Category: Rants

Random Discourse – Temasek Losses & Lui-sms

7 comments

Temasek Losses
Wow, man. Just what the fxxk happened here?! A whopping US$39billion (S$58billion) of losses. That’s S$58,000,000,000, if you are wondering how many trailing zeros there are. Just 0.01% of that amount and I’ll probably be able to live out the rest of my life quite comfortably.

That’s not mentioning, the amount is 2.83 times of the Resilience Package (S$20.5 billion) recently announced. No wonder they need to ask the President to let them use the reserves! Even though it’s said to be just paper losses, does anyone actually foresee the value ever returning to pre-crisis level? Maybe it will, but in what? 10 years? 20 years? 50 years?

Either way, in case the amount is so staggering that you still couldn’t fathom how much that is, consider this: assume Singapore has 4 million citizens and each shoulder a part of that loss. That means every Singaporean – including that one day old infant – lost a nice sum of $14,500.

If you spend $5 on a number on each of the three 4D-draws every week, you can do that routinely for exactly 18.5 years without worries. Even if you don’t win a cent at all, you will still get a remaining balance of $70 after that!

Thank you very much, Admiral Ching Ho!! And take up PN Balji’s suggestion and go into philanthropy please… after all, that will be doing what you do best – giving money away. It is definitely a place where you can use your talent to its fullest potential.

But this time round, give it to our people, will you? At least, we’ll probably remember fondly of the Mother of all Charities, compared to the CEO who keeps losing our money.

Lui-sms
It would have been an example of the genesis of the first step towards a more responsible, a greater self-regulatory regime. – Rear Admirer Admiral Lui Tuck Yew.

A friend point out the absurdity of the above comment. In fact, I personally don’t know whether this is funny or stupid. This isn’t even the equivalent of ‘Mee Siam Mai Hum’, which is forgivable and can be excused as a slip of tongue. After all, Baby Lee isn’t a master of Hokkien, and he wasn’t trying to show off his proficiency in that language.

In Lui’s case, it was almost certain he was demonstrating that his ‘Engrand is veddy powderful’. It doesn’t matter that it’s almost the equivalent of the following:

This is the revelation of the exposed.

It was an ejaculating male orgasm.

The penetration of the insert caused the damage.

A fine example in the use of oxymoronic antonyms.

Orally performed fellatio and cunnilingus is a crime under Section 377 of the Penal Code.

In fact, when I brought the matter up with an old friend, Pip, he said this reminded him of a Mojo Jojo person from Powerpuff girls. Here are some of Mojo Jojo’s very own Lui-sms:

– Professor, Please disregard first note. I have Blossom. Come alone to my lair. Do not bring Buttercup or Bubbles. You must come without them! When you arrive, you must not be accompanied by anyone, especially Buttercup and Bubbles; they are to remain uninformed by you by not telling them anything

– In the grading system, I would have assigned you all with an “F”, which, if I had control of the grading system, I would make the lowest grade a “Z” since that is the final letter in the alphabet, which starts with “A” and ends with “Z”.

– I swear that today is the day that I will develop a plan so diabolical and evil that I will crush the Powerpuff Girls. But first… I must attend to the dishes that I have soiled with the food that I have eaten.

– Now to catch up on the world’s latest events that have happened that this paper has reported with the words that they wrote.

– Dear Powerpuff girls. I have kidnapped Professor Utonium. If you look for him in the places he likes to be, you will not find him. He’s with me. But not by choice! I took him and he didn’t like it. This letter is from and was written by Mojo Jojo.

I shall tell you a secret which you shall tell no one! They are to remain ignorant of it by not being told. Rear Admiral Lui is…

…

…..

* trumpet fanfare *

Mojo Jojo!!! (Picture on right)
Rear Admiral ‘Mojo Jojo’ Lui

Recommended Reads:
Cobalt Paladin: The Voice Of The Void
Interactive Mathematics: Singapore TOTO

Daily Discourse: More babies or back to work

12 comments

Yet another piece from the Straits Stooge Times:

Reconsider 5-day week?
Feb 4, 2009
By Jeremy Au Yong

Excerpts:

Nominated MP Loo Choon Yong on Tuesday threw up the most provocative suggestion during the Budget debate when he questioned the benefits of the five-day work week.

Speaking on the second day of the debate on the Budget Statement, he said the move to a shorter work week by the public sector and then the private sectors in in 2004 could have eroded the Singaporean’s work ethic, while not improving the fertility rate in any meaningful way.

The number of live births only inched up to 39,490 in 2007 from 37,485 in 2003.

‘We should accept that as a people our procreation talent is not our forte – nothing to crow about,’ he said.

‘I urge the Government to take steps to determine whether our productivity and competitiveness have been affected by the five-day week and to review the policy, if necessary,’ he added.

Dr Loo had unleashed this stunner as he voiced concerns over what he called the ‘all life and very little work’ attitude of the younger generation.

He pointed to Straits Times reports on how to maximise leave by taking advantage of public holidays that fall near weekends as an indication of an erosion of the work ethics.

Hilarious! The first thing that came to mind when I read this was almost similar to what I used as title for this blog post but hell a lot more obscene. That is, “If you aren’t gonna fxxk and have more babies then you fxxking go back to work.” It left me ROTLMAO [Meaning: Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off! And it’s got nothing to do with Mao Tsetung, ok?]

All the more ridiculous is Loo’s claim that a 5-day week and Singaporeans ‘maximise leave by taking advantage of public holidays that fall near weekends’ as his example of erosion of Singaporean work ethics. As an employee, I would like to point out the fallacy of that argument, because all too often I heard from people who went on long leave talking about their dread in coming back to work after that. Their usual reasons: the hundreds of unread emails waiting for their attention and some of the work that piles up during their absence. When my friends displays such responsibility and commitment towards their work, how can Loo even say our work ethics eroded?

May I also point out that it is not always the case that there is ‘redundancy’ for a certain position or workload sharing in a company? As a matter of fact, most employees would actually prefer not to have redundancy in place for the tasks they perform, to prevent themselves becoming redundant. On top of which, employers may not necessary want to hire more staff to ensure redundancy anyway.

Here’s even more news for you ‘Jack’ Loo. A lot of us mere mortals go on packaged tours so we don’t have to be too concerned with lodgings, directions and places to visit. Tour agencies also pack the schedule of their packages as tight as possible, and a lot of people end up very tired after their holidays. While Loo himself may be going on free and easy tours or perhaps indulge in Bourgeois €20,000 cooking lessons like a particular civil servant, going on a holiday may not actually be a really enjoyable and relaxing experience for some of us in the psychological equivalent of ‘the lower realms of Samsara‘.

Furthermore, it is likely that even though we have a 5-day work week, some people still end up pulling the same amount of hours as if they are doing a 5.5-day work week to ensure that their work is completed. A 5-day or 5.5day work week thus makes no difference at all, because Singaporeans will still be too damned tired to have sex as a study showed back in 2002. In fact, a friend of mine once complained that her boyfriend actually dozed off in the middle of it. Now talk about the greatest turn off ever… and I hope he wasn’t ‘abalone tasting’ when that happened.

I wondered, when Loo shoots off about work ethics, did he do a survey among the employees of his very own Raffles Medical Group [RMG for short] to find out whether they are already overworked? In fact, if RMG has implemented a 5-day work week, Loo might want to look at how many of RMG’s staff end up pulling even more hours than they used to after the implementation.

I hope I am not misplacing my faith in Loo to expect him to already have the figures to justify what he is saying. Clearly, when the fact an apparent 5-day work and the actual amount of hours worked is not necessarily the same thing occurred to me, a simple man without even a common degree, someone with his qualification and position would have already thought of this way ahead.

But if he hasn’t, then he must be the epitome of an Hokkien saying which goes like this: 头大无脑，脑大生草。 [Literal translation: Head big no brains, brains big grow grass.] If that is the case, then all of us common folk must duly thank you for providing us with such comic relief in the midst of a serious debate in Parliament over our extraordinary, breath-taking national budget for 2009.

Daily Discourse – Cyberspace Self Regulation?

8 comments

On the Straits Stooge Times:

Minister rues poor conduct
05-02-2009 己丑年 正月十一
By Zakir Hussain, Political Correspondent

Excerpts:
RADM Lui was replying to Ms Penny Low (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC), who had asked for his views on netizens’ response to the physical attack on Mr Seng, MP for Yio Chu Kang.

He said: ‘I do not think the community itself has done enough to rebut some of these unhelpful comments delivered by fellow netizens.

‘It is a squandered opportunity for a higher degree of self-regulation.It would have been an example of the genesis, of the first steps, towards a more responsible, greater, self-regulatory regime.

‘But many of those responses were not rebutted or answered, and I think it is not healthy for some of this to remain on the Net unchallenged, unquestioned and unanswered.’

First of all, I am rather amused with the correspondent’s comment that the attack on Yio Chu Kang MP has drawn many online attacks. I will not nitpick on this, but I politely disagree, as many or few depends on the yardstick used. Personally, I would consider the number of such opinion (i.e. the vicious attacks) to be in the minority when measured against the deafening silence or simple indifference from the majority of the netizens, if not the entire population itself.

I am even more amused with His Excellency, Rear Admirer Admiral Lui’s remarks. How does he define ‘self regulation’ in this case? ‘Self regulation’ as characterised by an uncountable number of flame wars between bloggers and forummers?

Here’s something on this matter perhaps His Excellency should hear about:

A friend of mine found it funny and couldn’t bring himself to sympathise with MP Seng when he read the news, even though he couldn’t bring himself to voice support for the old man who committed the atrocity. Some even felt sorry for the old man, when they heard he might be given a life sentence for his actions and I personally wondered whether some the vicious attacks weren’t in part generated by the very report stating this fact! In fact, even now it is still not clear to us whether he will still be charged for this attack and sentenced severely after he has been remitted to IMH.

On top of that, some simply pointed out that without more details on the matter, one has nothing to stand on to speak up for MP Seng, even though they felt indignant and agreed that no such thing should be committed against any human being. Among some, there is also the considered opinion that ‘there cannot be smoke without fire’ – i.e. they believed there is actually a ‘slim chance’ the old man has good reasons for the attack.

As to my personal opinion, I found no reason to play mata-mata (policeman) and a part in self regulating cyberspace. In fact, I was clearly under the impression that unabated flame wars was the reason why a decade ago, His Excellency George Yeo (is he still BG now?) said that the Internet is so full of rubbish and it is almost like reading graffiti on a wall!

Now, is His Excellency the Grand Rear Admiral Lui faulting some of us for taking your colleague’s words to heart and doing our part by not participating in flame wars? Or are we now to participate in such senseless and rather meaningless endeavors when there are ‘good moral reasons’? Whatever gave His Excellency the idea that mere words (a lot of them, actually) from other netizens will have any effect at all in stopping a vociferous muthafxxka the vicious comments? I suggest His Excellency hire someone to do this if he does not see the futility in doing so.

That’s not forgetting, most net denizens (aka “netizens”) dislike regulation, be it state implemented or even community enforced. While most generally try to abide by a set of socially acceptable net etiquette (aka “netiquette”), much is left to the netizen to ‘police’ himself. There is nothing much anyone of us could do if another netizen is being an irresponsible prick. As much as I would say no to state regulation, I would say no to community regulation or another person attempting to shut me up. Putting myself in another person’s shoes, when I don’t appreciate another self righteous prick enforcing his personal code of behaviour upon me, I don’t expect myself to do the same to another person.

Beyond that, His Excellency the Admiral might want to look at just why the general populace finds less reason to be indignant about the attack on a Member of Parliament compared to that of an old trishaw-man getting bullied by 3 foreigners. Is it because that the populace no longer consider respect a part of the package in view of the salaries of your esteemed colleagues are already earning? Is the numbers in the elections all there is to consider one as ‘having the mandate’?

We Chinese have a saying: 将心比心 [meaning: to treat another person as he treats you]. Perhaps it is time for the Tali-PAP to reflect upon itself whether its ‘heart-ware’ has suffered a catastrophic failure to the point the people no longer respond in kind.

In short, while speaking the truth frankly may be the best option at times, consider how the people would feel hearing it. I am not proposing implement popular policies or running the government gahmen by popularity, but a lot more humility when speaking to the very people who put you in power would go some way in gaining their respect.

Finally, with all due respect, it is my considered opinion that His Excellency will do better pondering about whether the trade off between monetary remuneration and the respect of the people is an acceptable one, instead of talking about how a failure on the part of netizens to self regulate.

Random Thoughts: On local blogosphere (III)

6 comments

Flaming on its own is hardly detrimental to social media, because at most it impacts just the blogger’s online reputation, sometimes even positively. I doubt there was any real impact to Xiaxue’s Xiasuay’s reputation when she flamed Maia Lee or Dawn Yang Yawn Dang, since it would endear Xiasuay to those who dislike the two. As for the other bloggers, if they intend to become noticed by those doing social media in PR companies, intense flaming may draw attention but when overdone, it might also gives a blogger the label of ‘toxic assets’ – i.e. anyone, any site, any brand associated with the blogger will have their own reputation tarnished. Unfortunately, unlike banks which will want to have anything to do with financial toxic assets like CDOs and CDS right now, it may not be true that few or no PR companies will want to deal with bloggers who some may consider ‘toxic’.

Anyway, flaming becomes overdone and detrimental to social media when bloggers take certain actions beyond blogosphere into other parts of cyberspace and / or into real life.

The following a some examples of some of these actions:

  • Spreading Rumors
    The best real life example would be some of the allegations on forums against the directors of Odex when it took action against anime downloaders.

  • Libellous Postings
    Usually no one is any the wiser as to who is the target, except the target himself and his closest friends. Certain facts about a person can be twisted to present a completely negative picture. A perpetrator can make libellous allegations with impunity without fear of legal action as pressing a legal case on libel is not simple. A hypothetical example would be to suggest that an unemployed person who still has money to pursue a certain lifestyle is leeching on his parents’ money and thus, unfilial.

  • Gossiping
    This is usual either done in casual conversations, in social media tools like Plurk, or instant messengers like Yahoo Messenger. The perpetrator infers that someone’s actions has ulterior motives. The main objective is create suspicion with the end result of making the person an outcast in his own community.

  • Outright Abuse
    An example would be to rally friends, readers, acquaintances to say, subscribe a colleague or a boss email address to pR0n sites, or putting up the a number of a person in public for prank calling on one’s blog.

All of these actions go beyond just the a blogger’s online reputation. It shows the negative aspects of social media and also the true character of a person. Sadly, some of these bloggers continues to be featured and used and much of the world – other than those who are in the same social circle – remained seemingly unaware of their otherwise ignoble activities.

I wonder, whether one who looked hard enough may actually find certain PR people who claims to be cultivating social media to be close with some of these bloggers. If so, it begs the question, is this still social media? Or just the usual commercialised PR in the guise of social media?

Do we really need yet another class of glitterati, when the current existing celebrities in showbiz or singing are already nothing more but leeches in society feeding off the craving of the masses for tabloid, scandalous and outrageous news so that they can pursue a lifestyle at your expense?

Recommended Reads:
Xtralicious: What’s great about the Top Blogger?
Xtralicious: 9 Tips To Pitch Your Blog Successfully

Random Thoughts – On local blogosphere (II)

5 comments

It is impossible to talk about blogosphere and not about flaming – generally a result of bloggers taking their disagreement online. Originally a phenomenon on discussion boards / forums, in Internet Relay Chat (IRC) or even through e-mail, flaming exists before blogging became popular. Flaming has found its way into blogosphere because blogging provided the best platform for voicing one’s own grievances.

In one’s own blog, there is almost absolute freedom compared to IRC channels or forums. Most of the time postings will only be censored / removed either under one’s own volition, or when someone threatens legal action against the blogger and the host. The blogger also have greater reach in terms of an audience compared to emails as everything will be in the public domain visible to anyone who visits the blog. It also provides the one place where the blogger becomes judge, prosecutor and executioner all rolled into one, a cyberspace kangaroo court where the blogger conduct a public trial without giving the opponent the benefit of offering points in defense with the reader as the jury. In most cases the target will always be guilty of whatever charges leveled against them on a blog.

Flaming thus become a part and parcel of blogging. One can find bloggers flaming even their parents or siblings over the most miniscule matters. For e.g. scolding a parent for taking the blogger’s favorite bath towel on a trip, or a brother depriving the blogger time on the Wii. These dramatic personalities may thus bring a lot of attention to themselves but yet they are unwary on the image they are presenting to the general public.

Beyond their immediate family, bloggers have been known to flame their teachers, friends, colleagues, bosses, employers, close associates and even mere acquaintances. It doesn’t matter they have at their disposal, email, sms, instant messaging and mobile phone to settle their differences over the matter, the readers will serve as the jury and determine the guilt of the other party. What is worse, is like the leaders in Beijing, the ‘flamed’ person may not even be aware of the charges laid against him even though the entire world has heard about it. Complete with the sentiment and emotions of the bloggers, the true facts may have been distorted and exaggerated beyond recognition. For e.g. a girl blogging about her work pressures may end up being read as being bullied by her colleagues or boss, triggering a negative reaction from the readers against those people who might otherwise be innocent.

So, when bloggers have no qualms about flaming family and friends in public, neither would strangers be spared. It should never come as a surprise when someone flames out of the blue over a blog post. Flaming may come in the form of a post on another blog, or readers’ comments. Reacting badly to such trolls is often unwise, as many high profile bloggers found their reputation tarnished by doing so. It is the same as Eric Cantona’s drop kick against a Crystal Palace FC fan, and many people today still remember him for this act, and not his brilliance in soccer as evident in the video below.



King Cantona! King Forever!


In fact, it might be true that flaming is especially rampant among Singapore netizens ever since Internet access become availabe in Singapore. After all, Minister George Yeo made the following statement a decade ago:

Is it a surprise why the governmnet gahmen had never given much regard to opinion on the Internet, nor placed very much effort in engaging netizens (especially bloggers)? It is quite laughable whenever I hear accusation of attempts at gahmen control because it has been more than a decade since the gahmen has taken notice of Internet as a new form of media. While it doesn’t mean that they won’t start doing so as the Internet continues to evolve, can the conspiracy theorists at least pinpoint the exact incident(s) that would cause a radical shift in the gahmen’s view, please? After all, even Zeitgeist had something quite convincingly as far as their conspiracy theory is concerned.

It does not take much imagination to surmise that any reputable corporations or organisations will thus also hold our local blogosphere in low regard even though they might have already started engaging bloggers in the U.S. or Europe. That says a lot about the quality of the work produced by local netizens and while some PR people might perhaps even have lamented about the dismal state of social media in Singapore, they are quite mistaken in talking about the alleged (and probably mutual) theft of ideas among proponents of social media and the backstabbing which I wondered whether that may not actually be more of a norm (and a problem?) in their own industry instead.

After all, the public image of local cyberspace as a whole, if not blogosphere itself, already needs a lot of brushing up. That’s not mentioning it is nothing more than talking cock for some of these people promoting social media, when some of them jumps in the bandwagon to flame without amicably resolving conflicts on their own.

Just how could some of these people solve this problem when they are part of the problem themselves is beyond me!

Recommended Reads:
Endoh’s Dungeon: The high expectations required of the association

Quote of the day:
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832)

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