A year break from cockroaches

I was so happy I haven't had to destroy any cockroach for more than a year. That peace was broken tonight by a biggie.

I hope this is not the beginning of the return to the past.

What the heck Malaysia's rescue workers

What the heck were these three Malaysian government rescue workers doing relaxing in front of the trail map of Mt. Kinabalu?

Time will tell if these folks from the government there to help were actually doing their job. Anecdotal evidence so far points to the regular guides doing the lion share of the hard and dangerous work rescuing people.

This is the age of social media, smartphones and ubiquitous connections. When the survivors are recovered enough and start sharing their experience we will know if these blokes are getting the credit they didn't deserve and the true heroes were passed over.

I am waiting but not hopeful. I recall how they botched the job saving people when Malaysia suffered flooding in many parts of the peninsula. They are also part of the culture which allowed MH370 to be lost, and I read they want to build nuclear power plants?

Update: 11:15 pm

Needn't need to wait long. The tourism minister has responded. Who cares about the 38 comments. They weren't there. I am waiting for more info.

Autonomous Vehicles coming here

I am looking forward to that day when AVs are commonplace on our roads. The sooner the better. If we are very early and successful it would also become a tourist attraction. My guess is this is achievable as a Singapore only solution and then sometime later other cities can also do the same.

Let's not forget the impact on the livelihood of those who drive vehicles. What jobs would they do? Retraining and reskilling them must be the highest priority.

AVs will transform our culture.

Read article at Today Online.

Singaporeans feared dead in quake

Yesterday and this morning the first thing on my mind was to look for news of the kids and teachers surviving this quake. I was more hopeful yesterday but by last night my hopes of them surviving this was practically extinguished. It is time to grieve, and I think much of Singapore is grieving too. Especially painful to read that some of them are trapped under boulders and it is almost impossible to retrieve them.

This is especially hard for the parents because they had very reluctantly agree to letting Peony Wee go on this trip.

They will blame themselves for giving her permission. You might say it was an act of God that tragedy ambushed them but this is not the time, at least for a while to be rational. Reason must wait patiently and make way for grief. Deep bottomless grief like a black hole tugging at us too to enter its orbit.

So I must stop here because where can you find the words to continue?






















Update: 7:50 am

Finally something from the WP. Haven't seen them on my Facebook for a very long time. Appreciate her empathy.

Update: June 8, 8:55 pm

The PM said it best especially the poem by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943). I just went to his page to take a look after I saw him changed his profile pic to the one his father passed away.

SG moving to high touch politics

Politics here has evolved to high touch affairs. Just convenient I come across a post with three ministers. I don't think we have a choice about this. It is useless to ask if this is a positive development. There will be people on both side of the divide. Wisdom is recognizing we cannot return to the security and comfort of the familiar past. We just make this as good as possible. 

Earthquake: Freak tragedy at Mt Kinabalu

First thing I was looking for this morning was an update on this quake. I had feared the worst when I read last night about the missing pupils and teachers. Very sad to learn the demise of the TKPS pupil. I used to drive by that school fairly often. To an outsider they were unusual because everywhere primary school children wear white shoes. At TKPS they wear black.

Wilkie Ong spoke for many of us including myself. Why did Peter Tan have to bring Jesus into this? They regularly pop up when something like this happen. What is the point here? Doesn't he know that you spend every wakeful moment thinking death might come anytime you could end up dying from mental illness? Christians like him are sending out a strong signal to non believers to avoid the Gospel. I bet he doesn't take his own advice and he is probably also blind to that fact. But Facebook is a free for all place and we have to allow people to say their peace.

Doris had probably never been to Mt. Kinabalu. I have seen kids climbing the much harder Kilimanjaro. Everything is unsafe for the reckless and every adventure must have adequate safety planning. I can sympathize with Doris and her kind but I hope such parents do their homework instead of remaining in the zone of fear. Well not all kids are suitable for climbing Kinabalu or even OBS if they are outliers. At the end of the day parents must know their children. Just don't extrapolate your kids to other children.

PM: We are not ready for same sex marriage

Nobody should be surprised on this one. What is interesting is studying the comments.

My take is at least half or more of us are not too bothered about this issue at the moment. This is the anecdotal silent majority. Those who care about this and are against out number those who would want to see same sex marriage legalized here. However if the latter group push harder, I think more from the silent majority will come out against them.

It would be very interesting to watch what the Pink Dot gathering is like this year. Would they attract even more supporters? When they light up in pink as darkness falls, I thought that was a pretty sight to behold. As for love, I think they are looking for it and are confused between finding and discovering love. Many heterosexual marriages aren't even about love, so in that sense same sex relationships are farther along discovering God's love.

The commonest love in our society is that between parent and child rather than between husband and wife. Regularly we see over time spouses more attached to their parents than their other halves. The stronger love between parent and child looks set to persist into the next generation. In fact this is the hidden strength sustaining our society.