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I find it very disturbing when ST published news that Ikea will charge up to 10cts per plastic bag, and interviewed some ppl who are less than willing to pay.  A reason that came out was that the bags serve as advertisements, so why should consumers pay.  Very disturbing, considering Ikea is planning to use the money raised for global conservation efforts.

I recall when I was in Taiwan, convenience stores charge for plastic bags.  Nobody really minded, or maybe it’s been a rule for too long.  I don’t mind paying for a bag when I have alot of stuff to carry, and of course if i’m buying one item, I wouldn’t pay for a bag.  Taiwan’s also very advanced in terms of her recycling effort, thrash are sorted out and different types are collected on a fixed day each week.  Monday would be a waste food day, tuesday could be metal cans day.  You miss the truck u wait for next wk, so it’s up to the residents.

I think singaporeans are missing the point altogether, the ppl interviewed are seeing it as Ikea trying to profit from the plastic bags.  As much as the govt tries to campaign for conservation and recycling with that silly green frog, nothing beats the pinch of the wallet.  Time to go beyond campaigning and legislate instead.  Campaigning works for ppl who are not too blind or self-indulged to realise how selfish they have been behaving. 

Here is a challenge to the supermarket chains, pls charge for the bags.  I doubt Cold Storage management’s words would come true, they feel they can lose customers this way.  If all the chains are willing to collaborate on this, consumers won’t have a choice and either pay for bags or forgo them. 

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I was flipping thru yest’s Sunday Times for the annual April Fools Joke, the one that raised the most suspicion was the Thai scientist developing an odourless durian.  But after reading this morning’s papers, I think I’m wrong.  The real joke was in today’s article about the Civil Service rebutting myths about the Administrative Service and ministers.

Responding to a myth that ministers have iron rice bowls, the rebuttal was that this is totally untrue, as ministers have to face general elections once every 5 yrs.

You tell me lah, when was the last cabinet minister that lost his or her seat?  Seet Ai Mee in 1991 I think, in Bt Gombak.  If this is not April Fools joke, what is then?

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There was a highly interesting article in today’s Today
An American soldier contributed an article about the challenges that the SAF faces, especially with young commanders and lack of combat experience, and the key point, the racial imbalance in some units.

Perhaps the most controversial claim by the US soldier was that “official discrimination against the Malay population remains an open secret” and those of the race are “systematically kept out” of sensitive areas.

Mr Walsh claims that this has two major consequences: It “limits the involvement of the ethnic group most inclined to join the military” and it feeds the “perception of a second-class status among Malays, a fact which terrorist recruiters have taken advantage of before, and they may do so again” — referring to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members arrested in Singapore for plotting terrorist attacks.

Addressing this charge, Col Lim said: “The writer’s prescription for ethnic integration in the SAF seriously underestimates the challenges of building ethnic and religious harmony in Singapore.

“Singapore has made much progress in ethnic and religious integration. Singapore does not gloss over the fact that there is yet more to be done and addresses these challenges directly and openly.”

Stressing that integration in the SAF would proceed in tandem with nation-building, Col Lim added that there are a good number of Malay SAF officers, some with higher degrees, whose studies were sponsored by the SAF, and whether a Malay SAF officer makes it to a higher appointment depends solely on merit.

In fact, Malay officers have risen through the ranks and held senior appointments.

“We have Malay pilots, commandos and air defence personnel. Those who have shown the potential to take on higher appointments in the SAF are given every opportunity to do so. Malay officers in the SAF hold key appointments such as Commanding Officer,” said Col Lim.

“In fact, the proportion of eligible Malays selected for specialist and officer training is similar to the proportion for eligible non-Malays.”

How many Malays are there in 1Cdo?  How many signallers are Malay?  How many COMBAT (as opposed to helicopter and transport) pilots are Malay?  How many armoured infantrymen or tankies are Malays?  How many Malays are there in the entire Navy? 

Mindef’s stand is that there’s a good mix.  Well show us the proof then.  I remain open-minded that maybe we do have Malays in the key units, even though my unofficial sources and my NS experience doesn’t coincide with this point of view.  Nonetheless, to remain credible, MINDEF has to allow a few of them to be interviewed, n shut the American up. 

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For some reason this afternoon, I was thinking about when my ICT would be. Last yr it was in June and this June, i’m planning to travel overseas.

Then really so zun4, the call-up came on this very evening. Good (or bad) news is that it’s in wk 2 july which clashes with my classes. Bad news cos i dun wanna kiam4 my ICT, wanna finish serving asap and with my friends.

Mabbe i should start thinking about when my frens’ ICTs will be, then confirm letter come for them…

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I thought I would post up the match photos first. The touristy photos those can come abit later. Anyway i wrote this on ClubSnap forums, so basically just transplanted over

Was one of the 100 odd fans who made their way down, though i travelled on my own. With the bitter result from the 1st leg, this match promised fireworks. Sadly i only have my 17-85 f/4-5.6 and my 50mm f/1.8. So, alot of cropping for the action shots, not to mention the blurred motion. The stadium was located within a stone throw’s distance from MBK.

Walking towards the stadium

How come nobody sell singapore flag? heh (more…)

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…who went to put this pic on Singapore Seen, and said that the rider was inconsiderate to occupy 2 lots..



FYI, the rider has to pay for 2 lots when buying season parking.  how u want him park 1 lot?

Common sense will be the hottest commodity in years to come, it’s becoming rare to come across it these days already

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And so the TNP reporter called me yesterday, after his friend told him that i went bangkok to catch the final.  He asked me if I was going for the Under-21 game between Singapore and Pakistan.  The truth is that I’m not going but normally I have the time, i would go.  However a pre-arranged meetup with friends resulted in me not going, and I told the reporter so.  He sounded very surprised that i’m not going, like “how come this fan can go Shah Alam and Bangkok for the matches, but not this local youth match.”

So a short conversation led to this article having some of my quotes, which were of course selectively chosen for publishing.  Like I talked about how young soccer fans in Singapore are getting the wrong kind of football education by being exposed to so much foreign soccer initially.  I grew up watching Malaysia Cup, then the now-defunct Premier League and later the SLeague.  Youth games are a favourite as well, but with time constraints, i can hardly go to as many games as I want to. 

All these of course is not mentioned.  And folks, pls dun ask me to get involved with the Official Lions’ Supporters Club.  I dun believe that u need to join a fan club to show that you support your national team, and I simply cannot be bothered to be forced to sing the cheers.  Ziwei can testify to that, there was once when we caught a game @ jalan besar and we were literally forced to cheer when the cheer ic pointed to us… not to mention getting half-deaf thanks to the drums.  No Sir, i would pref to sit at least 20m away from them during matches..

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Before the rest of the photos come here, let’s post the key photo one.. i didn’t meet the players at Changi T2, because i landed ard same time @ budget terminal and because i’ve already met them @ bangkok airport.. n took photo liaoz.. check this out


We are the Champions!

Eat your hearts out folks

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And so Singapore beat Laos last nite at the National Stadium, 11-0! To say that it is an easy win, that we hamtam the Laotians upside down, are both understatements. It was more of us riding roughshod over young men.

The Laotian players are all amateurs in their home league, and mostly undergraduates. In short, their local league is like inter-varsity games. The players study and train after school. Their average age was around 20, making them even younger than the guys in the singapore universities. Obviously in terms of experience, they are unable to match up to the Lions. They don’t have the physique to compete at the same level as well. They don’t train enough to have the stamina to match us.

Granted, we should never slacken off in an international tournament, especially one that is of great prestige within the region. After the 9th goal, with about 20 minutes left, it was obvious that the Lions were trying to slow the game down, preferring to pass the ball within their own half. It was a marked change from the aggression shown after the 6th goal when they were pushing deep into the half of the bewildered Laotian boys. My guess is that probably we realised that a new record has been set for the biggest victory, so they were holding back.

The fans were obviously not happy and started egging the Lions on, hoping for 10. And to my disappointment, they scored 1 more. To rub salt into the already deep wound, they added 1 more just before full time. Noh Alam Shah scored 7 goals, a new national record. He was recorded as saying he doesn’t remember scoring so many goals in after-school kickabouts back in secondary school. The Laotian coach was also too distraught to attend the post-match conference.

My bet is that those Laotians would just go back home after this tournament, hang up their soccer boots and study hard instead. It could be their alternative ticket to a better life.

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Readers Digest (RD) is a monthly magazine that i’ve been read since god knows when. My dad subscribes to it since the mid-70s and recently cancelled it this month, for reasons which I would make known in this post. I started from primary 2 or 3, reading the jokes section Laughter’s the Best Medicine, All in a Day’s Work, Life’s Like this. This eventually expanded to the filler jokes at the end of the articles, before venturing into the shorter articles. It was only after P4 when i started to read the magazine in its entity and even started digging out the old copies from the 80s.

Effectively, I’ve been reading it for 16 yrs and it has grown to the point where I’m the only one in the family who reads it. Hence my dad sees it as a right time to end his subscription so that I can take over, and also end to all his troubles with RD Asia.

The thing about RD Asia is that it is VERY aggressive in its marketing of products, not just the core magazine but also other reference books from its stable. The launch of a new reference book is always tied in with a subscribers’ sweepstake where the prize offered is some car or loads of money. The usual tactic is to send u an envelope telling you that you’re a valued subscriber for blah blah blah years and hence you have the chance to take part in the next sweepstake. There would some scratch-and-win type of card, where u can try your luck to see if you qualify for the car or the money (who doesn’t?). BUT in order to qualify for the draw, you have to send in the YES envelope which means you have to buy their latest book on offer. They have a NO envelope that is this small n brown one with loser remarks like “No, I do not want so-n-so book”, “No I do not want the opportunity to take part in the Sweepstake”.

This was still acceptable, until a few years ago when they adopted a new tactic. Send the book w/o request to the subscriber 1st. If the subscriber doesn’t want it, he has to send back @ his own cost. Failure to send back the book by a certain date means that the subscriber wants the book. Silence means consent. There was once when this book came in the post and i opened it up. My dad din noe about it cos by then i was opening all the RD letters. Imagine his shock when the bill of 50 over dollars came for that book, which was a crappy shrunken-down version of 4 novels. I can’t remember what happened to that book eventually, think we kept it.

The final straw came recently, when again RD Asia sent a copy of Wildlife, its latest book to us. My dad din even open it, and waited for RD to send the bill. When it came, he refused to pay and things basically got ugly between the sales rep and him. He got fed up and said that he would terminate his subscription. And guess what, RD Asia din even bother to keep him, just allowed him to cancel, as long as he sends the book back at his own cost.

Somehow i think all these is linked to the fact that my dad willingly bought a few reference books for me from RD Asia when i was in upper primary. Those books were good, no doubt about it. But RD Asia assumed that it means my dad is still interested in those books and kept on sending us stuff that we didn’t want anymore, along with offers of winning a car or sweepstakes. The naive me back in P4 actually believed that we won a Mitsubishi Lancer and resulted in me walking about the car park, looking for our new car from RD Asia. The same problems with the subscription caused my mum to cancel her chinese RD subscription 10 yrs ago. The bad experience with RD Asia may result in me not continuing to subscribe to it.

Think about it, the price of RD has increased by 50% in the last 10yrs, costing S$9.50 now. A subscription for a year costs $95. Effectively u get 12 copies for the price of 10, along with all the sweepstake offers and books that they attempt to forcefeed you with. Mabbe I should just stick to National Geographic


See wat i mean?

PS: i find this comic so ironic n suitable for this post, i just saw it when surfing

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ccb lah..rain n rain… now my bike sick again…pnuemonia literally. When water gets into the spark plug chambers, it literally chokes the bike from inside out..

nabeh tml must go shop liao….

CAN U STOP PEEING ON ME??!!

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A funny msn conversation with rui on why a singapore should head UN… one of the posts by me have been censored off…way too hiong liaoz

Session Start: Saturday, November 18, 2006


(2:38 PM) JK: who fleas
(2:38 PM) rui: hellppp
(2:38 PM) rui: gimme top10 reasons why a singaporean shd be the secretary general for UN
(2:38 PM) JK: i can’t think of one leh
(2:38 PM) JK: we dun deserve it lah
(2:38 PM) rui: its
(2:38 PM) rui: for
(2:38 PM) rui: an impromptu

(2:38 PM) rui: speech
(2:38 PM) rui:

(2:38 PM) JK: ppl will everyday shoot us for human rights/ free press etc
(2:38 PM) rui: meant to be funny
(2:38 PM) rui: haha
(2:38 PM) JK: ok it’s supposed to be funny one ah?
(2:39 PM) JK: so rubbish can lah/
(2:39 PM) rui: yup
(2:39 PM) rui: my bf needs to perform this in 1 hour
(2:39 PM) rui: hahah
(2:39 PM) JK: haha toastmasters?
(2:39 PM) rui: hahaha somethign like that
(2:39 PM) rui: i cant even think of ONE reason la
(2:39 PM) JK: we carry balls of all the big powers..everybody likes us
(2:39 PM) rui: HAHAHAHHA
(2:39 PM) rui: that’s not a nice way to say it
(2:39 PM) rui: but okay
(2:39 PM) JK: we are member of Coaltion of the Willing
(2:40 PM) JK: so we are with THEM, not AGAINST them
(2:40 PM) rui: HAHA

(2:40 PM) JK: er…
(2:40 PM) JK: i got one that is abit risky
(2:40 PM) JK: hah
(2:40 PM) rui: haha
(2:40 PM) rui: what

(2:41 PM) JK: CENSORED POST
(2:41 PM) rui: hahaha we try to brainwash everyone?

(2:41 PM) JK: ok another one..
(2:42 PM) JK: if we head security council, we will hold elections when WE are ready… not when the OTHERS are ready..we will talk about the moral high ground
(2:42 PM) JK: So that we dun waste time thinking about “how to fix the opposition”
(2:42 PM) rui: hahahaha

(2:43 PM) JK: i hope its closed door session
(2:44 PM) JK: we will wipe out corruption within the un by ensuring that every staff member is well-paid, with the increased contributions from the less developed countries… up by 2% each
(2:45 PM) JK: er…
(2:45 PM) rui: all very risky

(2:46 PM) JK: we have an innate ability to form committees to discuss about forming committees to discuss about forming committees to discuss about anything, like winning olympic gold
(2:46 PM) JK: we can unite NATO with UN
(2:46 PM) JK: No Action Talk Only
(2:46 PM) JK:

(2:48 PM) rui: u definitely cannot put this on ur blog
(2:48 PM) rui: haha
(2:48 PM) rui: lemme compile
(2:48 PM) rui:

(2:49 PM) JK: haha on contrary..i wanna put leh
(2:49 PM) JK: mabbe xcept the muslim one
(2:50 PM) rui: HAHAHA
(2:50 PM) rui: ok
(2:51 PM) rui: my friend
(2:52 PM) rui: “we are a country of 4million smiles. where else can u find such a high concentration of smiles”
(2:52 PM) JK: haha!!!

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As if Russell Peters wasn’t funny enough..

The biggest comedy act is coming to Singapore tomorrow and friday, enroute to Vietnam

Who can come up with funny stuff like he does…

Our goals remain clear. Peace and security in Northeast Asia and a nukyular-free Korean Peninshula.

Nobody has accused me of having a real sophisticated vocabulary.

I tell people, let’s don’t fear the future, let’s shape it.

N guys, stay away from aNUS tomorrow, he’s coming! Look wat happened to the fastfood restaurant in jakarta i mean…dun take the risk…haa!

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KS sent me a gem of a video, a short clip by Ah Nan 阿南, this local comedian and getai MC who’s now taking a short holiday at a drug rehab centre..before he comes out, u can enjoy this 3 clips…

Required Modules
LAH1201 Hokkien 1
LATC1201 Teochew 1
LACT1201 Cantonese 1
:D

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I really think ppl should think carefully before writing in to the forums of newspapers. Some letters really show the lack of basic knowledge. Like this morning’s ST, someone wrote in to say that Starhub’s cable tv prices are uncompetitive cos not enough competition in the industry..

WHAT COMPETITION??

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Went vhive suntec to buy a chair and chanced upon outsidestanding english again

let us assembly it for you

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I’m sure we have all heard about the Wee Shu Min Scandal, and Strict Times had an article on it, highlighting the fact that her father is a MP.

I would really think what kind of parents you are determines what kind of kids u will have. The father claimed that her blog is a private one and ppl should not be reading it, and that her statements are not really wrong if u go deeper beyond the harsh language. Sounds like uncle lee right?

your pants is down, i’m sorry that i have to tell u that

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I woke up really early this morning n went to the market for breakfast for a change. What kind of spoilt my breakfast was this middle-aged lady who obviously is a regular @ the market, judging by the number of ppl whom she greeted. She greeted everyone “HAPPY NEW YR!”.

Seems like there is some problem with our national education, especially on understanding other races and religions. Just because Lunar New Year is the biggest festival for the Chinese doesn’t mean that the biggest fests for other races/ religions must be their new years. Try wishing a Christian happy new yr on 25th Dec then.

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Yet another public service post to the readers…

You know when you’re about to go out, you look at the sky and think that it’s not raining in Jurong, for example when u’re in Bedok by looking at the western sky. So you dun bring ur brolly and end up being a drenched chicken @ jurong. Riders always have this problem, I would look at the eastern sky for example to gauge if it’s raining in town or not.

You can always look at this NEA site, which gives u a rain location map, updated every 15-20 mins

If you explore the site abit u can find more useful info, like the breakdown of the current weather at various locations islandwide. The direction of the wind and the air pressure readings can help you to gauge where the rain would be headed to, heh…

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i cringed at the indoor stadium when jonathan leong slaughtered my fav local grp’s songs, and one that held meaning to me some time back.. Should I Stay, sang by Dreamz FM. Man it was terrible, you should never sing a song that’s meant for ppl who can reach the high notes naturally or with falsetto by happily singing it with a baritone.

For ppl who have never heard the original version and think that the version u just heard was damn good cringes, click below… 100downloads for next wk..

Link

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There can never be progress w/o constructive criticism. However I believe that some things should never be spoken about publicly, especially on matters like this…

Off Bernama

September 23, 2006 20:09 PM
Abdullah Wants Kuan Yew To Clarify On Malaysian Chinese Issue

SEPANG, Sept 23 (Bernama) — Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Saturday he will write to Singapore’s Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, to ask for clarification on his statement concerning the Chinese community in Malaysia.

The Prime Minister said he wished to know the reasons why Lee had made such a statement.

“I will write to him to seek clarification why he had said it,” Abdullah told reporters upon arrival from a working visit abroad at the Bunga Raya Kompleks, KL International Airport.

Lee was reported to have said that Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s attitude towards Singapore was formed by the way they treated the ethnic Chinese minority in their respective countries.

Lee had claimed that Malaysia and Indonesia had problems with their respective Chinese communities because they were successful and worked hard and thus they were systematically marginalised.

Abdullah said he failed to see any justification for Lee to make such a statement.

“I concur with the statement made by (Deputy Prime Minister) Datuk Seri Najib (Tun Razak). It is a mischievous statement and can instigate the Malaysian Chinese,” he said.

Abdullah, who pointed out that such a statement should not have been made by a neighbouring country, said Singapore would also be affected if there was instability in Malaysia.

Furthermore, he said, Singapore too was facing internal problems with regard to its communities.

“We know that they too have problems, it’s not 100 per cent smooth sailing,” the Prime Minister said.

On Thursday, the Deputy Prime Minister had also commented on the matter, describing Lee’s statement as mischievous.

— BERNAMA

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I went to catch Singapore Dreaming with some of my colleagues after work on wednesday. Being a wednesday afternoon, the cinema was totally deserted, and it gave me the chance to whip out my camera and take some interesting shots. I’m like hooked to the effects of long exposure photography. Note: all the shots were taken without a tripod, the cam was resting on various platforms. mostly seat cushions.. Hence the slight shake..

You will never find a cinema so empty, this was how we sat throughout the show..

My lonely cup of coke..

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For all the effort and money that the govt throws into getting ppl to speak proper english, so that we can better present ourselves to the world, and all it takes is some govt organisation to screw it up by doing something like this:

Off the SCDF site

Proper text:

13 Sep 2006 / 10 : 00 am Public Warning System Sounding of islandwide Public Warning System (PWS) sirens on Civil Defence Day on 15 Sep 2005 at 12.05pm. Public is advised not to be alarm.

上梁不整，下梁歪

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I havn’t seen such powerful shots for a very long time…
Check them out here

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I admit that I never had much respect for Chee Soon Juan, but this time he really caught the police with their pants down.

Govt harassment begins: Police steal flyers from activists
9 Sep 06


A bunch of police officers tried to intimidate activists who were handing out leaflets to alert the public to the Empower Singaporeans Rally and March on 16 September 2006.

Three officers approached Ms Chee Siok Chin and Mr Charles Tan at Raffles City Shopping Mall and warned the two that they were committing an offence.

When asked what offence was being committed, the police could only say that it was a “seizable offence.” Pressed to be more specific, one officer said that his superior would inform them.

The officers also said that they would have to seize the flyers and quickly grabbed the bag of leaflets sitting on the ground.

When Dr Chee Soon Juan appeared another bunch of police officers told him that he had to stop distributing the flyers.

“Under what section of the law is it an offence?” Dr Chee queried.

“It is a seizable offence,” came the exasperating reply.

“You haven’t answered my question. What Act says that it is an offence to distribute leaflets? If you cannot tell me which specific law I am breaking, how can you tell me to stop doing what I am doing?” Dr Chee continued.

Quickly changing the subject, the officer said, “I have to take the flyers.” He reached out to grab the leaflets which Dr Chee was holding.

“If you want to seize the flyers then take me as well. We go together,” Dr Chee suggested.

The police officer retracted his hand.

At this point there were at least six police cameras lurking in the various corners recording the encounter.

“I can come with you right now if you want me to. Where is your car?” Dr Chee offered again. “If you say I am committing an offence, then let’s go to the police station. Otherwise please move aside as you are blocking my way.”

The bunch withdrew into the crowd and hung around the shops, looking from afar.

The activists continued distributing whatever pamphlets they had left. When they ran out, they approached the police officers to ask them to give back the flyers they had stolen.

But as soon as the activists got close to the officers who were all in civilian wear, they dispersed in different directions like suspects fleeing the scene of the crime.

One, Senior Staff Sergeant Lee Hong Chee, who pretended to be a shopper looking at a window display whilst sipping on an ice-blended coffee, was not quick enough. When asked where his colleagues were he said, “I don’t know.”

“Do you know it was wrong to take our pamphlets when you haven’t told us what offence we had committed?” Dr Chee asked.

Sgt Lee searched for an answer but could only play back the pre-recorded message, “I don’t know.”

“Where are the flyers?” Dr Chee asked again.

“They are with my colleagues.”

“Where are your colleagues?”

“I don’t know…”

“You’re not a very competent officer, are you?” Dr Chee continued.

“I don’t know…Thank you,” the sergeant stammered, and quickly walked away.

Seeing two more officers sitting in the distance, the activists sought their assistance. As before the two quickly scuttled away. But Dr Chee called them back and after asking them to produce their warrant cards, one was Senior Staff Sgt Zaihir Shan s/o Syed and the other was Sgt Andrew Ong, he asked them for the confiscated pamphlets.

Almost simultaneously the two officers’ cellphones rang and they both pretended to be engaged in deep conversation while quickly walking away.

These officers were not behaving the way our men-in-blue should – with dignity and professionalism. Instead, when asked they could not cite the law they were supposed to enforce and they behaved like a group of suspects who quickly dispersed when confronted.

First World Government? Yeah, right.

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The World Bank has requested that the Singapore govt to kindly allow approved civil society groups stage outdoor protests during the IMF meeting. However the Singapore Police has said no, that it’s against the law in Singapore.

Much as I wanna see a real protest in sg, instead of nus students wearing black tee or mr brown’s fans wearing brown tee to stage a silent protest, (heck! i oso wanna see our riot police in action for once) I think it’s not good to make an exception for this since ppl like chee soon juan will start to complain about double standards. FYI, he made an application to stage a protest but it will be oh so surprising if that’s approved.

Anyway I thought of a few alternatives for the outdoor protestors

1. Protest indoors in a building with a sky roof, pseudo outdoor
2. Put them all at St John’s Island, the former lepers’ colony, then live-webcast the protest scenes to suntec to be broadcast on giant multiple plasma screens
3. Let them protest on TV over a few mths, macam Singapore Idol. Let the viewers decide who stay on. Protest Idol finals to be held @ changi prison.

All in all, i’m quite sure that this is the 1st and last time that IMF/WB will come to sg, but no worries, i’m sure we can find more wayang opportunities next time

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Or rather, we are no longer the No.1 most kiasu ppl in the world. I’m quite sure the PRCs aka 中国佬 have beaten us hands down. From jumping queues at HK Disneyland to even soccer, we are no fight, compared to the PRCs.

Did i say soccer? Yes, soccer! Singapore played China in an Asian Cup qualifier 2 weeks ago, and before the match, the Chinese coach was still yaya, saying that China can beat Thailand 4-0, and hence beating Singapore by the same score wasn’t a problem. China eventually won by an injury time penalty.

Now the 2nd match would be played later in Singapore, he is still yaya papaya-ing away, saying that it’s sure win. But being the most kiasu ppl in the world, that’s not good enough. Like how Singaporeans queue overnite for Hello Kitty, they must make sure, they must guarantee.

Off today’s Today

Zhu, a former international goalkeeper who took over the coaching reins from Dutchman Arie Haan last year, has been keeping his cards close to his chest ahead of tonight’s clash.

He even refused to hand the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) a recording of the qualifier in Tianjin and insisted that it was his prerogative not to do so.

China have been training behind closed doors since their arrival here and all Zhu would say yesterday was, “We respect everybody and we just hope that everybody respects our wishes”.

Singapore really lose liaoz…

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I contributed a letter to Today a day after the National Day Rally..

The National Day Rally is an annual speech by the Prime Minister, serving as a report card of the progress of our young country. It also serves as a rallying call to Singaporeans to prepare us for the greater challenges of the following year. Hence it is true to say that the NDR is a very important event.

However, is it absolutely necessary to broadcast the NDR simultaneously on all terrestrial channels? I can understand the need to have it translated into the 4 main languages, but surely Channel NewsAsia and Channel 5 would end up duplicating each other, and the same goes for Channel 8 and Channel U for the Mandarin channels?

I could not help but compare this to the paltry coverage of local sports on the terrestrial channels. It is saddening to see that the idea of local sports broadcast is live screenings of SLeague matches only once or twice a week, and the idea of sports on terrestrial TV is wrestling, the occasional golf tournament, and a few European soccer matches. I remember that about 10 years ago, we used to screen highlights of inter-school basketball finals on Channel 5. To make worse an already bad situation, the recent soccer match between Singapore and China was not screened at all.

I think it is high time that we start to place a little more emphasis on covering our local sports. We do have events of international standing that take place in Singapore throughout the year, for example the StanChart Singapore Marathon. Perhaps Mediacorp can consider opening up a channel that is only active during the time of the sports event. The remaining time can be utilized for public or educational broadcast.

The channel of course would hardly generate any advertising revenue or profit, but it is high time that we look beyond the profit motive and concentrate on the broadcast of a good mixture of local sporting events or overseas events where our national athletes are competing. Let us invest back some of the profits from the media industry, or the funds collected from TV licenses into this project. The Singapore Sports Council can consider collaborating with the media companies to bid for and screen the events, funded by a pool of money contributed by the media companies and the government. Let us realize that it is not just rallies by leaders of our country that are important in developing a strong social fabric in Singapore.

Now Today has a habit of publishing letters within 2-3 days if it’s worthy, or they get a reporter to contact you if they think your letter has the potential for it to become a proper story. However when ur letter is too lengthy, or PERHAPS doesnt match Today’s interest to be a paper that fosters nation-building, you get a canned reply like this:

From: xxx < @mediacorp.com.sg> Mailed-By: mediacorp.com.sg
To:
Date: Aug 31, 2006 5:53 PM
Subject: RE: TODAY VOICES CONTRIBUTION - NATIONAL DAY RALLY SPEECH
Thank you for your contribution to our VOICES section, but I’m afraid we aren’t able to use your letter.

Please however continue to send your views to TODAY. We try to use as many letters as possible, space permitting.

Once again, thank you for your interest in TODAY.

Best Regards,

xxx
Editorial Assistant
MediaCorp Press Ltd

Comments (0)

I dunno, but having worked for the govt for the past 3 weeks, I have grown somewhat jaded of the policies that are happening in the school and in singapore.

Of course we read about the myth that Singapore is a pristine garden city that just got exposed. We know that it is the bangla cleaners who ensure that the city is ready for “show” by 6am everyday. Before 6am, if it’s in a mess, especially in the HDB areas, it’s ok. No tourist will come one. Showtime’s only @ 6am.

We are like living in Disneyland rite, everyone’s contributing to the show. And yes, the trees that are being planted, or should i say, positioned in the marina area for the IMF conference are your props as well.

Are we a nanny state? I’m inclined to think that i’m in somewhat of a nanny school. The school just started a ban on all canned soft drinks, and guess what, skinned chicken meat. We are only gonna get naked chicken from now on. Let’s not start on the restriction of shallow fried foods to only tuesdays. So yes, we will get skinless chicken cutlet on tuesdays, big yay! Parents have complained that their children told them that these days their kids dun get joy from eating in school. Guess the school’s reply?

“Do you want them to enjoy eating in school or have a healthy diet?”

Comments (1)