Shanmugam vs Thum Ping Tjin

No way I have the time not only to sit through this but also pay close attention to the to and fro between Shanmugam and Thum. What I came away is the ways lawyers and historians differ from each other and I get tempted to consult Karl Popper on the limits of knowing. This is a waste of time!

What is fake news and what is falsehoods? While we are not talking about the shape of water here, this is actually much harder than that. Water will take the shape of whatever container you pour it into but truth which is to be practical often mixed with some off-truth may or may not assume the shape of the container you pour it into.

So Shanmugam wanted to pour his collection of facts but without explaining what he chose to omit, Thum did the same as well. Once into his lawyerly containers and the other into what credible peer historians do for their discipline. Spare us we the people all these or we would have become lay lawyers and historians ourselves.

Good luck if you want a just law against fake news and being clever not to be clear and defined what is the objective of this law except in the broadest motherhood terms. Afterward those in power can use it to legitimize their use to protect and advance their power.

The problem between me and you the government is a simple and old fashioned one: Can I trust you? I don't think there is straight forward answer to that. The context and God forbid the nuance is necessary to answer that question.

Shanmugam was the driver and Thum his hostage passenger here and the minister was wasting our time!

Update: 2:15 pm

That is from a friend's Facebook page. I have known her for many years now but didn't discover how prejudiced and racist she was until Trump became a presidential candidate.

People do anything they want to news. The article by Newsweek was slanted to attract readers but by no means wrong or irresponsible because the writer eventually cleared the air. People just want to read what their hearts want to confirm. This person deny the global climate is warming and among many things insist Obama was not born in America. Oh yes, she loves Trump and to her the Donald can do no wrong.

My point? People pick their facts and join the dots they want. They can be highly disciplined like Shanmugam and Thum were or patently stupid like this friend.

Update: 2:25 pm

I am just dismayed with this bunch who commented on her post. Clearly none of them read the Newsweek article.

I have also given up trying to persuade people that are like that. The heart is more powerful than the mind. In fact it directs the mind. Nowhere is this more obvious than in financial markets. Generally we are somewhat or very crazy and somehow we got by without blowing up the world.

Update: 9:50 pm

A whole new level of faking is just at the edge of the horizon. Only a matter of time more people are capable of doing this. Here is an example of making photo realistic fakes of Obama speaking which is impossible to tell. How do you deal with such challenges? What use are fake news laws against the march of technology.



Read more at Synthesizing Obama: Learning Lip Sync from Audio SIGGRAPH 2017

Update: April 3 12:05 pm

Just got that from a friend. If Shanmugam had done a good job, there would not be an opportunity like this to lampoon him.

Josephus Tan mistake with the PAP

Clearly Josephus Tan can add diversity to the PAP the largely monolithic mix but what a clumsy party the PAP is. The many leaks, especially the public ones only stoke cynicism among us. What a huge gap between the talk and the walk. This can only reinforce the perception that they are always screwing us behind our backs. My understanding is admin service officers and ministers area always playing heads I win, tails you lose to entrench themselves forever in power. This is not the way to grow courage or skin in the game. Facing voters who do not have an alternative during elections is not skin in the game.

Even with the huge margin of safety they have gotten for themselves, Josephus Tan was still beyond their comfort zone.

The war goes on: LGBT vs Conservative Christians

On the surface it doesn't look like the LGBT community is attacking anti-LGBT churches. It becomes clear when I read the article (Lou Engle: An American Threatens a Christian-Muslim Divide in Singapore) alluded to in this story.

It was nice to see Lawrence Khong and his gang avoiding any action to publicly provoke the LGBT community but forgiveness and graciousness is not part of those on the LGBT side and they have taken this opportunity when a perfect excuse became available to borrow the government's knife on them. To me that is the main story.

The Racial Balance

I read no more than 10% of this Natgeo story on race in America. That is all the time I could afford. The thought circulating in my mind all the time is a multi-racial place like ours, we have taken care but without shouting about it, not to upset the racial balance here. We may not be able to survive the social convulsions the Americans are living through right now.

Let's watch this ongoing American experiment. There are rich lessons for us.

Nothing new here: Singtel sucks

For years now, we all know Singtel sucks. We have usually managed to deal with them quite successfully though. It is the papers and social media we got to learn how bad their service is.

The secret to "staying safe" with Singtel is to keep your business simple, engaging them with the sales and service processes which most of their customers need them for. If you do that you are OK. Unfortunately that formula did not work for me a few days ago.

Yesterday, I waited a whole day for the SIM card to arrive to no avail (see their email above). Today I called them and as usual after almost half an hour wait, I was told it would be coming to me in the mail and the card is set for activation on March 28. I asked them why didn't they say so in the first place?

Moral: Avoiding transacting online with Singtel.

The last time we tried buying Office 365 for the family, we had a lot of problems until it ended with them offering wifey, "a thousand apologies". That month we didn't even receive our regular bills from them.

The reason for this blog post is I forgot Singtel sucks. Now I will remember for a long time and act defensively to protect ourselves.

Friendship: The one who never left

He is not the only one who ignores me. On my part I usually do not remember either after a day or two. I just do this for each one of them, The majority are more polite and usually return with "Thanks" or "Thank you"

“Friendship isn't about whom you have known the longest... It's about who came, and never left your side. ♥”

This has been going on for decades but only this morning I decided to blog about it. The children are now old enough to have made and lost friends at least a few times over. I want to impress upon them to be the one who never left. On this I have told them so many stories. I have even shown my parents' and my wedding photos and asked, how many of these friends have left. 

This is the spirit of the Gospel. 

To be practical sometimes you have to be quite silent because that is how they prefer it. You don't want to be a pest but you always as much as possible try to learn how they are getting on. Occasionally out of the blue one might asked for help and I never said no.

What I said no to are those who wants to meet up socially. I have no time for that. They loved to used such occasions to talk about frivolous nothings, complain or an opportunity for humble bragging.

Update: 9:40 am

Guess what? All the years of patience was worth it. I just got a word of thanks. But even if I do not, I will still keep doing it. It's the spirit of the Gospel. 

This is what inequality look like in Singapore

There are 40 copies of this book, "This is what inequality looks like" and 105 reserves. Thumbs up to the intense interest in this subject but I am also worried about the simplistic solutions the public is likely to entertain and then the half-hearted attitude the government always have towards poverty. They are forever nagging us about the need to change mindset but perhaps the greatest imperative for a new mindset is on their end.

I have not had the chance to read this book but based on Han Fook Kwang's essay in the ST today, it hinted very much like what I had read countless times in the US. I even have a friend in such dire straits. For a while she was on the verge of being homeless. Countless times she almost didn't manage to get into a shelter and that would meant sleeping in the streets.