i need a vacation

Singapore Armed Forces OPFOR Training Ground

By David Boey

Was pleasantly [emphasis mine] surprised to see that photographer Ang Song Nian was allowed to take pictures of the oil palm plantation on Pulau Tekong, Singapore's largest offshore island which is exclusively used by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).

I have yet to see such a direct reference between oil palm plantations in an SAF training area and those in Malaysia. The SAF also maintains rubber plantations on Tekong and mainland Singapore for its ground forces to stage war games.

The pictures will be part of an art show titled Imagine Malaysia.

The text of the Life! story reads:"Award-winning photographers Robert Zhao and Ang Song Nian both depict the uneasy relationship between the two countries through photographs laden with strong visual puns and symbols.

"Zhao's work features a lion and tiger while Ang's photograph diptych features what look like similar images.

"But one is a Malaysian oil palm plantation, the other is Pulau Tekong, the training site of Singapore's pool of soldiers in the event of war."

A comment from a reader:

They know. We know that they know. We pretend that they dun know that we know they know.

This main stream media article is not meant for malaysian's consumption. It's for "National Education" purpose and for a certain "BIG Country" personnel monitoring our main stream media.


The two, ... they are still at it? Good ...

06 August 2011

Parents' Love

Show of tanks: Mr Raysen Boo and his wife pose in front of Tank 25, driven by their 23-year-old son, Lance Corporal Boo Li Yan. The couple stayed faithfully by the Leopard 2SG until it was time for the tank to join the Parade Preview. All this while, they did not even get to see their son - such is the thing that parents do.
[Link]

Every parents love their children.  They will especially worry for their sons whom are drafted into National Service and more so for the sons who served in the combat vocation. It is natural that they will do their utmost to protect their children to the best of their abilities and resources, regardless of their stations in life.


Update: 12 August 2011

National Service: A Mother's Constant Worry [Link]

AS A mother of a full-time national serviceman (NSF) who is nine months into his national service and who has just graduated from the Specialist Cadet School, I feel the pain of the parents of Third Sergeant Ee Chun Sheng ('NSF on training exercise dies'; Aug 3).

Each day, since my son began fulfilling his NS obligations, I have lived in fear of the telephone ringing, or of a soldier in uniform calling at my house, to break some painful news.

We can live with the sores and cuts that he comes home with, but we fear the day we will never see him come home again.

Every year, thousands of our boys leave their homes, their studies or their jobs to fulfil their obligations to the nation. All they and we, their parents, ask for is their safe return two years later.

Why are there fatal accidents involving our NSFs almost every year? Why do they happen even after inquiries and investigations reveal that procedures were followed and safety measures were in place?

The Defence Ministry should correct this distressing record. Let us, the parents of current and future NSFs, live and sleep in peace.


and here we have ...

“These moronic ‘Singaporeans’, their code, their morals, their ‘loyalty’ and ‘patriotism’… all dropped at the first sign of trouble… just ask any of them if they want to be excused from serving NS and they will be the first to raise their hands… Require any of them to serve an extra month of NS and they will riot in Singapore… Ask them to fight a war, almost all will declare they are ready to pack up and run." - Rachelle Ann Beguia Riko (Singapore Foreign Talent)

In memory of ... (1973 to 1992). We will not forget you. Your mom and dad and younger brother cherished your memory. Your friends whom you go to school and junior college with i am sure they too remember you. We think of you from time to time. We will not forget, we will think of you in our memories till time catches up on us. 

Update: 15 August 2011

Senang Diri

Anonymous said...

Derek, pls dun take it personally. From the first batch of NS conscirptees till today, ALL parents worry for their sons. Its just tht now they are more articulate. They write letters to forum, they blog about it but at the end of the day, they still "let go" (majority got no choice and connections and "know how" - like savvy to see a highly regarded professor to try to sift out some congenitor defeats where no captain/major MOs dare to contradict & the addr is in bukit timah) of their sons into SAF's hands.

From the Napoleonic war to the Vietnam war, young soldiers before they breath their last would often call for their mothers. This bond is even stronger than the rambo who try to act macho. Its no different whether one is in Pulau Tekong (bootcamp) or in the Ia Drang Valley (US infantry) or at Helmand, Afghanistan (British paras), these boys are isolated from their families. At Helmand, young paras shed tears for their fallen comrades, are they sissies? On the contrary! their OCs/CO know how to tape into their comeraderie and "emotions", to give time for grieve and this build cohesion and brotherly fighting spirit! Humans are emotive creatures, and the army who knows how to tape this "emotion" will have won half the battle

So on SAF day, we shd not forget the parents of these conscriptees.

Update: 22 August 2011

To The End Of The Land [Link]

a novel by David Grossman of a mother who tries to keep her son alive while he is at war by hiking the length of Israel, hoping that if she cannot be reached to be told of his death, he won't die.

Book Review

01 August 2011

Sin

The Logic Of Faith

"... As Christ hung on the cross being crucified, He cried out to the Father to forgive his persecutors. This sort of forgiveness isn't an act of forgetting or pretending that their sin didn't occur, it is ongoing as he made this plea, he was then being crucified. Rather, this sort of forgiveness feels, extremely keenly, the nails and the pains caused by our sin, but yet, even as Christ felt the excruciating effects of our sin, it is not a sedation of the experience of our sin or a deliberate amnesia, but it is the sort of forgiveness that acknowledges fully the realities of our sin and evil, and looking squarely at our fallen state while on the cross, says, "Yes, you are killing me, but that doesn't mean its over between us. I forgive you. I still love you."

Christ is saying here that His love can overcome the wrongs which we do, that his resources for love will never run out, that, it is strong to cope with our sin, to continue to build relationship with us, to create a future for us, despite our destructiveness. This sort of forgiveness is fully realistic about our sin and fallen nature. It looks at it fully, and says deliberately, yes, there can be a future relationship even after this, that your past, it will not impede my love, it will not cease my work of creating a new future for you.

And the Resurrection of Christ vindicates fully, that there is a future for us to have a relationship with God, despite us killing him, it cannot destroy his love, which returns to us from the empty tomb, and continues to forgive and love us.

This sort of forgiveness frees us to accept ourselves completely, without illusions and with wholeness. Guaranteed and assured by God's promise of a future, no matter our past, we are liberated from the need to explain or rewrite or forget our past, because we know that there will be a future, no matter what has happened.

This is also the sort of forgiveness that gives us hope, hope of a future, as God's forgiveness fully acknowledges and accepts our sinful past, and still promises that his love can create new dimensions to the relationship, new depths and new possibilities for the future. Which is why forgiveness is a matter of faith, a matter of belief, it is a trust that God can bring about a future, despite sin, and that he can continue to create and renew our relationship, despite the past. ..."

28 July 2011

争 霸 - 开 始 了

Hegamony - begins ...

'We do not wish to increase tensions with anyone, but we must let the world know we are ready to protect what is ours,' ... 'There was a time when we couldn't respond appropriately to threats in our own backyard. Now our message to the world is clear: What is ours is ours. Setting foot on Recto Bank is no different from setting foot on Recto Avenue.' - President Benigno Aquino [Link]



Rise of a regional military power?  - by Mr Red Bean

In his speech to the nation, Benigno Aquino III announced that he will increase the purchase of more weapons, including a patrol boat to defend the Spratley Islands. The Philippines will defend by force, in this case against China, and from his tones, will attack Chinese ships entering the area. China has to be careful of this rising military power and avoid sending its naval crafts as they will be attacked and probably sunk by the mighty Filipino Navy.

Aquino can talk loudly, while standing on the head of the Americans, waving the military treaty they have signed in the 1950s. While the Filipino patrol boats may be good only against fishing vessels, there lies, lurking in the dark and under the South China Sea, a mighty American fleet and submarines that are waiting for the Chinese ships. One can expect the Filipinos to fire at the Chinese fire to draw fire from the latter and the US jumping in to declare that China is bullying its smaller neighbours. And the White Knight will have all the reasons to flex its muscles and entrench their presence in the region.

The Americans may think that the Chinese will back .

Comment from a reader to the above blogger:

 ‎"...Call a spade a spade. China has come of age - this is nothing more than 争 霸 (domination by force) as mentioned by LKY. Don't talk about maps or history, if so even Singapore (Temasek) was reflected on admiral Cheng Ho's map! If this is the road China chose to take, there will be war. i fear for the chinese people who have make a home in nanyang, for we have lived peacefully with the "bumis" and now if china behaves like this and certain section of the chinese population turn their allegiance towards China at a time of highten conflict, this will bring grave consequence to the largely peaceful and loyal chinese descendants whom have called nanyang home and nationhood had been forged (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, etc)...." - Anon.

i do not know what the majority of Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, etc. think. If i imagine the worst, then we have failed in our nation building. If you declare yourself not yet a nation... then it leaves room to "capitulate", some space to manoeuvre, and wriggle yourself out of this. Will ASEAN disintegrate?  The "5 Power Defence Arrangement" cannot exist by then.

Or give in to China. Let her have her way and do whatever she fancy in this century. The chinese in south east asia can "plead" on behalf of the locals. China, on sentiments, as a 'big country', will not attack and annihilate the 'small countries' of the south east asian archipelagos.

America? She cannot even save herself. By then the US of A will have been torn apart and the American people betrayed by their very own elites...which they (the elites) will align with China's elite, because that is where the money is.

New World Order

What are we? To have a soul or just to survive ?

26 July 2011

Update 06 August 2011: We have to be decerning least we unintentionally harm the majority of Chinese people (in China) who desire peace.

China - The perpetual strawman for whacking

Comment from a reader of the above blog post.

 its not entirely true Mr Red bean. Moving into the 21th century, the lines between nation states are not quite as stark as compared to the cold war era. To keep a complex story short, it is about a faction of the USA against another faction of the Chinese communist, with lots of sub-plot and self-interest thrown in, messy stuff. These factions may not speak for the whole country, therefore citizens of either one. Governments of the 21th century see a weakening of their power vis a vis the super wealthy elites, aka The real players behind the scene. They move governments! Scary. My take is that China do not need to fight America...all they need to do is just cultivate the super rich Americans and they will eventually betray their own country and countrymen so as to preserved their wealth due to greed and align themselves with the right wing super rich of the chinese elite, and this in turn works for the interest of the chinese communist party. America will implode by itself. Sad. You know, we can say all the "bad things" about the western imperialist but the west was "naive" enough to believe in highfalutin ideals like democracy, one-man-one-vote, human rights, the rule of law, blah blah blah. Also, the fact that the western general public can move their government in a legit kind of way without having run over by T-72s speaks volume of the power balance equation, still giving a ray of hope in a rather pessimistic take of the 21th century. Singapore - for a tiny red dot, we are at ground zero.

There are many good people in China today, Chinese people with a conscience ...

Prof He Bin [Link]



06 August 2011

God & Slavery

Yawning Bread - Religiosity and income inequality hypothesis :

" ... It is not as mysterious as it may at first seem. It has long been observed that income inequality correlates with religiosity; the greater the inequality, the higher the degree of religiosity. Generally, the hypothesis is that those who are worse off economically seek succour in religion. It comforts them, it gives them hope that perhaps in the next life, things will be better. It gives them a sense of self-worth on the intangible values side to compensate for the humiliations they suffer on the material side (“I may be poorer than you, but I am a better person than you”). The name given to this explanation of the correlation is Deprivation Theory. The more deprived the bulk of the people are, the more unequal the society, the greater interest in religion.

A variant of the hypothesis incorporates a twist to it, known as Relative Power Theory: Income inequality correlates with religiosity because religion is also useful to the richer classes in maintaining their privileges. Consciously or unconsciously, the better-off classes use and propagate religion to inculcate acceptance among the lower-income of their inferior status. Religion tends to promote a fatalistic view of life, whether cast as “God’s plan” or “You’re not succeeding because you haven’t prayed hard enough”, thereby reducing popular demand for economic redistribution.  Additionally, the promotion of religion achieves buy-in by the lower-income classes of the conservative social values that religion often represents, thus channelling their vote-support towards rightwing parties which (surprise, surprise!) tend to champion free-market values — the very values that create and defend income inequality and oppose redistribution. The greater the inequality, the more the richer classes deploy religion to protect their interests. ..."

Slavery A Positive Good [Link]

"...  I hold then, that there never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other. Broad and general as is this assertion, it is fully borne out by history. This is not the proper occasion, but, if it were, it would not be difficult to trace the various devices by which the wealth of all civilized communities has been so unequally divided, and to show by what means so small a share has been allotted to those by whose labor it was produced, and so large a share given to the non-producing classes. The devices are almost innumerable, from the brute force and gross superstition of ancient times, to the subtle and artful fiscal contrivances of modern. ..." - John C. Calhoun (06 February 1837)

The Natural State Of Mankind is... freedom [Link]

Amistad

A Dramatic monologue by John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins): " ... This is a recent issue, and there’s an article in here written by a ‘keen mind of the South,’ who is my former Vice President, John Calhoun, perhaps, could it be? – who asserts that: ‘There has never existed a civilized society in which one segment did not thrive upon the labor of another. As far back as one chooses to look – to ancient times, to Biblical times – history bears this out. In Eden, where only two were created, even there, one was pronounced subordinate to the other. Slavery has always been with us and is neither sinful nor immoral. Rather, as war and antagonism are the natural states of man, so too, slavery, as natural as it is inevitable.’ Now, gentlemen, I must say I differ with the keen minds of the South, and with our President, who apparently shares their views, offering that the natural state of mankind is, instead – and I know this is a controversial idea – is freedom, is freedom. And the proof is the length to which a man, woman, or child will go to regain it, once taken. He will break loose his chains. He will decimate his enemies. He will try and try and try against all odds, against all prejudices, to get home. ... "

So what did God say about Slavery ? 

Some how, i shudder to know the truth. You lost all hope when you find that God is not on your side... but do we give up the fight ?  Or, Cannot be helped ?


25 July 2011

Sounds All Too Familiar

Peter Apps:

Britains love to lecture the world about integrity and the rule of law, but the News of the World phone hacking scandal has laid bare a web of collusion between money, power, media and the police.

Behind the façade of probity, London offers a haven for oligarchs and despots, a place where foreign media magnates have bought access to and influence over the govt….

In fact, it points to a bigger problem in British society – overly cosy relationships among elites that are ethically dangerous, even when they do not involve outright criminality….

“It is ….often a more sophisticated form of high level political corruption. It may not be strictly illegal – or it may be more subtle – but that does not mean it is not very costly for society or the economy,” said Dr Kaufmann, a former director of the World Bank Institute….If unchecked, “elite capture” of political systems can become “privatization of public policy”….

Transparency International published a report earlier this month titled Britain: More Corrupt than You Think, showing that the majority of people believed corruption was worsening in the country….”The long term result is likely to be a further erosion in the credibility of the British establishment, particularly the media and the police, in the eyes of the citizens.”

22 July 2011

Hard Truths ( like that also can ? ! )

Low Budget, no colour version... (not starring Tony Leung)

What went wrong? People with real grievances...

18 July 2011