Easter @ GBB Flower Dome

CNY has made way for Easter at the Flower Dome of our GBB. The CNY theme was much prettier and more colorful.

Must return after Easter to see what they will switch to. My guess is that they would remove those styrofoam eggs and call it Spring!

Pic by the younger daughter.

And this one with my S3

SG Govt uses Spy Software

I have been waiting for news like this one. I agree with Deng Xiaoping that if you want to keep a secret you must not write it anywhere. Ezra Vogel discovered this about Deng when he write up that guy. Suharto went to his grave with many secrets too.

Just as well I don't deceive myself by locking up my blog believing that it is safe. I leave this blog open but I do not encourage visitors.

Link to yahoo article.

Update: March 16, 12:45pm

Must be fair lah. SG government denies running spyware.

HOTA and Trust

In the past I wouldn't bother to spend much time on this but now I do because the government can not longer be trusted.

So I went to find out more abut HOTA. I am seriously thinking of opting out. A hospital and healthcare system that only understand $$$ is likely to be loose with certifying brain death. A overloaded hospital system and over worked doctors are also more prone to make mistakes than in the past.

I am not agreeing to HOTA until they can prove its safety.

This is the hard fact of life: if everyone is safe, all of us are at risk. This is cruel but usually safety comes from not running last in the herd where predators pick you off. That is why I am floored by the Gospel. It has the confidence to stare down this fact of life and win. I am in awe that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio has taken on the name Francis (of Assisi) as the new Pope.

We will learn at great cost that rationality is necessary but not sufficient to keep Singapore going.

Update: March 20, 9:35am

And see what our CJ had to say. He wasn't talking about HOTA but Euthanasia. It is relevant though.

Update: March 24, 9:35am

And now from Sunday Times the story the CJ alluded to. Suzanne Chin was definitely brain dead because her brain stem was damaged. Furthermore a heart valve was damaged to the point that it cannot be fixed except with open heart surgery. What happened to her was a miracle that she came back good as new.

Calming, not collapsing the housing market

I suppose this opinion piece would be widely read. My take is that it is just examining how the room might look like as you arrange the furniture in various ways. Every configuration has its pluses and minuses. To me KBW is just trying to educate the public by getting them to discover and learn the hard truths of housing. At the end of the conversation, he hope they would be more reasonable.

Policy options are sensitive to the environment. If we are living through a recession and low property prices now, so many solutions which are politically suicidal become viable. High prices is a huge headache but we can be sure prices must come down; we only do not know when.

If I were him, I would just endeavor to stay alive until the rain pours. The take away which Niall Ferguson in his book, "The Ascent of Money" peppered with many examples in his chapter, "Safe as Houses" tells us that asset enhancement schemes using your live-in houses invariably come to grief.

Just as Lincoln said, "You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time", there is corollary for investing too. It could go, "Some people can get rich all the time, and everyone can be reach some of the time, but not everyone can be rich all the time". Therefore asset enhancement in trying to make everyone rich all of the time is eventually doomed to fail. It is imperative that we de-link housing from asset appreciation. This will end badly if the market and politics involuntarily end it for us. God forbid, but we could use a recession now.

Related: Sleepless over possible HDB price reduction

Education and Success

At least the government is no longer in denial about social mobility. Heng Swee Keat predecessor was stubborn about this until his bosses contradicted him and he had to climb down.

But I wonder if they know the targets they are chasing aren't stationary but fast moving trains. That is the reason why our education system keep improving and we never seem to have arrived. We are all tired. More and more people will start to wonder and look for another game to play. This is simply one which a small group wins with many losers.

To have more winners we need more pathways to success ending with many alternative destinations.

He says, "We cannot have broader definitions of success in education without our society accepting broader definitions of success in life"

He is spot on and why are we like that? My quick one word answer: Confucianism. The scholar gets all the prestige and rewards. Here is where I feel that LKY and GKS got it wrong. I insert GKS because he was a great believer since he set up the Institute of East Asian Philosophy after he left politics.

Confucianism is quite unbeatable when the conditions are right and the right people are in charge like we had until now. Regrettably China's history had proven over and over again that is rare. Methinks if we cannot have a more consistent way to get first class governance, we must at least make bad government difficult to take root.

Our intellectuals much less our artists, never spent time trying to meld democratic ideas with Confucianism. They only understand both in terms of conflicts and clashes. Since we absorb culture, values and knowledge mostly in English and the premium we place on transparency and accountability; especially when respect must be earned rather than assumed Confucianism cannot win. Furthermore Confucianism demands the highest virtue and ability from our leaders which looks like we are not able to sustain. The Junzi also often turns out to be a Pharisee under the glare of transparency and demand for accountability. What we need to do in the meantime is to keep our families strong and hope for the best.

Pope Francis

I like the name the new Pope had chosen for himself: Francis. He was drawing his inspiration from Francis of Assisi, not Xavier who was also a Jesuit like him.

Wikipedia entry which was so quick to update said this about him:

Cardinal Bergoglio became known for personal humility, doctrinal conservatism and a commitment to social justice.^[12] A simple lifestyle contributed to his reputation for humility. He lived in a small apartment, rather than in the palatial bishop's residence. He gave up his chauffeured limousine in favor of public transportation.^[13]

The Roman Catholic Church is at her best when she has little political power. The Church brings balance to the world even if it fails to upset the apple cart which is the character of Christ. So she lives.

I was never interested in the popes until John Paul II came along. It is impossible not to compare any succeeding pope with him. This pope will bring the spirit of Francis of Assisi to his reign. If so, he will upset the apple cart and that's good.

Unthinkable Free Public Transport

To entertain a suggestion like this one, the government must have become desperate. I am proud of those who dislike this idea. Most voters in other countries would welcome such freebies, but we know nothing is free.

Politically for the PAP survival this is the least bad option. What to do? The mistake had been made years ago. Raymond Lim the Transport expert turned out to be only good on paper. Now they realize it is a terrible thing to live down. Philosophically this is so anti-LKY.

I just hope our people do not pick up the bad habits we see everywhere. It was with much blood and sweat we forged a prudent and responsible society. If we lose it, we are finished.