life is sacred

...life is not made sacred by going to a place of worship; life already is sacred and that is why it moves to a place of worship.

- Ravi Zacharias.

hangman part II

Few Aussies against Nguyen hanging, says addict's dad

AN AUSTRALIAN whose 40-year-old son and daughter-in-law are drug addicts has e-mailed Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo supporting Singapore's decision to hang Nguyen Tuong Van on Friday.

The man, who asked to remain anonymous, described the anguish his family faced due to his son's drug habit, and expressed anger at those who showed sympathy for drug peddlers like Nguyen.

His e-mail, coming amid criticism from human rights and other activists, suggests ordinary Australians hold a different view and back Singapore.


The writer said as much: 'Most of the objections are coming from people who obviously have never had to go through, and continue to live with, the devastation that drugs cause to thousands of people in this country.'

Describing his son's addiction as a 'curse' and a 'nightmare', he said he took his son and daughter-in-law into his home for four years to provide stability and prevent their four children from being taken away by social services.

'It was the most emotionally draining four years of our lives. I have had the heartbreaking experience of dragging my son from our toilet with a needle in his arm, and he had stopped breathing. If it hadn't been for his wife knowing what to do, he would have died.

'Unless anyone has experienced this, they would not know what it is like to worry yourself sick every time your child goes to the toilet, is late home from wherever, or your grandchildren don't know where their parents are.'

He also criticised proposals for a minute's silence when Nguyen is executed: 'I travel extensively around Western Australia and I can tell you I have not met one single person who believes this man should not be hanged for his crime.

'If politicians proposing this ... think for one minute the majority of Australians agree with their thinking, they had better get out into the real world and listen to the people.'

He believed few Australians disagreed with the execution decision and few would be observing a minute's silence.

- AsiaOne, 30 Nov 2005.

After reading this article, I searched around Google trying to see what's the general response for the hanging of Nguyen.

Herald Sun
Should Singapore execute Tuong Van Nguyen for drug trafficking? (Nov 18)

Yes: 1024 (53.2%)
No: 898 (46.8%)

Think Centre
Death Sentence for Nguyen Tuong Van is cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment, for a non-violent crime like drug possession.

Commute death sentence: 1
COMMUTE to life sentence: 120
NO to death sentence: 295
YES to death sentence: 102

Interactive Opinions
Should the Singapore government allow physical contact between Nguyen Tuong Van and his mother before his execution on Friday?
Yes: 88%
No: 13%
Don't know: 0%

Will you boycott Singaporian products and services in protest against the Singapore governments planned execution (by hanging) of Australian man, Nguyen Tuong Van?
Yes: 24%
No: 66%
Don't know: 10%

AsiaOne
Do you think the planned execution of an Australian drug-trafficker will affect Singapore?
Yes: 21.0%
No: 54.2%
Only time will tell: 19.5%

If the 'Herald Sun' and 'Interactive Opinions' represents the majority of Australians out there, seems that the hanging of Nguyen is not much of an issue to them.

Like Chicken Little, I believe in second chances too. But too bad he had committed such a crime in Singapore that he has not much of a chance to survive. It would take a miracle for him to escape the noose.

the perfect Mee Pok Man

Finding the perfect Mee Pok Man

My brief was to be a fussy customer and check out what kind of sterling service you can get from foodstall holders who are on their feet more than 10 hours a day, seven days a week. I chose four mee pok stalls featured in local food guide Makansutra and the newspapers, and at each, I adopted a different persona. At one, I confronted the stall holder about his dirty trays. At another, I pretended not to understand Mandarin while ordering from two hawkers who could speak nothing but Mandarin. My aim was to be a pain, the customer from hell. This is what happened.

Stall #1: Ang Mo Kio
Who I was: I put on my best manners and ask for noodles in perfect English.

Service standards: Weekday. Noon. A bad time to be a fusspot. The stall assistant is not the friendliest.

I order. 'Mee pok, a little chilli, packet.'

The cook starts to cook my noodles and pours in vinegar for flavouring.

'No vinegar please,' I cry out in mock alarm.

The assistant replies gruffly in Hokkien: 'Xiao liao lah' and mumbles something to the cook. I later discover it means 'already gone crazy'.

Cook dumps the vinegar and assistant hands me my noodles. No 'thank you'.

Five minutes later, I return to the stall. 'I want to eat my noodles here. Can you help me, please?'

Assistant cries out: 'You ah' and mutters to the cook that I have changed my mind.

His sentence ends with 'mati liao' or 'die already'. He hands me a bowl and walks off.

Stall #2: Upper Cross Street
Who I was: Office worker spouting Hokkien-accented Mandarin.

Service standards: A young woman fronts the stall and is one of the few hawkers who does not wear a grumpy frown.

I order. She nods. And prepares the noodles.

I ask for more bean sprouts. She doesn't use them, she replies.

I say: 'No vinegar then.'

'Orgh' is her reply, signalling she has heard me.

The customer behind orders mee gia or thin noodles.

I immediately say: 'You got mee gia, can you give me mee gia instead?'

She complies right away. As the cook prepares my noodles and adds what looks like soya sauce, I tell him not to add any vinegar.

He grunts: 'This is not vinegar.'

My noodles are served on a dirty tray and I complain.

The cook retorts: 'This is lunchtime, we don't have enough manpower to clean the trays.'

I shoot back: 'But don't you know that hygiene and cleanliness is very important in the food business.'

The cook keeps mum. His assistant looks nervous.

She hands me my noodles with a thank you. I appreciate the gesture. Few hawkers here bother to thank you for keeping them in business.

Stall #3: Toa Payoh Central
Who I was: A youth who can't understand a word of Mandarin.

Service standards: The cook says hello as I approach.

I ask for a bowl of mee pok with more chilli please.

As the cook pours vinegar, I say I don't want any. She nods and reaches for a fresh bowl.

As she's preparing the ingredients, I say: 'No pork, please.'

She gestures to the fishcake and mushrooms and I nod.

Ten minutes after I get my mee pok, I return to complain loudly in English: 'It's too hot!'

Cook and assistant look at each other blankly, obviously not understanding.
A customer translates.

The assistant exclaims angrily in Mandarin: 'She said she wanted more chilli at first, now she complains it's too hot.'

Even Ms Friendly Cook shakes her head in disappointment. She dumps my noodles and prepares a fresh bowl, and plonks the sambal chilli on the side instead.

Her assistant hands me my noodles with a glare. Wow, that's one chilli padi.

As I wolf down my noodles, she walks past and glares again. And a third time. Scary!

Stall #4: Another outlet in Upper Cross Street
Who I was: Cocky customer nattering in Mandarin and Hokkien

Service standards: This stall was singled out by Makansutra as one of the country's 'legendary' stalls . So if the food's legendary, how about the service?

A stern-looking helper in her 50s takes the orders.

I order. She says: 'We don't put bean sprouts in our noodles.'

I say: 'Okay, but go easy on the vinegar.'

Thirty seconds later, I say: 'Oh, and I don't want any pork oil or fats in my noodles.'

She maintains her poker face. She breaks into a faint smile when I comment that business is good.

But no 'thank you' when I pay.

- Straits Times, 29 Nov 2005.

the economist

I didn't know the people at The Economist are such creative and humorous bunch! Haaaa! Anyway there are many things I do not know. Found these ads on Abdul Rehman's site.

truck art

More painted trucks at Rhino.

moved to eBay

books

My father-in-law and I often spoke wistfully about fine used bookstores that we have visited. He told one story, however, that has all the others soundly beaten.

He was in a sophisticated bookstore in Toronto that caters to the academic community, a bookstore rich in classical tradition. Suddenly, in came a roughshod man in greasy overalls, who bellowed to the owner, "How much does it cost to buy 128 feet of books?"

Obviously bewildered by this request, for never before had he sold scholarly works by the foot, the owner replied, "Uh… what exactly did you have in mind?" Meanwhile every customer within earshot had paused from reading, ears pinned for some new enlightenment.

It turns out the buyer had been sent by a group of trade union leaders who were hosting their educated counterparts in management in an effort to break a deadlock in some highly volatile negotiations. So, the union leaders decided to decorate their offices with the length of books. Why? To convey the intimidating air of being ideological heavyweights, and to terrify the opposition!

Funny I think. Don't you?

- Ravi Zacharias

in a world of my own

That's me practising MCQ questions for the exam in 11 days time. Fenfen must have thought that I look rather cool in this posture. Haaa.

mixed feelings

Regatta Race 2005

Was having mixed feelings when I heard that our dragonboat team came in third placing. Glad that the team's hard work and coach's teaching are not gone down to waste as we managed to get at least a medal after this seaon's of rowing and training. At long last! The sad part was I wasn't rowing for the team due to my lack of commitment for the practises.

Hopefully we can get a gold medal for next year's race. All the way!

weird dreams

Recently I've been having some really weird dreams. Not long ago, I dreamt of my ex-worship director chatting with me in church. That was really strange cos I hardly had any proper conversation with him. Not long after that, my ex-Pastor came up to me for a chat. I could remember we had a good laugh over something as we wore smiles on our faces throughout the conversation. I think I woke up feeling pretty good. Perhaps I miss them.

Just last night I had a dream that I was walking rather aimlessly in a huge hall and trying to figure out where I was. I went and check out several doors but found no one inside. I felt like Alice in that Wonderland. Somehow somewhere and something happened in that whole hall and I was holding my own head in my hands. Seems that my head got chopped off or something.

Next I was in a place where I saw people doing dangerous stunts with motorbikes. Soon, I was in the midst of some discussion on how to do the next shot: getting my head chopped off or something. Can't remember what took place and it seems to flow really fast so before I knew it, my head was in my hands! I was holding my own head and examining it. Quite fascinating and amazing. An idea struck me: I want to take a picture of my head with my camera phone and blog it!

When I woke up, I was quite amused with myself for wanting to blog about my decapitated head. Haaa.

an unusual carpenter

A Christian teacher once visited a secondary school in one of England's cities. It was at Christmas time; so he thought it appropriate to remind the young people at the assembly about the most wonderful story ever told, the story of the birth of Christ.

The pupils were remarkably attentive and seemed to enjoy his account of the dramatic virgin birth. Afterwards a boy of about twelve came to say how much he had enjoyed the story.

To the teacher's shock he said that he had never heard it before and had a question about it: "Why did Jesus' parents give him the name of a swear word?"

wrong job

Getting fired is nature's way of telling you that you had the wrong job in the first place.

- Hal Lancaster, reporter.

springtime

that's my brand

I'm anti-racism, anti-sexism and everything else. But I'll always tell the truth without exception. That's my brand.

- Neil French, who said his 'woman are crap' remark was taken out of context.

demand for chinese language

Demand for Chinese language courses in US soars

WASHINGTON : From well-to-do families hiring Mandarin-speaking nannies for their tots to students in crammed Asian studies programmes, demand for Chinese language instruction is booming like never before in the United States.

In a country that has never prioritised teaching foreign languages, demand is difficult to meet given a serious shortage of qualified instructors, said Michael Levine, who handles education at the New York-based Asia Society, which works to support cultural ties between the United States and Asia.

Clifford Greenhouse, who runs the Pavillion agency specialising in household help, said he gets more and more requests from "very wealthy families" seeking nannies who speak Mandarin, in the hopes their offpring will grow up bilingual. He can't always deliver.

"Mandarin-speaking people in New York tend to look down upon this work; they see it as being a servant," he said.

Leon Furchgott, 17, a freshman at prestigious Princeton University, grew up eating Chinese - from the age of 10 months throughout his childhood in Bethesda, Maryland, an expensive Washington suburb.

"My mother likes to say that my first word was 'bu yao', which means 'I don't want,'" said Furchgott, who now speaks fluent Mandarin thanks to nannies and two hours of Chinese classes per week.

"When I was little, it was not difficult," he said.

Though Chinese has not yet reached the ranks of more traditional foreign languages, it is red hot in Pacific coast cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles.

But it also has seen a surge in interest in cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston, and in more rural states such as Kentucky and Kansas, the Asia Society says.

The interest is "coming from the heartland as well as from the big cities," said Levine. He said that behind the focus on Chinese was interest in doing business with China.

"Part of the demand comes from families who want to maintain their heritage, but in Chicago it comes from middle class families who see that as an advantage for their children", said Levine. "That's why demand is growing so rapidly."

Just about 50,000 US students are learning Chinese in public schools, and another 50,000 are studying it elsewhere, according to Asia Today.

"If we wanted to have five percent of all high schoolers in America learning Chinese, we'd need to have 25,000 qualified Chinese teachers" and not the current 1,000, Levine said.

To help deal with the teacher shortage, US philanthropists and corporate foundations are beginning to chip in to support instruction in Chinese, he noted.

At the university level as well, demand for Chinese instruction is on the rise; it is now in seventh place among foreign languages behind Spanish, French, German, Italian, sign language, and Japanese. It places ahead of Russian and Arabic in terms of post-secondary students.

The latest data, from 2002, showed 34,153 university students were learning Chinese, up a sharp 20 percent from 28,456 in 1998.

At Yale, beginner Chinese class enrolment soared by 68 percent at the start of the school year compared to last year.

The Modern Language Association sees Chinese as the "new Russian" referring to the Cold war period when campuses saw higher interest in Russian language coursework. That interest since has waned.

- Channel NewsAsia, 20 Nov 2005.

mental dih-TRYE-tus

detritus \dih-TRYE-tus\ noun
1 : loose material (as rock fragments or organic particles) that results directly from disintegration
2 a : a product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away : debris *b : miscellaneous remnants : odds and ends


The blog originated ... as a catch basin for mental detritus, for the kind of stuff not good enough for print, but too good to waste on casual conversation.

- Joel Achenbach, The Washington Post, 21 Aug 2005.

getting weaker

For these two weeks, I'm going to gym more often to get myself prepared for the Regatta race. I haven't been down for dragonboat practise for many weeks and I hope that I don't drag my team down. Can't be help as I wish to spend more time on my studying and dragonboat is just for leisure.

As I haven't been going to gym as often, I get tired out very easily. Usually I can still do a cardio exercise after sets of pumping iron but now I have to do my cardio before doing sets. Got to train on my stamina to last during the race.

I used to be quite concern about how my body looks but not anymore. Keeping fit is more important than the looks. Getting 200 bucks for passing my IPPT with Silver is better than looking like a beefcake. Not as if I'm going for some manhunt contest or model shoots. Anyway what are the chances of a pretty girl noticing how good I look on the inside?


'Hey, wanna check out some great abs over here?' *starts to exhibit my hard abs while gritting my teeth*

noodle venture

S'porean's noodle stall to open in London

Chicken rice, other local favourites to feature in S'pore-style foodcourt

NOODLE stall operator Stella Wong had never thought about going to London, for work or leisure. But when she was invited by British property developer Rosewheel to open a stall in the Singapore-style foodcourt it is building in London's Chinatown, she leapt at the chance.

'Although I have just three stalls, since the opportunity came knocking, I thought I will give it a try,' the 36-year-old said in Mandarin. Her three Singapore stalls are at Suntec City, West Mall and IMM Building.

She plans to be in London in the first three months to oversee the opening of her handmade noodle stall. Once the business is up and running, she plans to return to Singapore and hire staff in London to look after the stall.

'If it is successful, well and good. If not, I shall just take it as a learning experience.'

Miss Wong is one of three Singaporean food vendors who have rented a total of five stalls in the foodcourt. Select Food Management and Lerk Thai, which are under the same management team, will take up one unit each, offering Thai food and Chinese mixed rice. Gourmet Cuisine is taking up two stalls for hot plate dishes and Hainanese chicken rice.

Rosewheel managing director Robert Borne fell in love with Singapore's foodcourts when he visited earlier this year and wanted to import the concept to London. He hired former Kopitiam employee Ellen Chew to advise on the construction of the foodcourt and to woo local operators over.

Select and Lerk Thai executive director Jack Tan said he had never thought of expanding beyond the region because he had few contacts. But Rosewheel provided an opening. He estimates his investment to be $100,000.

The foodcourt is the centrepiece of Rosewheel's £50 million (S$145 million) revamp of the five-storey Newport Sandringham building. It will occupy a third of the 80,000 sq ft shopping mall. It is expected to be open by March next year, with 18 food stalls over three levels, and seating for up to 400, said Rosewheel spokesman Horatio Cheng.

He estimates up to 15 of the stalls will be run by Singaporean operators. 'We want to offer something that is different from the normal London menu.'

Singaporean food and beverage companies' forays overseas have been on the rise in recent years, said Mrs Tan Li Lin, director of the lifestyle and business services division of IE Singapore, the government agency that helps local companies expand overseas.

However, most ventures are into regional markets such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan and South Korea. So Mrs Tan was pleased with the Europe move.

'Singapore's reputation as a food paradise is well known,' she said. 'We hope more Singapore-based companies will use this reputation to propel themselves into established markets, including European countries.'

- Straits Times, 18 Nov 2005.

kiddie rides

Mcdonald at Great World City

Decided to take this photo when I realised that I could capture the nostalgic picture of a child in a airplane kiddie ride on the wall and a kiddie ride in the background. Such a contrast.

Later on, while fenfen and I was there, I also noticed a pair of young American children playing with the kiddie ride. They appear to look like sisters and their mum was not in sight. Though it was not moving, they still had tons of fun with it. They simply climbed on top of it!

If the kids are Singaporeans, the most probable reaction from their parents would be to tell them to come down right now and smack a few times on their butt or something.

What happens if I'm playing with the kiddie ride when I was young?



I would sit quietly in it and wait for my parents to slot a coin in.



Seems that the developer wants to make the toilets a bit more special so they decided to have themes for toilets on different levels. One of the theme is the Safari. Interesting.


What?! I just peed into the gorilla's mouth????

WCG 2005

700 gamers to do battle for share of $744,000 pot

STARTING today, 700 gamers from 67 countries will begin the battle of their lives as they attempt to race, kick and shoot their way to glory and a share of the US$435,000 (S$744,285) prize pool at the World Cyber Games grand finals.

The world's largest computer games tournament and digital entertainment festival opened with a bang yesterday at the Suntec Convention Centre.

Considered the olympics of cybergaming, the tournament will see more than 1,000 matches played over the next four days in the eight official games, which include popular strategy games StarCraft: Brood War and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, as well as renowned shooting game CounterStrike: Source.

Officially opened amid a blaze of pyrotechnics by Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan, the event will also feature cultural performances such as a hip-hop dance competition and trade events like the WCG 2005 Game Conference for games developers.

The games are expected to generate more than $53.5 million in tourism revenue.
Fans of South Korean star gamers have flown here to support their idols. South Korea, known for its top cybergamers, is fielding a team of 26, the largest national team this year.

Other star gamers include the world's number one WarCraft III player, 19-year-old Dutchman Manuel Schenkhuizen, and the United States' most decorated CounterStrike team, Team 3D, which earns so much in sponsorship they can afford to fly business class to international competitions.

Top Chinese CounterStrike team, wNv, are attempting a comeback after their disqualification for cheating in the Cyberathlete Professional League world tour CounterStrike tournament held here last month.
In his opening address, Dr Balakrishnan said the cyberathletes would 'display the many winning qualities of sportsmen, such as dexterity, determination, exceptional sensory coordination, decisiveness and team-spiritedness'.

Said the minister: 'The number of professional gamers in Singapore is growing. Some of them will compete alongside the world's best in this competition and that will go some way in helping us achieve our vision of developing Singapore as a hub for the games industry.

'We are already home to major digital entertainment studios like Koei, Genki and Lucasfilm where Singapore creations will be made for global consumption.

'We hope in the next few years, you will be playing some of our very own games in international gaming tournaments.'

- Straits Times, 17 Nov 2005.

Maybe we can come up with our very own Phu Chu Kang game!!!

naruto drawing

Saw this cool picture in friendster. Absolutely cool. Wish I could have that kind of hair, man.

childless couples

Singapore's childless couples come to India

Singapore, Nov 15 -- A ban on surrogate motherhood in Singapore is driving childless couples overseas to rent wombs - in India, the US and Russia, doctors said in a published report Tuesday.

Cheng Li Chang, medical director of the Thomson Fertility Centre, told The Straits Times that he has seen several patients going abroad.

He cited an Indonesian couple in their early 30s. The wife was not able to conceive, but they found a surrogate mother in the US and are now the proud parents of a child.

Ministry of Health guidelines forbid assisted reproduction clinics in Singapore from carrying out surrogacy procedures.

In another case, a childless couple in Singapore searched the Internet for a surrogate mother. They found a fertility physician at the Dr. L.H. Hiranandani Centre for Human Reproduction in Mumbai.

The surrogate mother is now more than nine weeks' pregnant with a foetus conceived from the man's sperm and his wife's egg. The woman carrying the child will be paid 5,850 Singapore dollars (US $3,461) for carrying the pregnancy to full term, with all her medical expenses covered.

The couple, in their mid-30s, had tried in-vitro fertilisation five times in Singapore without success.

Halimah Yacob, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, warned of several complications with surrogacy.

"It may sound easy just to get a surrogate mum and then implant fertilised eggs in her," she was quoted as saying. "But any woman who has carried a baby to full term will form strong emotional bonds with it."

A gynaecologist told the newspaper about a woman who wanted a child and had no medical problems, but refused to become pregnant.

The woman, a professional in her 30s, was seeking to rent a womb because she "wanted to enjoy life", he said.

- Hindustan Times, 15 Oct 2005.

If I could choose my Member of Parliament

My vote goes to Arnold!

He's tall, beefy and suave. Okay, he might have gotten old and slacken with his body building but he still looks good in suits.

I like his cheesy lines in his movies. I'm sure kids, women and beefcakes would agree with me that he would make a good MP in Singapore. He is such a good role model for us to emulate. He fights terrorist. With his bare hands!

"Hasta la vista, baby"

outsourcing

What a great idea to cut costs!

christmas tree

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) building

My favourite holiday of the year is coming.

I think I should be spending much lesser on christmas presents compared to last year since most of my church friends have left...haiz.

it's 3:03am

The Night Rider bus is taking me home...

There are unbelievably many cabs on Orchard Road at this hour. If you want to do a taxi drivers consensus whatever, NOW IS THE TIME! Just closed your eyes and throw a stone, you'll definitely hit a taxi. A slight hand movement to scratch your head can cause the oncoming taxi to stop for you. Even standing by the road can cause the cabs to slow down for you.

All the cabs out there in Orchard Road desperately wants a passenger.

changing church

Those who are considering changing church can try visiting this Lego Church. No church politics, different doctrines, loud worship, boring hymnals, dry sermons or pretenses. Nobody falls asleep in there! Just that the congregation are very plastics and you might have a problem fitting in because the church is so so small.

Looks very peaceful indeed.

hangman

Singapore known as Asia's hangman

SINGAPORE, Nov 4 AAP - When the Changi Prison executioner loops a noose around the neck of Australian Nguyen Tuong Van, Singapore will be living up to its reputation as the hangman of Asia.

The tightly controlled city-state - governed uninterrupted by the People's Action Party since 1959 - is ranked by human rights group Amnesty International as having the world's highest per capita execution rate.

Between 1991 and 2000, 340 people were hanged in Singapore, according to official figures.

Some years are busier than others. For example, 50 people were hanged in 1996, meaning the gallows were used almost once a week.

Death sentences in Singapore are mostly imposed for drug trafficking, such as in Nguyen's case.

But it's also handed down for murder, kidnapping and some firearms offences.
Tradition dictates that hangings are always set for the early hours of a Friday.
Although criticised abroad, Singapore's tough capital punishment policy is broadly supported at home.

Opinion polls periodically show hanging is backed by around seven out of ten Singaporeans.

But there are a handful of people who disagree.

"Drug addiction cannot be solved by hanging a few people, and these are normally the small-timers ... not the masterminds," said human rights activist Sinapan Samydorai.
Sinapan, a spokesman for the group, Think Centre, is one of a few dozen people set to protest against Nguyen's impending death at a rare vigil planned for Monday.
Melbourne salesman Nguyen, 25, was arrested at Changi Airport in 2002 as he was about to board a flight to Australia.

He was carrying 396 grams of heroin; enough, Singapore authorities say, for 26,000 individual doses.

The final avenue for appeal appeared to have been exhausted.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has received a letter from his Singapore counterpart, George Yeo, rejecting any last-minute bid for clemency.

The city-state has a responsibility to prevent Singapore from becoming a conduit for the trafficking of illicit drugs, Yeo's letter to Downer said.

It added that the final decision to take Nguyen's life was debated by cabinet and had not been taken lightly.

Singapore argues that the noose has helped keep it safe from serious crime, especially drug trafficking.

"The Singapore government makes no apology for its tough law and order system," the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a written defence last year of capital punishment.
"The death penalty is a just punishment for those who knowingly and intentionally commit serious crimes, which threaten the lives of others," the document said.

"The death penalty, because of its finality, is more feared than imprisonment as a punishment."

Most of those hanged are Singapore citizens, and the majority are condemned for drug-related crimes.

But official figures also show that the system is more likely to be used against the jobless or low-skilled.

According to the 2004 document, Singapore executed 138 people in the five years to 2003.

Of those 37, or one-quarter, were foreigners.

This figure tallies almost exactly with the proportion of non-Singapore nationals who are resident in the city-state.

Of the same group of 138, one hundred and ten were executed for drug-related offences.

And over the ten years to 2003, fifty one per cent of those hanged were either unemployed or working as unskilled workers, labourers or cleaners.

In the same period, 64 per cent of those hanged were either educated only to primary school level or had no schooling.

Opponents of the death penalty fire back that executions do not make Singapore safer, and violate what they regard as a sacrosanct right to life.

On it website this week, Singapore's Think Centre asked: "If this inhumane practice is really a deterrent, how come we after 40 years of executions still have the highest per capita execution rate in the world with the greatest known proportion of these executions small-time drug mules?"

As Nguyen is a foreigner, the authorities will inform his next of kin and the Australian High Commission of the chosen date between seven and 14 days in advance compared with the four days notice usually allowed for locals.

Nguyen will then be allowed visits from relatives of up to four hours during his final few days.

His execution will be witnessed by a doctor and his body will be handed back to his family.

- Australian Associated Press General News, 4 Nov 2005.

I was early

I was early in Suntec City today. So early that most of the shops were not even open yet. It was quiet and different from the busy weekend when I'm usually there so I decided to snap the sleepy look of Suntec.


*Yawnzzzz. Morning...*


*AAAAAAAHHHHHH! I haven't put on my make-up yet! Come back later. Shoo. Shoo.*


Was there to do my studying because my exam is due in about a month's time. Can't wait for it to be over.

hubba hubba

Spotted this "hot air balloon" at Ad Hunt.

saw 2

What a branded saw I saw at the Spunker!! I can imagine using it as the prop for the movie, Saw II and having Paris Hilton as the lead cast.

some parts are missing

I got this magnet from my colleague who was sent to Sydney for training.

can't sleep

is it worth it? YES!

Is it worth it?

Despite all denials of truth as a category, people still hunger for it and the real question that haunts us is not whether truth exists, but whether it is worth it at all.

On August 7, 1961, a twenty-six year old Soviet cosmonaut named Gherman Titov became the second Soviet to orbit the earth and return safely. Some time later he recounted his experience while speaking at the World's Fair. In triumphalistic tones Titov declared that on his excursion into space, he looked for God but didn't find him. Someone humorously quipped, "Had he stepped out of his spacecraft, he certainly would have." Titov, of course, had moved beyond the discipline of technological gain to draw theological blood. One great step for science became an immensely greater leap in philosophy.

Years later on Christmas day, 1968, three American astronauts were the first human beings to go around the "dark" side of the moon. They saw earth rise over the horizon of the moon draped in a beauteous mixture of blue and white, garlanded by the glistening light of the sun against the black void of space. Captured by the awe of the moment, they echoed the only words that seemed fitting. Those words were from the first line of the bible: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…"

Two similar experiences of awe and splendor, yielding two diametrically opposed conclusions. These two incidents carried off into space the most debated question on earth: Does God exist? The answer to that question has a greater bearing on your life than anything else. Personal and national destinies are inextricably bound to this issue. Our entire human frame of moral reference is determined by whether or not God exists. Our purpose in life is determined by that, whether we are here by design or whether we are the accidental collocation of atoms. Who we are and why we exist logically flows from the question of God’s existence.

The question, therefore, is not whether the pursuit of truth is worth it or not, for it is the only thing that is ultimately worth it. Winston Churchill said the most valuable thing in the world is the truth; so valuable that it has often been barricaded by a bodyguard of lies. But we might ask, "What's wrong with a lie?" For one, we would think it is morally wrong, would we not? But how can we be morally wrong unless this is a moral universe? And how can this be a moral universe unless it is created by God? The intelligibility in this universe and the immense capacity of the moral law point us to God.

What is more, we don't have to go into outer space to find Him. He comes to you in your inner space, the inner space of your life. Jesus said, "If any man comes to me, I will in no wise cast him out." In knowing Him, you find truth and life. That is worth it.

- Ravi Zacharias, 1 Nov 2005.

how Eskimos build their homes

harley

freaky hands

bark like a dog

hooked online

Leg Arteries

Tiny Razor Cleans Out Leg Arteries

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Doctors using a razor the size of a grain of rice are shearing ribbons of yellowish sludge from inside clogged leg arteries. It's the latest therapy for a hard-to-treat disease that slowly chokes off blood flow in millions of people's legs.

And the shavings it extracts are more than icky evidence of illness: A drug giant is buying this plaque for research on how to keep arteries from clogging in the first place.

Peripheral artery disease, or PAD, afflicts at least 12 million Americans as their leg arteries stiffen and narrow. Eventually, the lack of blood flow to muscles causes an aching pain while walking, called claudication. In severe cases, patients can hobble no more than a block or two.

Worse, PAD leads to about 150,000 amputations a year as arteries become completely blocked.

More than mobility is at stake: Having PAD increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke sevenfold - if leg arteries are clogged, other blood vessels almost certainly are, too.

Yet trouble walking often is wrongly considered a sign of aging instead of disease, meaning too few patients seek help early.

Clogged legs can be harder to alleviate than clogged heart arteries. Balloons threaded inside arteries, called angioplasty, to push aside the plaque and the use of scaffolding-like metal stents to hold arteries open don't work as well in the legs, where "restenosis" or reblockage with scar tissue or new plaque can occur quickly. The final option is a leg bypass, open surgery to reroute blood flow around the blockages.

Two new technologies offer the hope of better alternatives:

-The tiny razor, called the SilverHawk, is threaded in a catheter through patients' arteries to the blockages. Then the blade emerges and begins shaving; plaque collects in the device's tip for extraction.

In a registry tracking 335 patients for a year so far, 79 percent have needed no further treatment of the shaved-out areas, lead researcher Dr. Roger Gammon of Austin, Texas, announced at a major heart meeting last month. The razor even is credited with saving some particularly severe patients from imminent amputation.

-Cryoplasty is essentially an angioplasty on ice. Doctors inflate the angioplasty balloon with freezing nitrous oxide, better known as laughing gas. The cold is thought to inhibit cells in the artery wall from forming scar tissue, as well as make the plaque easier to push aside.

A study tracking 102 patients found that almost three years after their cryoplasty, 73.5 percent needed no further treatment - blood is still flowing well through treated areas, Dr. John Laird of the Washington Hospital Center reported at last month's Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting.

Neither option has been directly compared to older treatments to prove how long the effects last, cautions Dr. William Gray, a PAD specialist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

"Both of these devices are promising. The kicker is long-term durability," Gray says.

More intriguing, pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. is buying some SilverHawk patients' extracted plaque, in a $9 million contract with razor manufacturer FoxHollow Technologies that, if the collaboration pans out, could generate up to $31 million more.

Why? Cholesterol and blood pressure are among the risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but they're not the only determinants: Some heart attack sufferers seem healthy right until they're stricken. Understanding what causes different kinds of plaque to form, at a genetic level, could lead to better ways to prevent atherosclerosis, whether it occurs in the legs or the heart arteries.

Plaques "are tissue deposits that have their own little biological drivers," explains FoxHollow founder Dr. John Simpson, a California cardiologist.

In addition, Merck sees the potential of recruiting SilverHawk patients for drug studies - allowing analysis of plaque removed from one leg before taking a medication and from the other leg after taking it, to see if a drug directly affects the buildup.

"This is a real opportunity to advance the science of understanding plaque biology," says Dr. Richard Pasternak, Merck's vice president of clinical research.

- AsiaOne, 31 Oct 2005.