Apologies as I did not take much digital shots nowadays so some of the photos may need to be scanned and posted later. I have been shooting but was being very selective recently on my shots. I think the main reason is I am shooting in film medium more rather than digital. I had also send in my a900 for shutter replacement. I have not serviced it for more than a year so I send it in to Camera hospital for CLA and replaced the shutter. It should last me for at least another 3 or more years as I don't shoot with it that often nowadays.
The week to Singapore was much more enjoyable this round as there are more things for the kids to enjoy at my sister's new house. My mom and sis has moved to a HDB flat while the old house was renovated and prepared to be rented out.
There are some newly furbished playground just below our block and almost every morning we would bring the kids to play.
We also went swimming at Tampines Swimming Pool. Kids loved the slides :P
So much so that when we tried to leave the pool, boy boy throw a big tantrum and everyone was staring at us. Luckily I brought along a pre-mixed bottle of milk for him. Works everytime.
We spent most of the time exploring around our new neighbourhood. Wife also spent some time off with some new friends from Maesai that we got to know from this humble website :)
Its a bit less hectic than last year and we did not visit any major attraction this year even though the weather was kind to us. Both of them got a bit darker from the swimming and running around. All in all good fun.
I would also like to offer an apology to those who miss the opportunity meeting us during this trip. Another time maybe! :)
Nowadays, I tried not to write too much about politics or social issues in SG but the recent major COCKUP of SMRT in our country's rail system really shows how a lot of Singaporeans missed the point. I have this conclusion when I read the comments and posts online and it pisses me off.
Which major point they missed?? They cliamed that this issue has NOTHING to do with our gahment and we are barking at the wrong tree. We should be blame it on SMRT instead. The gahment has nothing to do with this recent fiasco!
HELLLOOOO!!!! First of all, isn't the rail system a "PUBLIC" transport?? What do we meant by "PUBLIC"? It means it belongs to the gahment right? Even now its under a private corporation, our gahment should enforce checks and collect feedback from the common groung and enforce certain maintenance rules on SMRT or whoever is running the business. It seems that they just throw the ball to SMRT after building the infrastructure and wait to collect money. AND why is our public transport managed by a private Corp in the first place???!!!.This is absurd!
So of course we need to blame our gahment. Who appointed SMRT CEO?? Temasek board right? Who is in the Temasek board? Independent and private my big fat ASS! Grow up silly Singaporeans. Go on! Live in your little wells and believe in whatever the gahment tells you. You are screwed!! :P
*PS That picture of me is my expression when I see those comments..... :P really WTF!
I can't sleep. I think its because quite a certain amount of friends ask me why I am so against Tan Cheng Bock (Yes, he's a nice grandfatherly figure and to a certain extent, trustworthy) after I thrashed him in my last post and decided not to vote him. Why I am so against the Mandatory Death Penalty(MDP)? Well first thing first we need to understand what is MDP in Singapore. It's the capital punishment where someone would received if he breaks certain laws in Singapore. And yes, its mandatory. Why? According to their thinking, its because once they know there is such a harsh penalty, you won't even dare to try it in the first place. Sounds good hor?? Use scare tatic leh.
But this world is not as black and white! Certain people did not convict these crimes because they wanted to. Or even worst, they are not even aware they were commiting the crimes! Examples are these 3 recent cases tajken from an article by 2nd Chance. Full article is here
Yong Vui Kong is 23 years old this year. He had been arrested at the age of 19 in possession of 42.27g of heroin. Unlike Ahmad Zahir Ismail, a gang member who was spared from jail and caning earlier this month, Vui Kong was sentenced to death under the Mandatory Death Penalty. Vui Kong is now repentant, and has spent the past 4 years studying, meditating (he is now a devout Buddhist) and trying his best to atone for his mistakes within prison walls. He is not asking for acquittal and release. He is only asking to be allowed to live, so that he may continue in his self-improvement and meditation.
Cheong Chun Yin was charged with trafficking in over 2kg of heroin. However, he maintains to his day that he had been under the impression that he was only smuggling gold bars for a friend from the pasar malam where he worked. He also cooperated fully with the investigating officers, giving them details and even the phone numbers of the man who had arranged the whole job for him. However, the investigating officers made no attempt to trace this man. The trial judge also ruled that it was “immaterial” that the officers did not make “adequate efforts” to do so.
Like Chun Yin, Roslan bin Bakar also continues to insist upon his innocence even though he is at the last stage of the process. Besides the testimonies of others, there was no concrete evidence proving that Roslan had been at the scene. Roslan also provided an alibi. His mother and step-brother testified in support, but the judge did not believe them.
Ok, So what does this have to do with the President of Singapore? Well if you have read the book by Alan Shadrake, Once a Jolly Hangman. The Death Warrant, which is the last piece of document thats need to be signed and endorsed needs a signature. Whose signature? None other than the highest office holder, our President of Singapore! Thats why TKL asked for a review in this matter as he do not wish to sign that peice of paper!!
Because its a joke. The canbinet decides but the last piece of paper is signed by our President! With no power to grant clemency or ask for a retrial!
So now you see why its relevancy in choosing one who blantanly believes in Mandatory Death Penalty? Again I am not asking you to change allegiance and vote for TKL or TJS. Its YOUR CHOICE and I have MINE :) Maybe if you try to believe TCB would think about it later and change his mind when he is President but I can't take that risk. He has givein his views and his views are clear. Just follow the consitution and sign the dotted line of death.
And that's sad. I wonder Nathan has he ever went down personally to the gallows to talk to the convicts before their demise? $4mil a year to sign death warrants. What a job!
This post is about politics in Singapore so again, if you are not interested, please redirect to somwhere else :)
I loved political forums and I am so happy TOC managed to rope in all the 4 Tans for a good face to face debate. If you, as a voting Singaporean have not watch the videos, I implore you to take some time to watch these 2 parts of the forum to have a better understanding of our 4 candidates.
Part 1
Part 2
In my previous post, I mentioned that all 3 candidates besides Tony Tan are credible and are much much better options as an elected, independant President. This was a pre-conceived idea from the information I have gathered from online readings of their blogs and other writings by their respective supporters.
But there are some very fundamental answers to certain particular principles and beliefs I have that I wished the other 3 candidates would answer before I could make a sound decision. And all thanks to the TOC forum, I have more or less reduce the 3 Tans to become 2 Tans (actually more or less have decided on mine but I still want to know more of the 2 left. :)
As I have known all along, Dr TT was the usual PAP puppet, he beats around the bush on certain tricky questions and his views are the exact same copy of our ruling gahment.
The one that surprises me most in this forum was Dr Tan Cheng Bock. I actually like that guy (so was my sister). I do have some reserves at first as he was still a bit tad too close to the ruling party but hey, so is the later Mr Ong Teng Cheong.
He did an amazing job in the 1st part of the video. Such as seperation of PMO from Istana, removing the election department to be under the PMO and directly under the President and etc. It was really good stuff and his composure and the way he carrys himself was flawless. I was truly impressed!
Then part 2 came yesterday and I found myself totally in shock. This joker just shot himself with a handgun (and a bazooka later :P ) and that's it, he's out of my list.
He made 2 points that gave me the decision not to choose him.
Firstly, the death penalty. He beats around the bush a bit but finally gave his final thought that he accepts it as a form of punishment and he would not even consider it to table a change in our harsh mandatory death penalty law in Singapore. This is totally against my belief so I was a bit dissapointed. If he did mentioned that he plans to bring it up to the PMO on looking into tweaking this issue or like TKL's smarter answer (totally forgoing the President's role in who is going to the gallows) then I might still give him some chance. But the way he answers tells me he is just not going to rock the boat on this issue. As I have once said, no human being has the morale judgement to end another person's life.
The 2nd one is the killer. At 1:00 hr where a lady asked about women involving in politics (especially in higher decision making roles) Even Tony Tan did a wonderful job in handling this question. But Dr Tan Cheng Bock has to shoot himself with a bloody Bazooka! What did he say?
He said:"Well, I think its a difficult area for women in Singapore, it's because the commitment is really heavy, so you need to get your permission from your husband."
Then the crowd goes... Whoooaaaaaaaa.. I had to rewind the tape a few times to confirm what I heard. This old joker is a classic male chauvanist in the new age! Which independant and strong modern woman would vote for such a person??? My sister defintely won't after she heard this and she express shock and disbelief.
What's even more funny is that he knew he screwed up big time and while Dr Tony Tan quickly added a point (to save him from total embarresment I guess) that he's confident that one day there will definitely be a women PM or President in Singapore. Dr Tan CB quickly agreed to this. This is uber sad. This is so low.. This is so PAP like...
Then it dawned on me, he's just another President who will not rock the boat enough. He will try to persuade and inform but once he gets shot down. He would either keep quiet or quit (as in he mentioned he will quit if has a great disagreement with the gahment) . In short, my feeling is that he will not try hard enough to do something about it. This is my reading and understanding of this man from the results of this forum.
Again, these are all my personal views and judgment call. Although Dr TCB is out of my list but I still think he is still much better then choosing Dr TT. So vote wisely my fellow Singaporeans. Choose a President that could represent your beliefs and principles rather than who can really win Dr TT.
Politics again!!! Do quickly close this tab or browser if you heck care about the upcoming Singapore Presidential Election. If you are really interested in my opinion, go ahead. :)
I'm writing this piece because a lot of my friends are asking for my opinion and again, I hate repeating myself so I post here and ask you all to read my blog instead :P. Its a big event this time as there will be four contestants, not just 2. If 2, it will be easy lah. You guys/gals will know I anti-establishment (especially PAP gahment) so generally I would vote for the "other" one that is not endorsed by PAP.
Well, it really depends. As the President is supposes to be independant. And the late Mr Ong Teng Cheong has proven to us that although he was a former PAP and strongly endorsed by the PAP ghament, he still stood up for us and had a good brief "encounter" with the PAP gahment last time. So to be fair, I don't just brush off Dr Tony Tan yet :). I need to research a bit first ,and thats what I think all of us as a responsible citizen of Singapore should do.
If the candidate is truly independant. Then its a non-issue at all if he has been a PAP member. And actually, out of the 4 of them, only Tan Jee Say (TJS) is not a former PAP member. But TJS also joined SDP during our latest election leh... so oso not that independant. The major concern here is partisan politics should not be brought into the PE. Its a different thing totally. So if you start off from this point by understanding the underlying concept that PE is supposed to be non partisan, then it will be easier for you to choose.
From recent reports from TOC, TR, FB postings and even the main stream media. We could already see that although PE is a non-partisan election, it has turned out to be Anti-PAP versus the Pro PAP camp again. Not that healthy and smart actually and this is quite bad for our political awakening as an apathetic Singaporean.
So here's my breakdown of the current situations and see if you guys could guess who I am voting for :P
Dr Tony Tan From what I gathered, he's a bit too close to the PAP and has the most number of "Unions" supporting him. One of my friend and I chuckled when he mentioned that its the first time he realised we have so many "Unions" in Singapore. From his past acheivements, I would say frankly that while he was the Minister of Defence, he did brought in a lot of good changes to the military and NS benefits. But that was just the past, we need to look at his future post and frankly, I would say he's suitable for the job (for his stylo milo hairstyle and looks) rather than substance. If our President is a figurehead with no absolute power, I actually dun mind him being our President. But that is not the case actually, our President do have some limited powers ands o definitely, I won't be voting for him :P
So one out, 3 more to go and this is the tricky part. All 3 of them to me are credible and much more independant then the former. So I would vote any of the 3. But I am not going to tell you which one I picked :P hehehe
A lot of people say because of so many choices, the opposition votes are diluted and the above mentioned DR TT would win. Maybe so but I sincerely believe we should choose on our own beliefs rather than being irrational and think that we have to have anyone beside Dr TT as our President. That means asking around and see who people might vote and ask them to change allegiance. Or worst still, asking 2 of the candidates to withdraw from the race. (Luckily no one did!) This is in my view, a bit shallow and not that good for politics to flourish in Singapore. This is partisan politics and we should avoid it at all cost.
People have their own minds and we need to repect their choices. That is true democracy. Althought sometimes I bad mouth those 60% who voted for the PAP in the last election in my blog of FB. I sincerely don't blame them as it's their vote and choice. I just do that for my own amusements and fun (rather unlike Thailand where they march the streets and stage military coups). I also take my benefit of doubt that they had made their decisions through rational and informed choice rather fear and plain ignorance. I sincerely hope the next 5 years will be better and there are some positive changes I see in recent events. Maybe we just give them more time?
So 3 Tans for me to choose. Maybe I should take out my D&D dice to do some rolling.. :P
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 12:20PM ;)
Apologies as I did not take much digital shots nowadays so some of the photos may need to be scanned and posted later. I have been shooting but was being very selective recently on my shots. I think the main reason is I am shooting in film medium more rather than digital. I had also send in my a900 for shutter replacement. I have not serviced it for more than a year so I send it in to Camera hospital for CLA and replaced the shutter. It should last me for at least another 3 or more years as I don't shoot with it that often nowadays.
