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This is not so much a review of the movie, but rather a personal view after watching it. In my opinion, Wall.E is a love story with a secondary message to environmentalism and healthy living. First of all, robot Wall.E’s single-mindedness, and selflessness in expressing his love for robot EVE by assisting her in completing her mission – even to the verge of death – is the ultimate expression of love. To love, is highest expression of the meaning of one’s existence. Just how many will give up what they are doing – even their lives and jobs – so the very person they loved can achieve their goals in life today? It is no wonder some found Wall.E a little lacking in terms of hilarity, because for all intentions and purposes, being funny and hilarious isn’t the main objective or story of Wall.E itself. |
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Yet beyond the love story that’s going on between EVE and Wall.E, one must ask, are the humans on the spaceliner Axiom truly living? They can barely walk on their own two feet, and hardly interact with one another. This is most aptly displayed by the fact that two of the guys were talking to the holograms even when they are floating beside one another without even knowing it. They are flooded with so much information, but a lot of important things pass them by without them knowing that it ever existed – e.g. the pool, the running tracks to prevent them from bone loss. They expect to be spoon-fed everything and yet lost the ability to fend for themselves. It is obvious their lives change with whatever the mass media says, and they can’t go on without the aid of robots. Is this not what we have already become mentally these days, just not physically? Just ask yourself this when you see the next person trying to be what their idols have become, the one talking animatedly over his mobile phone but yet oblivious of everyone else around them, the next moron blasting away his walkman phone on the MRT, or your colleague sitting in the next cubicle sending you an email to ask you for something. Yet in spite of being driven from Earth for the mess they have created to turn our home planet into a toxic wasteland, they do not seem to have understood that for the entire 700 years living on the Axiom. They continue to live a life of consumerism and produced a huge amount of waste. Is this where we are heading? Are we seeding our own doom with our current lifestyle? Or do we heed this hidden message in Wall.E to start looking at how we could change our consumption habits, before it is too late for us to save ourselves, and even our planet? When one truly understands the message of Wall.E, one should look back and re-evaluate their lives. Have we been truly living our lives? Who, have we loved and what have we done for them today? Kudos to Pixar for bringing to us yet another thought provoking animation and making animation no longer something that is just for kids, but relevant to us adults as well! |
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Seen on MRT – Kah Kui Kui (脚开开)
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The lady (leftmost) in this photo is very careless. She has fallen asleep but she was sitting with her legs spread wide. I wondered if she realized that certain perverts goes through much pain to get up-skirt videos or photos and here she is providing it for free. Had the person two seats away not been a lady, she would have enjoyed the view very much. Anyway, the lady still enjoyed the view. Apparently, she was chuckling away with her boyfriend, and from what I saw in the reflection, she was obviously discussing what was across from them. Her boyfriend, who was seated right next to me, had the papers up in front of him to block the view – either because he was embarrassed as he is a really decent guy, or he is just putting up an act. And fortunately, the pole in the center of this section of the train was blocking my view. I am quite sure I couldn’t resist the temptation to stare if it was just right in front of me. And I also won’t be taking the photo nor blogging about it. Outrage of modesty is not a small matter and just which toot will put evidence of his crimes online for all to see? Either way, Watsons at Jurong Point definitely won’t be selling me an extra bottle of Eye-Mo and earning money from me today. |
2008 Financial Crisis
Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, AIG… and coming up next – Morgan Stanley.
We are in one hell of a big financial mess and it appears nothing is safe from it. And what can we do about it? Nothing, abso-fxxking-lutely nothing.
Since there’s no use worrying, let’s have a laugh!
AIA: Damage Control
Working in a bank has certain privileges and one of them including getting access to financial news before the others. I heard about problems with AIG on Monday morning, along with Merill Lynch getting sold to the Bank of America (with Temasek Holdings allegedly making some US$5 a share or so on paper value from that) and Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy.
Sadly, while I have such news about the turmoils in the financial market, the shortcoming is that I become completely blind as far as local news is concerned. I didn’t know there was a long queue of concerned policy owners down at AIA branches today even though I am pondering if I should start liquidating some of my investment plans to save whatever that’s left of my investments.
When I reached home today, I found this in my mailbox from my agent – an attempt to do some damage control to the situation.
Dear policy holder,
AIA assures all policyholders that it is able to meet all the obligations to policyholders. We would like to refer you to three articles published today in The Straits Times, Business Times and Lianhe Zaobao.
Quoted from The Straits Times
“When Contacted, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said yesterday that AIA Singapore is required under the Insurance Act and Regulations to maintain sufficient financial resources to meet all its liabilities to policyholders at all times. AIA currently meets these regulatory requirements. MAS will continue to monitor the financial position of AIA”
Quoted from The Business Times
” In Singapore, BT understands that AIA , as with other insurers here, maintains separate insurance funds for policies. Any sub-prime losses that may be borne by AIG at the group level are understood to have no impact on Singapore policyholders.”
While it is all good that the MAS has assured us that our investments are safe, and in spite of the fact that I worked in a bank, I wondered if that the MAS has real time monitoring over AIA financial status to be sure that AIA could pay up if they are required to liquidate their assets to pay us all. The reason of my concern is that in spite of MAS stringent requirements, Mitsui Oil (Asia) Pte. Ltd still managed to lose $81 million when a 35-year-old trader had falsified data since spring to cover up the losses.
Being complete clueless as to how these regulatory requirements are enforced, I wondered if MAS has now already moving in to audit AIA Singapore. Otherwise, with what can we be assured that everything will be alright? Thus I am two-minded as to what I should do about my policies. On one hand, I felt that if I start cashing out, then it would make AIA’s collapse a self-fulfilling prophecy, since when enough people withdraw their money, then it is possible that AIA would suffer some cash-flow issues. On the other hand, I am unwilling to risk what I have remaining in there, with the possibility of losing even more and even all of my money in these investments.
I think all I can do now is pray to God that the MAS’ assurance will be good.
Included: * Newspaper cutting from Zaobao
Glory to our Paralympic Athletes
Our Paralympic Athletes have done our country proud. Without much fuss over the issue of monetary awards and their nationality, these unsung heroines have won our country 1 gold, 1 silver, and 2 brone medals. And that trumped our able-bodied athletes’ pathetic one silver medal.
Here’s the record:
- Laurentia Tan: 2 bronze in the equestrian events; and
- Yip Pin Xiu: 1 silver and 1 gold 50m swimming freestyle and backstroke respectively.
Also, Yip hold the world record for both the swimming events – 57.04s for 50m freestyle and 57.92s for 50m backstroke respectively.
Let us congratulate these daughters of Singapore for doing us all proud… even prouder than our Summer Olympic team ever could. It certainly showed the world that we Singaporeans are made of sterner stuff and not everyone of us are a bunch of whiners!