GRC sucks!

Just came back from my wonderful holiday in Seoul. Anywhere out of Singapore is heaven to me.

When I surfed around the net after I came back I noticed lots of activities and comments against the PAP newbies.

This proved to me that there are no shortages of underlying hatres against the ruling party. I just can’t help to think what is the percentage of Singaporean that are really love with PAP, hardcore hate them, don’t like but afraid to vote against and finally those who simply bochap.

To be honest I think each politician should be represent himself/herself when he or she is standing for election. No cheapskate should piggy back on to some established politician in a GRC and get a free ride into the parliament where we have to pay them tax payer money.

In another word, GRC sucks!

Let say there are 6 persons in the GRC and you only like one or two. Note this goes both way with PAP and opposition. How are you going to vote? You may like person A and B in PAP team and person C and D in the opposition team.

For me I just won’t vote for someone who has not proven him or herself nor anyone I don’t like. Period!

I see a sign!

I watched George in the news yesterday and he said:

"Libya and the Middle East (unrest), Japan.....I think the world is entering a new phase and we have to be very alert and not take things for granted and not be too confident about our own abilities."

Somehow it fits nicely as a comment to PAP. Hmmm……

A Strong Reminder

A couple of day ago I received this 31 pages high quality super colorful brochure from my town council.

Basically it’s all self praising messages inside. A sort of report cards reminding people in the GRC what the incumbent had done for you over the last 5 years. Naming all the new Malls, parks upgrading, roads, etc etc and many more upcoming projects.

Inside there are many pictures featuring in lots of activities surrounded by lots of people and I swore I never seen so many happy faces in my life.

There are also many comments from the residents and needless to say they are all happy.

I wonder where they find these people when they wanted comments. Probably they are RC members or relative of RC members I guess.

Over the years I had several complaints regarding the cleanliness of my estates and to date the situation still has not improved. Also I have witness many close shaves involving cyclist on walkways with pedestrians. It is illegal but somehow I have never seen a law enforcer in my entire stay in Pasir Ris.

I can’t help to wonder how much money used to publish this propaganda brochure and they should use the money to hire more cleaners instead. I note they have about $116 million in their sinking fund base on their 09/10 annual reports. Gosh that’s lots of fat if you ask me.

So did they did a good job in the last 5 years? Everyone will have their own views and I don’t believe a last minute effort of an expensive colorful brochure will change a person mind.

I can sense a tingle of fear from the incumbent this time.

A proud nation.

Yesterday I happened to watch a little of the daily Parliament’s Highlights on TV and I can’t help to notice that several of key cabinets members are missing from the session.

This is not the first time I notice it and if my memory served me well I remember it states somewhere it is not compulsory for them to be in every parliament’s seating.

If this is so then there is something seriously wrong with the system.

Don’t forget each and everyone in the cabinets or Member of Parliaments are in there because the citizen of Singapore voted you in there (well most are voted in anyway) to represent them!

You are there to listen and talk on behalf for the people in your constituency. You are sitting in that seat because of the people so for God’s sake do what you are supposed to do or maybe you are too proud to listen to the people anymore.

This is what happened when people are too comfortable in a job for too long and let complacency set in. A high and mighty attitude just make me sick.

A fake fake world

I don’t know whether is me being sensitive or not but suddenly I notice a surge in air-time by our Ministers.

Hsien Loong was busy with some events on Saturday and Sunday and Teo Chee Hien was in some opening ceremony on Saturday.

Gosh I swore I never seen the Ministers or MPs work so hard in the pass 4 years. So its like you skived in your company for 11 months and suddenly power up in the month before your appraisal is due by going into overdrive and hopefully your boss will notice your “Hard work”.

In a way it is quire true as I attended a course which states people always remember the beginnings and the ends and nothing in-between.

Today I heard a type of laugh when the big boss tried to crake some joke. It is a kind of spontaneous laugh where everyone suddenly burst out when the boss hit the punch line and it died down quite fast as well.

Gosh this sound so fake and sickening and I remember hearing it around the Minister over the weekend.

Wahahahahahaha……

Mindef Reserve. Finally!

Attended my Mindef Reserve (MR) ceremony last Saturday, 26 Feb 2010 which spelled the end of my military life which begun on 24th June 1993.

So 14 years plus in the army exchange for a certificate, a photograph, a watch, a medal, a pin and one final meal in the canteen.

As I have blogged before, I am just glad to be out of the system.

Looking at Singapore nowadays, I don’t know whether it is worth protecting anymore. The influx of foreigners, elites and governments who has lost touch of the ground etc etc.

Look like the security of the nation now lies in the hand of another generation which have never done more the 20 push up in a row.

Good bye SAF.

Budget 2011

Most people are talking about the Budget 2011 after the Minister's annoucment last Friday.

Guess most people are interested in how much money the Gahment will give them.

Honestly I have already reached the "Can't be bother" state.

Just remember, whatever they give you now they will take it back more after the election.

So remember to vote wisely my friends.

An Experiment

Tried an interesting experiment today.

I did an image search on Google on my name and the result is pretty interesting

Uncannily they are quite related to me in one way or another.

Ok mostly I get lots of old kung-fu actor pictures…haha… I have been involved in martial arts since my teenage days of this is quite close.

Hey I got Jackie Chan and Jet Li as Wong Fei Hong pictures as well.

I also see some engineering drawings and I am an engineer by training so this is quite close too.

Some are quite funny thought.

I got a few Lee Teng Hui pictures, guess I that is because we got the 2 similar name out of 3.

I also got some soft porn HK actress pictures! Hahaha….

One thing I can’t understand is why I got a Sponge Bob picture in there? Hmm…


Can try this if you are bored. Interesting.

Singapore

Came across a blog entry "10 things I miss about Singapore" by a Singaporean woman living in South Africa.

I stayed in UK for about 2 years and I can tell you the only things I missed about Singapore are my family and friends and maybe cheap food. Thats all.

Now here is my list of :

10 things I hate about Singapore:

1. Weahter. We get Hot, Hotter, #@$!%$!@# Hot.
2. Lousy and expensive public transport system. Trains take forever to come and are always crowded even on weekdays off peak hours and good luck with the buses. Taxis are good a disappearing just before midnights and the fare structure can be in teh Guinness book of record for being the most complex.
3. No freedom of expression and Goverment controlled media.
4. Wold most expensive cabinets who still need 2 senior Ministers and 1 Minister Mentor to teach them what to do and they still don't take responsibility for their own mistakes.
5. Automatic 10% service charges for ZERO service. If you want tips you better earn for it.
6. People who can blooddy stand to the left side of the escalator.
7. People who can #@#%@ let you out of the lift and trains first.
8. Tissues reservation system (Must be a world first)
9. No protection of privacy law. Your name and contacts are being sold out there to banks and housing agent and all those @!#!$ spammer who keep sending you SMS.
10. Embracement of useless "Foreign Talents"

Food for thought

Got this in an Email today. Not very accurate but it does remind us how greedy the goverment is and the significant gap between the rich and the poor in Singapore.

A minister takes home on average approximately $1,500,000 a year or $125,000 a month. A peasant akes home on average approximately $30,000 a year or $2,500 a month.

As 20% of the peasant’s pay has to go into CPF, the peasant is left with $2,000 in cash.

Assuming the peasant saves 10% of his cash for rainy days, he would be left with $1800.
If the peasant spends every single cent of his $1,800 and is taxed at the rate of 7% in form of GST, he will have to pay $126 in GST every month.

From here, we can conservatively gauge that it takes approximately 1000 peasants to feed one minister every month just from paying GST.

We have 20 ministers, which means about 20,000 peasants working their asses off to feed them every month.

Welcome to Singapore.

2011

First workweek of the year just in case you guys don’t know the electric fee has gone up in January. (Just a reminder). We are in a new decade already!

So what do I expect in the year 2011?

Globally I think we are still in the recovery process since the financial crisis in 2008. I expect gone case US economy and China is the where investors are heading. Economy growth will definitely be slower then before and I predict it is a good year to invest and the system will reach it peak at 2013 before it starts crashing again.

Now for National issue.

Well guess there will be a presidential and General Election this year. I certainly hope I will be able to vote for the very 1st time! I also hope there will be more opposition being voted into the parliament to provide alternate views in National issues.

I also guess we will be have a new President and Nathan will be retiring to enjoy life finally.

Cost of living in Singapore will definitely continue to rise this year and do expect to see some “goodies” before the elections but everything will be taken back tri-fold after that as Singaporean are proven to have short term memories. I like to remind all out there remember the old NS guys got shit from the $10K pay out due to our expiry dates.

Personally I hope I will be moving on doing a different job scope. Hopefully within the company but shall not rule of new opportunities.

Will be going for my Aikido Shodan grading this year. After 10 years of training and “nua” I guess I will be stepping up my skill.

I will also be officially on Mindef Reserve this year! Still have not received any letter on my actual day but I think it will be by March as this is MINDEF closure of a financial year. Yipee no more MODS Manning and calling the stupid notification center every time I travel.

Mobile Phone contract will ends this year so will be getting a new phone as well! Andriod or Apple?

If I get a good bonus this year will be getting a new watch as well. (or 2?)

I will also put in extra effort to keep fit and will be watching my diet a little. (Only apply when I am in Singapore hehe…)

Will be continuing with my 八卦掌 training and hopefully will have some new discoveries in the martial world. : P

I also promise myself I will make more time for families and friends. Some friends I have not met for 10years!

Its time to catch up.

Goodbye 2010 an Hello 2011!

Yes it come to the last post for the year again!

Another year and passed and overall it is not such a bad year for me.

Went for my health check and over all I am good still the same as 2 years ago my Triglyceride is a bit high at 178 (should be below 150) but it had gone down from over 400 in 2008! And my good cholesterol is dropping so need to workout more.

So my new year’s resolution is be Healthier, Exercise more and eat moderately.

There is nothing more important then good health.

This year I travelled to Fukuoka in Feb, Taipei in March and May and Tokyo in October. Managed my 4 trips a year target. Next year will be the same planning for Tokyo in Feb, Taipei in March, Seoul in May and Tokyo in Nov.

Did my 2 ICTs this year. One in Jan and my last in Nov. A chapter of my life closed here. Good grief, but I still have not got my MR notice yet.

Need to wish all my friends and families a healthy 2011 ahead and remember to enjoy life. You only live once!

A day disconnected

I forgot to bring my phone out today. I only realized that I left it in the other bad when I boarded the bus in the morning on my way to work.

Immediately there is a sense of panic and I even contemplate to go back home to get it but the logical side of me told me it is not worth it and I will be late for work.

The I got into the “self scaring” mode, what if someone need to fine me urgently
? What if I need to call someone urgently? What if I won a million dollars and the need to contact me…. Blah blah blah….

But after calming down and think carefully, actually how many of us use our phone as a phone? We normally used it to SMS our friends, play games or facebooking. The mobile phone is just a social gadget these days.

It almost the end of the day now and my life did not change drastically without my mobile phone with me today. Yes I do feel a little awkward often checking my imaginary phone in my right pocket only to realize it is at home but at the end of the day it is not too back to live disconnected for a day.

Most of us are so used to be connected to the Internet and phone that we had became a slave to technology. We actually have to put in effort to remain disconnected these days.

I am challenging myself to spend a day without TV, Internet, Phone. It may sound difficult and the harder you think you cannot do it meant you are deeply rooted to technology but nevertheless it should be quite interesting, thefore why don’t you join me?

Polo Trunk

The Singapore Polo Team is in deep shit due to the ridiculous Trunk they wore during the recent Asia games.

As per report:

"The trunks, featuring the crescent moon and five stars on the front, and the word Singapore on the back, were designed by the players just for these Games and were meant to be eye-catching. Unfortunately, it has also raised eyebrows. At issue is the 'suggestive' positioning of the crescent moon over the crotch."

Firstly whoever brainless clown in the team that design this ugly trunk should be sacked.

Who sane individual will wear such a trunk.
Well guess the team got what they wanted. They are being “Eye caught” by the authority.

The end of a journey.

Just came back from 2 week of reservist. This happens to be my last one and I have completed my 11 in-camps (yes one more extra) and fulfilled my obligation as a male citizen of this country.

I know many people dread going back or “keng” out of the army but I personally don’t want to owe the country and I am proud to have completed my duty as a combat soldier not a Pes C soldier. (No offend to some out there. : P)

Some reflections to share.

I had some great time in the army, met some nice people and it had in a way reminded me to stay fit till this very day, 14 days after my ROD.

I had seen the transformation of the army from 2nd Generations as a recruit till what it is today a 3-G army.

I had worn the old WWII helmet and the new Kevlar one.

I think I also wore quite a range of the army wardrobe.

I have wore the super old uniform, to the newer camo one and recently the pixelized one. I even wore the crab black PT short, the green PT shirt (strangely the newest one back to green), the camo PT shorts (hey bet not many of you remember), the black PT shorts, the grey T and singlets, the Brown T and finally the new green T and singlets.

I wore the super old hard boots to the softer leather one and now the gortex one.

Food in the canteen has improved drastically. From the “cooks” days to the Singapore food industry of today.

Out rations was served on meal bags over mess tin to Styrofoam box till the paper box of today.

I have fired the M-16 and the SAR 21.

Ridden in the Mercedes 3 tonner, the New 3 tonners and now the 5 tonners (air-con some more), the land rover, the Jeep (can’t remember the name) and now the ford OUV. Took a ride on unimod, the 5 tonners, the 7 tonners and some of the unique rafts during my combat engineer days.

So the army had indeed changed, evolved over the years. But I still can't stand the bureaucracy involved. This will take another essay so you guys can ask me next time.

I am both sad and happy at this MR stage.

Sad that I will be seeing less of my friends, will be missing the time off from office, the super challenging talk cock sessions and the games in the Mess.

But I am happy to be out of the system. No more Mods Manning, no more reporting to the stupid automatic machine whenever you need to travel, no more red tapes and crabs in camp. Got to say the efficiency level of the army has not improve much since I first enlisted.

I am also happy to leave after scarifying 2 years 4 months full time of my life and follow by 14 years of reservist.

I question myself what has our county became today. With 1/3 of us a foreigners we are depending only a few hundreds thousands of Singaporean males to defend our land. We are scarifying our life and time to ensure our country is stable and safe while people from other country can just came and enjoy. What for?

Some Perm Sec cam during my ICT and a word from him set off the alarm bell in me.

He said the regulars are not the main army but we the NS man are. What he said is true, we the normal citizen are the bulk of the armed forces but then why are we paid peanuts during my NS days and the regulars are paid a fortune? Sad.

Anyway I had paid my debt and good luck to those who have sons.

But it’s not so bad in the army these days. It had taught me endurance, determination, teamwork, leadership and mostly friendship.

Goodbye SAF, it was a nice journey but it could be better.

U2 - Walk On

Ang San Suu Kyi is free! Peace.

Back from Holiday

Has not been blogging as I was on holiday in Tokyo (again!) for last 2 weeks and out of office for a conference on Tuesday and Wednesday. So this is actually my 2nd days in the office after my holiday!

As usual it was a nice “relaxing” shopping and eating trip and Tokyo remains still one of my favourite pilgrimage place.

Still in the process of sorting out some stuff from Tokyo and will post some of the nice stuff I get back from Tokyo.

I always try to get stuff that are Made in Japan while I am in Tokyo. Sadly this is getting more and more difficult and cheap labour cost from China is hard to ignore.

Last year the Nano block I bought from Japan are all Made In Japan but this year they are slowly being manufacture in China. So I took this opportunity to grab a few of the Made In Japan left.

Will blog more about my trip in the coming days!

Why you should not be spending your money here.

Singapore is turning into one of the worst place to buy things.

I travel quite a bit every year and the more I travel the more I realised you should not be spending you money in Singapore.

Things are so much cheaper even in other first world countries like Japan and USA.

I can understand if the importer have to factor in the shipment cost but this “cost” are averaging at about 20-30% of the selling pirce at their home countries.

Do note these selling had already factor in the profits.

I have seen some even cost 100% more then when they were in their county of origin.

I did a quite research on the average salary of an Engineer in Singapore, Japan and USA.

In Singapore and an Engineer earn about US$1,731, Japan US$2,530 and the States US$4,710.

So we go less pay but are paying more for the products. Don’t really make senses at all.

Save your money and spend over sea my friends and remember Japan GST is only 5% better then the F**K up 7% with the lousy service.

How much you are worth. The Singapore male citizen.

So MINDEFT deem you worth only $9000 for serving 2 years + 10 years of reservist.

$10500 if you are not a chow corporal and below.

This work out to be $3500 for your 2 years of Full time NS service. On top of your pay, you get this amount which is going in the your CPF.

Let say you earn $1000 a month (For 2 LTA these days?), for 2 years (Hey I already give you the bonus because you definitely don’t get his amount when you are a recruits or a cadet), you get $27500 after your NSF cycle.

So the max amount you get is $34500 after selling 2 + 13 years of your life to the defence of this country.

Note you are also defending the 2 million FT here.

Fair? My foot.

YOG joke.

YOG: Last-minute ticket sales for empty seats at sold-out venues
18 August 2010

SINGAPORE : Organisers of the Youth Olympics Games are making it possible for more people to catch the action.

From Thursday, if there are empty seats at sold-out venues, officials will be flexible in allowing last-minute fans to purchase tickets.

Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said venue managers will use their discretion to manage the situation. He was speaking to reporters after watching swimmer Rainer Ng clinch Singapore's first silver medal at the Games.

He said: "It will have to be first-come-first-served basis, and it will have to depend very much on the physical situation on the ground. "That's why I cannot have a uniform rule across all venues.

The venue manager will be authorised to make these decisions at a local level." - CNA/al


The question is – Why is there empty seats at sold out venues?

I think it is a know fact by now that these “sold out” tickets are actually bought by MOE (with tax payers money) to be given to their students.

Being teenager I definitely will not go for something that I am not interested in.

So why must our government do thing this way? Trying to make things look like what they are not really is.

If there is no crowd in an events then so be it. You should either make it free entry or reduce the cost of the tickets to pull in the crowd rather the let this shit happened.
I guess they are quite good at generating false statistic in this country.