What I do on every last day of the year since twenty four years ago is predictable. I had always woken up early and fondly reminisce getting ready to go fetch my bride. It was also the last time my mom woke me up as I will never sleep at my parents' place again.
This has been a very busy year. Since yesterday I had dwelt on a February wedding that is never going to happen because the bride to be had died. I have no time to think about myself. My sis's colleague had also passed away recently in November. She was months away from getting married. A brain aneurysm and an unsuccessful op ended her young life.
I am glad I have this blog. Early this morning I went to check what I had posted before on this day. I played Julie Roger's song on YouTube in this blog and decided I must provide a placeholder for another performance of the same song.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Everywhere I looked: Hang the Rapists
Yesterday I wanted to make a post with a photo of protesters, which I am spoilt for choice which one to use. I just wanted to write GRIEF. When you have too many thoughts you can't write but grief is how I felt in every train of thought. I also hope the rapists will hang for this most heinous crime. Only the most cruelly killed girl's parents can save them now but clearly Indian society will not allow that. Gross injustice had persisted for too long that mercy must wait or there will be more tragic injustice.
Yesterday morning my daughter asked if I was aware that the young victim was planning to marry in February. What a tragedy.
Update: January 3, 2013
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Kindle Paperwhite Arrives
This is really reminding me of my stamp collecting days as a kid. The reader is the album and the stamps are the ebooks.
Most books will not be properly read and a few will be reread many times.
The old Kindle Touch will not be wasted. It will be populated with non-Amazon books.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
LHL: Singing Our Unsung Heroes
I had missed adding my "like" to this before I captured the screen. See the PM's note at his page. On Facebook, most of my "like" go to PAP, stuff like these and what MPs had done for residents at MPS, house visits etc., It is the big policy issues and their no-name ideology that I took issue with.
- Said Elhadj Singapore is for sure the best country on earth !!! I come from Paris, and i can tell you life is bad there, we feel insecure, streets are dirty, economy is bad, people not educated at all...Singapore is wonderful and modern... LONG LIFE TO SINGAPORE !!!
- Peter Wong My hope is that this "wealth of spirit" will be demonstrated by every Singaporean, and not just a few
- Lisa Hong-Ping Kong Paris is a lovely city in its own way; i have been fortunate in past trips there, with my parents, to have very positive experiences with kind and helpful Parisians. Singapore also has its share of kind and generous people...we may not emote so well, but i do believe many of us have our hearts in the right place
Friday, December 28, 2012
PAP or WP: Nation before Party?
I told myself that I just need to be patient and the fog will clear in good time. WP press release was useful because it didn't bother to assign blame but answer the question who is pro Singapore.
The PAP is a bad loser. It will scorch the earth as they retreat. For them the party ranks ahead of the nation. Study history and you will see that's this eventually lead to corruption. We must bear in mind what Sylvia Lim warned us in her concluding line above.
Here are some noteworthy response from facebookers and the number of likes they had gotten. It is a strong evidence that our voters aren't stupid.
- Jack Lam WP - please help understand this better:
Why WP didn't bring up this AIM issue when you took over TC and why disclose this only when you get negative rating?
This is a matter of great public concern - why you guys haven't raised this in parliament so far?
- Koh Chin Kok Jack Lam, aiyo, WP is playing gentlemen, trying not to sabotage PAP, then you want them to expose is it? If not for PAP to sabotage, they won't be on the receiving end now.
- Maggie Chia Looking at how WP handles unprofessional behaviors by those who tries/tried to sabotage, you guys at WP are really world class professionals. I'm proud to be one of the WP supporters.
- Edmund Loke Jack Lam: Wrong! WP is working feverish to safe whatever they can on the system. PA play punk so it was to return the favor to them. 你做初一，别人做十五
- Erwin Lee @Jack Lam- What's the point of bringing up the issue earlier? If AIM already has the intention to terminate the service citing certain contractual agreement, do you see any usefulness in WP bringing up the issue and fighting over it and at the end of the day might achieve nothing? Remember the case on the spaces being leased to PA? Anything positive achieved? I would rather them spend the time thinking of solutions and try their best to overcome it. And not forgetting that WP chose to bring this up now is because of the "publicity" given by the MSM for AHTC's red grades. If this is the strategy of the PAP to bring down WP, WP has got to be frank to what actually happened. And remember "FRANK". And we are still waiting for the relevant parties to be sincere and frank to Singaporeans as well.
- Lim Tian Soo Many years ago when Mr Goh Chiok Tong was PM he said something to the effect that he see no reason why PAP should help those who did not vote for them. I start to vote for opposition since that day. When Obama was elected he said in his speech that he will also look after those that did not vote for him. His wife later said that they were brought up to respect those who have different views from them. I see clearly the difference between smart people and great leaders. This AIM case strengthen my conviction to have more opposition voice in Singapore. Thank you WP and Silvia Lim.
- Terence Foong I would personally think WP did the right thing by working for it's constituents FIRST, tidying up as best as they can at their home front, showing us that they are able to do the job despite the obstacles put in their way.
Who's to say that they would not be bringing this to the attention of the rest of Singapore, had PAP not jumped the gun and fired first?
If they had spent their time on this media battle over AIM first, it might've also meant less effort available for upscaling the systems from Hougang, and perhaps to less satisfactory results for the constituents. Then another guru will come and comment about how WP poorly served their residents and chose to cover their inadequacies by diverting resources to point fingers at PAP.
Nobody cares about that ANONYMOUS troll comment on Lucky Tan's blog, could it be the same fella commenting here too? Making accusations about cutting a deal with PAP? Wow. Thats one very "intelligent and insightful" comment for anyone to have to keep referring to.
Govt: Finally something praiseworthy
I have been criticizing the government so severely that I am looking out especially hard for something praise worthy to write about them. Desperately looking for balance. Glad to have come across this one. Policy makers are often adverse to doing this as LKY used to rue. They prefer to sit comfortably in an aircon environment. Sim Kee Boon kept Changi Airport in tip top condition by personally checking the details. So since Lui Tuck Yew had been experiencing public transport for himself, it is no wonder that those down the line knew what is right and good for them to do.
Should I be looking out for Teo Chee Hean riding pillion with a traffic cop? After all as defense minister he used to go up with the fighter planes.
Samsung Galaxy S4 ?
Imagine what the Samsung Galaxy S4 might look like. Quite impressive but not enough for me to pony up more money to trade in my S3 which is exceeding my needs already.
E-reading device ownership
See article
I hazard a guess that the picture in Singapore would lean further toward the tablet. I see people carrying and using them everywhere and I have not spotted another Kindle except my own.
Among those polled, the ones most likely to read an e-book included people with college or graduate degrees, those with households incomes more than $75,000, and folks between 30 and 49 years old.
Yep, my kids and nephew prefer the physical book. I think they will eventually convert.
Still looking to spot someone on the street using a Kindle Paperwhite.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Women in 30s-40s fearful of losing jobs
Women in their 30s to 40s fearful of losing jobs? Looks like you will spend the greater part of your life afraid and stressed. No way to live but it is a choice everyone has to make. We would love the trade offs to be less punishing and in the end a large number of them are just going to burn the candle at both ends and even in the middle if that was possible. They are afraid to lose out to those who run the rat race harder.
Wifey isn't afraid of losing her high paying job. We made the difficult trade offs earlier and because we started early, it wasn't any where as painful those in this clip shared.
Don't expect the government to solve your problem. They have become clueless as they are trapped like you in a box.
COE: Money is everything
Money is not everything but everything is money. Wise advice from an old friend when I got married.
We have ran this place on everything is money and never had the wisdom to understand that money is not everything.
Using price as the instrument of policy only make sense when it does not impugn money is not everything. This is clearly the case for transporting people and goods today. The message we are inculcating in the young is to be materially successful or life would surely be inconvenient may be painful. It is a bankrupt philosophy which can only bring us to an early demise. Government soaked in the praise for being an Inc. but duly forgot the lesson of history than commercial organizations have the shortest lives. Just look at how quickly membership of the Fortune 100 change.
The everything is money approach is guaranteed to eventually be a big vote bank loser. I am amazed at their stupidity. You will always behave stupidly when you caught religion. I see this happen over and over again in the history of Christianity. We will not be as fortunate as Christianity. We can't even better Venice by a long shot.
This government is even more out of touch than the GOP in America.
Update: Dec 28, 8am
There is no perfect solution to this COE problem but balloting is certainly superior to auctions.
Want to play it safe which civil servants love to do? Copy the playbook of the HDB. Balloting for new flats and a market driven resale flats, i.e., ballot for COEs but used car are market priced.
Many ideas superior to auctions are available. Just don't be stupid and stubbornly stay with the worst idea of all. Be flexible. There might be times where auctioning COEs make sense especially when public transport is as efficient as Hong Kong. This is not that time.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
WP vs PAP: Town Council Management Software
I think it all started when AHTC had a worse report card than the other 14 PAP TCs. Sylvia Lim explained the extenuating circumstances which landed them there pointing the finger at the PAP. I had received emails from friends about this but otherwise hadn't followed it closely. I also prefer to read about it from Yahoo News than the MSM which is always biased as long as they can get away with it. On the other hand Yahoo lacks the depth and skills of top rate journalism. I decided I would watch and see how this saga plays out.
TKL posted Lucky Tan's take on this on his facebook page. This chap is worth reading even if I often find fault with his arguments. I think he has been quite successful at carrying many with his views though. This fellow joins the dots very well but the problem is like most of us he is also a victim of confirmation bias. It takes tremendous effort to battle this tendency especially if you are trying to succeed in investing. To be fair to everyone, few succeed.
To me not all the facts are out in the open yet. We can't make a judgement until then. Unfortunately the way this is going the full facts might never be revealed because we can then see who has been untruthful. Reputation and character are too valuable to risk. In politics truth is often the casualty. Trust is eroded and we are all losers. As the overwhelmingly dominant political force here, I expect the PAP to assume moral leadership but it has always preferred to descend to the the level of legalism. How I wished they had responded swiftly with the full facts in the face of WP accusation. A delayed response can only contribute to doubt.
The behavior of our politicians and civil servants again remind us that it is wiser when we trust we also must have the wherewithal to verify. The bad habits of our politicians is eroding trust to the point that tough and necessary policies will become impossible to sell.
Christmas Eve shopping at Takashimaya
Takashimaya was really packing it in yesterday. Clearly they have drawn away shoppers from next door Isetan.
Christmas Day 2012
ST had done well to grace the front page with an event organized by HOME for FDWs. Each one was given a $10 to spend at the food court at 112 Katong.
I was also hoping to take an early morning walk at the Botanic Gardens but a drizzle put paid to that idea. It would be lovely to walk among the lighted trees as day breaks. Just as well the kids have a good sleep in then.
Monday, December 24, 2012
SU: Encounter With God Notes
So she had been using these devotional guides for the pat half year already. How time flies. I used them too long ago. I had started with Daily Bread before moving on to these.
Swavroski Prices
The daughter noticed nearly everything at Swarovski cost more than a hundred dollars. When we got back she took out her collection of old catalogs to check the prices. She found out that many of the common items the prices had shot up markedly and some by as much as 40% since 2008.
Swarovski has such good pricing power.
Simple and Meaningful Christmas Gathering
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