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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Momofuku Ando (1910-2007)

News Link

"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]

A Sad Day

Mr Brown's friday colume has been suspened. For those who don't know what happened,[click here]


Technorati Tags: Mrbrown

Strange News

Have a day off today and was browing through the newspaper while having a leisurely (late) breakfast. Came across an article on Li Ao's comment that Singapore are "stupid". Just as I was pondering over this, I came across this article.

Three Singaporeans were found safe Thursday after getting lost on what they said was a mission to find a legendary karate expert on a snowy mountainside in Japan.

All three were dressed in light clothing, and get this, were instructed by one of the guy's dying father (a Singapore karate teacher by the name "Shui Jen Shui"), to seek out a legendary karate master in Soma Village, a district of Hirosaki, who would then give him a secret book on the martial art.
The quote of the day have to be this:

"Japan looked so small on the world map that we thought we would be able to find him straight away."

We could make a movie with this.

On another note, Scientists have discovered fossils of a 375-million-year-old fish, a large scaly creature not seen before, that they say is a long-sought missing link in the evolution of some fishes from water to a life walking on four limbs on land. Fossil Called Missing Link From Sea to Land Animals.

"...Other scientists said that in addition to confirming elements of a major transition in evolution, the fossils were a powerful rebuttal to religious creationists, who have long argued that the absence of such transitional creatures are a serious weakness in Darwin's theory."

In an interview, Dr. Shubin, an evolutionary biologist, let himself go. "It's a really amazing, remarkable intermediate fossil," he said. "It's like, holy cow."

I think it will be cool to create a series of balloon sculptors showing the different stages of evolution of a species. Maybe starts with the fish, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, mammal, and then human.

***********************************************************************************
Update 14 April 2006: This just in, "Singaporeans believed to have found Japanese martial arts master". Just when I thought the world couldn't be more weird.

Fund raised down by 30%

I have noticed many student volunteers raising funds for voluntary
welfare organisations(VWOs) do not know enough of the organisation to
answer simple questions posed to them during flag days.
I have encountered many that knows only the name of the organisation,
and practically nothing else.

The public are now more wary of charities and will naturally want to
find out where their money are being channelled and to what causes.
Most will be asking what percentage of the donation goes to the
people.

If the volunteers cannot answer these questions satisfactory, the
public will be reluctant to contribute and may even lose confident in
the organisation.

So I think it is important for VWOs to educate their fund raising
volunteers to answer the questions that the public may pose. It is
also the responsibility of the volunteers to familiars themselves with
the working of the organisation, in order to present the proper image
of the organisation to the public.

Channel u & i, its good bye. Thank You.

I like channel u and channel i. After staring at channel 8 & 5 my whole life, they came as a refreshing change. Unlike other channels, i feel that they actually care. Its a frequency thingy. Our wave lengths are the same. Channel 8 programmes just makes me want to roll my eyeballs. I can safely say that about the only shows i do watch, are imported.
Oh what the heck, in the end, its always about money.(microsoft sucks).

Farewell, my old friends. Its time to get cable.

latest death toll, channelnewsasia link

The latest death toll hits 114,000.
A very good site from Channelnewsasia for news updates and links to the latest donation means:
Killer waves

Outreach for disaster victims

News Headline:
---
biggest earthquake in 40 years...the death toll surged past 63,000 on Wednesday...survivors told terrifying escape stories...

Another 22,000 were confirmed dead in Sri Lanka...Thousands of European and American tourists remained unaccounted for... Children made up a large proportion of the dead...

...fears of a catastrophic outbreak of disease.

But food and medicine was already desperately short in many stricken regions ... the overall death toll could surpass 100,000.

---
...nearly 80,000 refugees in Indonesia's the provincial capital...
About 2,000 bodies were buried in mass graves, but many rotting corpses remained on the streets...
looting had broken out and starvation loomed.

---
In Sri Lanka, the toll rose to 18,000
...hundreds of decomposed corpses.
....Mourners used their bare hands to dig graves...

---
...4,000 people were confirmed dead in India's...officials said the toll on Car Nicobar alone could top 10,000.
...received no word from dozens of islands in the Andaman and Nicobar chain which stretch over 800 km and were close to the earthquake epicenter.
... vultures gathered as survivors grimly buried or burnt their dead. The number of dead passed 8,500 Tuesday.
---
Thousands of foreigners remained missing in Thailand...
...government fears they are dead.
...700 foreign tourists are believed to be among those killed in Thailand.
... full horror wrought by waves up to 10m high that tore babies from the arms of their parents and carried children and the elderly out to sea.
..."People were screaming and kids were screaming all over the place, screaming 'help, help'. And after a few minutes you didn't hear the kids any more."
---

Dear friends,
I'm sure you have heard of the disaster that have hit various countries.

We have been so fortunate to be safe and well with our friends and family. The festive period should be a time of sweet reunion with our loved ones. Instead, 'babies were torn away', and 'graves dug with bare hands'. This is no time for you or me to sit around and feel helpless. I think one report put it best: "If within three to four days relief does not arrive, there will be a starvation disaster that will cause mass deaths."

We may not be able to do much, but lets help in any small ways we can to make this easier for our friends in the affected area.

I have included some means of giving donations, various collection point and relief programs. I urge all of you to help in any small ways we can. This festive period, instead of buying gifts and holding parties, donate the money to charities, help out at collection centers, and spring clean, give away your old clothes. This will make your holidays so much more meaningful.


Thank you.
mingde

List of sites of supporting organisations that are sending relief aid, and links to their site:
http://asia.yahoo.com/reliefappeal/

***Mercy Relief***
"In response to this humanitarian crisis, Mercy Relief and its institutional partners. Singapore Soka Association (SSA) & Young Sikh Association (YSA) together with the Singapore Red Cross Society (SRCS) are conducting a nationwide fundraising campaign for the victims of the calamity. This fundraising effort would allow Singaporeans from all walks of life to extend aid and compassion to our fellow neighbours in a substantial and concerted manner. The funds raised will be channelled towards supporting humanitarian relief and rehabilitation operations for more than 12,000 families in the affected countries, and assist in bringing their derailed lives back on track.
For more information, please call Mercy Relief at: 6332 6320"

You can donate though many channels:
-Online,
-Phone,
-Credit Card,
-Cheques,
-direct ATM transfer,
-Internet Banking.

Information at their site:http://www.mercyrelief.org/asiatidal.html

***Singapore Red Cross***
Red Cross House
15 Penang Lane
Singapore 238486

Tel : 6 336 0269
Fax : 6 337 4360
(near Dhoby Ghout MRT)


1.)By chequePlease address the cheque to "Singapore Red Cross Society" and indicate behind the cheque "Tidal Waves Asia". Include name, address and telephone number at the back of the cheque as a receipt will be sent to you.

2.)Donors may wish to come personally to make a donation (either by cash or by cheque) at the Red Cross House, 15 Penang Lane between 9.00am to 5.30pm on weekdays and from 9.30am to 12.30pm on Saturdays.

3) Donors may also make on-line donation at DBS website @ https://internet-banking.dbs.com.sg

For more information, please contact us @ 6334 9152 / 6334 9153 / 6336 0269.


***BF FireFly Mission***
Buddhist Fellowship’s Firefly Mission, together with Tisarana Buddhist Association and Brahm Education Centre are launching a Suffering Relief Program for the Tidal Wave victims in Sri Lanka. We appeal to you for 3 types of assistance:

1. Donation of items:
Medicine, first aid items, sanitary pads, toothbrush, toothpaste, tin food, dry food and CLEAN (new if possible) blankets, towels and clothes. Please pack them in bags or boxes and label them separately, eg.Food, Blankets, medicine. Clothes to be separated and labeled MALE, FEMALE and CHILDREN bag. Boxes are preferred but please do NOT seal.
ALL items are to be sent to Tisarana Buddhist Association at 90 DUKU Road, Off STILL Road (East Coast). Tisarana Buddhist Association contact number is 6345 6741.

2. Donation of cash:
Cash donations are collected at Brahm Education Centre. Cheques are to be made payable to Brahm Education Centre Ltd.
Cash or Cheque made payable to "Brahm Education Centre Ltd" are to be sent to Brahm Education Centre, 9 Lor 29 Geylang #04-02, Singapore 388065.
Please indicate "Suffering Relief Program" on the back of the cheque.
Receipts of items purchased for the victims with the cash donations will be collated and accounts on how the funds are dispensed will be available for inspection at the end of the project.

3. Going to Sri Lanka to Help:
A team of volunteers is being arranged to go to the disaster sites headed by Firefly Mission Coordinators, to assist with the Relief Suffering Program on the ground by educating the victims on hygiene, precautions and dispensation of aid. Anyone interested to join this team, please submit your name to Judy Soon at bfellow@singnet.com.sg. Trip is likely to be during the first weekend of January, to be confirmed.

If you have any questions, please call us at 6842 6422 or 6745 5007.


***Singapore Sinhala Association ***
We are making an appeal to all to put our hearts and hands together and exemplify the spirit of mutuallove and giving. We are collecting items to donateto the victims in Sri Lanka.
The items could beanything that are daily essentials.
For example:Blankets, Clothings, sanitary pads, milk powder,biscuits/cookies, slippers..e.t.c
Kindly deliver your donation items to Marine Parade Family Service Centre before 31 December 2004(Friday) by 5pm.
Address: Blk 53 Marine Terrace #01-227 S440053
Tel:64450100

We will hand over all donated items to SingaporeSinhala Association (SSA) to directly hand over the items to the affected victims.

OR

The Singapore Sinhala Association (SSA) together with theSingapore Sinhala Buddhist Association (SSBA) andMaha Karuna Buddhist Society (MKBS) has commencedwith immediate effect a relief collection drive.
Goods collected in kind or money will be sent to SriLanka within the next few days.
Collection centre is at Sri Lankaramaya Temple, 30C St.Michael¡Çs Road,Singapore.

Following Items are needed urgently.
1.Tents / Blanket / Linen, etc
2.Food (Pre-cooked or Ready-to-eat meal packets)
3.Water Purification Tablets
4.Wheat Flour, Pulses and Rice
5.Drugs (Paracetamol, Antibiotics, Dressing & SutureMaterials, Disposable Syringes)
6.IV Infusion (Saline & Dextrose)
7.Portable Generators .

We are also jointly organizing a special MultiReligious Blessing service on 30th December 2004(Thursday) 7:30 pm at the Temple.
CONTACT 63910031 or 96751695.
Please visit http://www.singaporesinhala.com/disasterrelief/ for more information and updates.
--

unhygienic practice of barbers

I sent this letter to the Straitstime forum, Ministry of Environment, and the Minister of Health. Let's see some answers.

Recently I was at my neighborhood barber shop getting
my haircut. I noticed the barber using the same razor
for every customer without changing the blade. I
imagine this repeating everyday in barber shops all
over the island.

When I got back home, I ran a search on the web and
found that in September 2003, there is a news article
that HIV may have been passed between two Australia
sisters who shared a razor to shave their legs.

Any procedure in which a needle or razor is used on
more than one person involves a theoretical risk of
HIV transmission because of the possibility of
infected blood on the instrument.

Personal service workers like tattoo artists,
piercers, hairdressers and barbers, massage
therapists, manicurists, and acupuncturists should all
be educated on the risks and to take the necessary
precautions.

I will like to know if there is any guidelines which
are designed to protect both the workers and their
customers from HIV and other blood-borne illnesses
such as hepatitis.

Thank You.

Unsang heros

A higher then average number of patients at woodbridge mental hospital are teachers.
Scary huh.