Category: Rants

Random Discourse – The Death of Gaddafi

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I first heard of the country called Libya when I was 10 years old. That was when American F-14 shot down two Libyan Su-22 over the Gulf of Sidra. The country and Colonel Gaddafi (already the leader of Libya at that time), were soon forgotten since I was too young to understand the geopolitics of the world.

When I heard of Libya again, it was when the United States bombed it in 1986. I wasn’t really aware of the reason behind that until years later, but the fact that F-111 fighter bombers flew all the way from England around the Straits of Gibraltar to bomb Libya was nothing short of amazing to a 15 year-old. The reason was that the military history books which I had taken a fancy of at that time portrayed the flight of bombers from England to Germany in World War II as an impressive feat on its own. It was also the first time I was exposed to the weaponry like HARM (High Speed Anti-Radiation Missles) and AGM-65 Tactical Air-to-Ground Missile etc.

Since then, Colonel Gaddafi is nothing more than another crackpot Arab dictator which I had a low impression of. After all, whenever I heard of the country again it was always related to some anti-Israel rhetoric, atrocities like the Lockerbie bombing or United Nation sanctions. Over the years I even discovered that Gaddafi is afraid of heights, and he refused to stay in high rise buildings and refused to take a flight for more than a certain number of hours. Thus, Libya is not only a pariah which failed to behave accordingly in the modern world, its leader Gaddafi is a wussy!

When the United Nations lifted the sanctions on Libya in 2003, it came as a surprise to me. In my opinion, this was a shameless political deal. Libya was providing counter-terrorism intelligence to MI6 and the CIA in the aftermath of 9-11 and now it suddenly became as an ally of the West in the so-called “War on Terror”. All the crimes against humanity committed by the Gaddafi and his regime were seemingly forgotten (if not forgiven) and I wondered whether Gaddafi will ever get his just deserts. This simply added to my already low opinion of the UN as a useless organisation not only incapable of dealing with the issues between countries and the world, but nothing more than a rubber stamp to legitimise the actions of Western (in particular American) neo-Imperialism.

Then came the “Jasmine Revolution” which swept rapidly across the Arab world. Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria were all caught. I thought things in Libya will become a long drawn out affair like that of Syria and Yemen (which are still ongoing). In fact, I was expecting the rebellion to be brutally crushed and the remnants of the rebels Libyan National Liberation Army to scatter to the four winds and prosecute a long, drawn out guerilla war against Gaddafi’s regime. I didn’t take into account how quickly France led the West in turning against Gaddafi, declared a no fly zone over Libya and then attacked his forces with air strikes. It is of no wonder Gaddafi’s regime to collapse like a house of cards, since this was like someone binding you in ropes and then putting you into a boxing ring with an opponent.

Gaddafi was captured and summarily executed by forces opposing his regime on 20th Oct 2011. Just like Saddam Hussein, the bitter end of Gaddafi was captured on video by a mobile phone. The video showed the once haughty leader being beaten in public while he begged for mercy. There were some reports that he was also sexually abused with bayonets, guns and cylindrical objects shoved into his anus before he was killed. I bet no one would pursue the matter on bringing those who tortured and executed him to trial for a war crime.

Comparatively, even though Saddam Hussein was executed after a show trial, he died a more “dignified” death. Not that I have any respect for Saddam, but at least he was clearly made of sterner stuff compared to Gaddafi. Saddam didn’t flinch before his executioners and he remained unrepentant to the very end.

Those who are pro-West will celebrate the death of Gaddafi and the collapse of his regime to be victory of the self determination of the Libyan people. Unfortunately, the reality is more than that. It simply demonstrates that there is no true self determination for any other country with a value system different from the West. Granted, the likes of Saddam and Gaddafi are plundering their own country’s riches and stashing them away in private coffers, but the same can almost be said for Wall Street and it is not like there aren’t pro-West leaders who are doing the same while the West turn a blind eye to that.

In the world of neo-Imperialism, where the right to reason and opinion is often dominated by the West, my bet on the next victim would be Iran as there is now rumors of preparations to attack Iran’s nuclear facility. I also wondered what other plots would be thrown at the cancer-stricken Hugo Chavez of Venezuela who has survived several political plots which included referendums and military coups.

Anyway, I don’t mourn nor sympathise with Gaddafi. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

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Random Discourse – Cold Blooded China?

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The China double hit-and-run case is old news since it happened on October 13. Much have been said about the carelessness of the mother to the callousness of the 18 pedestrians and cyclists. Undoubtedly, those 18 people who did nothing to help were condemned and there was much discussion (if not debate) among China’s netizens about the degradation of “Chinese morality”. Even I had put the blame of the complete collapse of Chinese morality on the Cultural Revolution and the Communist Party. The only bright spot of this whole incident is that the old lady who helped refused to take any reward offered to her. Let me paraphrase what she said: “I will not take it because if I do, people will say I am doing it for the money.” Note, this is not some rich tai-tai but an old lady picking cupboard boxes to make a living.

I’ll admit I was outraged and appalled when I first read the news and saw the video. As time goes by I understand some of the reasons behind the callousness of the passerbys. It is not even the result of the bystander effect, but a fear that one might get into trouble.

Apparently, there were extortion cases where good Samaritans were accused of knocking into or pushing elderly folks, and even kidnapping children. These poor souls end up losing huge sums of money. In one bizarre case in 2006, a kind man in Nanjing named Peng Yu (彭宇) was sued in court by the very woman he helped. The accursed judge presiding over the case ruled that “common sense” suggested that Peng only took the woman to the hospital because he was guilty and ordered him to pay her medical expenses. From what I gathered, it cost Peng a good 40,000 Yuan (approx. S$8000). Similarly a Xu Yunhe (许云鹤) in Tianjin also lost over 100,000 Yuan (approx. S$20,000) for helping an elderly person who was jay walking. In a society where there is such gross miscarriage of justice, and where the people preyed upon each other, it is of no wonder why the two drivers who ran over her didn’t stop to help while everyone ignored poor Yue Yue as she lay dying on a narrow market street. After all, those who didn’t care probably felt that “no good deed goes unpunished” in China and netizens there even joked that the old lady helped because she does not read news on China’s Internet.

However, understanding why those 18 people didn’t help doesn’t mean I agree with the excuses, rational or reasons behind it. The excuses given reminded me of the Parable of the Good Samaritan from one of my Bible studies lessons, in which one of reasons given as to why the people didn’t help was to avoid the trouble that comes along with it. My pastor further explained that Jesus detests this because the priests and Levites in that period no longer understand the spirit of God’s spiritual laws, but were repeatedly finding excuses in the word of the law to justify their actions and excuse themselves from doing what is right.

Now, even when we do not look at the moral aspect, I would like to point out at times even animals do better than human beings in helping their own kind in need. Look at these videos, for example:

  1. A friend in need is a friend indeed

  2. Battle at Kruger

In the first example, a gecko made an effort to help another of its kind on its own and it is clear how apprehensive it is when attacking the snake. In the second example, a herd of buffaloes battled the lions to save a calf. All of these actions come with a threat to the very lives of those which offered to help.

I am not linking these videos to “teach” everyone a moral lesson, but it makes me feel ashamed after looking at these videos. We are less than beasts (禽兽不如) when our actions are less than that of common beasts. If we cannot be as heroic as the gecko in the first video, then at least be like the buffaloes in the second. If we believe that we can’t be of any good on our own, or that our strength alone is too feeble, then call for help. Certainly, doing what is right in whatever way appropriate is better than doing nothing at all. The old lady who helped did not even hesitate when she dragged poor Yue Yue to the side of the road.

Before I end, please look at this video. And remember what the police officer said:

Go proactive. Take action. Different people, different action.

Random Discourse – A Case of Idiocy

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A case for repealing 377A

I refer to last Tuesday’s article (‘Study looks at sexual behaviour of gay men’).

The effort to glean information for the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections is admirable. But I am not surprised that the study has fallen far short of its target of 1,000 participants and has managed only a meagre 40.

With Section 377A of the Penal Code still in place, sex between men remains illegal in Singapore.

No matter how much confidentiality is promised, there will be understandable reluctance from potential participants. For, in effect, the study asks that gay men make the admission of having committed a criminal act.

Section 377A not only hinders important studies from being conducted, but also ties the hands of educators who should be teaching young ones the proper way to regard safe sex, irrespective of one’s sexual orientation.

In short, 377A is detrimental to the fields of medical research and education.

It should be repealed (just as Section 377 of the Penal Code outlawing oral and anal sex between men and women has been repealed), so that studies such as the above can be conducted without impediment.

Pamela Oei (Ms)

This was an forum letter published only on the online version of the Straits Times forum. The research in question was to determine the prevalence of syphilis and HIV infection among homosexuals. Tan Tock Seng Hospital consultant Mark Chen, explained that this was done because it has not been proven conclusive here even though overseas data has shown that homosexual men are more at risk of syphilis and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

To justify something in the name of research reminds me of Japan, which says it is killing whales for ‘scientific research’. While I do not always agree with environmentalists or animal- rights activists, I would like Japan to actually explain what research are they doing by killing those animals, and why do they have to kill so many every year to do such research. Would they not be able to do the same without killing those magnificent creatures? In fact, I had often considered Japan to be shameless to use research to justify the killing. Thus, I can’t help but also consider it shameless when after failing to repeal Section 377A by arguing that it discriminates against a specific group of people, the argument now is that it is detrimental to the field of medical research and sex education.

To refresh everyone, Section 377A states that: “Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years.“

I take that to mean that any form of sexual intercourse between two male persons is a criminal act. Pamela Oei’s premise is that anyone who submit to this study would be admitting to having committed a criminal act and she believe that is the sole reason why there is a low number of participants. Have she considered that one of the reasons could be a lack of interest in such studies? Anyone who argues that homosexuality is related to a higher risk to STDs / VDs is often called a ‘homophobe’. So why would homosexual men participate in a study to determine something which they have always believed to be false? Sadly, Pamela Oei could only think of Section 377A as the only reason why there are few takers to this study.

Next, Pamela Oei’s argued Section 377A ‘ties the hands of educators who should be teaching young ones the proper way to regard safe sex. I would like to ask her, how would that be true? My limited knowledge on safe sex revolves around two very basic principles, they are: (in the words of the Sammyboy forummers) ‘raw is war’ – meaning you should never have unprotected sex; and it is best to be loyal / have only one sex partner. I believe these simple principles would apply to both heterosexuals and homosexuals. The other important knowledge about safe sex would include rudimentary knowledge about the kind of nasties that can be transmitted either orally or via the genitals, how fatal they are and the damage they do to one’s life. In summary, safe sex would be about the risk of unprotected sex, the seriousness and consequences of catching any of these diseases and the prevention. How would Section 377A be an obstacle for educators to impart such knowledge?

Pamela Oei should really understand how utterly lame and ludicrous she is. At times I wondered why some of the people who aren’t homosexual themselves seems more interested in homosexual activism than the homosexuals themselves. Perhaps they simply have nothing better to do and participation in such activities makes them look hip, cool or inclusive and even make them appear enlightened.

Addendum:
I believe some people will want to ask does that mean only a slave can speak up against slavery and I suggest you save the effort.

Two reasons. First, slavery is often forced upon another person and the same cannot be said about homosexuality – where the homosexual lobby often claims that it either a choice or a matter of genes. Second, I will not fall into the trap and elevate something which I consider as wrong to the same level as freedom.

I’ll tolerate any person who decides to be a homosexual, but just don’t expect me to celebrate or endorse that decision. Nor expect me to roll over and shut up in the face of any attempt to celebrate or endorse it.

Random Discourse – Pulau Bukom Fire

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I knew from my colleague that a fire has broken out at Pulau Bukom at around 3:30pm on Wednesday (28-Sep-2011). He saw the news on STOMP and showed it to me. Since Bukom was just right in front of the window, I rolled up the blind and it seems to be under control at that point of time. But this shocking view greeted me around 7pm in the evening as I was winding down the blinds to call it a day.

Apparently, it has gotten worse and the fire went on for another 26 hours after that (according to the news). It wasn’t until 9:18pm on Thursday that the hundred over firefighters managed to put the fire out.

The first thing on my mind was, with a such a fire raging some people may have been hurt or killed. I am happy that Shell accounted for all its personnel. While some of my friends grumbled about the minimal media coverage, I subsequently discovered that access to Pulau Bukom is restricted to personnel working on the island only and that explains why there was no real time coverage on the island itself. A colleague who was in the Navy during National Service [NS] told me that the Police Coast Guard also maintained some picket ships around the island to prevent unauthorized vessels from approaching.

Anyway, some of the other things that were immediately on my mind was whether this fire was just a mere industrial accident, sabotage or more ominously, a terror attack. Whatever it was, there would certainly be some impact on global supply since Shell has its largest refinery on Pulau Bukom. I also wondered whether a sabotage or an industrial accident would have any impact of investor confidence and the position of Singapore as a major petrochemical center in the world. Simply put, with the economy confirmed to be heading south the year after, our little red dot does not need any more harm to its fragile economy.

As for terror attacks, Pulau Bukom has been attacked before in 31-Jan-1974 by 4 terrorists – 2 each from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Japanese Red Army. The perpetrators of this incident gained notoriety as the ‘Bukom Bombers’ or the ‘Laju Hijackers’.

I wouldn’t know of this when it happened since I was a toddler. I only knew about it because I read it on the papers as a teenager. Personally speaking, even though I thought Jurong Island is a larger and more tempting target, Pulau Bukom would have been a more logical target due to its isolation from the main island of Singapore. Regardless of the tactical difficulties in pulling off such an attack, Pulau Bukom is simply more difficult to support logistically (in terms of civil defense personnel and fire fighting equipment) and to reinforce militarily. Being much smaller than Jurong Island, a small force attacking the island would have the tactical advantage of having lesser ground to defend, not to mention restricting the ability of the Singapore Armed Force [SAF] to project its technological superiority as a result of the multi-billion facilities and investments on the island itself. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand that if you fire on the facility itself, you would risk its complete destruction. I can only hope that the defense planners of this country understand the strategic importance of this little island and have put in enough preventive measures to prevent that from happening.

Meantime, the government said it will be investigating the cause of this fire. Some news report that the Shell refinery could shut the facility down up to a month. I wonder what would the impact be to the employees of the facilities and whether they would have to take no-pay leave to stay home for the entire duration. I personally hoped that the investigations would be made public since it is in the interest of the citizens of this country to know the facts behind this incident which could have significant impact on the well being of our country.

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Random Discourse – Skills Upgrading for Foreign Workers

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‘Foreign workers should get training too’, says MP Yeo Guat Kwang
Sep 19, 2011 (Straits Times)

Foreign workers should get skills upgrading similar to what Singaporeans go through, suggested labour MP Yeo Guat Kwang.

Noting that this would ‘create a level playing field’ for all workers, he said training and certification for work permit and S Pass holders should be done within the first two years of their employment.

Successful certification should then be used as a condition for work pass renewal, he said.

Mr Yeo, speaking to The Straits Times in his capacity as chairman of the Migrant Workers Centre (MWC), said training could be done in two ways – either through in-house courses conducted by employers, or via the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) programme.

I was hit by a Tin Pei Ling moment after reading this – I don’t know what to say. (I am also glad I wasn’t eating when I read this, because I would have choked.)

It wasn’t because I can’t think of what to say, but because there’s a few things going through my mind then and I needed to organise them. However, my mei Audrey beat me to it and she pointed out that if the skill set of these workers are obsolete, what we really need to do is not renew / extend their work permit when it expires. In her opinion, the policies should be concurrently tightened in such a way that the new intake will be qualified enough. (On further thoughts, I believe this would be a little difficult to implement even though I agree with this in principle. The reason being, what are employers who can’t find a better qualified staff going to do when the permit of his current employees expire?)

Frankly speaking, I consider the above suggestion to be completely ridiculous and hare-brained. The first first thing that came to my mind was: “Who is going to pay for it?” (The PAP has taught us too well to always ask this question, and that actually came before “Are you out of your fucking mind?!“)

If employers are expected to pay for these training on their own without any government assistance, it is then only logical to expect them to raise the price of their services – which ultimately will be paid for by consumers like me. That simply means my cost of living will increase and how is that going to be of any good to me while the threat of a double dip recession looms? How does Mr Yeo expect me to accept these ‘extra hardships’ while I am expecting a few more years of stagnant wages if I employed?

As to the WSQ programs, are these programs partly paid by the government? If so, shouldn’t priority be given to upgrade Singaporean workers to be more productive so we can reduce our reliance on foreign workers? It would be preposterous for the government to fund the training of foreign workers from taxes levied upon the citizens when the government has always been stingy prudent when spending money. It seems to me that Mr Yeo is so confused he can’t get his priorities right. Perhaps he is tired and if that is the case voters in his ward should help him along with his retirement from politics in 2016. After all, he has certainly given me the impression that he – if not the so-called labour movement that he is a part of – does not take the interests of Singaporeans to heart at all.

In fact, I would like to see more priority given in ensuring that all of these foreign workers are really qualified in the first place. The Ministry of Manpower [MOM] should do do more verifying the qualifications of all foreigners seeking employment in Singapore, especially after the case where 18 Chinese nationals were jailed over with forged degrees. I was recently told that even maids now have to take an English exam before they can be employed here, and I certainly like to see some foreigners taking up Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians [PMET] positions in Singapore go through the same English test as well because I have very often come across emails which are almost intelligible.

These days, I have seen foreigners with dazzling qualifications from universities I have never heard of taking up IT positions of other roles in the department. Unfortunately, their performance made some of us wonder whether they are actually capable of what they are employed to do. That’s not mentioning that we have never heard of those universities in the first place. Perhaps I am just an ignoramus but one of my colleague had tried to look up their rankings and none of these universities even ranked anywhere near NUS or NTU.

That is why I actually hoped that the MOM would set up some kind of central examination center where foreigners applying for professional and technical positions in Singapore should be tested, just like how IT professionals obtain their Microsoft Certified Professional [MCP] certification. They should be made to pay for the test, and until they have pass that test they should not be given employment in Singapore at all! If they failed this ‘verification test’ they can be allowed to retake as often as they like as long as their visa remain valid and they can pay for it (but not more than once every two weeks). That would give some charlatans second thoughts if they try to push their luck, not to mention generate some revenue out of these foreigners for our country as well.

If the government is concerned that this might drive the talents away, let’s stop kidding ourselves. I am sure even the government acknowledged that many of these are not even the best countries like China or India has to offer. A lot of those really talented ones either stay in their home country to make a name for themselves or head off to the United States. Since those who are coming here are almost certain not to be the best, why are we even sucking up to them at all? If they feel humiliated by a simple test then it is clear their characters are flawed. So, good riddance to bad rubbish!

As I mentioned earlier, we should get our priorities right and our priority should be to ensure that these people at least measure up to our standards of talent while the weeds are rooted out. So, just why the hell are we even talking about upgrading the skills of foreign workers in the first place?

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