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.