The Power of Words

Writers, particularly news reporters, should have a healthy doze of balance. I know, sometimes, having drunk in someone else's mesmerising speeches, one can get heady and unbalanced. Not that this is true of Mr Leonard Thomas of Today, but he did tip over to one side when he reported on foreign talent bashing in the front page of Today (10 March 2006 edition). The case was about opposition MP, Mr Low Thia Kiang's questioning the Foreign Sports Talent (FST) scheme - a scheme where foreigners get fast-track citizenship based on their potential contribution to Singapore in the field of sports. Agu Casmir was one of its beneficiaries, but who has proven to be an embarrassment to the country instead.

So there are those who question the FST. In reporting this, Mr Thomas referred to these anti-FST people as having reared their 'ugly heads'. Quite obviously, Mr Thomas is an FST person as I don't think he would describe his own head in such terms. But what's so ugly about the anti-FSTs' head, I wonder, and in particular this opposition MP's no less, questioning a scheme that has produced people like Agu? Do those who support the scheme have beautiful heads? Come now Mr Thomas, you are blatantly bias here. Why bash an opposition politician for expressing an alternative opinion which is based on a glaring fact?

There's this thing about words that one must also be careful about. In describing the punishment meted out to Agu, Mr Thomas reported that Agu has been banned from International duty along with a huge fine. Now, if I were banned from guard duty, I'd thank my commander, if I were banned from class duty, I'd hug my teacher, if I were banned from International (soccer) duty, I imagine that I'd kiss my coach, no?

As I wrote before, I cannot see how being banned from International duty can be a punishment. It isn't a must for a footballer's career nor the development of his soccer skills. Look at Alan Shearer of Newcastle United. He opted out of representing his country a long time ago. Yet I think nobody will disagree with me that Shearer is one of the best and certainly one of the most enduring soccer player England has ever produced. He now holds the all time scoring record at Newcastle United.

Words...they do mean certain things. As wordsmiths, we need to do justice to the language tool of our choice, plus or minus a grammar mistake here or there ;-).

p.s. I leave the reader to draw his/her conclusion whether I am for or against the FST scheme. One hint: my head is not ugly.

Who's that in Parliament?

Parliament has just adjourned till 3 April 2006 - "barring unforeseen circumstances", as the Mah Bow Tan mentioned last night. I have been watching Parliament proceedings on TV news almost every night this past week, and one thing struck me: Many MPs that rose to speak (and some more faces the camera zoomed into) looked new to me. Just last night alone, I found 5 or 6 faces that were totally unfamiliar to me. A name or two sounded familiar, but certainly not their faces. And to think that these elected MPs (err...sorry, some got elected through walkovers) were brought in in the last election about 4 years ago.

I can think of some reasons for my lack of familiarity.

1. I have not been observant enough when Parliament proceedings are broadcast; or


2. Mediacorp has missed them on their cameras all these years; or


3. The newspapers have ignored them completely, in which case they should get themselves noticed somehow; or


4. These MPs have not spoken in Parliament at all - from day one; or


5. They were not in Parliament when Mediacorp was around; or


6. When these MPs did speak, there weren't impactful enough, unlike Tan Soo Khoon, who makes the most entertaining speeches which, and this is important, mirrors the sentiments of the man in the street.

Maybe they are now turning up to get noticed when they have not been noticed before because the General Elections are coming? Hmmm...such last minute effort won't cut it with the electorate. But then, there is the GRC behemoth they can take shelter in, so no worries?

International Women's Say

8th March was International Women's day. I skipped most of the pages in Today that day. There was simply so many pages devoted to women and women issues. No, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against women. Two of the people I love most are women - my wife and my mother. So I am happy that women get a day to declare and celebrate their womenhood.

But I was riled this morning when I read a provocative article in Today (9 March 2006 page 28) where a women lambasted all men for being, well, men. In this article, she declares that men cannot tell the difference between love and sex, that men want to feel they are capable providers, that men view their wives as trophies,that men must be the centre of attention and that men must be made to feel important. There isn't a single kind thing to say about men, as if all men are the scum of the earth. I don't know what this tells me about her marital status. If she is not married, well, a dog is probably a much much better alternative. After all, couples are already adopting dogs in preference to making human babies nowadays. On the other hand, if she is already married, well, good luck - to the husband I mean.

As they say, the truth often lies somewhere in the middle. Yes, some men are cads, some are sex-fiends, rapists, molesters, and child abusers. But you will agree with me that these do not define all men. Similarly, not every women is chaste and innocent - there are the rotten apples among them too.

So let's not play this blame game everytime one party gets lauded. It hasn't got to be a zero-sum game. Men and women can get along very well, outside as well as within the marriage bond. Otherwise, this will be a dreadful world to live in indeed.

$2,200 reward

Agu Casmir is now reportedly paid $2,200 a month for his services as a soccer player for Woodlands Wellington. He is 21 this year. Now, who in Singapore at that age except an extremely small number of wage earners take home $2,200 + CPF? Plus match bonuses, the effective take home pay can be much higher. What we are not told is if WW is providing fringe benefits like rent-free, or at least subsidised, housing and other allowances such as those for travelling, equipment, medical, etc.

Is he very hard up? Is that punishment? Naah...So Agu is a very $ortunate man. He should feel deeply indebted, bound even, to play excellent soccer for WW from now on.

The biggest question remains: What if Agu does not deliver? Heck, what can WW do then except fire him? Can they ask Agu to pay back all those money that WW is throwing now to rescue him? I fear he would have spent all of it by then. Somehow, this sounds familiar, doesn't it?

But then, let's not judge him too early. Let's give him a chance, as WW is doing so now. Let's hope WW is right. Anyway, they've put money where their mouth is, so that's a credit to them.

Blood on the innocent

I cannot understand it. I just cannot. What would a 2 year-old girl have done to deserve death? Kidnap maybe - for being valuable to loving parents, a scolding even for being naughty, but death for a girl who may yet have uttered a full and intelligible sentence to offend anyone? Yet this is the fate of a 2 year-old girl found dead, possibly murdered, near Circuit Road where she lived and was reported to have disappeared. That's where a relative of mine lives.

When the story broke last week, I was puzzled how a 2 year-old girl could have gone missing so fast, and even incredulous that she may have crawled all the way to Bedok from Aljunied. But that was what desparate people were doing to look for the girl. We now know that she was likely murdered by none other than her step-father, a twenty-something delivery man. What led him to do such as thing? I cannot imagine. Now that he has been apprehended by the police, the truth will come out soon enough. The country waits with bated breadth the revelation of the truth behind this sad sad event.

Tipping for Good Service

Well, it came up again - tipping, I mean. One Alvin Gho wrote in to the Straits Times advocating the restoration of tipping as a practice to improve the service standards among our people. I can't agree more. I wrote to Today some time ago advocating the same. Some other letter writers also agreed. But I remember one who expressed horror at the suggestion. I don't understand that sentiment except that the writer is living in the past and change is a very uncomfortable thing for him.

I wouldn't have come to hold this opinion but for the fact that I have done my fair share of travelling, sometimes on pleasure and many times on business. Of course, tipping outside of Singapore is fairly common. While I would not claim that better service came along with it all the time in those countries, I learnt to appreciate the fact that it is a source of income for many of these service people. We should not begrudge a person his/her just desert if the service was performed well. I have also come across people who are generous tipsters - certainly much more generous than I - that I pale in comparison in the tipping 'department'. I blame our 'no tipping' culture for having ingrained in me an inability to reward good service well. That calculator in the head never ceases to function, if you know what I mean.

Well, the world has gotten smaller for a long time now, and if Singapore wants to join the ranks of the global city in respect of service, it is time that we learn how to reward people for good service. A service charge always sounded forced, and we never really can establish an appreciation of the service rendered or the person who rendered it. We'd always feel that the service came packaged, as a matter of course, and the person who rendered the service is collecting on behalf of the establishment he/she happens to work for. It's not personal, and therein lies the problem.

Our economic planners are bullish on the service industry. Like it has always done, it is engineering a major shift of the economy toward the service industry. But service itself cannot be merely engineered. Formulas like 10% service charge + 3% cess + 2% whatever are an anarchronism in a truly service-based industry.

How can the service industry improve if we carry on like this?

It just got bigger

Pasir-Ris Punggol Group Representative Constituency (GRC) just got bigger. With the growth in the population in the area covered by this constituency, it will have 6 MP's to represent the ward in the coming General Election. The opposition parties have always complained about the inequities thrown up by GRCs. So with a giant GRC like Pasir-Ris Punggol, the challenge got bigger - literally. I doubt they will want to add one more person to their team just to fight for this ward. Furthermore, this ward is helmed by a relative heavyweight in the form of Radm Teo Chee Hean.

For me, this means that I can take a rest on polling day, go wherever I want so that I make full use of the public holiday usually declared for such occasions. I do not believe that polling day will be a Saturday because that goes against the family-friendly policy that was enacted not too long ago. Some say this is also one of those election sweeteners, so if it is taken away, some fence sitters might jump over to the 'other' side, if only to register a protest vote?

Well, all these are just speculation. Believe it if you will, spread it if you want, but don't lay the blame on me if none of the above prove accurate.

Virginally yours

These are exciting times for the young, particularly when you are between the ages of 14 and 19. Why so? Because:

1. You are not old enough to earn your keep, but you can get part time jobs that will fund your toys (read top of the line handphones, etc.)


2. You are not old enough to have a family of your own - you know, husband/wife, kids and the dog - but you are obliged to experiment - and hope you won't start one.


3. If hope doesn't hold out, you can't announce to your parents that you have lost your virginity, but that doesn't stop you from telling the rest of the world this fact through those 'for your eyes ony' video of you having sex with your boyfriend/girlfriend.

There are certain things about you that you might want to keep, particularly those things that you can have only once in a lifetime. When it is lost, it can never be recovered, not EVER. One of these is one's virginity. However, today, being a virgin is odd, undesirable even. Instead of admiration, you'd be ridiculed for being one, like what Donald Trump did to one of the project managers on his show last week. Of course, Trump is no paragon of virtue himself, nor does he pretend to be one. But I wonder about a person's value of self-worth when that person feels that he/she must measure up to those of a flawed individual's.

There will always be peer pressure. The measure of your maturity is not to boast that you have lost your virginity before 19, or that you have filmed yourself having sex. Rather, it is to love yourself enough not to succumb to tempations at the spur of the moment. Keep your head on and don't loose those marbles!

A ball of a discipline

Today (28th Feb 2006) reported that the erstwhile missing Singapore footballer, Agu Casmir, has been fined $20,000, banned from playing for Singapore and had his pay from his new club, Woodlands Wellington, docked by $2,000 for 10 months while the club re-pays the US$20,000 (S$32,438) sign-on fee (which Agu has already spent) to the Indonesia football club, Persija. If this is punishment for going AWOL for a month, breaking your promises to a club you willingly signed for, spending their money and betraying your adopted country, I would be over the moon.

"These suckers. I'd just have to shed a few tears as icing and all will be forgotten", he'd say.

Consider the punishment:

1. $20,000 fine - can easily be paid off with the salary he'd earn at his new club


2. Banned from national soccer games - greatest loser: Singapore, for not being able to use his services (after giving him citizenship so easily). Greatest beneficiary: Woodlands Wellington, his new club, which will enjoy uninterrupted services from their new signing.


3. US$20,000 debt re-paid for him - hey, somebody actually sponsored his delinquency


4. Docked $2,000 for 10 months = $20,000 total - "Hey thanks, Woodlands Wellington, for subsidising my debt to Persijia. Too bad the US$ is only 1.62 to S$ now. Next time I sign on for another foreign club, I'd remember to ask for more sign on fee", I imagine he'd say.

Further, by limiting his contract period, Agu plans to get out of this mess EARLIER rather than later if he had signed on for 2 years.

"This is a great country for football. I'd get some of my buddies in my country to come over asap", I hear him snigger.

Something is wrong with the people who administer Singapore football.

Compare this to National Coach Avramovic's action: he kicks two good players off his team for breaking curfew one lousy night...

There is a smell of favouritism in the air...

Singapore Video Girl

A Singapore Girl has gained some sort of international notoreity in the past few days and search engines have been working overtime on the phrase "Tammynyp" or "Tammy Nyp" or just simply "Tammy". No, this Singapore girl doesn't fly on planes though I suspect that right now, she just wants to 'fly away' and be forgotten. She probably isn't even past 20 years old, belongs to a local Polytechnic - Nanyang Polytechnic, to be exact, and her claim to fame is over a video she shot with her male partner showing them having sex. According to the word spreading around, its a full ten minute video, and contains both straight and crooked sex, if one can use these words.

The thing that takes the cake must be that the video was shot using a mobile/cellphone phone. So not only has the video been uploaded to the internet, where it has gained a worldwide interest (it is offered on eBay, although I don't know why as it is available FOC on the World Wide Web), it is also doing the rounds from cellphone to cellphone. I know this because some Singapore students have been caught with the said video on their cellphones, which were transmitted to them from another cellphone, and another cellphone...ad infinitum. In Singapore, these materials are considered pornographic and anyone in possession of pornography is violating the law. So if you are one of those in possession of this video in your cellphone or PC, erase it immediately before you are visited by the lawman in blue.

It used to be that porn was out of reach to the ordinary guy on the street as Playboy and Hustler are banned in Singapore. Heck, even their websites are restricted by the MDA. They still are, although its quite meaningless nowadays when you have locally produced first-hand porn 'drama'. What's more, its all free. Times - they are a'changin...(Dylan).

That said, there is raging debate whether to pity the girl or not (why not the guy at all, you wonder?). It looks like she was a willing party to the video shoot, so I can't see how anybody can sympathise with her. On the other hand, I feel that young and impressionable kids nowadays possess technology so sophisticated that, if used wrongly, will hurt them for a long time to come. So before any parent gives a top of the line cellphone to his/her child today, the parent must make sure to explain the consequences of its mis-use. Otherwise, the child will be sorry of the day they first received that cool gizmo called the cellphone - 3G no less.

"We, the citizens of Singapore"

So begins Singapore's national pledge which all Singapore students from the Primary, Secondary to the Junior Colleges, without exception, make every school day. I said this pledge, like every student today, in my own time as a student, for 12 years. It is a pledge that is familiar and rings true to this day, if only because it is like a mantra - something you would perform because you have come to believe in it, which was exactly what its creator, Mr S Rajaratnam, originally intended.

The man who penned this pledge has died. Mr S Rajaratnam, who for more than 3 decades, was Singapore's face and voice to the outside world, died yesterday at about 3.15pm. I learnt of his death on the bus home from work, on a TV mobile ticker tape. He had been out of sight for a long time, so learning of his death didn't come as a shock, rather it was one of sadness and a sense that part of your life and experiences as a person growing up in Singapore is now past.

He was absent at the launch of a book on 40 years of the Singapore Foreign Service due to ill-health. Of all people, he should have been present, having created the Foreign Service when none existed. But we now know that he has been in ill-health for quite some time. Mr Lee Kuan Yew, erstwhile political boss and long-time friend, revealed that Rajaratnam did not recognise him as early as 1998, some 8 years ago. Dementia had already set in - a condition many old people suffer from, including my father.

Farewell, Mr S Rajaratnam. A nation mourns your passing.

Channel News Asia's Farewell to Mr S Rajaratnam

News Tease

A contradiction in terms is what Singapore's Mediacorp practices. I suppose there is no more interesting local event to report last evening that it has to resort to breaking old news on its Prime Time 9.30pm News Bulletin.

Last evening, Mediacorp TV reported Mr Wong Kan Seng as saying that the General Election will be held sometime before the end of this year. Well, this is old news. Senior PAP people such as Mr Goh Chok Tong, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Lee Hsien Loong have said as much already, so what is new that Mr Wong has said that is even worth reporting? Or has Mediacorp jumped on the PAP bandwagon and is going around town practicing news tease?

Come now, Mediacorp, you have more dignity than that! Viewers expect greater integrity and objectivity from you. After all, after swallowing MediaWorks, you are the only broadcast station on this island.

Santa Clause came to town - again

The Singapore government unveiled its annual budget yesterday. As expected, it is a generous budget with something for everyone - an important thing given that the government is expected to call a general election soon (I speculated earlier that this election will take place this March). This is not the first time that money has been re-distributed from Government revenue with such generosity, and the formula hasn't varied a lot from previous cases.

Outright cash is still distributed based not on income level, but on the type of house you own. The assumption, of course, is that the greater the value of the house you own and live in, the better off you are, and vice versa. So people like me get only $200 - the low end of the cash gift bracket (the highest is $800) - because I own and stay in a private apartment. Those who qualify for the $600 - $800 cash gift are those that stay in public housing of the 3 - 5 room types. People staying in executive type public apartments, which I used to own, only get $400. Needless to say, these assumptions tying wealth to type of housing are not always valid. Some wealthy businessmen who drive around in Mercedes-Benzes live in 4-room public housing (for one reason or another). So they get a bigger cash gift compared to many who earn considerably less, but stay in a executive type public housing. I have been on the wrong end of this ironic situation since day one, so I have become cynical over the entire cash gift exercise practiced every year by the powers that be.

All these make the government look either like Santa Claus, or the Lottery where everyone wins, some more so than others. Somehow, the second imagery is more in tune with the times, but I'd rather think that Santa is a, ahem, cleaner image.

Would I be less inclined to vote for the ruling party in the next election? Time will tell.

A crook(ed) Science

Once of the reasons why Malaysia wants to demolish the Causeway and build a suspension bridge in its place is so that their contractor, Gerbang Perdana, can proceed with the building of the Southern Integrated Gateway - a contract which is worth S$1.09 billion. This Gateway apparently calls for a suspension bridge that can be designed to fit into Johor's planned customs facilities. Now, it must be said that Johor Customs seems to be clearing travellers faster that the Singapore Customs, according to recent experience and press reports. With the Johor's new customs facilities, this is set to improve leaps and bounds. But coming back. So far, Singapore has not agreed to this new bridge and thus the concept of the crooked bridge was born.

Now, with political negotiations at a standstill, Malaysia is using another way to get the project to move forward. According to the Hydrologist employed by Gerbang Perdana, Dr Low Kwai Sim, the Johor Causeway is a source of pollution of the Straits of Johor. Therefore to improve the situation, the Causeway should be demolished to solve this problem. Of course, Singapore's own hydrologist disagreed and gave a robust defence.

It seems to me disingenuous that Malaysia should use an 'expert' who is contracted by Gerbang Perdana to provide the scientific basis (read rubber stamp) to their plans to do away with the Causeway. Would the opinion of the 'expert' be any other than in support of their cause?

Symphonic handphones

In Singapore, handphones (or cellphones as they may be known outside of Singapore) are almost ubiquitous. The penetration rate last year was 96.2% and is expected to rise marginally to 97.2% this year (3G subscriber base seen doubling) By 2008, this will hit 103.8%!

Singaporean's change handphones often (sorry, I don't have the statistics). Of course, new models generally have better features and are smaller in size. But one of the features that is always a bane to some must be the myriad ringtones that users choose for their handphones. First, there were the single tones which then gave way to polyphonic ringtones. But of late, ringtones, if they may still be called that, have become passe on new phone models. These newer phones employ 'symphonic' tones, which is even more irritating.

The symphonic 'blast-tones' are actually pop songs, although I don't think they are those that have won any awards. Its so irritating to hear such songs blast themselves out of handphones to alert of an incoming call and being cut off almost abruptly the next second when the person responds to the call. I wonder, why have such blast-tones anyway if you are not interested in listening to these songlets? Perhaps people carrying such phones are either near deaf (that's why they need the blast of music) or they really want to irritate others.

Whichever it is, I am now genuinely irritated by them. And we may be in for the long haul on this as MP3 converge with cellphones - well, this has already happened.