The Real Harry?

A Perfect Song for Esther

2009-08-21T10:28:00.000-07:00

And other chicks with commercial interests.

Damn u Esther Park.

Brief Update

2009-02-08T07:38:00.000-08:00

Haven't been writing as much due to several reasons.

As I've said before, I really enjoyed blogging before, adding my personal brand of humor into commentary on current affairs, intellectual thought, ideas of great people and stuff. But recently I've just been slacking off intellectually. Maybe its a case of too much porn as Jono suggested, but its really quite hard to get outta this shit when u got girls like Leili Koshi, Evelyn Lin, Soolin Kelter and Tia Ling in the industry. I mean seriously these girls are fucking insane.

And when u dont read enough news, enough books, or no longer exposed to challenging issues. You no longer feel strongly for anything apart from C-cup tits. Trying to be funny about something you dont really care about is just no longer worth the effort.

Next, LDM and I seemed to have taken on a role reversal with my blog reverting to LDM's 2007-2008 sibei emo route with that awfully guniang snow themed wallpaper. LOL. I was never meant to blog about my feelings as it is not cool having hostile taggers blast u for being a pussy nor does it make for a very interesting read.

Yet that was what I have been these past few months. A total pussy. I look back at my past few entries and the only thing remotely funny was 'so much for my happy ending (pun intended)'.

But I must admit that it has been a turbulent half a year for me and turbulence leads to fear, fear leads to emo and emo leads to snow themed wall papers. ok not for my case but it did spawn all those emo posts. I guess I had to express them somehow and seriously I thought I nailed it with Esther Park. It was like the prep post for my dream I AM FUCKING FINALLY ATTACHED (MOREOVER TO ONE HOT KOREAN CHICK. SCREW U LONELY HEARTS CLUB) post that never materialised. Yes, I was seriously that deluded as I am disillusioned right now.

To some it up, it was like my first offensive streak since I entered law school. I fought many skirmishes and lost them all but though I did lose them all, at least it was a hell of an experience. From a plus size girl with an attitude, to hot smoker chick, to hot smoker chick with fucking nice boobage, to malaysian, chinese, japs, koreans, hongkies, a canadian girl with awesome eyes and even a hot minah, I fucking lost them all.
-100 to self esteem, +100 to practical.

And now... not so far away on Kent Ridge Hill, in a particular canteen called The Deck, Ah Lians with zh'nged nails, extended eyelashes, tubetops and shorts come out to play. A stirring in the loins I do sense and perhaps,
just perhaps, another battle is about to begin.

FUCK does this count as an emo post?

Canberra's sunshine & Sydney's rain

2008-12-04T07:48:00.000-08:00

Its been a long time since anything brought tears to my eyes... but

10 promises to my dog is really fucking touching!

ok yar, and the mad summer love never happened. the korean chick pangsehed me.
i dont think its my problem cos she pangsehed her friends as well, as in she just did a disappearing act in Sydney.

So ok, weird chick, not my fault, one-off case, unreflective of my poweress.

...

Ok making excuses for myself again. damn, guess shes not that into me after all.

girls suck big time.

"My Happy Ending"

So much for my happy ending (pun intended)
Oh oh, oh oh, oh oh...

Let's talk this over
It's not like we're dead
Was it something I did?
Was it something You said?
Don't leave me hanging
In a city so dead
Held up so high
On such a breakable thread

You were all the things I thought I knew
And I thought we could be

[Chorus:]
You were everything, everything that I wanted
We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it
And all of the memories, so close to me, just fade away
All this time you were pretending
So much for my happy ending (pun intended)
Oh oh, oh oh, oh oh...

You were all the things I thought I knew
And I thought we could be

[Chorus]

It's nice to know that you were there
Thanks for acting like you cared
And making me feel like I was the only one
It's nice to know we had it all
Thanks for watching as I fall
And letting me know we were done

Maybe, Nearly, Barely?

2008-11-05T15:54:00.000-08:00

Quick update: In case you guys didnt know, I went to Sydney with someone for the weekend, stayed in the same room, slept on the same bed, in a 5-star hotel. Nothing happened. At all. But there was finally closure. I had gotten over her. I no longer wanted to fuck her desperately, I just wanted to fuck her.

THE MAIN STORY

Finally stumbled on a girl I like (not uncommon) that seems to have quite a bit of interest as well (god damn rare). Its been some time since I had butterflies in my stomach but its true, she has that ability to make me smile to myself when I read her messages or when I simply think of her. She is pretty, looks a little older than her age, but she is just freaking adorable. Shes into art and films. As in really taking the course. I know. She differs greatly from my "ba lian" predictions but when it comes, you want to block also cannot. Moreover, why I want to block???

All seems well apart from the fact that I have 2 weeks left of pursuit time, we still havent gone out on our first date yet, shes Christian and shes Korean. But at least shes 19 so, yar, still shame on you Delai.

Its so god damn stressful when you know you are close but one wrong move and you will blow it. I'm hanging by a thin thread. Stray but one bit and I fall back into the abysses of singlehoodiness, follow it through and sweet summer love beckons. (ie Sydney beaches, operas and all those damn romantic nabei cheebye stuff)

Attracting girls have become easier through the years but sustaining their interest past the first date still game overs me all the time. Lets hope that I will be the first to break out of the lonely hearts club through hardwork and Lady Luck. (ie to say go church attack 16 yr old girls cheat code not considered. ie Delai & Xiaoke. And Daming Jono, not considered. You all never really in the club).

Though this is objectively speaking my best chance so far, I got a bad feeling that come next Valentine's Day, I will still be saying

Lonely Hearts Night

单身汉，没人爱，情人节, 分外愁，聚一堂，喝啤酒

Sydney - Where got Emo???

2008-08-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

Sydney Opera House

where got emo?

I really dunno how i took this photo - alcohol induced memory loss

Talent spotted by Mark Lee (Money No Enough 3 Lead Actor = Su Zhirong)

darren & me, best pic we could get

Failing a Shit Test

2008-08-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

“I'd meet an amazing girl I really liked, and we'd talk all night. She'd say she loved me and was so lucky to have met me. But then I'd fail one shit test, and she'd walk away and wouldn't even talk to me anymore. Everything we'd built up over the last eight hours would just go down the drain.”

Tyler Durden, The Game

To the remaining few members of the Lonely Hearts Club… yar I’m still in the club.

And no, I didn’t fail a shit test here in Canberra but failed a few back in Singapore, guess names wouldn’t be appropriate since there are hostile taggers around. DAMN U VILE HOSTILE TAGGER!

But isn’t this so true? Well, I didn’t get the ‘I love you & you are the best thing that happened to me’ that the pro Pickup Artists get, but I did actually feel that bit of attraction going on in some of the cases.

Yet, when you cock up a date or sometimes you don’t even know what hit you and that girl just sort of disappears from your life, “hey!” in MSNs get no response, SMSes get ignored. Come on guys, I know I’m not alone in this and we all have our jialat hours when some girls who we think a got a connection with just suddenly becomes…

And suddenly you just want to K歌：

我已经相信有些人我永远不必等，所以我明白在灯火阑珊处为什么会哭

Forgive the emo post but there’s girl in Canberra that triggers all that shitty JC memories with her hot bod, big tits, friendliness to other guys (excluding me) and visible nipples (just once, its kinda cold here).

P.S. shes not ang mo & im not trying

武吉知马山传奇之最后一个单身汉

2007-10-13T05:37:00.000-07:00

非常不幸地，无可奈何地，我已沦落为当初一同结党上山闯天下的五位华初独木舟手中…
唯一仅剩的单身汉。

其实，荣伟那种风流才子，讲红毛的款… 有马子，不足为奇。

俊贤哪，至少长得像苏永康，给女人那种，“男人不该让女人流泪”的感觉。(因为人丑了些，给女人的安全感比较大。) 所以我也认了。

德莱右拐少女，令人所不齿的兽行，我自然不会自甘堕落与他相比。

反而，对我打击最大的还是达明最近的那种桃花运。当然无可否认地，他染了头发，专攻“冬季恋歌”路线，成功的机率自然提高了不少。

但他却盗用了我“忧郁男”的版权，才泡到了姐夫！早说好了是我的攻城妙方嘛，怎么能这么厚脸皮自己拿去用呢！？

(各位读者，称达明女友为姐夫其实是刻意的。因为最近达明蛮“阴”的，令人极度担心。不是练了日月神教的“葵花宝典”，就是被姐夫吸星大法，采阳补阴掉了。)

咳。。。

总之，面对行动如此敏捷，性欲如此强烈的队友。。。我只好靠边站了吧。

真不知是我“丐帮帮帮主鲁有脚”的打扮太菜，还是多情剑客无情剑路线已落伍。。。怎么过了二十多年还是找不着我心目中的小龙女。。。

(在下文章风格受到了“面书”中“武侠爱好者团结！”的神秘组织影响，详情请翻阅该网站)

东方不败之阉割纪实

2007-09-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

Ripped it off some Wu Xia Discussion Group on Facebook. haha

话说日月神教新任教主东方不败登基不久，联欢晚会才开过，晚会上东方教主虽然唱唱跳跳，与群众打成一片，但心里却有一块心病：自己虽然武功可称一流，却不是天下第一，而且前任教主任我行还关在西湖之底，倘若一日给他走出，后果不堪设想。想来想去，东方教主寝食难安，却一时苦无对策。　　

这日，有属下通报：武林至宝《葵花宝典》重现江湖！东方教主当即召开神教中层以上领导会议，会上宣布：《葵花宝典》原本就是日月神教镇教之宝，但因前任教主无能，才致使宝物流落江湖，今日宝物重现，是我日月神教之福。谁能将宝典抢回来，官升三级不算，还重奖黄金万两！会议精神很快传达下去，黑木崖上群魔顿时在江湖中掀起无数腥风血雨。三个月后，日月神教以牺牲五百壮士之代价，将《葵花宝典》抢回黑木崖。

这天，东方不败将自己关在练功房里，屏退左右，独留下杨莲亭一人给自己护法。说是护法，其实以杨莲亭的武功，只不过是江湖中的三流角色。但东方不败心里有自己的打算：修练神功之时，自己肯定不堪一击，请教中武功高强的兄弟护法，一掌便可将自己小命取了去，这教主的位子也就由别人坐了。当初自己不是这样将任老儿干掉的？这杨莲亭草包一个，谅他也没那么大胆子。就算他有胆量，也没那武功。　　　

东方不败拿过那本《葵花宝典》，神情凝重，慢慢翻开，却见上面写着八个大字：欲练神功，必先自宫。　　这八个大字犹如雷击，击在东方不败的心头。自己拼死拼活抢来这个宝座，图的是什么？还不是权势熏天、美女如云？可这一自宫，可这一自宫，美女真会如云般飞走了……东方不败背上不由得一阵地冷。　　

杨莲亭在一边看着东方不败的神情，大气也不敢出一口。教主今天是怎么了？平日里说话果断明快的教主，今天为何如此？他在日月神教的日子还不长，但也知道这事事关重大，当下在一边睁大眼睛看着。　　但是东方不败毕竟有过人之处，一阵剧烈的思想斗争之后，东方不败想通了，大丈夫不可一日无权，美女算得了什么？后院里那三十六个老婆拜拜了！　　

杨莲亭睁大了眼，只是觉得奇怪，教主满屋子找什么东西？哦，原来是找剪刀。练神功要剪刀做什么呢？他想不通。还没等他想出个名堂来，只见教主又把裤子脱了！教主在做什么？不对不对……　　东方不败拿起剪刀，三十六个老婆的面容一一从眼前过电影一样地闪现，拜拜了老婆们！他一狠心，只听得喀嚓一声……　　

耳听得教主一声惨叫，杨莲亭吓坏了：教主把自己的命根剪掉了！他赶紧冲上前，“教主！教主！”东方不败紧闭着眼不应一声。杨莲亭赶紧拿了金创药，给教主敷上。　　

东方不败慢慢睁开眼睛，看到杨莲亭的脸慢慢变得清晰。毕竟是武功盖世之人，微一运功，气转全身一周，痛感便已消失。他回过神来，厉声喝问：“杨莲亭，把《葵花宝典》拿过来！！”　　　　东方不败捧着沾满鲜血的《葵花宝典》，不由得一阵心寒，自己已不再是那个东方不败了……

"今天的事，你说出去，就杀你全家灭你九族！”他对杨莲亭喝道。　　

“不敢不敢不敢！”杨莲亭连声回答，边说边往一边退。　　

东方不败不再理他，拿过《葵花宝典》，翻开第二页，只见上面还是大大的八个字：
不肯自宫，也能成功。　　

东方不败顿觉体内真气乱撞，“啊”地一声惨叫，倒在地上，人事不省。胯下伤口顿时裂开，血喷如柱。　　杨莲亭在一边看得不明所以，心想，神功就是神功，练法果然不同平常。看了一会，见东方不败胯下还在标血，心想坏了，再标下去，教主没命了。拿了一把金创药就往东方不败胯下糊过去。　　　

东方不败慢慢醒过来，悔恨交加，但他竟能将悔恨之心平服，运神功镇了体内乱窜的真气，将书拿过来。再看，事实是东方不败自己明白，已经走到这一步了，他没有退路，只好死硬着头皮练下去。　　

第三页上也是八个大大的字：　　尚若自宫，未必成功。　　

东方不败又是一声惨叫……

Zhirong's Theory of Evolutionary Leap

2007-06-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

Cross-species breeding

Cost-benefit Analysis of Religions

2007-05-23T04:09:00.000-07:00

Brief Concept of After-life

Atheism/ Darwinism: No cost no benefit, body rot, fertilise soil.

Buddhism: First class honours graduate go Nirvana. Second Upper cannot graduate, but next semester easier, exempt modules. Second lower reincarnate as animals. Third class go hell.

Christianity: Believe Jesus deep deep go heaven. Don’t believe go hell. Don’t believe enough also go hell.

Cost of Not Believing

Atheism/ Darwinism: Still no cost no benefit, body still rot, fertilise soil.

Buddhism: Cannot graduate, but be “good” in the normal sense can get Second Upper.

Christianity: Burn in hell for eternity.

Present Day Costs & Benefits:

Atheism:

1. Makes you feel smarter because you think you are right.
2. Ensures that you maximise utility out of the limited time you have
3. Ensures a more fun life-plan (but not necessarily a more fun life)
4. Live life to the max, unless its too shagged
5. More willing to indulge in pleasurable sins
6. Probably makes you an asshole
7. Makes you even more pissed off if you are poor
8. Cannot jio chio Christian girls who think you will go to hell

Buddhism:

1. Makes you feel smarter because you think you are right.
2. De-emphasises sensual experiences, makes poverty easier to bear.
3. Motivation to do good
4. Positive consequence of making you a more likeable man
5. Cannot jio chio Christian girls who think you will go to hell

Christianity:

1. Makes you feel smarter because you think you are right.
2. De-emphasises sensual experiences, makes poverty easier to bear
3. Motivation to do good
4. Positive consequenve of making you a more likeable man
5. Motivation to preach
6. Negative consequence of irritating staunch non-believers
7. CAN jio chio Christian girls!!!

As you can see, Christianity just sweeps away the opposition. With the cost of “burn in hell for an eternity” and the benefit of being able to jio chio Christian girls, no other religion stands a chance against it in the cost-benefit analysis.

I don’t want to go hell, I want to jio chio Christian girls but if you don’t believe you don’t believe. This is really need some divine intervention, relevation, revelation, wtf, ftw, which is clearly not happening as the computer is not crashing, no lightning bolts through the sky even as I type this rather blasphemous entry, thinking about sinful stuff and such.

But… I guess we are still young and there is this Bible story I learnt from 古惑仔 that teaches me to be a Christian when I am 70 years old:

Long before you were born, this farmer was hiring helpers for 5 bucks a day. A group of them came in the early morning. Another group came in the afternoon. Another in the evening. But at the end of the day, the farmer gave all of them 5 bucks each.

The moral of the story is that it does not matter when you start to believe, the real issue is whether or not you believe.

But then again, by the time I’m 70, the chio Christian girls also become old fuck liao, and I don’t think they will age like Lily Neo lor… All become www.lauzhabor.blogspot.com

Hiaz, so you see, when God play hide-and-seek, normal people like me suffer, people become human bomb, Muslims kill Christians, Christians kill Muslims. So God, if you is really out there, if you truly care for your creations, probably you should come out show your face, let us know that you are there once and for all, and we can change our behaviour to have a fighting chance at going to heaven.

Or at the very least… when I am down there, please let me install air-con.

痛苦的事

2007-04-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

隔壁 Ah Lian 裙子很短, 但她 boyfriend 的 muscle 很大, 害得治荣想 bio 又不敢 bio.

人生中最痛苦的事莫过于此...

为什么新加坡那么多 Heartland Honeys, 但是我一个都不认识!!!???

上天对我不公平...

Ah Beng Strike 4D

2007-04-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

Today I get tuition money.
Go eat KFC.
Ah Beng in front of me strike 4D.
He Damn Happy
I also want to strike 4D...

Quite zen right this poem? And its true

On the evening out of pineapple tart consumption

2007-02-21T04:22:00.001-08:00

Every single year, after CNY, I will always suffer from a terrible sore throat due to excessive consumption of pineapple tarts.

This year, however, by sheer coincidence, I have managed to avoid that fate because of the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns. A few weeks prior to the festive season, several tubs of pineapple tarts appeared in my household. And I consumed them within the span of two weeks. Apart from the fact that some of them were quite bad, my intense preference for pineapple tarts began to diminish due to this increased consumption over this relatively short period.

As a result, during these two days of visiting, my consumption level was approximately 7 per visit instead of the usual 10 to 15. As a result, I have benefited from the evening out of consumption and avoided the wretched fate of ending up with an inflamed throat. Thanks LDMR…

The 耶律齐 Dilemma - 父母之仇不共戴天 vs. 尽忠报国

2007-01-05T00:25:00.000-08:00

Today we consider the dilemma faced by Mr. 耶律齐 in 神雕侠侣。Mr. 耶律齐 was the son of the Mongolian Premier耶律楚才, who was killed in a power struggle against the Mongolian Empress. As a result, 耶律齐 was forced to take refuge in 大宋 with 射雕英雄 cum 昔日的金刀驸马 Mr. 郭靖 and married his daughter 郭芙（the bitch that hacked of 杨过's right arm）, waiting for a chance for revenge against the Mongolian monarchy.

This, however, brings us to his dilemma, which the author fails to explain, partly because 耶律齐 is just not important enough to warrant the explanation. With the strong emphasis of “忠”running through his novels, the fact that 耶律齐 turned against his country for a personal grudge seems contradictory to the theme of loyalty.

Becoming the next 丐帮帮主, dedicating himself to the fight against Mongolian oppression, he is placed at odds with his national interests. In his fight, he will ultimately kill thousands of Mongol soldiers, the people he grew up with, connected by blood and heritage. Yet, he abandons these in return for revenge against the Mongolian monarchy.

As a result, 耶律齐 is blind and immoral, and should not be honoured as an 英雄, though he was quite lousy anyway. Being blind because he married the bitch, and immoral because of his actions against his motherland. The ideal action for 耶律齐 to take was that of assassination, staying with 郭靖 to learn the invincible 降龙十八掌 and 打狗棒法, and going back to his homeland to kill all these warmongering fuckers. Then the Mongolians need not go to war, (War is not fun, because it’s like ATEC, except that people really die), his adopted country won’t be trampled upon, and everybody will be damn happy.

But he chose the easy way out, by defecting to 大宋 and becoming a丐帮帮主, enjoying the fame and status along the way, even though it didn’t last too long. (Note: Mongols destroyed 大宋 and established 元朝 soon after)

The traditional moral analysis is encapsulated by 郭靖's phrase, “行侠仗义，侠之小者。为国为民，侠之大者。” Despite the emphasis throughout these novels on父母之仇不共戴天, in my opinion such vengeance can only still be classified as an act of行侠仗义 at most, if your parents were killed wrongfully. And if your parents were 死有余辜 then it would be wrong to even speak of vengeance. Or if the revenge gave rise to a consequence running contrary to your other moral obligations, then it would similarly be wrong.

An example of this can be seen in 射雕英雄传，where 郭靖 led the Mongol army against the 金兵（that time he was still a 金刀驸马 of Genghis Khan）in order to catch the fucker that killed his father, Mr. 完颜洪烈. They succeeded, and killed fucking a lot of people along the way. Then 郭靖 thought to himself… Was all this bloodshed justified? Did he err in pursuing revenge?

Next, in 鹿鼎记, 昔日的明朝公主九难大师, faced a similar dilemma. To kill 康熙 to avenge her father’s death, would mean to kill a 贤君, and risk having a 昏君 at the throne, and hence, the chance of China plunging into turmoil once more.

Finally, in 英雄, Tony Leung abandoned his quest for revenge against 秦始皇 because he knew that only 秦始皇 could end the 乱世, only 秦始皇 could reunite China, and put an end to the endless wars plaguing the country. For that, it was worth abandoning his 灭国之仇.

无名：“残剑送了两个字给我。”

秦始皇：“什么字？”

无名：“天下”

古龙《朋友论》

2006-12-23T07:28:00.000-08:00

天还没亮、春寒料（山肖）。（Dunno Han Yu Pin Yin leh）

马如龙的心里却在发热，整个人都在发热。
因为他交了一个朋友，交了一个来历不明、不问后果，但却肝胆相照的朋友。

“你交了他这个朋友？” 谢玉仑还在等他，她第一句问的，就是这句话。
“你连他是谁，都不知道，你就跟他交上了朋友？”

马如龙道∶“就算天下所有的人都把他当作仇敌，都想把他乱刀分尸，大卸八块，我还是愿意交他这个朋友！”

谢玉仑道∶“为什么？”

马如龙道∶“不为什么。”

不为什么？这四个字正是交朋友的真谛。如果你是“为了什么”才去交朋友，你能交到的是什么朋友？你又能算是个什么朋友？

Taken from《碧血洗银枪》 - 第二十一章〈义无反顾〉

You think, I tort, who confirm?

2006-12-02T06:57:00.000-08:00

Everyone blogging about the end of torts module, with something like a sense of accomplishment and happiness.

But I is actually quite sad leh. Not because I think I will do badly. In fact, since I got into Law, I never think negatively about my own work, always think its the best, even though other ppl think otherwise, but who cares what other ppl think? Moreover, today I wear red underwear and lucky Yoda T-shirt, so confirm no problem.

But that I didn't produce any substantial work on the subject. For SLS, I came up with the NPark's analysis with a good nice equations, stunning everyone except Ang Houfu, who stunned me with a 01 x 1/logx graph then I bo bian have to let him win, also got the Lee Kuan Yew post, the reservist battalion coup, quite alot leh actually.

Then for contract I did a consideration essay condemning English judges about inventing the concept of consideration, which simply doesnt make sense. In this sense I agree with Chin Tet Yung (he said he still doesnt understand consideration after so many years), cos I think consideration doesnt make sense. But actually, I think is he genuinely dunno, not because he got some smart idea about it, that contridict the principle set out by stupid england judge.

Then for torts how? Actually, I was thinking along the lines of the Learned Hand Formula. Reviving the Learned Hand Formula, and extending it as a test for duty instead of just a test of breach. Cos if judges took econs, then basically they would understand all the policy considerations present are the economic costs to society in imposing or denying a liability, which translates into figures on a sides of the Learned Hand Equation. Hiaz, like that also dunno.

Daming interested jio me after exams, we think together publish paper!

Now i increasingly think that law students are seriously damn misunderstanding the superiority of their own subject. Law is nothing but the combination of Economics and Philosophy. Economics gives the rational answer to efficiency questions, while philosophy and ethics give you the basis to give value to the things in question. Like what is fair? If judges dun learn econs n try to make judgements, then what the fuck? Depend on common sense? Sometimes some people common sense dun work one hor.

So, economics students everywhere, be free to spit in the faces of snobbish law students, cos law is simply just an inferior subject, which somehow in this world pays more.

Why is this so? Cos economists deliver cost-benefit analysis, information and knowledge, but now got internet leh, got 200 x good economists from harvard or LSE enough to solve most of the worlds problem. But lawyer is like high-class worker, in an industry where demand always increase, cos ppl is more and more like to sue other ppl, with limited supply, cos we is only got 01 x law school at the moment, plus barriers to entry like the sibei boring law texts.

So the smart econs student say fuck lar, hiaz we are smarter but in the end, unless we is 1st class honours, kana head hunted, most prob will get lower pay than stupid law students. That is the problem with demand and supply... Hiaz...

But who knows, sekali law student still the more cleverer one, cos they is understand demand-supply even before the econs students! cos they smart go into industry where demand > supply, and hence, gong xi fa cai!

This is a fucked up post. Shit. Anyway, I really like the fiona xie eating banana in bathtub scene in One Leg Kicking. Just some random shit.

SLS Exam Question Excerpt: A Post LKY Era

2006-11-27T03:50:00.000-08:00

There can be no doubt as to MM Lee’s dedication to the country, or that of his genius and competence in leadership. But despite his assurance in the 1988 rally that “even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is wrong, I will get up”, there will be a post Lee Kuan Yew era.

Who then will replace him to hand-pick the candidates, to sieve out the competent from the weak, to sieve out the upright from the crooks? As the PAP old guards leave the world one by one, there will be no credible quality control that the future PAP candidates will be competent, upright and work for the best interests for Singaporeans.

MM Lee has protected the PAP from the opposition, but who is there to guard the people against the PAP should they corrupt in future? Constitutional amendments, the ISD, passing of new restrictive laws will be used by a corrupt PAP to keep itself in power. And if Singaporeans are not able to democratically vote out the government, the people might have to turn to an armed coup by a reservist battalion.

As a result, unless MM Lee can promise the people that he will never die, it is for the greater good of Singapore that democratic principles be restored before his death, so that the people are able to vote out bad governments. Though we would risk having a slower moving legislature and executive wing of government, it is better for the electorate to take responsibility for its own choice, instead of relying solely upon a post-Kuan Yew PAP.

I WROTE THIS IN AN EXAM, I FUCKING WIN LIAO

Cost Benefit Analysis + Imperfect Information = Fucked

2006-11-10T08:45:00.000-08:00

Check out the China version of Youtube
http://www.6rooms.com.
Quite power, is got a lot of sexy video.

Anyway recently everyone so stressed about research binder. I is actually also quite stress. But actually my team group work quite ok, cos we is smart. We know how to divide the labour.

Doing group work is like doing renovations. You need 1 Phua Chu Beng to plan what to do, 1 Phua Chu Kang to supervise the worker and execute the plan, you also need King Kong and Ah Goon to lay the parquet flooring.

So needless to say, I is just the King Kong of the team, and I always get my Tau Hway break.

But then, LAWR is just not working out for me. It makes my head hurt. Makes things very complicated. Everything also not clear. So in the end, I just go for Tau Hway break. Very jialat.

But then my Ang Moh tutor say its normal to experience such things. Very the natural. You are not alone. Wah say until like we machiam pregnant like that, need what social support arh, understanding lar. Lan Jiao, I just want gd grade leh, dun make things so complicated can?

Anyway trying to use cost-benefit analysis more and more in deciding stuff, but then always kana imperfect information, then in the end all the choice I make wrong. Fuck.

Last Thursday I want go tuition kid house. Go out of school, start to rain a bit a bit. Think… Should I take the 156 to Bishan or go my normal route. I think eh won’t rain big big so fast, so I go my normal route, try to walk to Adam Road and take 157. In the end halfway thru Botanic garden rain damn big, I is scared of thunder and lightning, cos I know I is not really that filial. So I run to Serene Centre, wah some more that day wear the thin thin made in China 北大T-shirt, bloody cold the aircon! Wah lau reminds me of Ex. Spade… pissed.

Then the rain so big, if want to go to the 157 bus stop need to swim across. So bo pian have to stay inside. Think, take a cab? Call my father send me? Or sit down eat dessert at Island Creamery and wait the rain small? Obviously I choose the 3rd one, cos I like to eat dessert.

So I eat order my mudpie and read my 朱元璋传. He a bit the funny. Cos he is peasant by birth, father die mother die no money to bury. Then he think. Wah be farmer like my father confirm die without coffin! I must change! Must have money! But how to get money? He think yar if be landlord then got money lor! But then he no land how, ask the landlord give him land? So he very confused and sad for quite a while.

The book written by some communist Chinese scholar, so he go analyse in the communist way. Say this revolution is also motivated by class struggle plus bits of nationalism and racialism. Anyway, there is really 明教and also 白莲教and also some strange 弥勒佛教combine together to revolt. Quite cool right?

Anyway, the mudpie in Island Creamery is bluff people one! The chocolate thing on top is not Oreo! It is at most the black black fake Oreo thing made by Kong Guan Biscuit! Cheap skate one. Dun get bluff. Just eat icecream better.

Ok, back to my story, lucky the rain become smaller. So I walk out all the way to 157 bus stop, go all the way to Toa Payoh and go all the way to my tuition kid house.

Then he not in. So I go read the Social Studies textbook, a.k.a, PAP propaganda. Outline the need for more babies, and why Singapore dun like welfare state. Dunno whether these people actually think that they need to make more babies to serve Singapore. Cos I is not sure, depends on my future wife, if I can get one that is. Somehow I got a feeling I dun really like kids.

But anyway, half and hour later, wah my tuition kid not back yet leh! Waste my time, I want call him. Then he message me, “Eh, today no tuition you remember?”

AAAHHHHHH!!!!

All for nothing!

I is sad… Imperfect information sucks.

Bright Songs for Dark Days

2006-10-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

世界第一等

曲:伍佰
词:李安修陈富荣

人生的风景亲像大海的风涌
有时猛有时平
亲爱朋友你着小心

人生的环境乞食嘛会出头天
莫怨天莫尤人命顺命歹拢是一生

一杯酒两角银三不五时嘛来凑阵
若要讲博感情我是世界第一等

是缘份是注定好汉剖腹来叁见
呒惊风呒惊涌有情有义好兄弟

短短仔的光阴迫逍着少年时
求名利无了时千金难买好人生

This is one song I like alot, apart from the fact that my idol Wu Bai sang it, the lyrics is just very the touching and make sense.

My hokkien cannot make it, so maybe misunderstand here and there, but i think he saying:

Life is like the ocean waves, got up, got down, so brother u must be careful
Your life is for you to make it happen, if you just sit down and beg, is cannot expect to have good life one.
Don't blame God, don't blame other people, good life bad life, its still life.

But lucky beer is cheap, so whatever thing not happy, can gather your khaki and drink the troubles away.
If want to compare who love most deep deep, I is world number 1.

Dunno whether its fate, or is it destiny, all us brother meet each other n become good brothers
Dun scared wind blow or even big tsunami, we all brother 讲义气

But life is short, youth is shorter
If only go chase money, when will it end?
Must remember how much money also cannot confirm can buy a good life.

A Canto Bright Song for Dark Days:

爱拼才会赢

一时失志不免怨叹
一时落魄不免胆寒
那通失去希望每日醉茫茫
无魂有体亲像稻草人

人生可比是海上的波浪
有时起有时落
好运歹命
总吗要照起工来行
三分天注定
七分靠打拼
爱拼才会赢

Must remember,

三分天注定
七分靠打拼
爱拼才会赢!

Zhirong On the Frustrated Contracts Act

2006-10-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

Economic Analysis of the consequence of the Frustrated Contracts Act:

Suppose a simple scenario:

Buyer (B) enters into a contract with Seller (S). B puts down a deposit of $D. Seller begins production. The contract is subsequently frustrated.

Defining a few key terms:

Let practical benefit derived from S’s production be P.

Let total effort put in by S in the production be TE, which can be subdivided:

1. In the production of the practical benefit given to B, S incurs a cost of E.

2. In the production, S may buy or create certain tangible goods which were supposed to be devoted to the manufacture of the final good, but these goods having also an inherent value and have not been exhausted due to the frustration of the contract. (For example, paint bought but not used when a painter is employed to paint the house.) Let this be x.

3. In the production, S may devote labor and other intangible resources into the production. These resources are exhausted by the production. (The painter investing the time and effort doing the calculations for the amount of paint used, angle of approach etc.) Let this be y

Hence TE = E + x + y

In the case of frustration, S would always want to claim TE but when we break TE down to its components, we find that E should be claimed primarily under section 2.3 of the Act, x should not be claimed at all, and that only y should be claimable.

For B, however, he only obtains a benefit of P. Under section 2.3, he has to pay for that practical benefit over and on top of the expenses that S incurred, provided S does not incur more than $D in costs claimable.

What is claimable under section 2.3 by S?

Costs claimable by S = P
Costs incurred by S in the production of the practical benefit = E

When E =< P, the claim of P more than offsets the cost of S producing this practical benefit.
When E > P, however, S can still turn to section 2.2 to claim this cost incurred.

What is claimable under section 2.2 by B?

Where y + (E – P) < $D, and (E – P) >= 0
Cost claimable by S = y + (E – P)

Where y + (E – P) >= $D, and (E – P) >= 0
Cost claimable by S = $D

Total cost claimable by S = P + y + (E – P)
= y + E

BUT Maximum claimable = P + $D

When P + $D < y + E,

Total benefit to S = P + $D + x
Total cost incurred by S = E + x + y

P + $D < y + E
Therefore P + $D + x < E + x + y

Net loss to S = (E + x + y) – (P + $D + x)
= (y + E) – (P + $D)

Therefore S incurs a net loss when P + $D < y + E

However, when P + $D > y + E

Total benefit to S = y + E + x
Total cost to S = y + E + x

Net cost incurred by S = (E + x + y) – (E + x + y) = 0

Therefore, S breaks even when P + $D < y + E

S has a chance of breaking even, however, faces risk of huge losses as there is no ceiling to the losses that could be incurred.

(There is of course a practical limit. If the monetary value of the contract is A, S would not be stupid enough to incur costs greater than A since it would render the contract unprofitable in the first place.)

For B, however, he always suffers an economic loss.

Total benefit to B = P

When P + $D > y + E
Total cost incurred by B = P + y + E
Total net cost incurred by P = (P + y + E) – P
= y + E

When P + $D < y + E
Total cost incurred by B = P + $D
Total net cost incurred by B = (P + $D) – P
= $D

B will always make an economic loss due whenever a contract is frustrated, unless S did not start performance or did not incur any costs. However, B’s losses has a ceiling of $D.

Of course this analysis comes down to the fact that both parties gain some, but lose some. B will always make a loss but at least has the comfort in knowing that his losses are limited to $D. S has a chance of breaking even but faces the uncertainty of the chance of incurring higher losses that will not be claimable.

Yet, the question really is how the Parliament reached the conclusion that B is risk-adverse, while S is willing to take these risks? How could this default pattern be justified? If not, should businesses be advised to incorporate terms into the contract to reallocate the risks and burdens amongst themselves?

古龙《阶级论》

2006-10-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

秦歌道，“人本来就应该有阶级。”

田思思道，“但我却认为每一个人都应该是同样平等的，否则就不公平。”

秦歌道，“好我问你，一个人若是又笨又懒，一天到晚除了睡觉就是吃饭外，什么都不做，他会变成个什么样的人？”

田思思道，“要饭的。”

秦歌道，“还有另外一个人，又勤俭，又聪明，又肯上进，他是不是也会做要饭的？”

田思思道，“当然不会。”

秦歌道，“为什么有人做要饭的？为什么有人活得很舒服呢？”

田思思道，“因为有的人笨，有的人聪明，勤快，有的人懒。”

秦歌道，“这样子是不是很公平？”

田思思道，“是。”

秦歌道，“每个人站着的地方，本来都是公平的，只看你肯不肯往上爬，你若站在那里乘风凉，看着别人爬得满头大汗，等别人爬上去后，再说这世界不平等，不公平，那才是真正的不公平？”

他慢慢的接着道，“假如每个人都能明白这道理，世上就不会有那么多仇恨和痛苦存在。”

古龙 is a proponent of the rugged individualism aka the American Dream. That the future is yours to make, that you should be the master of your own destiny.

But are we always starting on the same level? 每个人站着的地方，本来都是公平的吗？Not so. Do the children in Africa start at the same level as the kids in Singapore? There exists such gross inequality in terms of living standards, access to education, access to chances, that majority of these African kids will never rise up to the level of a normal Singaporean kid no matter how hard they try. The concept of rugged individualism is fair. No one doubts that.

It is just how the the hell is society going to ensure a fair competition when some selected individuals get a whole lot of headstart over the rest...

Still taken from 大人物

古龙《男女论》

2006-10-15T02:46:00.000-07:00

男人有很多事都和女人不同.

这道理无论男人也好，女人也好，只要是人，都知道的。
这其间分别并不太大，却很妙。

你若是男人，最好懂得一件事：
若有别的男人在你面前称赞你，不是已将你佩服得五体投地，就是将你看成是一个一文不值的呆子，而且通常却是另有目的。但若他在你背后称赞你，就是真的称赞了。

女人却不同。

你若是女人，也最好明白一件事：
若有别的女人在你面前称赞你也好，在你背后称赞你也好，通常却只有一种意思 - 那意思就是她根本看不起你。她若是在你背后骂你，你反而应该觉得高兴才是。

还有一件事很妙。

当一个男人和女人单独相处时，问话的通常是女人。

这种情况男人并不喜欢，却应该觉得高兴。
因为女人若肯不停地问一个男人各种奇奇怪怪的问题，无论她问得多愚蠢，都表示他至少并不讨厌你。她问的问题越愚蠢，就表示她越喜欢你。

但她若连一句话都不问你，你反而在不停地问她，那就糟了。
因为那只表示你很喜欢她，她对你却没有太大的兴趣。
也许连一点兴趣都没有 - 一个女人如果连问你话的兴趣都没有了，那她对你还会有什么别的兴趣呢？

Makes damn a lot of sense, why didn't I read 古龙 in more depth during JC???
Taken from 大人物, which is coming to a TV screen soon!
http://ent.linktone.com/film/news1/1400216954.shtml

Marx on Censorship

2006-10-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

Young Marx at his flamboyant best.

Censorship does not abolish the struggle between the good press and the bad press, it makes it one-sided, it converts an open struggle into a hidden one, it converts a struggle over principles into a struggle of principle without power against power without principles.

The true censorship, based on the very essence of freedom of the press, is criticism. This is the tribunal which freedom of the press gives rise to of itself. Censorship is criticism as a monopoly of the government.

But does not criticism lose its rational character if it is not open but secret, if it is not theoretical but practical, if it is not above parties but itself a party, if it operates not with the sharp knife of reason but with the blunt scissors of arbitrariness, if it only exercises criticism but will not submit to it, if it disavows itself during its realization, and, finally, if it is so uncritical as to mistake an individual person for universal wisdom, peremptory orders for rational statements, ink spots for patches of sunlight, the crooked deletions of the censor for mathematical constructions, and crude force for decisive arguments?

May prove valuable for SLS orh!

On the N.Korean Nuclear Test

2006-10-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

Take that America! You have stopped nothing...

Also, to those banking on China to sanction North Korea...

Would China prefer to have millions of refugees pouring in from North Korea should the regime collapse due to the sanctions or to have a military ally with nukes?

Actually, we should not blame North Korea for wanting to have nukes. They have very real security issues on their hands with America always hovering near, ready to pounce on any chance of a regime change.

"America is involved in a deadly standoff with an axis of evil. You know who I'm talking about. Iraq, Iran, and one of the Koreas."

After declaring them to be an axis of evil, Bush went on to invade Iraq for no apparent reason... I mean like that how to expect North Korea to scrap its nuclear plans? There is seriously no better deterrent than a nuke. And lucky for Kim Jong Il, they finally got the nuke before Bush got to them. Better thank Saddam for the diversion.

Also, it is seriously not that big a threat to its neighbors. Why would North Korea launch a nuke? Their primary concern is that of regime survival, and there is no faster way to end their regime than to nuke Japan and provoke America to send 10 nukes in retaliation.

In reality, the nuke is a good thing for Asia. North Korea is now finally free of worries against any external aggression. Bush wouldn't dare invade North Korea now because otherwise Kim will just nuke Koizumi's ass. As Mao says, power grows out of a barrel of a gun. Nukes = Huge Guns = Alot of power. So the main task of regime preservation against foreign invasion is more or less complete.

There are two things to regime preservation.

First, of course, is military deterrence against foreign powers.

Second, internal control over the people.

To Kim, military deterrence was the top priority due to the fact that Bush is the most powerful man in the world at the present stage. Now, Kim doesn't need to fear Bush anymore. He has the truimph card.

So it is in my opinion that Kim Jong Il will now spend all his efforts in revamping and modernizing its economy. No leader would really want his people to starve to death, to eat their own babies, to survive on tree barks. Kim had no choice but to let that happen because his priority was to protect the country against foreign invaders.

Now that the threat is more or less eliminated, Kim will turn to help his people out of poverty. He had been to China a few times in recent years and had expressed his admiration of the economic progress after the Deng Xiaoping reforms. Kim is not stupid. How could he? He knows what he has to do. Just give him a chance.

The response of the international community should not be that of condemnation but that of acceptance and indeed, of congratulation. N. Korea now finally able to turn its attention to the pressing issues of famine, economic stagnation.

Slapping trade sanctions on it now will just sabotage N. Korea's internal growth and force it to continue in activities like arms trade with terrorists and selling of nuclear technology to Iran. The world is now given a chance to give N. Korea and itself a chance at world peace.

Engage in trade and peace talks. Allow N. Korea to stand on its own feet. Cut their dependence on counterfeiting and the trading of arms and nuclear technology. Make the world a better place!

But unfortunately, the world doesn't think like me... They will continue to pressure N. Korea, impose trade sanctions. America will send Japan and South Korea lots of Patriot missles, develop anti-missle technology to get N. Korea all jittery again.

N. Korea will then start arming itself with more and more nukes to protect itself. This leading to either the collapse of the N. Korean regime or a nuclear holocaust in East Asia. Either of which, leads to terrible consequences for the Asian community. The only winners in this race are the US arms manufacturers and the US president that makes history for being the one that nuked Korea out of the world map. Do we want that!!??

China... Do realise that the future of Asia lies in your hands.

完美的一天

2006-10-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

哈哈，星期天帮庆伟和维仁庆祝生日，很好玩! Elmo, Weiren, Freaky and I went to CCK Lot 1 to go K-lunch.

At first supposed to meet at K-box for K-lunch but CCK K-box dunno why so popular, cannot get our room! So in the end play arcade first.

Played the Street Basketball first and I confirmed that I really don't have ball-sense. The high score was like 400 points then we 3 guys shoot 1 hoop, get to 2nd stage dieded. So went on to play the army shooting game. Haha, quite expensive, so only played 2 credit each. My aiming also off, cannot be in Infantry, shot like 3 mags of rounds at the tank but cant hit the weak spot to kill it... Then went play Sanguo, also die quite fast, cos I is the garang 燕人张翼德，张飞是也！So very fast run out of token. I is sad cos Elmo is pro-gamer, I is noob.

Then we go top up our token card and play Daytona! Its like such a guy thing to play racing and stuff. And it is seriously quite fun leh. The first race lost, got 4th, kana thrashed by them. But later I slowly get the feel of the car and learn how to use the brake. The last race I actually won! That is like the first time in my life I won a race in Daytona, and it was against Elmo somemore woah, haha not any ordinary noob player like Freaky but its Elmo leh! Wah, super happy that day cos I made history! My personal gaming achievement, the first Daytona race I ever won!

I mean driving fast is damn fun, can do the 飘移 moves, force others into the corner and make them flip, bang other people. But all this fun stuff cannot do in real life. Cos it is illegal, may land u in hospital and get u into a lot of trouble via torts. So, if driving in real life is not fun, then why drive? Moreover, the Jap engineers will always be up to better and better racing arcade games in future too. Guys who have no money, no balls to speed on the real road can also come play the second best alternative.

Finally, we toong until 1 pm, can go in n K-歌. Started off the sing song session with 祝我生日快乐，the 顺子 version, a damn nice but damn sad birthday song. It is abt this girl who is sad, go ktv by herself, switch off her handphone, sing song until cry. But we is 大男人，so actually not very suitable, but I is versatile singer so can pull it off. Then went on to sing my idol song, 伍佰-牵挂。 Super rock ballad, with super guitar skills, but I is dunno guitar, only know air guitar and use mouth do the diao diao tiaooooo noises, but still quite fun cos Freaky doing the rock howling in the background. We create so much music that the room shake, we is power.

Actually recently me n Freaky think that we should go 非常Superband cos we is damn entertaining. We going the 动力火车 style, the 1 ugly and 1 handsome rock band type. But then we not as heavy duty as 动力火车，plus we is quite Singapore heartlander, so should call ourselves 轻轨列车. (Guess which one is freaky)

Then Elmo suddenly pick this Hokkien gua called 一百万。 It is abt this Hokkien guy who is thinking what he would do if he got 一百万。如果我有一百万，一百万。。。如果我有一百万。。。。啦啦啦啦啦 Then I think wah, how many proletarians having this dream, haha, esp my father, cos he keep on buy 4D, every month buy $300 bucks, cos he want to jackpot 01 x 一百万. Haha, actually 4D is also religion! Cos in exchange for your commitment and dedication, you got hope of better life!

Skarly 4D also invented by Gahmen to subdue the blue-collar workers… but sometimes right, really got someone strike 一百万，so actually at least 4D got prove that if you lucky, the 4D god will bless you with 一百万。 Haha, it is practical religion, can see outcome one leh. No wonder all the heartlander damn support.

Later we sing many many song like 一颗榕树下，新鸳鸯蝴蝶梦，many many Grasshopper song like 爱不怕，宝贝对不起. Shit, all the new song only Elmo know, I just know all the damn retro ones. Recently, think 97.2 fm more for me, cannot catch up with the 93.3 fm liao, I is old. Maybe after few more years have to downgrade to 95.8 fm and listen to 东方比利… Deiiiaaaaoooo…..

But anyway, I is heard that the new clubbing place opening soon one, got a 华语歌舞厅！Haha, I is like clubbing cos got a lot of girl then I is like 华语歌 also! Haha, this is like so gd news for me lor! Haha next time can go there n bio + jio girl that into 华语歌! Haha, cos I is not jia kantang, so all the 假印度人，真日本人，假洋鬼子，although I like their short short skirt or low cut blouse but fundamentally cannot click leh plus they dun even like me n my 圆月弯刀 inclinations. So maybe better with the cheena lians from NTU! Haha I like!

Anyway, the writing style a bit the different today, cos I is inspired by Rockson, try his lanjiao style, except I is more cultured, not that many KNNBCCB.

Hiaz, when I started the blog, I is not thinking of writing so many personal thing leh. Cos I is scared I become Daming blog! Go zh’ng the blog until damn guniang, then write all the emo thing, let ppl see my deep secret, although I is appear very de open, talk abt I like all the girl in school esp the 假日本人, with her damn short shorts, but actually I is also same as Daming, got secret one, but my inner secret cannot anyhow let whole world see one, I is actually damn shy one lor hahaa.

No lar, actually I thinking more like if other ppl, non-canoeisits n close guy friends come anyhow look at my stuff then anyhow say what I think to 假日本人 then I is hong gan! Haha so actually is try to protect backside from liability! Haha.

Also, I thinking of academic thing, I write abt Marx talk wat, criticize Gahmen, and stuff. But also maybe is last time I not enuff life to blog abt hahaha, now I is got a lot of life! All the 21 bdae celebration, but also maybe its just this month. Next time maybe go back square one, go back 讲讲马克思主义 and criticize Gahmen.

Leaving you guys with a poem I got from 七星龙王：

This hero is want to 金盆洗手，but he is got too many enemies! Keep on kajiao him so he lan lan cannot retire. So in the end he drink beer n sing song b4 go cut off their lampa.

喝不完的杯中酒，唱不完的别离歌
放不下的宝刀，上不得的高楼，
流不尽的英雄血，杀不完的仇人头

Note: This is not from 多情剑客，无情剑。 That one is talking abt a 多情的剑客 but 他的剑是无情的！

Got difference one.

On NPark's Carparks

2006-09-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

Let the utility of a carpark with 20 lots be x.

The car-park in
botanic gardens is a public property. It is hence logical to infer that being a
member of society, I am entitled to enjoy x/4,000,000 of the utility of x.

However, when I park a car in the carpark, I derive a utility of x/20.

x/20 > x/4,000,000

I have obtained an unfair benefit of x/20 - x/4,000,000,

while the general public now has a diminished utility of ((19/20)x))/4,000,000

Hence, it becomes unfair to the general public as I have made an unfair gain.

As a result, it becomes necessary for the user to pay a fee of x/20 to justify his consumption.

Income generated from public property are public funds.

The user of the carpark being a member of society has a share in those funds as well. Hence, he has not been
deprived of his entitlement of x/4,000,000 except that his entitlement has been converted into something else, which benefits him in other ways.

Assuming carpark is full, with every user paying x/20 parking fees, hence, carpark revenue = 20 x (x/20) = x

For the carpark user:

Entitlement before: x/4,000,000

Entitlement after: Carpark Revenue/4,000,000 = x/4,000,000 same same

For the average guy,

Entitlement before: x/4,000,000

Entitlement after: x/4,000,000 same same also.

Moreover, this is a good conversion as some of us don't have cars
anyway, and hence, unable to use carparks. But with this system, we are not
deprived of our entitlements, as our entitlements have been converted from
parking rights into a share in public funds, which is in a way more beneficial
to us.

These public funds are channeled into the beautifying of the
gardens, the wages of the NParks officers and stuff like that. As a result, we
the car-less people benefit from the nicer scenery and services with smiles.

Of course this is assuming market equilibrium, that the car-parks are
always full but this model is seriously not that far off from reality, apart
from the beautiful algebra in which everything adds up.

In essence, consumption of parking space necessarily results in one less parking space for
the rest. It is finite.

It is impossible to squeeze 4,000,000 cars into
the lots but it is a lot more possible to divide the revenue among 4,000,000
people, especially when the 4,000,000 people have decided for their government
to be fully responsible for these public funds.

Applying this concept
throughout, we find that it is hence, quite reasonable for government agencies
to charge for the use of public property.

Pardon my algebra.

I seriously miss this shit... Take me home FASS!

Academic Woes

2006-09-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

Got back the first official law assignment today and to my surprise and disgust, I got a C.

I was like damn confident before that and laughed quite loudly at Kho Qing Yao's C+. In the end lose him, wah lau... But, quickly comforting myself, I say he study more; invest more, so get half a grade more is reasonable. I study less, enjoy more, obviously won't do that well. Moreover, LAWR is like GP, it's like all about luck.

But comes back to the point again, I am like totally a science guy but go into law because of the starting pay. And into the double degree because I like Economics. But perhaps Arts to me is like my relationship with Shuhui back then. I like her, but she doesn't like me.

As seen from my grades back in JC, my MCQ always good. MCQ says things about your grasp of the subject, and from the number of times I topped the class in Econs MCQ, I would say my fundamentals very good. But when comes to essay, it's like I think I wrote damn well then get a fail grade. How can like that?

Essays are like quite subjective I guess and I hate criticism. No matter what you think, I think I wrote well.

Just you idiots don't get my point.

潮落之后一定有潮起 and vice versa

2006-09-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

难道我们的生活就必须像一个 sine curve? 为什么我们无法停留在欢乐的时光？

华初日子棒，唯独淑惠是遗憾
朋友兄弟在身旁，庆伟、维仁、卓那屯
平时不努力，划船还是第三名，
考试并不难，成绩真地蛮好看

匆匆地两年过去了，青春是否留白？也许人生就只有一次 sweet 16

当兵时，好难过
美女看不着，经常闯大祸
上山下海，开枪洗stores，然后被confine
洗垄沟，听电话
还是不能够回家

转到工兵营，生活有转机
还是有闯祸，但不再垫底
挨过苦日子，升做2LT

升官发财后，派到文官处
早上写email, 傍晚踢足球
月薪九百六，周末去喝酒

但，表面上的快活，却还是弥补不了内心的空虚。。。我毕竟还是个局外人。。。

又是两年过，我已ORD
当上了蓝领工，觉得马克思有理
工作闷又烦，生活没意义

但。。。

有了创世纪，和神雕侠侣
日子总算过得去 :)
终于挨到七月底，开开心心进UNI

原以为到了大学，快乐便是自然的，是必然的真的，
好开心地度过了开学的前几个星期
还以为回到了华初的日子，能挥霍青春，笑傲江湖

朋友还是一样的一群，而周遭的美女如云
这不就是我一直向往的天堂？

但是，就像伍佰所说，生活往往不尽人意
心中的空虚依然在，只是自己把它给暂时地隐藏了
起来原来我依然还未找到我所向往的人间天堂。。。

P.S. 创作是非常主观地，但是你们的意见我是会跟进地

The Guiding Light

2006-08-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

Being in law fac these few weeks opened my eyes to the system of law that most civilized societies practice. Despite evolving for centuries, the Western system of law in my opinion still cannot hold a candle to the impartiality, the majesty and the reason that 开封府 offers.

Hence, from now on, whenever I am in doubt, I shall always apply the 包青天 test. What will Justice 包 do in this case? He shall be my guiding light. Just as 稣哥 lights up the path for Daming & friends, my idol will stand by me as I make decisions and reasoning in my future legal career.

开封有个包青天
铁面无私辨忠奸
江湖豪杰来相助
王朝马汗在身边!

Law Camp!

2006-08-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

Ditching the monotony of my month long blue collar life, I re-embraced my youth by engaging in a week long social development program sponsored by the SDU, which basically is a get-to-know-each-other session for the Year 1 Law Students organized by the Year 2 people who have a little too much time on their hands.

Don't really want to write down everything due to some form of self-censorship but Law Camp was fun (at least for me).

Here are the pictures of the dinner that marked the end of Law Camp:

I is STILL blue haha.

My OG girls.

Us.

OG Girls plus OG leader Kalyn.

Kalyn = Pretty

Marx on Religion: A Summary of Marxist Thought

2006-08-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

After reading The Thought of Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto, and Cambridge's Companion to Marx, I think I'm in a slightly better position to express his thoughts in my words for the first time. But of course, this giant of a thinker is a genius that I cannot hope to comprehend with only such basic readings.

Born into a relatively rich Jewish family, Marx had every chance to lead the high life, with good grades and a place assured in Law School, his future status in the upper-middle class was assured. Yet, he gave up this chance, for a nobler cause, in a letter to his father written after he had decided to pursue a degree in Philosophy:

When we have chosen the vocation in which we can contribute most to humanity, burdens cannot bend us because they are sacrifices for all. Then we experience no meager, limited, egoistic joy, but our happiness belongs to millions, our deeds live on quietly but eternally effective and glowing tears of noble men will fall in our ashes

And that shall be my 梦想...

At that time, he was younger than all of us, because last time don't have NS. Yet, he showed such moral fiber and selflessness in his thinking and actions. I mean, this really puts a lot of us into shame. And for all the capitalist fuckers that condemn Marx for his teachings without actually reading deep into them, I just have to say that Marx cared and did more for the human race than any politician ever did.

Next, contrary to popular belief, Marxism stands opposed not to Democracy but to Capitalism and Religion. Marx's criticism of religion was every bit as strong as his criticism of the capitalist system. This remains as a less known fact. He sees religion, its false hopes of afterlife and the submissiveness that it preaches, as the single greatest obstacle that man faces on the road to self-confirmation, towards real happiness. And the religion that he is most familiar with and hence the most criticized is Judaism and Christianity, in short, all believes centered round a single almighty God. And the nature of the criticism in not anywhere near Dan Brown's attack on Jesus, Marx doesn't care about Jesus, Marx thoroughly rejects the notion of God. His central thinking is that Man made religion and after years of blind belief had grown to belief that the opposite is true: God made Man.

The Marxist attack on religion is focused on a more philosophical and meta-physical angle, which I find thoroughly hard to understand and hence, shall not even try explaining but please do find out yourself as you might have a greater intellectual capacity to understand these philosophical thoughts: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/religion/index.htm

But anyway one of the quotes that he mentioned:

Since for the socialist man the whole of what is called world history is nothing more than the creation of man through human labor... The question of an alien being, a being above nature and man – a question that implies the admission of the unreality of nature and man – has become impossible in practice.

What I am more concerned of, however, is the immediate impact of religion on Man.

For Marx, the concept of afterlife, in particular, is the nicotine in the cigarettes, the opium in the opium pipe, the ganja in the pizza, well you get my idea. The concept of afterlife acts as a pain killer for the suffering masses. They are promised an eternity of happiness in heaven in exchange for faith and servitude in their living years. Servitude to the Catholic Church in particular, has denied the working masses a voice against oppression, and gave the ruling class a bunch of docile workers to fuel their own commercial interest.

Engels (Marx's intellectual buddy, co-author of the Communist Manifesto) explained the prevalence of religion among the working class due to two reasons:

On a whole, the ruling classes encourage the practice of religion among
those they oppress because on the whole, religion preaches an ethic of
submission. However, the pervasiveness of religion among the oppressed
classes could only be explained by the needs of the oppressed classes
themselves. They espoused religion because they perceived genuinely and
spontaneously, the need for it themselves.

Engels hence implies that:

First, the ruling class actively encourages the practice of religion with the motive of having a docile population that makes it easy for oppression and exploitation.

Second, the oppressed themselves have a strong need for religion as they feel powerless to change their hard lives on their own and seek a higher power for salvation. They see no hope in this life to lead the life of plenty and try their best to convince themselves that their afterlives will be better. Its in a way some sort of a “阿Q精神” in Marxist eyes.

Anyway for Marx, the abolition of religion is necessary because of two reasons:

Religion is a stumbling block for the revolutionary class struggle.

By espousing the ethic of submission, the revolutionary spirit of the proletariat is held back. Or in local terms, the du lan in their hearts is not that strong.

With the promise of a rich and bountiful afterlife, the present life seems a lot less important. The impetus to do something drastic in order to take back your present life is a lot weaker.

More importantly, Marx strongly believed that 人定胜天 and that the central concept of Man, the empowerment and positive self-consciousness of Man will never be achieved if mainstream religion is allowed to continue its indoctrination to the masses.

In short:

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of people is a demand
for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusions about their
condition is a demand to give up a condition that requires illusion. The
criticism of religion is therefore the germ of the criticism of the valley of
tears whose halo is religion.

Presenting the ultimate Anti-Christ:

I Is Blue: Photos!

2006-07-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

To all the non-smokers out there, it is really true that you can make big smoke rings like Bilbo Baggins did in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Ask your smoker friends to do one for you, it's fascinating. Thats my evil-looking Malay supervisor blowing the rings.

Forgot his name, but he is way cool, a fat Malay hip-hop wannabe

Yazid's the Malay guy on the left, then comes the hyper Indian guy Krishna, and finally my evil-looking Malay supervisor Roslan in the centre.

The clique I hang out with during work, the Aunty gang, May, Alice and Ah Lie

Never fails to cheer me up when the bus drives past this ad.One is good, two is better! Haha of course two is better lar!

I Is Blue

2006-07-21T06:58:00.000-07:00

In case you read my previous entry on the Globalization: Effects & Consequences on the Proletarians in Singapore, you might wonder why I got so much blue-collar anger. That is because after Army decided to let me ORD, I have been doing some blue-collar jobs here and there. First, I found myself had a week long job of counting stock for SAFRA Mount Faber. Then, my agent got me another job at some factory producing letters... As in fold letters, put them into envelopes and paste stamps...

But at least its 7 bucks an hour with transport catered to Yishun, the factory is in Woodlands by the way. And amidst the endless folding, packing and counting, I found much truth in Marxist thought on the alienation of labor and really felt it deeply myself. Of course my suffering, mental or otherwise is rather minute due to the fact that I know for sure that I'll be fucking off to school pretty soon and my adult life will not be wasted there, doing menial labor. An extract of Marx's writings on how the proletarians are forced into work that reduces them and kills their soul:

But the exercise of labor power, labor, is the worker's own life-activity, the manifestation of his own life. And this life-activity he sells to another person in order to secure the necessary means of subsistence. Thus his life-activity is for him only a means to enable him to exist. He works in order to live. He does not even reckon labor as part of his life, it is rather a sacrifice of his life. It is a commodity which he has made over to another.

Hence, also, the product of his activity is not the object of his activity. What he produces for himself is not the silk that he weaves, not the gold he draws from the mine, not the palace that he builds. What he produces for himself is wages, and silk, gold, palace resolve themselves for him into a definite quantity of the means of subsistence, perhaps into a cotton jacket, some copper coins and lodging in a cellar.

And the worker, who for 12 hours weaves, spins, drills, turns, builds, shovels, breaks stones, carries loads, etc. – does he consider this 12 hours' weaving, spinning, drilling, turning, building, shoveling, stone-breaking as a manifestation of his life, as life?

On the contrary, life begins for him where this activity ceases, at table, in the public house, in bed. The 12 hours of labor, on the other hand, has no meaning for him as weaving, spinning, drilling, etc., but as earnings, which bring him to the table, to the public house, into bed.

The feeling of alienation and boredom was getting stronger and stronger every single day. There was not much to look forward to each day except the tea breaks, what to eat for lunch and finally, what's going to happen in tonight's Da Chang Jin. Oh... I loved that LG Aircon Commercial, very nicely done, sexy yet not overly explicit, but it does not induce any desire for me to buy LG air-cons.

Then one fine day, I found out that my sis owned an MP3 player! So I kapo from her and hence began my daily 8 hours worth of vocal training to the tunes of Beyond, 梁静茹,周董 and so on. There is really some truth in how music heals your soul, but of course that is until your ears start to hurt. Will elaborate on these distractions in another entry but these distractions work and these capitalist creations are indeed slowing down Marx's "inevitable class struggle" or even reversing the trend.

Next, I come to the topic of discrimination and racism. In my factory, there are basically 3 production lines and another logistics support section; two production lines are run by Malays, another by May (The Chinese Aunty), the logistics section led by my evil-looking Malay supervisor and the whole factory run by a Chinese Factory Manager who in turn reports to a 洋鬼子 Operations Manager.

Marx said on the gradual unification of the working classes:

“Antagonism due to competition is gradually replaced by association due to the same revolutionary character of the proletariat.”

However, Marx had indeed underestimated the power of discrimination and racism, which had continually led to conflicts within the working classes. In the factory, there is a strong racial tension among the production lines, tension that is caused by the antagonism due to competition, which is further propagated by racism and discrimination. As a result, I'm like constantly sandwiched in between, being forced to take sides with my blood race. It was in short, really uncomfortable.

If you think office politics was bad, wait till you experience factory politics, with clearly defined sides, divided by race, equally pissed off by their unsatisfying work, equally angry about having shit pay, equally scared of losing the job that gives them the shit pay in fear of having to get even worse pay in other shit jobs, its just not the place to be.

Yet, for my 7 bucks per hour, I persevered. Kept on working because I knew I'm saving money to enjoy in University! Spending money in University is confirm more enjoyable one. (More on spending money in future essays)

However, my job at the factory came to a premature end when I was found calculating my salary by my Aunty clique and to their anger and surprise, the take-home pay of this inexperienced young punk who was half as productive, WAS HIGHER than them! The factory had chosen to employ some temporary worker for a higher pay then to give them raises or bonuses. The look of horror and disgust in their faces was a reason enough to quit that very day, but of course I needed money to splurge at law camp and decided to finish the week.

And that concludes my blue-collar experiences. Up next, Law Camp!

A Dream For ASEAN

2006-07-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

The backpacking journey through the lands of our ASEAN neighbors a few months ago had got me thinking about how to better our ASEAN partnership and reduce poverty levels across the region. Trips to Cambodia and Thailand in particular exposed me to how the rural people lived and how they deserved better.

Anyway just a sidetrack, remember in Geography when we learnt about the success of the Riau Island partnership, leveraging on Singapore's management talent and the abundance of cheap labor in the Indonesian islands? Actually, I just found out that the case study that we had to learn was like a complete failure. The partnership didn’t really take off and I only knew of the failure when PM Lee signed the new trade agreement to set up another similar partnership in Batam, saying that despite the previous failure, we should give this partnership one last try.

Wah lau... Fail case study still tell us to memorize for fuck?

Honestly now you look back at it, Suzhou Industrial Park fail, Riau Island fail. It really seems that Singaporean management talent is basically not worth much when it comes to doing business outside of our little island.

Ok, come back to the new deal. Also something we studied in secondary school, but in Chemistry. Renewable energy! Apart from Brunei, I believe most or all of ASEAN are net oil importers, and all that money could be better spent on other infrastructure projects to benefit the population. Brazil had to a certain extent reduced its dependence of crude oil with the extensive use of ethanol as a fuel substitute and ethanol could easily be produced from the fermentation of sugar cane.

With the abundance of cultivated lands in Thailand and Cambodia, the stage is set for ASEAN to grow energy out of its own soil and give the middle finger to the Middle East. Moreover, capital or engineering expertise should not be that hard to find: Singapore churns out engineering talents like Ang Kheng Wee every 4 years while Temesek Holdings and Petronas Malaysia are flush with cash to splurge.

Moreover, with countries like Israel and Iran around, the Middle East will never be peaceful and so oil prices will never be stable. Why should ASEAN expose itself to such risks if it has another alternative like renewable energy? This will be a new source of political and economic freedom for the countries of ASEAN and we can stop whoring ourselves out to the Saudis.

Next, as we all learnt in Geography, crude oil is a non-renewable source of energy and it will run out sooner or later. Turning to other sources of energy will be an inexorable process (inexorable = unstoppable) and if ASEAN manages to get a sustainable energy system up and running, we could be in the forefront of development and reap in the profits associated with being market leaders!

Most importantly, to me is the plight of the rural poor and how this new system could possibly help alleviate rural poverty. Being dependent on agriculture as their main source of income when the prices of agricultural goods are low inevitably leads them to low levels of income, which = poverty. By getting the system up, we are effectively raising demand and hence the prices of agricultural goods and hence the income levels for the rural poor.

Of course, in getting the system up, the first and foremost consideration is that of the rural poor and not how to make the already rich even richer. In setting up of the power plants, fermentation plants, the engineering and technical expertise and of course the sheer scale of the project makes it a responsibility for large firms like Petronas to step in, probably with some cash from Temasek. That's totally acceptable but of course the various countries should step in and slap some taxes on them so that they don't make obscene amounts of profit. To me, this is more of a social project than a commercial one.

But hey, wasn't Petronas and Temasek supposed to be profit driven enterprises? Of course not, Petronas and Temasek are just another arm of their respective governments with a lot of financial muscle. Was the Petronas Twin Towers built for commercial profit or was it just because Mahathir wanted it? Temasek is a lot more low-key but taking over companies all over the globe means a lot more than making profit, it also means having some form of influence in other countries’ economies and hence some form of political influence as well. MINDEF is not the sole contributor to our national security, Temasek is too. Except that MINDEF spends a hell lot of money defending us, while Temasek makes an obscene amount of money while defending Singapore all at the same time.

Who cares about Teo Chee Hean when we have Ho Ching?

In case you never say our Temasek Holdings Boss before:

Oh yar, back to my point that this is more of a social project than a commercial one. Granting loans and financial aid to our poorer neighbors is just a short term relief. Getting a sustainable energy system up and running, giving the people affordable energy and another avenue of tax income for the poorer countries are of the utmost importance.

Next would come the revamp and complete modernization of the agricultural system in South East Asia in order to cope with the rising demand for the agricultural goods needed for the production of energy. This of course must be completed in phases with a fair distribution to benefit Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand and if Singapore think hydroponics in Lim Chu Kang is cheaper then also can carry on. This must be completed in phases to avoid a sudden large increase in supply that may cause downward pressure in the prices, which is not a good thing.

Also, the land must still remain in the hands of the bumiputra. In the capitalist system, ownership of property is the only thing that keeps you out of a proletarian life. The last thing I hope to see are thousands or even millions of native farmers being duped into selling their land, by unscrupulous firms invited to modernize the farming industry, for a lump sum of cash. If this happens, at the end of the day, rich men will own the property, and the farmers will become oppressed proletarians working for peanuts in the new farms built on the land that their ancestors left them. That is really fucking disturbing to me.

A Farmers Union must be set up, with state employed “lawyers with conscience” drafting out mutually beneficial contracts for both the farmers and the foreign investors. Collective farms could be set up with both the farmers and the investors as shareholders. Farmers will provide the manpower and land needed while foreign investors provide capital, technology and training, getting fair and equitable amounts of profit. In this way, a truly fair way of life can be pursued. The rural poor may finally have a fighting chance in this new economic order while the rich-who-have-more-money-than-you-can-ever -spend get even more money!

Moreover, with the close economic ties forged in this new ASEAN partnership, we could spend less on our Ministries of War, embark on anti-piracy campaigns in the Straits (I mean real pirates, like Pirates of the Caribbean, not the last time Sim Lim Square type), catch more terrorists, provide more social welfare, more job retraining for our people, better housing and health, free education for our kids and so on. I definitely see more benefits in spending on education and healthcare than on the SAF should the new security climate change for the better. Yes, we needed a strong, offensive SAF in the past because of inflammatory but at the same time rather amusing remarks like these from Malaysian leaders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWm3Ullfufc but with Mahathir stepping down and with close economic ties formed, would it be that necessary to maintain that powerful a fighting force that the SAF always boasts of? I think not.

Also, by bringing Islamic neighbors out of poverty we are embarking on a powerful crusade against terrorism.
Extracted from Rockson: http://rockson.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_rockson_archive.html

I drink my teh and say, KNNBCCB the Indo gahmen also one kind, the JI last time already bomb Bali one time liao, they not just never cut off their leader lampah (jail few fucking months only), they also never ban the JI gang.

Maybe hard to ban them meh? Raymond say.

Fuck lah, how many more their own people kena bomb by JI gangster fucker then the Indo gahmen will ban this JI, I say. If in Singapore, I think not just will ban them, they will cut off their lan cheow and lampah man!!

Raymond say, Aiyah, if the Indo gahmen ban the JI, I think will also have riot. I think the whole Indonesia only got JI give the poor people job. Suicide bomb terrorist is also a job what! Die liao the JI company still look after their family, help to look after their children so that when they big already, they can also like their father be a human bomb.

I drink my teh and nod my head.Sometime be poor is very easy to become terrorist company chao recruit. If their economy not so fucked up and their gahmen not so corrupted, like to jiak lui, maybe won't have so many poor people will want do human bomb job.

So that's all for my dream for ASEAN, hope it actually works though.

SEA Trip: Rest of Cambodia

2006-07-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

咸猪手

Think it was supposed to be elephant trunks behind us

Our tour guide. Forgot the name.
But in Cambodia, doggy style is called monkey style. He say one.

Pizza inside really got happy herb leh!

Its like beer lar, nothing too serious.

SEA Trip: Angkor What?

2006-07-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

As you can see, the Angkor Wat is very big.

This angle supposed to be very nice when the water is all clear in stuff, cos got the reflections. But all we had was this muddy pond...

Top down angle, the steps are a killer. I is scared of heights.

Carving of a dancing lady (Only one that smiles in the whole Angkor Wat, my tour guide say one. )

还是忧郁

SEA Trip: Cambodia Part 1

2006-07-06T00:30:00.000-07:00

Thailand-Cambodia Border

With the kids at a small village

Temple in a jungle man, cool.

Guest house puppy... Sweet

不能同年同月同日生，但愿同年同月同日死

SEA Trip: Thailand Part 3

2006-07-05T01:39:00.000-07:00

Elephant

The Royal Palace

Another elephant walking around in the middle of a red-light district...

Thai Boxing Stadium, don't go unless you have lotsa baht to burn

Chulalongkorn University!

SEA Trip: Thailand Part 2

2006-07-05T01:26:00.000-07:00

Burnt from the sun, sitting in a train

Peek-a-boo

Ong Bak???

忧郁王子

Sunset in Ayutthaya

SEA Trip: Thailand Part 1

2006-07-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

Then we went north to Penang, but there was nothing really that interesting in Penang, because we went for like a few hours plus. Then we took a chartered bus from Penang to some harbor in Thailand and we reached paradise.

Snorkelling is fun

Waterfall was disappointing

Take that Thaksin! The "Thaksin Get Out" Dog

SEA Trip: Malaysia Part 2

2006-07-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

MINDEF please downgrade my security status

Why did you have to go? I miss you so much my big furry friend...

The Emergency Monument

Pilgramage to KL Zouk

Having a non-Halal meal in a Halal nation:　Pork Knuckles!

South East Asian Trip: Malaysia Part 1

2006-07-02T02:37:00.000-07:00

It has been some time since I returned from my trip so South East Asia and I guess it does warrant a post. But not going to elaborate too much, so just check out the photos bah.

So basically, Andy, Ck and me, went on a back-packing trip to South East Asia, sort of like an ORD celebration for us. Backpacking seemed cool and cheap so it's a logical choice for us. We started off at the Singapore railway station near Tanjong Pagar...

The Malaysian railway service is actually not bad, got air-con, good seats and a lot of leg room. But train is still train, quite bumpy and got a stiff neck after a while.

We reached our first backpackers inn that was surprisingly classy, we got the attic room. Anyway, the place was called EIGHT… Not sure why also.

Oh yes, forgot to mention that we were in KL by this time. We went around the city trying to 吃喝玩乐, and go to the museums and stuff.

我恨日本人

Malaysia's version of Fiona Xie is cannot make it.

The Army Experience: A Short Summary

2006-06-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

After the 2 years 2 months in the Army, after I finally received my pink IC, it is really a good time to reflect on the lessons, the experiences and the defining moments that my life in green has given me.

First let’s rewind a few years back to the day before enlistment. Well, it was a date with Shuhui who decided to do some National Service by comforting my 忐忑不安的心. Had dinner at KFC, and spent the rest of the night admiring her chiseled looks.

这是个风和日丽的一天，可我却是带着沉重的脚步踏上那艘名为 “Penguin Ferry Services” 的贼船… Ok, that’s abit of an exaggeration but let’s move on. As I set my foot onto the Tekong Ferry Terminal, I just died. They were playing, of all songs, “Count on Me Singapore”. I don’t know how the rest felt, but I was seriously amused yet deeply disturbed by the Gahmen’s blatant attempt to brain wash us into becoming the 人民解放军. Then we were made to make the pledge of obedience to Nathan and off we go into our military training proper.

BMT was okay in a way because I had a slack OC, a nice PC and fucking a lot of Attend C! Yes, it is true. I missed almost everything we had to miss. Field Camp, for me, was a 1 day camp, with half the time in the training shed feeling half dead. Battle Inoculation Course? Never been there. SOC? Never completed a full run down before. What about that dirty, muddy Bayonet Assault Course or something like that? I was the store party… Woah, that’s like how slack? But before you start hurling abuses or dangerous weapons in my direction, just read on and you will find that the universe tends to unfold as it should.

Finally, BMT came to a close as we got our posting orders. I went to OCS. Surprise! Ahead of my two buddies who were posted to SISPEC. Honestly, Lirui or Adam, would be twice the officer I would ever become; yet, I was the one who was chosen. Yes, in a way I did want to go to OCS at that time and given a choice, I believe I would choose this path all over again. The pay, the benefits associated with authority and the comfortable office job that it subsequently landed me, going down the Officer’s path is the best choice I had made during the 2 years in green.

Of course, there is karma in this world. OCS has proved to be the most difficult period of my life. As Recruit Malcolm from Army Daze has said, “Some of us are born to be soldiers. But many others are not” In Delta Wing that showed. Delta Wing, the scholar wing, a part of the nation’s plans to identify and attract talent into the Armed Forces. It’s a place where potential SAF scholars get tested on their leadership and X-factor, which they did. For others like me, it just turned out to be a horrendous experience. Erroneously identified as a potential SAF scholar when all we wanted was to get through this alive, we were subject to a whole lot of verbal abuse, deprivation of sleep, denial of human rights and so on.
As a result, Delta Wing has been an extremely humbling experience. I must admit that I was rather 头大 back in JC, as I did pretty well as a student by my own standard. Yet, in Delta, I have proven myself to be one of the most incompetent soldier in the entire wing, I was put down so hard, so often that I don't feel like I'm worth anything at all. Compounded with the rejections by the various scholarships, loss of friendships, OCS was hell. Each and every day, well of course there were good days, but most were bad.

Luckily, things got better again as time went on. I passed my SOC, Alex went on LSA and I was getting a little more popular in the platoon. Then the chance came for us to transfer to other vocations, I jumped at it. I knew in my heart that staying in Infantry will kill me. So I choose Signals as my first choice and Combat Engineers as my 2nd, because Signals sounds slack and Combat Engineers near my house.

But no one gets their first choice and off I went to Nee Soon Camp for my Combat Engineer Course. Unlike the scholar wing, the Combat Engineer course was a little more balanced, with more “grassroots interaction”, people who really knew how to sing the 福建山歌s like “拿我的 mine-prodder 笃到你死” and stuff. Of course, plenty of people I knew from Delta came over too and as days go by, it seemed that the Delta boys got closer than they ever were in Delta Wing. Weekly booze sessions at Baden Baden, clubbing and stuff, we had fun. People like Melvin, CK Tang, Andy and Matthew were great company though somehow coming from quite different backgrounds posed some sort of hindrance to our friendship and it's just different with people like the Canoeists…

Anyway after a disastrous Commissioning Parade (due to our extremely long winded Selected President), a new and final chapter of my Army life begins. Being not in the top 50% of my cohort, I was posted to a Staff appointment where they knew I wouldn't lead men to their deaths, fail missions or cause any serious damage to the Army. Hence starts a remarkably peaceful, enjoyable time spent in a Formation HQ.

Being in administration, I got to realize that there is seriously a lot of truth in Dilbert comics. I got to experience 1st hand, the diseconomies of scale that the Army had to suffer due to its massive size. I got to experience bureaucratic red tape, fighting it at first, then succumbing to its omnipresence and finally becoming the very same red tape that I had despised from the start. But apart from that, it was a relaxing job with half hour breakfast and tea breaks, 2 hour lunch breaks, free time to read Sword fighting novels and a whole lot of good friends to slack around with.

In all honesty, the Army had been kind to me, despite my complaints, my joy at ORDing, the Army had been kind. Looking at all the other people that it had shat on, I am seriously a lucky beneficiary of the Army’s incompetence in recognizing and nurturing talent.

Globalization: Effects & Consequences on the Proletarians in Singapore Part 1

2006-06-03T02:38:00.001-07:00

People talk about globalization. The Gahmen tell you that globalization is good! They say bring more opportunities. Singaporeans can do business abroad, capture big market and earn big money. But how applicable is this to you?

Our economy has progressed. We are relatively rich. We say we 1st World Country. Honestly, we are a lot better off than the other people in South East Asia.

Traditionally, the entire spectrum of the population benefits when Singapore makes economic progress:

Scenario before:

MNCs open companies in Singapore after Lee’s promise of tax rebates, infrastructure and stuff. Blue collar workers get job in MNC factories and sees an increase in his purchasing power. They start buying televisions, radios and other household appliances, benefiting the retail industry. Merchants in the retail industry get more affluent. Domestic demand for services increase as more take taxis, splurge on fine dining and do all the things that the rich people do. Aggregate Demand rises. Within a short period of time, Gahmen investments in capital and human capital pay off. Aggregate Supply rises. The economy becomes very merry with a healthy rate of inflation. Taxi drivers can charge more; your Bak Chor Mee Uncle can also afford to raise the prices every year without fear of losing his customers. From the elite, the small business owners, the blue collar workers to those in the domestic service industry, all have benefited from our nation’s economic progress.

So what has changed? Why do the prospects for the lower middle class Singaporeans seem so damn bleak now?

Scenario today
In short, the problem lies with globalization. While we benefited from world trade for the past few decades, globalization is threatening our jobs and our way of life.

China opened up after their disastrous attempt at socialism. They have chosen the painful path of sacrificing full employment guaranteed by the Socialist State in order to avoid lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of progress and development. State owned industries were allowed to fail. Unemployment rises. Supply exceeds demand. 僧多粥少. China opens up its economy, inviting investments. Dirt cheap Chinese labor suddenly becomes available. China begins sucking away labor intensive industries from other developing nations, including Singapore. China goes through the exact same process as we had undergone. Rise in purchasing power leading to a rise in tax revenue leading to government investments in capital and infrastructure. Reaping fruits from its investments in infrastructure, China is now poised to suck everything away from countries like Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Korea, the original East Asian Tigers We thought we stayed ahead by getting high tech industries into Singapore and making it the mainstay of our economy. We were wrong. They are catching up. We now turn to what we call the Knowledge Economy for salvation, wanting the bio-medical industry to be the driving force for tomorrow.

Yet, how long is it before China or India catches up with us again? Currently, industrial inertia is the only factor keeping the electronics industries here and that inertia will not be enough to keep them here forever.

China is versatile; it is like a mini-world, with developed cities like Shanghai, Beijing and under-developed cities like the others. Labor intensive industries, tech industries and financial services can all find a place to flourish in China. Singapore will find it increasingly hard to find a niche and continue to prosper.

Lets look back the plight of our blue collar workers. The economic crisis of 1997 and 2000 reduced profitability of local industries, especially in 2000 during the tech meltdown. Retrenchments and salary cuts were made in order to save these industries from bankruptcy. The government tries to reduce the unemployment problems by getting them into the service industries. In transport for example, they opened up the taxi sector to more competitors, resulting in a slight drop in unemployment but the move has also led to a fall in average earnings for cabbies. For those managing to hold on to their jobs or find employment in other factories, the situation has not improved either. They are forced to take pay cuts, CPF cuts and what not. The earnings of these blue collar workers will never recover to pre-2000 or even pre-1997 levels. This is due to the fundamental problem of supply. Mechanization has simplified assembly line operations. Blue-collar jobs get simpler and easier and hence require less skill. Of course though it is not applicable to all blue-collar jobs, but it is generally true. Marx once said, “(with the industrial revolution) Female labor will drive out male labor and child labor will in turn drive out female labor.” In our case now, cheap foreign labor is driving out local labor!

Despite what the free-market advocates say, globalization has led to a drop in average wages among our proletarians.

In view and in response to cope with the structural unemployment that will come as traditional industries outsource to neighboring countries, the Gahmen turns to tourism and casinos. Fundamentally, there is and will be no difference. Blue-collar workers will indeed wear better looking uniforms, but in terms of job scope, in terms of value, in terms of pay, they remain the same.

Leaders of Las Vegas Sands have said, “We see no reason why the work force can't be entirely Singaporean.” But of course they left out some words in order to gain some popularity among the masses. What they had actually intended to say was, “We see no reason why the work force can't be entirely Singaporean if they are willing to accept the crap salaries that we are prepared to give.” Of course it would be crap salary, as Singaporeans have to compete with the world! Full of cheap labor from developing countries! But the proletarians of Singapore will have no choice. They will have to accept the jobs or face unemployment. As a result, the Gahmen initiatives only address unemployment, but never about the raising of wages and salaries, because they know it is unachievable. For the blue-collar workers to get out of their plight, they have to not be a blue-collar worker. They have to be white-collar workers. How do you become a white-collar worker? Picking up your books, getting a diploma or degree is almost impossible given the tiring nature of blue collar work and also with the limited spaces and the costs of the courses.

Wait, I though you said blue-collar work was easy and simple. Yes I did but it is tiring and grinding. Driving is simple (for most people at least) but to wake up at 5am and drive till 4:30pm or even later is fucking tiring. Assembly-line work is simple but when you try assembling 1000 of those, you will really cry. The nature of blue-collar jobs has led to the alienation of the proletarian from his labor. Marx had believed that labor is integral to Man, which is fucking obvious because most of us spend 8 plus hours working, around half of our waking hours on our jobs. Being alienated from your labor leads to a loss of part of yourself and that is not good at all.

In short, the blue-collar worker gets the worse deal. He gets the lowest pay, for the most tiring job with absolutely no job satisfaction.

Next, we turn to the subject of productivity. Economists tell us that we must increase productivity in order to achieve higher living standards. National Wage Council advises all employers to allow wages to lag behind productivity increases.

The astonishingly simple minded Khaw Boon Wan announced on national television once,

“如果一个工友能做两个工友的工，那他就能获得两个工友的工资!”

It certainly appears that this concept only applies to the elites. Ministers are supposedly so productive that they can excel in both their Ministerial roles as well as in their MP roles that they get both the pay. Elites are so productive that they can assume directorship of several companies at a go.

How about our blue-collar workers? They are blamed for their lack of productivity, for their alienation from their labor; they are blamed because the grinding nature of proletarian live has got to them…

Extracted from the S.P.R.I.N.G website:

Workers shunned shift work. They lacked quality consciousness. Instead of detecting and preventing defective products as Japanese workers do, Singapore workers left it to the quality controllers to do the job. They were not interested in anything that happened outside their job function. They took no initiative to safeguard the company's interests and property. Job hopping was rampant. From March 1979 to April 1980, 85,000 workers changed jobs after less than a year's service.

What is the so-called productivity that the economists speak of? How much can a blue-collar worker increase his productivity? Physical productivity of an assembly line worker is heavily dependent on the machinery and equipment that have been allocated to him. There is fundamentally little or no difference in physical productivity between blue-collar workers of different countries, races or whatsoever.

Next, productivity is of course measured in dollars and cents.

Hence, Productivity = Goods produced per man hour x Average price level of good.

As mentioned before, physical productivity is heavily dependent on capital investments by the company, which the blue collar worker has no control over. The average price level of the good is of course in a capitalist market left to the forces of demand and supply. So fundamentally, productivity of a worker is determined by 2 factors that the worker has absolutely no control over. So how the heck is the average worker going to raise his productivity?

Meanwhile, for white-collar workers, management and Gahmen officials, how can we measure their productivity? How can we effectively tell how much they have contributed to company sales, company growth or the progress of the nation? Yet, these 3 classes will always be the most productive elements as their productivity seems to be determined by another formula that goes the other way round:

Productivity = Pay / Working hours

Since they are highly paid and work less hours per day, they have proven to be more productive and hence deserve a raise which in turns lead to productivity gains again! Fuck. But of course this should not be true or else the proletarians will really be fucking pissed off.

Signing off,
A Woodlands proletarian.
Son of a proletarian.

The Gomezgate Scandal: Elections 2006

2006-05-15T05:41:00.000-07:00

Starting to blog about the elections only now is just wrong but here goes.

Elections 2006 has been a wildly entertaining nationwide event, reaching out to both the young and the old. Old uncles are waving their toy hammers, cheering on the Worker's Party. Honestly a sight to behold.

Surprisingly, taking centre stage this election is not Chee Soon Juan with his Libel Suit but James Gomez from the Worker's Party with the Gomezgate Incident.

Listening to Mr Brown's podcast will give you a rough but pretty accurate account of the incident.
http://media.libsyn.com/media/mb/tmbs-060501-the_persistently_non-political_podcast_no6.mp3

WP's election campaign was going rather smoothly in the days running up to Nomination Day, apart from PAP's blunt criticisms of their party manifesto but soon PAP went into offensive overdrive as soon as they got wind of Gomez's screw-up at the Elections Department.

First, the Elections Department released a video evidence to justify their claim that Gomez accused them of putting Tur Kwa in his Bak Chor Mee when he never say he dowan Tur Kwa. Also, the Elections Department recorded the conversation between the Bak Chor Mee girl and Gomez, in order to get more incriminating evidence against Gomez, to question his integrity as well as his intelligence:

Bak Chor Mee boss:
Ok, you ready? My recording device ready liao. This time we confirm catch the fucker.
Bak Chor Mee girl:
Hello Mr Gomez. We call from the Elections Department. The CCTV at our Bak Chor Mee Stall shows that you never say you dowan Tur Kwa
Gomez
Huh?
Bak Chor Mee girl:
The CCTV at our Bak Chor Mee Stall shows that you never say you dowan Tur Kwa
Gomez:
Oh. Like that arh? Never mind, I call you back later. I out now.

After the public airing of video and phone conversation, PAP candidates begin to ask why Gomez said that he submitted his form when in fact he did not. This was an attempt by the PAP to hint to the voters that, “Hey, this guy got problem. He purposely say he handed in the form when he did not! His motive is to hint that PAP controls the Elections Department and dowan to let him contest!”

So basically, on the first day after the breaking of the news on TV, PAP hinted to the voters that Gomez was trying to create the impression that he kana victimized by the Elections Department in order to hint to the voters that PAP controls the Elections Department.

That night on his rally, Gomez gave a sincere apology during his rally to the Elections Department and his apology was broadcast on national TV. Basically, his official stand was that he forgot that he didn't submit the form and was distracted by other stuff after that.

Voters say, “Neh Mind! Forget mah, what is wrong with that?” PAP leaders shocked.

“How come the voters never condemn Gomez like we expected them to??? Is the hint not obvious enough? Think normal Singaporeans not as smart as we are, so must make things simpler. Tomorrow we just say clearly lar, no need to hint liao.”

So the next day, PAP rejected Gomez's apology and say, “Sorry not enough, must explain.” Accusing him of undermining the reputation of the Elections Department as a politically neutral body, PAP tried ways and means to force Gomez into confessing to the crime that he supposedly committed.

The exchange went on for days and days, with the PAP biting onto this issue refusing to let go. They believed that Gomezgate is like 天助我也！Its like a shopping voucher, if don't use like damn wasted right?

Then public opinion turned against them as voters began to feel that PAP was bullying WP. PAP leaders shocked again! They were whipping a dead horse for days when the WP had already moved on to other issues and were winning people over to their side. After spending days building a trap for the WP, WP simply side steps it.

PAP totally pissed off but managed to 亡羊补牢 before the elections by having a 360 degree turn on their stand on Gomez from “Gomez must die” to “Gomez can wait”. Finally grasping the essence of the Elections, Lee Hsien Loong say, “PAP still better.”

So, the nation speaks and decides that yar, PAP still better.

After the elections, its payback time! So the police time nice nice, wait until Gomez wear flowery Hawaiin shirt go airport then, “You are needed for investigations on a case of criminal intimidation.” Air ticket wasted, go police station kana detained. What is the impression when you see people kana arrested in flowery shirt at the airport? Confirm is sibei jialat one lar! So somehow, the timing very nice such that Gomez jialat jialat.

Finally, Gomez is let off after getting a stern warning and getting it jialat jialat by the Singapore Police Force who managed to ask him 100 questions on why he say he tell the Bak Chor Mee stall that he dowan Tur Kwa when he neber say that he dowan Tur Kwa.

Sergeant:
Why you say that you tell the Elections Department that you submitted the form when you didn't?
Gomez:
I forgot.
Sergeant:
Why you say that you tell the Elections Department that you submitted the form when you didn't
Gomez:
I forgot.
Sergeant:
Why you say that you tell the Elections Department that you submitted the form when you didn'?
Gomez:
I forgot.
…
…
…
…
…
…
Sergeant:
Why you say that you tell the Elections Department that you submitted the form when you didn'?
Gomez:
I give up. I trying to create the impression that I kana victimized by the Elections Department in order to hint to the voters that PAP controls the Elections Department
Sergeant:
Haha, say earlier lar! My boss now give you stern warning then we can go drink kopi.”
Gomez:
… -_-''

Of course this one joking only lar, because SPF Singapore Quality Class one leh! Don't play play.

So this sums up the Gomezgate Scandal a.k.a The Story of the Tur Kwa…

Honestly, a big thank you to all the Singaporean politicians that made the Gomezgate possible and brought so much color and humor to Elections 2006.

Religious Harmony

2006-02-06T02:09:00.000-08:00

Recently, there was a big uproar over the image of Prophet Mohammad being portrayed as a terrorist in some Danish newspaper. Then as usual, the Gahmen tells us to 相亲相爱 and that religious harmony is most important for a multi-racial and multi-religious country like Singapore. Of course this is true and I believe we had enough Moral Education lessons to understand why.

But when you think about it, Muslims believe that only Allah exists, Christians believe only God exists.

So when a Christian goes to a Mosque for a visit:
“Oh, so you pray here and recite the Quran right. It is very interesting.”
But in fact, they are thinking:
“Recite all you want but you are still going to hell anyway.”

When a Muslim visits a temple:
“Oh, so you pray the Gods with the joss-sticks. That is interesting.”
“But it won't be so interesting in your afterlife, you infidels…”

When a Taoist goes to Church:
“Your songs are so nice!”
“But that will not save these fools from being reincarnated as animals...”

These visits are so 虚伪!

But undisputedly, some form of religious or cultural exchange is necessary in order to learn how to respect one another. I mean without exchange or knowledge about others, how are we supposed to know that Muslims can't eat pork? However, just don't overdo it.

But otherwise, I believe that Singaporeans should be friends with each other, drink Tiger beer, avoid all religious talk and stick to criticizing the Gahmen instead.

Cheers!

Law and Economics – The Relation

2006-02-02T03:13:00.000-08:00

When I tell people that I got a place in NUS studying Law and Economics, they would immediately be inclined to think that I will be pursuing a career in financial law. Drafting contracts, suing companies and managing bankruptcies.

Contrary to popular belief, law and economics do not only intersect in that particular aspect: Financial law. Well, the connection may not be too clear to non-economics students so here goes:
Economics is a study of the economy and during the study economists are always in the search of how to maximize economic efficiency. An important component of the regulatory function lies with the gahmen and the judicial system. In an ideal economy with world peace, the gahmen should be lean and slim, serving only functions of maintaining law and order, protecting the rights of individuals.

In fact, the existence of a gahmen or some form of control is absolutely vital to the capitalist system. The capitalist system bases itself on the greed of man, his desire to lead a better life, to enjoy more material comforts than those around him. Yet, if there is no gahmen or authority to guarantee his right to private property, there is no stopping those around him from sharing in his gains.

Some capitalist even bring out the Eighth Commandment, Thou Shall Not Steal, as a divine direction and stamp of approval for the capitalist system. But communists don't care because most communists are atheists anyway. In fact, either Marx or Mao described all religions as opium, giving the people hope of a better afterlife so that they will not rise up in bloody revolution against their oppressors. Ok, from that tone, it should be Mao. Opium... it's a Chinese thing. Of course the communist system demands a gahmen as well, otherwise who plan sia!

Woah, I digressed...

Yeah, basically this is when law comes in. Because by right, the Gahmen should only be enforcing the law mah. Though one quite-famous-but-not-famous-enough-for-me -to-remember-the-name-economist once said, “Economists should only make efficiency judgments and leave the moral judgments to the politicians.” But like that not very responsible leh... So being a responsible communist who is dedicated to为人民服务, I decide to 响应gahmen 的号召to upgrade my skills and learn more about the law.

Law is really about the rights of individuals and how the system goes about enforcing these rights and punishing those who infringe on the rights of others. I believe this becomes a very sophisticated subject in this sense where philosophy comes in and that is where I really need to work on. Tried reading Plato and Kant for Beginners in Chinese High and was totally lost.

Next, we come to the role of economics in the study of law. Economics as a tool boils down to the cost-benefit analysis. Being totally 客观 in nature, this concept allows us to be more broad minded and purpose driven when formulating new laws or evaluating old ones. Ah…. Sounds quite lame but its true la. Trust me.

That's the end of my sharing. Good day comrades

Love?

2006-02-02T03:11:00.000-08:00

Watched the 1994 adaptation of the Classic, starring 杨采妮 & 吴奇隆, while idling at home on Medical Leave and was seriously moved to tears. Really quite touching leh! And honestly, it stirred up much emotions and thoughts on love and romance. Now I do believe that love involves a lot more than 你快乐所以我快乐. I guess my original comments came mainly because of the lack of love in my life. Looking back at the years gone by, there was of course attraction to the opposite sex, almost yearly in fact. A hot blooded male, I am. But the attraction seemed to be driven by the fact that I'm a hot blooded male who watches too much TV, rather than the genuine attraction to the girl in question.

As a result, I am constantly gravitating towards sexually attractive ladies who give me that feeling of being in “love”, instead of developing a true relationship with the other females in my life. Which in 白话文 simply means falling head over heels over the girl with the cutest tits, as correctly identified by my fellow canoe mates.

Sort of got the wrong idea that being a racing pulse, the inability to think and breathlessness fall into the category of “feelings of being in love” Damn those 港片s…

And after realizing the howler I made, especially during my JC days. I find that, that was entirely not love! But still, those were honestly nice tits.

On Taxation and Government Spending

2006-02-02T03:05:00.000-08:00

Milton and Rose Friedman provided much food for thought on the topic of taxation:

There are only 4 ways to spend money:

1. Spend your money on yourself
2. Spend your money on other people
3. Spend other people’s money on yourself
4. Spend other people’s money on other people

If you spend money on yourself, you obviously look for the best value, buying stuff only when you think that its utility exceeds the cost. Well, whether that’s true or not will be another issue on asymmetric information that will be covered in subsequent posts.

If you spend money on other people, you make even less informed choices as you are not the end user of the product or service that you have purchased. Of course issues like costs and other considerations come into play, which was why Charlie Brown bought his mother a baseball bat for Mother’s Day.

If you spend other people’s money on yourself, you would care nothing about costs but only on utility. Imagine T.T Durai: First class air travel, gold-plated taps. Well you get the idea.

Finally, spend other people’s money on other people. Well, who cares about cost OR utility anyway?

Taxation and its related government spending mainly fall into the last two categories and that is exactly the reason why taxation leads greatly to economic inefficiency. It doesn’t really matter who is President, Great Leader or Prime Minister. Any Head of State’s biggest enemy remains as the civil service itself.

Let’s not even go into detail about leadership at state level. But looking at the world around us, enlightened leadership still remains as a luxury. Warmongers like Bush, Comedians like Bush, continue being in positions of power to influence the very future of the world we live in. Back at home, our leaders are famed to be corruption free, being as pure as the white robes they don. But if I was not mistaken, the 2 reasons to explain the generous salaries for our top civil servants were:

1.) To retain talent
2.) To maintain a corruption free core

Reasonable as they may sound, will we feel just that little bit uneasy when the subtle implications of these words seem to be that our leaders are in for the monetary benefits rather than that passion to serve the nation, and that the only force holding them back from corruption is the fear of losing such a well paying job.

Apart from the cream of the crop, we must also understand that the civil service is not just about the Lee family, SM Goh or members of the PAP. The civil service includes the dispatch clerk in the Ministry of Finance, the office boy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also thousands of conscripted National Servicemen.

The civil service is huge and hence suffers greatly from diseconomies of scale. Decentralized spending has to occur due to practicality and this opens up numerous avenues for spending public funds or resources for personal gain. Well, probably not full blown embezzlement but a roll of toilet paper today and dozens of ball point pens tomorrow do turn out to be quite a sum at the end of the day.

Taxation invariably leads to economic inefficiency, yet it remains as a necessary evil due to the textbook answers like:

1. Providing Public Goods (Think public lighting)
2. Subsidizing production of Merit Goods (Think schools and hospitals)
3. Maintaining Law and Order as well as National Security
4. Long term sustainability and Progress of the Nation

Hence, I do sincerely hope that the Gahmen be blessed with moral strength and qualities of true leadership to inspire our entire civil service towards responsible management of public funds.

Adam Smith?

2006-02-01T01:50:00.000-08:00

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages. "

At first glance, it may seem like such a sad fact. I guess especially so for the elderly female Chinese teachers in school, who have espoused Confucian values all of their lives but if you think of it in the general sense, this concept of self-love extends beyond that of bread and butter, but for every single action that man undertakes. Yes, that includes even seemingly selfless acts like charity or love.

However, for charity, we consider not utility but (- utility). The sight of a crippled beggar on the streets will never give us pleasure. We feel sad that people are suffering. (- utility). We feel that we should do something to alleviate his suffering. His words of thanks or the fact that you have done a good thing makes you happy. (Utility!)

For love, well, just as Faye says:

你快乐所以我快乐
要你快乐，不就是因为你快乐所以我快乐？

My Very Own PSC Essay

2005-09-19T04:31:00.000-07:00

Please tell us about the activities and interests which you believe best represent the values and beliefs you held strongly to.

Looking back at my past experiences so far, the most memorable and significant one would have been my involvement in the Hwa Chong Canoeing Team.

Tired of being chided as a meek scholar by my classmates, I joined this testosterone filled CCA, in a bid to remake myself. Canoeing had a really big reputation, with a winning culture and a promise to turn you into a muscular hunk with that healthy bronzed look, the promise definitely sold. Though joining the team for a less than noble cause, what I took away from it was never just that charming Beach Boy look for a good year or so, I had learnt many lessons along the way and made numerous friends that would walk me down the path of life.
Which is fucking true!

The transition from my sedentary lifestyle to the physically-demanding regime was a painful one. The first weeks of training were hell; the run through Duchess Avenue was both physically exhausting and morale sapping as I ended up more often than not at the back of pack, the 50 pull-ups and circuit training after that drained whatever energy that was left and even after the cool down, I was still trying terribly hard to catch my breath. Fevers and vomiting were common as my body struggled to adapt to the harsh demands.
Its a scholarship essay! Play up the suffering! But its true lar, once or twice though...

Of course, the sufferings gradually bore fruit as my strength and stamina increased, finally being able to catch up with the rest on the track and competing equally well in the weights room. The feeling and joy of this transformation is indescribable, and it reaffirmed my belief that everyone is capable of improvement, that no challenges are insurmountable.
Typical bullshit that will find their way into your essay...

Being a competitive sport, we always had to train with the end in mind. Victory and defeat seemed to be everything. To us victory will bring honour, glory and justify all the sweat that we have put in. Defeat, on the other hand, was just unthinkable. However, things just weren’t meant to be for us, as we failed to fulfil our ambitions. At the end of the day, my canoeing experience did not gain me any silverware, apart from our team’s Bronze Cup. Neither did I complete a single final, capsizing in one and being disqualified in the other. To some, all my sacrifices and efforts seemed to come to naught, and that I would be much better off enjoying myself in Outdoors Activities Club or studying harder for my ‘S’ Papers. However, I gradually came to grasp the essence of the old cliché, “It is not about the result, but the process.” To me, the experience of working hard towards your goal, that very feeling of purpose and commitment, was good enough for me to choose the same path all over again.
How else would I get to know people with names like Dicky Dong, Freaky Armani Ang and last but not least, sirmasteryiweialmighty你最强你比我强你比较强.guangong.com

Canoeing had made a difference to my life and I am sincerely thankful for all the lessons it taught me, which I believe will put me in good stead to excel in my future undertakings
...Joseph, I owe you my life

Well, didn't get the job in the end. But hey, actually won't want to end up being a political engineer in future either.

Sour grapes anyone?

But honestly it was quite a fun experience writing this junk, got to really sit down and relive the times we had together. Try it for yourself! http://www1.pscgateway.gov.sg/inter/index.jsp

Hwa Chong Canoeing Team 2002/2003