teamwork

toys

8,000 toys for kids in tsunami-hit countries

AFTER opening up their wallets to help those affected by the tsunami over a year ago, members of the public have again shown that they care - this time by donating more than 8,000 soft toys.

The soft toys were collected in a Singapore Red Cross (SRC) event, Share Joy, Bring A Toy, in just five days - from Dec 26 to 30 last year - at the tsunami photo exhibition in Tampines.

These were sorted yesterday by SRC volunteers and will be dry-cleaned free by laundrette Crusade Services before they go to non-governmental groups and voluntary welfare organisations for distribution to children in tsunami-affected areas of Aceh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Accompanying the toys are notes of encouragement, penned by the children who donated them.

- Straits Times, 23 Jan 2006.

I think the people over in tsunami-affected areas need their shelter and food more than toys.

We live by faith, not by sight.

The Evidence of Faith

The fields were parched and brown from lack of rain, and the crops lay wilting from thirst. People were anxious and irritable as they searched the sky for any sign of relief. Days turned into arid weeks. No rain came.

The ministers of the local churches called for an hour of prayer on the town square the following Saturday. They requested that everyone bring an object of faith for inspiration.

At high noon on the appointed Saturday the towns-people turned out en masse, filling the square with anxious faces and hopeful hearts. The ministers were touched to see the variety of objects clutched in prayerful hands – holy books, crosses, rosaries.

When the hour ended, as if on magical command, a soft rain began to fall. Cheers swept the crowd as they held their treasured objects high in gratitude and praise. From the middle of the crowd one faith symbol seemed to overshadow all the others: A small nine-year-old child had brought an umbrella.

- Laverne W. Hall

a worshipper

some say this, some say that; nobody says this, everybody says that. HE SAYS THIS!

some say tok more
some say dun tok so much,

some say scold them
some say dun scold them,

some say explain the song
some say leave the preaching to preacher

some say sing new songs
some say dun sing new songs

some say sing rock
some say sing jazz
some say sing pop
some say sing blues

some say sing in C
some say sing in A,

some say too high
some say too low,

some say bright colours too distracting
some say somber colours too boring,

some say dress more formal
some say look casual,

some say play more
some say you play too much

some say play louder
some say play softer

some say keep it simple
some say its boring

some say this
some say that

nobody says i'll choose to worship God
everybody says be perfect and I'll worship God

nobody says i'll choose to worship God
everybody says i'll worship if you sing my favourite song

nobody says i'll choose to worship God
everybody says i'll worship if you sing it in my style

nobody says thank you
everybody says you should have done better

He says He has a plan, a special plan, a loving plan

He says i should please Him, not men

He says just worship me

and He's got the last say.

- princess_soaps

there's something about christmas

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

- Charles Dickens

pillows

Pillow talk

PILLOWS are essential for a good night's sleep. Top-tier hotels keep a wide range to suit the various preferences of guests.

The choices available on request extend beyond the regular foam, feather and polyester. They come in a variety of sizes too.

Here is a list of pillows offered by the Shangri-La Hotel and Swissotel Merchant Court:

Bolster pillow: long and cylindrical to conform to the shape of the body

Natural buckwheat hull pillow: made of cleaned and processed hulls, it helps relieve tense muscles and ease back and neck pain

Contour pillow: made of natural latex and contoured to fit the shape of the head

Snore reduction pillow: made of polyester fibres, it keeps the head and neck aligned to prevent snoring

Herbee pillow: filled with polyester and a mixture of herbs, including lavender, rose petals, oregano, rosemary, peppermint, sage, marigold and lemon verbena

Linear gravity pillow: filled with blended fibres, it reduces stress and muscle tension in the neck

Cherry stone thermal pillow: filled with cherry stones, this pillow helps to alleviate stiffness in shoulders, soreness in the back and general aches.

- Straits Times, 20 Dec 2005.

frosty the snowman

Fenfen and I had started making some bookmarks as christmas presents. Was quite impress with the bookmarks I came up with! I like it! :P

national hero

Requiem: Devan Nair speaks out, March 26, 1999

A serious threat of closure faces the Worker's Party led by Mr. J. B. Jeyaretnam because of failure to pay the forbidding damages awarded against the Party by a court in Singapore. One hopes against hope that this might be avoided at the last minute. It is a slim hope. The world has come to assume, rightly or wrongly, that the political tactics used by the PAP against opposition politicians have for some time come to include suing their pants off, forcing them into bankruptcy and losing their seats in parliament as a result. Now the same device is resorted to against opposition political parties themselves, as registered institutions. The onus of proof is on the government of Singapore, not on global public opinion.

Nothing that smacks of opposition seems safe in Singapore any longer. Singaporeans must sooner or later come to realise the harsh truth that nobody in Singapore is truly saved unless all are seen to be saved. The post of no return has long passed for Singaporeans, and one fears they will perforce learn this lesson the hard way. In the ultimate analysis, this is probably best. The more painful the price paid to learn basic human lessons, the more firmly might they become embedded in the national fibre. A free Singapore will arise and justify the sacrifices and efforts of undaunted Singaporeans, now including the courageous Chee Soon Juan, who had immolated themselves on the altar of freedom. Phoenix-like, their dreams will rise once again from their ashes. Were this process not true, the world would have come to an end long ago.

It is just as well that I release this Requiem now. If not timely yet, it will be soon enough. Here goes, for good or ill to myself.

Some months after I was kicked upstairs to the presidency of the republic of Singapore in October 1981, there was a by-election in the parliamentary constituency of Anson, which I had held prior to my ill-fated elevation. I had won that seat with a comfortable majority of some 80 percent of the votes cast. My opponent was the Worker's Party leader J.B. Jeyaretnam.

Today, looking back, I realise that it was not the PAP that had won that seat with such a thumping majority, but I myself who had won it almost entirely in my personal capacity as the unchallenged leader of the free trade union movement in Singapore (no longer free). True, I had persuaded the trade unions to cooperate with the government in its attempts to ensure that the economy of Singapore was kept on an even keel. They overwhelmingly voted their approval, because I had successfully convinced them that the organised greed and reckless disregard for the social good represented by British style trade unionism of the day would clearly not do for a small island state like Singapore with absolutely no natural resources of any kind to boast of apart from God's own fresh air. In doing so, my members knew that I had not surrendered an iota of the institutional independence of the NTUC (National Trade Union Congress). Indeed they knew that at every Delegates Conference of the NTUC they had unanimously endorsed a firmly worded resolution I had introduced from the platform reiterating what they most highly valued - the institutional independence of the labour movement.

These days, you won't find a single reference in any of the resolutions passed by the NTUC to the priceless oath of institutional independence a few colleagues and I had entrenched in our founding constitution. Let me make it clear. The PAP had no hand in the founding of the NTUC.

Be that as it may, a by-election had to be called in Anson. The PAP's candidate was a faceless civil service appointee of Lee Kuan Yew who had been seconded for service to the NTUC, while the Workers Party put up J.B Jeyaretnam. To the consternation of the PAP, Jeyaretnam won.

The day after the by-election verdict was declared, I had lunch with the Prime Minister (Lee Kuan Yew). I was amazed at how he fretted and fumed like a caged fury. As I saw it, Jeyaretnam constituted no threat at all to the PAP whether in parliament or outside it. For one thing, despite Jeya's courage, he displayed a woeful lack of economics. He clearly never knew at any point of time how Singapore clicked economically. And it was as plain as a pikestaff to me that in five years of free performance in parliament against the likes of Dr Goh Keng Swee, Mr Lim Kim San et al, he would stand exposed in public for his abysmal ignorance of economics.

In truth, if I had to cope with J.B Jeyaretnam as a hostile delegate at regular NTUC Delegates Conferences, I would have given him all the rope and more he wanted to hang himself with. And after free and open arguments over three days of conferencing, I would have beaten him hands down at the ballot box. I knew this, as did the workers. For they knew that in the colonial days, Jeyaretnam had never stood on a picket line. I had, not once but several times, not only stood on picket lines, but also bedded down for the night on the gravel with the workers whom I led.

I told all this to Kuan Yew. Nothing I said sank in. He fretted about a potential critical percentage drop in PAP votes across all the constituencies that could eventually bring the PAP government down, and he wouldn't stand for it. Only later did I realise that this was the moment that started his formidable brain box ticking away furiously at the fecund gerrymandering schemes he was to introduce later to ensure that all opposition parties would be put in a Gordion bind that would make it impossible for them to ever achieve control of parliament, unless an Alexander came along. Such a possibility appears impossible now, unless it takes the awesome shape of shattering geo-political circumstances already building up around Singapore.

Immediately, however, Kuan Yew's attention was concentrated on how he would deal with J.B Jeyaretnam in parliament. I was quite alarmed at some of the things he told me at that lunch. "Look," he said, "Jeyaretnam can't win the infighting. I'll tell you why. We are in charge. Every government Ministry and department is under our control. And in the infighting, he will go down for the count every time." And I will never forget his last words. "I will make him crawl on his bended knees, and beg for mercy."

Jeyaretnam was made of sterner stuff. To his eternal credit he never did crawl on bended knees, or ever begged for mercy. And it is to Lee Kuan Yew's eternal shame that Jeyaretnam will leave the political scene with his head held high, enjoying a martyrdom conferred on him by Lee. Lest I be misunderstood, let me state that Jeya more than deserves the crown of the martyr for his indomitable courage and dignity in the face of the vilest persecution.

Even greater human spirits than Jeyaretnam had refused to bend their knees to Lee Kuan Yew. It is my considered view that the greatest human being living in Singapore today is one who declined to surrender to the intimidation of prolonged incarceration and restrictions imposed on him without trial for a total period which exceeds that suffered by Nelson Mandela. And here was the mark of true greatness. He emerged from the experience like a god unembittered. His name is Chia Thye Poh. And it is Lee Kuan Yew who emerged from the episode as the knave and fool of his own mindless vindictiveness, while the real conqueror smiles benignly - unnoted, of course, by the local media. For only sound waves from the Istana Annexe are picked up and regurgitated by His Master's Voice.

There is no political justification for obliging the Workers Party to close down. And not a shred of moral justification. What lies behind the move is among the most brazen vindictiveness ever shown in the political life of Singapore. It merely adds one more nail in the coffin of the PAP's reputation when the true history of the party will be exposed to the world, as it surely will be one day in the coming decades of the third millennium. As mankind accelerates to the abyss, the shining memories of the past will certainly not include Lee Kuan Yew and the department store dummies he boasts today as his acolytes. He clearly does not possess the foresight to avoid such a fate.

I gladly salute J.B. Jeyaretnam and the Worker's Party at this highly deserved requiem, even if I never once had shared their platform.

I learn something new from Mr Wang today!

optimism

This.is.so.fun.ny.ha.ha.ha.ha.

guilty

What?!

Hey, I'm the owner of this blog! Who says I'm not authorized to view it????

Hmm...I tried logging in to blogspot. It seems fine.

Did I say anything wrong on my blog that they shut down my site?

Just as I was about to grab my passport, my luggage bag filled with singlets and shorts, and run to Malaysia, my blog came back on as per normal. It looks as fine as before.

What the heck.

man has no life

...Like what they say...a man has no life...without a wife.

- Mr Kholi in 'Bride and Prejudice'.

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.