The prime minister was right. What he was right about that prompted this unique occurrence (me agreeing with him that is) was this: "Neither side is going to convince the other."

Why?

Because both sides (over generalising from this point on, I admit), holds a different fundamental assumption.

One side don't think that homosexuality is wrong.
One side believes fundamentally that homosexuality is wrong.

There is no way, literally, to convince either side to the other position. How can both side even relate to the other side, or see where they are coming from, when their core assumption is so different? On one side, a group of people don't really see why a act is harmful enough to have a law against it, while another side sees the act as wrong and if I may, 'evil'.

There is no way to prove that homosexuality is wrong, nor is there to prove that it's not wrong. Because you can't prove a right or wrong! You judge a right or wrong! And both side are using a different system! Both side can bring out tons of arguments and counter-arguments and still fail to come to any agreeable conclusion, because all their conclusion are based on this core unchangeable assumption.

2."Repealing section 377A is the first step of a radical, political agenda which will subvert social morality, the common good and undermine our liberties."

Extending logically the assumption that homosexuality is wrong and the notion "that which is evil has no rights", we can have a sense of where the anti-repeal people are coming from. The idea is that, an idea or action that is 'evil', 'wrong', or 'harmful' deserves no rights, no freedom, no protection. An example is terrorism, I suppose the terrorist has some reasons for doing what they do, but their message would never be aired, because their action are considered to be evil, and wrong. (And no, homosexuality is not like terrorism)

So the way I see it, the aim of the anti-repeal movement is to maintain the right to call homosexuality wrong. After all they understand that the law will not be actively, not to mention almost impossible to, enforce.(Although Dr Thio, does (chillingly) said that the current pro-active policy does not mean 377A will never be enforced. In my view, enforcement of it will be too much like a witch hunt.)

3."While difficult, change is possible and a compassionate society would help those wanting to fulfills their heterosexual potential. There is hope."

And they do not see their stand as limiting the freedom of homosexuals. No, seriously. Dr Thio said that the gays are allowed "to live quiet lives". She is understanding freedom negatively, as freedom from constrains, gays can carry on with their life (admittedly as criminals) under our current system. But she is ignoring the positive side of freedom, which is the extent to which individuals have access to the means to fulfilled their needs and wishes. And surely, one has the rights not to be labeled a criminal to love, or the rights to be proud of who we are, or to speak in ones own defense?

4."some countries have criminalised not sodomy, but opposition to sodomy, making it a "hate crime" to criticise homosexuality. This violates freedom of speech and religion; will sacred texts that declare homosexuality morally deviant, like the Bible and Quran, be criminalised? Social unrest beckons. Such assaults on constitutional liberties cannot be tolerated."

In fact Dr Thio seems particularly concerned that the rights of certain religions be compromise if 377A is repealed. This makes me very uneasy. First of all, there is this notion that if someone does something for 'religious' reason, it's right. But then, we all know the problem with that don't we? And second, we respect religious belief, anyhow people are going to think what they are going to think. But we still holds religious people responsible for their actions, even if God is on their side.

Richard Taylor's glow worm

Each dot of light identifies an ugly worm, whose luminous tail is meant to attract insects from the surrounding darkness. As from time to time one of these insects draws near it becomes entangled in a sticky thread lowered by the worm, and is eaten. These goes on month after month, the blind worm lying there in the barren stillness waiting to entrap an occasional bit of nourishment that will only sustain it to another bit of nourishment until... Until what? What great thing awaits all this long repetitious effort and makes it worthwhile? Really nothing. The larva just transforms itself finally into a tiny winged adult that lacks even mouth parts to feed and lives only a day or two. These adults, as soon as they have mated and laid eggs, are themselves caught in the threads and are devoured by the cannibalistic worms, often without having ventured into the day, the only point of their existence having now been fulfilled. This has been going on for millions of years, and to no other end other than that the same meaningless cycle may continue for another millions of years.

All the living things present essentially the same spectacle...One is led to wonder what the point of it all is, with what great triumph this ceaseless effort, repeating itself through millions of years, might finally culminate, and why it should go on and on and on for so long, accomplishing nothing, getting nowhere. But then one realizes that there is no point to it all, that it really culminates in nothing, that each of these cycles, so filled with toil, is to be followed only by more of the same. The point of any living thing's life is, evidently, nothing but life itself.

Repeal 377A

It's really none of anyone's business. The state has no rights nor reasons to interfere between the relationship of 2 consenting adults.

Big Question 2

Who would you want to be?

MSN?

After 10 years, I have finally got MSN. I don't really know how it works. My MSN pass is mingde7@hotmail.com. So just add me, yah.

Singapore is more than the Story of one Man

National Day is here again. This year, I want to share a couple of pictures I took that reflect my thoughts.



Here we have the picture of the statues of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, proudly standing in front of the skyline of Raffles Place. And just under it set in stone are the following words :


"On this historic site Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles first landed in Singapore on 28th January 1819 and with Genius and Perception changed the destiny of Singapore from an obscure fishing village to a great seaport and modern metropolis"

Well, should be no surprise to anyone who've been through the horror of what I call education in Singapore. But directly facing Raffles, someone has set up another statues, this one in concrete, rough, poorly made, holding a trenching spade.


And just under this statues, in cupboard, are these words:


"On this obscure site and many others we landed on Singapore soil since time immemorial with our labour and toil changed your genius and perception from a mere idea to a concrete reality"

This, to me, is the real Singapore story. It's never about one man.

p/s: I don't want to live in a "City of Possibilities", I want to stay in a "Nation of Opportunities".

The Big Question 1

WHO ARE YOU?

Going on a trip!

I'm off to Thailand and Cambodia for a 10 days fieldtrip. Part of summer school. The programe has been somewhat packed. I averages 4 hours of sleep a day. Keep u posted. Seeya.

Just follow lah, not my problem.

The government regrets an error which led to a 20-year-old vandal being caned three strokes more than ordered in his sentence, but has rejected his family's request for 3 million Singapore dollars ((1.94 million US dollars) in compensation, a statement said on Sunday.

[Tomorrow Link]
[News Link]
[Oikono]

World-class system can also makes mistakes. You really think we'll never hang a innocent person? When that happens( it could well have had happened), it will make murders of us all. Everyone. No the system didn't do it. We did.

Hospitals just follow law?

There's a news report that suggests that a woman died because the hospital could not/would not give her enough blood. The family even got 200 people to show up to donate blood because they were informed that blood would only be released if they could get enough people to donate blood. [Tomorrow link]


Compare this with another report not too long ago where a recently (declared) deceased man was wheeled away to have his organs removed, against the wishes of his family. The police force acted, in my opinion, in a most unjustified manager. [Tomorrow Link] [The Matrix Island Link]

Our health care, like all our government branches, seems a tad impersonal and uncaring. No?

What's so good about in-camp training?

Nothing much, that's what. Ok, seriously. What me and a lot of people thought is that we should be way past doing all this night walk and digging stuff. We are really not so fit any more and the heavy load really is straining us. Lots of people took status, meaning they get to avoid training. This makes our fighting strength very small indeed.

On the other hand, I really enjoy taking time out to catch up with the gangs. Boy, how have we all growth. Relationship problems are common. Good news is that one of the boy got married shortly after and most of the platoon attended.

Work is hard. Everyone agrees on that. Not everyone has as much opportunity. I can still remember how everyone wanted to get away from the army, all those years before, where the future is still uncertain and beckoning. Now that the unforgiving outside life has taken its toil, there is the unspoken sentiment that army life between brothers is not that tough after all. There is certainly not much smiles on our faces when livelihood is mentioned.

Everyone seems to have growth kinder. I'm not sure if we have mellow and mature or if we simply glad to see each other faces again. People who have been tough throughout army life have suddenly become gentle, for lack of a better word. More polite. It could be because we have grown apart, but I suspect it's something else.

Maybe we are (secretly) glad to have a excuse to get away from it all. To shed away all our responsibility and burden, even for a while, and return to a simpler time. Perhaps it's a chance for us all to be with people who see us as just us. Without all our labels that we wear so tirelessly in day-to-day life. The actors that we are, we long for a chance to remove our mask, or at least put on a lighter one.

Maybe.

In-Camp Training

Be back on the 29th.

Recommendations

Tis to share my love of Kevin Smith's movie. I was hocked after Alex showed me "clerks" which he find, and I agree, to be a deeply existential movie. I was moved, because in a very depressing way, that's my life. Hey, I see all sorts in my line of work as a customer service officer.

Another reason I like his movie is because of all the recurring themes I like, homosexuality, religion, vulgarity...

Kevin Smith is an incredibly funny man and his story is the source of many a young artist inspiration. Check them out:

Clerks (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109445/ )
Mallrats (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113749/)
Chasing Amy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118842/)
Dogma ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120655/)
Jay and silent bob strike back (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0261392/)
Clerks 2 ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424345/)

Also on my list of recommendations is the online comic strip: Sinfest
It's just the best. Calvin and Hobbes is well regarded by many as the best published comic strip ever. Well, Sinfest is too naughty to be published but I like them both equally. Calvin and Hobbes makes me feel and slow down, Sinfest makes me ponder and want to kick some ass.

Where to buy balloons and pumps in Singapore?

Well I have this thing with balloon arts, not very good at it, but think it's fun.
So anyway, recently someone emailed me and ask me where to get the balloons and I typed out a reply that might just be useful for someone who is also searching for balloons. So I thought I'll just post a short part of the reply here, a sort of a faq if you will:

...Ok, the balloons. What we are using is called the "260", there is a thinner version called "160" and a thicker version call "350". The numbers, I guess you figure out, stands for the dimension. Stick with the "260" unless you have need for the other sizes.

There are a few brands, and some without brands. I usually go for the branded ones, but you have to learn to "judge" the quality of the balloons. Qualatex is the market leader and you really can't go wrong with it. Of course, they cost more. Recently I think there was a price hike. I used to buy a packet of 100 balloons at between $14 and $15.

You call get balloon and pumps at most party stores. There are several at the top floor of "The Concourse" shopping mall.

If you are looking for a wholesale supplier, try: http://www.bezballoons.com/
they are located at 62 Tannery Lane and can meet ALL your needs. I remembered buying a packet of balloons at $10 each, but you have to buy more than 10 packets.

Of course, if you like me nowdays, just want to buy a few packets once in a while, a very good place is Party City. They have 2 branch, one at Holland Village(shophouse 277A, level 2 Holland Avenue) and one at Raffles City #03-28. Raffles city is easy to get to, their balloons are cheaper(?) and sits in air-con which is good for balloons and more importantly, the sales girls are cute.

As for pumps, you should know that they are 2-way pumps and 1-way pumps. Up to you. Get a good Qualatex one at Party City for $9.90. I can sell you my brand new one for the same price if you want.

The cheapest pump I found so far that actually work quite well is at "Chia Nephews Toys Pte Ltd" at 4 & 5 Tan Quee Lan Street. It's 2 way and cost $4. A great bargain. Check it out, it's a very interesting shop run by a pair of funny brothers.

So there you go, you ask for one place and I gave you a whole parade...

These are just my option of course.

Bed Bugs!

OH MY GOD! I just found bed bugs in my sleeping mats! Thrown them out immediately. And clean and vacuum the place. Hopeful this is enough to get rid of all of them. I'll keep my eyes peep in the next few months to see if they come back.
And before you say I'm a pig, bear in mind that I'm a guy, it's natural that I pay less attention to things like laundry and showers, in view of more important things like computer games(I recently started re-playing Diablo 2, doing a ice-sorceress).
And seriously, it could happen to anyone. Anywhere. See it says so right here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedbug
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/bedbugs/

Mr Alfian Saat unexplained termination

http://www.blurty.com/talkread.bml?journal=sleepless77&itemid=161258
http://tomorrow.sg/archives/2007/06/09/alfian_saats_unexplained_termina.html
http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2007/yax-754.htm
http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2007/06/alfian-saat-is-very-talented-person.html


A delicate teacher(not to mention a talented poet and writer) whom the head of dept had no problem: "professionally and pedagogically" was unexpectedly terminate by MOE without any explanation.

Mallsick

What's the deal with all those malls all over the place? Singapore seems to be overrun with air-conditioned malls. You can't get down from a Mrt without walking through one. There's a new one near my place, Ang Mo Kio Hub they call it. I can't stand the place and I have never been able to place my hand on why until now.
There must be like several hundreds of shops there and not one, none whatsoever, is a book store. Not one. And the thought disgust me. The endless shops selling shoes, bags, video games, jewelleries. And the food, OMG, the food stalls.
To me this just shows how shallow we as a people are(we as a people? Don't make me laugh). All we sick bastards do are eat and shop. That's our life. Buying bags after bags and shoes after shoes.
And we eat. Oh yah, we live to eat. My first reaction at seeing the foodstalls is: How can anyone eat this much? My next question is: How can anyone eat in THIS asylum of a place? The noise is enough to give anyone a headache. And when I have had a close look: How can anyone eat this shit?
The thought is depressing. If an alien lifeform is to document our existence, the report would be about a branch of short lived assholes who spend their life grabing money to buy stuff they don't use and eat and eat and eat.
I mean, common, where's the culture? Unless you count malls as a form of culture.
I blame this phenomenon on the observation that we, as a people, are not well educated. In fact, most people in Singapore does not recieve an education, but rather an instruction or a training. Schools teaches life skills, and since our life is all about making money, life skills = money making skills. If something doesn't earn you money, it isn't worth knowing.

Auditor General’s Report - Millions Missing

TOC

The original Auditor General Office’s (AGO) audit of 12 Ministries and associated statutory boards has revealed irregularities to an extent not fully revealed by the recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

According to the AGO, losses of public monies added up to $6.2 million, a substantial amount of which is still unaccounted for.

The Auditor General’s preface to the report states that ‘This audit approach is not intended to reveal all errors and irregularities.’

In the report, the Ministry of Law lost a potential $77,666.64 safety deposit because its computer system could only register sums to the nearest dollar. It appears under the header ‘No $77,666.64 security deposit because of 36 cents’.

The report details how these millions were lost in a detailed account of mistakes and dubious practices.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, for example, charged rental far below the market rate, forgoing $2.38 million that should have gone into state coffers. The Ministry of Law, in addition to the 36 cent mistake, left our public funds $386,829 poorer by failing to implement rental increase. This was described as an ‘oversight’.

The list goes on.

The Ministry of Manpower delayed collecting a $501,998 debt for a grand total of 15 years. When it decided to finally recover the sum of money, the company disputed the debt owed but the Ministry did not have the necessary paperwork to ‘substantiate the debt’. National Development lost us $228,000 in foregone rental, and Trade and Industry overpaid $1.87m in grants to a statutory board (since recovered).

The largest outstanding sum identified was the Ministry of Health: $136.2 million for Phase III of the National University Hospital development project has still not been recovered despite having been completed in 1996.

More questions than answers

The report raises more questions than it answers. Procurement irregularities are unexplained: a National Development contract was awarded for an eighth ranking bid (in terms of price) out of 11 without any justification. Further, the officers signing the contracts were not authorized to do so. Under the column ‘subsequent action’, all that is said is that the Ministry ‘streamlined procurement procedures…which would prevent such lapses from recurring’. Not even an ex post facto explanation about the dubious procurement.

The ‘subsequent action’ detailed for other irregularities and mistakes do not offer much elaboration. In the case of the Ministry of Manpower’s half a million dollar mistake that spanned 15 years, it gave assurances that ‘levy debts will be resolved within a much shorter time frame in future’ and that ‘future relevant documents’ would be retained.

TOC Opinion

Theonlinecitizen (TOC) recently reproduced in full the report by the Public Accounts Committee (here), convened by Parliament to scrutinize irregularities highlighted by the Auditor General’s report for financial year 05-06. It gave few concrete figures to highlight the irregularities it was pointing out.

TOC has obtained a copy of the original AGO report, which gives a far more comprehensive overview of the scope of the irregularities. This is reproduced in full (see below). We hope that members of the public will step forward to scrutinize the report and ask the necessary questions of our public servants.

In light of the limited scope of the Auditor-General’s report, we believe that the public deserves a more thorough audit of its public offices. Further, action needs to be taken to examine why these mistakes occurred in the first place: What are the fundamental causes of these lapses? Is it systemic or is it just incompetence on the part of the departments involved?

What were the consequences of these multi-million dollar mistakes?

This report can either be swept under the carpet to the further detriment of the credibility of the media and our government, or it can serve as a reference point for a new era in government transparency and accountability.

We hope the latter will prevail.

I'm just too tire to make comments.

Bra-stripping fine for Singapore radio broadcaster

SINGAPORE (AP) - A Singapore radio show is being taken to task for holding a contest in which female studio guests were asked to remove their bras from under their clothes and pose for a video webcast.

Singapore media regulators say the competition was exploitative and inappropriate. They are fining MediaCorp Radio the equivalent of about $10,000 for contravening Singapore's broadcast code.

Regulators say the March talk-show segment challenged a group of women to take their bras off in the shortest possible time.

Singapore, known for its tight restrictions on media and political speech, has relaxed censorship regulations for some films and plays in recent years.

Women on the talk show were asked to hold their bras up and pose for a video camera recording the event to be posted on the broadcaster's website and video-sharing site YouTube.

Regulators said the radio show hosts made sexually suggestive remarks about "how fast the bras were removed, as well as the colour, design and cup size of the bras, and the size of the girls' breasts."

A government statement said such contests have a negative influence on young, impressionable listeners and suggested that DJs show more restraint.

"As celebrity figures and role models, DJs wield influence over young listeners, and hence, should conduct themselves in a socially responsible manner," the statement said.

This story has me googling "Singapore Bra Stripping". Cool.

Seriously, what's wrong with taking off your bra and talking about sex? What "negative influence"? What "young, impressionable listeners"?

Everyone thinks about sex, what's wrong with talking about it? This country is way too up-tight. Everyone should masturbate more and loosen up.

Big things

You know, everyone is like: "I want to do this shit, I want to do that shit." And all the shit are important shit. You know, shit like saving the world shit, making money shit, famous shit, hero shit, educate the world shit, invention shit, you know, big shit. What about the small shit? Huh?
What if all the big shit in the fucking world is make up of small shit? Who's gona do all the small shit?
Have you heard anyone saying: "I wan be a taxi driver." No, dude. You only hear people say they want to be a chief Justice or a minister or shit like that. What's the fuck with all that?
Maybe that's what wrong with the world, everyone wanting to do big things and people doing the small things are so fucking piss with what they are doing that they do a fuck up job.
Hey, fuck. What if all the big things are make of small things and all the big important things are like fuck because all the small things are like fuck.
Maybe there are no big things. People just like to live with the delusion that they could do something important. Well, either all things are important or none of them are.
Fuck. Look at your life. Look at your fucking life. What makes you think you are all that important or better than anyone else?

New Tag

Decide to add a "General Nosense" tag, because, let's face it most of it IS.

Results for 2nd semester

English For Academic Purposes (Arts) B
Introduction to Economic Analysis B
Founders of Modern Philosophy B+
Metaphysics C
Philosophy and Film B+
Singapore Society B-

Cap: 3.4

Sucks! Meta-my-ass!

Friedrich Nietzsche - quotes

The greatest weight.—

What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you in your loneliest loneliness and say to you:

"This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again—and you with it, speck of dust!"

Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine!" If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you; the question in each and every thing, "Do you desire this once more, and innumerable times more?" would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight! Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?
--

A traveler, who had visited many lands and peoples and seen several of the earth's continents, was asked what quality in men he had found everywhere. He said: they tend to be lazy.
To others, it seems that he should have said, more rightly and significantly: they are all fearful. They hide themselves behind customs and opinions. At bottom every man knows quite well that, being unique, he will be in the world only once and that no outlandish coincidence will shake together, a second time, such a marvelously variegated multiplicity into unity as he is: he knows it but hides it like a bad conscience—why?
For fear of his neighbor, who demands conformity and cloaks himself with it. But what is it that forces the individual to fear his neighbor, to think and act like a member of a herd, and to have no joy in himself? Shamefacedness, perhaps, in a few rare cases. For most it is idleness, inertia, in short that tendency to laziness of which the traveler spoke. He is right: men are even lazier than fearful, and fear most of all the burdensome nuisance of absolute honesty and nakedness.
Artists alone hate this lazy procession in borrowed manners and left-over opinions and they reveal everyone's secret bad conscience, the law that every man is a unique miracle; they dare to show us man as he is, unique even unto each move of his muscles; even more, that by strictly in consequence of this uniqueness, he is beautiful and worth regarding, new and incredible, as every work of nature, and never boring. When the great thinker despises human beings, he despises their laziness: for it is on account of their laziness that men seem like factory goods, indifferent, unworthy to be associated with or instructed.
Human beings who do not want to belong to the mass need only to stop being comfortable; follow their conscience, which cries out: "Be yourself! All that you are now doing, thinking, and desiring, that isn't you at all."
Every youthful soul hears this call day and night and trembles at it; for it has a premonition of its eternally fated lot of happiness, when it contemplates its true liberation: a happiness it can never attain to, so long as it lies in chains of fear and convention. And how desolate and senseless life can be without this liberation! There is no more unpleasant and adverse a creature in this world than the man who has evaded his genius and who now looks peers left and right, squinting behind him and all about. In the end, one cannot come to grips with such a man, since he is all exterior without a core; befallen, bedaubed, baggy robes, a trimmed ghost that cannot provoke even fear and certainly not pity.
--

The madman.

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!"
As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated? Thus they yelled and laughed.
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried. "I will tell you. We have killed him—you and I! All of us are his murderers! But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? And backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we not hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition?—Gods, too, decompose! God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives,—who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed,—and whoever is born after us, for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto!"
Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners: they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern to the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering—it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the most distant stars—and yet they have done it themselves!"— It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo . Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?"

Why we have tummies.

Taken at NUS YIH canteen.
Honey and Cinnamon sugar and butter? What is this? Sugar bomb? Honey not sweet enough for you? You need sugar with that?

Butter with pork floss and condensed milk? This is either so right, or so wrong.

A sign!

I finished my exams, and I went on a walk-about. All sort of adventures and interesting things including trespassing onto Malaysian land(come to think of it, it's kind of suspicious). Anyway, this sign which I saw. 2 sentences which by themselves are meaningful and usual. It's just kindof strange when they are put together.

If it's monitored by cameras, why do you need us to call the police if there is anything suspicious?
And we should call the police in cases of suspicious activities because the place is important enought to be monitored by security cameras which are nevertheless prone to failure during periods of suspicious activities and must rely on civil minded citizens who happens to walk past to call the police.

Groundhog Day

I just did a paper on Groundhog Day. If you haven't seen it, you really should. It's a 1993 comedy film starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. It's deeply philosophical (but then all good movies are), and religious people love it( one reason is that it contains speck of wisdom from Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity). It's a great feel-good comedy and quite a decent romantic film. It's deep and meditative without getting preachy.

Phil, played by actor Bill Murray is trapped inside a
time loop in the small town of Punxsutawney while covering the annual Groundhog Day festival. Every morning he wakes up in the same bed and it’s always February the second. He has to relive the entire day, again and again, apparently without end.

Here's my paper for those of you who are interested:[pdf]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_(film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/


14th May 2007: Hey I got an A for this paper. Althought prof. commented that the language is "somewhat rough". I really got to work on my english this vacation.

Happy Birthday Professor Dawkins

Richard Dawkins celebrated his birthday on the 26th of March. Friends and well-wishers from all over the globe send him pictures, videos and audio messages. Here's mine.
Check out other's here.

Happy Happy Joy Joy Parliament

I read this article on Little Speck: Too much self-praise, What Singaporeans want is some frank, value-added debate. By Seah Chiang Nee, The Star on Mar 24, 2007. [Link]
It reflected on a topic that I have been thinking about so I thought I'll post it here.

NEEDED in 21st Century Singapore: A new breed of articulate Members of Parliament who can match the likes of Lee Kuan Yew, S. Rajaratnam and David Marshall.

With few exceptions, today’s lot – whether in government or opposition – lacks that sharp tongue and fire in the belly that marked the previous generation of politicians.

As the Old Guards left one after another, they were replaced by young, co-opted technocrat-MPs, who were good problem solvers, but who lacked the passion and ability to motivate Singaporeans.

Neither are they good at debates or explaining policies in the pull-no-punches way that Minister Mentor Lee and his peers could do with ease.
The lack is fine as long as the PAP continues to enjoy the complete trust of voters the way that Lee had.

But his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, is dealing with – and has to win over – better educated, more cynical citizens with very high expectations.

That requires the party to govern with more than top scholars and good policies; it also needs people with the power of persuasion.

After demolishing all strong opposition one way or another, Minister Mentor Lee has admitted that many young MPs lack the opportunities to learn the thrusts of political debate.

For its own survival, the PAP has to allow its MPs to speak frankly and openly on issues of the day, even if it is galling to the party.

It has another reason to do this. It has rejected the opposition playing a checks-and-balance role in the government, saying it can do it by itself. For this to be credible, observers say, it has to be seen doing it.

Most Parliament sessions here – unlike in Kuala Lumpur – have been tame, polite affairs involving prepared questions and answers, after which the MP would sit down to make way for another.

This was evident during the recent Parliament budget session that was to give important tax changes (GST up 2%) and rising poverty a proper airing.

Most government MPs spoke in favour of a rise in the unpopular Goods and Services Tax – no GST can be popular anywhere in the world – from 5% to 7%. Yet they made it sound like it’s the long-awaited salvation.

(The budget also provided offsetting payments, with the poor and older people getting a larger share, which will help to mitigate – for five years – the impact on the lower class).

Singaporeans are generally opposed to the GST increase, which is the centrepiece of the budget, and several government MPs pitched for more aid to the poor.

But the majority of backbenchers praised the budget, some in exuberant terms that are opposed to public sentiment.

Despite the leaders’ exhortations to MPs to speak their minds, not many had done so.

A sample of backbenchers’ exuberant praises included – “generous and forward looking”, “good intentioned” and “made in heaven”, “a landmark budget”, “wonderful”, “innovative” and “pragmatic.”

The generosity of the budget is possible under the stewardship of the ruling People’s Action Party, said one MP, sounding like a Pyongyang news headline.

Another remarked: “Nowhere else in the world can you get a budget which includes love and compassion in abundance as this one.”

Some young Singaporeans say they were turned off by these flowery but useless descriptions.

Even a commentator of the pro-government Straits Times, Chua Mui Hoong, was moved to call on the PAP MPs to go beyond “cheerleading”.

“Too much self-praise by the PAP is off-putting,” she wrote.

“An MP's role should include critiquing policies, voicing independent points of view and scrutinising the executive's decisions,” she said, adding that some did so, but they were a minority.

Former PAP MP Hwang Soo Jin, 71, related how a doctor had surprised him by asking why Parliament had bothered to debate the budget when the government had already decided to implement it.

Hwang wrote in the Chinese Lianhe Zaobao that there was a 'chasm' between Parliament and the people.

After Lee Kuan Yew stepped down as Prime Minister in 1990, his successor, Goh Chok Tong had steadily eased up on control of people’s’ lives.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who took over from Goh, has pledged to continue the process.

Some feel Parliament could do with the return of several strong-minded ex-PAP backbenchers, who had the moral courage and skills to take on ministers.

They included former Speaker Tan Soo Khoon, Dr Tan Cheng Bock and Dr Wang Kai Yuen, who have left behind an outspokenly biting legacy.

Soo Khoon once hit out at government wastage, targeting seven gr-and ministerial building projects, labelling them sarcastically as the “Seven Wonders of Singapore.”

He likened some of these gleaming new buildings to five-star hotels, which led him to wonder if the ministries were competing to see which of them could “be better than the Four Seasons Hotel.”

“(People) complain because they realise that if you spend so much money, then we will be taxed more. That's why people are unhappy,” he added.

Parliament is a stepping-stone for tomorrow’s leaders, which explains why MPs should be encouraged to use their flair.

Some analysts, however, believe that sustained periods of affluence and stability are not ideal to producing brilliant leaders; only chaos or wars can.

It was chaotic Singapore in the 50s and 60s that threw up leaders like Lee and his contemporaries – and that just can’t be re-created.

Enough said. Well I have to say that the Singapore Parliament does seems to be very boring, to me anyway. It looks, to me anyway, staged. Kind of like WWF. I use to believe that WWF were for real when I was young. I mean they look real, the people appears to be really fighting one another, they seems really passionate about what they are doing and stuff. But in the end, it's all a show. The outcome of the fights are always decided forehand. Kind of like the reality TVs we have nowdays. The results are not exactly surprising.

Maybe I am not been fair, but maybe been on the same political party does make it hard(er?) for you to disagree on policies. It seems that the MPs will come up all hot and enthusiastic on some issues like: "are you sure Singapore can support a the growing population?(6.5 millions)?", "are the welfare payment really enough?", "is there enough done to off-set the GST impact?", "our transport system, is it good enough?", blah... You know.

Then some ministers will come on and in a nut shell says: "yah, don't worry about it, we're good."

And then the MPs will be like: "Oh, really? ... Ok."

That's what it looks like to me anyway.

And our few oppositions are not really very impressive, frankly.

That's why its so hard for Singapore government to answer a question straight and not treat us like idiots.

There's no one to hold their feet to the fire and asks difficult questions and demand a straight answer.

Do you agree?

See! I told you people are weird!

Or at least horny.
A guy was charged with having sex with a dead deer that he found in a ditch.

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/03/oh_deer.html#comments

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1122061deer1.html

Enough said.

Humans are weird 2

(I have to break up the post into 2, blogspot won't let me post one long entry.)

We also do self-mutilation, or self-inflicted violence as some would call it. What's the deal? Who the hell will want to slash their own arm? [Link]
No animals would do that. The concept would be too strange for them to understand.

We not only like to hurt yourself, we also like to hurt other people( not to mention animals). We call it torture. And we are very good at it. [Link] It take thinking to come up with so many different sorts of tortures. The Chinese were surprisingly very good at it. The Roman were petty creative. I hear a good torturer can keep you alive for months, even years.

It's not all in the past though. WWII would see some outstanding examples in the use of tortures. Cambodian recent past can gives you a few pointers. All these happens not too long ago, less than 50 years.

And for the toture-inclined but in a hurry kind of guy, you can consider human sacrifice. Popular in almost all major religions in the past and still happens more often than you think till very recently. South East Asia was filled with human sacrifices. And then that's the problems of deciding if witch-burning is a form of human sacrifice. Oh well.[Link]

You know what's really really weird? Necrophilia. Fucking a corpse. Again it happens more often than you think. It's happening right now. Only a human, with all our intelligence, can look at a dead body and think of fucking it. No animals would do that. The thought would not even occurs to them.

Only humans, who is superior to all other animals, could have done any of the above things. Can anyone explain to me why?

Humans are weird

No doubt about it, we humans do some strange things. Things no other animals do.
You know what's interesting? Suicide. There are over 1 millions suicide a year and many more attempts. That's about one every 30 seconds. But the time you read till here, another guy have bite the big one. I said guys because more guys die in suicide than woman, although the woman attempt more. We are better at it. If girls want to talk about equal abilities, more woman have to die in suicide. The rates are rising, it's a fact, check it out yourself: [Link]

And we are the only creature to do than. Have you seen any animals jumping off down a building? Or lying down in front of a train? Or hanging itself from a roof? No. Only human.

And if it's not enough than we kill yourself, we kill other animals too. Not for food. But for fun. That's what hunters do nowadays. The thought of hunting for fun would never occurs to a tiger or a lion. Hunting is hard work.

And if's not enough than we kill other animals, we kill other people too. Murder. Now that's a human concept. As society progresses, murder is considered bad manners, so we change it to assassination. A new name.

And when we do it in huge numbers, we call it genocide. Happens more often than you think.

And when both side kill each others in huge numbers, we call it war. Oh yeah.

Now if you combine killing yourself with killing other people, why you are a probably a suicide bomber.

Suicide bombers. Now that's a strange concept. I mean what's your excuse? "Because God tells me to"?

Religion. The big one. We can convince ourselves that there is a man (clearly a man because only a man can be so egoistic) in the sky who sees all and hears all, and spend his time listening to all our problems and from time to time fixes them.

Now, the man has a list of ten things we cannot do and if we did any of them, we will go to a place of flames and fire and torture and pain and suffering and damnation for ever and ever and ever.

And you know what, the man loves us. Oh yeah.

Continue on next post...

You can speak in Tongues!

It's easy. Anyone can do it. Lots of people are doing it.


If you want to speak like that (and why won't you want to), but don't know how to, this is your lucky day! Why I have a YouTube video here to teach you how.


And if that easy to follow guide could not help you, have no worries! Because I have found you a Speak in Tongues in 5-Days or Your Money Back deal! It's guaranteed!

Just do it!!! ahunnnn moooarrr juuteeee nanoooo verrrrr bbbabbbababa oororor hhaahah!

Seriously, people actually do this stuff. Normal, intelligent and rational people.

Link to malaysian athesit article.

Let's make babies

What to do? The country needs more babies.

Show your patriotism, your country needs you now.
Ladies keen to do your part, please send a recent photo to email below.
Only those above the age of 16 need apply.

What's wrong with Singapore.

Our great leaders
The news for the last week has been mostly on the parliament debate, or the lack of it. Mr Brown made a list of the top 10 things our ministers and members of parliament said about the new budget. It was “soooo good”. The excellences of the budget aside.I have begun, sometime back, to take everything the government said with a pinch of salt. The reason is simple. I realise that everything that is been said, has an agenda. I mean, seriously, these are politicians. It’s doubtful even how much of their own opinions they can express, after all most of them are from the same party. What we have here is a system where a single party find its own member and through various means get the people they chose elected. It’s kind of a weird system in the sense that I don’t know how much of the people’s wishes are represented and how much the people actually wants the “chosen ones” to be their voices in parliament. Although I must also admit, it kindof work (I prefer it to the mess in US for a start). But there are drawbacks to everything.

Sense of Belonging
One of the drawbacks is that the people’s sense of belonging is eroded. If you can never have a say in a place, the place never really belongs to you. And this is a serious issue. And this issue will get increasingly serious with the influx of immigrants (6.4 million I heard?). The new immigrants, having just arrived have little if no sense of belonging or emotional attachment to Singapore. So the increase amount of new immigrants will reduce the total sense of belonging as a whole. While the current citizens on the island have a certain amount of emotion attachment, it too is reduced by an increase in the amount of “outsiders” in their country. It may not sound nice, but it’s true (and I don’t mean it in a bad way). The newcomers have their own language, habits, bla….and well I would said, Singapore as a general whole are not too happy with this invasion of their space. Anyway, the point is, the more different Singapore becomes, the less sense of belonging we can come to expect from the common man in the street.

The 10 years series.
What’s wrong with the 10 years series? Well recently MOE phased out the pre-1997 ten years series because the syllabuses have changed. Well, that’s pretty reasonable, but the students(and I suspect the parents) panicked. It was reported (thesundaytimes march 4 2007) that students are hunting 2nd hand book store for the old 10 years series. Prices have increased for those old books and I suspect(again) there will be a pirated maket going on soon enough. Kiasu? Yes, but more than that. Singapore students pass exams by doing 10 years series. To a point where if you want higher marks, do more 10 years series. I dare say if we ban 10 years series, Singapore students won’t know what to do. Why do I say that? The only subject without 10 years series is literature, which also happens to be the subject Singapore students score worse in. I suspect (yet again) that the concept of walking into an examination hall and expressing yourself without a prior answers to refer to scare the hell out of our students. “But what if I don’t put down the correct answers!!!” Personally, I hated 10 years series, never actually did any. I feel the over-reliance on 10 years series breed a generation of people who are good at memorising a given answer and sticking to it. Destroys ones confident of expressions. And forms a habit of doing the ‘correct’ thing, which may not be the right thing.

Censorship
So many things to say and examples to give. I’ll just give a recent one: Incredible wife makes disappearing act
What the fuck were they thinking?
Seriously, creative industries are going to have to play a great part in Singapore economy, after all our only resource is our people right? Well I just want to say that for creative individual, either everything goes or nothing goes.

Strange world, no?

It has been a while, and I must utilise my time-tested excuse of heavy schoolwork, as my reason for not posting. This Chinese new year break is the only time I had for a long time to gather my thoughts and focus my attention onto something other than school.(No idea whatsoever, of course.)

Anyway, Chinese new year is a time where you can observe who is the leader in the beverage industry. You know, with all the people you have to meet everyday, and all of them holding a drink; you can tell roughly what's popular and what's not by what are snatched up and what are left untouched. From my unscientific observation, pokka green tea is leading the pack. I would say well ahead of cola and F&N. That's no question, I like it too.

An interesting and unexpected discovery I made from this study is that most of the major players in the drinks industry, make their orange and lemon drinks totally from syrup. Yes, not a drop of real juice. It's all artificial favors, all of them! Now, I know that you won't find this shocking nor interesting, and neither do I.

But! Consider this. I have right now, siting on my kitchen sink, a bottle of dish washer, that claims that it's made out of REAL lemon juice! Why, oh why, do we use real juice to make dishwashers and uses artificial favours for our drinks?

And to drive the point further, in my showers, there is a shower gel (brand name is a name of a bird) which states that it contains no less that 1/4 hydrating milk! I guess the world is divided between people with not enough food and people who showers with 1/4 hydrating milk.

Scotts has a funny blog on North Korea vs capitalism.

So we figure it’s better to send them money in return for – and this is the genius part – North Korea NOT doing something.
We’re pretty smug about our capitalism, where we exchange actual goods and services for money. But I think you’d have to agree that the North Korean system of agreeing to NOT produce any goods and services, in return for massive amounts of money, is a better way to go.

Remember Alice in wonderland? Where down is up and up is down?

Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens...for those of you who knows no tomorrow.

Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens,
Before the crimson bloom fades from your lips,
Before the tides of passion cool within you,
For those of you who know no tomorrow.

Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens,
Before his hands take up his boat,
Before the flush of his cheeks fades,
For those of you who will never return here.

Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens,
Before the boat drifts away on the waves,
Before the hand resting on your shoulder becomes frail,
For those who will never be seen here again.

Life is brief. Fall in love, maidens,
Before the raven tresses begin to fade,
Before the flame in your hearts flicker and die,
For those to whom today will never return.

ゴンドラの唄(Gondora no Uta) Song of the Gondola
Composed by Shimpei Nakayama, lyrics by Isamu Yoshii
Link

Ikiru could be my best loved movie. More on this later.

Is metaphysics possible?

In metaphysics, we did Aristotle's statement:

"There is a science which takes up the theory of being as being and of what "to be" means, taken by itself." -Metaphysics, Book Gamma, section 1

We talked about the presupposition that the structure of our language reflects the structure of our thinking, and that the structure of thinking reflects the structure of reality and we were tasked to post an answer to this question:

What reason do we have to believe that the structure of language and thought reflect a 'structure of reality'? If there is no such correlation, or if we cannot prove that there is, does that mean metaphysics is impossible? If this is the case, there is a further question. If mathematics is a language the structure of which reflects that of a certain category of thought, if physics and the natural sciences depend heavily on mathematics (as they seem to), does the hypothesis that there is no correlation between language and thought on the one hand, and the structure of reality on the other, also render the natural sciences impossible? Or is there a difference between these sciences, and a 'science of being qua being' that makes a difference here?

I have no idea.
Anyway, This is my post:

The relationship of thought and language is, in itself, a sticky chicken and egg dilemma without the added complication of them reflecting the ‘structure of reality’.

I think what we can all agree on is that language has evolved to allow us to communicate with each other and each of our languages is influenced by our different culture. Take for example, the old saying that Eskimos has 100 words for snow. Well, if you live in a place where you have an urgent need to know the different between “snow that is melting”, “snow that is moving”, and “snow that is going to kill us”, it make sense to have a large vocabulary for snow.

Taken in this sense, language is simply a toolbox of labels that we use to share information. It doesn’t really matters what colour the screwdriver is, as long as it gets the job done. Shakespeare seems to agree when he wrote “A rose by any other name, will smell just as sweet.”

But now the chicken and egg game has 2 different players, namely thought and reality. What evidence do we have that our thought structure reflects or is even capable of comprehending reality? Take for example, Einstein’s general theory of relativity, it turns out that space and time are variable and interchangeable. The faster you go, the slower time goes for you, and matter causes a “dent” in space-time? Now these are really weird ideas, and honestly, it’s not a concept you can explain and understand using words.

But the fact that this theory and many others have been discovered shows that our minds can comprehend the working of nature that we don’t even have words or pervious knowledge of. And the fact that this knowledge has proven true over repeated experiments is a clear sign that our understanding of the universe is ever increasing and evolving.

Professor Richard Dawkins sums up my point beautifully with his “middle earth” analogy. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4676751.stm)

Our brains had evolved to help us survive within the scale and orders of magnitude within which we exist, said Professor Dawkins. We think that rocks and crystals are solid when in fact they were made up mostly of spaces in between atoms, he argued.

"Are there things about the Universe that will be forever beyond our grasp, in principle, ungraspable in any mind, however superior?" he asked. “Successive generations have come to terms with the increasing queerness of the Universe."

"Middle world is the narrow range of reality that we judge to be normal as opposed to the queerness that we judge to be very small or very large." He mused that perhaps children should be given computer games to play with that familiarise them with quantum physics concepts.

Human beings need some methods of making sense of this huge world that lies outside the narrow range of reality that we are used to seeing; which brings us to the problem of mathematics and reality. Let me share my view of mathematics and why it does not render knowledge impossible.

Personally, I’m torn between the Platonist views that these objects do exist - just not as part of the physical universe, but as part of a separate universe of abstract objects; and that Mathematics is simply a story with certain constraints, written by human, just like in Sherlock Holmes.

My personal view is that universal ‘laws’ (for a lack of a better word), certainly exist. Like 1+1=2 and so on. So the laws are real and plentiful. We can observe these laws in action in our realm of reality, through experiments and so on.

Now mathematics is simply another toolbox, constructed as a proxy, for us to interact with and comprehend these “laws”. As they as modelled and build from the “laws” that we know of from experiences, they naturally reflect reality. In fact, their sole purpose is to reflect reality in a way we could understand.

If you look at the history of mathematics, we have constantly build upon the know rules and invented new methods of doing things. Mathematics is in essence a toolbox that has been put together by us who need to solve certain problems. If we came across a problem that we cannot solve with our current tools, we upgrade the toolbox, take for example, algebra.

Taken in this context, there seems to be no conflict between the “laws” of nature and the laws of mathematics. Our comprehensions of nature shape our rules of mathematics.

Yah, I was making it up as I go along.

Momofuku Ando (1910-2007)

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"peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat"

Yes, I love instant noodles.
--

Feng Shui taught in our tertiary institution

I was appalled and speechless when I chanced upon this article published in November 2006.

"Using science to learn about Feng Shui" My Paper, 28 Nov 06, (c) 2006 Singapore Press Holdings Limited.

Basically it's singing praises for a "Basic Science of Feng Shui" course offered at Singapore Polytechnic for the past 8 years. I cannot imagine why an educational institute with any credibility will want to be associated with this pseudoscience. I mean how low can you get to teach feng shui?

The feng shui people was of course advertising that their wisdom is good enough to be certified by a national polytechnic.

"first Feng Shui Master to offer training and education in Feng Shui through a nationally accredited tertiary institution."

As if this would give them any credibility.

Please, let us reason. Feng shui is the magical notion that luck, wealth, health and so on can be controlled by moving furniture, wearing a certain colour, carrying an amulet and sleeping in certain direction. It contains astrology, numerology, gemancy. It is by any reasonable definition, a superstitious.

As much as the believers would want you to believe, feng shui is not science. Let's ask a simple question. You claim all these wonderful and mystical knowledge that allows you to manipulate energy and possibly fate, and bring happiness and joy to everyone you meet. So the question is: "What evidences do you have that the world actually works that way?" If you are a reasonable and intelligent person, you would see that feng shui could not be proved. Do be a science, you need to be able to produce consistence and measurable results in controlled experiments. You can't just walk around and say it's true because I say so, and I have a nice suit and a fancy compass. What is happening here is that we are giving the feng shui masters a "magic check". He or she can say anything and give any advices and never be wrong. Who's going to correct them?
It's magic.

And the that's chi. You have to believe in chi if you do feng shui, because you are after all, moving chi around. Some call it energy, some call it vibration, whatever, you got to do chi, or the game's is up. It's the “energy” word that gives the whole thing a flavor of science. "Energy is a scientific thing right? It got to be science if you involve energy." My question is still the same, "so prove it". This mysterious energy that you find in all things (master yoda would make a fine feng shui consultant by the way), could you measure it? Could you detect it in any way? No? Well, then its not science, it's magic. Now many feng shui people would at this point, starts blabbing about how you can't detect this energy but you can see its effect on things...blah blah blah. Ok, next logical question. Can this mysterious energy of yours have any real effect on the physical world? Yes? Well, if it has an effect on the measurable physical world, then why can't we detect it? That's illogical. Oh right, feng shui doesn't need logic, it's magic.

I wanted to list down a couple of logical fallacies on feng shui. Logical fallacies are basically false or incorrect logical principle that makes an augment invalid. (Brorrowed shamlessly from the skeptics' guide to the universe and Practical skepticism)

1. argument from ignorance, we can't prove that it isn't true. We can't prove that feng shui doesn't happen therefore feng shui is real. It's impossible to disprove a negative. There are so many things that can't be disprove, I could be a alien. You can't disprove that.
   
   
2. argument from authority, there's why the suit and funny clothes are important. It's ture because the master says it's true.
   
   
3. argument from personal incredulity, I can't explain or understand this, therefore it's true.
   
   
4. false Continuum, there is a fuzzy line between science and this, therefore they are really the same thing.
   
   
5. Inconsistency, chi effects the world we live in, but we can't see or measure this effect.
   
   
6. "Special pleading, or ad-hoc reasoning This is a subtle fallacy which is often difficult to recognize. In essence, it is the arbitrary introduction of new elements into an argument in order to fix them so that they appear valid. A good example of this is the ad-hoc dismissal of negative test results. For example, one might point out that ESP has never been demonstrated under adequate test conditions, therefore ESP is not a genuine phenomenon. Defenders of ESP have attempted to counter this argument by introducing the arbitrary premise that ESP does not work in the presence of skeptics. This fallacy is often taken to ridiculous extremes, and more and more bizarre ad hoc elements are added to explain experimental failures or logical inconsistencies."
   
   
7. appeal to popularity, many people believe this, therefore it's true.
   
   
8. argument from age, it's got to be good because it is traditional or has been around for a long time.
   
   
9. Equivocation is the use of more than one definition of a word or phrase so that a faulty conclusion is reached. Think energy, chi, energy fields.
   
   
10. Galileo Gambit where the writer compares herself (or whoever she is supporting) to some famous person, noting some alleged similarity. "They didn't believe Galileo, and now they didn't believe me."
    
    
11. Scare tactics, threatened people with some undesirable consequence, ie bad luck.
    

Feng Shui is bunk.

The way I see it, there are people that genuinely believe in feng shui and its magical effects and they really wish to use it to help people. These true believers are sad, but forgivable. But then there are some who sees it as nothing more as a scam to get money from people. It's easy when there is no clear guage to what feng shui is. False hope has always been in demand.

To depress me even more about the state of the world, Motorola patented a Feng Shui measuring phone. [Link]