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It was 18 years ago when I read about soldiers shooting people on the streets. That was 1989, when the Chinese People’s Liberation Army was shooting people in Tian-anmen and the streets of Beijing. The so-called people’s army is shooting the people. I was so outraged. It was something I hoped would never happen again. A little more than 18 years later, it is soldiers in Myanmar shooting people on the streets this time round. And this time round, there were videos of the atrocities. Some were posted on Youtube and I get to see for myself the brutal murder of an innocent Japanese journalist – a man who is just doing his job to bring to us news. And the shameless junta has the cheek to say he was killed by a stray bullet. |
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Although only a total of 9 people were reported killed by Friday (I hadn’t read the papers for 2 days), rumors is that the Myanmar Army has been digging mass graves to bury the bodies. There are also rumors that elements of the Myanmar Army has disobeyed orders to open fire on the crowd and a CO of one of these units has been arrested and place under house arrest. I hope elements in the Myanmar Army with a conscience should seize power from the junta now and free Aung San Suu Kyi. She won the elections fair and square back then. |
The shameless bastards called that a stray bullet!!
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Month: September 2007
[NSFW] A Penis’ Complaint
To: Minister of Labor & Chairman of the Federation of Labor Unions
Dear Sirs,
Since the dawn for time and for many many generations, my kind and I are not allowed to see the light of day. We are kept in a dark place behind two pieces of cloth most of the time and are let out only several times a day for at most several minutes at times. Our living conditions are so terrible that we do not even have basic ventilation, much less air-conditioners.
When we are let out for longer periods, it is either washing time, or when we are made to work in the most hellish and undesirable conditions. While the job is simple – it is just to move up and down some kind of tunnel, conditions in the tunnels are so bad that we end up puking a white mixture. Even the strongest of my kind are unable to work longer than 30 minutes in this condition.
Let me further describe the hellish environment and conditions that my kind usually works in. It is usually a tunnel that is warm, dark and moist. At times, it starts to flood as we are made to move up and down in that tunnel after some time. To make matters even worse, there is only so much room that we can move either backwards or forward. This only stops after we had vomitted. There are also situations in which we are caught in some kind of grip, shaken, and jerked around in several directions. Whatever the conditions are, the end result is always the same, we all end up puking.
On top of that, because of biochemical hazards in the tunnels we worked in, we are sometimes made to wear an over-stretched rubbery environmental suit. Members of my kind who are exposed to such hazards sometimes end up with sores and blisters on the body. Many have died a horrible death because of this.
I appeal to you, dear sirs, to take note of the plight of my people and assist to liberate us from the hell we are born into.
Yours Sincerely,
The Penis
The Cow Story
This is in response to this post on xinyun’s blog.
A SINGAPOREAN:
The gover-min tells you that you owned two cows (which can be taken away anytime). You have to buy the grass to feed the cows you don’t really own and pay 7% of tax for it. This tax is for the gover-min to ‘help’ those people whose cows are less healthy and productive. On top of that you have to milk the cows yourself for the milk and the gover-min takes some of the milk you get. The gover-min also take credit for the quality of the milk and rewards themselves so much milk in one year that they can’t drink them all in a lifetime so the gover-min won’t be stealing your milk.
Tweaking the CPF scheme
It’s been quite awhile since I last read the news. In fact, it’s been like one and a half months. So I wasn’t even following one of the things that would impact my life when I get old: the tweaking of the CPF scheme. And if ignorance is bliss, not knowing even the surface of these tweaks definitely is one of those things that makes this statement false.
One of these tweaks is that an additional 1% of interest will be paid for the first $60000 in CPF members’ combined accounts. The 1% will be placed in the Special Account and not the Ordinary Account. Above which, my understanding is that the combined $60000 in your ordinary (OA), Special (SA) and Medisave Accounts can’t be used for anything.
So what does this really imply? This means – if I understands it correctly – a whole group of young Singaporeans will not be able to use any of their CPF to pay for their own health insurance or that of their parents or to do their own investments, be it in stock and shares or even managed products like unit trusts! (And am I glad that this ‘extra’ 1% didn’t also affect the loan interest rate of my existing HDB loans!)
So, if you earn about $3000 a month, you get approximately a total of $1000 of CPF a month from the deduction from your own pay and the contribution from your employer. That will take you 60 months (5 years) to get it up to $60000. And that is only true when you are not paying out of your CPF OA for a new flat. If you are, it probably takes away at least half of that (i.e. $500) from your OA, depending on the size of the flat you bought. That simply means it will take you even longer, roughly 10 years to get that up to $60000. And the extra 1% is only good for 2 years because after that it will be a free floating rate which doesn’t guarantee you that extra 1%.
If what I understand about the $60,000 is true, that means for the first 10 years you can do nuts about your CPF for just that extra 1%, whereby friends I know are earning more money by investing their CPF monies in stocks and shares or unit trusts. (That is of course not considering some of the unfortunate ones who has lost money investing their CPF monies on their own.)
I wonder what impact will there be – in terms of the liquidity in the stock markets – in the future with a dearth in investors using their CPF monies to invest. Also, what impact will there be to the turnover and profits of companies offering managed investment products. Will it also mean all those financial consultants out there are going to find it harder to find new and ready investors?
Baby Lee and his goons may paint a rosy picture and try to sell this as something that is necessary for the future of Singapore and the good of you and I. But from the looks at it, it is more like keeping some of that ‘cheap money’ off the investment market. While it maybe true that the gover-min doesn’t need this ‘cheap money’ for its own investments – or if your believe the taxi drivers, to cover the losses suffered by Temasek because of Shin and some other crap – it certainly look to me there will be a group of people who won’t be thanking the Tali-PAP for a long time.
路霸？
今天有朋友告诉我，有个无聊的 “查母” ［闽南语：女人的意思］ 写信到报上投诉某周末用车 [weekend car] 的驾驶在公路上的 “路霸” 行为 [road bullying]。
据我所了解，这婆娘之所以投诉，其实是因为她不满该辆周末用车在高速公路的第一条车道上跟得太紧。她认为既然她已经开到 90km/h，再快的话就是超速和违法了。还说她还违法曾尝试加速到 100km/h 来拉开距离，但是后面的车还紧跟着。这还不止，她还申诉周末用车最后从左边超车，然后还故意到她前面慢下来和故意煞车。她认为这实在是太过分了。因为周末用车的驾驶的行为其实是在恐吓 [intimidate] 她。所以她就把那车子的号码记录下来写到报社投诉，希望这 “路霸” 得到应有的惩罚。
哇塞！为民除害喔！这是多么的伟大的胸怀啊！
不过我呸！在新加坡，为些芝麻绿豆的小事来投诉，或者恶人先告状是非常的普遍的。我非常不明白报社为什么刊登这么无聊又小气的投诉。只要她能 “闪到一边凉快去”，后面的车 “刷” 一声就过去了，整个过程最多半分钟后这 “小风波” 就会结束。
再说，第一条车道 (最右边车道) 不是用来超车的吗？这婆娘开在那之上干啥？难道后面的快车要从左边来超车吗？看来那周末用车的驾驶从左边超车已经是迫不得已了。还有，没人看到当时路面上的情况，也没人知道周末用车为何煞车。难道交警和陆管局就为了这婆娘的片面之词而对着司机进行制裁吗？
新加坡的报社能把这呀刊登出来不止有失水准，简直是荒谬和无聊透顶！我在想，婆娘开的那车是否是大型的车如 BMW 和 Mercedes 之类的，然后因为被一辆中国制造的便宜 Cherry QQ 超车才会心理不平衡呢？又或者，碰巧又是每个月她 “大姨妈” 来访的那个星期吧？