Scum of the Earth Award

– that an Australian man has sparked a storm of protest after creating an online computer game based on the murderous shooting spree at Virginia Tech. Players control an image of Korean-born gunman Cho Seung-hui, who killed 32 people before turning a gun on himself, and screams can be heard on the soundtrack as shots are fired at the other characters. The creator of ‘V-Tech Rampage’, 21-year-old Ryan Lambourn, said he made the game ‘because it’s funny’. The unemployed Lambourn responded to outraged calls for him to remove the game from the Internet by demanding 1,000 US dollars for each of the two sites it is on and said that for another 1,000 dollars he would apologise. But he said later that was a joke to ‘make more people angry’ and he would not remove the game from his own website or seek to have it removed from amateur game sharing site Newgrounds.com. (It would be really funny too when Lambourn ends up on the receiving end of a bullet some time in the future. It is only justice that he is shot so badly the doctors can’t patch him up but he remains conscious while he languishes as his life slowly bleeds away.)

The Stupid Shitty-Porean Award

– that a 17-year-old student of Hwa Chong Institution, one of Singapore’s top junior colleges, allegedly punched a bus driver in the face during a quarrel. The 53-year-old SBS Transit driver tried to stop the student from leaving. The teen’s girlfriend, who is from another school, had been found to be using an invalid concession card. (The entire case will be clearer when we find out who’s the real owner of the concession card, and get to the bottom on how she came to obtain it. Maybe then we will understand their desperation in wanting to get off, other than the standard impression of this idiot being an absolute ‘zee hong’. [Explanation: ‘Zee hong’ in Hokkien literally translates as ‘crazy for c*nts’. It demands no further explanation.])

The World This Week

– that Paul Wolf**kwit resigned as president of the World Bank on 17-May-2007, ending a protracted battle over his stewardship prompted by his involvement in a high-paying promotion for his companion. (Another one of the shitheads bite the dust! All the architects of the illegal invasion of Iraq must be punished.)

– that Wolf**kwit however managed to extract a statement from the bank’s executive board which virtually exonerating him. The closest the bank board came to criticising him was to say that ‘a number of mistakes were made by a number of individuals in handling the matter under consideration and that the bank’s systems did not prove robust to the strain under which they were placed.’ (The World Worse Bank can whitewash it whatever way they want. But the world will knows it for what it really is: Nepotism.)

– that John Howard called on Australians to pray for drought-breaking rain amid fears water resources in the country’s main agricultural zone have been seriously overestimated. Howard had last month warned that without a significant downpour by June, irrigation to farmers along southeastern Australia’s Murray-Darling river system would be cut. Although the area has had some rain since that announcement, it remains firmly within the grip of drought, with dam levels at less than 6% of their capacity. (The obvious reason for this is that Australia failed to ratify the Kyoto Protocols. But of course, the Australians also need to ask if they are still doing the right thing by staying in Iraq.)

– that Britain’s likely next prime minister Gordon Brown admitted that ‘mistakes’ had been made in Iraq, and vowed a new emphasis over the violence there, as he launched his bid to succeed Tony Blair. Setting out his stall a day after Blair announced that he will stand down on June 27, Brown also promised a change of the way Britain decides how to go to war. Blair, who is preparing to quit after 10 years in power, has long refused to apologise for his decision to support Warmonger Bush in the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. (Admitting the mistakes is meaningless without concrete action. Apologise!)

– that the head of Russia’s strategic missile forces threatened an ‘adequate response’ to offset the threat if a planned U.S. anti-missile defence system is deployed in eastern Europe. Russia has ‘serious concern’ over the U.S. plan to base a limited anti-missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland, he added. (Russia could always team up with China and deploy some ICBMs in North Korea.)

– that Condom-leezza Rice insisted there was no reason to speak of a new Cold War with Russia as she arrived in Moscow for talks aimed at halting a dramatic slide in relations. Parallels drawn by some Russian officials with the era of the East-West Cold War were misplaced, Rice said as she prepared for meetings, including with Vladimir Putin. (Russia is no longer the sick bear back in 1991.)

– that Syrian President Bashar Assad predicted that the U.S. vision for a ‘new Middle East’ would fail as the region’s conflicts continue to escalate. His comments come days ahead of a conference on reducing violence in Iraq that will bring together Iraq’s neighbors – including Syria and Iran – and representatives of the big five UN Security Council members, including the U.S. (Eh… what mission? The mission which allows the U.S. to get its hands on the Iraqi oil? Fail? How?)

– that Afghanistan’s Taliban militia said the death of top military commander Mullah Dadullah would not ‘slow down the jihad’ and announced the fighter would be succeeded by his brother. After initially rejecting the gover-min’s announcement that Dadullah was killed in battle in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban’s leadership council acknowledged that he was dead. The lea-duh of the movement, Mullah Mohammad Omar, appointed Dadullah’s younger brother, Mullah Bakht Mohammad, to take his place, a spokesman said. (Sooner or later, retribution always catch up with you. Let’s hope that while it won’t ‘slow down the jihad’, it will stop it dead in its tracks.)

– that China’s new foreign minister accused critics of Beijing’s links to Sudan of trying to politicise the 2008 Olympics and insisted the crisis in Darfur would not tarnish the Games. In his first public comments on Sudan since taking office last month, Yang Jiechi said boycott calls and other attempts to place pressure on China over the situation in Darfur would not succeed. (The Darfur Conflict is as much a political problem as an environmental one. China is only a convenient whipping boy for the failure of the West to use more effective means to deal with it.)

– that 2 SAF soldiers were killed in Taiwan after a Taiwanese fighter jet plunged into a storeroom in an army camp. The crash, which also claimed the lives of the F-5F Tiger jet’s two Taiwanese pilots, caused a fire in the storeroom and injured nine other Singaporean soldiers on the ground, including NSF. Two of the injured Singaporeans, who like the others were in Taiwan in support of the SAF’s unilateral training programme, were hospitalised for serious burns. A Taiwanese Defence Ministry spokesman said that the jet was diving in a mock attack on ground troops when it crashed into a storeroom in the camp, home to the Taiwanese 542nd Armour Brigade. (People like Chen Shui-bian deserved the dying more than these two NSF.)

– that Su Tseng-chang and his cabinet resigned en masse Wednesday, less than two weeks after Su lost the DPP’s primary for presidential election nomination. The resignation will allow Chen Shui-bian to reshuffle the cabinet to work under incoming premier Chang Chun-hsiung. (It would be quite apt if the headline was: Su Tseng-chang – Yet another one wasted.)

– that Taiwan renamed the memorial hall for late Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek amid tightened security as protesters demonstrated against what they said was an attempt to erase his legacy. The new plaque for the ‘National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall’ was unveiled by Chen Shui-bian, who said the move symbolised an end to the island’s authoritarian past. (Only to symbolise the inept and ineffectual rule of Chen and the DPP which lead Taiwan into the economic doldrums. Not to mention, the division of the people by devious political maneuvers. Furthermore, Chen has nothing to show for his 8-year term, other than whipping a dead man that could no longer stand up for himself.)

– that as the dry season begins in Indonesia, prospects increase that fires and haze will again return to plague the region later this year. This alarming prediction is the consensus among experts, NGOs and officials that emerged at a recent workshop in Jakarta. While the dry season is a natural factor, analysts agree that human action, corporations and gover-min policy in land clearing are factors that can be controlled. (They just want to use it to blackmail other countries into paying for those factors they can control.)

– that in a move that would not just allow oil tankers to bypass the heavy traffic and pirates of the Malacca Strait, but which could also impact Singapore’s oil refining and shipping industries, the Malaysian Cabinet has given its blessing to a $7-billion crude oil pipeline stretching across the country. The decision – which comes two years after Thailand abandoned a similar scheme because of costs and safety concerns – will provide a short-cut between Middle East producers and the East Asian market. The 312-km pipeline will stretch from the west coast town of Yan in Kedah – where crude oil from the Middle East will be off-loaded and a petroleum development zone has been designated – to the fishing port of Bachok in Kelantan to the east, where the oil will continue its journey by ship. (Just yet another of those external factors for the Tali-PAP to claim when they screwed up while still earning their millions.)

– that Malaysia’s 1.2 million civil servants serpents will be getting a pay rise because they deserve it, Badawi announced. (Even if they don’t deserve it who can say?)

– that how much they will get and when has not been decided – but the disparity in the salaries of high- and low-ranking gover-min employees will be taken into account in determining the formula for the pay hike, said Mr Abdullah. The high cost of living, he noted, had caused hardship to those in the lower-income group. The gover-min, Malaysia’s single biggest employer, has not raised salaries in 15 years, instead increasing allowances to counter rising costs. (Now where have we heard that before about ‘not having raised something for donkey years’?)

– that on the day Baby Lee was to meet Badawi, Mama-thir was admitted to hospital after experiencing breathing difficulties while on vacation in Langkawi – the third time he has been hospitalised since November when he suffered a heart attack. Doctors and family said that his condition is stable, and that he is currently ‘under observation’. (Move on, Mama-thir. You will not be missed!)

– that the ailing Mama-thir is recovering well after being admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties, his son and an aide said. Mama0thir, 81, was flown from a hospital on the resort island of Langkawi, where he was admitted to ICU, to Kuala Lumpur. (Seems like God decided that it’s not ‘time-out’ for him yet.)

Singapore This Week

– that more than one happy Singaporean so-called unionist had recounted similar stories of an unexpected windfall come bonus time when they met Baby Lee at last week’s May Day Rally. (And that’s how many percent of the workforce?)

– -that based on these so-called unionists’ windfall bonuses, Baby Lee claims to the media as he wrapped up his six-day official visit to the U.S., “So, when people say the economy is moving but a lot have been left behind, I think it’s not a full picture.” His view – expressed in response to a question on the mood of unionists on May Day – addresses some recently-voiced opinions that Singapore’s growth had been skewed towards the ‘haves’, causing the income gap to widen. (Anyone asked what position this so-called unionists are holding in their jobs? And when was the last time Baby Lee talked to a real worker and not one of those NTUC lackeys and sycophants?)

– that Singapore edged out perennial rival Hong Kong to emerge as the world’s second-most competitive economy after the U.S. But at a conference on transparency and governance, some speakers wondered whether the Republic would be able to sustain its competitive edge, given that political openness here has lagged behind the push for economic transparency. (With mini$terial pay being the highest in the world the best they could do was second?! Whoever remembers or cares about the second? No one cheers for Chel-ski when ManUre is EPL champion!)

– that the childcare subsidy for children of PRs will be withdrawn over the next two years. The subsidies will be cut by half from January next year, and will cease altogether by January 2009. Currently, children aged two months to under seven years of PRs receive grants of up to $150 a month if they are enrolled at a childcare centre. Infants whose mothers are working are entitled to up to $400, while children of non-working mothers are eligible for a subsidy of up to $75 per month, depending on whether the child attends a full-day, half-day or flexi-care programme. (So what happened to the ‘savings’ that is going to come from this measure?)

– that signalling that it is prepared to be tough on rumour-mongers who stir up public alarm, the CID Department is stepping in to track down the source of a hoax SMS message that has been making the rounds recently. The SMS claims that seven women died after sniffing poisoned perfume samples. It purports, falsely, to originate from Gleneagles Hospital, and that the gover-min was covering up the news to avoid panic. Parkway Hospitals, which runs the hospital, confirmed that the issue is now a police matter. (Verify. Verify. Verify. If you can’t verify the source and the truthfulness of a piece of news, you don’t pass it on.)

– that under the Telecommunications Act, anyone guilty of transmitting false messages can be fined up to $10,000 or jailed up to three years, or both. Penalties are harsher for messages referring to bombs or similar objects, and those guilty may be fined up to $50,000 or jailed up to seven years, or both. (Hoaxers should be made to appear on TV and apologise.)

– that despite a vast array of public aid schemes on the menu, critics have long scorned that help does not always reach its desired targets, as many needy Singaporeans continue to fall through the cracks. To patch up the social safety nets, the Northeast District has rolled out a new pilot programme to identify residents in need and to point them in the right direction. “The reality is that there are still pockets of residents who are still not forthcoming or unsure where to get help when they face financial and social problems,” said Teo Chee Hean, as he launched a Project Reach initiative. (Singapore got ‘aid schemes’? Really? Isn’t it always ‘If you f**ked up it’s because you are lazy!’ meh?)

– that 2 former directors of the NKF have been found guilty of negligence. Loo Say San and Richard Yong have been fined S$5,000 each, the maximum penalty for being inattentive with their director duties. (Just $5000 each when hundreds of thousands are paid to Durai?)

– that to reflect the ‘gravity of the matter’, District Judge Jasvender Kaur also barred Yong from taking on directorship of any firm for 4 years, while imposing a similar ban on Loo for 3 years. It was the first criminal conviction of the NKF’s former board members since the charity scandal, Singapore’s biggest, erupted in July 2005. The duo’s punishment should ‘serve as a timely reminder to all directors of the need to exercise the degree of care mandated by their position of responsibility’, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Chew Chin Yee. (They should be banned from taking on any directorships for life!)

– that the Tali-PAP Community Foundation, Singapore’s largest kindergarten chain, will absorb the extra 2% GST for all its services from July till the end of the year. It will also freeze all fees for 12 months. (It’s better you just not raise it at all and call whatever less you will take from me this year as giving me money.)

– that the Foundation estimates the latest move will cost it some $772,000. (Just about 1/4 of Baby Lee’s annual pay. Wow, that must have been really big deal that parents should be grateful of.)

Trivial, Jokes and Thoughts from Discussions

– that Jason Chiam wrote in his letter to VOICES on TODAY: “I find it incomprehensible that the SMRT considers buses to be merely complementary to train service. And too many bus services have been withdrawn due to the opening up of MRT stations along their routes. That should not be the case. Public transportation companies like SBS and SMRT must consider public buses as alternatives to trains, so that consumers have a choice. Let the consumers decide the mode of transport they wish to use to get to their destination.” (The superbly well paid civil serpents in the LTA and those ‘fumb ducks’ in the PTC thinks that even if you have to first take a bus before you can get to the MRT, that’s still ‘World Class’ system. It doesn’t matter if you used to be able to just take the bus to your work place right at the bus stop just below your block.)

– that Jason asked: “Why can’t the taxi companies simplify their fares? Compare the fare structure here to that adopted in Hong Kong, and the ease of getting a taxi in Hong Kong versus Singapore, and the conclusion is clear.” (Substitute the word Hong Kong for Taipei, Shanghai, Hangzhou, or even Johor Bahru and it would probably still be true.)

– that Jason also wrote: “It would be a shame if we have a wonderful road and train network infrastructure – for which I applaud the Ministry of Transport and the LTA – but the overall transport experience is let down by the taxi companies and bus operators who, in my opinion, seem to be only interested in the bottom-line.” (The bottomline has always been what that matters. Otherwise why do you get a elastic interval between trains when they used to have a plaque stating when the trains would come during peak hours and off-peak 20 years ago when it first started running?)

– that Orchard Towers and its infamous nightclubs could soon be a thing of the past, should it become the latest along Singapore’s premiere shopping belt to feed the en bloc frenzy. Early last month, the owners of the building – one of the oldest shopping centres on Orchard Road – elected a sale committee at its annual general meeting to study the possibility of a collective sale. The freehold property, which is well past its 30th year and made up of two 25-storey blocks, comprises a car park, offices and retail space, as well as several apartments. But it is the nightclubs and pubs – which have earned the notorious tag of ‘four floors of whores’ – that make the building come alive at night, attracting droves of expatriates. (The expats don’t need whores. There is no shortage in supply of SPGs in Singapore.)

– that more animals are being treated with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) at the Singapore Zoo. The practice has been going on for years but now research at the Zoo is getting a new injection of funding. Veterinarians at the Singapore Zoo have been using TCM to treat animals such as snakes, orang utans and even a miniature horse. (Not every medical condition need an injection of powerful drugs and steroids.)

– that in her first public comments since a prison sentence, Paris Hilton has described her 45-day jail term for a driving related offense as cruel and unwarranted. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer rejected her defense that she didn’t realize her license was suspended and ordered her to report to a county detention facility on June 5. (It is well warranted and just not cruel enough. Should have been 90 days + life suspension from driving.)

– that Christopher Lee was jailed a month and fined $4,500 by a district court for drink driving and failing to help two injured men after his car had hit their motorcycle. The 35-year-old was convicted after pleading guilty to four of five charges, including drink driving and a hit-and-run rap. District judge Terence Chua also banned Lee, who is appealing against the jail term and out on $20,000 bail, from driving for three years. The motorcyclist and his pillion, both Indian nationals who earlier sued the actor, received about $60,000 in total from Lee in an out-of-court settlement. (This is something the Americans can learn in dealing with the likes of Paris Hilton.)

– that a woman plundered more than $370,000 from a dementia sufferer after placing him in a nursing home without his family’s knowledge, a court has been told. Shanta Mani Naidu, 52, of Regents Park, in Brisbane’s south, has pleaded not guilty to fraud allegedly committed between September 2002 and April 2004 against James McFarlane, 82. (Go pick on someone with equal mental capacity, you piece of sh*t.)

The Stupid Shitty-Porean Award

– that a man who suspected his wife of infidelity, gagged her, tied her to a bed with ropes, and tattooed her arms, breasts and abdomen in order to ‘teach her a lesson’. The 45-year-old man was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and six strokes of the cane. A friend who had helped the man to restrain and tattoo the 33-year-old woman is still at large, the court official said. The men had tattooed stars, patterns of the sun, an arrow, and the words ‘one way’ on the wife’s body, court documents showed. The couple had been living apart when the incident took place last August. A doctor told the court that it could take up to five months of laser treatment to remove the tattoos, at a total cost of as much as $4950, the court documents showed. (Some people are such idiots. The tattoos would not remove the intercourse she had even if she did.)

The World This Week

– that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz Wolfxxkwit is fighting for his political life after coming under fire for allegations of favouritism. It revolves around Shaha Ali Riza, his close female friend whom he was romantically involved, who received a significant pay rise when she was assigned to the U.S. State Department. (All the architects of the Iraqi War are arseholes, from Warmonger Bush, to Rumsfool to Wolfxxkwit…)

– that his mea culpa was not enough for the World Bank’s staff association, which said Wolfxxkwit had ‘destroyed’ the trust of employees and should quit. “He must act honorably and resign,” the de facto union said in a letter to the World Bank’s 10,000 rank-and-file staff. In an editorial, the Financial Times newspaper also called for Wolfxxkwit to go, either voluntarily or at the behest of the board. (The World Bank should recover every cent paid to him and sue him until he’s a bankrupt too.)

– that Wolfxxkwit decried what he called a ‘smear campaign’ against him and told a special bank panel that he acted in good faith in securing a promotion and pay raise for his girlfriend. In a prepared statement to the panel, Wolfxxkit said the institution’s ethics committee had access to all the details surrounding the arrangement involving bank employee Shaha Riza, ‘if they wanted it’. (Nepotism by any other name or intention is still nepotism…)

– that the alleged ‘D.C. madam’ dropped a name in court documents filed, but the man named laughed at being accused of hiring the high-end escort service run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Gover-min prosecutors say Pamela Martin and Associates was actually a prostitution ring that Palfrey operated in the Washington area for 13 years but Palfrey denies that her business provided sexual services to its customers. In her motion to reconsider appointment of counsel, Palfrey named Harlan K. Ullman as ‘one of the regular customers’ of the business. Ullman is one of the leading theorists behind the ‘shock and awe’ military strategy that was associated with the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (It won’t be a surprise if Ullman is just another ‘lar sup’ [dirty] little bastard. Reason: Iraq.)

– that top White House adviser Karl Rove is at the centre of a row over potentially lost e-mails that could shed light on the firing of prosecutors last year. Democrats probing the dismissals wanted to see the e-mails as part of their inquiry – and expressed disbelief they could have been deleted. (It is a joke if that the White Hose does not have daily backups, weekly backups, monthly backups, and yearly backups etc. Or worse come to worst, use those blasted forensic proggies to find it.)

– that the Chilean gover-min is upset with Google Earth for moving one of its villages to Argentina. The 1,100 residents of Villa O’Higgins, which was named after a Chilean hero, do in fact live in Chile instead of Argentina. The Chilean gover-min has petitioned Google to change its map markers to reflect that fact. In Google Earth’s defense, this area does have a very complicated border – and the two countries have almost gone to war over it. (It would be quite funny – though disastrous – if they went to war because of a mistake on Google Earth.)

– that AIDS charities have reacted angrily to John Howard’s opposition to HIV-positive immigrants moving to Australia. Mr Howard proposed a blanket ban, which would only be exempt in special cases, during a radio interview in Melbourne. Australian HIV activists said the country’s immigration laws already had tight restrictions. The UK’s National AIDS Trust described the proposal as illegal, discriminatory and ineffective. (Howard has the right to do what’s best in the interest of the Commonwealth of Australia no matter what the ninnys say.)

– that the Australian gover-min has announced plans to outlaw material that advocates terrorism – a move designed to tighten its already strict censorship rules. Books and films deemed to glorify terrorism will be removed from shelves and barred from entering the country. The gover-min says the changes are part of its zero tolerance policy towards terrorism. But critics say they will lead to the censorship of material helpful to those wishing to understand radical Islam. (There is no such thing as ‘radical Islam’. Call a spade a spade. It is nothing but terrorism and murder in the name of religion.)

– that Israelis clamoured for Ehud Olmert to resign as his ruling coalition began to fray after a gover-min probe blasted his lea-duhship for serious failure in the Lebanon war. As one cabinet minister quit and newspapers shrieked for Olmert to follow suit over a scathing interim report into the conflict, party faithful rallied around and commentators warned he could yet ride out the political storm. (Stop wasting everyone else’s time, Olmert. You have destroyed Sharon’s dream. Go.)

– that Ehud Olmert remained defiant in the face of a party mutiny that joined calls for him to quit in the wake of a damning report of his lea-duhship – or the lack of it – in the Lebanon war. He spoke after an aide to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni – a top Kadima official considered one of the frontrunners to take over party lea-duhship – said that she would ask Olmert to quit during a meeting. (There is no point delaying the inevitable, Olmert.)

– that a wall U.S. troops are building around a Sunni enclave in Baghdad came under increasing criticism on Saturday, with residents calling it ‘collective punishment’ and a local lea-duh saying construction began without the neighborhood council’s approval. Some residents of the neighborhood, which is surrounded by Shiite areas, complained that they had not been consulted in advance about the barrier. The U.S. military says the wall in Baghdad is meant to secure the minority Sunni community of Azamiyah, which ‘has been trapped in a spiral of sectarian violence and retaliation’. The area, located on the eastern side of the Tigris River, would be completely gated, with entrances and exits manned by Iraqi soldiers, the U.S. military said earlier this week. (There’s this sense that this is a disaster waiting to happen. Just try and imagine that if the soldiers at the gate were bribed and a Shi’ite militia enters the village and start killing people house to house. There will be no place for the residents in this enclave to flee to.)

– that the U.S. Army is tightening restrictions on soldiers’ blogs and other Web site postings to ensure sensitive information about military operations does not make it onto public forums. Soldiers in war zones are already subject to restrictions on blogging and public posts. But the Army’s new regulation could affect service members who have returned from war zones and started blogs about their combat experiences. (They lost Vietnam War because of the media. They won’t lose the Iraq one because of blogs.)

– that Iran’s president has come under fire from a conservative newspaper after he publicly kissed the hand of a woman who used to be his school teacher. Mahmoud Mah-bouk Ahmadinejad, a conservative by the standards of Iranian politics, was attacked by the Hizbullah newspaper for acting ‘contrary to Sharia law’. It accused him of ‘indecency and violating religious values’. (Maybe time for Iran to stop some of the funding for the Hizbullah.)

– that the Taliban has taken barbarism to new heights by using a child as an executioner – and releasing a videotape of him beheading an ‘American spy’. (These very savages should be denied their basic human rights, and hunt down for the beasts that they are.)

– that the Japanese gover-min admitted in a statement the killing of non-combatants by the Japanese imperial army in the Nanjing Massacre in China, Kyodo News reported. It thinks it cannot deny such facts as the killing of non-combatants and plunder, but it is difficult to make a conclusion on the exact number of the slain people since there have been different voices, the statement said. The statement was released in response to an inquiry by a member of the Lower House, or the House of Representatives. (That’s good enough. It makes no difference if you had killed 3 non-combatants or 300,000.)

– that Nina Wang, formerly Hong Kong’s richest woman, has left her fortune to her feng shui adviser, her lawyer says. Businessman Chan Chun-chuen, 48, was the sole beneficiary of the multi-billion-dollar estate, he said. And Wang allegedly made the decision because Mr Chan understood her ‘personal philosophy’. The announcement sets the stage for a possible court battle, amid reports of a second will in which Ms Wang promised her money to a charitable trust. Ms Wang, who died on 3 April, is thought to have left an estate worth about $4.2bn. (She got it in a legal battle. In the same way it will go to her beneficiary.)

– that two MPs who faked a hostage-taking at Taiwan’s top university after the U.S. school shootings have been condemned by the island’s governing party. The DPP made a public apology after two MPs reported that students had been taken hostage at National Taiwan University. Armed police rushed to the campus, only to be told that the call was a hoax aimed at testing their response time. (In Singapore, they put people in jail for hoaxes like this.)

– that the U.S. opposes Taiwan’s deployment of offensive missiles targeting Mainland China, the top American envoy to Taiwan, Stephen Young. Washington reiterated that it supports Taipei’s efforts to protect itself, but stressed that this should only be done through the use of defensive weapons. U.S. officials are concerned that development of offensive missiles on both sides of the Taiwan Strait could threaten regional security. Reports say China now has over 900 missiles targeting Taiwan. (Read: ‘You will buy all sub-standard weapons from us. Not make your own.’)

– that an Indonesian passenger jet was forced to turn round in Indian airspace to avoid a nuclear-capable missile test flight, the Indonesian gover-min says. Officials from Garuda airlines say they received no advance notice of the test. But India’s Ministry of External Affairs said the tests followed normal safety precautions, and that Garuda was given advance warning. (And the Indonesians will keep quiet because they only pick on those who are smaller.)

– that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that developing nations should strive for good governance and invest in their citizens to free them from poverty and violence. Developing countries should aim for accountability and invest in their people through high quality education and health care, he said. They could free their citizens from the ‘bondage of poverty and conflict’ by nurturing their creativity, Yudhoyono added. (Is Indonesia suddenly ready to give up it’s ‘tried and tested solution’ which is to blame its Chinese population and / or Singapore for it’s own sorry predicament?)

– that Indonesia is losing its forests faster than any other country, with the equivalent of about 300 football pitches destroyed every hour, the environmental group Greenpeace has said. About 4.5 million acres of forest were lost each year between 2000 and 2005. (With that smoke blanketing the region almost yearly for more than a decade, it is no surprised.)

Singapore This Week

– that Singapore has been accused of acting like an ‘authoritarian state’ after refusing to allow European Parliament members to speak during a visit. The seven MEPs, from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), as well as a Cambodian and a Philippines congresswoman, were denied permission to speak at a forum on democracy in Europe and Asia. One MEP likened the Singaporeans’ to repressive regimes such as North Korea, Myanmar and China. The Singapore gover-min said foreigners did not have permission to address the event. (Even foreigners must bow to a 66.6% mandate, except for those who fits the TaliPAP’s description of ‘talent’.)

– that the gover-min said this week that mini$ter$ and $enior civil servants $erpent$ would enjoy a 60% pay increase, giving them an average salary of S$1.9 million. Baby Lee’s pay is set to jump to S$3.1 million – five times what Warmonger Bush earns. (外国有偷鸡摸狗的贪污官员，我们有巧取豪夺所谓的 ‘廉洁政府’ 。 Thank you very much 66.6%!! Thank you very much!!)

– that the announcement has drawn widespread criticism from ordinary Singaporeans given the country’s widening income gap and the fact the city-state’s mini$ter$ were already among the highest-paid in the world. (是吗？那当记住这犹如切身之痛与莫名的愤怒，大选时好好利用。[Translation: Is that so? Then remember this pain which is as if your flesh is cut and also the unexplained fury, and use it well during the elections.] Anyway, have fun reading this.)

– that the pay rise for political office holders and civil serpents is not linked to the upcoming GST hike. Yaacob Ibrahim, made this clarification at a dialogue session in Tampines. (One will have to bury his conscience to actually believe this.)

– that the police told the SDP it could not hold a public forum to discuss the increases, and the immigration authority rejected applications for professional visit passes for the seven foreigners the SDP invited to speak. (Chee and the SDP should have known better.)

– that “Singapore’s politics are reserved for Singaporeans. As visitors to our country, foreigners should not abuse their privilege by interfering in our domestic politics,” the MHA said in a statement. (And even so, Singapore’s politics are reserved only for Singaporeans who played by the rules. Those who don’t, end up like JBJ or CSJ.)

– that according to the SDP Web site, Chee Soon Juan plans to speak at the forum and rebut remarks made by Lao Kok Kok about the mini$ter$’ pay hike. Lao Kok Kok said earlier this week that Singapore should pay mini$ter$ competitive wages because the city-state needs an ‘extraordinary gover-min with extraordinary gover-min officers’. (夜郎自大。 Lao Kok Kok’s pride knows no bounds. Come back and talk about being extraordinary when you rule something bigger than an island.)

– that Lao Kok Kok say Singapore has to be as cosmopolitan as other world class cities like New York and London, for its own survival and success. He said, “If we are dynamic, we will attract talent, we will grow because we have more talent. When I say talent, it means people who add to the dynamism of that society. Singaporeans, if I can chose an analogy, we are the hard disk of a computer, the foreign talent are the megabytes you add to your storage capacity. So your computer never hangs because you got enormous storage capacity.” (Whether the system hangs does not always have something to do with the hard disk because it isn’t the only component. And the system hangs if the motherboard fails too, not to mention the system can become extremely slow because of an old motherboard. Or the OS gets too old it can’t run new programs. Just image the Tali-PAP being that motherboard or the OS.)

– that Lao Kok Kok say that times have changed and it would be unrealistic to expect such selfless sacrifice [from the current mini$ter$] now. (For the love of money, some lose their souls.)

– that since its soft launch last December, there have been growing rumbles of discontent from some of the 262 tenants at the AMK Hub. Low human traffic caused by renovation work and frequent power trips are among the gripes, and letters asking for rent refunds have been forwarded to the management. Some disgruntled tenants – most of them on the second level – wanted a refund of a month’s rent because of sluggish business, which they claimed was the result of renovation works on the floors above. (Like the landlord cares if you have got no business? As they used to say… fools rush in where angels fear to tread.)

– that the smoke from Indonesia helps to block out direct sunlight, preventing extreme heat in Singapore, according to an academic. According to Dr John Yong, Natural Sciences & Science Education, National Institute of Education, “The haze smoke now has two functions. First it reduces the amount of sunlight reaching Singapore and the haze smoke also helps in developing more clouds and these clouds actually reflect off the sun, energy from reaching Singapore. (Does it matter to this bleeding moron that whatever ‘positive’ effects there are… it doesn’t really matter to those who needs to see a doctor?)

– that according to the WHO’s World Health Report 2006, the number of hospital beds ratio in Singapore (in 2004) is only 28 per 10,000 population. Countries with similar GNP per capita as Singapore have a much higher hospital beds ratio than Singapore. Among the four Asian dragons, the Republic of Korea led the way with 89 hospital beds per 10,000 population, followed by Taiwan [48 beds], Hong Kong [47 beds] and Singapore [28 beds]. (And Singapore still wants to be a medical hub. I shudder to think how Singaporeans are going to find a bed when all the Novo Richies in the region comes and take up the beds. It reminds me again of a conversation I had before with a health assistant in the therapy department who says she does not understand why Singaporeans suffering from paralysis lost the will to live while overseas, people does anything to try and stay alive and regain control of their limbs. But I do. If medical fees costs a bomb, I also lose my will to live because I do not want to be a burden to my family.)

– that a well meaning writer, Lan Zhong Zheng wrote this in a letter to Voices on TODAY: “The ultimate solution is not to carry out means testing on Singaporeans but to increase the supply of beds in the subsidised wards in hospitals here. Implementing means testing infringes on the right of the people to choose.” (Poor Lan doesn’t yet understand they would never do that because that means the gover-min will pay. And guess what, their best method to turn down such a great idea is simply to say, “The cost may need to be pass to taxpayers…”)

– that after a protracted investigation that took almost two years, the youth blamed for causing the death of a car salesgirl was finally charged in court with reckless driving. Regan Lee Da Wen, 26, was accused of causing the death of Ms He Xueli, 22, by driving a Mazda MX-5 convertible dangerously during a test drive in October 2005. Lee, who will appear in court on June 18 for a pre-trial conference, faces a maximum five-year jail term if found guilty. His lawyer Julian Tay said his client was ‘haunted’ by the accident. (该死的不死。 He should be banned from driving for life and get a 10 year term for it.)

– that earlier this month, the youth incurred the rage of Netizens and car enthusiasts after he wrote in a motoring forum that he was shopping for sports cars and could not decide between a Subaru WRX and a Volkswagen Golf GTI. Many were angry that he was allowed to drive while investigations were ongoing. (More will be angrier if he is still allowed to drive and is let off with a short jail term.)

– that visiting gover-min officials from an Asian country had lamented to the NTUC that they wished their unions could be as ‘constructive’ as their Singapore counterparts. But when the NTUC lea-duhs related this to union lea-duhs from that Asian country, the retort was: “Please tell our gover-min that the day it behaves like the $ingapore gover-min, we will behave like the NTUC.” (For that, their gover-min will need the ISD, and have all those who failed to ‘behave’ will be invited to help them clear their stock of 25cts coffee..)

– that ‘Horlicks Kar Ching’ has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. She is among 29 women in the list which includes US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo. This is the first time ‘Horlicks’ has made it to the list of Time’s Most Influential. (Shin Shit Corp. ‘Nuff said.)

– that Singapore needs a team of lea-duhs who are capable, competent, have the right values to improve the lives of all and have mastered the issues over many years – not lea-duhs who come and go – so as to develop ‘not just any solutions, but good ones’ to our problems. (Then give us something better other than that crap ERP on the CTE. And give us something better than this ‘World Class’ system that the people who called it so do not use it daily!)

– that the train and bus operator SMRT booked a net profit of nearly S$136 million for the year ended in March. That is up nearly one-third compared to the previous year. SMRT said it saw broad-based growth in all of its business segments during the last business year, pushing its revenue more than 4% higher to S$743 million. (And it’s not likey they won’t raise fares because of this!)

– that SMRT however said the 2 percentage-point hike in GST starting from 1 July is expected to eat into earnings. (Wow, already finding the excuse to raise fares!)

Trivial, Jokes and Thoughts from Discussions

– that Israeli researchers are looking into whether spider venom could help cure impotency after men bitten by arachnids experienced prolonged erection. The research was launched after observations that some men bitten by spiders ‘suffered from prolonged erections’. “This is the first research of its kind and could help a great number of men.” Among the spiders beings studied are the black widow, the female spider who is known for sometimes eating her mate after copulation, as well as two other arachnids that can be found in Africa and South America. (Stand aside, Viagra and Cialis. Here comes Spid-ralis.)

– that Arizona State University researchers have learned that, during photosynthesis, bacteria may realign crucial proteins very quickly. This allows the bacteria to capture nearly every photon of available light in a millionth of a millionth of a second, about the same time it takes for a supercomputer to carry out a single flop. To make measurements in such tiny time scales, the scientists used an ultrafast laser facility. Moving those proteins around rapidly allows the bacteria to capture most of the potential energy in their biological circuitry. Thus, photosynthesis can take place under less than perfect conditions. (And all these creatures exists by chance!!)

– that ‘A great leader is one who plans his exit when he or she enters the job.’ – Anonymous. (So Lao Kok Kok is definitely not one. He can’t and won’t exit.)

– that Apple reported financial results far ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, and the company’s board of directors defended Steve Jobs’ role in Apple’s stock options backdating scandal. Revenue for Apple’s second quarter, which ended March 31, was $5.26 billion, up 21 percent compared with revenue of $4.36 billion in the same quarter last year. Profit was up nearly 88% at $770 million, or 87 cents / share, compared with profit of $410 million, or 47 cents / share, last year. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had been expecting revenue of $5.17 billion and earnings per share of 64 cents. (Sounds familiar? The NKF board defended T.T. Durai too. It’s high time someone open another arsehole for Jobs just like what the SPH did to Durai.)

– that Greenpeace gave a cautious welcome to Apple’s ambitions to be more environmentally friendly. In a statement Steve Jobs said the company would stop using toxic and hazardous chemicals in manufacturing. Greenpeace praised Apple for its decision to phase out the most harmful chemicals but said the electronics giant could do more. The group wants Apple to improve its recycling policy and stop dumping old products in other parts of the world. (And stop manufacturing iPods too. All that plastic is more unfriendly to the planet’s environment than anything else.)

– that Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer sentenced Paris Hilton to 45 days in county jail for violating her probation. She must go to jail by June 5 to a women’s jail in suburban Lynwoodand will not be allowed any work release, furloughs, use of an alternative jail or electronic monitoring in lieu of jail, ruled after a hearing. The judge’s ruling excluded her from paying to serve time in a jail of her choice, as some violators are allowed to do. (Just make sure she doesn’t screw the guards and make a video of it.)