PAP Tampines: Free haircut for poor people

This is really insensitive in status conscious Singapore isn't it? They should just drop or replace the words "Lower Income". What an excellent way for the PAP to make sure that as few people as possible turn up. What an insincere effort to help the lower income. And please don't tell me you were afraid that many who could afford to pay for their own haircut show up. There are so many ways to do this better. One way is to pay in advance.

I hate giving old things to people although I don't mind receiving second hands. When I give away a used good, I apologize to the person that it is not new. That is respecting that person at least as much as yourself.

PAP Tampines branch you have a long way to go. You have no blinking idea what is like to be held back and suffer because you can't make ends meet. Neither do I know what it is like to be poor but I approach these people with humility and always alert that I might missed something and be quick to apologize. If you do not know how to put these people in the right place play it safe, well and right by considering them better than yourselves first. That is the practical meaning of being a servant leader.

Update: 10:35 pm

Sigh! Even our school principals know to quietly arrange help for their pupils in financial distress in order that they might not lose "face".

Update: 11:00 pm

This is my guess. The PAP branch wants to show it cares for the lower income more than they actually care for this segment in Tampines North. Don't get me wrong, they are not callous and they do care for the poor. However they care far more about looking good by looking after the low income. In other words they were making use of the poor to build their PAP brand. I don't care if their objective aren't purely and completely noble. That is difficult for anyone of us to achieve but I this is beyond the pale. Just like school principals once did not care to publicly identify the financially needy among the pupils to receive aid. I am glad those bad old days are over in our schools.

SG 50th

Just found this one courtesy of Lawrence Wong :-)


It is called things that make us. I like it. At least it is not about success and business values. Both are indispensable but we have often forgotten except during National Day celebrations that they are means and not ends.

Would they also include "Feelings that make us"; "Hopes that make us"; "Relationships that make us"; "Fears that shape us"; "Events that shapes us", it possibilities are countless but we have plenty of time.

I hope we enter our 50th year with vigor and energy plus get the damn train system working properly!

William Wan: Where is our empathy?

I spotted this article early this morning way before the online version was available. I thought to myself who is going to read such a long article? It turned out I was wrong. Disgusted readers must have forwarded this to their friends and they in turn forward to more people.

As with many readers, I wasn't happy with what William Wan had written. Mr. Wan forgets that he is not Nelson Mandela or Pope Francis to be telling us this. He grossly exceeded himself.

Patsy Goh put it well on ST Facebook. William Wan should explain himself.

If William Wan had any sense he should have gone to Anton Casey to offer his help. Even Bertha Henson very publicly had offered some good suggestions to his PR agency, tongue in cheek may be. In my view he needed only to act on half of them.

If he is very publicly forgiven I think he will get to keep his job. I don't see that coming though. This guy is more interested to finagle how he might con us into a public display of forgiveness. Though I belong to the group for the sake of his family has forgiven him, I also recognize that he is incorrigible.

William Wan I agree with you that we should grow in empathy but this cannot be achieved in a hurry. Empathy must be matched with greater shrewdness or we shall not forgive ourselves for being suckers. Individuals can show great empathy but history has shown this is not possible with society. You are asking for the impossible. And since you started this why not finish the job by helping Anton Casey mend the bridge with us. We would all be better off for this.

• 

  Patsy Goh Well, well, well. What an article. It should be saved for posterity and analysed to the hilt, every sentence. Methinks someone's knickers seem to be in a huge twist, no? But for now, let me just look at a few of his statements.
  
  "..Empathy for your fellow human being, no matter how bad that person, is a large part of what makes us humans..." I really love this sentence. It really takes the cake because I've long had this notion that everytime someone says that 'no matter how bad' a person is, we should empathise, we should 'understand' them, I suspect something else is going on. 
  
  I think that's just an excuse for bad behaviour, and to excuse whatever bad behaviour certain others have done or are going to do. Funny how, the very ones who advocate this, will then, depending on the people/circumstances, then will not be excusing any other bad behaviour?
  
  For example, hey William Wan of the Kindness Movement- where the hell was your voice when all the so-called "social media justice" people were asking S'poreans to take a step back in the wake of the LIttle India riots last month and to understand the plight of foreign workers? Where was your voice, as head of the Kindness Movement. In fact we have never heard anything out of the 'Kindness' Movement unless it is the 'kindness month.'
  
  Where was your voice for the Vietnamese-Australian guy who was hanged for drugs a few years ago? Why, even with the chinese bus drivers strike in 2012- at first alot of S'poreans and the social media were condemning the bus drivers and then later on, there was sympathy. Where was your voice, even when many of the most vocal 'social media justice' people toned down and began to realise that these people were as hard done by, as the average struggling S'porean worker. Got your voice, meh? I didn't hear any.
  
  And this whole statement is really telling: "..It is also somewhat ironic that many of those who are angry against authoritative figures or the elites for perceived abuse of power, often behave just as badly when they perceive that power has shifted to them - a power that is simply derived from the sheer number of people egging them on. Similarly, those who chastise the Government for groupthink also themselves fall prey to a groupthink mob mentality..."
  
  Wahahaha! So the plot thickens, eh? Is this what it is really all about? 
  
  In fact it's an irony that you, William Wan are taking this stance becasue not once in your article did you mention the fact that this Chav of a man, Anton Casey also made fun of a taxi driver for wearing what would protect his arms from the probably 12 hours in front of a freezing aircon in his taxi. He may have had arthritis. Anton Chav Casey didn't give a damn about it. He surely wasn't kind. But you, as a Kindness Movement head, sure didn't see that, because you were too wrapped up in defending all the WRONG VALUES. Wow.

  Like · Reply · 41 · 2 hours ago · Edited

Update: 3:05 pm

William Wan should read what the Business editor of the Independent newspaper, Jim Armitage had to say about Anton Casey and he will learn how ill advised his piece in the ST is.  This town has many anonymous Anton Caseys. We need to teach one a good lesson. Any of them who behaves like Anton Casey is a net negative to our economy and society. If they could only stupidly but less stupid than Anton identify themselves we should urge the Manpower Minister to rescind their permits to be here. How naive William Wan. I was right that virtues must come as a balanced set. Compassion must be matched with shrewdness. There is no love which is not tough love even if toughness and love are not present together, or at least perceived to be. The love I know was brutal and murderous - a man hanging on a cross dying for me. We are stupid hypocrites otherwise to exaggerate one virtue without its other supports. Sadly this is often what I discover in far too many do-gooders. Too many do good to look good. I love Mother Teresa: Do small things with great love.

Update: Jan 25 10:10am

For those who still want to hang Anton Casey out to dry, he is now as good as a corpse. He is no longer the high flying, highly paid expat. If William Wan wanted to lend him a hand now is the time for empathy. Prior to this, I thought Mr. Wan was confused about what empathy is. The time is now for him to show us the way to empathy for Anton Casey but I doubt he will do it. He is roiling from his mistake himself. Actually I would like in our government fashion to ask him, "Mr Wan, what was your agenda all along?" You are so mixed up, which school would still want to invite you to talk to its pupils about kindness. If parents got wind of it, the principal would get a earful.

Just saw this. I agree with Cookie Tan.

• 

  Cookie Tan If he's been fired, it's enough, forgive and let him go. It's nothing differ from him if we unable to show the grace.

  Like · Reply · 12 · 11 minutes ago

Tan Chuan Jin on the Nordic Welfare State

Tan Chuan Jin and his colleagues must be pleased to have this development in the Nordic states reported in the media to rebut those who have been plugging that we learn and adapt their social system. To me nobody was better than LKY in explaining why it wouldn't work here. They couldn't be more different from us and we could never from our mixing pot of cultures and religion pull it off.

It is easy to sell and win support if you could borrow a successful model elsewhere but what Singapore needs really is to find our own way and continuously discover ourselves in the process. Now this is very hard and also frightening; a journey into the unknown. Even historical Venice is no longer instructive.

Like us the Chinese are also at a crossroad today. Unlike them our government think we have a working system and it ain't broken why discard it? I belonged to the camp that emphatically disagree with them. Also to me, it looks like the Chinese are going to be more successful navigating the huge changes than us.

Put aside the Nordic model. Worry about our model but most of all our greatest challenges come from demographic change and the external environment especially when the Chinese overtake us.

We can make a good living when they are behind us. It is an even better living for us with bountiful opportunities when they are closing the gap with us because of the insatiable demand they generate. It is most hazardous when they are on the verge of closing in and overtaking us. The waves they create could cause our boat to capsize. Now if we can survive that and with them ahead of us, we can forge a new and mutually beneficial relationship with them. But first we have to survive when they pass us.

Think and decide what we must do to survive and thrive on these challenges. Let's not waste time and be theoretical talking about models. Government is getting more and more abstract here. I was aghast at Gan Kim Yong's health care model. It is not about models but beds, although not necessarily beds in acute care hospitals. I don't care for beautiful plans on paper but if we keep running out of beds, the MOH and its minister have failed. There is nothing to explain.

We have many problems without solutions today and a government in denial by forcing reality into their neat framework so that they could just tweak policies. But as citizens we see that increasingly things are not going well and the failure rate rising. If this trend persist we will only have time and resources for fire fighting. We would be in a vicious cycle like so many SMEs here.

Shan on Anton Casey

Today Shanmugam becomes Shan for me on this blog. This is to be regarded as a thumbs up. This chap doesn't speak like his ministerial colleague especially those from the military or civil service. You can see he tries and often succeed at wearing our shoes when he speaks.

I agree completely with Shan on what he said about Anton Casey. Yes, we must and can be bigger than that.

We have targeted him and not the British expat community. That's is some maturity.

And I found this at ST report on what Shan said.

• 

  Mette Langebæk As an Expat living here in Singapore, I'm deeply impressed by your flawless mrt and bus system. It's the way of the future. Coming from a country (Denmark)where we are very concerned about the environment, I feel almost envious about the infrastructure in singapore. Congratulations! My husband and I have chosen not to have a car here, and we manage very well. 
  Way to go Singapore!!

  Like · Reply · 67 · about an hour ago

Good for this expat family. I am glad you have high praise for our public transport system because it is much better than where you come from, but as locals we must compare and remember that the system used to be better. For benchmarking we need to compare ourselves against our betters and endeavor to close the gap with them especially Hong Kong MTR, which is even older than our system.

Back to Anton Casey, let's leave him aside and show compassion for his wife and son. We shouldn't punish him and allow his family to be collateral damage. Time to forgive even if he didn't sincerely apologize. I don't believe he is stupid enough to repeat this. Now he knows he can't make the good living he has been enjoying here back in the UK.

An unusual teacher apologizes to student

This is an unusual teacher. He apologized to a student in the most humiliating way possible. Who is the disciplinarian here. TOC has a transcript of the words exchanged.

It was at this point that the teacher shouted at him, “Justin!”

The boy turns around, walks back to where he was and says, “[You don’t have] to shout. I’m not deaf, right?”

The teacher replies, “I tell you very nicely [to] sit down…”

The boy cuts the teacher off in a raised voice.

“Don’t shout. I deaf ah? I deaf? I am asking you, ‘Am I deaf?’”

The teacher says, “I tell you…”

Again, the boy cuts him off.

“Am I deaf?”

Teacher says, “I don’t know.”

Boy replies, “Don’t know then you should not shout.”

Teacher: “But I tell you very softly…’

The boy interjects: “You should not shout! I’m not deaf, ok!”

Teacher: “Ok, I apologise. Please sit down.”

The boy refuses and instead tells the teacher to apologise to him with specific words.

The boy is still not satisfied.

“Who ask you to shout? I deaf ah?”

Teacher says, “Did I say I am sorry already? Did I say I am sorry?”

The boy interjects again, “Say, ‘Justin, I am sorry.’”

The teacher then did as the boy instructed.

See the red highlight. Even TOC could not bring itself to put it across to readers directly.

Teachers who have opted to teach in this school know what they are in for. I am sure the ordinary teacher would not be able to cope. Today we saw the Gospel in action. The teacher had as good as done for the student what Jesus had done washing his disciples feet. No wonder the principal called it a teaching moment. The teacher totally put aside his ego for the sake of this class and this bad boy. I am sure the story didn't end where the YouTube clip finished. The engagement must continue away from our eyes. The teacher must have been very clear minded what he wants to achieve with the class and with this kid and is willing to pay a huge price to get there. I salute him! MOE has courage and done the right thing to have these two Normal Tech schools. Our school system want to make something more out of these kids and is not afraid to fail trying.

Now this is something that the PM would be right to not be afraid to try and fail. Not public transport, civil unrest and certainly running out of hospital beds.

PM: Pleased with Lonely Planet on Singapore

LOL, as PM and also personally invested in these projects at Marina Bay how could he not like the generous hyperbole from this Lonely Planet writer.  I don't care for MBS but I like GBB. And what if we did not build the GBB? That may actually be a better choice. We could build a better one in future or not at all.

But MBS is for the well heeled and not for the majority of Singapore. For that we have more local and not glitzy (read cheaper but rarely free) alternatives mostly in the heartlands. To me our most remarkable destination must be the grand old dame Botanic Gardens. That is truly the place the rich and the not so rich could share. It really helps that you do not need to pay to visit and a few times a year the Orchid Enclosure is free to our students and accompanying adults. The GBB will never match the Old Dame.

Lonely Planet writer Daniel Robinson couldn't have written us up any other way. It was accurate but most important he isn't the only travel writer. He faces much competition including users' feedback say, Travel Advisor etc., Know how your bread is buttered. We have built it with much coin and we want others to help bring in the visitors.

What these writers naturally omit is not to criticize what could be hidden from the casual and temporary visitors. So there is no need to talk about train breakdowns or even the riot in Little India.

To the ordinary Singaporean, what have MBS and GBB done for us? Very little because trickle down economics do not work and there is the additional insult in the guise of a spike in gambling problems destroying more than a few families.

MBS and GBB must be seen from a narrow perspective for it to be a huge success. Throw in the F1 too. In the broadest perspective I think they are mistakes but most people will only discover this after quite some time. Do you expect an enterprise that is not built solidly on good old fashioned values to stand the test of time? Who is that guy who just beat KS Li to the be richest guy our side of the world? He made it with casinos. It will not last.

Mr. Robinson took care not to mention the Singapore Flyer. Surely he can't missed seeing that.


Update: 4:20 pm

I just checked the PM's post. There are about 4,600 likes and 220 comments nearly all positive I think as I don't have the time to read everyone of them. I am so grateful for them. So my thank you to the top few. Here goes. Thank you Darko Molinar, Kuroneko Shingapooru, Christy Khoong-Tanguy, JiaMa Ren, Faiz Budak Kecik, Mike P A Tan, Esther G Aw, Abdul Rashid Sahari, Michael Soh, Betty Leong, Maimunah Farid, Lim Walter, Betty Leong, Chandramouli Dorai, Mary Adele Ng, Li Leng L, Zainab Mohamed, Katy Lau.....

But there was one guy who stood out. Alvin Hartono Ho asked: Isn't govt suppose to serve us citizens?

Alvin is right but so was John F. Kennedy admonition telling us not to ask what the country can do for us but we we can do for the country. Of course here on this island Singapore = Government = Singapore. The only other place off the top of my mind with this equivalence is North Korea but otherwise they could not be more different than us.

Just as the quiet investors and traders needed suckers each time a financial bubble burst, some of us need suckers first for our Plan B to work. No thanks actually I wish the reality had been different.

In case I am seen as uncaring but what else could I do? Just check out what P N Balji posted today at his The Independent: What's happening to my country?. He said it more incisively and concisely what I had on and off written here for myself and family.

People should just go and ask the surviving Old Guard sans LKY how they feel about today's Singapore. Lim Siong Guan had recently written his experience and view. Regrettably Ngiam discredited himself. Go check with Jek Yuen Tong, Chua Sian Chin, Othman Wok etc., and ask yourself how come George Yeo is serving Robert Kuok than Singapore Inc?


Update: Jan 23 9:10pm

I just read this from the NYT. Sure, this guy isn't a travel writer. It is a different perspective of MBS and like the one from Lonely Planet as valid. People should look at an issue from enough angles. Those who offer high praise at the PM's page are just clueless or in some cases self centered suckers.