LKY and the ‘folding up’ of Singapore

Posted on August 12, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Get married, have babies’, 12 Aug 2012, article by Leonard Lim, Sunday Times

…In his annual National Day dinner speech to residents of Tanjong Pagar GRC and Tiong Bahru, Mr Lee kept his message on population simple: The country’s citizens are not reproducing enough, and migrants are needed as a temporary solution. But in the long run, mindsets must change, and the trend of declining birth rates needs to be reversed.

“If we go on like that, this place will fold up because there will be no original citizens left to form the majority,” he said. And we cannot have new citizens, new PRs settle our social ethos, our social spirit, our social norms.

“So, my message is a simple one. The answer is very difficult, but the problems, if we don’t find the answers, are enormous.”

Oh boy are we in trouble. According to the CIA Factbook, we are down in the doldrums in terms of total fertility rate at a miserable 0.78, which is way below the minimum number to replace ourselves. But what’s interesting about LKY’s exhortations to procreate is not what’s being said, but what’s NOT. For example, he did not say that educated women with pHDs should get boyfriends and settle down. He also did not specifically urge the Chinese to pick up the slack. What can only be inferred, from how he social-engineered the Singapore population experiment over the years and from the number of PRCs working here, is that it’s the faltering Chinese Singaporeans that he’s really concerned about.

Racial composition is rarely mentioned these days, but it seems that the old man built this nation using his own golden ratio of how each ethnicity should make up the population, even if it meant staunching its growth at certain critical periods in Singapore’s history, and to see his formula for success fail in the face of ‘personal choice’ is like God stomping his feet because his creatures are not sucking on the sweet nectar of the fruits that he created for them. I would feel the same way if I’m playing Simcity and my little people refuse to reproduce themselves. Anyone would be tempted to push the reset button rather than see your piece of work destroy itself. You get the feeling that LKY’s lament is more an emotional one than one that involves deep, probing reflection or acceptance of the fact that where we are now is the result of an abject failure of balancing First World ambitions with First World problems. We are having it faster, stronger, better but weaning ourselves off the face of this earth while at it, like tireless, naive male spiders trying to get it on with the Black Widow of progress.

The last time LKY mentioned ‘racial balance’ was in relation to the SAF and the tenuousness of our position in the region in terms of defence.

‘If we continue this way without the new immigrants and PRs and their children doing national service, the composition of our SAF will change. So please remember that…..It is in Singapore’s interest to have immigrants who can be integrated without upsetting the racial balance.‘

In response to the influx of Hongkongers in the eighties, he expressed a resolute fondness for the ‘status quo’:

Let us just maintain the status quo. And we have to maintain it or there will be a shift in the economy, both the economic performance and the political backdrop which makes that economic performance possible…..You look at the educational levels of the performers. It has got to do with culture, nature and so many other factors. But year after year this is the end result. Let’s leave well alone. The formula has worked. Keep it.

‘Nature’, of course, is a euphemism for RACE. A UMNO MP did not mince his words when taking the cue from LKY regarding the fate of the Malay majority in Malaysia, saying that LKY’s coercions were to ‘strengthen the dominance of the Chinese on the island’. When you mention ‘racial mix’ and optimal ‘performance’ in the same breath, it becomes quite obvious that you’re hinting that a certain group is driving the success of the country, though that looks set to change at the rate we’re welcoming Caucasian billionaires with open arms, not to mention plying foreign income off our two casinos. LKY wouldn’t want to mess up the HDB ethnic quota too. The Ethnic Integration Policy, by capping the proportion of races in housing estates, was intended to ‘maintain a healthy racial mix’, without specifying what an ‘unhealthy’ composition is. In 20 years when our homegrown population will presumably halve in size, the EIP and its secret ratios will need some revisions as well. I mean, you don’t want your neighbours rioting and burning the flat to the ground over curry smells would you.

We have no data on the proportion of races among Singaporeans renouncing their citizenship, erstwhile pretending that emigration doesn’t exist. If making couples have sex more often is an insurmountable hurdle, how about trying to figure out what’s making Singaporeans want to LEAVE? It’s likely that the answer would partially explain our reluctance to have children. Chan Chun Sing and the MSF have their work cut out for them, and if he’s serious about pushing our TFR up, perhaps he should come clean with the numbers, examine the reasons why people abandon their Home, and let us all know of the gravity of the situation, instead of hiding painful facts from Singaporeans like sweeping broken glass under the carpet. If all else fails, be wary when our NEWwater starts tasting funny and you feel tingly sensations in all the wrong places after drinking it.

But it’s not just a freak census that LKY’s terrified of. It’s the PM’s position and PAP leadership itself. In 1988, LKY remarked that Singapore ‘was not ready’ for an Indian Prime Minister, that he would have considered S Dhanabalan if not for his ‘Indian ethnicity’. Our cabinet still holds a majority of Chinese ministers, and remains a reflection of the ground demographics. So when it looks like that precious ‘formula’ is on the brink of shattering and LKY’s worst nightmares are on the verge of coming true (though he probably wouldn’t live long enough to witness it), we have an ENORMOUS problem on our hands, and it’s not just a matter of the EXTINCTION of the Singaporean, but the fall of a NATION, when the house that is our little red dot is no longer a home. In the spirit of the business parlance used by LKY, Singapore Inc may have to ‘close shop’ if nothing is done. And it takes more than a cheeky Mentos ad  (National night, hip hop or hip flop?) and a Ministry playing the role of Love Guru to do it.

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Filed under: 1980s, 2010, 2012, Army, Babies, Foreign workers, Politicians, Racism, Singaporean men, Singaporean women | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Feng Tianwei cannot compare to Tan Howe Liang

Posted on August 4, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Foreign sports talent..There’s a difference’, 4 Aug 2012, ST Forum

(Tan Boon Keng): THERE is a difference between Singaporeans who were born and raised here and those who were recruited to win medals for the country (“Simply Feng-tastic” by Mrs Eunice Ang-Choo Sok Ee; yesterday). While paddler Feng Tianwei is a Singaporean who made history by winning the country its first individual Olympic medal in more than 50 years, she is unlike the first Olympic medallist, weightlifter Tan Howe Liang, who was a home-grown sportsman.

Mrs Ang-Choo’s remark that she, too, is a foreign import by virtue of her heritage is puzzling because she was born here. My grandparents arrived from China, but I do not consider myself an import, because I was born in Singapore. Certainly, I shall feel proud if Feng’s children win medals for Singapore, provided they are born here.

As a former Chinese citizen, Feng can opt to return to China. For us, Singapore is home.

Tan Howe Liang’s skimpy leotard. In 50 years maybe we’ll see Feng Tianwei’s legendary bat. From KeropokMan’s blog.

As long as there are immigrants in our Olympic squads, there will always be people making comparisons to ‘home-grown’ Tan Howe Liang (He was actually born in Swatow China and came to Singapore when he was 4 years old). You can argue all day about what exactly makes one Singaporean enough for one to be fully satisfied with the victory, and even if Feng could cram a user manual on all things Singaporean and recite the pledge in all 4 languages, she still wouldn’t hold a candle to our much lauded Silver Olympiad because, according to the writer, she just wasn’t here long enough. Even if Feng continues to participate in ping pong until she’s 70, there will be critics who’ll continue to go ‘Meh’ at her well-deserved Bronze award. It’s also easy to forget that during Tan’s time, hardly anyone of us were true-blue Singaporeans in the first place.

Tan Howe Liang didn’t just win ONE silver medal and called it a day. He accomplished it despite cramping in the legs, and walked out a hero without a SINGLE CENT. He was a world record breaker, once hailed as the BEST at his weight in ASIA and made it into the GUINNESS BOOK of Olympic records in 1972. That is why Feng (now $250,000 richer) and her gang can’t compare to Howe Liang, not because they’re not ‘localised’ enough, but Tan is probably the greatest athlete Singapore has ever produced, or will ever have. Like Feng, Tan had his share of critics too, that he wasn’t the humble boy from Chinatown as everyone thought he was. His post-medal refusal to participate in the Rangoon SEA games trials got him labelled as a ‘prima donna’ and a ‘spoiled child’.  Still, it’s easy to heap praise and remember Tan’s sporting achievements fondly, or make him a flag bearer and curate his photos and stories in the National Archives, but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t FORGOTTEN as a person.

In the 80′s, Howe Liang was appointed national coach for the SEA games, but suffered from a lack of participation in the event. I thought any professional athlete who has spent his entire life mastering a single sport could slide easily into a coaching post, like what paddler Jin Junhong and Ang Peng Siong have, but apparently not in the case of a niche and severely gruelling sport like weightlifting. According to a Today letter writer, Tan also spent some of his post-glory years as a CARETAKER in the National Stadium (More likely he was a gym instructor i.e glorified caretaker. A ST headline in 1982 reads ‘Olympic hero PERFECT for gym job’ 4 Nov 1982). He was last reported to be earning his keep as a gym supervisor at the Singapore Sports Council, struggling to pay medical bills for his cancer-stricken wife, a little known fact overshadowed by his past Olympic success. Ironically, if it weren’t for our foreign-talent paddlers and reporters, few would have heard of Tan at all, and it seems like it was only in the mid 2000′s when somebody, in the midst of the Olympic ping pong glitz, suddenly remembered ‘Hey, didn’t we have whats-his-name win a Silver medal in 1960?!’ Which is all the more inexcusable because we’ve only ever had ONE guy winning at the Olympics. I have to admit I had trouble recalling his name myself during a recent argument with a friend about Singapore’s Olympic history.

In a Today piece, Tan had this to say about his so-called Olympic fame:

..The problem is Singapore sport. After you represent your country, they will CHUCK you to one side. Who will remember you? At least I’m lucky. Some people still remember me.

Instead of being made to languish as a convenient afterthought in obligatory tributes to local sportsmen or as a standard trivia question on a game show like We Are Singaporeans, more should be done not just to TELL the story of Tan’s ascent and quick decline, but to make sure that our legends continue to contribute by fulfilling the dreams of subsequent generations of sportsmen, like how they have fulfilled the entire nation’s during their glory days. The story of Tan Howe Liang is the story of Singapore’s sporting dilemma, where the quest for excellence and the pursuit of passion at the expense of academic success gives one diminishing returns. That the worst thing that could happen to any committed sportsman here is to get a debilitating injury, or RETIRE. That the fact you’ll be the only benchmark against which all other local sportsmen will be compared is proof of how popular sports is as a career choice. That winning an Olympic medal is like the brutal curse that is the Best Actor/Actress award at the Oscars. It goes all downhill from there.

Tan’s recognition is long overdue. And yet here we have people swooning over expat billionaries or praising a disgraced pastor in music videos. There is no God.

Filed under: 1960s, 1980s, 2000s, 2011, 2012, Foreign workers, Sports | Tagged: , | 6 Comments »

Singaporean flying China flag outside HDB

Posted on July 26, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Police investigate woman over China flag hung outside HDB’, 26 July 2012, article in asiaone.com

A 54-year-old Chinese Singaporean woman is being investigated for an offence under the National Emblems (Control of Display) Act. It is believed that the offence is related to a China flag that was hung over the parapet of a Hougang HDB block, right next to a Singapore flag.

The news first made headlines when photographs were taken of the flag and posted on citizen journalism website Stomp. They have since gone viral, with several concerned citizens asking if it is allowed. In a statement posted on their Facebook page, the police clarified that the public display of state flags of any nation other than Singapore is “generally disallowed,” unless an exception is catered for.

If convicted, the offender may be fined up to $500, imprisoned for up to 6 months, or both.

Flag of our Great Great Grand-fathers

According to the National Emblems (Control of Display) Act, only diplomats, members of the Commonwealth, anyone granted ‘immunities and privileges’ or ships may bear flags. As for Chinese holidays, the closest one falls on 1 Aug and is ominously called ‘ARMY DAY’, while Chinese National Day occurs on 1 Oct. The archaic law (last updated in 1987) only applies to displays that may be viewed in a generally public place from a road, street, footway, passage etc.  You may, however,  still walk about with a Union Jack painted on your face or wear a Japanese Banzai headband without being hauled up for investigations. Football fans throng pubs in World Cup jerseys, flashing national banners in support of their teams. Harley Davidson uncles don Stars and Stripes bandanas while chugging around on their bikes. Swedish flags grace the aisles and cafeterias of Ikea. We’re a bustling bazaar of international emblems, some of which, like the USA flag, have become ubiquitous logos. Yet, we only catch a glimpse of the five stars and a moon decorating our flats once a year. Most of us who complain about eyesore China flags don’t even know what Majulah Singapura means. No one notices the mattress draped over the Singapore flag in the most telling manner above.

Despite a recent wave of anti-xenophobic crusades by the internet community to promote acceptance of our immigrants and their cultural baggage, we cry foul and NIMBY over a China flag hanging over a parapet, which for whatever reason it was put up in the first place, has come to symbolise the sinister beginnings of a hostile takeover.  Our table tennis team, for example, all once swore allegiance the Chinese flag. Even our homegrown singing pastors are paying tribute to ‘China Wine’. We Singaporeans, on the other hand, wrap our side mirrors with images of flag, flip it the wrong way or upside down, cover it with laundry or bedlinen, wear it around our crotch or use it as a mat for some serious teenage hanky-panky. At least someone is treating a flag the way it should be treated.

This isn’t the first time, though, that China or other national flags have been making an insurgence into the heartlands. The richest source for such sightings, unfortunately, comes from STOMP, which is of course, a troll haven for anyone with Photoshop skills and a NIMBY agenda.

That being said, I wonder if anyone would bring an American to task for putting up the Stars and Stripes on the 4th of July.

Filed under: 2012, Foreign workers, HDB, Justice system/Lawsuits | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Maids adding bodily fluids into food

Posted on May 23, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Maid charged with stirring menstrual blood into employer’s coffee’, 22 May 2012, article by Alvina Soh,  Channel News Asia

An Indonesian domestic worker was charged on Tuesday with adding her menstrual blood into her employer’s coffee cup. 24-year-old Jumiah allegedly committed the act at a residential flat early in the morning on 31 August last year.

For mischief, she could be jailed up to a year and fined.  Her case will be mentioned next week.

Sometimes it’s better to get your own damned coffee. At first glance Jumiah may be trying to get herself sacked, taking revenge against an unreasonable employer or just severely absent minded. Chances are she was taking the advice of a bomoh, that by tainting her employer with her endometrial secretions, relations would improve by some form of devilish possession. If the intention was to charm the drinker with her menses, then it’s not so much ‘mischief’ as a desperate, deluded faith in ‘black magic ‘. Yet the same disgust towards eating or drinking womb remnants doesn’t apply to local women eating placentas for youthful skin.

Cannibalising a part of another human as transference of one’s ‘essence’ is a superstition as ancient as there have been shamans and broomsticks, such as  drinking your sworn brother’s blood in a secret society initiation ritual. Christians eat a piece of their Lord and drink his blood all the time. For all its symbolic and religious associations, (menses) blood isn’t the only bodily discharge that have been used against employers. In 2009, Indonesian maid Sri Aryati added urine into drinking water in a kettle and jug. In Hong Kong, another Indonesian maid put her own urine in milk to feed a baby, with the belief that she should have ‘greater influence’ over the child by bonding through her pee. Between the two bodily fluids, urine is probably less hazardous, though I’d imagine to be equally unpalatable.

Real ‘mischief’, or even ‘attempted murder’,  occurs when maids trick owners into consuming window-cleaning solutions, mix detergent into milk powder to feed babies or switch shampoo and conditioner with household bleach. The malicious (forced) feeding of inedibles  and unmentionables goes both ways, with several instances of maids being abused by employers and forced to EAT faeces (Granny accused of making maid eat faeces, 11 April 2003, ST) or drink urine, with some bullies dishing out the worst possible humiliation by force-feeding animal dung (Pair accused of forcing maid to eat dog faeces, 19 Sept 1997, ST). If I were ever tortured and forced to choose between a menses-soaked teabag and a piece of poo, I would settle for some period-infused Earl bloody Grey in a second.

Filed under: 1990s, 2000s, 2012, Foreign workers, Superstitions, Violence | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Killer Ferraris on congested roads

Posted on May 15, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Gerard Ee rejects call for curbs on fast cars’, 15 May 2012, article by Ethan Lou, My Paper

MR GERARD Ee, chairman of the Public Transport Council, has rejected calls for tougher restrictions on high-performance sports cars following the fatal three-vehicle collision in Bugis involving a Ferrari.

Instead, he blamed reckless drivers and not fast cars. “Low-performance cars can also be going at 100kmh and beat the red light,” Mr Ee told my paper last night. In a post on citizen-journalism website Stomp yesterday, a netizen known as “Ban it” proposed that high-performance sports cars be banned on congested Singapore roads.

The netizen wrote: “As a small country, should we accommodate such high-performance cars on our increasingly packed roads?”

While most Singaporeans are reeling from the shocking video, others are hurling abuse at the dead PRC speedster. The reactions from Twitter are flushed with unanimous anger towards the departed, with insults like ‘bastard’ ,’Ferrari fucker’ and terms like ‘murder’ being tossed around. A case of flogging a dead horse perhaps, but anyone who has seen how the maniac smashed into the taxi with the relentless ferocity no Michael-Bay special effects could possibly match, killing two innocent people, would be tempted to think the Ferrari driver was asking for it. It adds an ironic twist to how someone once suggested that there should be a death penalty for speeding. Taxis seem to bear the brunt of sports car collisions; In April 2011 and July 2008, taxis collided with a Lamborghini and Mitsubishi Evo 9 respectively, the latter fatal for the taxi-driver involved.

The media is still milking the tragedy dry with the expected ‘mystery nightclub hostess’ angle, hoping to reap some scandalous, poetic justice out of a terrible situation for all families involved. Taking these monsters off the road won’t help matters, and nobody who could afford to drive a Ferrari would waste it by sticking to the speed limit. Like guns Ferraris don’t kill people, drivers do. Except that while most of us yield pistols, those who could afford it go for machine guns and missile launchers. This guy was freaking Rambo, and he bit the bullet hard.

It’s easy to associate Ferrari drivers with a certain ‘fast and furious’, decadently lavish, Type A lifestyle, though some loutish towkays who pick fights with random youths may own one too. In some tragic cases, the allure of  the testosterone and adrenaline cocktail that comes with driving such cars prove too much for children of FATHERS who own them (Mazda MX-5) (Teens killed in horrific Sixth Ave  car crash, 5 June 2008, ST). Still, most owners should be familiar with the temperament of their beasts and pay extra caution on the roads BECAUSE they are Ferraris, and because they’re expensive. Ma Chi could have been an experienced racer with hardly any incident during his racing streaks, no thanks to the bewildering generosity and ‘support’ from a wife who allowed her husband to sneak out with his toy in the wee hours to break the law, oblivious to how dangerous his addiction to speed is. Even the professionals on the circuit crash and burn, and maybe this isn’t really about drunkedness, the distraction of an attractive hostess/mistress, or whether PRCs can drive, but simply horrible luck; You can totally trash a sports car but still end up unhurt, while your passenger gets killed all because of you.

In 2010, Regan Lee lost control of a Mazda MX-5 during a test drive, and the car ‘flew over the road divider, smashed head-on into a black BMW, flipped over it and crashed down into a van in the other lane’ – an orgy of wanton destruction. You would have thought the guy would have been pulverised to bits, but he emerged unscathed. His female passenger, on the hand, was killed and all he got was a driving suspension. Maybe these guys were playing Stare and Drive,  like what the folks from Fast and Furious do to impress girls.

Filed under: 2012, Foreign workers, Fun and games, Funerals/Death, Motorists, PRCs, Taxi drivers, Violence | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Eduardo Saverin likes Chilli crab

Posted on May 13, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Facebook co-founder gives up US citizenship’, 13 May 2012, article in Sunday Times

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin officially ‘defriended’ the United States last September, giving up his citizenship for the more tax-friendly residency status of Singapore. It is not known if the soon-to-be billionaire has taken up Singapore citizenship.

…Born in Brazil, Mr Saverin moved to the US in 1992 and became a citizen in 1998. In 2009, he relocated to Singapore. Explaining that decision, he told The Straits Times: ‘I got out of Changi Airport and was amazed by the line of trees and saw how clean and green Singapore was. Then I discovered the various entrepreneur programmes and the long list of government funding available for start-ups. I decided I must live here.’

Among his investments in Singapore is Anideo, a technology start-up that has created at least 10 applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Last year, he also invested in Perx (www.getperx.com) a customer loyalty mobile app which has signed up big brands such as Popeyes and Dunkin Donuts.

…Mr Saverin, who likes chilli crab, has kept a low public profile, although he is a much sought-after speaker at entrepreneurship seminars in Singapore. He has also put money into two start-ups in the US – multimedia Web search service Qwiki, and online payment technology firm Jumio.

Saverin’ Succotash!

So where in Singapore is Eduardo Saverin? According to other sources, one of the world’s richest 30-something is living it up in exclusive clubs like Filter, hobnobbing with the elite and supermodels in his luxury penthouse, drives a Bentley, and is a sponsor for ex Miss Singapore Rachel Kum’s cosmetics line Rachel K, all elements of a typical billionaire-tycoon playboy lifestyle that the ST has chosen to omit, instead giving us the impression that he may be found tucking into chilli crab at Long Beach seafood, maybe hanging out with the local uncles drinking Tiger beer in a pair of flip-flops.

If you’re not the sort who clubs at fancy parties or don’t even own a dinner jacket or appreciate fast cars and champagne, you may want to hang around the Sail@Marina Bay if want to catch a glimpse of Saverin. According to the New Straits Times, Saverin has reportedly been dwelling in the ‘tallest residential building’ in Singapore. Put two and two together from this pitch to expats and you’ve got Mr Popularity’s address. In 2008, Indian billionaire turned Singapore citizen Dr Bhupendra Kumar Modi bought a Sail penthouse unit for $15 million, which netted the seller, another Indian-turned-Singaporean tycoon Dr Sudhir Gupta a $6 million profit. Treating property like trading cards is common practice among the ultra-rich, while many of our own locals struggle to even maintain one, and can only gaze up at this steel mega-tycoon playground complex in awe, waiting for them to excrete some small change as we pander to them like gods.  We used to fly kites at Marina Bay, now it’s a Beverly Hills-like showcase for high-flying foreigners. Dr Modi did live in the ACTUAL Beverly Hills, in fact.

Saverin isn’t the only foreigner renouncing a US citizenship to make Singapore his home. Investment guru Jim Rogers moved here in 2007 so that his children could learn Chinese. Gongfu superstar Jet Li has done it too, having given the Americans films like THE ONE and ROMEO MUST DIE, is now residing in a $20 million bungalow in Bukit Timah, and is officially a Singapore citizen as of 2011, despite not working his chops in the movie scene here. Neither has anyone heard from Gong Li since her conversion and subsequent divorce either. We’re known to warm up easily to rich foreigners (some people would call that rich-people poaching), despite the fact that Saverin has left America for good and can easily do the same to Singapore if things don’t go down well as planned with the start-ups that he’s busy funding. Unlike other billionaires who have made it big in Singapore, Saverin is somewhat special. He’s young, Brazilian, fresh-faced, has an interesting job, co-owns Facebook for God’s sake, and may be perceived as an eligible bachelor, though his marital status remains unknown (Rachel Kum insists that they’re good friends who club at Butter Factory once in a while). The words ‘tycoon’ and ‘magnate’ which summon images of grey-haired paunchy men doesn’t apply. Saverin is too cool for that, or even descriptions that end with ‘-preneur’.  Years from now, our kids will think of Saverin when quizzed about famous tech-wizards from Singapore. No one will remember who Sim Wong Hoo is.

Some Americans feel cheated and betrayed by Saverin’s seeming ‘tax evasion’, that he ‘owes’ America for being where he is today.  This billionaire ‘tax dodger’ has 1.4 million ‘subscribers’ on Facebook currently, the same number of people Jesus Christ would have if he had Facebook then. They’re probably many more ‘friends’ in line waiting, like peasants in a king’s court grovelling for a new fence to keep the goats from escaping. If you want to have a foreigner friend in high places (literally) like Saverin, it would also be worthwhile checking out a library book on Meterology, a topic that Saverin is a self-professed fan of. To say his rise is ‘meteoric’ is an understatement, and like a ‘hurricane’ he has swept Singapore off her maiden feet. Let’s just hope he doesn’t change his mind about us like the ‘weather’. Someone once described Singapore as ‘Disneyland with the Death Penalty‘. I think we all know who’s living in Snow White’s castle then.

And yeah I’ll be in a whole new tax bracket/ We in recession, but let me take a crack at it/I’ll probably take whatever’s left and just split it up/ So everybody that I love can have a couple bucks       – ‘Billionaire’, Bruno Mars/Travie McCoy

Filed under: 2012, Bloggers, Foreign workers, Fun and games, iPhone apps, Money, Ms Singapore Universe, Nightspots, Weather | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Woman with ‘unsound mind’ protesting on Crawford Bridge

Posted on March 24, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Woman arrested for protesting on top of bridge near ICA building’, 24 March 2012, article in asiaone.com

Carrying a poster, a woman climbed to the top of an arch on Crawford Bridge near the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore (ICA) Building at Lavender on Friday at about 5pm. She was arrested in what looked like a protest, reported The Straits Times.

The 59-year-old Chinese female was seen wearing a cape-like attire - which looked like a Hong Kong flag – and seen waving a poster from time to time. The handmade poster she carried had Chinese characters written on it complaining of authoritarianism. According to ST, she also claimed to be royalty and said that she had been mistreated.

…The intent of the dangerous act remains unclear, but she is believed to be of unsound mind.

The most exciting and unintentionally funny scene from the video clip above is when an SCDF officer crept up from the other side of the arch and scampered stealthily downslope to restrain the protester. An awkward venue to protest, no doubt, but anyone with the audacity to walk around town with signage dressed like a superhero is asking for all sorts of trouble.

Threatening to fall to your death is just one of the many ways to get your voice heard as a lone protester. You could also hang around government buildings with banners and T-shirts, march and chant, or if you’re ballsy enough, to embark on the ever popular hunger strike. Here then, is a history of eccentric, wacky, severe one-man/woman stagings in a protest-intolerant Singapore. Not all of them involve Dr Chee Soon Juan:

No to Junta at the Istana, 2007

  • Just earlier this year, a Chinese national mounted seven storeys of scaffolding to threaten suicide if he was not paid $15,000 in compensation money. He was charged for trespassing and jailed 10 weeks. AFTER being paid $12,000.
  • 2011:  One former expat had to bring his displeasure with the PM and Singapore in general overseas (Times Square in NYC to be exact),  just so he wouldn’t get caught. His whereabouts remains unknown till this day.
  • In 2010, a PETA man in a chicken suit was detained before he could launch a solitary anti-KFC protest at an outlet here. His bags and chicken costume were also confiscated, for God knows what ever reason.

Auditioning for the live movie adaptation of Chicken Little

  • 2007: Artist Seelan Pillay staged a lone 5 day hunger strike near the front gate of the Malaysian High Commission to protest the detention of Malaysian Hindu rights activists. Which is admirable considering that a Singaporean going on hunger strike is like a fish beaching itself on a desert island. Oh, and he had a sign hung around his neck too.
  • 2006: A PETA activist in a BEAR-costume to protest against the bearskin hats worn by Buckingham Palace guards was detained outside the Istana during the Queen’s visit. It was not reported if her costume was confiscated.
  • 2005: A PRC and Falungung member Cheng Lujun embarked on a hunger strike while in prison to protest against unfair treatment and arrest. Fellow Falungung and Singaporean woman Ng Chye Huay followed suit after being charged for distributing flyers at the Esplanade.
  • 2002: JBJ submitted a ‘birthday request’ to the Police to grant a protest march to ‘Say No to GST.’ He was 77 then. Alas, the authorities would not grant the old man his wish.
  • 1956: a certain Mr Maurice S Lee waged a ‘one-man war’ against the Traffic Police after being summoned for illegal parking, complaining about the ‘upside down’ manner in which parking offenders are prosecuted while reckless drivers, jaywalkers and other dangerous road users get off scot-free.

A few lessons to be learnt here if you want to be an effective lone demonstrator in Singapore so that you would have at least 5 minutes of showtime and become immortalised on Youtube before the police get their hands on you: Don’t ever dress up as a mascot. Choose a spot where SCDF personnel can only stare helplessly at you, but at a sufficient distance such that your message to the world may still be read and you wouldn’t die if you fell. And make sure you have your doctor’s prescription for lithium on you at all times.

Filed under: 1950s, 2000s, 2011, 2012, Complaining, Foreign workers, PRCs, Public works | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Slapping on TV does not reflect reality

Posted on January 28, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Love the show but not the slapping’, 28 Jan 2012, ST Forum

(Esther Wong): MY FAMILY and I enjoy watching Double Bonus on Channel 8 at 9pm from Monday to Friday.

However, the frequent slapping scenes are uncalled for and are very disturbing.

I hope the Channel 8 drama team can cut down on these scenes because they do not reflect reality and are likely to teach wrong family values, especially to young children who watch the drama serial.

Zoe gets it

If everyone were to disapprove of Channel 8 dramas ‘not reflecting reality’, the station would go bankrupt from lack of entertainment value, not that I’m a fan myself. Just look at the gung-ho action setpieces and bomb-in-a-dustbin hijinks in C.L.I.F. In fact, the trailer of Double Bonus itself (click pic above), with its cheesy recycled from the 80′s special effects,  dry-ice masquerading as celestial clouds, and the presence of two gorgeous Pan-Asian hunks, already says a lot about the gratuitous fantasy  in this serial without you having to watch a single episode. Like its name suggests, Double Bonus is your obligatory Chinese New Year drama special designed to promote family togetherness, with plenty of images of people eating at a table and doomed to climax to fever pitch with the entire cast breaking the third wall and wishing viewers long life and prosperity ahead and making you feel like hugging your Ah Gong right away. Long-time fans of local drama would remember CNY clones like ‘Prosperity‘, ‘Happy Family’, ‘Reunion Dinner’ and ‘Uncle, Where’s My Ang Pow?’. OK the last one was made up.

Times like these you can’t just bank on veterans like Zoe Tay or foreign eye candy anymore, which explains why scriptwriters, already running short of ideas other than cashing in on rape scenes, need to woo viewers with some good old fashioned family violence, something which Taiwanese family-spat marathon melodrama like ‘Ai’ is famous for. The Pan-Asians, the goofy costumes, the supernatural angle, are light-hearted elements just to suit the occasion and getting in the way  of what the folks at Channel 8 really aspire to produce: An all-out domestic slap-happy scandal-a-minute Armageddon. If you look at the trailer closely you’ll notice friendlier acts of violence like the ‘forehead push’, which could inadvertently cause as much harm as a whiplash in a car accident. Hugs and kisses just don’t do it for viewers anymore. We are instinctively attracted to domestic abuse like we rubberneck at car crashes, which is why slapping works. We like to see people ‘lose it’ as a vicarious, sadistic pleasure, and nothing serves up the tension like an impending slap to the face, especially after random objects like vases, plates and windows have been destroyed.

Slapping is probably unheard of in the writer’s sanitised window of the world, but to say slapping doesn’t reflect reality is like denying the existence of masturbation. Perhaps she should go out more often, chances are she may even catch a rare public slapping act in action. Teachers and supervisors of orphanages are known to punish by slapping, and I’m pretty sure some passionate couples still abuse each other in the heat of argument (and still make love after, perhaps with different forms of ‘slapping’). Ordinary citizens have been known to slap policemen, and so too women clashing over male lovers.  Google the definition ‘catfight’ and you’ll find ‘slapping’. Even today’s kids reverse the domestic order of discipline by giving a tight one to their mothers and boast online about it, like Adelyn Ho Seh Bo.

So, slapping, despite most people restraining themselves from delivering one to their spouses, bosses, MPs , other people’s annoying children or a kinky lover, is very REAL indeed. It’s the only bloodless physical act where one can feel so good after unleashing one, but wracked with guilt just a second later. How often do we vent ‘I feel like giving him a tight slap’ or ‘He deserves to be slapped’? In a way, the act of slapping is like learning what sex is. You have to see it with your own eyes or experience one yourself, and since slapping has been in existence since God knows when, it’s unfair to blame the media for taking the drama one slap too far, though one should deduct points for lack of imagination. The alternative to insulting a character in a show is to flame his Facebook account, but you don’t need TV for that do we.

Filed under: 2000s, 2011, 2012, Chinese New Year, Foreign workers, Kids, Local actors, Local TV shows, Parenting, Violence | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

$2000 reward for smuggling Chinese national

Posted on January 1, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Women tries to sneak into S’pore in car boot’, 1 Jan 2012, article in Asiaone.com.

Singapore’s Immigration & Checkpoint Authority (ICA) officers arrested a man and a woman at Woodlands Checkpoint this morning at 7.30am in a case of attempted illegal entry into Singapore. A black Malaysian-registered car, driven by a male driver, was pulled over for routine check.  The driver showed signs of nervousness, prompting the ICA officers to conduct a thorough check on the vehicle.

A woman was subsequently found hiding in the boot, and was arrested along with the driver. The vehicle has been detained by ICA. The 40-year-old man was promised payment of $2,000 if he was successful in bringing the 50-year-old Chinese national into Singapore illegally.

…Those guilty of illegal entry into Singapore may face up to six months in jail and be punished with at least three strokes of the cane.

A similar payout of $2000 per job was offered to Malaysian Law Song, caught in September last year and found guilty of ferrying 200 migrant workers into Singapore over 2 years. This case followed the Feb 2011 capture of ‘kingpin’ Wu Feng Xia from Putian, China, who was allegedly linked to 200 illegal workers in Singapore over 5 years. Also in Jan last year,  Malaysian syndicate leader Zuklifly Bin Muhammad was caught, having masterminded the ferrying of human cargo across the Johor Straits, bringing the total smuggler arrests to 13 in 26 MONTHS at the start of 2011.

It wasn’t always easy money to stash a migrant worker in your vehicle. Back in 1999, 20 illegal immigrants were caught entering the country in a ‘secret compartment’ beneath a Bas Kilang from Malaysia. For smuggling 19 Thai nationals and 1 PRC, the trafficker would have been paid RM20 for each immigrant conveyed, which in total was still less than transporting 1 PRC today. In 1998, Malaysian Liew Nam Chong was jailed and caned for an offer of $35 to transport a Chinese national into Singapore via his car boot. In the seventies, the  rate was $40-50 for each immigrant ferried by sampan from Tanjong Pinang (Indonesia) to Singapore.

Despite the clampdown on these smuggling shenanigans, illegal immigrants and their mostly foreign middlemen continue to be a problem, and if migrants can’t afford to pay agents to enter or forge permits, they would risk life and limb to make the journey themselves, by swimming across the Johor Straits using their clothes as floatation devices, or paddling here in a rubber float with makeshift tubes as snorkels to submerge when required. Some may even hang on for dear life at the bottom of SBS buses (Illegal immigrant found hiding under SBS bus, 11 Oct 2005, Today).  Interestingly, a Malaysia-registered saloon may pack up to FIVE men in its car boot (5 men found in car boot, 5 Oct 2000, ST). And they still get CANED for their efforts if they’re caught, before they could even recover from the aches of remaining in a cramped foetal position for hours.

Even if you were to pay good money for ‘premium packages’ to be delivered to your destination, you may get shoved off the boat and left to drown by a panicking middleman afraid of getting caught by the Coast Guard, which could explain why hiding in someone’s boot still remains a preferred though highly uncomfortable option. The media is quick to paint illegal immigrants as security-breaching criminals. In 1948, the xenophobia was evident when illegal immigrants were labelled undesirable ‘terrorists’, ‘cut throats’, ‘gangsters and thugs’, with even less sympathy than syndicate leaders have for their ‘commodities’. Many are really just ordinary humans desperate to eke a living or escaping from brutal regimes, and wouldn’t even think of coming if Singapore hadn’t intentionally made itself attractive to foreigners in the first place.  Illegal immigrants may actually be more productive than some foreign ‘talents’ roped into society via the ‘proper channels’, because without that sense of entitlement and being in constant fear of getting caught, it would be to their benefit if they maintained a low profile and abide by the law rather than making a public nuisance of themselves as ‘legal’ migrant workers have, especially those complaining about curry smells or yanking out meters from taxis like compere Quan Yifeng did.  Our forefathers were, in fact, ‘illegal immigrants’ themselves, with the same needs and dreams as any other migrant worker today.  We have also honoured them with a classic SBC serial called the ‘Awakening’.

The penalty for trying to sneak OUT on the other hand, or ‘illegal departure’, is a fine of up to $2000, a jail term of 6 months, or both, with the rotan spared. The reverse of yesterday’s bust occurred in 2010, when a Malaysian was caught with a PRC in his boot at Woodlands checkpoint. He was promised RM500 or $208, almost 10 times less than what you get paid for bringing a PRC INTO the country. In 2011, 3 Indian nationals were caught hiding in a storage compartment in a Malaysian registered prime mover in an attempt to flee. The Malaysian smuggler would have been paid $500 PER illegal worker transported out. In July that year, the ICA had the cheek to add some rather corny  humour into a statement concerning a routine PRC-in-a Malaysian-car-boot raid  (also a $500 ‘export’ job), referring to the hidey hole as a ‘sauna’. They forgot to add that enforcement measures were going full STEAM ahead.

Overstayers aside, if illegal immigrants decided to flee,  is it really necessary to detain and punish them further as payback for slipping past the ICA’s radar in the beginning? Aren’t these ‘export’ smugglers doing us all a favour and sparing the ICA of deporting efforts? It’s like an unwanted guest at your party slipped through your door because you weren’t paying attention, served a few drinks, entertained some people, but you put him in the slammer once you catch him creeping out of the window. Instead of stowing in dead giveaway Malaysian cars, it would probably be less risky for anyone wanting to escape the country by taking the cue from Mas Selemat, who left our shores undetected in an ‘improvised floatation device’. If a wanted terrorist could swim out of the country fairly easily, what more an ‘immigration offender’?

Filed under: 1940s, 1970s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010, 2011, Foreign workers, Justice system/Lawsuits, Politicians, PRCs, Violence | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Ex-MP Choo Wee Khiang charged with corruption

Posted on December 8, 2011 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Former table tennis president and manager charged with corruption’, 8 Dec 2011, article by Hannah Teoh, Asiaone.com

Two former employees of the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA), including the former president, have been charged for corruption and criminal breach of trust. The first man, Mr Choo Wee Khiang, 57, was the president of STTA at the time of the alleged offences.

…Choo had also received gifts from Chinese coaches and players. In 2005, Choo received $1,500 from a former assistant coach of STTA, Mr Luo Jie, on behalf of Mr Liu Zhongze, who was a national team player at that time. The money was given to Choo in exchange for giving Liu more opportunities to represent STTA in table tennis tournaments.

Between 2003 and 2004, Choo also received US$600 (S$768.95) on two occasions from Mr Shi Mei Sheng, a former STTA coach, as a reward for approving the use of training facilities in China.

…Choo resigned from the STTA in July 2008. He had been with the Association for 20 years. Choo will be charged for three counts of corruptly accepting gratification and one count of criminal breach of trust.

The maximum punishment for corruption is a $100,000 fine and five years’ jail on each charge. In 1999, Choo, a former MP for Jalan Besar GRC served a two-week sentence for issuing false invoices to help a family friend cheat a finance company.

Choo was not only an ex-MP, but an ex-convict as well. What’s absurd is he had a stint as STTA President from 1992 to 1998, was jailed in 1999 for 2 weeks, fined $10,000 and barred from elections for FIVE years, and then RE-ELECTED back as President in 2002. What gives?  In 2009, he was even awarded the ‘International Olympic Committee President’s Trophy’ at the Singapore Sports Awards, all this while he was making quick  grubby bucks under the table. Here’s a sample of his testimonial:

During his tenure as President of STTA, he introduced and implemented the strategic plan to promote table tennis to all and to bring glory to Singapore. He was instrumental in the setting up of the centre of excellence for table tennis in conjunction with the construction of the STTA Training Hall in Toa Payoh. He pioneered the Foreign Sports Talent scheme, oversaw the induction and development of a team of talented players with world class coaches. Under his charge the women’s table tennis team rose to number 2 and the men’s team to number 10 in world rankings. A most memorable and historic achievement was when the women’s table tennis team won an Olympic silver medal in at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the first medal for Singapore in 48 years.

Choo Wei Khiang didn’t need a yellow ribbon project to integrate back into society, he was literally handed gold for an illusory sporting success and had his past brush with the law conveniently forgotten. If found guilty, we’d have even less reason to be proud of the much decorated silver medal, earned not just through the mercenary labours of a foreign talent scheme, but dirty cash as well.

But wait, there’s more. In 1992, while he was still MP for Jalan Besar GRC, he made a racist slur about Indians as follows:

‘One evening, I drove to Little India and it was in complete darkness not because there was no light, but because there were too many Indians around’

Yes it’s an old nugget that might have been funny at some point in history but rather tasteless today. In the same year, while still as MP, he was slapped a 2 month ban from golfing at Singapore Island Country Club for ‘dangerous play’ (MP Choo’s 2 month ban confirmed, 23 July 1992, ST), probably a first for any politician making a nuisance of himself on the green by assaulting people with golf balls. It’s disappointing how people forget easily, celebrating dirty, racist, reckless teeing ex-politicians and getting them back up to speed in society so quickly while others with a less illustrious career path struggle to even get a job. Most people don’t get out of jail of a financial felony and become elected PRESIDENT of anything within a matter of years. Unless of course, you promise to bring the nation an Olympic silver medal, upon which all is forgiven. Over TABLE freakin’ TENNIS.

Here’s an awkward moment for Vivian Balakrishnan, who had this to say about a man being charged with graft as we speak, in response to Lee Bee Wah’s taking over to ‘clean up the house’ in 2008.

I must say I am very uncomfortable with that line of questioning because I want to say there’s one more person we need to acknowledge, and that’s Mr Choo. He has dedicated many, many years of his life to table tennis.

Wee Khiang’s nephew happens to be none other than Desmond Choo, who has received nomination for a dubious honour himself by AWARE, the ALAMAK award for making a sexist remark on wives during his election hustings. Let’s just hope racism and greed doesn’t run in the family as well.

Filed under: 1990s, 2000s, 2011, Foreign workers, Justice system/Lawsuits, Money, Politicians, Sports | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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